The general in-game newsfeed
From a letter discovered in Miran Cache #25:
…around the campfire, the faithful followers of the Path of the Road speak of their concerns about the roads in Niya no longer being safe. There is an undercurrent of fear that the high-born of Niya no longer support the Kusinne Paths like they should, though few dare to say it in so many words.
The discipline of the Green Banner Army leaves much to be desired, but chaos is something merchants fear above all else…
From the Imperial Annals of the Middle Kingdom:
In the 115th Year of the Dynasty, the Green Banner Army of the West was deployed on the frontier. The general of the army, popularly known as the Wheat Scythe of the West, was noted for his accomplishments and quickly brought order to the ranks of the glorious imperial army.
In the midst of a conflict with the horse nomads from the northern wastelands, the general was felled by a quarrel fired from a crossbow, and so passed from the service of his Emperor.
This was reported to the Court of The Emperor of Ten Thousand Years in the Withering Season of the 115th year of the dynasty, long may it endure.
The player of Zhang Hansi, Frontier General has withdrawn from the game, due to time constraints. I’d like to thank him for his participation and the many creative ideas that his letters have spread throughout the game.
10th Thermidor, 1836: We have excavated the drainage system of the abbey. It proves to be a complex work of engineering. I may base my next presentation at the Academy on what it has to tell us about the technology of the Oasis Basin in the second century.
News from Hieronymus, who is still at Chayi: they have uncovered a structure in the desert to the east of the city, which they believe pre-dates the earliest Chayi settlements. They must have been ruins even then. Hieronymus describes the major feature as being very large blocks, worn by time and the desert sands. Hieronymous suspects that the area was originally quite fertile, speculating about the possibility of lush vegetation. I think it is much more likely that it was a military bastion of some sort.
An excerpt from The Anglo-American Cyclopaedia, volume XXVII:
After the period of its subjugation to Niya had ended, late in the first century, Khotan became known as a place of bandits and mercenaries.
An excerpt from The Anglo-American Cyclopaedia, volume II:
The region of the Empyrean mountains near Aksu has a long history of ironworking, due to the abundant presence of the black-ore iron that has been continuously mined there for over three millennia.
An excerpt from a letter found in Miran cache #25:
To the kala Kunala of pleasant aspect, the vasu Lyimsu sends good health, much, infinite, and thus I write.
I am most disturbed by the reports from my agents in Lop Nur to learn that the Horse Nomads, not content with their successes in Anxi, have now descended upon the caravan roads of Lop Nur and Niya, and prey like wolves of the desert on any caravan that dares travel under the protection of the Green Banner army. In the markets and the streets I have heard many tell that these nomads have called upon their brethren, an uncountable horde of inexhaustible horse riders, and they mean to defy the might of the Middle Kingdom itself.
If these reports be true, what steps are you taking to safeguard your caravans? Will you still travel under the protection of the Green Banners? What offense has the general of the Middle Kingdom committed that angers them so? Are the rumors that he has taken the daughter of a nomadic warlord as concubine true?
Write to me soon with news of this conflict.
Transcribed according to the dictation of the vasu Lyimsu by the scribe Nabylah
The folklore of the season of Withering is characterized by a preoccupation with endings. This year lives up to that: the end of the harvest and the end of peace came hand-in-hand.
Who knows what troubles await the Oasis Kingdoms now?
This ends Cycle 4 and begins Cycle 5…
Catalog item #34: painting on silk, depicting the legendary Queen Fadya, enthroned and surrounded by the four symbols of the Kusinne paths.
Catalog item #31: painting on silk, depicting the raising of a memorial obelisk on a royal tomb.
From a sign at the exhibit:
“The next significant outpouring of Oasis culture is that associated with the post-Fadya period, also referred to as the Oasis Mourning Culture, because of the way many of the early works of this movement are related to the reign and death of the legendary Queen Fadya.”
From the Annals of the Oasis Kingdoms:
In the 115th year, the son and heir of the King of Niya was leading a patrol along the oasis trade roads when he was killed in a dispute with soldiers of the Green Banner Army. In retaliation for the loss of his son’s head, King Badal Parsu decreed that fifty of the soldiers of the Green Banner Army should lose their heads also, displayed above the main gate of Niya. This decree was carried out.
An excerpt from Ban Zhao’s Histories of the Western Hinterlands:
At that season, the laborers of Jushi staged an uprising, refusing to work because of the lack of water. The dry wells and the dry fields caused much strife there.
Truly, the mismanagement of these hinterland kingdoms knows no end! Rejoice that you live in peaceful civilization.