[Mortal] Rumours, Life in Town & Countryside
Posted: 18 Aug 2024, 19:11
1221, Summer (September 2024)
Karakorum is full of nearly feverish construction. While the Chinese and Saracene workers and artisans are yet housed in provisional shacks in which the cold steppe wind blows through the cracks, proper housing is created at a mad pace - winter is coming.
Genghis Khan's Kithaian minister Ti'en Chinquai is responsible for the construction, and as a Taoist he already has a plan for how to design the city in accordance with Feng Shui. But he is also needed at the front lines every now and then, and Khatun Börte and Prince Temüge tend to visit during those absences, adding their own ideas and contradicting Chinquai. The result is a creative chaos - a chaos that provides fertile ground for Cainites having their own ideas for how certain buildings should be modified...
Clandestine bloody halal slaughters of sheeps and goats happen in certain basements in the Saracene Quarter. This is in contradiction to the Yassa, which prescripes a different method of slaughter: Making an incision into the breast and squeezing the heart with bare hands, killing without spilling blood.
The Chinese population too seem to have their issues with the Yassa. Rumor speaks of secret laundries and baths, in which clothes and bodies are washed with water! If the water dragons ever show their wrath by striking the young city with lightning, it will not be difficult to find out whose fault it is!
Much joy among the Chinese is sparked in August, when Tao Master Qiu Chang Chun visits Karakorum! He and his followers receive plenty of colourful umbrellas and flowers. In return, Karakorum is gifted with a Taoism monastery: The House of the Most Exalted White Summer, populated by 9 of his followers.
Several Yam waystations report hauntings (Hexes 06-06, 14-18, 16-02 und 24-18). 06-06 reports a spectral Mongol woman, who appears around sundown and laments her freezing child. 14-18 instead reports a spectral small Mongol girl, that seems ashamed and asks for an adult to repair something she claims to have damaged.
News from beyond Karakorum
February-March: The Choresmian cities of Merv, Herat and Nishapur rise up against the Mongols. Genghis Khan's son Tolui spends a month restoring order - up to one million people perish.
Spring: Subetei und Jebe undertake a foray into the Caucasus and raid Tivlis. King George Georg IV of Georgia is severaly wounded, his elite knights get massacred.
August 14 - 26: Tao Master Qiu Chang Chun visits Karakorum and leaves 9 monks behind to erect a monastery (House of the Most Exalted White Summer).
September: Battle of Parwan (today in Afghanistan) between the Choresmian Shah Jalal al-Din and Genghis Khan's step brother Shikhikhutug. The narrow valley prevents the Mongols from making full use of their mounted archers, forcing them to retreat.
End of September: Completion of the House of the Most Exalted White Summer in Karakorum.
October: Second Georgia raid by Subetei and Jebe.
November 24: Battle of Indus between Choresmian Shah Jalal al-Din and the Mongols, this time led by Genghis Khan himself and his sons Chagatai and Ögedei. The Choresmians suffer a crushing defeat. The Shah manages to escape to Punjab.
Karakorum is full of nearly feverish construction. While the Chinese and Saracene workers and artisans are yet housed in provisional shacks in which the cold steppe wind blows through the cracks, proper housing is created at a mad pace - winter is coming.
Genghis Khan's Kithaian minister Ti'en Chinquai is responsible for the construction, and as a Taoist he already has a plan for how to design the city in accordance with Feng Shui. But he is also needed at the front lines every now and then, and Khatun Börte and Prince Temüge tend to visit during those absences, adding their own ideas and contradicting Chinquai. The result is a creative chaos - a chaos that provides fertile ground for Cainites having their own ideas for how certain buildings should be modified...
Clandestine bloody halal slaughters of sheeps and goats happen in certain basements in the Saracene Quarter. This is in contradiction to the Yassa, which prescripes a different method of slaughter: Making an incision into the breast and squeezing the heart with bare hands, killing without spilling blood.
The Chinese population too seem to have their issues with the Yassa. Rumor speaks of secret laundries and baths, in which clothes and bodies are washed with water! If the water dragons ever show their wrath by striking the young city with lightning, it will not be difficult to find out whose fault it is!
Much joy among the Chinese is sparked in August, when Tao Master Qiu Chang Chun visits Karakorum! He and his followers receive plenty of colourful umbrellas and flowers. In return, Karakorum is gifted with a Taoism monastery: The House of the Most Exalted White Summer, populated by 9 of his followers.
Several Yam waystations report hauntings (Hexes 06-06, 14-18, 16-02 und 24-18). 06-06 reports a spectral Mongol woman, who appears around sundown and laments her freezing child. 14-18 instead reports a spectral small Mongol girl, that seems ashamed and asks for an adult to repair something she claims to have damaged.
News from beyond Karakorum
February-March: The Choresmian cities of Merv, Herat and Nishapur rise up against the Mongols. Genghis Khan's son Tolui spends a month restoring order - up to one million people perish.
Spring: Subetei und Jebe undertake a foray into the Caucasus and raid Tivlis. King George Georg IV of Georgia is severaly wounded, his elite knights get massacred.
August 14 - 26: Tao Master Qiu Chang Chun visits Karakorum and leaves 9 monks behind to erect a monastery (House of the Most Exalted White Summer).
September: Battle of Parwan (today in Afghanistan) between the Choresmian Shah Jalal al-Din and Genghis Khan's step brother Shikhikhutug. The narrow valley prevents the Mongols from making full use of their mounted archers, forcing them to retreat.
End of September: Completion of the House of the Most Exalted White Summer in Karakorum.
October: Second Georgia raid by Subetei and Jebe.
November 24: Battle of Indus between Choresmian Shah Jalal al-Din and the Mongols, this time led by Genghis Khan himself and his sons Chagatai and Ögedei. The Choresmians suffer a crushing defeat. The Shah manages to escape to Punjab.