Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

The first ship to arrive, which did so two days into the twelfth month, was Kao Ostark and a whole slew of individuals with him.  Initially I was quite confused by all the individuals who came with him, but over the course of a few days, I figured out the reason.  I've gotten accustomed to minimalism on the island, and as a result, when I initially saw where the auction would happen, I didn't think much of how plain it was.  Over the course of a week though, it was transformed into an incredibly decorated location.

What were thick walls were carefully chiseled to give the appearance of pillars with ornate images carved in them.  Many of the images were complete mysteries to me.  Images of unknown beasts and dwarves lined the columns.  Eight metal thrones were installed, one in each of the auction rooms, and multiple stone chairs of similar quality were also installed in each room.  I also spotted eight decently sized lockboxes made of metal being hauled down the tunnel to an unknown location.

All in all, most of the individuals who were with Kao seemed to be either craftsmen or guards.  I'm glad I had the opportunity to see all this, because it sheds a new light on why we've gotten so few immigrants, and what sort of improvements we need to make if we want to have a forward facing city.

Our current city was built with the idea of expanding as quickly as possible.  If we decide to build a city on the other side of the island, near the future harbor, I feel like it should be built with this sort of standard in mind.  Buildings and decorations that would entice merchants or skilled tradesman to come live there.  Otherwise, we don't actually have a lot of valuables to offer. 

After the war, outside of the forced refugees from Rathland, we haven't gotten any immigrants.  Obviously, no one wants to move to somewhere that was recently invaded, but further than that, our mangalloy ore deposit dried up, which was one of the initial things that attracted a few people.

Though perhaps I shouldn't try to force that growth too fast.  We do actually need to expand our own population to a much higher level first.  Large swaths of our island are completely unused, and we have two more islands that we could reasonably inhabit as well.  Part of the reason Kao can even muster up so many craftsman to build all this is because he has the population to support it.  Though in the long run, stone shaping has far more potential for detailing stone than what I'm seeing the dwarfs do, which seems to be a combination of magic and tool work.

Finally, after almost seven days of work, things slowed down and most of the facilities seemed to be finished.  Kao brought me to an administrative room to discuss what I should expect, who would be there, and any special conditions I have for the auction.  In the room were three other dwarves, and Shasta, who once again was acting as translator.  The three other dwarves were quite sharply dressed, and I was told that they'd be running the auction process when it occurs.

First, I was informed that when dwarven warlords are meeting like this, it is considered bad manners for them to meet each other before the rest arrive.  Apparently it's a long tradition that started after one too many conspiracies happened to take out rival warlords.  Given the circumstances, while I'm not their equal, nor am I to act like their equal, I'm also supposed to follow this rule and not interact with them until all expected guests have arrived.

The number of expected participants has also increased from six to seven, with the seventh having only assented to joining two days before Kao set out on his ship.  Although the initial discussion implied it, I was explicitly informed that the warlords themselves would be participating, and not just representatives.  I received a small amount of additional insight into the dwarven kingdom during this time.  They currently have a total of 33 warlords who serve under their king, each ruling their own provinces.  Seven (eight if you count Kao Ostark), have agreed to come participate in the auction for a large crystal.

Of those seven, five are from territories close to Kao, one is from close to the dwarven capital, and the last one, who was also the last to respond, is from a mountainous landlocked portion of their country opposite the capital from Kao.  The five regions close to Ostark are: Adatara, Furnas, Ebeko, Kaguk, and Okmok.  With the warlords themselves having the given names of: Fabul, Dataro, Biguk, Poko, and Tabo respectively.  The warlord from near the capital is Chaga Asacha, of the Asacha region, and the furthest warlord attending is Goppok Kanaga of the Kanaga region.

I then got the opportunity to insert any requirements for bidding on the crystal, to which I said that I only had a single requirement, "That whoever wins the bid agrees to a fifteen year defensive pact, in addition to their gold bid."  While the auctioneers seemed skeptical of the requirement, Kao nodded in agreement that it should be fine.  Given that the auctioneers seemed skeptical, I gave them further context that "I plan on auctioning more of these crystals in the future, but the technology and ability to do so would be lost if our territory is destroyed." That seemed to satisfy their curiosity on the matter.

The auction has no fixed start date or time, because the arrival of the warlords could be delayed, but there is a latest date by which they're expected to arrive.  Basically, the auction should happen around the fifteenth, but the latest it would happen is the twenty-first of the month.  Though an exception could still happen if a freak winter storm were to occur.

I took the time to explicitly explain the gift situation with Kao as well.  I explained how we brought along 40 crates of salt, and 40 crates paper, and I intend to gift four of both salt and paper to each attending warlord, and the remainder is a gift to him for orchestrating this, in addition to the extra crystal that I'll provide next year.  This information seemed to lighten his mood somewhat, and he let me know that he'll orchestrate that the gifts are given at the appropriate time to the guests.

After all that was taken care of, the Auctioneers began explaining how the auction would take place.  In my mind, an auction is a fast paced endeavor with people bidding against each other for pricing.  When dealing with the politically powerful like this though, I suppose I should have expected something different.

The auction will likely take most of a day, and is apparently a very slow paced endeavor, with two breaks for meals that will be delivered into each of the rooms.  Ultimately, there are a lot of formalities that have to be followed, and proper respect needs to be given throughout the whole endeavor.  For the short amount of time remaining until the warlords arrive, I'm supposed to get daily training on how to behave and what to do for not only the auction, but for the first night's banquet, then the auction, then finally, the exit banquet the day after.  I'm already starting to realize just why asking Kao to host this was quite the imposition...

After the meeting, Shasta told me about an idiom that has started being used by a few of the warlords and skilled trades people, "Making a deal with a demon".  I chuckled when I heard that, simply because of the similarity to the phrase, "Making a deal with the devil", which coincidentally holds a somewhat tangential meaning.  "Making a deal with a demon" seems to mean something like, "Do your due diligence when making a deal, or else you'll be dragged into conflict."  It seems to have started being used once Kao began inviting warlords to the crystal auction, as people put two and two together that he got dragged into the war with Rathland in essence because he traded the crystal with us, rather than wiping us out in our initial conflict.

On the thirteenth, the first two of the warlords arrived.  They also arrived with a whole retinue of individuals, though this time it it seemed to be mostly guards, although a few seemed to be artisans of some sort.  On the fourteenth, four more of the warlords arrived, and I realized at that point that most of the buildings in the fort's above ground area actually didn't seem to have much going on in them until now.  I don't know if the fort was like this before the auction was planned, but it seems like the above ground buildings are mostly living quarters, and currently each warlord has their own building that their retinues occupy.

That means we're just waiting on the final expected arrival.  The only one not to arrive so far is Goppok Kanaga, the warlord who replied last, and has the furthest to travel.  I'm actually starting to get a bit nervous now.  I didn't think it would bother me much, but now that the time is upon us, the fact that I'm basically representing us as a first impression upon a large number of foreign leaders in a situation that I orchestrated, rather than one that was thrust upon me, is starting to eat at my nerves.