[color=darkcyan][b]=-=Year 443, Usoma=-=[/b]
[i]Beasts from the Sea[/i][/color]

"Keep those ropes, boys!" yelled [color=darkcyan]Casmen Barber[/color], Overseer of Tenmarnan shouted. The snow storm was drawing closer to the city as was predicted months ago, but the overseer had no interest in the late work of his men as they began to hoister materials on rickety scaffolds. Men laden with furs and insulated cover gave out harsh words as they pulled and tugged the construction materials up a three story height, since the machinery normally used to hold it has broken down due to the weather. Casmen watched as his workers struggled, for they needed to finish building the wall and fix up the wiring, or the entire eastern protective wall could be without heat, or worse, unfinished when the storm hit them.

One of the workers who had been pulling on the rope to bring the materials had backed up onto a ice sheet, and slipped. This caused a nasty chain of events, where the men began to slip one by one with a call of the workers ontop of the construction site calling out in suprise. It was thankful that a Wildar slave who had been helping to loading had rushed to the rope in time and normalized the pull, saving the materials from falling into the ground. Casmen smiled as the men regained their strength and were able to pull the materials to a safer ledge, where work could continue.

However, as Casmen looked on, a scout in white gear had come from behind him. "Sir." He began.

"Leave the scouting report on my desk, son. This wall building needs a personal touch." Casmen replied, continuing to watch from a overseer's position as the men and slaves alike continued to work in diligence. However, the scout did not leave.

"There is a. . erm. . courier here to see you, sir." The scout replied, his voice more cautious. Casmen's smile of saved optimism frowned into a confused murmor, when he turned, he at first only saw the well laden scout, only recognizable as human by his shape and bellow him was a covered young Okan in his own winter gear, only his eyes were visible from beneath coats and a large scarf that he wore.

"I have a message from Overseer Kedican, sir." replied [color=darkcyan]Coban Mackerbei[/color] from beneath his scarf. He struggled as he pulled from his back a message tube and handed it to Casmen who silently took it and opened it. Casmen read it silently to himself, grunted, and looked at the scout "Dismissed."

"As you wish, sir." The scout walked out back into the streets of the city, and Casmen looked down at the Okan. "You must be Kedican's new courier. Well, hang out in the camp here till I can pen my reply to him."

Coban gave a sigh of dramatic relief and with youthful vigor climbed at sat upon a wooden crate at the overseer's position. He looked around at the construction site, not noticing much that the overseer was writing himself on the back of the message he was sent. Coban, in his rest, decided to prod at the overseer. "I thought Okan walls were suppose to be city limits, sir." He commented, looking at the new construction site. Casmen paused and looked at the young Okan, but not with the same friendly look he had given before.

"You are correct, but the city needs to expand. What do you know about city limits?"

Coban smiled "Not much but what me Ma use to tell me about them."

Casmen nodded "Yup, but, as you should know, not a lot of folks like to have their couriers talk back to them."

"Was that what happened to the last courier?"

"No? At least, I don't think so. Nor does it matter. Here." Casmen finished up writing his piece and gave it back to the Okan. Coban smiled beneath his scarf and placed the message back into the tube. "Ill get this back, right awa--"

"Dont talk back, its just safer that way." Casmen interrupted him. Coban's smiled turned into a frown, not that Casmen saw from beneath the scarf or cared, as he turned and began issuing orders back to the the near by workers. As Coban turned to leave, he looked at the message in the tube, wondering what it read out, but dared not ask further of it. After a momentary pause, he continued on his way back to the great Usoman capital to deliver the message.
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Not a lot is known of the Usoman economy, not even to the Usomans themselves, but it involves a lot of coal. Too much coal to be exact. Coal nodes are common in the Usoman wastes and run primarily on fossil fuel to keep the cities warm and lit. Technology in Usoman cities is limited as it is, and many resources are put forward on the basis of Coal. Yet, the coal boon had caused a shortage of a different kind. Storage.

Usoman cities had limited storage, and a warning appeared from the worker representatives that batches of coal could not be mined further until storage capacity had increased. Workers were unfortunately throwing loads of the black mineral onto crates of food, supplies, and weapons which was causing unncessary sickness. Capacity was full, but the cities were bound by walls which prevented further expansion unless the cities built basements to accommodate the supply. The supply limit to outgoing merchants was already limited, and Grand Overseer [color=darkcyan]Kedican Whilstov[/color] was reviewing the situation with some interest. Kedican proposed to his advisers within the walls of the government building in Ugolanbrav to expand the walls to accomidate a new warehouse district outside the city, developing Ugolanbrav further. The advisers agreed, but how they worked on the project was a different tale.

The work crews exited Ugolanbrav, set to work day and night to create palisades and use the resources to begin building large scale warehouses outside the city. The plan had been to set the resources on top of a hill, with a frozen moat to keep thieves or invading armies from exploiting the warehouses being separate from the city, and had a underground access to a nearby barracks. The work crews got to work and dug out a snow trench, but when they began to work, they had delayed. Tired workmen were worked hard by their foremen, and suffered wounds, resulting in a slow and demoralized build which took months rather then weeks as was expected. While lumber and sheet metal were to be used in the construction, the workmen resulted to building snow forts and using stone instead in order to save time from building formal walls. The warehouses themselves ended up being delayed further and further, and when Kedican reviewed the site, he was dismayed by the lacking of structure.

Kedican reviewed the work crew orders, finding his foremen to be overly cruel, and have given him far to many casualties from work accidents which terrifyed the grand overseer. Unable to scrap the project, fearing a loss of reputation, he instead ordered a fresh crew and oversaw the project itself. His first experience with this project was miserable, as many of the walls and structures had to be redone from scratch and with limited resources. Kedican had forage teams start bringing in lumber from other building projects to finish his own, and to begin chopping down lumber from the near by winter groves. While true that the groves were deeply sacred to the local Wildar clans, Kedican believed he could keep their reprisals at bay at least if they ever come. With lumber and metal finally in his grasp, the walls of this new warehouse district were build within a week under his guidence, and the warehouses were well underway.

Yet while he was gone from office, his neglected post had been overshadowed by a group of scribes calling themselves the Big Seven, a group of political advisers who were running the bureaucracy of the city in Kedican's stead. The Big Seven had been young reformers and had ideas of expanding their role in the city, setting up new political positions under Kedican's nose and making good friends with the Militia. After a biased review of the city's finances, the Big Seven began convincing other guardsmen and scribes to join their political cause and were soon making radical demands within the city itself. Kedican only noticed this happening when he was warned by his Propaganda adviser, [color=darkcyan]Charles White[/color]. Charles had thought of joining the group at first, but when he was insulted by the leading members for his 'ignorance to political realities', Charles was quick to save face.

Kedican and Charles returned to the government building immediately and got to work dismantling the political party, and ordered the arrest of three members for illegal activities. In order to send a message, Kedican had all three executed, having them stripped to their undergarments and thrown into a ice puddle outside the city. Once dead, Kedican called the other members of the Big Seven into his office and told them of the news, and under the guise of ignorance to their ploy he played on their fears of being caught. Charles, who was present in the meeting, gave a disturbed smile as the scribes shook within their boots and once informed of their innocence, they were allowed to leave. One scribe had left his seat much more watery then before, much to Charles's amusement. When Charles asked why he had spared them, Kedican simply had answered "I don't want to hire new help, nor spend the resources to train them. This will be enough for now."

Yet when Kedican returned to the construction site, he was dismayed how much the work had fallen to a standstill in his absence. The Foremen, ever so afraid of Kedican, refused to work their men until he returned. There was nearly a small war when one overseer, not wishing to look incompetent in front of the Grand Overseer, tried to fight with his workers to complete the project. Kedican returned to his annoyed shock that the workers were armed and fully ready to kill each other for his cause, and only him returning had prevented this. After deescalating the situation, Kedican got the group to work in peace and completed the project several months late, but at least finally completed.

With the new Warehouse district in check, coal could be siphoned to new warehouses to further increase the supply, much to the merchants and other overseer's delight. Building projects were blossoming in Usoma, and a need for lumber was rising. Yet, as Kedican was relieved to find he had succeeded, he found that his government was in peril. If his disappearance from any field could cause such division, his death could signal a collapse, something which he wished to avoid. Kedican began collecting advisers to him to try to remedy the situation, but not many had a means outside further authoritarianism could provide. Some liberal minded advisers were silenced secretly by Charles and his gang of Militia before the meeting, and Charles stood out in suggesting of granting further automony to the advisers to make more broader decisions. Kedican agreed, granting advisers his voice to make some basic public decisions for the good of Usoma from there on out, much to the propaganda adviser's delight.
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Beastfolk wars are an ancient and unending display of blood and cruelty, and the Battle of Bula Voula was no different. In a small Usoman outpost called Bula Voula near Sigrad. The Outpost defenders, led by [color=darkcyan]Davie Bullem[/color] were spying on the more recent conflict between the Bloodaxe and Wrecktusk. Davie was angry however, not that the Tusab armies were so close, but because Charles was again very wrong and picky about his information.

In context, to as far Davie knew, the Bloodaxe and Bloodtusk had a blood feud as old as the Wrad, but neither liked the Wrecktusk whom they considered a inferior clan. These three clans fought each other often, and only the Wrecktusk had accepted their place as Usoma's patron ally, with maybe some neutrality from the Bloodtusk. The Bloodaxes were genocidal. Their chieftains and clan rhetoric made them vicious enemies of the Usomans, and they were naturally of course Usoma's most powerful Beastfolk clan by far. Their tribal lands was practiaully a city within itself, they supported a massive navy of over 250 warships of medieval standard, and commanded a domesticated monopoly on penguins which made them ultra rich. The reason for the feud between the Bloodaxe and Bloodtusk was never really well known, only that it existed and it truly did involve a talking seal, but to the Usomans, it was just another hostile element of the Beastfolk.

For the reason they were fighting now was not much of a mystery, but it wasn't another instance of a anthropomorphic seal tricking the chieftains to murder one another as Charles once implied. Rather, as Davie learned from Wrecktusk allies, was that the Bloodtusk had been fleeing from their home after a successful Bloodaxe campaign against them, and they fled straight into the path of Sigrad. The Wrecktusk chieftains allowed the Bloodtusk refugees into their camps, and allowed them stay at their glacier holdings, and the Bloodaxes followed with a war chant. The Wrecktusks had not actually asked for help, but rather, they had asked for parlay with the Usomans, wanting them to help make peace with the Bloodaxes in their stead with diplomacy. This had failed due to Davie's earlier information, painting Usoman neutrality forefront and center, but instead, it had signaled the Bloodaxes to launch their attack knowing the Usomans would not aid them.

Thus cultivated the disastrous battle of Bula Voula which Davie watched at a distance, much to his anxious anger, as 3,400 fresh Wrecktusk warriors were utterly demolished by Bloodaxe armies numbering 9,300 or so. The army was surrounded and brutally devestated by skilled Bloodaxe soldiers who butchered the Wrecktusk. In desperation, a Wrecktusk shadow shaman summoned a flailing spell of winter to slow the army, but the spell was backfired by a Bloodaxe occultist who used the blood of a captive to silence the shaman and strangle him unconscious. The battle ended and that was when the executions began. Several hundred captives from the battle were beheaded by the Bloodaxe's great chieftain, [color=darkcyan]Tubaj Bloodaxe[/color] personally, the rest were taken into captivity. Davie, seeing that the Bloodaxe clan was now the sole power among the Tusab, returned to Sigrad to discuss the military situation with his counterparts and the overseer.

The best solution was to return the power structure to a manageable level, one in which Usoma could benefit from. The Overseer of Sigrad, [color=darkcyan]Justin Veeger[/color], angrily denounced the whole situation and demanded military action from Usoma, but Davie had a much more direct idea. He proposed of uplifting the Wrecktusk from their defeat and making concessions to make their clan strong to fight and defeat the Bloodaxes before they rose to further prominence and began taking on Wildar, or worse, the Wrad. Davie's plan was put to a vote, where his counterpart in Sigrad agreed only at because it was 'easy, effective, and relieves me to go back to playing cards at the tavern'. After a brief discussion of how to further aid the Wrecktusk, Justin dismissed the group.

Davie and several men visited the Wrecktusk who were not happy to see them. Blaming the Usomans for the defeat, Davie and his men were betrayed and captured, with the chieftains planning to eat them for the annual feasts. In spite of some casualties and screaming, Davie convinced his captors to free him and forgive them for their actions, and in return, he promised to provide the Wrecktusk some guns, which was normally forbidden amongst Beastfolk-Usoman trade. The Wrecktusk had no clue what to give for this trade, and neither did Davie, so in a rather unfortunate miscommunication, Davie had asked for 'able bodies to fight the Bloodaxes' in a vain attempt to garner some sympathy. The Wrecktusk chieftains interrupted this as to give the Usomans slaves, which they happily agreed too since they were holding the Bloodtusk refugees. After a bloody betrayal, the Bloodtusk clan was again forced to move and were chased out of the Wrecktusk lands, and many of their peoples were given as captives to the dismayed Usoman captain.

Davie returned to Sigard and began pilfering guns in secret for the trade, and often just ended up freeing the captives. Tusab slaves were rare for good reason, lasting only hours in slave conditions in Usoman mines and labor camps, which was often due to their heat. The Tusab captives, oddly, thanked Davie for freeing them in spite of being aware of his role in the 2nd despora of their tribe and the Bloodtusk moved southward towards a sub clan near Okadius. Davie would return to the clan, gifting the Wrecktusk guns and ammunition, but not exactly teaching them how to use it. The Wrecktusk, believing they now held divine weapons, quickly demonstrated their use but often found great difficulty using them, but were still rather impressed. Davie was happy to be alive and at least 'helping' the clan, but realized that this would not last for long, so he came up with a odd solution instead.

The Sigard Overseer, angry over Davie's actions, had nearly had him executed and wrote a long list of grievances back to the capital over the trade. Yet, he kept Davie's advice of empowering the clan, and began trading supplies to the Wrecktusk for useless captives which were often just freed. The Bloodtusk and Wrecktusk owed much to Sigard who found allies in both, but keeping the allied forces united against the empowered Bloodaxes was difficult. The Wrecktusk turned to the lucrative trade of slave trading rather then their normal whaling, trading further captives for supplies. While the shipment of guns stopped, metals, wood, and furs found their way into the clan's hands which were traded amongst other clans for warriors, more sellable captives, and diplomatic gifts. Diligent as always, the Wrecktusk began to rebuild their lost strength.

The Bloodaxes however were not idle in all of this, upon returning home, spies amongst the Wrecktusk informed them of the incidents in the Wrecktusk camps. The Bloodaxe cheftains turned to their great chieftain for advice, who demanded another sacrifice and a summoning. After collecting a wildar captive and sacrificing it upon a sea cliff altar, a voice from the sea spoke to Tubaj, calling him by name. In the fervor of bloodlust, drugged milk, and several ritualistic murmurs, the voice commanded war and desolation upon the Wrecktusk and Usoma, directing the chieftain to journey into the 'Heart of Ice', or the Wrad Ruin of Taga’suga to recieve further instructions. Taking his axe and several warriors, the chieftain left for the Wrad homeland to make his sacrifices there.