[Baalz]

The Bloody God stirs. The nation of Mictlan too long denying its heritage once more embraces the power locked in blood and the world trembles. With rediscovered power comes rediscovered hunger and we seek forth for fresh, hot blood to complete The Bloody God’s dismantling of the prison which binds him.

Independent forces have been most unfortunately stout as we cast out for both prey and allies, but we have managed to find both. As our rain priests seal pacts under the waves, and our other borders become secure, what do our expansion squads encounter but the barbarous Argathans driving groups of shaggy troglodytes in an effort to expand their fledgling empire. The large bodies of the Argathans will make a pleasing amount of blood, as the huge haunches of their pets sustain the hungry stomachs of our warriors. They will be the first nation piled at the foot of the holly ziggurat, perhaps supplying enough blood on their own for The Bloody God to break free and begin his plans for world domination.

Additional fortress are becoming usable, and the blood rises hotly in the veins of the Jaguar warriors as the old ways are remembered. Scores boil forth each month, hungry to blood themselves and glory the old god. We seek out further for prey and allies, for the Argathans will not sustain us for long. Who next will we encounter, and will they have enough strength to be considered as an ally, or will they be piled atop the Argathans as our next prey?


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The Argathan Troglodytes have proved to be a bit fiercer than anticipated, and have managed to stall their doom for a short while. The priests assure me that their collapse is writ large in all entrails they have studied…yet still the foul beasts, numbering near a hundred managed to stampeded their way to the very foot of the holy ziggurat! Things might have then turned very ugly indeed at this point, but the great prophet assures me that this was part of his plan, and indeed he marched forth to simultaneously cut their escape route and send the shaggy beasts fleeing into certain death. Deploying slaves in the center as bait proved a viciously effective strategy as the beast charged right in to quickly be flanked by jaguar warriors on one side and rain warriors on the other. They did not last long, and we practically lost naught but slaves. The foolishly optimistic Argathans have sent a Stone Hurler sieging party into our lands. We'll see how they fair with most of the troglodytes gone, I'm told it should prove amusing.

Elsewhere our raiding parties descend upon the Argathan lands, cutting deep, for the Argathans cannot stop the smallest of our raiding parties without deploying their very expensive troglodytes so as to outnumber our much cheaper jaguar warriors. Our third castle has just become functional and the jaguar warriors boil out like ants. The priest kings assure me that we will now not only be winning this war on an economic level, but also be fielding more troops –the Argathans cannot hope to stand against this. Yet still, one does not rise to the position of Hand of The Bloody God by leaving anything to chance, so we have secured a war ally to attack the Argathan’s far border in exchange for future aid. Relations continue to be friendly with our other neighbors, and we have laid the groundwork for developing future mutually beneficial friendships. Our water neighbors seem to eye each other coldly, but other than agreed upon land reservations seem to have no desire to carve any of my island for themselves.

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The star of Mictlan’s late age is on the rise. The Argathan wars are all but over, and indeed the rivers of blood which have been spilled have allowed the bloody god to break free of his prison and the whole world dispairs.

Wave after wave of the shaggy Troglodytes surged out of the Argathan caves, bludgeoning our holy warriors with their fetid bulk even as their lifeblood spilled onto the hungry ground. So great were their numbers and sheer mass that they indeed did manage to push us back for awhile, hundreds of the beasts traveling in herds which fouled water for miles. Apparently every coin of the Argathan nation was leveraged into naught but Troglodyte breeding and their bodies piled up high.

The scales continued to slowly shift towards the Mictlan empire, however, our much cheaper warriors allowed us to place multiple castles, and slowly….ever slowly build up a terrifying reserve force while maintaining a stalemate. The last surging of the Troglodytes proved the tipping point as hundreds of Jaguar Warriors boiled out of our castle screaming for blood. In huge numbers the Troglodytes were felled, obsidian swords hamstringing the fetid giants while holy were-jaguars leapt on their backs and tore out their throats.

After slaying over a hundred of them our warriors’ blood lust was still not sated and they marched straight to the heart of Argatha, slaying dozens more as the siege of the capital commenced. Meanwhile raiding parties move unopposed quickly bringing the rest of Argatha under our flag. The last of the Argathans huddle in their cave, waiting to see if their food or their walls will give out first.

Now the bloody god sits his ancient throne and the old blood priests awaken dark powers deep in the holy ziggurat. Blood flows freely out the old stone fonts and all weak men despair – the nation of Mictlan hungers and no one’s daughters are safe. From where will our next chattel come?

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The Argathan wars are over. The great Oracle-lich knelt in concession and the bloody empire prepared to lick it’s wounds and consolidate after an intense war against a surprisingly worthy opponent. Unfortunately, fate seldom considers one’s plans.

The EA Vanir have rode forth and demanded that we relinquish control of the Argathan castles which we fought so hard to capture. In the underhanded way of the vanir, they claim to want no war, only what is theirs by right. The minds of the vanir are truly mad to think the nation of Mictlan is some housecat to be pushed aside on ridiculous pretense. They will soon find this housecat is indeed a jaguar.

Unfortunately, the legendary power of the vanir is not overstated. With a combination of thunder strikes and quicken-blessed berserkers their main host hardly broke a sweat slaying a large number of jaguar warriors and the first of our ice devils. The oppressive heat of the lingering Argathan dominion greatly distressed the ice devil, allowing the swarm of vanir to bring him down in a most undignified manner.

The bloody empire has other resources at its disposal however, and toads rain from the sky on all vanir castles. Our bodies may be piled high, but vanir reinforcements shall not be forthcoming, so each of their deaths is triply painful. We will see how they hold up to our next onslaught, the jaguar seldom comes from the direction you expect.