From The Ground Up [Single Nation IC]

[Shabazz]

The halls of The House where silent with anticipation. In fact, even the streets of the Republic of Romulus were void of sound. Obvisouly because almost the whole city was crowded in the courtyard of The House. The one sound that could be heard from within

was the soft clicking of boots on a velvet carpet. Lord Adonis, Advisor to The Senate and good friend of Maxium Augusta was walking down the hall to remind his political ally of his debate that was scheduled to take place soon.

"My friend," Adonis said sternly as he swung open both doors to Maxium's study. "I'd like you to proceed to the balcony, Lord Marcius is waiting for you."
Ghost Toast

On the balcony, Gaius Marcius Rufus was standing, gazing at the crowd who were already fairly content with the current Head of the Senate. What could he do to convince them that his leadership would lead to a more prosperous Republic?

"Psst, might I suggest something?" whispered Lucius, his son. "Attack his irrational idea of invading the Etruscans and Samnites, two very wealthy and powerful dominions."
Hypnos

The balcony of The House was surrounded with citizens of all shape and color. Some were migrants from the surrounding countries, but most were loyal and patriotic Romulians who prayed to Zeus everyday.

In the middle of the crowd could be seen a horseback General Maximus Meridius with the spears of his personal guards surrounding it. Sitting a top his big-boned horse, Maximus was eagerly waiting for his father-in-law to punish his opponent; intellectually, of course.

A small group of about ten strangers past right by the General and his men. They were all wearing robes made from a dark linen and what seemed like sheathed knives strapped to their sides.

"Could just be one of those silly cults of Hades, you know." one guard said to another. The group passed by and proceeded towards the back streets of The House. But, before Maximus could do anything his attention was immediately torn away by a messenger.


"General, there has been an intrusion at the Samnite border. A few days ago a small legion of men led by Somson Caraceni entered the country and took a small village hostage. The General Quintillius Caesar was in the region."
ViciousVip3R

Many leagues south-west of the capital city, Romulus, was a small village named Amarlyllis, situated at the border between Romulus and the Samnites. This place, too, was quiet. But a different kind of quiet. It was not the quiet of anticipation, but the quiet of slaughter.

As the men of General Caesar approached the walls of the town, they could smell the retched stench of deceased Romulians, not unfamiliar to them all. Quintillius followed close behind, bronze sword drawn.

"Caesar!" a voice shouted in the still air as a man stepped out from behind a wall. "You've come to join me!" he said, motioning for the rest of his army to come forth. "Our leaders wish to take back the land that they so generously loaned to you filthy Romulians oh so many years ago."

general ostruppen

At The Academy, Xoltaire Lithanius and her partner Sabinus Atticus were both in their study, unlike most of the others who had left to go watch the debate. They were both starring at the same orange, sitting in the middle of the desk. Oranges are very similar to the earth. Rough to the touch and sweet under a layer of skin. But, oranges are round, unlike the earth. But how could it not be? If it was, why would the sun and moon be so round while they hovered so many leagues above the highest mountains. And what of the other planets in the heavens, which to Xoltaire's understanding there were five.

This was all because of Sabinus. He was the one who introduced the idea to Xoltaire. One day, working late, Sabinus witnessed the sun setting in the distance.

​

"What if I could fly towards the sun and see what happens to it after it goes beyond the horizon?" he asked himself. "Would I see the four great elephants on which our world stands? The great turtle on which they stand? Would I see anything?"

Xoltaire got up, accidentally hitting her leg on the side of the desk as she stood. The orange at the center rolled off and fell to the floor. Xoltaire picked it up and gave it to Sabinus.

"If the earth is round like an orange, explain why things fall to the ground."

Zaltusinel
OrenjiGatsu
​

IC: https://www.rpnation.com/threads/from-the-ground-up.349521/
OOC: https://www.rpnation.com/threads/from-the-ground-up-ooc-information.349041/#post-8102036

 

[Ghost Toast]

Maxium slowly put away his scroll slowly and smiled at Adnois. He was good man, and he was glad that this man had power. He hoped to make sure men like him were made powerful. He walked up to him and said "Of course, Adnois, today is the debate. Let us hope I destory Marcius's standing here today,". He soon walked to the balcony to begin the debate
S Shabazz Hypnos

 

[general ostruppen]

General Quintillius Caesar
Legio II Italica
Location: Near Samnite Border​

The troops alongside Caesar had bloodlust in their eye's, ready to throw their spears and fire their arrows with haste. But Caesar held his hand up and ordered his troops to stand down. He takes several steps and exposes himself out in the open, "Do you Samnite's have no honor?! Killing innocent people just so you could capture our attention, how pitiful.......Well you have our attention, and since I'm here I challenge your best warrior! If I win you and your pitiful army will leave this town and face us in the open fields. Course If I lose then my army will stay here to avenge me and the people you slaughtered. Either way you have nothing to lose considering your now being besieged."
S Shabazz

​

 

[Hypnos]

Gaius Marcius Rufus​

Gaius Marcius Rufus was not a young man, nor had he been able to address himself as such for many years, yet even in his twilight years, after decades of public service, he still found time to admire the spectacle of democracy. The House was truly a wonder of the modern world, where men could rise and fall from power with merely a few words, and where the destiny of an entire nation was written out for all to see. It was through the House that the will of the people became known, and today it would be those very people who would sit and cast their judgement upon the future of Romulus and those that had aspirations to lead her.

“Lucius my boy, please don’t speak out of turn, it is unseemly of you.” Gaius gave his son a rare smile. The boy had long saught to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the Romulian Senate, and over the years he had established a strong knowledge of the city and her people, yet he still had much to learn when it came to the petty squabbles of the cities many politicians. “I don’t want to attack his ideas any more than I want to attack his person, I merely wish to convey mine own opinions unto the people, after all you will get nowhere from discrediting your rivals without offering a viable alternative. Besides, I want to hear him out, for all we know, his invasion plans may work and he may bring Romulus into a new golden age. And if not… Well that is not for me to say. Run along now boy, I have a debate to get to.”

Gaius turned just in time to see the arrival of political opponent, Maxium Augusta, a man with a woman’s name and a disposition to match. “Consul Augusta, I trust you have had a pleasant evening?”

Ghost Toast S Shabazz

 

[Ghost Toast]

Maxium soon stood in front of the crowd and in front of Gauis. A wind swept the room for that moment, him staring at his opponent. This was a cold, calculating man who had coonections across the grand city. He would not tolerate it. He would be willing to make an alliance with him if he at least he would give up the idea of having citzenship be based on how much you pay to the state. He knew what he was doing: He wanted to crush populism once and for all which would make the poor and even some of the middle class slaves without a single vote. No, he would not, could not abide by this. His ideas of a more structured government were good, he would give him that, but it was insanity to do that. The people, once they realized they were being heavily oppressed, would revolt and Romulus would die in the fires of revolution with the heads of the elite on spikes throughout the city. Maxium soon cleared his throat and said "Yes, Marcius, my evening was marvolus. Now, let us begin the debate. As elder, I would ask you go first,"
Hypnos S Shabazz

 

[ViciousVip3R]

"Hmm, the savage versus the barbarian eh?" Maximus muttered, lost in thought. "Let them fight it out, we shall pray to Mars that they will wipe each other out." The guards, accustomed to Maximus' constant mutterings, remained silent and impassively professional. The messenger, a young boy barely old enough to wander the streets alone, much less join the military, hovered around awkwardly. To the boy, it must have seemed like ages before Maximus realized he was still present. With a small snort of disapproval, Maximus dropped a few denarii into the boy's small, cupped hands and shooed him away. Clearly this boy had much to learn if he wanted to continue to serve Lord Maximus; the time for rewards would come, but Maximus did not like to be bothered with such trivial matters.

Quickly putting this small annoyance out of his mind, Maximus turned back to watch the political spectacle unfolding before his eyes. The loud and rowdy crowd brought an air of excitement normally reserved for special events such as executions or war parades to this courtyard, but there was just a hint of tension behind all the chatter. Today was just the start of what would certainly be a ruthless and hard fought battle to secure the future of the Republic for the next two (OOC: Not sure how long this would be, since we are deviating off historical precedent.) years. There were only two clear front runners, Maximus' father-in-law and current Senate leader Maximum Agusta, and the challenger, the recently retired general Gaius Marcius Rufus. Both were backed by powerful and influential, albeit shady characters, and it was clear to see that there would be repercussions no matter who won. Accordingly, Maximus, the commander of the local garrison and general responsible for the defense of Romulus, had arranged for his private guard to be stationed in strategic locations across the city. In addition, his men, along with his right hand man General Marcus Lorelius, were camped just half a league from the city gates, awaiting his signal. If anything went wrong, Maximus would be ready.

S Shabazz H HeckingHeck

 

[Zaltusinel]

Xoltaire Voltainus Lithaninus
The Academy in Discussion

​

She chuckled, roaming the library of the Academy. Her fingers snap, signaling her stop, "In time, we may understand. However, your proposal of a moving ground would defy many other mechanics of our world. If the ground is moving, we would move as well. Naturally, the patterns of motion would elude to something else. Good suggestion, leave no stone unturned." She turns to her companion. "One question of note we should consider. If the world is extremely large, would, under this condition, a spherical world work?"

Her hand reached out to blossoms on the balcony of the Academy. In the distance, she could see the horizon and the city. "A large sphere would have such a small degree of change in its curve that the concept of "flat" could exist....Hold, I have an idea."

She runs over to a large wooden sphere she had for other purposes, she hopefully wouldn't alarm Sabinvs with the markings or the indentations on it. "So let's say this is our world, this dot of paper," she folds quickly into a crane, "Is the viewer. While this viewer is quite large compared to ourselves, it is large enough where I believe this "Valinus Effect" can be seen. The effect of a large sphere creating the image of flatness. However... while there are some problems with this model, I do believe they can be negated or managed elsewhere in our studies."

She looked back at Sabinvs, with the blossom in hand, seeing if he understood her babblings.

OrenjiGatsu

 

[HeckingHeck]

General Marcus Lorelius
​

"Honestly, the only reason I enjoy being out here is because my family is close. Whether that's a good or bad thing I haven't decided," Marcus grumbled to a nearby captain, his captain of Marcus's personal levy who dogged him with parchments detailing reports from the scouts, "Something gonna happen soon whether we want it or not. The barbarians can't just seem to accept our superiority can they?"

The captain nodded. Once Marcus started talking it was hard to stop unless you were his superior. Either way the parchments made their way slowly to Marcus. It was a rather uneventful day of preparations waiting for gods know what. The captain that digged him of course would be on the front lines of logistics making sure farmers paid their fair share if fair was the right word. Marcus would call it robbery but he would rather not argue with the petty old men in their marble halls.

Despite the monotone of the day he managed to keep himself entertained in one way or another. For one, he could order his generals for some unscheduled training for his personal levies. Not only would they become more like soldiers but he could oversee the spars and excitement of the training while taking part in some spars as well. Other times he could get news from incoming and outgoing travelers and diplomats. From all he's gathered, the Senate was in a contest as always between two spoiled families and a retired general of some sort. They weren't very clear nor keen on disclosing names whether it be for their own purposes or sheet ignorance. Marcus didn't mind it however, the squabbles of old men was far from his idea of entertaining or interesting. What was entertaining however was a boy excitedly running down the camp with a handful of coins. Somebody clearly wanted him to go away. Marcus certainly wouldn't give that much coin to any lad he found on the street. It put a smile on his face at least as he continued his trek to the command tent. Perhaps he'll get useful information there. Maximus was always reliable whether as a source of news or as a general.

Certainly in the years he had been in the army of Romulus, he had grown a liking to his general Maximus. If not for his competence or lack of requirement of meaningless words, he had become a sort of friend. He had certainly been the man who brought Marcus into his position. Now the only challenge with him was how to find him.

"I swear the Senate's bitches sleep like king's in their homes whilst we rats in our tents" Marcus muttered to himself as he looked upon Rome's walls. At least it came with promise of war. Whether it would be their end or salvation was to be determined.

ViciousVip3R S Shabazz

 

[Hypnos]

Gaius Marcius Rufus​

A smile crept onto Gaius’ lips as Augusta returned his greeting, noting the hurried way in which the Consul brushed away his attempt at conversation. It was clear from the man’s eyes that he held a certain contempt for the elderly senator, and his ‘invitation’ to begin the proceedings told Gaius a great deal about what strategies the Consul intended to employ during the debate. Augusta had no talking points of note: that much was obvious, otherwise he would have relished the opportunity to make a strong first impression upon the audience, and it was likely that his entire time in front of the people would be spent attempting to deconstruct the ideas of his opponent whilst simultaneously reiterating ideas that he had said a hundred time before: war, expansion, and his ever loving devotion to the people. It was laughable. Maxium Augusta may have made a great show of his desire to better the lives of the poor and damned, but every night he still returned to his nice comfy house in the richest part of the city, surely even he knew that he was delusional?

“Many thanks Consul, we have a lot to discuss.” Gaius gave the man a brief bow and closer to the edge of the balcony, raising one hand both to wave in acknowledgement of his supporters and attempt to silence the crowd. “People of Romulus, it is an honour as always to be awarded the privilege to stand before you and offer my humble opinions on the future of our most serene republic. I would thank our current Consul, Maxium Augusta for allowing me the first few words in our debate here tonight, it is certainly nice to have him recognise my seniority, seniority which brings with it the experience of a full and fruitful life.” Gaius gestured backward towards his advisory, allowing him and moment in the limelight.

“But I did not come here simply to say my courtesies and then leave. Allow to begin by posing a question: what is the purpose of a tax? Surely it is a means to citizens to offer money unto the state so that they might later receive boons that only the state could offer: protection in the form of an army, infrastructure in the form of roads and other such examples. If this is the case then I would ask the honourable gentleman to my right if it is a fair assessment to say that what is taken from the people in the form of taxes should later be returned to the people in equal measure in the forms of other services? Else we can only assume that the government takes more than it receives which would nullify the point of the government in it’s entirety. As it stands the current economic policy of our government is to take forty percent of our people’s earnings and do… What with it? Only so many roads can be built Consul, and only so much can be paid out in expenses. Apologies if I am mistaken but it seems hard for me to believe that the people of this city fairly receive a return from the state that is equal to their initial investment.” Gaius turned to glance at the Consul, watching for his response.

Ghost Toast

 

[Shabazz]

"Ha, a brave wager." the Samnite warlord said. "Taurus!" he yelled out to his army. A sound wave of clinking metal and men moving about resonated through the air as a great beast with the head of a bull came forth. "A gift from the god Hades. Taurus used to be the jailman of the underworld." The beast knelt down next to his master. Stroking his furry scalp as he gave Quintillius a dirty look, the Samnite general whispered in the ear of the soldier named Taurus. It stood immediately and stepped up, with its mighty hooves. to the General Caesar, who was standing at the front of his fellow Romulians. It was in fact so big that its chin brushed Caesar's hair. The beastman let out a great puff and opened it's mouth to say but a few words.

"May the best man win, General."
general ostruppen




Back in Romulus, the debate was starting as the opposition, consisting of the Gaius Marcius Rufus and his advisory, gave its opening words. General Maximus was intrigued with what Consul Augusta would have to say.

"Thank you, my lord." his little messenger boy responded.

"You know, in a country affected by so much misfortune, it's a blessing that individuals as generous as yourself walk these streets." the boy said, satirically, before running out of sight.

The boy ran out of the city of Romulus, all the way to the camp of General Lorelius. The boy hid behind a tent and looked around to make sure nobody could see him. The boy then took the denarii, one by one, out of his bag, and began too eat the round coins.

"Hey!" a soldier came out of a tent behind the messenger. "My boy, what in the world are you doing?"

"I feel something coming, sir. Something bad. I wish not to loose anything I hold dear to myself, and by Zeus I wish the same upon you."

 

[general ostruppen]

General Quintillius Caesar
Legio II Italica
Location: Near Samnite Border​

Caesar was surprised to see that his foe was to be a monster who towered over him. He raises a brow and nods, "Very well, I shall accept this beast as my opponent. Tho I must say, your champion is quite a ugly fellow." The troops chuckled in the background which had Taurus shoot a menacing look at the troops which instantly silenced their short lived humor. Captain Magnus who stood beside Caesar whispers into his ear. "Sir I am confident of your skills, but you don't have to do this considering we can just starve them out and wait it out." Caesar replies back, "For all we know there still might be some of our people alive within that town, we can't risk a siege and must bring them out onto the field." Magnus nods and turns to his troops, "MEN!!! FORM CIRCLE!" The troops cry out a warriors spirit and rattle their shields with their spears and begin to slowly form a circle around Taurus and Caesar, giving them plenty of space to fight in. Caesar takes several steps away from Taurus and checks to make sure his knife was still strapped onto the inner shield, out of sight for anyone unless they were to look from the back of Caesar. He only had his spear and his bronze round shield for this battle. But his opponent was superior in strength and possibly speed if he attempted to charge. His only chance in the fight was to get up close and immobilize him and then delivering the killing blow. He addresses to Taurus, "The rules I'm sure you know, this is a death match. No surrendering, no mercy. Only death will establish the winner and the loser of this fight.....Let us begin." He then takes a hoplite stance and rests the front side of his spear on top of his shield, pointing the sharp edge towards Taurus.
S Shabazz

​

 

[Zaltusinel]

Xoltaire Voltainus Lithaninus
The Academy in Discussion
​

Her hand brushes against her brow. Her tinge of fruit essence rubbed off. She braided her hair as Sabinvs spoke. "I have an idea for your hypothesis. I will attach rope to two sticks. We hold the sticks at various distances and determine how far in any direction they move from us. At larger distances, this effect would much larger. But for procedure sake, we should do short distances. Good places would be between hills and valleys. Basically, this experiment would give us some purspective on the nature of this physical behavior."

She skipped back into her office, collecting a long piece of rope and two birch staves. She tied a two-half hitches on both ends allowing both ends to be adjusted. She grabbed her bag full of supplies. From the looks, she was well prepared for any discovery in the field.

"Ready collegue?"

OrenjiGatsu

 

[Shabazz]

The debate was still at its beginning moments, and the current elected leader of the country, Maxium Augusta, was standing silently and thinking of how to respond to his opponent. "Consul!" cried a man as he unveiled himself and his comrades did the same. "Here is what we think of your tax!" he finished. Suddenly, a knife sliced through the morning air of Romulus, aimed at the heart of the country along with the heart of Consul Augusta. The man who threw it clearly was trying to pierce the heart of their democratic society and establish a new order. For the few seconds it was in the air, the entire crowd of citizens could only guess where it would land and what would come next...

Ghost Toast
Hypnos
ViciousVip3R


"You anger me mortal," said Taurus, strongest warrior in the Samnite army. The demon wound his woolly arm back, as if signalling to Hecate herself to brace herself for the reckoning that he was about to unleash on the Romulan army, starting with General Caesar. His hooves planted in the earth, Taurus took a deep breath and exhaled with a roar. Lunging forward, Taurus took a big leaping swing of several feet aimed at the mortal standing before him.

general ostruppen​

 

[Ghost Toast]

Maxium laughed at Gaius remark. He had a response ready to say when suddenly, a group of assailants appeared in the room and suddenly, one of them threw a knife into Maxium. Thankfully, it didn't strike his heart and landed into the wall beside him, grazing his ear. He felt the blood from it and said in a commanding voice "Guards, seize these men! They will be excuted for the attempted muder of a consul!". Normally, if Maxium had a sword, he would've jumped down and attacked them himself but he wasn't stupid, he wouldn't attack them unarmed
S Shabazz
Hypnos
ViciousVip3R

 

[ViciousVip3R]

Maximus, who had been leaning against a pillar of the courtyard lazily watching the proceedings of the debate, stood bolt upright as the bold declaration of some revolutionaries was shouted and a shiny instrument of death launched towards his father in law. He watched in horror as the knife spun ever closer towards it's target, anguished at the fact that there was simply not enough time for him or any of the guards to do anything. However, Fortuna must have been smiling on them today, as the Consul and Maximus' political career was spared as the knife lodged into the wall with a violent thump, leaving only a superficial cut on the Consul. Maxium, radiating confidence and calm as always, quickly took control of the situation and ordered the guards to seize the assailants.

Maximus stepped forward and gave a short, graceful bow, "Father, please excuse me for intruding, but if I may be so bold as to suggest a better solution?" Seeing a curt nod, Maximus continued, "Of course these hellions must be punished, but I think it would be prudent for us to first determine the people behind this attack, and their objective. Surely, these ruffians could not have planned such an elaborate assassination scheme by themselves." Maximus leaned in and cupped his hand around his mouth, "Maxium, I am afraid this could all be part of some bigger plan, the religious groups and even academia grow stronger by the day, we must identify our enemies to eliminate them. Allow my men to interrogate them, they are...erm...very persuasive".
S Shabazz Ghost Toast H HeckingHeck Hypnos

 

[general ostruppen]

Taurus made the first move with a large leaping swing towards Caesar. He immediately reacts with a dodge roll to the right and lunges his spear towards the creatures leg, only scraping the beast. This most likely angered the beast and so Caesar quickly continued to harass the creatures legs, while also receiving some blows on his bronze shield which sent him hurling backwards a couple feet. The men surrounding them on both sides cheered on and spouted taunts and other vulgar insults. But Caesar was focused on the task at hand, he knew that he must win for the sake of those still alive in the town and his men. He quickly makes distance from Taurus to the point of nearly bumping into one of his men, he takes a deep breath and runs towards Taurus. Aiming his spear and throwing it towards the beasts head. Caesar prays to the almighty Jupiter to aid his final blow.
S Shabazz

 

[ViciousVip3R]

Bump S Shabazz Hypnos