War of Script and Pictures
by hughpierre
The War of Script and Pictures was a period of geopolitical tension and political name-calling between Ocumtit with its remaining satellite states, and Sangsalgu Proper with its allies after the Drowned Expedition.
The Conflict
Prelude
Victory belongs to whoever says so.These were the defiant words of the last true leader of Ocumtit. Pyremeer the Sore, as the histories now remember him, took up the mantle as the Pointed chief after his father and 2000 of their warriors drowned after an ill-considered raid on the Sangs' fledgling city. After the catastrophic drowning of the Chief's expeditionary force, instead of acknowledging the defeat, he began a false charm offensive to isolate and make the Sang as unattractive as possible to their neighbors. That meaning he spread rumors throughout the plains.
Deployment
Despite the loss, Ocumtit still controlled the majority routes through which the Sang traded, and with that, any means by which Sangsalgu could limit the damage. The chiefs exhausted all other means to reign in their over mighty vassals, and unconfident in sending more troops, decided to place a heavy embargo on the Sang instead.
Hence, the Sang relied heavily on cities and settlements further south, near Catkills and Mist; and across the Great Lakes, far away from Ocumtit's reach. But the most important was the only other island nation on Lake Coco: the Teeks, whose larger canoe flotilla was married to the Sangs' thanks to earlier promises of Qish'tallel. In line with her slow advance from Sacred Precinct, Qish did not allow her civil war veterans to reopen the land routes. Rather, Sang leadership opted to maintain the capital's defense and train envoys who traveled the waters with scrolls of paper underarm to forge new trade agreements that delivered goods on Teek canoes.
Hence, the Sang relied heavily on cities and settlements further south, near Catkills and Mist; and across the Great Lakes, far away from Ocumtit's reach. But the most important was the only other island nation on Lake Coco: the Teeks, whose larger canoe flotilla was married to the Sangs' thanks to earlier promises of Qish'tallel. In line with her slow advance from Sacred Precinct, Qish did not allow her civil war veterans to reopen the land routes. Rather, Sang leadership opted to maintain the capital's defense and train envoys who traveled the waters with scrolls of paper underarm to forge new trade agreements that delivered goods on Teek canoes.
Conditions
Sang
At the time, Sangsalgu was a city on the rise with a strong economy and quality defenders, and a confidence sense of autonomy from Ocumtit.Ocumtit
Ocumtit's height was at its membership in Eben Coil; after which the Fourfold Feud, the Axe Wave and the Women's War eroded its power and undermined its prestige. The Drowned Expedition was simply the latest and last serious attempt to reassert itself.The Engagement
Soft Strategy
The underlining thesis of Sang strategy can be summed up as "permeation". It involved the issuance of hundreds of codices consisting of vibrantly painted pictorials on long folded sheets on subjects such as divination, ceremonies, the ritual calendar, and speculations about the gods and the universe through political channels and open forums. But these topics were also diversions intermixed to subconsciously deliver the Sang's version of given events.Hard Strategy
The underlining thesis of Ocumtit strategy can be summed up as "permanence". It involved the commissioning of permanent decorative structures all around Ocumtit's past territories of stone and clay. An invariably expensive scheme that, through division of labor was made less so, still cost the coffers and encouraged the debilitating adoption of axe money into Ocumtit's economy.Outcome
- Confused the political, economic and military circumstances of the dueling parties for observers
- Forced Ocumtit to drastically cut military spending
- An explosion of artistic innovation
Aftermath
- Laid the precedence of misinformation as a tool of politicks
- Re-shifting the economy for the arts left thousands unemployed
- Opened the conditions for Mist Axe Dealers to introduce axe money
Historical Significance
Legacy
Great advancements were made during this time in the artistic fields of metal working, feather weaving, painting, sculpting, clay molding and glass forging.
Conflict Type
Military Campaign
Conflict Result
Dissolution of the Ocumtit vassalization system
Belligerents
Ocumtit
Strength
- Improvements in feather weaving techniques
- Increased surplus of professional copyists
- Quality imported dyes and paints
- Policy of freeing talented artists from slavery
- Immigrant Metal Workers from Mist
- Preexisting glass forging culture
Casualties
- Disgruntled sculptors and carvers due to lack of work
- Distressed amantecas due to outsourcing orders to common women
- Quality of life declined due to runaway inflation, rising unemployment and population shift
Objectives
Counteract Ocumtit's misinformation campaign
Maintain Ocumtit's status as a regional power in the wake of its steady decline
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