Opening of Travikas Monday 21 September, the nineteenth hour, through Friday 25 September. The player stays with
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Fires Oasis Ambush Banners Taking Second hearth Great towns Wars Rats Named fights
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The lighting of the fires ... 0:00 When the nineteenth hour struck on Monday the twenty-first of September, by the clock of Bucharest, the world of Travikas was lit. Twelve hearths answered that first roll, and twelve players stood beside them. The sum of their people was but twenty-four — each capital still a seed, the smoke thin upon the evening air. So began the opening week: not with banners or named wars, but with the lighting of small fires on an empty map. 0:40 By Friday’s reckoning the land had changed its face. Twenty-one villages stood where twelve had stood; seventeen players answered the book; about three thousand three hundred souls filled the fields and halls. That Friday evening had opened at eighteen hundred hours upon eighteen villages, seventeen players, and about three thousand people. The close written after nightfall, at twenty-one hours and fifty-four minutes, recorded the full chapter’s end — and with it three second villages the open portrait had not yet seen. Between Monday’s thin smoke and Friday’s close, the week told itself. First blood on the oasis ... 1:25 The wild places did not wait long for steel. At 19:32 on that opening night, KAMATOTAYAMA struck the first living oasis — three clears across two tiles, and losses taken among the beasts. That same evening Veeti and Horokorro also drove animals from the wild. In the days that followed, Noriuvalgyt, sugondese, palbmu, svegeris115, bhill, and Donce each cleared at least once while beasts still held the ground. Nine players in all tasted first blood upon occupied oases. One alone came only after the animals were gone and never cleared a living oasis: fable51 — late hopper upon empty earth. Others both cleared and later raided tiles already emptied; the roads remember both marks. Thus the week’s first habit was not war between players, but the taking of nature’s ground. The ambush ... 2:32 Twice in that week a player defense caught looters upon an unoccupied oasis — and the chronicle names the raider, not who waited in the dark. On Tuesday evening, at 18:09, sugondese marched from sugondese 1 upon such a tile and met a player reinforcement already standing there. On Wednesday evening, at 18:07, Noriuvalgyt marched from Niamniam upon another and met a player waiting in the same wise. Both tiles still belonged to Nature in the combat log; who stood in wait is not named in this book. No further oasis ambush is recorded in the window. Raids on player-owned oases with living defense left no row at all. The lesson of those two evenings was simple: an empty oasis is not always empty of swords. Banners ... 3:35 While the oases burned and emptied, three lasting banners rose. testosterone, tagged test, was founded by KAMATOTAYAMA on Tuesday morning. By the chapter’s end bhill and sugondese stood under it. Gladiator joined and left within the same minute — a breath of color, then none. A one-minute practice alliance named test was raised and abandoned just before that founding; it deserves no longer place in this book. switzerland, tagged neutral, was raised by Kapachinis on Wednesday evening. Noriuvalgyt and svegeris115 joined and remained. volleyART entered and left within minutes, as Gladiator had done under the other banner. X, tagged X, was founded by Donce on Thursday evening. Horokorro joined that night; Rudis the next morning. So three houses stood when the week closed: testosterone, switzerland, and X. At the Friday close, eight still flew no colors: Chiuras, Gladiator, Krisas, Veeti, fable51, lietuvos_karalius_mindaugas, palbmu, and volleyART. The unaligned were not few; the named wars that followed would find some of them anyway. The taking ... 4:54 Between sessions the roads grew rich with carts. Nearly all combat in the window was raid — about one hundred thirty raids against six battles, while about sixty scouts rode apart. The haul of resources carried totaled about three hundred seventy thousand. Most of that wealth came from oases; the lesser share from player villages — about one hundred twenty oasis raids and sixteen against villages. Concentration was sharp. The greater part of all that was moved fell to three carriers; the top five took nearly nine parts in ten. sugondese, Horokorro, and bhill led that list. These figures stop at Friday half past eighteen; later off-hours events are not folded into this chapter’s taking. Before the named wars, the week’s daily work was the taking. The second hearth ... 5:58 Nine villages appeared after the opening capitals. Four were true second villages; only one late joiner — fable51 — lit a first home. bhill lit the first second hearth: bhill's village 2, seen at the Friday morning open. Three more second villages stand only because Friday’s close was written late — Gladiator’s Secundus, sugondese's village 2, and volleyART’s 2, absent from the Friday eighteen-hundred open. So the map thickened not only by growth of the first twelve, but by second hearths and one late arrival. The great towns ... 6:37 At the Friday close, five towns stood by the count of souls. Foremost was Primus, seat of Gladiator who flew no banner — about three hundred twenty souls, and the ground where the week’s named steel would twice fall. Next came Coming fo ya under Horokorro of X, with about two hundred eighty — the town that would answer a great battle that Friday evening. Third stood Rudis under Rudis of X, with about two hundred fifty, a house of that same banner. After them, named only shortly: Niamniam under Noriuvalgyt of switzerland, and Kas puls tas gaidys under bhill of testosterone. These were the heights of the opening week — the places that would draw the eye when steel at last turned from oasis to town. The wars ... 7:32 Through Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday’s sessions, beginner protection held the map. Player steel could not yet turn upon player; the new fires burned under that shield, and the week’s wars waited. Then the protection ended — and with its ending the wars began. Player fought player twenty-two times in the play windows. About twenty of those clashes were skirmishes — left unnamed here, with neither town names nor the tick of the clock. One was a battle; two were great battles. Five fell on Thursday evening, about ten on Friday morning, and four more that Friday evening. Blows that answered named roads but did not rise to a named fight stay skirmishes in this book. The rats ... 8:21 Each player keeps one rat. In this chapter two rats were killed. 8:29 On Thursday evening, at 18:10, sugondese marched from sugondese 1 upon Horokorro in Coming fo ya and slew Horokorro’s rat — the first rat killed in the game. Renown to sugondese; shame to Horokorro. The village mourns the rat. 8:48 Early in Friday morning’s session, sugondese marched from sugondese 1 upon Primus and slew Gladiator’s rat. Renown to sugondese; shame to Gladiator. The village mourns the rat. The named fights, in the order they fell: 9:01 In the last seconds of Friday morning’s session, bhill sent from Kas puls tas gaidys upon Gladiator in Primus; the march landed at 08:24, after that session had closed. It was a great battle, and a Hail Mary: troops meant for defense, flung upon the attack — a reckless throw sent in the last seconds of Friday morning’s session. The chronicle reads it as a plan against the settlers: to cut down those who would raise a second hearth, and stop Gladiator from planting a second town. Of that defense the book names Gladiator as the strength of Primus; a sword of another banner, unnamed, stood with him. 9:50 There the settlers fell. The hope of a second hearth died in that steel; Gladiator mourns them, and Primus with him — the terrible stroke of the opening week. Of those who marched upon that town, none came home. 10:07 In the first seconds of Friday evening’s session, sugondese sent from sugondese 1 upon Horokorro in Coming fo ya; the march landed at 18:08 — a great battle. The strongest defending powers named from that town were Horokorro and Donce; a sword from outside the village’s alliance also stood among the defense. Of those who marched upon Coming fo ya, none came home. Early in that same evening session — as the great battle at Coming fo ya was landing — sugondese sent again from sugondese 1 upon Gladiator in Primus; at 18:14 that march arrived — a battle. 10:48 No later named fight reverses an earlier named fight in this chapter. The skirmishes that answered those roads do not count as retaliation. So the opening week’s named wars were three: a Hail Mary at Primus in the morning, a great battle at Coming fo ya in the evening, and a battle again at Primus six minutes later. 11:13 Thus ends the opening of Travikas: from twelve thin fires to twenty-one villages; from oasis blood to ambush and banner; from the taking of carts to the lighting of second hearths; from the great towns of Friday’s close to the two rats slain, and then to the named wars of Friday morning and evening. 