1247-1276 CE (Superpowers)

The world is now, figuratively speaking, shrinking rapidly. The Romans have just encountered the Mayan Conglomerate in its home territory and the Mongols were gradually connecting all of Asia together in one massive empire. Africa was being engulfed completely in the slave trade and slowly but surely were falling under Roman dominance. Even the natives of Columbia, once merely an amalgam of unrelated tribes is now a unified federation of Chiefdoms resisting the Mayan war machine.

The Romans for their part have already classified the world into three distinct civilizations. There is the East, land of the Mongols, Indians and Turks and to them a region of "Civilized Barbarians"; then there is Middle Earth, the lands around their Sea and under almost complete control of the Romans, and then there is the West, an uncharted and barbaric land of human sacrifice, half-naked natives and, apparently, forceful weapons that release death at the pull of a trigger. Everyone it seems, is moving into the unknown.

Roman Empire
Roman civilization, as usual, continues to cope well despite the discovery of an advanced civilization in a barbaric land. Thousands of miles away the Empire is still safe and sound, shielded by distance, its navy and thousands of walls and fortress that line its borders. Life here continues as it always has. Peacefully. In the colonies however, no one feels safe. Half of Hispaniola had been taken in just a few short years by the enemy and though Centerpoint Station, the main fortress at the island's center, was rebuilt, they feared that another, even larger, attack would ultimately do them in.

However, from 1245 to 1255 the Roman Legions amazingly repelled another two attacks on the citadel, and at last, confidence was restored to the Legionaries. In 1256 Emperor Magnus III (1247-1262) himself arrived in New Rome to bolster the army there with another 2 Legions, this time from Gothia. There were now 6 Legions on this one tiny island, concentrated in three different points, ready to defend their families and brethren. The Mayans were by this time completely spent from all the lives they'd thrown away in this war and had been focusing on a different tactic. If they could colonize some of the other islands around Hispaniola, then they'd be able to muster their forces on the other side and stage an amphibious assault from all directions.

This was the Mayan dream but it was something that was impossible for one main reason. The Romans had nearly total naval supremacy, with their Galleons, Magna Ballistae and flamethrowers and were quite successfully able to dictate where the Mayan ships were able to go. In fact, many Roman commanders were shocked at how easy their enemy was to beat at sea. Even the Vikings were more formidable a foe there, and they had nowhere near the numbers or level of technology of the Mayans. Nevertheless, the Mayans, for fear of losing to many cannons at once, had not yet started putting cannons on their ships and so they were dominated completely by the Romans who had artillery of their own.

Therefore, from 1255 onwards, Hispaniola finally saw the peace that it so desired whilst the rest of the sea around it erupted into warfare. Desperate for a new tactic, in 1257 the Mayans now used their singular advantage in speed to crash fire ships into Roman battle lines. These were usually filled with gunpowder that was then detonated as soon as the Mayan ship was in contact with the Roman one. When before it took almost 6 Mayan galleys to take out a Galleon, now only one was required. Furthermore, these were manned far more sparingly and so the overall was far smaller. For the first time, the Romans were scared of the Mayans at sea.

This was a limited tactic however, since a large enough Roman fleet could usually destroy a galley with artillery fire before it got close enough to detonate. Still, when used correctly the effect was undeniable. Best of all, Roman ships were no longer as free to roam the Caribbean sea as they were before and for once both sides felt themselves limited by the enemy.

Back home in Europe there were other problems which the government needed to attend to. In 1251 all make-up with arsenic in it was finally banned by Federal Law, just a few years after the twentieth Province passed a law banning the substance in cosmetics. The reasoning behind the new law was two-fold. Firstly, there had been sporadic reports, every year or two, of someone miss using it and and being killed by the poison. The other was that when the residue was thrown out and burned with the other Roman garbage collected in the cities, it released poisonous fumes which scientists had believed for centuries were reducing the lifespan of the slaves disposing of the garbage. Worse, it was thought that actual people nearby were at risk as well and so something had to be done to stop it.

The Industrial Revolution, spurred on by electrical technology was just then gaining momentum. By 1262 CE, when Emperor Rufus (1262-1276) ascended to the throne, already half of all major cities had access to at least some electricity. A census taken two years before noted that there were: 215 Windmill Generators, 506 Waterwheel Generators and one new structure known as a Irrigagger Electrika. The Irrigagger, built along the Danube in Germania Superior, provided an enormous amount of electricity to the region, but necessitated damming the river. The Danube River Dam itself was huge and made entirely out of concrete. Although its construction was highly lauded amongst the rich, the costs in relation to the rewards were simply too much and the idea of building any more was abandoned for the time being.

The electricity generated by the Irrigagger was however put to very good use in Factiara. The first factiarum was built in 1259, less than a kilometer from the Dam and was designed to cast metallic pieces for wheels at a rate of about 2 every second. As the entire process was powered by electricity, there was only a slight need for human involvement to oversee the process and fix any minor mistakes made by the machines. It was an extremely simple process however and mistakes in this factiarum were very rare. Over the next two years, nine more factiara were built around the Irrigagger, building things like arrows, fabrics and printing press components.

The repercussions of the Industrial Revolution are enormous. Engineers were now focusing on building innovative new machines that made use of electrical energy to more easily perform a task. A large machine, not unlike a Spinning Jenny was created that automatically wove large cloths for bedding and the like. Others built things purely catered to the rich. The patriarch of the Valerian family for instance now had a front door that could be allowed to open whenever someone stepped on a mat on either side. Other Patricians and Equestrians had things like electric heaters for to keep their homes warm in the Winter and large fans to keep them cool in the Summer. In fact, when Gaius Metellus Corvus was elected Princeps Senatus in 1264 he promised to the Senators and people of Caledonia that every home by the end of his reign would have access to enough electricity to keep out the cold. Amazingly, he was able to have more than 50 Windmill generators and 80 waterwheel generators built to serve the cities of Correlia and Votadinum, thereby supplying power to over three-quarters of the population.

In 1270 an interesting new innovation was developed. Lucius Claudius Horus asked some Doctores Electrikae (Electrical Engineers) to install wiring directly into the walls of his house, and give him access to this electricity at will through a small emplacement sticking out of the wall. Normally, any electrical equipment had to be specially installed in each house, but this new convenience that Horus had come up with would allow someone to have the wiring installed, and then bring in any other devices later. This "contact piece" (Contactrum) became all the rage among the aristocracy, many of whom had their electrical plus coming out of some fancy piece of furniture in their homes to proudly display them to guests.

The only requirement for a contactrum was that it need three holes. An input, an output and a grounding wire for safety (required by law). The actual arrangement of these holes varied widely, making it impossible to create standardized power plugs, but that was all part of the fun for the rich as customization seemed to be the big thing when it came to electricity.