eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate

The mysterious emergence of Ryukyu, a civilization from beyond the borders of the known world, has excited scholars, rulers, and common people alike. While Ryukyu itself was promptly and brutally annihilated by the Taiwanese, all the minds of all the nations of the world are awash with visions of resources, technologies, and other valuables that might be possessed by other uncontacted civilizations existing just beyond the edge of cartographers' maps.

Whether through plunder, conquest, espionage, or trade, managing to acquire treasures from unknown could give a civilization a crucial leg up on its enemies and rivals in these dangerous times.

How this event works

This is a multi-part event: the decisions you make this part will directly and drastically affect the options, risks, and rewards available to you next part.

For this part, you will invest bundles of resources, called Exploration Units, or EUs, into the various exploratory options outlined below. How many EUs you choose to invest, where you choose to invest them, and, to a lesser extent, which resources you choose to create your EUs with will impact your standing for the next part of this event.

What makes an Exploration Unit

An Exploration Unit is a bundle of resources that represents sufficient capacity to conduct one expedition of modest scale into the unknown. All EUs must be made of "natural", existing resources; you cannot convert one type of resource into another, and then use the new resource to create an EU. So no selling units for gold and then creating an EU with the gold, no buying units with AP and then creating an EU with the units, etc., etc. The haste needed to get your expeditions out before competitors precludes any resource-haggling from taking place beforehand.

Each EU may be invested into any one the options described below. You may invest multiple EUs, up to three, into any single option. Across a possible nine options, that makes a grand total of up to twenty-seven EUs that you may invest into the event, if you so desire.

Each of the following constitute one EU:

• 1 player

• 1 Great Person

• 0.5 plot slots (i.e. 1 plot slot is worth 2 EUs)

• 1 Settler

• 5 standard military or civilian units

• 4 population

• 2 AP

• 50 Gold

• 50 Faith

Expeditionary options

Your top archeologists, astronomers, soothsayers, seafarers, gamblers, and geographers have identified the following likely hotbeds of civilization, towards which you can dispatch EUs in search of profit and plunder:

• Option 1. The seedier elements of your society speak of a small haven to the immediate north of Taiwan, where the rum runs freely, the mightiest ships to ever sail the seas are constructed, and thieves, pirates, and other assorted scum spend their hard-earned cash.

• Option 2. To the northeastern seas is a great island chain. Its inhabitants, seemingly a more chaotic and warlike sister civilization to Ryukyu, are known for their byzantine court bureaucracy, practical yet stylish fashions, and vicious internal wars.

• Option 3. Beyond the pirate haven there is an immaculate land, where two great rivers flow through a beautiful landscape of pristine forests and rolling hills. There is almost a deliberate, sculpted quality to this land, as if its meticulous perfection was made to be this way by a creator. The wind whistles softly throughout this intricate landscape of trees, hills, and valleys, and some swear that it carries a musical tune.

• Option 4. To the great north there is nothing that even your most drug-addled mystics can ascertain. It is almost as if the any details about the region, no matter how trivial, are being kept secret by some unknown force.

• Option 5. West of the nothing lands are a great wasteland. Herds of territorial untamed horses roam about, poisonous vines, shrubs, and other plants are a constant hazard, and on occasion, scattered ruins can be found, all primitive and all long-destroyed.

• Option 6. To the furthest western reaches, the bizarre lake and river network's of the far lands distort the otherwise flat and dry landscape.

• Option 7. To the west of Burma is a regimented, stratified civilization. Their ruling class is known for its highly effective mix of efficiency, prudence, and ambition.

• Option 8. Between the peninsula of tryhards and the far lands lies a mountain range, renowned far and wide for its great and productive salt quarries.

• Option 9. All of these lands are cool, sure, but none of them are really that exotic. I'm sure if we can just cross the Great Eastern Sea we'll find a truly exotic nation, with far more lucrative goods and innovative secrets.