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{AMERICA_DISCOVERED_BODY}Testing the theory that one can head east by sailing west carried the risk of a remote, watery grave. Yet this act of courage has been rewarded with the discovery of a strange new land... perchance a whole new world. Who knows what riches await those with the courage to explore.

{AMERICA_DISCOVERED_TITLE}New World Discovered

{AZTECS_CONTACTED_BODY}It seems the new world is already dominated by an ancient culture - the Aztecs. For a seemingly simple people, their cities are vast and complicated. Their primitive outlook belies their ability to raise vast stone structures that rival anything the old world has to offer. And if gold is the measure of an Empire's might, then the Aztecs are formidable indeed.

{AZTECS_CONTACTED_TITLE}New World Inhabited

{BLACK_DEATH_1_BODY}The dire plague that scholars have now dubbed "The Great Mortality" is continuing its destructive trail through the west. Is the end truly nigh? Is this our judgement, and has the almighty finally decided that we are all too wretched to live?!

{BLACK_DEATH_1_TITLE}The Great Mortality

{BLACK_DEATH_2_BODY}Life in the civilised world has become more morbid and bleak than in known history. Every man woman and child is accustomed to the sight of their people stacked in piles before being burned... In the vain hope that the fires may cleanse this foul doom from the land.\n\nAlthough not everyone is falling victim to its deadly embrace, the plague is still decimating the population everywhere it travels.

{BLACK_DEATH_2_TITLE}The Great Mortality Spreads

{BLACK_DEATH_3_BODY}While the lands that were first stricken by the Great Mortality are beginning to discover a life beyond the plague, many places that had been spared this doom are now feeling its full effects.\n\nThough talk of this truly being the end is becoming less likely with enough survivors to prove the point, this creeping doom is still the most feared thing to stalk the lands of Europe for even the bravest of men, being dubbed "The Black Death" these days.

{BLACK_DEATH_3_TITLE}The Great Mortality Continues

{BLACK_DEATH_4_BODY}It would appear that the Black Death has worked most of its deadly misery upon the world, and that men of all faiths may have reason to make a prayer of thanks... We have been delivered!\n\nAside from some unfortunate destinations at the end of the major trade routes where the plague is a more recent tyrant, the risk of contracting the Black Death appears to now be negligible. Now those who rule the survivors may struggle over what remains of civilisation.

{BLACK_DEATH_4_TITLE}The Black Death Passes

{BLACK_DEATH_HITS_BODY}A plague of unfathomable proportions has made its way westward from the Far East, where it is said to have already ended an untold number of lives. The victims find their skin covered in dark blotches, as they enter a terrible fever and sickness which ultimately leads to a painful and miserable death.\n\nWhile scholars, theologians and physicians cannot agree on the exact cause of this deadly plague, the threat it poses men of all faiths is plain for all to see.

{BLACK_DEATH_HITS_TITLE}A Most Dreaded Plague

{EARTHQUAKE_IN_ALEPPO_BODY}The people of Aleppo have suffered terribly, as the very earth beneath the city and surrounding lands buckled and broke in what could only be described as a terrible act of divine wrath or punishment - tremors were felt all throughout. After such a cataclysmic event, Aleppo will take many years to recover fully.

{EARTHQUAKE_IN_ALEPPO_TITLE}Disaster Strikes Aleppo!

{EARTHQUAKE_IN_ALEXANDRIA_2_BODY}Those at Alexandria that lived to remember the last earthquake that ravaged the city have now had to endure this destructive nightmare twice! The people of this city can still take hope in the defiant survival of the Lighthouse, though its now huge wounds are a stark reminder of this place's misfortune.

{EARTHQUAKE_IN_ALEXANDRIA_2_TITLE}Alexandria Suffers Again!

{EARTHQUAKE_IN_ALEXANDRIA_BODY}An earthquake has shaken the entire eastern Mediterranean basin, most terribly so at the ancient city of Alexandria. Lives were lost in the ensuing chaos and destruction caused by falling buildings. Even the great Lighthouse that has stood for over a millennia bears scars from the tremendous power of the quake.

{EARTHQUAKE_IN_ALEXANDRIA_TITLE}Earthquake in Alexandria!

{EARTHQUAKE_IN_NAPLES_BODY}Sitting in the shadow of Vesuvius, the people of Naples have always known that they have lived with the constant threat of danger. However, the terrible earthquake that has recently brought down countless buildings and ended many lives is probably not the disaster they expected to befall them.

{EARTHQUAKE_IN_NAPLES_TITLE}Napoli Endures Earthquake!

{EARTHQUAKE_IN_SILICIA_BODY}A mighty earthquake has struck in the region of Silicia with damage being felt as far as way as Iconium. Fortunately the centre of the destructive power wasn't so close to this major population centre, although the casualties in the region have still been significant.

{EARTHQUAKE_IN_SILICIA_TITLE}Silicia Suffers Quake!

{FIRST_BLAST_FURNACE_BODY}A new way of working metal is now being practised in the village of Lapphyttan in Sweden, and adopted in western Europe. Housed in a great building, mighty water-driven bellows blast air into a furnace that produces a blaze so fierce and unworldly that the iron from within the ore flows out as a stream of molten metal!\n\nEven though the raw iron that pours from this new furnace is very brittle, vast amounts of the stuff can be made with relative ease, which a learned smith can then easily treat to produce incredibly resilient weapons and armour.

{FIRST_BLAST_FURNACE_TITLE}Man-made Inferno!

{FIRST_EUROPEAN_PAPER_BODY}Word is spreading across Europe on a new medium... Written on pressed paper! What has been an expensive luxury imported from the Middle East and beyond has now come to western Europe.\n\nA small mill devoted to pressing paper into sheets has been established in Xativa, south of Valencia. Although the ongoing Reconquista suggests that Islam is not welcome in Iberia, it is evident that some Muslim culture and innovations definitely are.

{FIRST_EUROPEAN_PAPER_TITLE}European Paper

{FIRST_EYEGLASSES_BODY}Reports are coming in from northern Italy of scholars placing delicate glass lenses in a thin metallic frame to be worn on the face. Apparently, if the lenses are made to the correct size they can help those with poor sight to see like normal, healthier citizens. Aesthetes among the scholarly community are concerned that wearing such a contraption will result in being teased or shunned.

{FIRST_EYEGLASSES_TITLE}Lucid Visions

{FIRST_MAGNETIC_COMPASS_BODY}It has been discovered that an ore from the Asia Minor region of Magnesia that attracts iron, also can make a piece of that metal orientate itself to point to the north - as reliably as a devout Muslim would turn to face Mecca.\n\nThis strange phenomena has been captured in a small device known as a 'compass' that cartographers and navigators have begun embracing in earnest, claiming it will take much of the guess work out of the art of exploration and map making.

{FIRST_MAGNETIC_COMPASS_TITLE}Scientific Breakthrough

{FIRST_MECHANICAL_CLOCK_BODY}An elaborate new time-measuring device has begun to appear in several places around Europe that does not rely upon water or the light of the sun to work. Scholars have explained that it has been discovered that the motion of a swinging object can be used to drive the 'clock' mechanism.\n\nThose that have seen one of these new mechanical clocks have suggested making one large enough to see from a distance would be useful.

{FIRST_MECHANICAL_CLOCK_TITLE}Time Machine Made

{FIRST_OIL_PAINTING_BODY}A Flemish painter, Jan van Eyck, is now championing an outlandish concept to produce paint created from seed oils rather than using tempera egg yolk. He claims that these 'oil paints' dry much more slowly, allowing the artist to take all the time needed to perfect each stroke and feature of their paintings.\n\nSome of the art establishment have declared that they are unconvinced as to the merits of oil paint, most likely because their specialised skills with tempera are about to become obsolete.

{FIRST_OIL_PAINTING_TITLE}Pioneer of Paint

{FIRST_PIANO_BODY}With the Papacy no longer denouncing polyphony, the musical technique where two melodies are united, we are now in an age where aspiring musical artists are pioneering new ways to make heavenly music.\n\nThe most recent advent in the musical world is an instrument known as a spinet. A true modern mechanical marvel, the spinet is driven by row of black and white keys, just like a pipe organ, that when pressed strike varying notes on strings cased within. The sounds it produces are not so powerful or profound as the pipe organ, making it something a wealthy noble or merchant could have in their home.

{FIRST_PIANO_TITLE}Portable Pipe Organ?

{FIRST_PRINTED_BIBLE_BODY}The same clergymen that were denouncing the printing press have now made a total about face, hailing Gutenburg as a spreader of the faith. The first book Gutenburg's printing company has been commissioned to publish is the Holy Bible itself.\n\nWhether this came about as a result of Gutenburg fearing retribution from the Papacy, or because the Catholic church is one of the few establishments wealthy enough to finance such a project matters little - Bibles will soon be readily accessible to the common man&  Even if he lacks the skills needed to read it.

{FIRST_PRINTED_BIBLE_TITLE}Papacy Pro-Printing

{FIRST_PRINTING_PRESS_BODY}News has arrived from Mainz that a goldsmith named Johann Gutenburg has invented a machine capable of repeatedly printing an entire page of the written word. Called the 'printing press', this machine has rows of slots that hold raised letters on tiny metal blocks. So long as the letters are properly arranged into words and sentences, it is then a simple matter of pressing the metallic type onto ink, and then paper to do in moments what takes a scribe considerable time.\n\nThere are some members of the cloth already claiming that the mass-production of books may result in widespread literacy, which will in turn lead to the unsupervised consumption of heretical beliefs.

{FIRST_PRINTING_PRESS_TITLE}The Mechanical Scribe!

{FIRST_PUBLIC_CLOCK_BODY}The citizens of the city of Milan can now claim to be the most punctual in the known world, or at least, their overseers and taskmasters can claim to know when their workers are tardy. An expensive mechanical clock has been set atop a tower, so that everyone from prince to pauper may see the time displayed from the city streets.\n\nTypically, now that scholars and engineers have succeeded in creating a truly grand mechanical clock, the more malcontent members of the noble class have begun calling for a portable version of the device!

{FIRST_PUBLIC_CLOCK_TITLE}Time for Everyone

{FIRST_RUDDER_BODY}Arabic sailors have successfully adopted an old seafaring trick from the Far East, using a plate of wood called a 'rudder' at the rear of a ship to change its path through the water.\n\nSome outlandish notions are being raised by some of the more eccentric military strategists that suggest that wars will one day be waged at sea, and that the rudder is a vital step toward their vision being realised.

{FIRST_RUDDER_TITLE}Seafaring Innovation

{FIRST_SAWMILL_BODY}Great minds have found new ways to make light of some of the heaviest work. Sawing wood has always been slow work for even the strongest labourers, but cunning engineers have found a way to drive a great saw capable of planing an entire log by using water!\n\n

{FIRST_SAWMILL_TITLE}The Forest is Conquered!

{FIRST_WATCH_BODY}At last an inventor has found a means to create a portable timepiece! Peter Henlein, a locksmith from Nuremberg has created a small clock being dubbed the 'Nuremberg Egg' for its oval shape. Once its spring mechanism inside its shell is wound, the 'egg' will display the hour, for almost two full days.\n\nDespite still being large enough to leave an incredibly unseemly lump in one's pocket, being seen in possession of one of Henlein's Nuremberg Eggs has become 'the' trinket to be seen to possess - for the few that can afford one.

{FIRST_WATCH_TITLE}Portable Clock

{FIRST_WHEELBARROW_BODY}Tales of a clever invention from the Far East have recently inspired European peasants to come up with a simple labourer's aid they are referring to as the 'wheelbarrow' .\n\nBy placing a wheel at the front of a wooden stretcher, it has been discovered that a lone worker can move a heavy load of stone on their own, with little risk of injury. It could be as much of a boon for lords seeking to raise castles in quick time, as it will be for the serfs who shall have to build them.

{FIRST_WHEELBARROW_TITLE}A Boon for Builders

{FIRST_WINDMILL_BODY}Reports are coming in from across Western Europe of engineers who have created a miracle mill that requires no stream or river to power it. Supposedly, man has found a way to let the very winds themselves drive massive mill mechanisms, simply by catching it in sails on beams of wood. While the Windmill's effectiveness reportedly dies as the winds do, to those living far from running water, it is sure to be considered a Godsend.

{FIRST_WINDMILL_TITLE}Making the Wind Work

{FOOTBALL_BANNED_BODY}The Lord Mayor of London has issued a proclamation of the banning of some violent mob behaviour that the commoners seem enamoured with...\n\n"And whereas there is a great uproar in the City through certain tumults arising from the striking of great footballs in the field of the public - from which many evils perchance may arise - which may God forbid - we do command and do forbid, on the King's behalf, upon pain of imprisonment, that such games shall not be practised henceforth within this city."\n\nNow that this law has been passed, the establishment are confident that these 'football' events have no chance of becoming an obsession of religious proportions.

{FOOTBALL_BANNED_TITLE}Football Denounced

{GROTE_MANDENKE_BODY}An incredible south-westerly Atlantic gale like never seen before has struck the north-western tip of Europe, lashing England, right across to Denmark. Unstoppable storm tides have swept inland, killing many, and conditions at sea are dire enough to make sailing for the brave and foolish only.

{GROTE_MANDENKE_TITLE}The Great Drowning of Men

{GUNPOWDER_DISCOVERED_BODY}A new discovery that could change the course of warfare - Gunpowder. This dark powder may look innocent enough, but when brought to spark it explodes with a force that is unmatched.\nThis terrible weapon will make armour obsolete, and render castle walls near useless. It would be wise to be the first to master its use in war.

{GUNPOWDER_DISCOVERED_TITLE}A Deadly New Weapon!

{MALLEUS_MALEFICARUM_BODY}In these dark times that see the Lord's children under constant exposure to heresy, and in extreme cases, witchcraft, at last we have been armed with the knowledge to drive back and defeat the forces of darkness - the Malleus Maleficarum, meaning, "The Hammer of Witches".\n\nThis tome has immediately been accepted as the definitive instruction set for a trial of heresy, covering everything from detecting witchcraft through to how to forcibly purge a human vessel of sin.

{MALLEUS_MALEFICARUM_TITLE}The Hammer of Witches'

{MONGOLS_INVASION_WARN_BODY}News has spread from merchants of the far east, who speak in great fear of a fierce warlord from Mongolia named Genghis Khan, who has amassed an unstoppable horde of cavalry. These Mongols are reportedly sweeping across Transoxania at a frightening rate, and look set on continuing westward, either north or south of the Caspian sea.

{MONGOLS_INVASION_WARN_TITLE}A New Threat!

{PLAYER_FIRST_HUGE_CATHEDRAL_BODY}If there were any lingering doubts as to the power of the church, they were dispelled once the people gazed upon God’s greatest house on earth. Its towering presence here shall ensure Christian dominance throughout the land.

{PLAYER_FIRST_HUGE_CATHEDRAL_TITLE}Worlds First Huge Cathedral

{SCIENCE_ALCHEMY_BOOK_BODY}Robert of Chester, an English translator has completed his transcription of the Liber de Compositione Alchemiae, or more simply, the Book of the Composition of Alchemy. Originally an Arabic text, this grand compendium of scientific and alchemical discoveries and musings is being deemed an affront to holy mandate by the establishment... But rumour has it most scholars would risk being associated with heretical beliefs to glean the knowledge hidden within its pages.

{SCIENCE_ALCHEMY_BOOK_TITLE}Liber de Compositione Alchemiae

{SCIENCE_DA_VINCI_ORNITHOPTER_BODY}Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian mastermind known for his revolutionary artistic works and ingenious inventions has concocted his most ambitious and eldritch design yet. His fascination with the science of flight has culminated in his 'Ornithopter' design.\n\nLooking something akin to a windmill sail atop a horseless carriage, many other scholars are laughing, suggesting da Vinci should go back to his concepts based upon attaching wings to the human body.

{SCIENCE_DA_VINCI_ORNITHOPTER_TITLE}Machines that Fly?

{SCIENCE_DE_DOCTA_IGNORANTIA_BODY}A Catholic scholar, Nicholas of Cusa has published a series of scientific and philosophical claims, bundled together under the somewhat arrogant title of De Docta Ignorantia - literally meaning, 'Of Learned Ignorance' .\n\nHis theories include the notion that the Earth is not the centre of the Universe, and that it actually orbits the Sun. Even more fantastical, he even attests that the stars of the night sky are actually distant suns themselves!

{SCIENCE_DE_DOCTA_IGNORANTIA_TITLE}Of Learned Ignorance

{SCIENCE_MATHS_ZERO_EUROPE_BODY}A mathematician from Pisa by the name of Fibonacci has published a new work entitled 'Liber Abaci'. He has adopted some Hindu-Arabic theories involving a number that has no value, claiming this is a vital step for making calculations on a grand scale.\n\nDespite managing to excite western scholars, the Liber Abaci's revelations offer few insights to the common man... who typically spends all his life dealing with things of 'no value'.

{SCIENCE_MATHS_ZERO_EUROPE_TITLE}The Hero of Zero

{SCIENCE_WEATHER_FORECAST_BODY}An aspiring English scholar by the name of Walter Merle claims that he is able to predict the weather - unlike the mystical ramblings of yesteryear's heretical pagans who claimed to have a spiritual insight into when the heavens will open up, Merle has stated he can do this simply by scientific observation.\n\nApparently Merle's predictions are correct more often than not, but his system is still being perfected. Surely it will only be a matter of months now before man knows exactly how the weather will behave.

{SCIENCE_WEATHER_FORECAST_TITLE}Bold Predictions

{THE_MONGOLS_EMERGE_BODY}It is easy to become comfortable with the enemy you know, our familiar foes. But to discount the menaces that lurk beyond the known world is to risk a rude awakening that can become a nightmare. This nightmare is the Mongol invasion.\nThe bulk of the Mongol forces have arrived not far from %S, making it a dangerous place at best now.

{THE_MONGOLS_EMERGE_TITLE}The Mongols Invade!

{THE_TIMURIDS_EMERGE_BODY}After facing the terror of the Mongol invasion, nobody would have dreamed that a serious peril could ever rise from the east again. However, Timur the Lame, a mighty warlord from Transoxania, has arrived on the eastern borders of our maps, bringing with him a legacy of conquest that cannot be ignored.\nHaving already conquered Persia, and distant India, Timur is certain to bring with him something exotic to show the people of the west. Something they will be sure to remember... as long as they live.\nThe mighty war machine of Timur the Lame has stormed into the lands surrounding %S.

{THE_TIMURIDS_EMERGE_TITLE}The Timurids Invade!

{TIMURIDS_INVASION_WARN_BODY}The Mongol invasion was a terror that the rulers of the western world were simply not ready to face, but if the stories of travellers are to be paid any heed then there is an even greater threat on its way!

{TIMURIDS_INVASION_WARN_TITLE}An Even Greater Threat?

{WORLD_IS_ROUND_BODY}Over the centuries several scholars have suggested that the world could be round, but most of them were burned at the stake as heretics, so the theory hasn't been particularly popular. However, with new advances in the fields of Astronomy, enough of the learned men of the world have accepted that the theory is well worth testing... Perhaps if someone were to establish a trade route to the far east by sailing west, they would both bring the debate to a close, as well as establish a trade lane that is most lucrative.

{WORLD_IS_ROUND_TITLE}The World is Round