27 Conquest of the Sand Nation

Roland was rather fortunate to have started in Border Town. Border Town was a town of miners and nearby were many natural resources such as iron and coal. These resources were critical for industrialization since coal is needed to power steam engines and iron is needed to make steel. Although Border Town started out poor, it would likely have been better than if he had started in a different, more wealthy region that didn't have these resources.

From the beginning, Roland had all of the resources needed to industrialize. Unfortunately, it was now coming to a point where the resources he needs next are not under his control yet. There is one critical resources that he needs, one that shackles the modern economies of Earth, the substance that is so valuable that it is called black gold. He needs oil.

At the moment, there was not much need of oil in the world. Even in the early industrial era oil was mainly used to light lamps. In Neverwinter, there is sufficient electricity supply as to make kerosene lamps unnecessary. Until the 20th century, kerosene was the only part of petroleum that was widely used. In fact, Rockefeller's Standard Oil made its money selling kerosene. One of the reasons the company was more efficient than its competitors was that rather than discarding gasoline, seen as a waste product, it used gasoline to power its machines. Gasoline was not a very important substance at all. It was not until the development of automobiles that gasoline became necessary.

Roland had plans to create cars and airplanes. While it is technically possible for a car to run off of a steam engine using coal, it would be very inefficient. There was a reason why the early coal powered cars eventually fell out of use and were outcompeted by Ford. And for aircraft it would simply be impossible because a steam engine is too heavy. Thus, an internal combustion engine running off of oil would be needed.

So, Roland dispatched an expedition to take over the Sand Nation. He knew that military force alone would be unsuccessful in conquering those tribes. If he tried to do that it would probably end as poorly as America's Iraq War.

Roland needed legitimacy so he sent Echo, who was the daughter of a clan leader, to establish a clan to take over. Iron Axe was the commander of the expedition since he was also native to the region and thus would know how things work there. Lastly, they needed someone to win fights. Ashes was available now that the Bloodfang Association was dealt with she would be sent to help Echo.

Roland was reading the report sent back by Iron Axe regarding their progress.

The army was able to successfully seize an oasis and established the Osha Clan. The use of cannons had completely devastated the watchdog clans which were defending the oasis. Even when their remaining forces tried to attack the army, the guns were more than enough to take them out.

Then, they started challenging the clans in the city. With Ashes fighting in the arena, they were easily able to crush the opposition. They made sure not to kill anyone during the duels as to reduce the amount of resentment toward them once they finally conquered the region. The fights mostly went the same way with only a minor incident with the Black River Clan which refused to surrender. In the end, Ashes was forced to cut off their limbs and kick them off of the platform. They died from blood loss soon afterwards. The duels were mostly similar, with some clans having a witch but those witches were ineffective since Ashes was wearing a God's Stone of Retaliation. It was only the final duel that made Roland interested.

Ashes fought against a witch named Lorgar in a one on one duel. Lorgar had an interesting ability to turn into a wolf. She was unable to turn back into a human fully and was left with wolf features like ears and a fluffy tail. This caused her to hide her features as many people would be repulsed by such a thing. However, Roland was quite an accepting and open minded person. He did not think such a thing was ugly, in fact he quite wanted to see those fluffy ears in person. Purely to demonstrate his kind and accepting nature, not because of any other reasons, Roland thought to himself.

Roland had already known an incident might take place during the duel since Steven told him that a Four-Winged Eagle had attacked Lorgar in the original timeline. So, he made sure Andrea was prepared to eliminate the eagle before it was able to attack. Roland decided that this was as fine a time as any to test the anti-aircraft gun so he had the army bring it along. During the duel, the eagle did appear and Andrea was able to hit it with the gun. The anti-aircraft gun is much more powerful than an ordinary rifle and it was able to kill the eagle in a single shot.

Nana was still needed to heal Lorgar because of the injuries she suffered during the duel. However, Lorgar was conscious during this time and she often spoke with the other witches about what Neverwinter was like. After Lorgar recovered, she decided to travel to Neverwinter. She heard about how the king was kind and accepting and he was even willing to talk with tentacle monsters. Lorgar was hopeful that the king would not be repulsed by her appearance.

Echo was able to convince the people that Roland was promising them all a better life and that they could live in a fertile land where their children can grow up not needing to compete over scraps of resources. Initially some of them were afraid they would be sent off to die but that argument did not apply since Roland wanted to bring everyone, not just the warriors. When asked why the king would want ordinary people, she told them that Roland wanted to repopulate the lands of the Southern Region and that more people meant more power for the kingdom.

The Sand Nation people were elated that they would finally be able to have a better life and many of them agreed to move. A brighter future lay in wait for them.