"The Scent of Jasmine Tea - Tales from the Orient” - the 2026 Story Event Official Support Thread

[TheRedLantern]

Story finished, a mere eight months early.

But I have a problem. I can see a follow-up story. Is it allowed to submit the first part of a series as an entry in the event?

Almost certainly. This is an event, not a contest. And it sounds like you've got 8 months so maybe you could finish the followup and release both together.

 

[Voboy]

Now I'm regretting I posted this story, which I'd written a couple years ago for the earlier proposed iteration of this same event. I liked it when I wrote it, then sat on it for quite some time before I decided I better spew it out unto the world.

Maybe I can come up with something in the same universe. I'll ponder.

I have pondered. I think I have something here.

 

[Writer61]

Almost certainly. This is an event, not a contest. And it sounds like you've got 8 months so maybe you could finish the followup and release both together.

How would that work? Could both parts still be in a series?

 

[ChloeTzang]

How would that work? Could both parts still be in a series?

You can do a series- as long as it's not a chapter. It needs to be a complete story in and of itself, but that story can be part of a series

 

[TheRedLantern]

I have pondered. I think I have something here.

I'm happy to hear that! Since you knew about Chloe's first run at this event and wrote a story for it, I felt like this event would be better with your participation.

 

[Voboy]

I'm happy to hear that! Since you knew about Chloe's first run at this event and wrote a story for it, I felt like this event would be better with your participation.

I'm already realizing I'm biting off quite a bit. I like these kinds of stories to be accurate as fuck, so now I'm trying to figure out how I can have a British/Australian mandate border a Japanese mandate in the Straits of Malacca, which didn't happen. That's fine, but I want to have a way that it could have happened.

 

[Writer61]

You can do a series- as long as it's not a chapter. It needs to be a complete story in and of itself, but that story can be part of a series

We are talking about episodes in a series. The story I would submit would stand on its own, but it might have a sequel.

 

[YmaOHyd]

I'm already realizing I'm biting off quite a bit. I like these kinds of stories to be accurate as fuck, so now I'm trying to figure out how I can have a British/Australian mandate border a Japanese mandate in the Straits of Malacca, which didn't happen. That's fine, but I want to have a way that it could have happened.

How historical does this concept need to be? What if Japan doesn't close itself off in the 1600s and by the late 1700s/early 1800s, it's the Britain of the East?

 

[Writer61]

I'm already realizing I'm biting off quite a bit. I like these kinds of stories to be accurate as fuck, so now I'm trying to figure out how I can have a British/Australian mandate border a Japanese mandate in the Straits of Malacca, which didn't happen. That's fine, but I want to have a way that it could have happened.

That is certainly a challenge. What time period do you have in mind?

 

[TheRedLantern]

I'm already realizing I'm biting off quite a bit. I like these kinds of stories to be accurate as fuck, so now I'm trying to figure out how I can have a British/Australian mandate border a Japanese mandate in the Straits of Malacca, which didn't happen. That's fine, but I want to have a way that it could have happened.

Agree 100%. This one could involve a lot of research for participants unless you're already a history scholar. I think it would be wise to not wait until the summer to get started unless you've got the research or a concept that doesn't need it.

 

[Voboy]

That is certainly a challenge. What time period do you have in mind?

1927.

Germany has just made it into the League of Nations and the guys who got expelled from Germany's possessions after WWI are just starting to make their way back.

I could pretty easily move east, near Rabaul, but I feel like the Solomon Islands aren't really in keeping with what Chloe's looking to do: she's shooting for tea ceremonies and rice cultivation, rather than Pacific islanders. I might compromise by moving across Malay into the South China Sea instead, which presents a wee bit more plausibility.

I kinda need the prewar German possessions to be a couple thousand miles west of where they really were. But I think I can make it work.

 

[Voboy]

Agree 100%. This one could involve a lot of research for participants unless you're already a history scholar. I think it would be wise to not wait until the summer to get started unless you've got the research or a concept that doesn't need it.

Lol. I'm already sort of a history scholar. No worries.

 

[TheRedLantern]

I could pretty easily move east, near Rabaul, but I feel like the Solomon Islands aren't really in keeping with what Chloe's looking to do: she's shooting for tea ceremonies and rice cultivation, rather than Pacific islanders.

She's seemed pretty open to interpretation. While some of us might end up writing tea ceremonies, I don't think that her goal was to get a bunch of stories like the ones she'd write.

 

[Voboy]

She's seemed pretty open to interpretation. While some of us might end up writing tea ceremonies, I don't think that her goal was to get a bunch of stories like the ones she'd write.

Oh no, I know. She'd be fine with Rabaul. But I don't really feel it's in the spirit of the event. I like to have these kinds of rules imposed on me; they make this sort of thing more fun.

I don't want it too far offshore. The Solomons aren't really what I think of as "The Orient" in the sense of this event.

 

[Writer61]

1927.

Germany has just made it into the League of Nations and the guys who got expelled from Germany's possessions after WWI are just starting to make their way back.

I could pretty easily move east, near Rabaul, but I feel like the Solomon Islands aren't really in keeping with what Chloe's looking to do: she's shooting for tea ceremonies and rice cultivation, rather than Pacific islanders. I might compromise by moving across Malay into the South China Sea instead, which presents a wee bit more plausibility.

I kinda need the prewar German possessions to be a couple thousand miles west of where they really were. But I think I can make it work.

How about Sumatra as a German territory, rather than a Dutch one (perhaps purchased or swapped with the VOC), that is ceded to the Japanese after the Great War? That would put them on one side of the Malacca Straits, directly opposite the British in Malaya and the Straits Settlements.

 

[Voboy]

How about Sumatra as a German territory, rather than a Dutch one (perhaps purchased or swapped with the VOC), that is ceded to the Japanese after the Great War? That would put them on one side of the Malacca Straits, directly opposite the British in Malaya and the Straits Settlements.

Yeah, I can't do that. My "history brain" won't allow it. I'm not doing an alternate history.

I've already got a solution to the geographical problem. Now I mostly just need to devise a plot I can present in such a way that the readers will understand the politics. I'm sure I can do that.

 

[Writer61]

Yeah, I can't do that. My "history brain" won't allow it. I'm not doing an alternate history.

I've already got a solution to the geographical problem. Now I mostly just need to devise a plot I can present in such a way that the readers will understand the politics. I'm sure I can do that.

You asked for something that could have happened, and my proposal certainly could.

The VOC (that's the Dutch East India Company) were always up for a deal, just look what happened to New Amsterdam.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I'm already realizing I'm biting off quite a bit. I like these kinds of stories to be accurate as fuck, so now I'm trying to figure out how I can have a British/Australian mandate border a Japanese mandate in the Straits of Malacca, which didn't happen. That's fine, but I want to have a way that it could have happened.

Aceh, in northern Sumatra

It was an independant state, but under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 the British ceded their colonial possessions on Sumatra to the Dutch. In the treaty, the British described Aceh as one of their possessions, although they had no actual control over the sultanate.

Initially, under the agreement the Dutch agreed to respect Aceh's independence. In 1871, however, the British dropped previous opposition to a Dutch invasion of Aceh, possibly to prevent France or the United States from gaining a foothold in the region. Although neither the Dutch nor the British knew the specifics, there had been rumors since the 1850s that Aceh had been in communication with the rulers of France and of the Ottoman Empire.

Pirates operating from Aceh threatened commerce in the Strait of Malacca; the sultan was unable to control them. Britain was a protector of Aceh and gave the Netherlands permission to eradicate the pirates. The campaign quickly drove out the sultan but the local leaders mobilized and fought the Dutch in four decades of guerrilla war, with high levels of atrocities.The Dutch colonial government declared war on Aceh on 26 March 1873. Aceh sought American help but Washington rejected the request. The Dutch tried one strategy after another over the course of four decades. An expedition under Major General Johan Harmen Rudolf Köhler in 1873 occupied most of the coastal areas. Köhler's strategy was to attack and take the sultan's palace. It failed.

The Dutch then tried a naval blockade, reconciliation, concentration within a line of forts, and lastly passive containment. They had scant success. Reaching 15 to 20 million guilders a year, the heavy spending for failed strategies nearly bankrupted the colonial government. During the course of the war, the Dutch set up the Gouvernment of Atjeh and Dependencies under a governor, although it did not establish wider control of its territory until after 1908. The Aceh army was rapidly modernized, and Aceh soldiers killed Köhler. Köhler made some grave tactical errors and the reputation of the Dutch was severely harmed.

During the Meiji period (1868–1912), the Empire of Japan emerged as the most developed state in Asia and as an industrialized world power that pursued military conflict to expand its sphere of influence. After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), Japan gained control of Taiwan, Korea and the southern half of Sakhalin, and annexed Korea in 1910.

As Japanese trade with foreign powers expanded, and Japanese merchant shipping begam to open trade ith Europe and Asia, the Japanese found Aceh a useful port of call and in 1870, in a treaty with the Sultan of Aceh and with the tacit agreement of the British (who were assisting Japan in building a modern Navy), the Japanese established a protecterate over Aceh.....

 

[Writer61]

It is a fascinating region, with so many competing powers, foreign and indigenous. Even today, you can see the Dutch influence in Malacca and the British influence in George Town (Penang).

 

[Voboy]

Aceh, in northern Sumatra

It was an independant state, but under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 the British ceded their colonial possessions on Sumatra to the Dutch. In the treaty, the British described Aceh as one of their possessions, although they had no actual control over the sultanate.

Initially, under the agreement the Dutch agreed to respect Aceh's independence. In 1871, however, the British dropped previous opposition to a Dutch invasion of Aceh, possibly to prevent France or the United States from gaining a foothold in the region. Although neither the Dutch nor the British knew the specifics, there had been rumors since the 1850s that Aceh had been in communication with the rulers of France and of the Ottoman Empire.

Pirates operating from Aceh threatened commerce in the Strait of Malacca; the sultan was unable to control them. Britain was a protector of Aceh and gave the Netherlands permission to eradicate the pirates. The campaign quickly drove out the sultan but the local leaders mobilized and fought the Dutch in four decades of guerrilla war, with high levels of atrocities.The Dutch colonial government declared war on Aceh on 26 March 1873. Aceh sought American help but Washington rejected the request. The Dutch tried one strategy after another over the course of four decades. An expedition under Major General Johan Harmen Rudolf Köhler in 1873 occupied most of the coastal areas. Köhler's strategy was to attack and take the sultan's palace. It failed.

The Dutch then tried a naval blockade, reconciliation, concentration within a line of forts, and lastly passive containment. They had scant success. Reaching 15 to 20 million guilders a year, the heavy spending for failed strategies nearly bankrupted the colonial government. During the course of the war, the Dutch set up the Gouvernment of Atjeh and Dependencies under a governor, although it did not establish wider control of its territory until after 1908. The Aceh army was rapidly modernized, and Aceh soldiers killed Köhler. Köhler made some grave tactical errors and the reputation of the Dutch was severely harmed.

During the Meiji period (1868–1912), the Empire of Japan emerged as the most developed state in Asia and as an industrialized world power that pursued military conflict to expand its sphere of influence. After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), Japan gained control of Taiwan, Korea and the southern half of Sakhalin, and annexed Korea in 1910.

As Japanese trade with foreign powers expanded, and Japanese merchant shipping begam to open trade ith Europe and Asia, the Japanese found Aceh a useful port of call and in 1870, in a treaty with the Sultan of Aceh and with the tacit agreement of the British (who were assisting Japan in building a modern Navy), the Japanese established a protecterate over Aceh.....

Yes, dear, but... I need a German ex-colony. Gotta be German. My muse demands it be German. Fuckin' Germans...

I've solved it. I've got one, on the equator just south of Singapore. My original location was off Aceh, but for complex diplomatic reasons, it's got to be on the Equator.

I know. I'm high-maintenance. I went ahead and invented an island. Easier all around.

 

[Writer61]

Yes, dear, but... I need a German ex-colony. Gotta be German. My muse demands it be German. Fuckin' Germans...

I've solved it. I've got one, on the equator just south of Singapore. My original location was off Aceh, but for complex diplomatic reasons, it's got to be on the Equator.

I know. I'm high-maintenance. I went ahead and invented an island. Easier all around.

Ah, you mean Pulau Jerman.

 

[Voboy]

Ah, you mean Pulau Jerman.

EXACTLY!

I'm calling it Pulau Luntak, though, because I like how that sounds.

 

[Writer61]

EXACTLY!

I'm calling it Pulau Luntak, though, because I like how that sounds.

With 17,508 known islands in Indonesia, what's another one?

 

[Writer61]

I can reveal that my entry is also set in the 1920s, primarily in Malaya. I have taken a few liberties with the timing of actual events, hopefully @Voboy's historical brain will forgive them.

 

[Voboy]

I can reveal that my entry is also set in the 1920s, primarily in Malaya. I have taken a few liberties with the timing of actual events, hopefully @Voboy's historical brain will forgive them.

Oh, absolutely. I impose limits on me, not others!