Maybe being blind helps him since we have already establish telos vision is limited by the MC’s perception of the world. Being blind might help he “see” better.
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No, no. I meant: what if, one day, divergences begin to rise in the rebellion? People begin speaking of different objectives and start disagreeing between themselves and ruptures start appearing? And then, Yeben uses his skill in Theurgy to create a… third rebellion?
Alright, that sounded far-fetched. But I can’t shake the feeling that, in the long run, his power unchecked might go badly. And that maybe one day the rebellion might shatter. Maybe the MC’s inner circle will each want a different thing (Zvad wanting to free the Whends first, Breden disliking the way the MC treats the Hegomonic faith), causing the momentum of the rebellion to fall.
That might sound like I’m reading too much into it (and I probably am). But I do see a nice potential for good stories there.
That could be true, we know far too little about “telos-vision” as it is, which is one of the reasons why I’m so anxious to start harnessing Xaos, or actual Goety for real in our “magic” and see if that changes our perception of the world and what effects that might have on “telos-vision”.
Knowing the author, some or indeed all of these might be real possibilities. If my mc goes on the magical path I would want him too I can add one more possibility to that list: Yebben possibly objecting to his (former) teacher’s use of actual Goety.
Well I could, but this would be a case “of the pot calling the kettle” as my mc certainly has his own issues with paranoia. 
True, though I still question what the Thaumatarch’s kinky designated heir could possibly see in my helot Goete, considering that they basically stand in total opposition to each-other, furthermore Helots aren’t even allowed or supposed to be able to use “magic” in the first place. So, aside from becoming his personal “pet” I don’t see how any sort of relationship between him and a (former) Helot mc could possibly work.
I assume that part is only inflicted on the sex-slaves as the guy himself likely has a completely flawless, unmarred body himself. 
My mc wants to get rid of his (disfiguring) scars, thank you very much, not add more of them.
I was mostly thinking that choice in good ChoiceScript games usually implies loss. At least for me. You know, a choice isn’t always the best things. There is no objectively “good” choice. So something has to counter having two Theurges in your team.
And I’m also sure that the rebellion isn’t going to conquer everything in a heartbeat. That’s why everyone’s priorities might mix, and why leading a band of 40 hundred is harder than leading 4 hundred. Heck, we might even see copycats of the original rebels in other areas of the Hegemony.
I’m not sure, our enemies have at least thousands, maybe tens of thousands of them after all, two barely trained, self-taught theurges isn’t game-unbalancing much I would venture.
I always thought the Phalangites hunting us in the forest had arround a dozen Theurges? But you’re probably right on that one.
Yes and there are many, many more where they came from and I bet that not too many of them will be willing to switch sides over the course of the next couple of games. So really I think we’re going to remain the magical underdog, even if we augment our arsenal with true Goety, right up until the beginning, or middle of the last game.
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Nonsense. It is a sacred right of Xthonos to fulfill our Teloi as Makers of Change! The Thaumatarch has preverted Its will by taking humors from one and using their Teloi to power another’s. Theurges have beaten and blinded helots, yeoman, and nobles all the same, claiming that our Puropse is to work, serve, or even rule.
When the truth is we were meant to see all things in Xthonos’ will, both within and without the ephemeral. All shall see the lies of the Thaumatarch when looking at world through Xthonos eye’s. As Makers of Change we can truly see That Which Is.
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Sorry to be so anti-climatic but I suspect that, like the four elements, this is simply an example of something that is clearly not true in our world but is true in the game world.
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Certainly one of the possibilities although the less interesting one. I expect @Havenstone’s got something a bit more nuanced up his sleeve.
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I’m sorry but this has nothing to do with the lewd-ass heir, I just want sick tats. Look at those hands. As smooth as he is, I don’t care about doing the horizontal mambo with Mr. Papilla Corkscrew.
I’ve linked before to my old college D&D campaign write-ups. I stopped writing those just at the point where the campaign veered in the direction that would one day turn into XOR – where the party escaped from slavery in an oppressive empire and became heroes of the resistance.
There were plenty of things in that campaign that I’d love to port over but don’t fit the XORverse – the active role of Death as a major villain, for example; or the dramatic moment when the (much more activist) deity of that gameworld withdrew his blessing from every priest that continued to support the Xaimani slave system, leaving the rebellion as the sole providers of healing magic to imperial society.
But some stuff will definitely make the transition to XOR. Like the moment, years into the rebellion, when the idealistic party has to face the monsters they’ve inspired: rebel armies so busy tormenting and/or plundering their former oppressors that they’re making it impossible to rebuild anything in a civil war hellscape. Of course, in XOR you’ll also have the choice to be that monster yourself. 
And with a range of views already represented in Game 1 as to how the rebellion should be conducted, you’ll need to be a diplomat of extraordinary skill (or an autocrat of extraordinarily successful ruthlessness) to avoid a major split in your rebellion over strategy and tactics at some point.
In the last D&D reunion game I ran, a decade or so ago, the players had to restore enough order in a major provincial city to successfully defend it against a massive external attack. Having narrowly succeeded, the game ended with them receiving notification from the Empire’s last great general – the power behind the rump Imperial throne in the capital, Tziwan – that he was about to institute a new form of slavery within his domain that allowed for emancipation and protections for abused slaves. He offered them one chance to join him in trying to make the new, reformed slave system work.
The party was profoundly split between its more idealistic and more pragmatic members on how best to respond to this offer. Especially as the new system seemed to be one in which priests could participate without losing the divine blessing; and because there were a number of external threats that could really use a unified response. (More so than we’ll ever see in the XORverse, my college gaming party spent much of their time trying and failing to patch up a passel of fragile Talismans that held back supernatural horrors… notably including the ancient sea elves and their blood mage overlord; the world-eating 'Ga of the plane of Chhaolu; the mind-possessing Horror of the Many beyond the southern mountains; Death and his estranged necromancer son; and, of late, the subterranean dragons and their pawns, vengeful desert elves who genetically control most of the Empire’s mages. It was collectively perhaps a bit over the top.)
Maybe one day I’ll be in a place to run one last game and see how the party dealt with the consequences of that offer. Regardless, an equivalent moment will show up in XOR… many, many years from now, at my current writing pace. But now I’ll have a forum post I can link to and say, “Hey, I was planning this way back in 2016.”
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Interesting stuff thanks for sharing.
Will anyone but the high cha characters even stand a chance at preventing this, while also sticking mostly to their own vision?
Which is actually a fairly clever ploy, assuming those “protections” are not just empty rhetoric like they were in most of our world most of the time, even for serfs who weren’t technically slaves. Particularly if anarchy in your D&D game got as high as you say it did.
In any case being a “freedman” is often times a much less desirable state than even being a slave and to keep it somewhat on-topic, let me just say that my character would reject that status even if it were offered to him, then again that’s hardly surprising since he’d firmly reject “noble” status too.
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And incidentally,
Choice. It started as a typo that read like a good joke on a game which in a couple of prominent places uses the Greek chi (X) instead of the English “ch”.
It also helpfully distinguishes Rebels from Robots and Romance.
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I’m going to say yes, there will be a chance at preventing it even if you don’t invest in CHA; and for all who can’t or don’t prevent it, there will be plenty of ways to move forward without it crippling your rebellion.
I’d have expected nothing less from the good Chairman.
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If there’s a character that I model my less serious MC after it would have to be Grog Strongjaw who was born from a DnD game I’ve been following for the last few months.
Right listen up, if you have ale then you have a friend in Grog (the helot) Strongjaw. A goliath (for a helot) of towering height and size. This barbarian(rough helot) has two great loves in his life. Combat(2), women(cha 1) and ale…wait(int 0). Easily the brains of the group Grog is often consulted for his vast knowledge of shapes colours and heh, shiny things. Also ale.
Him in a nutshell.
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-sniffs the air- I smell the Laguz Emancipation Act. Which wasn’t really much of an Act as rich nobles just bribed their way out of it, the religious leader got murdered so that priests could profit off it by twisting canon in the power vacuum, all the senators participated in genocide because of it and it started years of blood feuding via piracy across three countries as revenge for the genocide it caused.
Oh, and the refugee hunts. Let’s not forget about those. Dank.
Please tell me someone in this topic has played Kingdom Hearts.
They’re gonna be useless protections, let’s all be honest here.
Even if it starts out perfectly, years of changing political and religious development and debate will eventually ensue that once again, even if not as badly as before, these people get the short end of the stick as they always had. Look at history; the proof is in the books.
I like this buff. Sounds like my kind of krogan. We should be friends. 
[x]
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Aye. As is my custom we shall celebrate this with a test of bravery,endurance, and strength. We each will drink until we can hardly stand then pick a fight with the meanest looking person we can find. Bears,wolves and other animals work as a substitute should there be no people around.
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Well he isn’t, not just yet anyway, at this point in time he’s just an (over) idealistic young man.
Form a role-playing perspective let me again thank you for Ganelon as it is my mc’s “relationship” (okay to be honest likely mad crush on) with that boy that has convinced him that all of the nobility are irredeemable and the very concept of a “noble” class should have no place in the new world order.
Not only did he prove to be no true friend in the end, worse he proved himself to actually be a traitor and a torturer, every bit as bad as Hector Keriatou himself.
My mc’s vision on the future role and purpose of the nobility could have been quite different had Ganelon actually dared to join the rebellion from the start, particularly if he had been willing to suffer with the rest of us through that winter. I mean if he could have had him my mc would almost certainly have preferred someone he believed to be a childhood friend as a second over both Zvad and Breden.
He was always going to topple the Karagond religion with its corrupt ecclesiasts and its caste system that dictates that he should be a farm animal to be gruesomely sacrificed, that part was never in doubt. The rudimentary form of what ought to replace it though has likely crystallized in his mind mostly during and right after surviving that first winter, right when we were plagued by Hector and his Veneurs where Ganelon revealed himself to be the vile traitor he is, without any positive examples of the nobility to balance that out.
Of course they are, in time, we all know that. But for the scheme to work he has to be serious about them at the start. That’s how you get free people to become serfs you offer them “protection” and some concessions and for it to work it must seem the preferable option for free, but not all that powerful on their own folk. From how @Havenstone described his campaign world as “a civil war hellscape” by then, I guess the players there did go over the anarchy cliff to the point where even former slaves may have become a bit nostalgic for the “old order”.
After all the Roman system that on occasion did let former slaves rise quite high sort of worked for centuries.
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Whoa, thanks for this long and respectful response. It’s really kind of you.
But I was mostly just kicking thoughts arround, I had no idea of the plans in your old D&D campaign.