Maybe you can make selling mules less valuable as the player adds to the supply. It would be pretty hard to move more than ten at full price I’d think. The demand for mules isn’t infinite.
It’s like selling pickup trucks or something…
The other possibility is that the mules you steal from the Hegemony are branded so you get a lot lower price for those due to the risk to the buyer.
I really think people should asking me something in exchange of the mules or begging. Something like there is a animal attacking our storage or an aristo is being to greedy withx yeoman. not always but sometimes. But if you made hunting rabbit more difficult players with less than 2 charisma will have impossible following no longer the path I take of non violence Also problem of peace is totally lack of founds no money balance all advantage
If you define nationalism at its heart as being an imagined community then even my mc is still a nationalist, just one who seeks to built a new “imagined community” across most of the former Hegemony and integrate all of that into a new, overarching nationality, much like what eventually happened in the US. [/quote]
Basically. Nevertheless the degree to which it is “imagined” or “real” is open to debate. In this particular setting we have had 400 years of Karagondization, so a great deal of Shayardene culture has been lost, and is now open to (re)imagination. That is something my MC intends to use to his full advantage, just as I expect the Laconnier’s to do, regardless of their claims of somehow having secretly preserved the true Shayardene culture. I intend to borrow/steal that which is best from them, use the church and/or masses of helots as well as merchants and yeomen to check their ambitions where their interests diverge from what’s best for the realm, and then if they become a threat as is likely, not only to steal the nationalist movement right out from under them, but turn it against their “self-serving lies”.
I intend (hope) to reduce the number of generations (and bloodshed) required to accomplish this by co-opting the existing pillars of society and getting their buy-in, or at a minimum, their acquiescence as I remove the current crop of sell-outs to the Thaumatarch that run them, and place trusted lieutenants in charge who will perform a thorough house-cleaning. As for “bigoted and narrow-minded Shayardene nationalism”, so far I’ve seen mostly scared Shayardenes and Wiends fearful that if they don’t do what their oppressive masters from Karagond demand they will lose everything they have left. The truly bigoted will get sidelined to minimize the damage they are capable of doing.
Not a bad idea if you have a large pool of trusted and competent administrators who know those areas to rule them. As I mentioned previously, I’m already planning on partitioning Karagond myself. Given your plan to pretty much topple all of the pillars of the state, you may find it difficult to find sufficient administrators to carry out the partitioning you intend…
[quote=“idonotlikeusernames, post:7674, topic:1601, full:true”][quote=“P_Tigras, post:7668, topic:1601”]
there is still the Halassurq Empire as a threat to justify maintaining the union.
[/quote]
A distasteful if expedient tactic, though in case it is necessary, my mc would focus more on denouncing certain “barbaric” Hallasurq practices, chief among them their use and tolerance of slavery than outright demonizing every person from Hallasur. After all, for all their difference, my mc would still have much more in common with (former) Hallasurq slaves then he would with nobles from his own “homeland” of Shayard.
In the end my mc would rather that the new state be based on a more positive vision then the constant threat of war to unify it and keep it together.[/quote]
Without an outside threat, or a cultural glue like nationalism to bind them together, people will resist ceding local power to a distant, faceless bureaucrat. Just look at the conundrum that the European Union faces in maintaining its current power, let alone increasing it.
[quote=“idonotlikeusernames, post:7674, topic:1601, full:true”][quote=“P_Tigras, post:7668, topic:1601”]
Valuing your nation’s cultural heritage and language does not have to mean supporting Brown Shirts.
[/quote]
True, although in the helot’s case they don’t know all that much about it to begin with and my mc certainly isn’t set on re-educating them in the old Shayardene values, some of the nobles and yeoman are a different story of course, but they’re not really in the majority here and my mc will find a way to bring them around.
In any case my mc personally does not value Shayard’s cultural heritage all that much since what he knows of it seems to consist of it being the birthplace of the Xthonic religion, the very thing he is fighting against and the old monarchy, which is a system he has absolutely no desire to see return. [/quote]
Whereas my helot has heard that there were no helots in old Shayard and the Xthonic scriptures that justify harrowing were added by Karagond’s Thaumatarchy. So he places the blame for helot oppression squarely on Karagond. Oppressive Shayardene nobles and ecclesiasts are a secondary evil in comparison. The head must be cut off the serpent, and the head is Karagond’s Thaumatarch along with his chief minions which includes but is not limited to his fake-Eclect theurges and the top levels of the church and nobility.
[quote=“idonotlikeusernames, post:7674, topic:1601, full:true”][quote=“P_Tigras, post:7668, topic:1601”]
then it would be much better to have the depradations of war with Halassur occur in Errets which is more easily defensible, or even better yet, in Halassur, than in Shayard. It’s also better to fight Halassur with allies, than by ourselves.
[/quote]
I’m not so certain, after all my mc would likely eventually want to make parts of Erreza (Avezia and its surroundings) into his own capital, their mineral resources are absolutely vital for an industrial(ising) economy and lastly it contains the entirety if his proposed canal zone. I think for my mc Erezza may well become the most important zone and the core of his new state. So winning them over would be doubly important and if that means repudiating the current, narrow-minded and highly monarchical and religious Shayardene strain of nationalism, then so be it. [/quote]
Given that Erezza is on the border with Halassur, and lies between Halassur and the rest of the Hegemony, any territory you surrendered to Halassur as part of a peace deal would be in Erezza, and giving up the easily defensible mountain passes sounds most unwise. Perhaps there is some land on the far side of the mountain passes that could be traded away without compromising Erezza’s defense, but I’m reluctant to give something tangible (land) away for something ephemeral and easily abrogated (peace) by the other side, when there is no way to enforce the agreement. Every mile of Erezzan territory you give away brings the Halassurq Empire’s troops one mile closer to your capital in Erezza, and allowing them onto our side of the mountains screams weakness and reeks of disaster. There’s also the issue that ceding territory is politically very costly, and is likely to destabilize your grip on power.
[quote=“idonotlikeusernames, post:7674, topic:1601, full:true”][quote=“P_Tigras, post:7668, topic:1601”]
It’s also better to fight Halassur with allies, than by ourselves.
[/quote]
Far better would be to make sure we somehow don’t have to fight them at all, which is why my mc would be willing to agree to minor border adjustments in their favour and let them claim “victory” over the Hegemony.
If my mc wants to use the threat of Hallasur at all it will chiefly be in pointing out that the so-called Laconniers are nothing but Hallasurq stooges who seek to oppress the (former) helots and yeoman of Shayard in much the same way the Hegemony did.
[/quote]
“Minor border adjustments” are a possibility if they truly are minor and don’t give away important defenses. Again, sizeable cessions of territory are likely to be politically costly for you, especially if you’re putting your capital in the same province that’s ceding territory, ie. Erezza.
I expect all the fortresses are close to the border. A minor border adjustment might make holding it at all in the future an impossibility.
Our mc’s see a different serpent then, sure my mc loathes the Thuamatarch, but his real enemy is the caste system and the organised Xthonic religion and culture supporting it, without toppling that the new “kings” of Shayard would just become Thaumatarch lite’s at best.
Plus all of the oppression he has personally experienced came from Shayardene nobles.
Besides my helot is smart enough to know you don’t need to call slaves helots in order to have some. It did have that monarchy and a system of nobility which he’s very keen on not bringing back.
True the old kingdom apparently had very little slaves if it had any at all, but that was likely mainly due to its economic system relying extensively on smallholder farmers and making slavery non-viable economically. that medieval economic system no longer exists however and it likely wouldn’t be possible to revive it, nor does my mc desire to since it would mean giving up industrialisation and reverting to a pastoral economy.
As for the Xthonic religion my mc already suspects the old codex did support or at least not prohibit slavery, so he’s not eager to base his new order on it.
As is fighting a war without a regular army. Without peace the best my mc could do would be to pin them down in an endless guerilla quagmire in the mountains, which means fighting on our territory anyway, since he won’t have an army capable of sustaining any sort of large scale offensive into Hallasur and if Hallasur is a desensitized to human losses as the Hegemony on account of their slave based society a couple of special forces raids to cause a bit of mayhem won’t be enough to make them back off. Of course should my mc be able to learn how to control real Xaos-sorcery, that might give them pause.
The only thing my mc could offer them instead of land or a white peace (would be great if they did go for that, but somehow I suspect it won’t be that easy) would be mountains of decadent crap the new state no longer has any use for, but I don’t know if that would be enough to do it.
True, on the other hand to defeat the Karagonds we’ll need some sort of peace with Hallasur, or we’d just be trading one oppressive overlord for another anyway. Without some sort of peace with Hallasur there very likely is no future to be worried about in any case.
I presume a “peace” like South Korea’s would be possible, but that would probably require making some compromises with the Hegemonic military (at least on the Halassur front).
Which would be good enough for my mc at least for the first couple of decades anyway, however I don’t think there is much room for compromising with any of the officers of the existing Hegemony military, since they want slaves to lord over, noble titles and fancy uniforms and probably lots of horse creatures as well, all things my mc dislikes intensely and the first and second points on that list would be absolute dealbreakers since the nobility and slavery will both be abolished, those are core tenets for my mc from which no deviation is possible.
That’s the dilemma of course… Got to pick a lesser evil. If they are all equally evil then Halassur has an Operation Barbarossa with your name on it!
Still letting anybody keep slaves will not be an option, that is the very thing my mc will be fighting against. Particularly since if he doesn’t overthrow the caste system he’ll still be at the bottom of it, since he would be most unwilling to fake a supposedly “noble” ancestor or acknowledge a real one.
I think your character will end with same system it is now just inverted. The now helots becoming nobles. I have a rusia revolution from your grumpy horses.
Mara would destroy culture and create sort of Medieval times. Because I will destroy harrowing and wards.
Considering how much my mc loathes the very idea of “nobility” I don’t think so. He’d never accept any sort of “noble” title himself and he really does mean to abolish slavery.
I don’t doubt your character believe so. But your companions and men Will want riches and power. They won’t want return to a mere middle class situation. They want power and possessions. So many revolutions staring as ideological movements of freedom. And then Became the terror regime.
Are kidding??? Human nature will be nothing in the light of idonot MC’s ideological purity!
I think he will end alone surrounding by horses. He doesn’t like sports, fancy clothing and basically nothing fun. People would die of boredom or in re educational camps.
Building the People’s Shayard, on top of a pile of bones
Until he eats them 
Well, one has to keep one’s new country nice and tidy.
And stacking them all in a pyramid shows an orderly mind, one untouched by Xaos
“The Angels may choose as They will, however shocking Their choice. And I do not believe They will suffer the flawed Order of the Thaumatarch for ever. Already, They are calling Their Eclectoi, the Chosen Ones who will set the world to rights.” He gestures at you. “In so dire a situation, should it be a surprise that among Their Chosen is one furthest from the corruptions of power – one who threatens the Hegemony with force?”
That should be forever.
It is helpful not to send scouts to find a vulnerable Alastor garrison until the week of raiding a temple the first time but after the temple raid, because then scouts can also immediately be sent to find another temple as opposed to waiting to find another temple till the week after.
*label banditwealth
*if arms > followers
*set armsfoll followers
*if tick = 3
*page_break
*gosub morale_check
Your current wealth amounts to ${wealth} silver drachems.
*set tick 3
*choice
*if (ale = 0)
*selectable_if (wealth >= followers) #Buy ale, beef, and cheese for a grand feast to celebrate our survival. (${followers} silver)
*set ale 1
*set wealth -10
*set morale +15
*label partytime
*if ale = 1
After a whole winter living on scratchings and tightly rationed barley bread, your band erupts in incredulous laughter and cheers when you unveil the food and ale and declare a feast to celebrate the coming of spring. You've also got
*if ale = 2
Though there's not enough food for anything you'd call a feast, there are
two small casks of Hetten Halt-Hand's sour barley and aconite beer, which probably won't kill you once you've skimmed the barm off.
The text claims it deducts 1 drachem per surviving member of the Band for a feast but the source code appears to only deduct 10 drachems for the feast no matter how many people are still alive.
Just out of curiosity, I tried a few playthroughs where my MC did not risk stopping the Fourth Harrowing and so ended up with a small Band and I noticed even that MC still got Joanna Orchard in the Band. If it is not a bug, then Joanna Orchard’s presence might need some explanation for that kind of playthrough.
My MCs would want to free the people of Halassur as well as those of the Hegemony so long-term peace with the Empire of Halassur is not likely nor would my MCs find it desirable to permanently tolerate Halassur’s crimes against its own people. However, defeating the Hegemony preferably comes first and my MCs would prefer not to risk war with Halassur before they thought they would win without destroying their new state.
Until that time and for the duration of the rebellion against the Hegemony, my MCs would be willing to ignore Halassur and would even consider a temporary alliance against the Hegemony depending on the terms. A temporary alliance between my MCs’ rebellions and the Empire of Halassur would in my opinion be similar to the temporary alliance of the western democracies with the Soviet Union during World War II. My MCs would prefer to offer economic concessions along the lines of reduced tariffs for Halassur and a de-militarization of the Hegemony-Halassur border. Reduced tariffs or something similar that offers Halassur ongoing benefits would also provide an ongoing incentive for Halassur to not attack the rebels. Rebuilding the liberated former Hegemony might take a long time so peace with Halassur could last quite a while.
When talking with Horion and asked about how much conditions for the helotry will change if the rebellion succeeds, a noble MC has the choice to talk about giving each helot family a few acres while a helot MC specifically says each helot family would be given 6 acres. That number seems both overly specific and unsupported by facts in the sense that the MC does not seem sufficiently informed to know whether that is too much to the point of being impossible or too little. So I suggest both should use the wording of “a few acres”.
When discussing Horion’s Xaos lands memories, a skeptical MC has the choice to say:
“Xthonos. We can’t risk those Wards coming down.”
A skeptical MC is supposed to swear by Rhupos not Xthonos.
I played as a helot, married Brenden and a member of the rebellion killed him but when everyone gathered at the end to send me off Brenden was alive 
How did you manage to convince the band to follow you?