This is clearly the Power Of Love. Not a bug. 
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To stand and defend? Well, I do not know the exact modifiers but being the Eclect helps a lot (Your supporters go full Deus Vult). I also think that only letting certain people speak before the Moot helps a bit. So only let Radmar speak, silence everyone else. High morale is important too.
And apparently if your band of rebels is completely undemocratic they will accept your decision easier, but I think I went with a fully democratic band that time.
But yeah, I would say that being Eclect is what helps the most.
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I think mine would agree with that sentiment, however it would take decades of rebuilding at the very least I would think to be able to truly stand up to Hallasur and my mc would need to eradicate the vestiges of the Hegemony’s caste system and rebuild the country first before engaging in any more foreign adventures.
I don’t know Mao did succeed to some extent while he was alive after all.
Where did you get that, I think I was only ever specific in that my mc doesn’t like that pygmarchy thing for nobles as far as sports go, and you can assume he also doesn’t like any involving horses, as for the rest I don’t he’s ever considered it. He probably won’t mind the rest if so long as they’re not overly decadent and he doesn’t have to compete in them himself.
To truly transform away from the Hegemony’s system into a truly new world order will require some sacrifices, yes, it always has.
I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss middle class living, since most of my mc’s compatriots literally came out of the dirt, I mean helots aren’t even allowed to have real doors in their shacks and hovels, so middle class would be a huge rise in their living standards.
The real dilemma always comes back to the caste system and I don’t think my mc trusts any of the current officers, particularly the really senior ones such as generals, since to get to their positions under the Hegemony they would have needed to be extremely brutal slavers. Plus they are all indoctrinated by the Xthonic religion and its caste system to see helots as sub-human filth so my mc would rightly question their loyalty, devotion and willingness to obey his orders. Maybe some of them could be kept in line in the short to mid-term by making their children guests of the new state, but that’s an awfully big gamble.
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Let people experience power and authority and they will continue to desire have more power is a drug. Is a historical force the oppressed fight for freedom and end becoming new oppresors. So not being caught in same dynamic would be difficult.
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I never said it would be easy but his and his compatriots extremely low living standards at the beginning should make it a bit easier, if played right.
I know it is beyond the scope of Choice of Rebels, but I know I have a fanfic piece or two along these lines.
I mean, could you imagine Suzanne de Firiac’s reaction if she overheard you tell Horion that planned on breaking up the Great Estates, and giving helot a parcel of land. I know de Firiac would probably be aghast to think she had a hand in dismantling noble privilege
Or even better, if she overheard you say that you planned to put nobles into the Harrower…
Of course, a sane person would be like “why are you spilling all your secrets out to Horion?”
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Yep, poor cute Simon, nevertheless that’s what he signed on for now. 
Well my mc doesn’t intent to Harrow anybody, not even former slavers.
Either gameplay and story separation or Horion is just that persuasive.
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I have the difficult of being a peaceful rebel and obtain control of army. I need the army to kill the overpopulation. I will banish all blood magic except blood banks with volunteers donation as healthcare system. No wards no magic no flying cities. So I suppose famine will kill like a 1/4 population.
Mara thinks is necessary to broken the circle of blood. and all need of Harrowings . A new technology has to born that doesn’t need killing people as fuel.
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And what would be interesting is if there was a helot NPC or two, who upon joining the MC’s band in the woods, would actually see that living a subsistence diet, with the cold/etc. around them, being on the lookout from Theurges…as still being a step up from their old home.
I think Kalt does already, of course my mc himself too. Radmar and his lover might be others who feel that way too.
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So you’ll need to do something like this?
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@idonotlikeusernames, it is always fun to read what your MC would do, if given a chance since I find myself following along the same path as well, though from a noble MC perspective.
After all, the game makes pretty clear that an MC noble grew up without any friends, a father who might have praised her the number of times you can count on one hand all her life…been influenced by her mother who exhorted her for kindness…
In my head canon, I can see her joining up with the helots because this would be the first time she had actual friends…or the closest thing to it. I figure that would be the main reason she would rebel…and she would realize the system as it stands has to go as well.
And it isn’t that she is against helots being raised up as it were…since my MC is an Int 2 person, she would have taught them how to read.
Heck, I figure she would be rather close to Pilyin and Alless. If noble Houses do have to survive…she would be tempted to see if they wished to join her House.
Of course, I also figure my MC doesn’t see herself as a noble. After all, Calea and Hector considered her little better than a merchant, and after the blow up in the forest, when her father disowned her…she might insist on dropping the de Erament name.
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Yes, most likely, though the Soviet Union is probably not the best parallel. The closest historical analogy would probably be if India, with its caste system (that is still not quite as oppressive as the Xthonic one) had gone full communist and somehow kicked out the Brits in the late 19th or early 20th century too. Seeing how Indian Communist leaders would have dealt with the caste system when in power would sure have been useful for inspiration for my mc.
India still being caste system and in many parts oppressive one.
Well even if you don’t imagine it is a good parallel I think it’s worth noting the Great Purge has a direct correlation to the Red Army being steam rolled in Barbarossa. It was only after Stalin reinstated the officers he hadn’t killed and the Germans faced the realities of some of their own nincompoopery that fortunes reversed.
I don’t think Halassur is going to see anything but an opportunity to pounce on a wounded enemy once the Hegemony starts to crumble.
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Although that does kind of beg the question of just how stable is Halassur themselves.
I could be misremembering, but at least from what I gleaned in Choice of Rebels itself, most hostilities between the Thaumaturchy and Halassur was initiated by the Thaumaturchy itself. This would seem to me that Halassur is on the weaker end.
Don’t get me wrong, I can see them trying to take choice bits of territory, especially when a whole region is in rebellion…but considering they are a slave owning society, and if their own slaves heard “Psst…our counterparts a country over are staging a successful rebellion…why not do the same?”…they may bite off more than they can chew.
After all, troops, etc. sent to conquer/pacify new territory is also troops they don’t have in their homeland.
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Yes, it most certainly is, therefore it would have been interesting to see how their Communists who called for the abolition of their caste system would have gone about it, had they actually come into power no later then the mid 20th century.
It did, however officers who refuse to obey any orders from a former helot won’t help my mc any either.
First a minor correction. When de Firiiac says this:
"sister… I grieve for your arm, but not half so much
The name/title (Sister/Brother) should be capitalized.
And with the following, I know I mentioned it as a possibility before, but I gave a little more thought on it. Of course, it is only a suggestion, and I won’t mention it again.
As you know, if you decided to fight the Phalangites, Zvad obviously runs off (unless you are a Charismatic Eclect)
And if you choose Elery to be your new second, you roughly wrote how she stares at you with hatred in her eyes, and she damns you and Zvad.
If you successfully beat the Phalangites, you might add a few lines where she might begrudgingly admit to the MC they were right. Sort of on the page where you have:
The celebration lasts two nights – a short time for such a monumental and unlikely triumph.
I could see a line or two making it. I understand you can’t do that for every NPC, but since she has some special dialogue expressing her hate of the idea…I think some rejoinder might be nice for people who notice it in the writing.
Anyways, just a minor thought, and may not be worth the effort
The reason why the Hegemony is the initiator of most of the hostilities is because it’s the one with the giant theurgic wall powered by harrowed helots. Apparently every so often the Hegemony temporarily takes down the wall to start a war, but it doesn’t fight to win, no, it sends the free-born young folk, especially the noble youth of its conquered provinces to die. The Halassurq War is a killing ground meant to sap the occupied provinces of their strength so they don’t rebel against Karagond. As soon as enough Shayardene, Nereish and Whendish young people have been slaughtered, Karagond puts the wall back up. It makes me wonder if the Hegemony is even capable of beating Halassur on the field any more without the crutch that is its dependence on massive amounts of blood, a luxury that we very likely will no longer have once harrowings are ended.
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Might be some fortresses sitting on gates in the ward rather than having to put up and take it down.
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