Mara wants to use poison? I’m shocked.
Assuming the moral implications don’t bother you, well…We kind of need that food and water, don’t we? Our rebellion (mostly) lives off whatever we can steal or forage. We don’t exactly have suppliers yet, at least none that would continue to support us if we started killing indiscriminately.
To bring down the ward would require you to kill the Theurge holding it up right? This can not possibly be all that easy lol. I also imagine there are other Theurges in the city capable of bringing it back up so the only way I can see this as being possible would be to destory their Aetherial blood cache but if I am a no good Goete I wouldn’t want to destory it as much as “Liberate” it lol.
I’ve got my money that taking any city with a ward turning out like the liberation of Paris during WW II. A massive logistical headache, was not done for strategic or tactical benefits, and lots of post liberation political tensions with the former resistance.
I’d be delighted to hear name suggestions from anyone – I don’t promise to use them, but fire away if you’ve got a good one!
What do folks think of Karagond Hegemony as a replacement for Empire? Not a direct equivalent, of course, but Greek-derived rather than Latin, and still connotes some of the same stuff in English.
@WulfyK, Harrowing doesn’t involve nudity, but quartering (as you point out) would. The Karagond Hegemony doesn’t have our double standards about male and female unchastity/nudity – it’s equally shameful for either sex.
Rescuing Ester’s remains from the Bonetree is a terrific plot, but we really are much too late… decades after the authorities moved from “behold the awful price of treason” to “right, point made – now never speak of this again.” I introduced the Bonetree with just such a rescue-the-remains plot in mind, but it’s likely to involve someone rather closer to you.
The “great siege” of this series is indeed planned for Aekos, as you’ll pretty much have to be at that level before siege tactics make sense for your rebellion. That doesn’t mean that taking Shayard City will be over quickly, though – it’s a significant milestone.
Your initial (currently offscreen) meeting with Zvad and the bandits really wasn’t very interesting – it’s pretty much what’s described a few clicks into Ch 2. There’s not more info to make your choice of deputy on. And the problem with yeoman barns is that there are lots of little, scattered ones – the scale doesn’t make sense for the kind of raid and loot you need.
@Rebelmaiden: alas! 
I understand the appeal of that plot; but it just doesn’t fit Breden’s personality.
@jcury, the only way an aristo ends up leading the helot revolt is if you start it; and even having started it, you’re trusted less than a helot leader and have more opportunities to lose that trust.
@Protagonist, everyone’s a product of oppression if you dig down a layer or two. The regional identity is pretty much dead as such–but if you don’t want to revive the noble-royal system, you’ll be drawing on regional memories, stronger in the west, of the Moots and Things that preceded the formal monarchy.
As to the Empire/Basileia thing, could you compromise and call it maybe a Despotaton or Tyranny, perhaps? It keeps things greek in origin and also pretty clearly conveys the sort of government we’re looking at in English… though, perhaps the English versions of those formerly relatively benign words is now a bit too harsh for one to consider putting that into action, even if they’re well deserved in the pejorative sense.
The problem is that Despotates were a good deal lower ranking as I understand it than the equivalent of empire and as for a Tyranny, well… it’s hard to find many old greek states that were actually called that since apparently the term applied more to a ruler?
I guess there’s also Hegemony (Igemonia?), and whatever you might call something led by one of those strategos autokrator folks… uh, maybe I should just shut up and let the people who know their Hellenistic stuff do the talking here?
Well I think you know more than me… I just learned more about Greece right there than all my history classes so far have taught me
I feel like its enemies would definitely call it a Tyranny, but would it call itself that? :). I’d thought that even in the ancient world there was some stigma around the term.
I’ve already got a word for the form of government: Thaumatarchy, rule by the wonder-workers (ie Theurges). But “empire” is convenient as a term that both implies a certain type of rule and geographically describes Karagon plus its vassal states. The only Greek-derived equivalent I was able to think of was Hegemony. (Edit: besides of course basileia)
I think hegemony/igemonia is the best term, the readers will understand it. The full official name may be the Thaumatarchical Hegemony of Karagond
Does “no double standards about male and female unchastity/nudity” mean that the men also never go shirtless in Karagond, even if toiling in the summer heat? I definitely want to know more on their clothing.
So someone of my fellow rebels is going to be harrowed and quartered? :(( I hope there will be a way to save them before. Maybe slow harrowing will allow me to interrupt it mid-process and save the poor fellow.
I can think of many ways to take Shayard City. A Charismatic MC with the right connections should be able to trigger an uprising in the city, and an educated one might read an old book or map telling of a forgotten abandoned tunnel. sufficient knowledge of theurgy might allow the MC to create a hole in the ward, and combat fighter might get smuggled into the city with a small team and take out the theurges destroying the ward this way.
One thing with Zvad is, that if I chase Breden away, he becomes XO without any alternative. I guess a paranoid MC may prefer to appoint Elery (if she’s still alive) or Radmar instead of someone they’ve just met, unless he has done something to impress them.
If yeoman barns are too scattered for a raid, it should be explained in the game itself. And i still think that an option to raid them should be in: it would just require more bandits and result in less output, but wouldn’t affect the MC’s realtionship to neither the helots nor the nobles.
One more flaw: Yebben Skinne is introduced as Elery’s blind twin only in the story on Sarcifer, but not in the other two tales. He’s mentioned later at the harrowing implying the reader knows who he is, therefore he should be better introduced, no matter which of the stories the MC remembers.
And one more thing: Alastors usually carry clubs, but Gellard has a sword. Is this 'cause he’s the captain or is he a master swordsman? Anyway, I hope the MC will meet him agian and defeat him. In Shayard City perhaps, as a mid-chapter boss?
I think this game will be rather like the advanced “command/leadership” courses in both fiction and real-life that sometimes you just can’t save everybody and having to accept that fact is likely true in this game as well.
If I had to take a guess, then knowing @Havenstone it’s likely that you could save the member of your team being quartered though we’d probably have to give up some other course of action that would actually help the Rebellion more in exchange for it.
Speaking of Shayard City I don’t suppose we could just ignore? The way my character would see it Shayard City would mostly be useful for its Abhuman trade district, but if the rebellion has reached the districts actually bordering the Abhumans then Shayard City is no longer necessary for that purpose anymore.
Also given how actually taking Shayard City is probably the final stage in taking the whole of Shayard it would force some issues of politics and government to the fore that I would rather not have to contemplate until the Taumatarchy itself is defeated.
My character won’t have any moral issue if theys die after all they are all slaves. And about city why wont i just make tabula rasa with city? Like its a full of heretics and sinners burn it and full it with poison goodess Rage. Die to the thaumarcs!
At least is what a religious rebel cultist probably would do
OK folks – tried to fix all the outright errors that people reported, so let me know if any of them recur.
I’ve also taken a stab at replacing Empire with Hegemony… see how you think it reads.
Here’s a fresh link to the game.
Feels odd to call it a hegemony, but it’s not inaccurate I suppose.
More heresies with in the Code…x of Liturgy.
“Last night you lay awake wondering whether you would actually kill them if they didn’t take your threat seriously.” Should be laid.
You can’t sack noble homes when you are a noble, but can sack the whole town. There are parts in the code about taking what you can from your own home if are a noble. It is intended to not show up for nobles right?
Hegemony sounds off, and less evil than the strong word empire.m
I agree with Mara. Finicky realism is not, in my opinion, terribly important when you could instead go for a term that is easily synonymous with tyranny.
@WinterHawk, in these things there is no heresy. Lay is the past of lie [intransitive], which is what you were doing last night. And taking what you can from your own home isn’t a “sack” to my mind – certainly not equivalent to looting your cousins’ estates – so yes, IIRC I put that code there specifically for noble readers who might worry that their choices have somehow prevented them from taking their own stuff with them.
Your inquisitorial zeal remains much appreciated, however.
Mara and @Sneaks, appreciate the feedback, and I’m chewing over the new feel of the story. One of the advantages of “Hegemony,” to my own mind, is that it is a bit less obvious in its evil-tyrannical associations. The Karagond Thaumatarchy remains an evil system, whatever we call it; but systems generally refer to themselves using positive names (like “Imperium” back in the day), and I do want players to be tempted to try replacing the evil empire with a good empire.
@Havenstone, Ever at His Glory the Archimandrite’s service, and thank you for the wise instruction on these matters kurios. If I may advise you kurios regarding the selection of Hegemony in the Lectionary, I suggest that it remain in place during the sacraments, and for official business, but allow empire to be used by the laynoble’s and the helotry. As I am sure His Glory is aware many have been slow even to take the proper name of Acron, for their district.
If I may present my own somewhat heterodox viewpoint on the matter, kurios, allow me to suggest that I like the idea of “Karagond Thaumatarchy” as the formal name of the empire. While it might essentially be like calling a state “the Democracy of Shayard,” for example, it’s not unknown for fantasy settings to do something like that, and it’s far more exotic than either Empire or Hegemony.
I agree with @Ramidel. I think referring to it as a Thaumatarchy introduces both the exotic character you are looking for, and it accurately describes this system. My understanding is that it is an authoritarian bureaucracy of which the elite is almost entirely composed of thaumaturgists.
It also opens up the possibility of the MC creating an empire if they are not blood magic inclined.
I like Hegemony, it’s not as awkward as throwing in ‘thaumatarchy’ in everywhere and empire is a bit overplayed I think. Calling it a Hegemony seems more accurate, anyway.