That’s not true, a truly devout figure who caref would have amassed a greater piety score. That low devotion indicates that you’re more portraying yourself that way but aren’t actually that inclined to the religion yourself… which is what Hitler appears to have done, actually. Certainly a full-blown believing saint should have more than 2 points leaning to that side.
If you hate the religious types just say so earlier when the game asks you what your burning passions are, it’s not that hard.
@Golgot You think im stupid? Yeah, I did it lol I still having the devout bonus lol games just don’t track My choices my second reason to rebel was wipe non sense superstition .
Hey love this story so far. I have question how do u get the noble instead of the helot at the ending. Bc I have gone through this about 4 times doing different choices and got the noble one out four play throughs.
Thanks, Dloc! To get a noble follower, try to keep the Anarchy stat low, both in how you respond at the Harrowing and in your bandit raids.
New page, new link to the game and the draft world map.
Ok, thanks
@poison_mara You must be mixed up, then, because the code has you give the skeptical reasoning behind the raid if you’ve so much as strayed one point from the exact center towards the skeptical side, and choosing disbelief in the main religion as the second reason to rebel if you’ve done nothing else to put you towards the skeptical side will put you about 15 points or so on the skeptical side. You’re definitely not getting the 2.5 boost to the devout side that you’d have gotten had you stayed at the center by that point… heck, you can avoid that by so little as avoiding the priest in the religious introduction and doing nothing else to affect your stats until the relevant moment.
I choose the bard origin lol. You misunderstand me, I was talking about the reasons I give Breden to rebel (nobles rights, stupid religion, and oppression commerce and all provinces). I just don’t feel choose cleric origin goes for a ultranacionalist character as kuria Mara de Jade is. She is like a Robespier, doesn’t give a damn about superstitions in fact, she hates so absurd believes so the cleric origin doesn’t fit my character at all, also I love bards
Why would you want your prestigious noble child to squat in a den of alcoholism to sing songs like the helot brats? But, very well, you think those couple extra nationalist points are that important, fine. There’s still opportunity to bump up the skeptical points.
You can put in the skeptical choice in as the first (unlikely, since you said nationalism was first) or second choice for why you rebelled, which earlier you said that you did. This is way more than enough to put you in the clear. Alternatively, wait a bit later on in the plot and let the peasant rabble be harrowed as is the order of things. When Breden betrays you, say “The Angels told you to kill me? What a pathetic sham, Chirex. Stop using children’s superstitions to justify your master’s atrocities.”
Any of these options as well as the skeptical choices in the origin story where the cleric gets executed is more than enough to put you on your preferred side, provided you don’t pick any of the faithful options to cancel them out.
All right, let’s not get too judgmental about how other people read the development of their characters. 
I tried to give a reason why a noble kid would hang out in a den of alcoholism for the jongler prologue, and it’s fine for some readers to find that more plausible than others.
Mara, I try not to let your choices lock you into permanently being devout or mumbo-hating. Even if your character started off genuinely devout or skeptical, I’d want to give you the chance to change.
But it’s true that making devout choices will sometimes result in text that assumes you’re sincere, and that making skeptical choices pushes you into being overtly a-Xthonic rather than hiding it for the sake of not scaring the pious Shayardenes. I’ll try to make sure that the final game doesn’t do that.
Yes, but I choose nobles rights in chirex for role playing reasons same as I do with bard origin. I try to play as my character without metagaming (I as a player knows what’s going on and that a choice is better, but my Mc is impossible to know it so I couldn’t choose It. I don’t choose the exceptical because my character only ideal its a Shayard firm rule by a free shayardene aristocracy, she also wanted other regions freedom due economy is needed, and destroy religion no sense because destroy progress and limit knowledge. But her heart first and foremost is the desire for total control of Shayard for nobles and a total control of stupid peasants.
I only want game not to assume I’m ultra religious if I decide to destroy a temple and give a Taliban speech, I could understand my character could lie to stand the rp and not enter into a total disbelief mode but if game keep assuming things I could end having Buda instead Hitler. Due to the game tend to think
charisma = being a goody Paladin of religion
By the way, sorry to derail thread @Havenstone
I wasn’t being serious there, but that never carries over well on the internet. 
My view is that if you’re gearing every single option towards the most nationalistic stance that you can to the exclusion of all else, even for the sake of a solitary point in one category rather than the other, then your view of national independence takes such precedence that your character isn’t going to jeopardize any attempt to build up support for the freedom of the nation by introducing anti-clerical components to the rebellion that the average religious Shayardene wouldn’t care too much for. When you take every available change to express a negative opinion towards the religious component and decide that, no, the nation and control over the helots take precedence every step of the way, it shouldn’t be too surprising that in such a tough situation with such a tiny power base your character deems it prudent to at least mask temple-destroying tendencies with false piety. You’ll have plenty of time when the other parts of the game are revealed to choose more skeptical choices, or I guess skip over them to choose the national and helot-repressing ones anyway.
It’s also kind of unfair to say that charisma puts you down as a paladin on the devout side, it does nothing of the sort. If you don’t take any action to put your character down as particularly skeptical in a society where that’s not the norm in favor of other options and priorities, it’s just not going to happen. The charisma will help persuade others to your point of view at about the same regardless of whether or not you’re skeptical or devout.
Anyway, @Havenstone is the credit with the aristocracy limited to just the Shayard? Obviously for the moment they’re the only ones who would have ever heard of the main character thus far, but I’m noticing that a lot of the additions to aristocratic credibility come hand in hand with nationalistic choices and origins, which would seemingly not be the case if that extended to also all the foreign aristocracy. Will this be able to flip at some time in the future or will there be another stat added to track those folks later on?
I love the story and I was caught between a rock and a hard place when deciding on wether to be compassionate or callous and well, I ended up being nice; but when I had to choose between keeping my men healthy and remaining kind and having a low anarchy… Well, I ended up raiding and pillaging, but kept everyone I could from dying.
I love the story so far and have no critiques on it really. I have no idea if I have a high or low anarchy though. I really didn’t think supporting the freedom of all other nations would effect my nationalism so much. I was trying to play a proud Shayardene and decided it best to keep moral up by promising to free all lands, not just mine. I think here, you should be able to lie in order to keep moral up, but also keep with my story of being a proud nationalist. I’m charismatic and think I could easily pull off such a lie to their faces. Then when the time comes, cast them from my realm and take charge of the new kingdom of proud Shayardenes.
Also, I wasn’t sure how much I needed to donate to the Helots to get them to join me, so I gave them 100, was this far more than I needed to get them to look at me as “on the way to becoming a helot folk hero”? It would be nice if there was some way as to foreshadow amounts and how much it would effect their view towards you.
Here’s what I have ended with:
Valcon de Claire the Open-Handed
Status: Aristocrat
With the rebellion successfully underway, your statistics are:
Anarchy: 18
Ruthless: 38% Compassionate: 62%
Skeptical: 48% Devout: 52%
National: 56% Cosmopolitan: 44%
Charisma: 2
Combat: 0
Intellect: 1
Wealth: 122
Followers: 301
Arms: 21
Blood: 0
Mara, conversations like this are the life of the thread, not a derailing of it.
@Golgot, I’ll carry aristo cred across to other countries, but with a penalty for being too nationalist/parochial. So if you racked up your cred_a score by being kind to nobles, the Pan of Szeric and Marchesa Cynezza will look on you kindly – but if you racked it up by harping on about restoring the glories of Shayard, they’ll be less friendly.
@Sid, glad you liked it! I’ll think about that nationalism choice. And I’m not going to signpost in game how much it costs to buy helot loyalty.
@WulfyK: 6.i. Not really, no.
j. Generally, marriage requires parental consent, though children may appeal to the Ecclesiast or aristarch if they feel consent is being withheld inappropriately. According to Canon, no one may be forced to marry; so while an owner could de facto force their helots to marry, they couldn’t de jure. The wedding ceremonies and liturgies for nobles are far more elaborate than the simple vows the Diakons lead the helots in. Attitudes on cheating vary hugely.
k. The MC’s credibility with merchants reflects only the attitudes of traders, not other free non-nobles. I don’t intend to track cred with all groups.
@Sneaks, the Canon states that children born out of wedlock take on the class of the lower-class parent and live in their home, while the higher-class parent is responsible for ensuring their upkeep and wellbeing. Illegitimacy would be a shameful sign of chastity violated – but it’s also important to note that the ready availability of mullow makes conception of children out of wedlock a pretty rare occurrence.
Im the only with less 55 followers? :(( there is no way i win lol no way!!
@poison_mara Lmao. No offense, but how did you manage to get so few? Did you just have most of them die off in the Winter by not raiding more?
@Sid Nope, quite the contrary, they are fat as cows after eating triple of the food needed. If you don’t cut soon the harrowing, as I always do to get Elery killed. Breden denounces you and you are jailed a bad ass disguised noble poison your guards and free yourself. You only get the original rebels 43 I think I get ten more from my charisma and my no anarchy only 1. I don’t want many helots in my command I didn’t trust them, I’m looking for recluit nobles and merchants guild, all free people
6.j. until what age is parental consent required? And what do orphans do? Also, how does inheritance work if someone has no children? And what happens if a bastard whose parents are from the same class?
If what @Golgot said about the donation to helots is true, I consider it a bug or even cheat and strongly recomend you to fix this too.
@Sid I will answer your question so you can metagame it up on your next playthrough. 80 is the minimum donation to receive the helot adoration and nickname. Any more than that doesn’t add anything.
@poison_mara Oh! Wow, yeah I never tried to NOT stop the Harrowing. Why let good rebels die before they can help you? At least that’s what I was thinking. Lol.
@friendzone I never try to metagame my first play through, I try to play it as if I were that person. Not that I’d exactly have the courage to openly stand-up against the Hegemony… Anyway, thanks for the spoiler. Lol. 20 extra isn’t that much - at least I don’t think it is? I had like 300 some at one point so it didn’t feel like 100 was too much to give to bolster my numbers.
Next play through I’ll totally metagame and try only to make the choices I know I can pull off… Still, on the one I’m playing now I’m making like the exact opposite kind of MC than I had before. Everyone hates me. I’m trying to make this MC like everyone’s worst nightmare. He is ruthless and kills anyone in his way, trusts no one (he is a bit paranoid), and definitely hates anything to do with the Thaumatarch, Hegemony, Nobility, and well pretty much everyone but himself. In short, he’s an ass. >:)
@Havenstone What does the “Blood” stat keep track of? I figured it was how many people you’ve needlessly killed (like how much blood you had on your hands), but I guess that’s not it because I slaughter everyone who doesn’t want to join me - and then some. But, in retrospect, the needless killing probably only contributes to the Anarchy stat.
It used to be that giving more than that would get you more helot cred (though an increase over the threshold would give you I think like half as much as the same credibility as the same amount of money below the threshold) but you could also just give the minimum of 80 to get the title and continue to donate smaller piles of cash (I think 40 was most efficient?) to get much more helot cred than a single massive gift.
I also think I mentioned that this was kind of broken a while back, so it may have been fixed already.
