(4/5)
What sort of investment to the Seracca have in defending these trade routes? They seem pretty valuable, exporting luxury goods (most of which are inedible) and importing grain, but what we’ve learned about the Seracca so far doesn’t exactly suggest a naval tradition. Maybe some whale-Seracca? Seal-Seracca? Shark-Seracca? Speaking of sharks, this is the energy I’m sensing from what we’ve heard about Laj-jas.
That said, the world of the Hegemony doesn’t seem well-primed for much naval action in the first place. The central conflict is on one continent, and between the Wards and Theurges with their, ah, ability to rain down sulfuric fire on their enemies, naval military technology has probably been inhibited for centuries. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Theurges have developed their own version of Greek fire to wield against the Halassurqs and Corsairs. It does make me wonder if we’ll see a paradigm shift should the Halassurq Ward fall at some point…
…and if we’ll see other means of wielding water as a weapon against the Thaumatarchy. Uprising already had a small-scale dam breach operation, after all. As for the extensive canal system — who’s to say that grain and other trade goods should be the only things on those waterways? These canals link the continent, and when the speed of power projection matters, well; I’d be eyeing those barges as a huge logistical edge to whoever can control them.
The Seracca have been on my mind for a while but this is the catalyst right here.
I’m with @apple that, based on what we’ve seen and been told so far, the Seracca Federation is the unequivocal best state and most promising ally for our rebellion. At the same time, we haven’t really had the chance in-game to meaningfully criticize them (not that doing so to M’kyar’s face would accomplish anything); in part, because our protagonists are only just now becoming situated to the geopolitical perspective of the Federation. But as we peel back the nuances and meet more Seracca with their own views of the world, I hope we’ll get opportunities to call them to account.
At the end of the day, the Seracca strike me as, in part, inspired by high fantasy wood elves. This is not the whole of their identity, but the parallels add up. They’re a people of magic, long-lived with an even longer history that predates all contemporary civilizations, geopolitically neutral by choice. For a stretch, they may be named (Doylist) after the Saraca genus of plants, which notably include ashoka trees, sacred and mythologically significant. Though what’s not in question is that they live in the jungle, amidst nature. And I bring this up because they inherit many of the flaws that come with this aesthetic.
The Seracca Federation is a nation of privilege that has chosen to stand by and do nothing about the injustices beyond its borders. They refuse asylum and demand those they catch fleeing across the Ward to choose between Xaos or the Harrower. M’kyar claims the Seracca have nothing to fear from the Thaumatarchy’s forces, but to date they’ve stayed in the shadows, talking about injustice but doing barely above the minimum to help those who suffer because of it.
How many people could they have saved if they’d opened the doors of their paradise? If they’d granted safe haven to fleeing helots, how many might have been spared the Harrower or the Xaos-storms? If they’d fought to nip the Thaumatarchy in the bud, before the Wards went up, how differently might history have played out? Their inaction has fed the injustices of the world, and what little they’re doing now is no redemption. Of course there were reasons why they refused to take a stand, but for them to say that they rage at the Thaumatarch’s crimes against humanity on one hand and idle away trading luxury goods to the Hegemonic elite on the other reeks of societal hypocrisy.
And the worst part is that this might genuinely be for the better, because if one day the Seracca turn towards militarism and interventionism; well, that might not bode well for whatever new order our rebellion seeks to create.
(5/5)
A detail I haven’t seen mentioned yet regarding Yebben is that in the story, his inspiration is Salareo of Aveche, Mage-Bane, the Blind Theurge. As our protagonist speculates, “Whatever he learned, it’s presumably taught in the Lykeion of Aekos these days.” — potentially noteworthy, should those hypothetical teachings be helpful for the illiterate as well as the blind. But that’s not where the power lies.
Salareo proved it was possible, and Yebben saw himself in that story. Once the world sees a helot mage — once people break free of the lie that a helot could only acquire such power through dark pacts with Xaos — that’s when we might see more of that overlooked aptitude awaken on its own, for our institutions to find and nurture.
That’s the Bookend we’ve been waiting for. “Chapter 2: The Outlaws of Whendward” — struggling to not starve in the woods, buying barley off a small clique of shady merchants. “Chapter Whatever: Things Are Going Just Great, We Promise” — now you hold life and death in your hands. What’s even more fun is if our grain stores are the ones being attacked by armed bands trying to feed themselves (and their families?). I surely couldn’t imagine what it’d look like from their perspective…
That said, this train of thought has given me new appreciation for another potential gastronomic throughline: poaching. All those aristos with their forests full of game, primed for hunting. Sure, it’s not exactly sustainable to empty those woods, but people gotta eat. And if even the ‘compassionate’ aristos like de Firiac insist on executing every last one of the people who dare become poachers amidst a burgeoning agricultural crisis; well, that seems like a recipe for class war.
“My forebears might have held their land since Calebre, for all I know. Didn’t keep the aristos from whittling it down to nothing, backed up by Alastors at every step. Now it sits with one lord or another. Whose rights are we going to see restored when the Karagonds are beaten?”
— Alira Bowyer
The more I hear about Wiendrj, the more perfect a place it seems to be home base for a rebellion, and our presence along the Whendward Pass seems to be no coincidence in that regard. It took Hera thirty years to conquer the highlands, longer than it took to take all of Shayard. And should Wiendrj break free, I get the sense the Thaumatarchy would first have far greater worries in preserving Shayard and Erezza.
One day, those Wiendish Phalangites are going to have to make a choice between their masters and their homeland, and every single defector is a soldier trained by the Hegemony, one who knows their tactics and habits. What Wiendrj needs is an alliance with a nearby agricultural power to counteract post-Theurgic famine; our rebellion is primed to fill that role. With that, it seems eminently feasible to enact a turtle strategy and dare any imperial heir to try attacking. Especially if the Great Powers that emerge from the wreckage of the Thaumatarchy form an uneasy balance of power in the immediate aftermath, too preoccupied with guarding their flanks against each other’s imperial ambitions.
That is, of course, assuming that Wiendrj survives as a unitary political entity in the absence of the Hegemony; that’s easier said than done.
Shayard isn’t really a poor backwards backwater right now, and I’m doubtful that it will become one just because of industrial technology. As it stands, Shayard is home to the second- and third-largest cities in the Hegemony, with all the administrative, academic, and technological baggage that brings. In comparison to a place like Erezza, it may seem short on mineral resources, but it’s not devoid of them or the ability to access them. Steel and alchemical materials are major trade goods that Outer Rim merchants and nobility can obtain; there are merchants like Gorbel who focus on these goods and wildland miners who extract them. And what Shayard’s agriculture offers is a means to sustain a larger population, and to produce a surplus of valuable goods for trade.
Erezza is also hardly Siberia. It’s a fully-fledged state with technological parity while possessing a far more battle-tested military tradition. And good luck with the terrain. If ‘Golden Age’ Shayard couldn’t conquer Erezza in its city-states era, in my opinion it alone stands little chance of doing so now — unless it calls on Halassur. A two-front war with what may be the continent’s only superpower on the other end would probably stand a decent chance at subjugating Erezza, with the, uh, caveat that:
I just don’t see a good path forward that embraces both Shayardene irredentism and successful anti-Halassurq resistance. It just seems like more trouble than it’s worth compared to an imperial-scale approach that treats Erezza as an equal partner rather than a resource mine for the metropole’s industrialization. Choosing to forego political power in Erezza doesn’t preclude forging closer trade and security ties.
Also, this shouldn’t need saying, but colonies: bad. Let’s not have that blood on the hands of our post-revolutionary state.
I disagree, but I can see where you’re coming from. It’s important to remember that Hera’s innovation, the alchemical process to extract useable aether from other people, is more an academic and technological achievement than any singular grand act of magic itself — and that’s something often built on the shoulder of giants and the vibrant collaboration between minds. Aetherial blood production in bulk demands a state apparatus to do so, and without that, even the most brilliant of Theurges is limited. For something like the Wards, it still takes labor to lay the stones. To conquer anything, Hera needed armies who’d fight for her. She needed priests to spread her new divine word. Those traditions preceded her, and she likely emerged through those traditions.
Karagon was already a slave society before Hera; her actions codified it further, but had aetherial blood been first discovered elsewhere, the society that would emerge would likely still be horrible, but in different ways. Take Halassur: distinct gender roles were already normative in their society, and their method of harnessing aetherial blood reflected that. The world Hera created was born out of the world she inhabited, in a way that transcends the personality of “Hera” herself. From this perspective, Hera herself is rendered almost insignificant; or rather, the Order of Hera and the Order of Karagon become one and the same.
This can be interpreted through great man theory: the world (the Hegemony) now reflects Hera’s desires — supposedly — and it was her actions that made this happen.
Or we can say that the Hegemony is the world Karagon created, because they developed a technological edge and successfully wielded that to defeat their rivals. And we don’t know enough about how aetherial blood was discovered to say whether Hera was indispensable. Had it not been her, would it have been someone else?
Hera is a myth; she’s the founder, the figure who was made to define the era to come. I’d argue we’re a shadow of Hera’s myth, and like her the torch-bearer for a new world. That Hera is, in effect, a 6-6-6 stat character: the genius alchemist, the great conqueror, the reformer of religions. Too good to be real, really. Maybe she really was just That Good; and she was undoubtedly a genius for what she accomplished. But it seems far more likely to me that she was lionised by history (and propaganda) as a symbol of the Thaumatarchy itself.
There is one concession I’ll give to great man theory, though: gender equality. That’s one of the few areas where I think we can see the Hera behind the mask of rulership, because that’s “one of the Angelic truths that Thaumatarch Hera was Chosen to bring” — a change she brought herself through the power she wielded. And ironically it’s the only good thing to have come out of the Hegemony.