Not for a while, I’m afraid. I have a much clearer picture of gameworld dynamics outside the Rim than I did a year ago, having thrown many (many) more hours into my research, maps, notes, and spreadsheets in preparation for writing the rest of the series… but that’s only confirmed that Grand Shayard and the other provinces will come into clearer focus for me as I write them, and not before. For now, I’m not ready to make commitments about what may be possible for a high-INT character by G5.
There will be a lot more about the Syntechnia and its many branches in the chapters I’m writing now. I’m going to hold off for now on answering questions about it and see what you all think when the draft chapters come out.
But lest I leave you all completely unsatisfied, let me give some grist for future imperial planning. I’ve said a few times before that the Hegemony has nothing resembling a central blood budget, and your MC will never know the following with any precision…but here are my (subject to change, but grounded in a detailed gameworld model that has been holding together in a way I’m pretty happy with) rough percentages of where the blood goes under the current Thaumatarch.
- 37% - staple agriculture. (Extra harvests; rain/deep-well irrigation; post-harvest prep; transport around the Hegemony, mostly to big grain-deficit areas like Karagon, lowland Wiendrj, central Nyryal, the lower Southriding, and the contested region on the Erezza-Halassur border)
- 23% - non-Plektosis military expenditure. (Troop transport, battlefield healing, attack.)
- 14% - infrastructure. (The river-canal transport system, above all, but also major roads, bridges, flood control, etc.)
- 9% - major techne-driven industry. (Especially iron, steel, and textiles, including both production and transport.)
- 6% - Harrowers. (Operating them and getting the mobile ones around the districts.)
- 5% - specialist Theurgic units. (Including the Kryptasts, but also the flying messengers, public health and fire brigade)
- 4% - the Wards (Border and City) and the Floating Palace
- 1% - Plektoi. (Making them and sustaining them.)
- < 1% - the small amount of discretionary aetherial blood that individual Theurges are allowed to use for other purposes.
The relatively low percentage going to the Wards and Floating Palace will come as a huge and unwelcome surprise to the MC (and indeed to Cerlota) when they find out about it in G3/G4, as I’m sure it will to many readers who had been counting on that to ease more of the transition to a post-blood economy.
And ADAT, @stsword joined the conversation over on the WIP thread.