I don’t think I’m going to transcribe any of them into Cockney-like dialect – so pick any you like and read it as Cockney in your mind. 
Not at all. Theurgic flight is so effective (and their monopoly on flight so useful for them) that to date, no serious research program has gone toward the problem of getting people airborne by non-Theurgic means.
Maybe we’ll make balloon aviation one of the tech boosts a genuis MC can discover in the late game?
There is this passage where an INT 2 MC gets a description of what Goety means: “From childhood you’d always been told that Theurgy was a special gift of the Blessed Angels to a devout few. The Ecclesiasts darkly insisted that non-Theurges could only use magic through trafficking with Xaos-powers from the Void of Taratur.” But thanks for the suggestion, and I’ll look at it.
Thanks for checking. I think that’s working as intended. f_17 is the Sojourn faction, and you can build up a base of loyalty there in a couple different ways…but religion is the strongest.
It’s mainly for the FUP, or Free Urban Poor, though it will affect how city drudges see you too. cred_i is your rebellion’s cred in Irduin, a temp variable for this bit of Book 2.
Several! But here’s what I’ve got that’s most relevant to the question of the low social distance in Irduin:
Why are the de Irde so Minnesota Nice?
In those first days, you try to get a sense of how the de Irde ended up so friendly with their commons, and so much less protective of the dignity of the House than any other aristoi you’ve @{aristo met|heard of}. Different retainers offer different explanations, but the one that strikes you as most significant is:
*fake_choice
#Irduin’s remoteness, leaving more of its traditional folkways intact.
One evening in the Chesnery, you ask Maurs how the nobility of Irduin became so free and open with their peasantry. The innkeeper shrugs, smiling. “Always been that way, as far as I can tell. All across the Southriding moor country, folk expected their nobles to treat them like humans. Estates were small and roads were poor, so the nobles tended to spend more time in the company of their retainers and peasantry rather than other aristoi. That’s changed in some parts, as the roads have got better. But not yet in Irduin.”
You shake your head skeptically. “Much of the Rim has bad roads, but I’ve never seen anything like this there.”
“Wasn’t the Rim mostly settled after the Hegemony took over? By nobles moving in from other parts of Shayard? Hieros Ulmey could tell us.” Maurs casts about for the priest for a moment before giving up. “Anyhow, I reckon they brought their ways with them–and there were a lot more river-country than moorland nobles looking for somewhere to get a bit of land.”
#The strong emphasis the Ecclesiasts of this region place on humility and compassion.
When you remark on the de Irde’s distinctiveness to Captain Korren, the bearded Alastor chuckles. “I’d credit most of it to hieros Ulmey, and the priests who came before him. Long before the Chesnery became what it is today, the Naos Xthonos was where all Irduin came together–and every other Helsday they’d hear the Ecclesiasts declaiming from the Codex about humility.”
You shake your head skeptically. “They read those passages in the Rim, too. I’ve never seen the aristoi take it to heart like this.”
“Nor up in the Westriding. There, the priests preached humility to the commons, and magnanimity to the aristoi. But Ulmey tells me that here, in the moor uplands between the two great rivers, the local priests have always tended to bang on about the importance of humility to the aristoi.” Korren shrugs. “When they get sent to the river-country plantations, their preaching doesn’t seem to make much difference. But here it’s taken root over generations. It’s too deep in the nobles’ minds to root out easily now.”
#The generations of de Irde who’ve served alongside commoners in the Halassur war.
When you ask Bernete’s suitor, Olerot Taminatou, whether he sees any difference between the nobility of Mesniel and the de Irde, he laughs out loud. “Oh, Angels, yes. All along the Serdre, the nobles keep their commons at a dignified arms’ length–to say nothing of the helots!” There’s a note of fascinated disgust in his voice. “But lady Alasais spent more time on the Halassur front than ever she did in the high society of Shayard, as did her forebears. And she still acts like it.”
You shake your head skeptically. “Forgive me, kurios, but…haven’t most great Houses, even close to the Serdre, sent someone to the war?”
“Second or third children, ${ird_name}, not the heirs to the House, like the de Irde have for three hundred years.” Olerot gives a rueful smile. “And it’s true, many of them bring back the lesson that good order relies on shouting orders across an unbridgeable gap. But some–like my uncle Manien–befriend their common soldiers and servants, and often find they enjoy the liberty of that company more than that of their peers. If they inherit, they may try to manage their demesne with the same camaraderie they knew in Errets. The de Irde are now in the fifth or sixth generation of aristoi who’ve taken that path.”
Don’t know if any of those explanations, individually or together, helps with your suspension of disbelief.