There will have to be, won’t there? 
Something involving phoné, probably, if I can find a not-totally-ridiculous way of saying it. (“The Phoneists are now mobile!”)
I’ve noted before that there’ll be one section of Game 2 that rewards not having a 0 stat. We’ll see what you all think of that when it comes out.
Ghaesh’s conversion attempts will have much more to do with beliefs about humanity and the cosmos than anything directly to do with a deity’s existence. My reference to Dawkins was basically to a well-known proselytizer whose first name matched that of a vampire fiction writer – not to the substance of what’s being preached. (I wouldn’t want to insult Dawkins that way.) Point me to an equally famous missionary named Bram or Stephenie or Anne, and I’d update the metaphor.
Pretty radical in their intent and message – it’s not hard to find egalitarian pacifist movements all through history. Few of them succeed in changing society outside their group, though, and even those that have an impact haven’t fully purged society of its hierarchies. (Though of course nor have violent egalitarian radicals.)
Total non-violence is a rare interpretation. As the MC can reflect while talking to Tamran, there are lots of Canonical examples of violence (and I should note that those are present even in the Shayardene Codex). Understanding compassion as limiting violence is common in everyday life and among priests of goodwill; but forswearing violence entirely is uncommon, and would of course be pretty dangerous stuff in an empire that maintains itself through salutary displays of brutality.
There is – see G3 for more detail, eventually! – but it’s splintered not just by repression but by differences in mindset regarding its appropriate scope. There are more priests (especially in the Westriding) ready to fight for justice for the yeomanry than there are for the urban hordes. There are even fewer committed to liberation of the helotry; that brings up thorny practical blood-economic as well as theological questions which push a lot of priests toward gradual meliorism rather than radical transformation. So a thoroughgoing liberation theology is something you and other reformers will be making much more often than finding.
You’ll find a G3 teacher, one way or another. There are Abhumans in Grand Shayard, including a non-M’kyar romance option.
That should be the mood, yes. If you’re taken by surprise, it won’t be by the fact of your arrest, but by the means.
Yes, but that romance would eventually run into some hiccups down the line.
Yeah, the achievement may only go to the 100% consistent, but that’s not how the whole world will treat you.
Reasonably high, and high-INT too. But not as charismatic as Abelard de Toman, who’ll be up there with G3 Breden, as well as being an excellent warrior.
Well, it’ll reduce coding variability in future games if I give all MCs basic literacy by the end of G2, so I think I’ll go ahead and add that to the list of things you’re doing whilst in Irduin.
Absolutely, but like @Azthyme said, the G1 context never has the right moment for an MC who can’t do it themselves. Prioritizing literacy and education in your rebellion will be an option for non-INT characters from Stormwright onward – they’ll just have less of a head start.
Yes, though not with any more magic weapons.
Not an option, I’m afraid – you can only survive book 1 by using your magic against the Plektos, and that will be seen by other attackers. An INT 2 character who survives Game 1 will come to Game 2 as a known Goete. As I wrote somewhere in one of the old threads, I need to simplify somewhere.
An excellent question, which has I think received some excellent responses. Let me start by giving the version of the answer that mostly concedes Vrangel’s point:
- There are only three countries in XoR for the same reason that the Hegemony only has four enormous provinces called N, E, S, and W, plus a central K: because back when I started writing this, no CoG game had a map or illustration other than its cover, and I needed a gameworld that readers could more or less get their heads around even if they couldn’t refer to a map. Even now that I’m sure I could include a map (and plan to), I’m mindful of the fact that visually impaired fans won’t be able to get much out of it, and don’t want comprehension of the game to rely on it.
But you may be happy to hear that’s not my only reason.
- I know “because magic” is an answer fantasy authors should use sparingly, but this is one of the areas where I really do think the magic system is part of the answer. Over a roughly parallel period in our own world, an incredible diversity of polities in pre-Columbian America was swallowed into roughly four enormous imperial blocs (plus some surviving non-state peoples in geographies hostile to colonization). Karagon and Halassur have got their hands on a technology even more potent than early modern “guns, germs, and steel” were, and have used it to dominate a huge proportion of their respective continents. As you know, we begin the game at the twilight of that dominance; I promise that the game will end with more countries on the map, and for most readers I suspect it’ll be quite a lot more!
- For those who have an appetite for it, there’s a much more detailed background history of the countries that were swallowed up into the Hegemony. In Irduin already a reader interested in lore can dig up more about Shayard – the backwater desert micro-kingdom that originally bore the name, the three Ridings of ancient Erlstow, the princedom of Rheges, the Reach with its odd Ettendic dialect. Both Wiendrj and Erezza were assembled out of an even more diverse patchwork of tiny hill-states and city-states, and I’ve got the maps and nutshell histories to back that up…but we won’t get there for a couple of games yet. Ultimately I need all of this to stay in the background, not become integral to gameplay – I can’t let this turn into Hegemonia Universalis IV or Laconnier Kings III, the game format simply doesn’t support it. But I hope there’ll be enough of it there for the gameworld not to feel utterly simplistic.
- Finally, as others have rightly noted, beyond our two mega-empires the Abhuman Federation isn’t really one country; the Brauracha in various configurations are another non-state people occupying a good chunk of the map; and in addition to the Qalsa Corsairs, there are the trans-Halassurq states, including Mahru and Sindhul, whose reps you’ll definitely have a chance to meet in Grand Shayard. (As part of the Halassur plot–they’re the way that trade between the empires continues during wartime.)
To sum up, I agree that the geopolitical situation could plausibly be more complex, but in light of all the above considerations, I’m content with the level I’ve pitched it at.