Where do the mass of lower ranked telones, like Bleys fit in? Cause to my mc they seem to be a vast, untapped and under-utilized resource and at the lower end, like Bleys, they are low enough on the Hegemony totem-pole and derive little enough benefits from its current power structure (Bleys seems to enjoy even less benefits and the alastors) to be eminently redeemable. As a bonus it seems like a lot of the other factions may hate them, which may further narrow their options to my mc’s benefit.
Unlike some of the merchants they are also state administrators already and exactly the sort of people my mc needs.
Particularly since the nobility and the priesthood are absolute no-go’s for my mc since the vast majority of those refuse to even see people like him as human.
Even Horion sometimes gives off a strong vibe that he sees the smart helot as an oddity to be displayed in something like Barnum’s circus in his vision, “the human encyclopedia” and certainly has trouble viewing them as an intellectual equal.
True, but between wards, floating palaces, inefficient plektosis for terror weapons and various unnecessary luxuries for the higher classes/castes there seems to a lot of waste in the system that can be cut or replaced with lower cost alternatives, like another canal/wetland system on the Xaos border at only slightly higher risk. It would likely require a bit more efficient administration than the Hegemony currently has, but it is exactly the kind of administration former telones like Bleys seem very well placed to be able to run.