Can’t wait to obliterate the concept of taxation because I don’t understand it.
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how would you even go about it?
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Are you asking how would you obliterate taxation or understand it?
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apart, if you destroy civilization, and reduce everyone to hunter-gatherers or magically achieve communism in the equivalent of the 14th century. its impossible.
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How well do you think policies of ralliement and amalgame are going to work for the Mc? For example would it be better for a pro-helot Mc to pursue ralliement ONLY with the noble class and not waste time or effort with amalgamating them into the new regime?
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I play a 0 INT MC, I don’t really do “thinking” in this playtrough 
I guess slauthering every taxman would be a good start?
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“Tax” is when you and your band take grain to make sure you are among those who survive the famine, which will obviously have nothing to do with your burn it all down policies!
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lol, worry about the consequences later. But killing every tax men is kinda useless, they arent the ones imposing the taxes just collecting
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I wonder what Hegemony needs to operate and what said taxmen collect
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well like most pre-industrial revolution era states. The main collected good is probably food, like grain, etc…
But depending on someone profession, they could also collect what that person makes, like meat, hides, pots, and weapons, trade goods, etc…
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One thing at a time…
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Quickly: this is correct. The main tax collection takes place after the year’s main harvests are done (generally at/around the Barningday holiday), when a tithe of grain goes into the priests’ barns and another 20% to the Alastors (to be passed on to feed the Phalangites and other servants of the Hegemony, as well as filling city barns). This crop tax hits landowners (mainly aristo and yeoman).
There’s also a major tax on trade and production (of textiles, metals, livestock, luxuries, strong alcohol, etc.) which can be taken at any time of year by an Architelone, based on the records kept by the local Telone. This tax is generally taken in silver, because the people it targets (nobles and merchants) are tied into the cash economy (and it benefits the state for them to be more tied into it…Debt, by the late David Graeber, gives a good account of this dynamic). In more remote parts of the Hegemony, like the Outer Rim, it’s more likely to be taken in kind.
This will all be pretty key for the Irduin plot, where the Barningday Tithe and the fear of the Architelone’s spring visit drive a fair share of conflict and disunity.
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And by killing Telones you will cause immense chaos with all these excel sheets lost or unrecognizable. Targeting tax officials is a very efficient strategy, although it will bite you back if you intend to rule targeted area afterwards.
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If by any chance our MC did something with the Architelone during Winter in Uprising (Rob her, get her killed, killed her ourselves) will that affect the Irduin spring visit?
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Are Architelone/Telone tax farmers (contractors) or are they state agents?
My assumption would be contractors since the Hegemony would have a low level of literacy of the value of provincial taxes. Effectively auctioning the rights would allow market forces to determine the revenue (and permit the hatred and extreme corruption we see as gross revenues decline)
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Your G1 Architelone choices will affect the state of taxation in the Rim, but not yet in Irduin. The bit of the Rim Irduin borders on is still quiet enough that people think of it as a buffer zone against whatever the rebellion’s tax “policy” may be.
An untidy mix of both, I think–there’s not a real Ferme Generale. The Archons and aristarchs have the option to lease out their tax collection, a time-honored practice in many parts of the continent…but the vision behind the (still relatively new) Telone/Architelone system is to bring in outsider state agents to redress the weaknesses of the tax farming system and impose greater consistency in what is and isn’t taxed across the Hegemony.
In cases where the offices of Telone and Architelone continue to be granted by lease, the successful bidder often has a connection to the area being taxed, which helps them know and extract its wealth better than an outsider. But they’re also often clients of local magnates who turn a blind eye to their patron’s most profitable interests, while making up the difference by squeezing the other noble and merchant houses. This created enough unrest in enough cases that the Ennearchs started pushing the Archons to reduce their use of tax farmers and periodically bring in outside agents to discover and end corruption.
Local leaseholders are also more likely to earn their commissions by inventing arbitrary taxes that disrupt and strain the system of provincial trade that the Ennearchs try to maintain in Karagon’s favor. Ennearch Hypatia, who oversees that system (as well as the terms of the Hegemony’s much more limited official trade with foreigners), is also responsible for the state tax agent system, training Architelones and Telones to impose consistent taxes across the empire. Most Archons and aristarchs will sometimes draw on that system, and sometimes lease out the office, creating a patchwork.
ADAT @idonotlikeusernames pointed out the strategic location of Aveche and suggested it could “make a decent capital city for an eventual successor state,” which I’d not really thought of before that point – but he was absolutely right. @Winterhawk quickly followed up with the fever dream of the Great Aveche Canal, “That all the Seas may rejoice as one Ocean!” which will probably be the name of a final game achievement. 
I also first shared some details on the Unquiet Dead.
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I get the feeling that Hypatia is part of Phaedra’s faction.
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Offtopic but what are the most painful methods of execution in the hegemony besides Slow harrowing or being burnt alive.( Btw I don’t think slow harrowing is the worse like at all, mostly because of how common it seems to be used, they must have some Extreme forms of Executions meant for the worse of the worse) anyway felt like someone asked this question before, it feels like an really common one to be asked.
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I instead got the impression that Slow Harrowing is the most extreme form of execution, used only rarely and reserved only for “the worst of the worst” like influential leaders of rebellion movements. The description suggests an incredibly slow, excruciating, and humiliating death where one is turned into a public cautionary tale of what would happen to someone who dares defy the Hegemony.
Which that said, I also got the vibe that being Slow-Harrowed might not be the worst fate one could suffer in the XoR verse. I speculate that it might be possible for a person to suffer an unending (or at least, supernaturally and extremely prolonged) lifespan of ceaseless suffering and lost humanity… which might be the fate of whatever/whoever is at the heart of Sigil (this is my own speculation influenced by Aztheme’s theory about the Vigil Dreamers), and it seems plausible (though unlikely) to me that this might also be the fate of the Thaumatarch… we know that they’re essentially not a human anymore, there is nothing that implies them to be in a state of happiness (despite their great power), and it would be very understandable that a being who willingly endures extreme suffering oneself (to protect the world of order from Xaos? I’m not sure about their motivation…) would be unflinching in keeping a large section of the population in miserable condition.
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On the subject of execution, I think I’ve said something like this before, given that our illustrious author has referred to the Hegemony as, from Hallasur’s perspective, a country of wizard vampires, I wonder if we could deter further invasion by erecting forests of stakes with enemy soldiers impaled upon them.
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