Still I have to wonder what the infant mortality rate will be without a blood fueled grain harvest?
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Very high, millions will die from starvation. Quite a trolley problem, isn’t it? But it should be worth it. In a perspective of few decades the amount of deaths from eventual harrowing (if it was continued) would be higher than the ones from initial starvation, however cold that sounds.
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I do have to wonder if switching from adult helots to infant helots would be so impossible. You’d want to do away with the big ceremony with everyone watching and move the harrowing to a place that is more private too. That rather than a system where everyone was subject to it might be possible. You’d have to exempt adult helots from harrowing going forward too.
If you were going to try to make that kind of change, that’s how you might be able to get it to work in the context of Hegemonic culture.
Edit: an added change would probably be the need to have some sort of system in place to support old helots who can’t work anymore since you’re no longer harrowing adults.
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Hello, i wanted to ask if, i am not mistaken, shayard doesn’t have a unified language spoken by the majority, except koine while the different regional dialects exist but are quite different compared to each other. So for Homelanders, would it be easier to create a unified language in shayard based on the dialects, or to keep koine in the future?
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They’ll probably designate the Grand Shayarin dialect as “High Shayarin” and encourage the elites and localities to move towards using it. That’s typically the kind of thing that happened in the real world that leads to the modern “standard” version of languages.
Modern standard French for instance comes from the dialect spoken in the French King’s demesne I believe but there were many different kinds. Norman French was the dialect that had such a big influence on English.
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Rim Shayarin, accept no substitutes. You don’t hear Italians speaking the spit Roman dialect, do you? They speak purest Florentine!
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Could the idea of solidarity and camaraderie for the struggle of liberation from Karagond oppression be used as social glue between different classes? If yes then how far could you take it and how would you use it to further your own policies?
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Yeah but they still uphold the doctrine as codified under her rule.
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Helots aren’t gonna be happy with “liberation from Karagond oppression just to keep serving the nobles.” Nobles aren’t gonna be happy with being liberated if it means they have to manumit their helots.
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Homelanders will have the choice of accepting the diversity that exists or (like most nation-builders) trying to iron it out by declaring one dialect the proper national one. And as roodcross and Ramidel illustrate, there will be reasons to elevate either Grand Shayard’s high-prestige dialect or the simpler, much more widely spoken Rim-Westriding-helot dialect.
While the revolution is ongoing, that’ll get you a long way. In the last couple of games, though, with the Karagond Hegemony disintegrating or gone, if that’s the only thing binding your rebellion together, it’ll start to cause problems.
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Havenstone, emphasize the horribleness of Halassur more before the protagonist meets Erjan, because I felt uncomfortable instead of upset when I learned that he is a Halasurq. The protagonist should also be able to meet Wolfbait if they do not stay with the Xaos-landers
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Thanks for the advice. I’ll look at the first one. To the second one: no, afraid not.
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Will such language-unification measures be positive to state efficiency or strain it?
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Yes. On the one hand, it’ll make everything easier once it’s done; on the other it’s going to be yet another pain in the patootie to arrange.
The big advantage of cosmopolitanism, here, is that Hera’s already done the hard work of standardizing Koine for you.
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Maybe all helot women are manumitted after they have a daughter who sacrifices a child? I expect you would only sacrifice male helot infants given that female helots will be more important for reproduction.
Honestly the Hegemony’s model is difficult to adapt to infant sacrifice as a source of aether. Sex workers rather than farmhands are probably the underclass the Halassur model is looking for.
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In that vein if you wanted to transition to a blood tax, maybe offering grain in exchange for a voluntary harrowing sacrifice could bridge that gap? As well as smaller amounts for live blood donations. As the famine hits, older folk near the end of their life try to feed their family, parents try to feed their children, families even offering up a newborn…
Morbid stuff but worth it to end harrowing 
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Bah thats harrrowing of a different kind not a end to it and if people must die better it to be swift and comparitivly short than the potential millions more later.
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Yeah, the conservative aristo goal is going to be just lop off the Karagond administration at the top of the pyramid and take those spots themselves.
Getting the aristocrats and yeomen to work together would be quite a challenge already. It’ll be a no-go to get aristos and helots on the same side as classes. Interests are diametrically opposed.
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i think it may be possible for aristos and helots to work together. but you will definitely be forced to free helots. while these wont be very popular with nobles if you don’t diminish there land holdings and even give them some other privilege’s they may agree to it. you must remember that old sharayda did not have helots so you can even use that as justification.
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Not sure if you’re responding to me, but yes it’s still harrowing however if you can’t get enough blood then millions will starve.
If it were consensual I think the hegemony would eventually reach a new equilibrium where enough blood could be obtained just by a tax. If you can get enough blood just from a tax right away then great, if not then at least this way you could save the people you love before you die.
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