There is one time where the MC is afraid their followers will turn on them for being a goete
You hear some of the surrounding bandits whimper at this. For a moment, you wonder if they're going to stone you. "From…from Xaos?" one breathes.
5 Likes
@Havenstone I was looking at the code and saw this
*if cha > 1
and
*set f_17_morale +10
*if sojfaithact > 15
*set f_17_rel +3
you’ve created a widespread sense of shame and ridiculousness around the Empire’s so-called gods. At least one of the young Sojourn-folk you saw with Erjan that first day has stopped joining him in his prayers, and no one else has joined the tiny sect since shortly after you started your campaign of mockery.
*if sojfaithact <= 15
your passionate eloquence has won you a fast-growing following.
*set f_17_rel +5
*if sojfaithact >= 13
*set f_17_rel +5
*if cha = 1
and like Erjan, you’ve swayed a few Sojourners, mostly young.
*set f_17_rel +5
*set f_17_morale +5
For sojfaithact > 15 with cha 2 you end up with f_17_rel +3, and sojfaithact > 15 with cha 1 its either +5 or +9 with kalt. I don’t know if that’s intended or not, I just noticed it and thought it might be a balance issue.
4 Likes
Folk are sharing writing updates today on the author thread…so here’s the next “intro to Irduin” section (following what I shared at the start of the month).
In the Chesnery
“I’m Tamran Innkeep. You’ve met my father Maurs.” Even beyond the general broad Souther accents, there’s a funny twist to their voices here: a nasal loudening on some vowels that continues to surprise you every time it happens. “What are you
*if not(alone)
and your @{(cerl_here and gam) companions|companion}
in need of? Besides a bit more in your @{alone cup|cups}?”
“Something of a guide to the folk in the room, perhaps, goodwoman Tamran…since no one else will talk to @{alone me|us}.” You grin ruefully back to her before asking:
*label tamranintro
*choice
*hide_reuse #“What aristo Houses live hereabouts? And are likely to be in want of @{sralibi a flecher|an apothecary|a tutor|a weapon-trainer|a player} for a season or two?”
*set tamtick +20
“A season or two? You think @{(irdstory = 3) you’ll have earned your fortune well enough|things will be different enough for the Commotion} by then that it’ll be time for you to go back to the Rim?” Tamran’s intense stare hovers over you again, as when you first met. You do your best not to squirm, and finally she relents. “All the aristoi here are from one family, or close to it: the de Irde. And they’re all dining with us tonight. Lady Alasais there is the head of the House. Her scion and heir is kuria Aguise.”
The two noblewomen are talking intensely at a table across the room; you recognize the younger as the one who @{(irdgreet = 3) spoke briefly with you at the door|rode up as you were arriving}. Her mother Alasais is a tall, imperious presence, with a grave-looking face that occasionally breaks into a brilliant smile. She’s wearing a soft cap on her silver-threaded hair, and silk-lined robes dyed in a jasmine-flower print, but something in her stance invites you to imagine her in Phalangite helm and armor. “So if they liked an outsider well enough…?”
“Their patronage might feed you
*if not(alone)
and your @{(gam and cerl_here) friends|friend}
for that season-or-two,” Tamran confirms. “Over there are milady’s young sons, kurioi Auche and Alac. And talking to the reeves in the corner, their as-yet-unwed noble cousins: kuria Bernete de Jerieges, and kurios Joet de Irde. Two scions of smaller branches of the family: almost no land, almost no helots, parents lost to the Halassur War. It’s the kindness of milady Alasais that she treats them as close kin.”
@{aristo “Mmm. I’ve known of other Houses like that.”|} You scan the nobles curiously. “And…they’re all eating at their inn, rather than in their manor? What’s the occasion?”
Tamran shrugs, grinning. “Our Salle is as fine a cook as Fulsen at the estate. And the de Irde try to share table with their commonsfolk every few days. A demesne this small and remote could be a lonely place, otherwise—and perhaps more fractious.”
Except for Aguise’s riding clothes, the rest of the aristos are wearing robes rather than coats over their kyrtles, and delicately embroidered caps rather than circlets. “Does everyone in this part of the world wear old Shayardene garb, rather than dressing like Karagonds?”
“Not everyone. Behind the reeve, over there, see?” Following her nod, you make out the glint of a circlet on the lanky man standing in the shadows of the alcove. “That’s kurios Olerot Taminatou. A Mesnielic aristo who lost his land to a more powerful neighbor. He’s been here for the past six months, wooing lady Bernete.”
“Ah. So some outsiders at least can get accepted here?”
Tamran shrugs, eyes gleaming. “Remains to be seen.”
*goto tamranintro
*hide_reuse #“Tell me about your amiable Alastor.”
*set tamtick +1
“Still surprised by what you saw on the bridge? Well, Captain Korren likes to say that since he’s been allotted a handful of enforcers to keep well over a hundred helots and drudges in line, he’d better stay on friendly terms with them.” The innkeeper’s daughter chuckles. “Not the usual approach to keeping the peace, outside Irduin?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” you reply with total honesty. Remembering Zebed, you ask, “What happens when your Ecclesiast goes haring after sedition or heresy @{aristo among the helotry|in the camps}, then? When someone needs punishing and the Alastor’s the one who has to do it?”
Tamran shakes her head at once, glancing at the balding man in the robe and surplice. “Ecclesiast Ulmey’s not that sort, either. He’s not Irduin-born, but he grew up just a little southeast of here, in the Couvis pasturelands. His ideas of order and peace weren’t set on the big riverland plantations. He and Korren are friends, and of much the same mind.”
“So you’ve ended up with an uncommonly gentle priest and Alastor…and the @{(tamtick > 19) de Irde|aristos} are happy with that? Not afraid that it’ll lead to the lower orders getting out of control?” Despite your nerves, something in Tamran’s candor evokes a measure of your own.
“Does it look like they should be afraid?” She gestures around the inn, lips quirked in a half-smile, before lowering her voice. “I don’t think it’s just good fortune that Irduin has the Hegemonic authorities it does. Lady Alasais knows what she wants, and spends her influence in Mesniel to get it.”
*goto tamranintro
*hide_reuse #“Any other village notables? Besides you and your father?”
*set tamtick +1
“A moment, ${kuria} ${ird_name}.” Tamran walks over to the biggest group of peasants, refills their cups, then swaps jokes with the young helots for a few minutes before returning to you. “Our village is a small place, but has a good-sized mine. Irduin Stannary yields enough tin to keep lady Alasais in drachems, comforts, and retainers…including myself, my father, and this inn. And thanks to the tin trade, there are a couple of merchant families who live here. See Farrec Strabaud there, with his son Eyon?”
You look at the cluster of folk chatting animatedly over wine in the portico; they include a heavyset man with a thick neck, and a younger version of himself who’s growing a beard to cover a weak chin. “Is that his wife they’re talking to?”
Tamran cranes her neck to see the short, white-haired woman. “No, that’s Aenor Reeve. She’s one of the elder yeomen of Irduin who manage the farms for the aristoi—assigning land to croppers, agreeing rents and taxes, resolving fights among tenants. They’re probably talking about the merchants’ loans to one farmer or another. There’s another yeoman reeve, Cômes Murager, who does the same for the woods and pastures. Chatting with kuria Aguise and her mother over there, see?”
Yes, the hook-nosed man @{(irdgreet = 3) who warily dismissed you earlier|who earlier rode in with the young noblewoman}. “Do Irduin’s reeves spend most of their time drinking with merchants and nobles, rather than their fellow yeomen?”
The young woman’s eyebrows twitch upward with slightly chiding amusement at your implication. “Spend more than one evening here, ${kuria} ${alias}, and you’ll see the reeves mingling happily enough with their own. I won’t say I’ve never heard a farmer curse at Aenor and Cômes on his fourth ale of the night…but by and large they keep their own folk satisfied, not just the aristos and moneylenders.”
“Then Irduin is blessed with peace, indeed.” Traitors and bloodsucking bastards, you remember hearing the yeomen of Rim Square growling about the Keriatou reeves. There was about as much fondness between them as between merchants and aristos and the Telone tax collectors. But those reeves had been townsfolk hired in by Lord Stilos, not drawn from the local yeomanry like this Aenor and Cômes.
*goto tamranintro
*hide_reuse #“@{(tamtick = 0) The|And the} helotry drink here too, without anyone chasing them out? How do they pay you?”
*set tamtick +1
“The de Irde don’t bring in Theurges for extra harvests, so the helots aren’t worked as relentlessly here as in the lowlands. There’s time to earn a bit by crafting, or carding and spinning for the House.”
“The nobles pay them?” @{(bre or kal) ${gamgee} sounds flabbergasted.|You can feel your eyebrows almost leaping off your head.}
“Not in actual coin, no. But they—or rather, their estate reeves—tell my father and me how much ale they think each helot family has earned. Or we just take the word of elder Brasque.” Tamran waves a hand across the caskroom; it’s hard for you to make out any individual in the dense, noisy knot of people there. “He’s the helot elder who comes up here most often. Friendly with everyone from the nobles on down. He likes to encourage the bolder youth in his camp to join him, to enjoy themselves here with the rest of the village, not just lie low among themselves.”
“Extraordinary.” You can’t help thinking of @{intronat Iarla Wester’s|the Rim Square} wineroom, and how rarely you’d ever see any @{helot other|} helot inside.
“Sometimes it can upset strangers passing through, seeing young helots ordering their own ale as and when they please, not just receiving a cask of barleywine on the big holidays.” The innkeeper’s daughter eyes you keenly. “I don’t take you for that kind, though, ${kuria}.”
“And so all of you end up living happily together.” Feeling as bemused as ever, you wave a hand at the cheery and now thoroughly intermingled crowd. “If a bit standoffish to strangers.”
Tamran shrugs. “When they’ve got a better sense of what kind of stranger you are, their doors might open a bit wider for you.”
*goto tamranintro
*hide_reuse #“Speak no lie…so if I ask how much you’ve watered the wine, you’ll always tell the truth?”
*set maursvoice true
She throws you a defiant grin. “Absolutely. No one speaks a lie in my father’s house—that’s been his rule for longer than I’ve been alive. And it helps that we don’t water the wine.”
“If someone broke the rule?”
“Dama’s got an ear for it.” You’ve heard the term a few other times since leaving Mesniel; in this bit of Shayard, people refer to either father or mother as ‘dama’, informally and affectionately. Tamran raises an eyebrow at you, still grinning. “As do I, for that matter. Lie at your peril. You may be pulled to the fore and plied with canewine until the truth outs.”
You try not to betray any nerves through your laugh, while nodding toward the highborns in the main room. “So if I ask the lady of Irduin how much her jewels are worth…?”
“She’ll tell you nothing, or tell you off. But she wouldn’t tell an untruth. Not under Maurs’s roof.”
“And lady Alasais follows her innkeeper’s rules because…?”
“Because the Angels talk to him.” The twinkle in her eye doesn’t look sarcastic.
*goto tamranintro
*if maursvoice and ((religion >= 13) and (religion <= 15))
#“Your father can hear the Angelic Voice?”
Tamran nods, then inclines her head to one side. “And that seems to surprise you a lot less than most travelers who find out about it, ${kuria}.”
You try to swallow some of your enthusiasm; who knows what news might have spread about ${addressu} ${lname} and ${his} claim that we could all hear the Angels? “I could never truly believe They spoke only to priests and the Eclect.”
*label theychoose
“Well, They do choose whom They speak to. It’s just that Their chosen include a legless former stonemason.”
Fascinated, you lean in closer. “And what do They tell him?”
“No new laws, thankfully. No sedition, no emendations to the Codex. Nothing to get him in trouble.” There’s a wryly elusive smile on her face. “Just the occasional guidance on how to be part of a compassionate order among his neighbors.”
“That’s…”
*choice
#“…convenient.” I wonder if They genuinely only speak what’s safe, or if that’s all he’s wiling to hear.
Or all he’s willing to mention to others, you suppose. Perhaps even his own daughter.
Tamran seems to guess your mind.
*goto talktomaurs
#“…smaller than I’d have expected.” I can’t help but be disappointed.
“The holy guardians of Order in the cosmos…take the time to tell your father how to run his inn?”
She nods toward your cup, still smiling. “They must appreciate a good @{irddrink clean draught of well-water|jerkum-and-cider|red wine|stoup of ale|canewine} as much as the next ${woman}.”
*goto tamnext
#“…amazing!” And might explain some of what I’m seeing here in Irduin.
She inclines her head, still smiling.
*label talktomaurs
“Talk to him about it if you like, ${kuria} ${alias}. He’s always happy to share. Sometimes more than is probably wise.”
*goto tamnext
*if maursvoice and (skepreal <= 50)
#I try to hide my shock and excitement. “I thought they only spoke to priests and the Eclect.”
Tamran shrugs.
*goto theychoose
*if maursvoice and (skepreal > 50)
#I cough, trying not to be too overtly scornful. “What’s the Ecclesiast think about that?”
Tamran shrugs, eyes still twinkling. “He reckons my father hears Them more clearly than he does. Comes here for advice, more often than drink.”
So their priest Ulmey is @{introrel more like Olynna than|nothing like} Zebed. You could have guessed that already. “And what does your father say he hears?”
“Guidance on how to live a life of compassionate order.” If she’s detected your skepticism, it hasn’t put any defensiveness into her tone. “And how to bring his neighbors along with him.”
*choice
#If enough folk here think their innkeeper is some kind of prophet…perhaps that explains some of Irduin’s oddities.
Of course, it’s still nonsense. Any Angels worth believing in would surely have stronger things to say about the injustices of the Hegemony, not just tips on getting along with the rest of the village. But there’s power in nonsense if enough people believe it; perhaps Maurs has used it to build more goodwill than you’ve ever seen between folk of different estates before.
When you don’t ask anything further, Tamran inclines her head toward her father.
*goto talktomaurs
#“Wouldn’t the Angels do better to speak to the de Irde or the Alastors? To folk with power?”
Her large, intense eyes rest discomfitingly on you again for a few moments. “Maybe they think there’s more power in this inn than in the manor house. More of the good kind, anyhow.”
*goto tamnext
#There’s nothing I could say about this nonsense that wouldn’t risk a fight. I change the subject.
“Well, I don’t think we have look beyond his @{irddrink drinks|cider|wine|ale|canewine} to see how your father brings the neighbors along.” You lift your cup. “To his health, and yours, goodwoman Tamran.”
*goto tamnext
*if (tamtick > 0)
#That’s all I’m interested in for now.
*goto tamnext
*label tamnext
@{(tamtick < 20) After you’ve had a brief explanation from her of the nobles and other village notables, there’s|There’s} a shout from the cooking area outside, and Tamran vanishes. Moments later, she and the young inn-help Gyrn return with a caldron of stew. You’re expecting them to set it down in the middle of the biggest table for the freeborn guests to gather round and share. Instead, they ladle it out into pewter bowls which they start handing out individually—as if everyone in the Chesnery were noble.
When she returns to serve you, Tamran notes your surprise with a grin. “My father suggested it to lady Alasais—a simple way for her to share some honor with the rest of the village. And it makes sure none of her highborn family or guests ever gets served anyone’s chewed bone tossed back into the pot.”
Across the room, the helots are being served with individual bowls. Helots!
*fake_choice
*if helot
#In the Rim Square camps, we’d almost always eat from a shared pot or platter.
Certainly at any event that brought nobles and helots together, there’d be a marked difference in how you ate. You do notice here that the nobles are eating with little ladles, rather than slurping stew from the bowl, but that’s a small difference.
#It feels odd and over-dainty. I prefer eating communally.
In the Whendward, most of the band would eat from a common pot, though you carried a motley collection of bowls to bring food to those who couldn’t join: people on watch, the sick, and leaders at work.
#The idea of “sharing some honor” with the helotry @{helot takes my breath away. I’ve never heard a noble say anything like that|moves me deeply}.
#It’s surely all too good to be true. What’s all this public bonhomie covering up?
*if maursvoice
#“So this is the kind of thing your father hears from the Angels?”
“It seems not to be beneath Their attention,” Tamran says, a twinkle in her eye. “I don’t think They suggested which pewterer we buy the bowls from, though. We could ask him.”
The stew is a fine meal, fresh and well-spiced, and it temporarily silences the room. As you’re wiping the bowl with your last handful of bread, however, you hear a voice raised in anger for the first time since you arrived in Irduin. It would have caught your attention even if the speaker hadn’t been talking about you.
“Cousin…@{(wonfight > 5) after all their victories under|just because} that Xaos-lover ${fname} @{(wonfight > 5) ${lname}|${lname} was chased across the Ward}, you’d truly talk as if the Rim rebels are no risk to us?
*if (wonfight <= 5)
@{f_4 With new monsters like this Bloodhand rising up in ${his} place?|Just because some of the new ones pretend to gentility?}”
*goto mytruename
*elseif (wonfight > 8)
The ones who crushed the Phalangite tagma sent after them?"
*goto mytruename
*else
The ones that even a Phalangite tagma couldn’t uproot?"
*goto mytruename
*label mytruename
Hearing your true name spoken aloud in the Chesnery fills you with:
*fake_choice
#Instinctive alarm. The more they’ve heard about me, the more likely they’ll see through my story.
#Self-consciousness. Will anything in my face or posture betray that I’m who they’re talking about?
*if wonfight <= 5
#Despair. Word of my defeat will go ahead of me everywhere.
#Quiet pride. My work is known, even hundreds of miles from where it began.
*if wonfight > 5
#Giddy exhilaration. We’ve truly shaken the realm, not just the Rim.
The speaker is one of the aristos, the one Tamran called Bernete de Jerieges. She looks about ten years older than you, well past the age where most nobles wed. Her face right now is a mask of nervous contempt; you think that’s in reaction to the Rim outlaws, not the suitor Olerot of Mesniel who’s nodding sycophantically at her elbow. All around the caskroom, other people fall silent at the mention of rebellion.
“The Rim Commotion will be shattered, Bernete, under any leader,” lady Alasais replies coolly. From her clear, carrying voice, she’s aware of how many new listeners their conversation has acquired. @{knowloss You half-expect her to mention your death in Mesniel, but she doesn’t; perhaps those stories haven’t yet made their way out here.|}
*if (((natl > 74) or (natl < 26)) or ((skep > 74) or (skep < 26)))
“But ${lname} ${slur} @{(wonfight > 5) has|} made them into @{(natl < 26) a rootless host|fanatics},” the merchant Farrec Strabaud rumbles with disgust from across the room.
*if natl > 74
"Raving endlessly about Shayard being greater than any other land.
*if skep > 74
"More disbelieving and blasphemous than any Nere!
*if natl < 26
@{(skep > 74) Pulling|"Pulling} in rebel Whends, and all sorts of rabble, by abandoning the folkways of any one land or people.
*if skep < 26
@{(natl > 74) Spouting|“Spouting} heresies about the @{((religion > 0) and (religion < 6)) Eclect of the Angels|Angels taking their side}!
That madness will last even if @{(wonfight < 6) ${he}'s dead|${he}'s caught by the Plektoi}.”
*set ird_unity +30
*set cred_m -30
*set cred_u -20
*set cred_i -40
This is what ${mesn_envoy} was talking about, you think—how as your rebellion moves from the dispossessed of the Outer and Norther Rim to the more prosperous townsfolk of the inner Rim districts and Southriding, your reputation for extremes is alienating at least as many people as it attracts.
*fake_choice
#I don’t care. It’s what I believe.
You take stances based on their truth, not their popularity—and certainly not based on what might upset some pampered town-dwellers.
#The allies my reputation wins me are worth the ones it costs me.
You wouldn’t have
*if natl > 74
@{(bethune < 1) had|} Bethune
*if skep > 74
@{(etthena < 1) had|} Etthena
*if natl < 26
*if skep > 74
or @{((etthena < 1) and (korszata >= 1)) have|}
@{((korszata < 1) and ((skep < 75) or (etthena > 0))) had|} Korszata and Bjel
*if skep < 26
*if natl > 74
or @{((bethune < 1) and (diakon > 0)) have|}
@{((diakon < 0) and ((natl < 75) or (bethune > 0))) had|} Diakon Edwer
in your rebellion if you’d not led with dedication and clarity. What kind of leader would trade allies like
*if natl > 74
@{(skep < 26) them|her}
*if skep > 74
@{(natl < 26) |her}
*if (natl < 26)
them
*if skep < 26
@{(natl > 74) |him}
for the approval of this blustering merchant?
#Perhaps I’ll need to get a message to @{gamsent ${gamgee} and|} ${bandlead}, to find opportunities to change how we’re perceived.
New challenges call for new measures. You wouldn’t want to lose allies like
*if natl > 74
@{(skep < 26) Bethune|Bethune…}
*if skep > 74
@{(natl < 26) Etthena|Etthena…}
*if natl < 26
@{(skep > 74) or|} Korszata and Bjel…
*if skep < 26
@{(natl > 74) or|} Diakon Edwer…
but perhaps you could ease back enough to bring in more of the town-dwellers as well. @{gamsent You wonder if ${gamgee}'s stories from the Xaos-lands will affect perceptions of you at all.|}
“The excesses of these outlaws is a weakness, not a strength,” lady Alasais replies firmly.
“In my father’s time, Cabel’s Revolt was far more dangerous—and it failed. We’re stronger and more unified now than we were then.”
You spot dubious expressions and tellingly hesitant nods from a few @{(ird_unity < 100) points around the room—not just from|of} the yeomen and helots, but @{(ird_unity < 100) some of the tradesfolk and Alastors as well|everyone else nods vehemently}.
“That may not be enough, milady.” Your ears prick up at a Rim-accented voice; looking over, you see an unfamiliar middle-aged woman with a deeply drawn face and haunted eyes. She rises from a shadowy bench near the merchants. “We thought the same in the Norther Rim—especially when we heard that @{(wonfight < 6) the rebels had been crushed and|}
*if (slur = “”) and (religion > 0)
the heretic
${fname}
*if slur != “”
${slur}
*if (slur = “”) and (religion = 0)
Xaos-lover
had fled @{((slur = “”) and (religion = 0)) across the Ward|into the Xaos-lands}. But ${his} poisonous example had corrupted too many of the lower orders already. Some of the ones who looted my craftshop and killed my wife? They were folk from my own village.”
“Listen to goodwoman Haldine,” kuria Bernete insists. “She and her daughter know these beasts better than any of us—Angels avenge them! Will we remain complacent until our own artisans and traders come under rebel threat?”
You eye the sunken-eyed Haldine warily. A refugee from the Rim is more likely to find gaps in your story than anyone else here.
*choice
#I’ll just do my best to avoid the displaced artisan while I’m here in Irduin.
*gosub haldguild
By avoiding them, you could avoid her.
*goto posthaldine
*label haldguild
She’s guildsfolk, and will no doubt be staying with the other merchants here.
*return
#I can’t help feeling sorry for her. Perhaps I can win her over with kindness.
*gosub haldguild
If you spend more time with them, you may have the chance to engage more with her.
*set haldine 3
*goto posthaldine
#If she gets too curious or suspicious…a refugee disappearing might not draw too much concern.
*set haldine 2
*goto posthaldine
*label posthaldine
“There are no rebels nor sign of rebellion in the Southriding, and especially here in Irduin,” lady Alasais persists, serenely chiding. “Kuria Haldine need not fear—nor cause others to fear. Our trust in each other remains our strength, and if the tools of Xaos do not divide us, they can never break us.” Lips curving slightly, she glances over to the innkeeper’s high perch among the casks. “Goodman Maurs, tell them: am I keeping to your rule?”
Maurs rocks forward and grins, unabashed at the query. “By all Angels, milady, I don’t hear a lie in anything you’ve said. She believes it all, neighbors.”
“Hear what I’ve to say, too, kurioi.” A craggy-faced, silver-haired helot addresses the room with more confidence than you’ve heard from even the boldest elder in @{helot your own camp|the Rim}. “I reckon some will be worrying about the rebel creed finding some purchase among my lot. Don’t worry, I say. We know helots are treated fairer and kinder here in Irduin than just about anywhere else in the Hegemony—certainly than up in the wild Rim. If a rebel promised us better, they’d be lying, and well we’d know it.”
“Thank you, elder Brasque. I’m reminded of a story my late father greatly loved to tell…” And Alasais walks out into the middle of the caskroom to spin a tale, as freely as any jongler. No one @{gam but you and ${gamgee}|else} seems astonished at the area’s foremost noble taking the stage to entertain her villagers. From the three de Irde children to the young helots you saw on the bridge, all the folk of Irduin settle in to listen together.
It’s a story about a noblewoman riding along the seashore, who comes upon a beautiful castle built entirely of sand. Finding that the sea is beginning to hollow out its walls, she dismounts and begins shoveling with all her might to fill the gaps. Just when she begins to despair of preventing a collapse, a handful of helots pass by. “Leave the task to us, milady!” they urge, hurrying to her side, but she refuses—“The castle will fall if any of us hold back!” All working as one, they’re joined soon by a passing trader, then by some yeomen…
*fake_choice
#I try to memorize it, to retell in revised form. Our rebellion will also need folk of all stations if we’re to succeed.
#It’s a tedious, obvious parable. I wait impatiently for it to be over.
#I swallow my anger. Shouldn’t the image be a castle of corpses, instead of sand?
Just before the sandcastle is saved, lady de Irde is interrupted by a curt voice from the doorway: “Stable my horse, boy. Innkeep! Food, now! And whatever you call wine in this wasteland.”
A gaunt-faced, sallow-skinned ${erretsin} stalks in out of the night. His accent is much stronger than Cerlota’s, and his hair untouched by gray. Shrugging off his dusty travel-coat onto a peg by the door, he makes one of the most cursory bows you’ve ever seen in the general direction of the nobles. “Kurioi.”
“Telone Baldassare.” Lady Alasais’s voice has gone colder than winter in ${whendery}. “You return late from the lowlands.”
TO BE CONTINUED
26 Likes
Wow, I’m loving these snippets.
Interesting to see that being too skeptical/devout or too cosmpolitan/homelander has negative effects to the rebellion on a wider scale. I’m sure it’s not just Irduin that’s balking at the “extermism.” Nearly every single strategy I’ve seen relies on getting those values to 75% and having it come back to bite you later on is something I really like.
Though I still won’t give up being chief of a clan or prophet of the inner voice haha.
14 Likes
You win some, you lose some. But overall Irduin seems to be a rare not super wealthy or Karagond dominated cleruchy that seems somewhat content with the status-quo, so it would naturally be a harder sell for any sort of rebellion. My mc overall will remain proud of his more cosmopolitan stance…gotta tear down those artificial walls of separate cultures and peoples the Hegemony uses to keep its provinces as imprisoned and divided as any ward.
There is, for my more moderate playthrough in the Western option, also been no real opportunity to promote secularism instead of just skepticism since there have, as of yet, been no alternate religions to incorporate into any sort of religious free market except for essentially unbanning skepticism. In my more moderate playthrough my mc will eventually welcome all lawful religions, from dissident Hallasurq priests (in their mainstream religion it would seems to the sexism that would make it non-lawful, instead of the chattel slavery and caste system) to even lawful offshoots (the more the better) of Xthonicism.
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Hopefully there is path where we get to learn more about Alasais and her family. I feel like there must be some interesting history explaining her behavior and perhaps her upbringing. She seems more like a politician in a democracy than someone who derives her legitimacy from birthright. I expected nobles motived by obligation to be more like de Firiac than de Irde.
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After reading the snippet, I’m curious about who the new reputation trackers are meant for. My guess for “cred_u” is probably the urban drudges. A figure who skews too radically on a political or spiritual level would be a notable concern for them, especially if said figure’s new policies might lead to them becoming Harrowing candidates. I’m not really sure who “cred_i” could be for.
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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.
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I personally really like the martial explanation (shocking I know). I could definitely see how over generations an officer culture of “mission first, people always” could find it’s way into an aristocratic household who’s Grand Tour is of the Halassur front as a junior commander. It is certainly a feature of Marine Corps officer culture while also generally being considered the most autocratic when it comes to discipline.
I guess what shocks me a bit is I detect menace in the statement from Elder Brasque that they will keep their place because of their good treatment rather than it being their duty as helots. If my SNCO was “showing support” during a safety brief by saying “we all support you LT because of how good you treat us. Not like those other platoons.” I would be looking over my shoulder for a mutiny.
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Maybe he should be talking about the duty of helots. But the risk of mutiny is real, and both he and Alasais know it. Here’s an excerpt from the time you can spend in the helot camps, where you’re invited to share cautionary tales from the Rim:
Helot dialogue
Low murmurs break out all around, rippling across the orchard for several minutes. Finally: “Thanks for sharing your stories, good${woman} ${ird_name}.” One of the other helot elders, Murian Byran, raises her voice. “As we can hear, we’re in a fortunate position in Irduin. When we’re not too many, or too loud, then we can end up an afterthought for Them. And by the Angels, that’s the safest place for us to be!”
“But it’s more than just being an afterthought,” an unsmiling elder Brasque adds. “In Irduin, when they do think of us, it’s with a certain kindliness. Which means we already enjoy freedoms beyond what helots in the Rim dare to dream of.”
“Freedoms?” Young Narran’s scornful voice cuts through the chatter like a whip. He lifts his hands and pointedly looks at his wrists—still raw from his day in the stocks. The ensuing silence makes the crackle of the bonfire seem deafening.
“If you still don’t believe it, boy,” Brasque rasps at last, “ask ${kuria} ${ird_name} how free you’d be if you spoke up like this in ${his} bit of the Rim. Just that one word, that one insolent question.” His eyes turn keenly to you.
*fake_choice
#“He’d spend more time in the stocks, at the very least.”
#“He’d find himself on the way to the Harrower.”
#I let my rueful expression and head-shake speak for me.
@{(narran < 4) It won’t impress young Narran and his friend, but it’s the truth—and|You hope Narran and Snip understand that pushing back on them in public will reduce any suspicion that you’re meeting with them in private. Also, you know} you’ll lose all access to the helotry if you don’t support the elders right now. @{(irdgoal > 3) Once you’ve got an excuse to regularly visit the camps, you’re fairly sure that your subtle chaos-spreading will be more effective than this boy’s brazenness.|}
Narran barely spares you a glance. “So in Irduin, I’m free to say that They treat us like dogs? Feed us, play with us, teach us tricks and laugh?”
“Say it’s true, boy. Say in Irduin they treat us like pets. Useful to their households. Trusted companions in the fields. Let’s even say that they’re not dismayed when some pup starks barking and won’t stop…that they try to calm him, rather than just tossing him into the Irdewater in a sack.” Elder Brasque’s voice is steady, with a bleak strain under the surface. “Elsewhere, They only treat helots like cattle. And right now in the Rim, They’re treating them like wolves. I’ll take them treating me like a dog.”
The young helot’s lip curls. “Maybe that’s how it would look to me too…if I spent all my hours at that damned inn, cozying up to the folk who’ll slaughter me one day.”
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My mc would put it up to a combination of reasons 3 and 1. The martial explanation goes some way but not all the way for him…but when you combine the martial explanation of making some noble officers less reluctant to engage in banter…and more with folks normally below their supposedly divinely ordained station and then combine that with their estates being as remote as Irduin with the company of other particularly non family member aristo’s being vanishingly scarce then my mc can see how that could break down some barriers and explain why under those very specific circumstances some aristo’s might choose spending more time with their supposed “lessers” over stewing in their estates all day every day or going on interminable hunts like Hector.
Also increasingly curious about Irduin’s telone who seems very different from Bleys to say the least. Whereas Bleys seems to only have gotten into his line of work for lack of other viable options this Baldassare seems more of a doctrinaire Hegemony hardliner in spite of, what one would assume, is the same largely thankless position Bleys used to occupy in our part of the Rim.
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I’m speculating, but I suppose that the social order in Irduin gives him leverage. The de Irde and other elites know they are skirting if not crossing the line of acceptable norms in the Hegemony and it gives the telone power to threaten to but not outright destroy it.
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Thanks for the clarification! I see that religion is key for Sojourn loyalty. My concern is that the skeptic choice gives a higher relation with CHA 1 than CHA 2. I thought more charisma would usually lead to a higher relation stat. I hope it’s alright to mention this again, and I’ll drop it now. Appreciate your time!
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What do you think about the idea of MC opening banks, stock exchanges, commodity exchanges, clearing houses and the like?
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Wow, a really interesting update!
I guess I better get to work on formalizing my 2COM/1CHA Comp/Skep/Home Low Anarchy Aristo run: will probably be better to encounter “Bloodhand” (Kalt?) as an angry outsider than as the guy who keeps screwing up your rebellion plans.
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How will low anarchy Mcs deal with the Hegemony’s institutions? Will the Mc’s state inherit them and have a tough or easier time trying to transform them into something that’s useful for the new regime? I know in high anarchy runs it will be easier to tear down hegemonic institutions but harder to install your own order.
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Yeah that about sums up what Havie has indicated. Burning everything down is a great way to clear obstacles but the tricky thing about trying to have a new order rise from the ashes of the old is that it’s also going to have to be ON TOP of said ashes, and ash makes for a pretty cruddy foundation material.
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That depends on what you tear down and leave up doesn’t it? And any reforms worth having simply require a lot of tearing down first due to just how bad the current system is any meaningful reforms will not come gently.
But it all depends on the circumstances. In some cases, ash can make for a great material to add to mix into (new) foundations.. You cannot build with ash alone, that much is true, but ash can definitely contribute to a solid new material.
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- The ash you’re referring to is volcanic, rather than acquired by burning things. Though I’ve heard coal ash can also work, so you could also say that burning some parts of the establishment gives you the resources to build a better structure. The coal, in the context for my playthrough, is the nobility, while most of the other institutions like the church, telons, etc. are either sturdy ground I’d rather not have covered in ash, or valuable lumber best left intact for building.
- The “what you tear down and what you leave up” is part of the analogy. The stuff you leave is the more solid foundations you want intact.
- The ashes will still make building difficult because they’re lose, grainy particulates you’ll need to clear out of the way before building anything. I’m not sure how big a fire has to be to leave enough ash to cause an issue here, mind. Forrest fire perhaps? But given the size of the thing we’re burning, it’ll probably be raining metaphorical ash like a super volcano just went off. Stuff’ll fall like snow. Building on it is like building on loose sand.
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The ancient Romans used blood to make concrete. This is not a lesson any of us (especially idnlun) will forget.
Of course, we have much better uses for that blood.
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