I don’t think freeing 300 is very significant in the grand scheme of things and doesn’t lock the aristo MC into a particular path.
At the current moment, it is completely feasible for the rebel armies to be primarily composed of yeoman. The MC’s force is small enough for now that it would be pretty easy to dilute its helot composition if that’s what the MC wanted if they make the right allies.
For example, MC can refuse to touch the nobles or the church in raids, gather new recruits from the yeomanry rather than the helotry, put Simon/Suzanne in charge of the revolt.
They aren’t going back to the camps, they’re going to become officers and leaders in my rebellion. I’ll arrange for nobles who cooperate with me to adopt them and so on so forth.
She doesn’t see these one’s as Helots- she sees them as freedmen and women. By allowing Helots the option to serve in the Armed Forces for liberty and making sure their parents are taken care of or any children they have as well regardless of if they complete their tenure the Helot class should naturally decrease.
There’s also the fact that if her realm becomes large enough- she can eneoff them herself and grant them lands in her realm.
By promoting national service as a way to escape Helotry for them and their families it should encourage people to use it as a way to escape Helotry and the Harrow. She wants to also inclide reading and writing classes as part of the militaey training and use that as another perk to join.
And it isn’t like some arrogant aristo MC wouldn’t have important non-helot rebels to surround himself with and appoint to leadership. Cerlota, Korszata and Bjel/Bethune, Zvad, Suzane, Diakon Edwer, Bleys all aren’t helots.
Someone remind me, Alira, Earnn and Ciels are all helots, right?
For my MC Helotry is just a constructed term that can and should be altered. For her, she understands that there will always be a peasant underclass who lives off of subsistence means and will always be scrabbling by.
The barbarity of Helotry is that not only are they suffering through this with no chance of escape but they also will eventually face the Harrower.
So in her mind when she rebuilds the Hegemony with an eye on meritorious service and actions being rewarded the easiest way to induce the Helot-class into buying in and avoiding this fate is by implementing a national service. The way to avoid the Harrower is by serving in the military. Until such a time as Halassur is defeated and the Wards will only be maintained in the Xaos lands.
She believes that promoting agriculture, ensuring that corrupt officials who horde food in times of plenty, and then sell it for a massive profit in times of famine should be punished with the Harrow.
If she ensures that after all is said and done the peasant class has the ability to have a vehicle for advancement, land ownership, and a way to be educated to have a shot at going up then those who can escape will.
Many empires have tried to steamroll lose confederations bound by culture unity. It is usually not very durable. The Romans, Napoleon, the Allies, even the Soviets had to get comfortable with local rule in what is now Germany. The Cold War is probably the most durable occasion of “foreign rule” and state power was considerable more evolved by then than it is in XoR. Germany had also thoroughly exhausted itself in WWII.
If we go back to the 30 Years War analogy the Prussia and Austria that emerged went on to dominate continental European politics for two centuries.
Additionally, the region the Hegemony inhabits is considerably more secure to conventional invasion that central Europe is.
Hallasaur also has a major mass handicap in my estimation if we go with levée en masse theurgy. They don’t allow men to become practitioners. They may have more aether potential, but they have 50% of the manpower potential from the start line.
The reason Hera was able to conquer so widely and throughly was exclusive control of the aether refining tech. We now know that every region had self-sacrifice theurges of some variety, and some where it was a cornerstone of society like the abhumans. The Hegemony has maintained control domestically through monopolization of aether extraction and refining, but Hallasur has discovered and implemented the tech as well.
Now that secret has the potential to leak out to the GP in a the Hegemony and they are desperately trying to get that genie back in the bottle.
The problem remains that helots cannot do anything without permission from their “masters” as they are owned farm animals, maybe some very permissive masters would spare a helot or two per year for your scheme but who that is would be at their owner’s sole discretion, no helot could decide it for themselves.
And per your scheme it seems to me you’ll still need them as a class to harrow from which precludes just freeing them all as free folk even the poorest free folk cannot be harrowed unless convicted of a crime (not that such is much of a safeguard considering the state of the justice system in the Hegemony but it is still an important and treasured by the poorest free folks distinction), unless you’re willing to go the Halassur route of harrowing infants almost exclusively and even then those infants would still be helot infants.
If you want the use the Hegemony for legitimacy there’s only so much you can change about it.
Again, depends on if the mc is willing to harrow infants, if they do the aether potential becomes much more equal overnight. However with the oncoming population collapse the manpower balance might actually shift to Halassur’s favour as they probably aren’t dependent on the Hegemony for their food supply.
Austria-Hungary I can see with the Koinon and that is a goal for my alternate mc…how you can create a Prussia out of Shayard is more of a mystery to me, as it seems to me Shayardene culture isn’t very Prussian.
Of course my main mc’s goals are much more radical than that.
Is a yeoman, as no helots were allowed to learn and master the bow like he has.
That is categorically false, the Han Empire under Cao Mengde was radically different than the one he grew up in. Since he ran it differently than his predecessors.
It will still be the Hegemony, but my MC will run it differently than the people she’s going to thrust into a Harrower.
This is what changed for me when Cerlota reveals you can cook the good shit with Sudafed and drain cleaner and that it is a tactic currently employed on the battlefield by the Hegemony’s own theurges. My MC cautious aristo brain exploded. Cue the “WHAT, WTF?!” meme. This means the entire Hegemony, its entire basis of power, is secured on concealing the secret Cerlota is now casually revealing. “Hey MC you want to cook some aether with me?” If I could I would tell every person the MC ran into from that point on.
The Hegemony is dead it just doesn’t know it yet. The consequence is that he’ll have very little control over the results, but he’s comfortable with that.
Honestly it seems like blowing up the Hegemony will be very easy. Spread the secret of aether, perhaps tie it to the inner voice, watch the world burn. Only problem is what comes next.
Cerlota mentions the ingredients are harder to find on the other side of the Ward, thus the diadems, but yeah I think its only a matter of time. Doubly so if we can figure out a smuggling route for the aether ingredients from the Xoas lands!
Since the Xaos lands are being constantly rearranged I think there is no reliable way to get our hands on the necessary resources there, sure you can get lucky and have a storm basically deposit them on your doorstep only for the next storm to take it all away again.
The nomads would need to be taught how to gather it and maybe what it even is too. In addition mining operations are rather difficult for people with a roaming lifestyle. Some of the cave settlements could have advantageous deposits…maybe. Realistically it’ll probably take years of prospecting, teaching and generally getting that system up and running. It might still be worthwhile if the rebellion is gonna unfold over years or decades but results there probably will not come quick or easy and the new Alastor ruler of Sojourn may want to keep the majority for himself as theurgy is damned useful.
Personally I would have Sojourn handle the Xaos end and they could buy from the Nomads, who would raid or trade from the cave settlements. Create a little meth economy out there. Good way to usefully dispose of the loot from the Shayard side rebels as well.
Did some rough math on the Journey to Vigil. Looks like roughly 300-400km as the crow flies. Probably took 3-4 weeks at a minimum in one direction. Pretty harrowing journey even without the Xaos storms!
The Nomad piece of this is logistical I expect the settlements will end up doing the gathering. I don’t think it will be that complicated. Cerlota states that the compounds occur “naturally” on the surface in the Xoas lands. Mercury, Niter and Copper Chloride are weird enough looking that I’d think the offer of hard currency or goods in exchange would be sufficient motivation. They certainly have more than they can utilize for their own theurgical needs. Cobalt mining exploded in Central Africa without any organized training program.
If Xaos-Storms are Theurgic in nature, and the Xaos-Lands were made by Xaos-Storms, could we not just take like the Brecks and do some basically ‘controlled detonations’ to set up a region for the extraction of the resources needed?
Maybe? Not sure how random the results are and whether it requires interacting with certain elements in the natural environment to produce the precursor compounds. Additionally, Xaos lands have the benefit of being beyond the Hegemony’s easy reach by virtue of their own wards. As rebel support infrastructure goes its pretty ideal!
Any hunches on which specifically named old guard aristo NPCs will be your MC’s most likely allies/enemies/unknown allegiances by G5?
Thanks for clarifying!
I thought “Koine” was the language; did you instead intend to say koinon?
Also, in comparison to your current “Cao Cao-inspired model”, what are your thoughts on the long-term success (or failure) of my “monarchical koinon” hybrid model? (as previously discussed on the Uprising thread)
Any hunches on which NPC will get picked by MC as her spouse?
(And will your MC marry for love, marry for political advantage, or somehow brilliantly manage to achieve both objectives?)
Noted. And on a separate note, FYI, I was introduced to the franchise through the movies. Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson’s onscreen chemistry together is what convinced me that Harry x Hermione is a more deserving pairing than Harry x Ginny!
I’d like more context concerning which enemy your “fifth columnist” definition is referring to. I’m guessing Halassur; is that correct?
Why not have your cake and eat it too?
Quoting (and repurposing) what @Bryce_Kaldwin said earlier: “If (your female aristo MC) overthrows the Hegemony and instead established a Koine or League in its place- she will need to rebuild the legitimacy and also its institutions from scratch if she does a clean break.”
Why not instead wield the legitimacy (and brand recognition) of the de Syrnon throne/name to encourage the Laconniers to get behind the idea of a koinon? (AFTER converting or purging the “bad faith actor/Halassur sellout” Laconniers, and then working with the dissenting remnants/survivors)
Hopefully trade as it will go much better if there are actual, tangible benefits for the cave dwellers too. Best deal we could offer is probably Shayardene food or even better crop seeds for their minerals and of course the nomads could profit as traders and middlemen.
The mc is in Xaos for about a year though so they would have had the time.
Actually one of my favorite parts of this idea! The thing that is the source of so much suffering and depredation among the Xoas Landers (Xaos Storms) could also be a source of power and wealth. It could ultimately be what binds them into a polity in its own right.
Sure, just saying it only takes the right set of incentives not exquisite social control/organization for profitable mineral extraction to start.
