Yknow thinking about it, I don’t think you’d need to drop your pants? From what I understand about how aether and casting work in-setting, it doesn’t really matter if your blood is inside or outside your body, it’s just the ritual of the cut giving you a quantity to focus on without burning your entire body. I think you could target your period without moving anything, and sublimate it into a Change mentally. @Havenstone can correct me if that’s wrong.
10 Likes
I wish that there was a way to know that you get a lot of content by choosing the “I stay in my shelter and don’t speak to anyone” option after joining the nomads or hill-dwellers. I played the demo a lot of times, and I always assumed that it is simply a way to skip all the dialogue, like when you join neither the hill-dwellers nor the nomads.
6 Likes
I won’t lie, folks – as hard as I’m trying to give you a Xthonosmas update this year, my productivity has dropped off significantly in the last couple of months. 
We’re out west for my wife’s fieldwork now, and I’m home school teacher for my sons as well as cook, housekeeper, and research assistant. But I’ll keep posting updates, and do all I can to get the overall section into a shape I’m happy to share.
Here’s your intro to the aristos, if you pick them as one of your focal groups to spend time with in Irduin:
Summary
*label aristohouse
A de Irde retainer shortly brings an invitation for you to come demonstrate your skills. The messenger
*label aristowash
also offers you @{othertutor linen kyrtles|a linen kyrtle}, plain and cheaply made but unstained from the road. “More suitable attire for an audience with her ladyship. One might also suggest a bath.”
*if aristo
After all your months in the wilderness, you’d nearly forgotten the standards of cleanliness appropriate to a noble House. Your quick wash at the well yesterday removed the previous day’s dust, but hasn’t @{(hair < 3) unmatted your hair or|} dealt with the ingrained dirt that only soap could clear. And there’s straw in your hair from the pallet you slept on last night.
*fake_choice
#I’m mortified and hurry to bathe.
*goto bathe
#It’s part of my disguise. I’ll reluctantly keep to lowborn levels of hygiene.
You swallow your shame, don the new kyrtle, and do your best to forget the rules of decorum and grooming that were drummed into you throughout your childhood. They could only betray you now.
#I’m free of those expectations and demands now. I’ll proudly stay as I am.
*goto batheless
*if helot
You furrow your brow. “We washed on our arrival yesterday.”
His lips twist into each other. “You may wish to wash again.”
*fake_choice
#That’s ridiculous. Once we’re in fresh clothes, they’ll not be able to tell any difference.
*label batheless
You accept the kyrtle @{(hair < 3) and run your fingers through your hair a few more times than usual,|} but otherwise don’t make any additional effort. The retainer’s stiffly disapproving expression hardly changes; you suspect that would have been the case no matter what you did.
#Retainers often try to imitate nobles, but I don’t want the de Irde to think I’m getting above my station.
You’ve seen plenty of manor servants desperately trying to be as respectable as their masters—and as a helot, you can see how vain that game is. In your experience, the aristoi are happier when their retainers meet the minimum standard and don’t try too hard to exceed it. You don the new kyrtle, but nothing more than that.
#I’ll bathe if it means they’re less likely to guess I was a helot.
*label bathe
At your request, Tamran digs out a sufficiently large tub and sells you some soap. Immersing yourself in cold well water would normally be a dangerous shock to your body’s balance, but in the middle of a Southriding summer it feels better than you would have believed. You @{(hair != 4) oil your hair and|} emerge feeling ready to face anything.
You pass into the estate under an arch topped with the family crest: a black merle with wings splayed wide. The de Irde mansion is nothing like the Keriatou keep. Not only is there no outer wall; the house itself is open, full of porticos and arches leading to broad stairs, with hardly a lockable door to be seen. It’s clearly been generations since families in this part of Shayard had any fears of outlaw bands. Still, even the great houses you saw down in the lowlands were far more defensible than this.
Lady Alasais greets
*if othertutor
@{cerl_here Cerlota|${simon}} and
you on your first arrival, gliding into the outer court to offer a gracious welcome. “We heard your introduction in the Chesnery, @{(dussfence = “spar”) and saw something of your prowess,|}
*if othertutor
@{cerl_here goodwoman Herbal|young ${zkuria}}.
*if not(othertutor)
good${woman} ${ird_name}.
Would you be pleased to show us @{(dussfence = “spar”) more of|} the skills by which you make your living?”
*if sralibi = 1
*if cerl_here
Cerlota beckons you to her side, and has you ask a prepared list of questions to some of the House’s older servants. Listening to a recital of aches and pains, she wordlessly produces xerions and tisanes suited to each retainer, wrought from the plants she’s been collecting on your journey. “By tomorrow, milady,” you promise confidently, “you’ll see the difference in their health. But
*label protracted
for some of their conditions, a single dose will not suffice. And there are tonics @{cerl_here we|I} can craft that will, if taken faithfully for some months, bring even a healthy person to new heights of vitality and strength.”
*if not(cerl_here)
${simon} asks to borrow a blade from young kurios Auche, and runs fluidly through a set of poses. “Many of these will doubtless be familiar to your scions already, milady Alasais. But it may be useful to practice them against a seasoned hand.”
“Seasoned against…?” Aguise inquires, with an arched eyebrow.
Your young companion @{(irdstory = 1) shrugs. "A handful of Rim rebels. But mostly against my trainer, who|grins sheepishly. “Well, a quick hand, at any rate, kuria. Though the man who trained me} served ten years as an equerry on the Halassurq front.”
*if sralibi = 2
Based on what you’ve read and your memories of apothecaries visiting the Rim, you make a convincing enough show of testing the de Irde retainers and describing the potions and powders that would cure their ills. “I have a small store of herbs collected in my travels, milady, and no doubt one of your retainers could show me where to find the ones that are lacking to complete the necessary elixirs.” You pause. "I should however note that
*goto protracted
*if sralibi = 3
Taking each scion in turn, you inquire into their knowledge of geography. The youngest, Alac, turns out to be quite studious, and you have to work hard to turn up facts about ${whendery} and ${nereal} that he doesn’t already know; but with both Aguise and her brother Auche, you quickly find the limits of their awareness.
“Remarkable that a traveler from the Rim should know so much of the world,” their mother comments at last, looking pleased.
You think wryly about the yawning gap between your extensive book-knowledge and the host of surprises the Southriding has thrown your way; there’s so much that writers simply don’t think to mention. But you only say, “Such is the glory of literacy, milady.”
*if sralibi = 4
You produce a sling from inside your kyrtle. “Do your guards have molybs I might borrow, milady?” As you’d expected, they readily produce the acorn-shaped pellets of cast lead; you lead the de Irdes out of the mansion to a field, and point to a tree a hundred yards away. “The scions of your House, kuria, are likely well-trained in archery. But the sling is a soldier’s weapon, and it would be unwise for any officer to neglect its military uses.” Having overheard Erjan the Halassurq teaching this to his charges in Sojourn, you do your best to remember his drill now.
@{(com > 2) Your molyb hits the tree with a satisfyingly deep crack|Though you miss the tree, you press on as if your intention all along had just been to land a molyb nearby}. “Enemy Magi find it easy to snap a bowstring. Slings are less readily disabled, and a storm of lead may distract them even if it does not strike them. Even against non-Goetic opposition, a sling-stone slows less than an arrow in the air, and can do harm through armor even if it fails to penetrate it. Anyone who might one day serve as an officer against Halassur should know well the sling and its uses.”
*if sralibi = 5
You @{intronat think back to all the many, many songs that Carles the jongler brought with him to Rim Square—and especially those which had best pleased the Keriatou|scour your memory for every elevated song and scrap of drama you’ve ever heard}. As you begin to run through your repertoire, the initially skeptical-looking Aguise beams with delight, particularly when you sing Phalangite marching songs and ballads from the war-front. @{aristo You also recite some of the speeches of Oenone Magna you were forced to memorize as a child. “A great leader may wield their voice to persuade and inspire—useful both in governing one’s own folk and influencing the distant mighty.”|You also demonstrate several dances of your home region. “The reels of the Rim have a joyous vigor, milady; they restore the spirit and strengthen the body.”}
In the end, Alasais seems more than satisfied with the demonstration, and offers to employ
*if othertutor
@{cerl_here Cerlota|${simon}}
@{othertutor |you} at least until Langnight. “Expertise in these matters does not come so often and easily to Irduin that we would disdain it when we find it. In a half-year’s time, we will see how @{((sralibi = 2) or (othertutor and cerl_here)) our health fares under your care.”|my heirs fare under your tutelage."}
*page_break
You spend the next few days near-constantly attending the @{((sralibi = 2) or (othertutor and cerl_here)) folk|scions} of House de Irde. At first you see relatively little of lady Alasais, while quickly getting to know her children. They’re at ease with @{aristo ostensibly|} lowborn retainers like you, as their mother had been in the Chesnery; they listen courteously when @{(othertutor and not(cerl_here)) ${simon} tries|you try} to explain matters beyond their current knowledge, even though @{(othertutor and not(cerl_here)) ${zhe}'s|you’re} plainly little older than Aguise. You’re soon familiar with her impatient restlessness, her brother Auche’s waggish evasions of responsibility, and Alac’s constant efforts to be seen and keep up with his older siblings.
*if (sralibi = 4) or (othertutor and not(cerl_here))
Bernete and Joet, the cousins from less powerful branches of the House, listen with interest to your talk on sling @{(othertutor and not(cerl_here)) tactics (borrowed from lectures you heard Erjan give in Sojourn)|tactics,} but don’t join @{(othertutor and not(cerl_here)) ${simon}'s|the} blade training. To your slight surprise, however, Bernete’s lanky suitor, Olerot of Mesniel walks up to you on the second day with a borrowed blade. “My house was more mercantile than martial,” he confesses, “and it’s been many years since I had the chance to hone my skills with an adept.” Bernete regularly begins to appear at the edge of the courtyard, an unreadable expression on her face as she watches you all spar.
*if ((int = 3) or ((g2skillpick < 3) and (int = 2)))
When a search for thirteen-year-old Alac first brings you to the de Irde library, it takes your breath away.
*if helot
$!{oath}, so many books. Many dozens of them—more than you’ve ever before seen in one place. You never had a chance to enter the library of House Keriatou or any other noble family in Rim Square; you taught yourself from their cast-offs, or volumes begged from Diakons or tolerant traders.
This little room with its teeming shelves and padded reading-bench in the window bay? This, rather than any quantity of silver, is the wealth you dreamed of as a child.
*if aristo
Not with its size, which is rather humble—but it’s been almost two years since you last set foot in a room full of books, after growing up with one as your refuge and delight. Even if the de Irde don’t have quite as many volumes as the ${orig_lname} family, this moment still feels as close to a homecoming as you’ve dared to imagine.
@{sralibi Alas, there’s no reason for a tinker like you to be here, and it would surprise people to learn you’re literate in the first place.|You can barely contain your disappointment when Alac tells you they have no books on herbalism, giving you little excuse to linger.|Now, thanks to your alibi, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in these books. In the coming weeks, you suspect it will take every ounce of discipline to do much of anything else.|Unfortunately, there’s little reason for a weapons trainer to be spending hours in the library, and doing so would shake the credibility of your alibi.|When Alac tells you that a whole shelf is full of dramas, with another sizeable book on rhetoric, and that you can have access to all of it…it’s all you can do not to burst into tears on the spot.} @{((sralibi != 3) and (sralibi != 5)) The pain you feel when you walk out again is nearly physical.|}
The conversations you overhear in those early days mostly touch on the core assets of the de Irde estate:
*fake_choice
#Their tin mines, blasted out with miners’ powder.
You’d heard of the alchemical explosive but never encountered it in the Rim. Here, whenever it’s a blasting day at the mine you can feel as much as hear the dull booms, like a distant thunderstorm underfoot. The explosions break up tons of cassiterite every year; when the de Irde drudges have hauled it out of the ground, the @{((ird_focus = 3) or (ird_subfocus = 3)) Strabauds|local merchant families} smelt it and send the ingots out in mule trains to be made into bronze or pewter elsewhere in Shayard.
When you ask the de Irdes if their mine makes Irduin somewhat well-known, precocious young Alac just laughs. “The Theurges don’t care about tin, good${woman} ${ird_name}. And even if they did, there are far bigger mines than ours in Whendery and the Westriding.” He recites the names of a few, @{(int > 1) which you do your best to keep in memory in case it’s ever useful|while you feign interest}. “In our great-grandfather’s time, some calomel and chalcanthum were found here as well. That brought more Theurges for a while, I’m told. But even by grandfather’s time, the alchemic ores had mostly been exhausted.”
#Their farmland, and why they don’t hire Theurges to increase their yields.
Roughly a thousand acres of moorland around Irduin are held in the de Irde name; even with most of that used for pasturage, there are still hundreds of acres under cultivation. In the Outer Rim, you’d have expected a family with holdings of that size to pay the Theurges for at least one extra harvest a year.
But the de Irde don’t. When you express surprise, young Aguise shakes her head. “We can feed all Irduin on a single harvest, good${woman} ${ird_name}. Why would we push for more? Every time we bring in Theurges, it costs us—not just the gold, but the additional Harrowings that can come with drawing their attention. When Mother brought a Theurge in to repair the lower bridges after the great flooding, it cost us ten good hands.”
#Their stables, and the fine horses they sell to the low-country nobles.
@{(sralibi = 3) Despite your efforts as tutor, the|The} estate’s stud book is the one volume in the library that can hold Auche’s interest, and horses almost the one subject he’ll talk seriously about. “Our moor-country breeds are tough and hardworking, good${woman} ${ird_name}—feed them on anything and they’ll pull a load all day for you, or carry a rider fifty miles without a halt. And they’re livelier than any eel-feagued Serdre nag from the big plantations. Twice a year we let the lowland Houses and Alastor captains fight each other over who gets to buy our colts.”
“Do the Phalangites join the brawl?”
Grinning, Auche shakes his head. “As long as the Rim rebels stay in the wilderness, horses aren’t much use against @{(horsefoe = 0) them. And|}
*if horsefoe > 0
them.” Suddenly he loses his smile. “And Angels, I wouldn’t want ours anywhere that ${lname} ${slur} could have a chance of grabbing them. Have you heard how ${he} treats horses?”
“Can’t say I have.” You keep your voice as innocent as you can.
“$!{he} @{(horsefoe modulo 2 != 0) burns them alive.|eats them.} @{(horsefoe = 3) And eats them.” You’re not sure which the youth considers the greater enormity. “The|The} bloody monster. They’ve got a hundred times ${his} nobility—that’s why. $!{he} can’t bear them any more than ${he} can bear the presence of aristoi.”
Raising your eyebrows, you give a low whistle. “Cruel as any horse-eating Halassurq.”
Auche shakes off his fleetingly grim mood. “Well, that’s not the main reason
the Phalangites don’t bring much cavalry to Halassur; you can’t outride a flying enemy. If the Commotion starts catching down in the flatlands, though, everyone will want our horses to fight @{(horsefoe > 0) them. And that’s where we’ll see that horse-killer ${lname} trampled into the dirt.”|them."}
The fifteen-year-old noble isn’t nearly as fascinated by the estate’s plow-horses as by the riding breeds. @{aristo For your part, you consider it|But to you, it feels highly} significant that lady Alasais chooses to have her fields turned by horse, rather than the helot mass labor used on so many other noble plantations.
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.”
You also begin to hear something of the de Irde’s worries and frustrations:
*label irdeworrych
*comment think the pacing is better if you get to pick only one of these; replace kspies with irdworrych in main choices to change back
*if irdeworry = 3
*goto kspies
*if irdeworry > 0
You also hear their worries about:
*choice
*hide_reuse #Telones in general, and Baldassare in particular.
You overhear Joet de Irde grumbling to his much younger cousin Aguise after @{((sralibi = 2) or (othertutor and not(cerl_here))) you’ve checked his health|one of your lessons}: “As recently as my father’s youth, there were no bloody Telones. No effort to count every last little thing; no mad idea that some share of all wealth must be garnished.”
“What was taxed, then?” Aguise asks under her breath.
"Land, of course. At a rate unchanged since the monarchs of old. And in times of need, the Archon could instruct the aristarchs to use other taxes to raise the needed amount. If their tax-reeves asked a little more in good years, they could also ask for less in bad years.
“But now for almost two generations, we’ve had these worms trying to wriggle into every tree in every orchard, making sure nothing goes untasted, hollowing out all our wealth from within…” Joet glances around, a little nervously, and falls silent.
*set irdeworry +1
*goto kspies
*hide_reuse #The distant but periodically interfering aristarch in Mesniel.
When you praise the Chesnery’s hospitality as worthy of the aristarch, lady Alasais allows herself a slight smile and replies, “He prefers the other aristoi of the district to come to him. We have not had the favor of his presence, nor his two predecessors’.”
“That’s unusual, surely?” You’re sure House Keriatou spends much of its time roving the Outer Rim, pressing the other nobles to do their part to keep order.
“Scarcely. It is a tradition of long standing.” At your politely confused silence, Alasais explains: "A century or two back, good${woman} ${ird_name}, the hundred miles between us and Mesniel was all horse-tracks or footpaths. Being named as part of their ‘district’ meant little or nothing. Not only would my forebears never see an aristarch, we would never see anyone who spoke for them—nor anyone much from the low country, save the traders who fought their way up here for the tin.
“But it is true that with every year, new roads and bridges and canals have brought us closer. We may still not see His Excellency, but his servants show an increasing interest in us.”
“Like the Telone, milady?”
“Kurios Baldasare certainly seems keen to understand everything about our little demesne. And the Rim Commotion is likely to increase Mesniel’s interest.” She says no more, but the taut lines around her eyes speak volumes.
*set irdeworry +1
*goto kspies
*hide_reuse #Their relations with the yeomanry and helots.
You overhear Bernete de Jerieges addressing lady Alasais in the same taut tone as she did in the Chesnery on your first night. “Do you truly think Ueron Lemouratou concedes so much to his tenants and helots, my lady cousin?”
“Ungentle, ungenerous Ueron is drifting into a time of rebellion surrounded by folk who loathe him.” Alasais sounds as if she sincerely pities her lowland neighbor—as well as disliking him. “Open-handed nobles survive, Bernete. Because compassion is the wellspring of order. Ask Ecclesiast Ulmey.”
“We have this guiding doctrine from our Ecclesiast?” The younger noble’s voice takes on an acid tinge. “Not from our innkeeper?”
“From our ancestors, cousin.” Alasais speaks without hesitation. “They’re the ones who established what we owe the commons: fair rents, justice rendered at need, and a shield against the worst of the outer world. Loyalty for loyalty.”
Bernete sounds wholly unpersuaded. “Best hope your yeomen’s forebears taught them the same. To say nothing of the helots.”
*set irdeworry +1
*goto kspies
*if irdeworry > 0
#I’m not particularly interested in the rest of what they complain about.
*goto kspies
*label kspies
The de Irde are also nervous about Kryptast spies, like nobles anywhere—but that doesn’t seem to color their reaction to you. When you ask how they know which outsiders to suspect, Auche responds with a broad grin to your unspoken question: “You’re no Kryptast, ${fname}. They’re taught how to fit in with the Houses they infiltrate, in their habits, language, and decorum. You fit so badly, I can’t believe it could be an act.”
Across the table, Aguise bursts out laughing and subtly changes her grip on her eating-knives to mimic yours. @{aristo For all your lessons in refinement of conversation and posture, it|It} had never until this moment occurred to you to think there was a crude way to hold a table utensil. @{aristo This must be part of what your Keriatou cousins were complaining about when they spoke of the affected, overwrought manners of the Archon’s Court.|}
*choice
*if aristo
#I try to keep my expression from darkening at this echo of the constant mockery I had from Hector and Calea.
The de Irde scions are hardly the first to hold you in scorn for some aspect of your upbringing, and they won’t be the last. Your cousins gave you long practice in swallowing your resentment; you think you’ll be able to conceal it here.
*goto aristo1bonus
*if helot
#I grin to hide my resentment at their mockery and affected manners.
It rankles at you that things like this—petty, arbitrary rules around everyday conduct—are ultimately what the nobles have in mind when they talk and think about their superiority. But this is no time to let your disgust show.
*goto aristo1bonus
#I shrug amiably. I’ve no interest in exchanging my natural habits for their artifice.
In the long run, the elites of the Hegemony will have much more to hold against you than how you grip your knife. You’re not going to try to relearn all your natural manners to fit in better with them now.
*goto aristo1bonus
#One day I might need to fit in. I want to focus on learning @{aristo this Southriding court-manner|noble customs and language}.
Pushing aside any resentment or defensiveness, you turn your mind to being as much like a de Irde as possible: moving as they move, acting as they act, speaking as they speak. It doesn’t matter if it rings false at first, here in a back corner of the Southriding. One day you’ll be able to @{aristo blend in with the great Houses of the realm|pass as noble}, and that will open doors beyond imagining.
*set etiquette +2
*goto aristo1bonus
*label aristo1bonus
*if ird_focus = 1
As a newcomer to the manor, you find it hard to spend much time near lady Alasais without drawing suspicion. Instead, you spend much of your time closely observing:
*choice
#Aguise, heir to the estate.
#Cousin Bernete and her suitor Olerot.
#Auche, the second son.
The three choices in the end lead to quite divergent subplots, as do some similar choices in the helot section. That breadth is I’m afraid part of why it’s taking me so long to finish…but I hope what I finally deliver will be worth the wait.
31 Likes
Hmmm, got the feeling cousin Bernete is on to us. How long is typical for the courtship to last between her and Olerot? Is Lady Alasais acting as their chaperone?
6 Likes
etiquette
When do we get a book on our head so we can learn how to walk straight?
13 Likes
Noble courtships vary greatly in duration. It might raise eyebrows and invite rumors of scandal if a courtship lasted less than a couple of weeks, even among the lesser Houses. On the other hand, where there’s much family property to negotiate, people wouldn’t be surprised if it took more than a year.
Despite the relatively small amounts of property involved, Bernete and Olerot’s courtship has been quite drawn-out (six months already of Olerot coming and going from Irduin when you arrive). Alasais is responsible for chaperoning them during his visits, but gives them fairly broad latitude around the estate, and usually just sends a retainer with them when they go out riding or hunting.
At finishing school in Grand Shayard, naturally. 
That is crucial…but most Theurges also find that having the aether in hand makes it easier to manipulate, given the consonant telos of the hand. It’s not definitionally necessary, but practically necessary for most people.
I’m not going to commit at this point to whether the MC would still need to use their hands in a hypothetical future menstrual Theurgy scene.
20 Likes
The real question, imo, is if you can target your uterine lining before it properly sheds, and basically skip your period by sublimating it into aether instead of shedding it through traditional menstruation. Do menstrual products have a noticeably higher aether content than normal blood?
Yknow I’m actually curious, will stacking etiquette too high have adverse consequences? Making it harder to blend in with/seem approachable to the helotry and other lower orders?
11 Likes
Oh finally…some civilization and decent clothes 
9 Likes
I don’t think Havenstone ever thought he would one day be plotting the aether concentration of a woman’s menstrual lining.
12 Likes
:: snickers ::
3 Likes
Ah, the sweet delicacy of horse meat, eh? Maybe Erjan or some other Hallasurq will even show us how to make a really delicious meal with it over the coming books. 
7 Likes
That made me chuckle too. Had some horse sashimi last weekend with the other baseball dads.
5 Likes
I’ve replayed another thirty hours of the first game to explore and rekindle my memories.
My question pertains to the three ‘successful’ prologues: we know that Carles comes back in Book 1, whilst the priest woman gets carted off, and the fleeing helot survives.
However, after playing the first chapter with the side story involving the helot, it feels like that’s just the best prologue for content, no?
I can’t fathom how Carles or the Priest could possibly ever live up to one of the most scenic, awe-inspiring, and immersive written content I’ve seen in a CYOA game.
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I’m glad you liked Vigil, and I have to agree that I’ve set the bar pretty high for the other prologues’ bonus content.
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Every sex scene in Choice of Rebels is unique to prevent them from getting stale, so I predict that sex scenes will become more and more descriptive as the series progresses. By Choice of Rebels: Hegemon, Havenstone will be going on the most saucy perverted sites on the internet for new ideas
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We already have a nipple twisting scene planned out.
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I know that this is a joke, but considering the amount of sex scenes in this chapter alone, Havenstone will probably do this eventually, and there is no way that he would pass up the opportunity to do it with the Diadoch
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What are you people talking about?
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Look up “nippletwister” in the search for this topic or the other XoR topics.
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