OK, as I was saying before our historical military interlude…
And in that spirit: Happy Xthonosmas! Have another 370K or so words of Rebels.
As a decade ago, this isn’t in the shape I’d wanted to have it before I shared it with you all… but I just can’t keep sharing it in dribs and drabs forever. Almost all of the core Irduin exploration is here now, with just a few bits of the last Priest and Inn sections left TBD. I haven’t playtested half of it (and not at all since hacking the irduin chapter in half this evening to get it to upload) so expect it to have plenty of room for improvement–too long-winded in some bits, short or disjointed in others.
Below is what’s unfinished from Irduin – much of it in the 50K-ish words I’ve already written but temporarily cut to turn this into non-spoilery, working code. I’d encourage you to not unhide the section below right away. Go have a read through the new draft first, so you understand where we’re going.
When you get back from your final Rim rendezvous, Lady Alasais will decide on certain courses of action. This will be shaped by the advice you gave her (and how much she trusts you) as well as how much money she’s got left.
Then we get the fallout from various exciting plots you might have set in action or let roll ahead – the elopements and heretical books and sabotage and lynch mobs and duels and assassinations and…
If you’ve got through all that and you’re not yet dead or on the run, there’ll be a check of ird_sus to see if the authorities try to arrest you. (Almost all of the consequences of said arrest are written – with YOU KILLED IRDUIN as placeholder text for one of the winding-down bits I haven’t finished yet – but I’ll save that for next update.)
If you’ve not been arrested, our friend Theurge Seichareis returns, and there’s an ird_unity check – along with some specific story outcomes – that determine whether any of the villagers crack and try to betray the village’s secrets to him.
If you’re still in Irduin after all that, we finally get to Telone Baldassare’s comeuppance and the decisions you get to make about his fate.
And I have to go through and add cred_h, cred_a, etc. to your decisions in Irduin, so that by the end of the game (when it’s probably known that you were behind whatever happened there) those are affecting your reputation.
So yeah, that’s what’s left for Irduin – with a good-sized chunk of it already written. (I had to jump ahead to get a better sense of the direction some of these characters were heading.) And then for the whole game to be done, I need to finish:
The five sections in which you try to remotely steer the Rim rebellion, and see the consequences.
Going back to the Xaos chapters and writing the starts of the Erjan, M’kyar, and Jev romances into them.
Writing the “gamgee” arcs (whether romances or friendships) across the whole game, fleshing out what’s already there and giving those relationships some satisfying growth.
Writing in Erjan’s sister Dilek – I’d originally planned for her to appear in Grand Shayard, but that would leave too many Halassurq stereotypes in the air until next game. So now she’ll join her brother in Xaos, and if you’re willing, join you for the first bit of your time in Irduin. (This will also involve another Erjan and Jev visit, mid-Irduin.)
Extending the stories about MC trauma and gender self-discovery through Irduin and making sure they hold together.
I think that’s it? That’s about it, anyway. Probably a couple more things I’m forgetting. But I really do think 2025 is going to be the year I finish this thing.
Reminder that you still have your code privated on CoGDemos, if you’d like us to be able to read it. That aside, congratulations! Huge work that we’re all very happy to see, even if it isn’t where you’d want it (what ever is, honestly?)!
In other news: semi-annual reminder that there’s a cool Discord for people who want a more rolling discussion on the game.
So, not going to spoiler much for the people still reading but!
I got goosebumps on the main Ulmey story. It feels like unravelling a grand conspiracy about the true nature of the faith of the Angels! Havie you might not appreciate the comparison but I almost felt like I was in a Dan Brown book lmao
What was else of interest to me is that Irduin seems to have belonged to the ‘Anglo’ spectrum of the Anglo-French continuum of Shayard in the past, before the conquests of Samena (from a linguistic standpoint) but what were of even more interest were the little notes on the ledgers… thanking Hera for separating yeomen from the helotry? It seems likely that Hegemonic conquest came with at least some ‘benefits’ that may have made the population more compliant at the time.
And this is just one storyline! I am excited to explore the rest.
so i was doing noble as main path and choose to look after heir and game ends after theurge leaves. it never gose chapter 8.
on the other hand when i when to spy on second son it continued long after that point. is that intentional?
Seems Hera gave some of the people who had nothing in the old order but were still allowed to remain free in her new dystopia people to look down on and abuse. She possibly even pushed families who used to be “respectable” before into helot status. It is a very old trick from a very old book that does not make slavery any less reprehensible however. However much of a utilitarian “monster” my mc may or may not become, especially so in the famine route it seems Hera always was infinitely worse and like any good sadist she probably really knew how to prey on people’s worst impulses to pull them down with her.
No grand conspiracy just the worst people getting a lucky historical break as Talisman’s seem to be the one resource the early Hegemony of Hera had and squandered in abundance.
Reminds me of this old LBJ saying really. Although the context would be less race based but a super oppressive caste system probably did the trick just as well.
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
And that fundamentally is the core “truth” of the supposedly “merciful” angels the charlatan ecclesiasts of the main, orthodox branch of the Xthonic faith peddle with glee.
Really? That’s not what I came out believing out of the current Irduin passages. I think it’s safe to say the “original” faith of Xthonos is far more radical and compassionate than even potential adherents could comprehend. Perhaps too compassionate for a world of blood sorcery.
Also I think my character experienced a minor crisis of faith talking with the innkeeper and his daughter.
The achievement errors are a cogdemos issue, one which I’m not sure how to fix. The startup file uploaded there most definitely has declared both bluff and outxaos as achievements. I’d say to clear your cache and try again, but that hasn’t fixed my similar “nonexistent variable” (which totally exists) problem. Try playing in a new incognito window each time?
Hey guys, just a quick fix in case you run into the achievements bug. Just save your game on the screen that has no choices (when you get the bug) and reload. It should continue without issue.
Edit:
I’ve heard that this fix doesn’t work for some people. Try saving, reloading the page, then loading your save. That might fix it.
Wow, surprised that Alless is still alive, even in my failruns! She must be more resourceful than she looks!
As an aside, it’s probably time for me to actually sit down and write the minmaxed Low Anarchy 2COM/1CHA Noble guide. And yes, it has all lieutenants and help from Nobles/Merchants.
Sample of the results you can expect at end of Book 1:
I really enjoyed the update. I chose to focus on the helots first then the yeomans. Picking all the high anarchy options at character creation. I went with the option to tear down Irduin’s old order. I gathered discontent helots and drudges and hatched a plan to blow up the De Irde storage room. I tried to unite the yeomans and helots against the De Irde and the Hegemony. I think I failed miserably. I think the reason why is Irduin credibility and unity needs some balancing or maybe high anarchy players are doomed from the start? Or maybe there’s unaccounted for variables that would only carry over in a proper savegame. But as it is there no way for a custom character high anarchy MC to bring Irduin Unity down. By the end of the first scene in the inn I had over 180 Irduin unity. With all my scheming in the two chapters I managed to get it down to 150’s. Btw I played homelander, ruthless and sceptical at 75.(I edited those stats to be 75).
But yeah it was a very fun read, I really enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to it being completed and I hope I provided some valuable feedback.
Very valuable, thanks! The unity game is also going to be affected by your decisions in the Rim, so I don’t expect to get the balance properly right for a while yet. Your goal should be entirely achievable…albeit a little tougher if you’ve reduced the Rim to anarchy and people nearby are alarmed and less likely to let you divide them.
I really like how there’s options that really fit every type of MC. Pretending to be a tutor and spending time with the de Irde’s and then secondarily the yeomen fit my arrogant aristo nationalist very well.
I always felt that “yeah this fits what my MC would be doing”
@HavenstoneWill we be able to somehow make other de Irdes play bigger role in our rebellion, maybe as lieutenants or just some named characters in the background? I know that we can influence Auche to flee to the Commotion, but I wonder if Aguise could also go that direction, considering her warlike nature.
Have another 370K or so words of Rebels.
