Well, to a degree you can have power fantasies in XoR. Some Helot builds take an ideology diametrically opposed to the Hegemony, look for violent vengeance against their former oppressors*, and…are quite successful at getting it.
The issue is that as Cerlota indicates, a wholesale destruction of the system will lead to famine, mass deaths, and suffering. So it’s very much a personal power fantasy, not a societal one.
*Depending on your point of view. My Aristocrat builds would say that the Helots should be honored to serve their rightful Shayardene masters, who only aren’t running the show now because some upjumped Karagonds got to have blood magic first…but we’ll change that.
I think there’s more to a power fantasy than it being possible for the character to be powerful or successful, even successful in multiple areas. If you’re consciously making trade-offs that diminish you in some ways in order to build yourself up in others, or if your actions today (however satisfying) come back to bite you in the ass tomorrow, that isn’t a power fantasy.
That is certainly true it also seems that for everybody, including aristo’s who only want the most “incremental” of changes to the present system that chaos and famine are going to happen anyway, not in the least because the mc and their followers will be far from the only rebels, so the only way out is through.
Now, keeping that in mind, my own primary mc is certainly someone who will take the tradeoff s if he judges them to increase the chance of getting changes closer to what he wants and ripping out the Hegemony’s caste system root and branch is still the number one goal for him as he indeed judges that institution as well as several others, such as the alastors to be well beyond reform in any direction he might find even vaguely satisfactory.
I hate the term power fantasy so damn much, these forums have driven it to meaningless. XoR is inherently a power fantasy because it lets you fight the big bad evil empire in a way none of us will ever get too in reality, and thats ok.
I feel like a lot of people forget that the famine is going to happen anyway. The accelerated crop growth on this scale is eroding the soil. We’ll have a dustbowl soon if we don’t stop it soon, and that’ll last longer than the current famine the rebels may cause.
Huh, ngl feel like a magic run is a lot more powerful than the other ones. Like I get charisma the power of words means a lot more than magic depending on circumstance but a dude with a sword is a dude with a sword. Can’t really stop your lungs from collapsing if you fight a mage
Charisma is currently the strongest build in the game.
Intellect is strong and leads to fun and unique scenes, but is somewhat brittle when minmaxing.
Combat’s results are not as spectacular as the others, but it is more intuitive to play, achieves reliable wins in the Ruthless runs, and can pull off some unique tricks if you’re an Aristo and spare Fedrel.
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All the attributes are pretty good and distinct, and all can score flawless victories.
I usually go theurge, not because it’s strongest necessarily, but because I find it’s the best way to enjoy the world’s magic system and unique concepts, and also because it works with being Elect. I like to play mages because if there’s a way to toss fire at people or raise an army of zombies, I want in on that.
Can anyone tell me approximately how long it takes to play through this chapter in its entirety? I’ve had trouble with the save system on Moody before, so I’d like to plan on reading it in a single sitting.
I know it wasn’t directed at me exclusively. That’s why I responded here, for the share of it that was following up on your complaint of a couple days ago, rather than derailing the other thread into discussing the specifics of my intentions or gameworld.
You implied that even if they weren’t snobs themselves, they were motivated by others’ snobbery (i.e. considerations of what is “true art”). I’d suggest that’s probably untrue in more cases than you think, not just in mine.
I’ve never said that you “can’t address that at all.”
I have said that you can’t successfully address it by conquering Halassur and adding it to your hypothetical empire, or by toppling the emperor and installing your own puppet. If the fantasy you’re interested in is an empire-building one without even the most elementary tradeoffs involved, where you’re a Napoleon who can overrun Russia or an FDR able to fight a hot war with both Hitler and Stalin, then you’ll continue to find aspects of XoR unfulfilling.
I was assuming that the theurgy being used to accelerate crop growth was also being used to replenish the nutrients in the soil - even if theurgy can’t do that, blood and bone are both useful fertilisers and I’d assume the Hegemony has both in abundance.
I hope i don’t come off as demanding but if you don’t mind can you give us a small sneak peek of how the future ros are like and how are their romances? It’s cool if you don’t of course it’s just that i already really liking the new ros, except for Erjan with his belief
Not demanding at all–but I’m afraid I’m not going to give a sneak peek at ROs, because much of what I could share now would be spoilery and many other elements won’t be set in stone until I actually start writing their chapters. I hope you’ll enjoy them, or some of them anyway.
I’ve been hoping someone else would give an estimate, bc I’m not sure if my reading turns into skimming in the bits I’m familiar with. I’d say allow a couple of hours?
Unfortunately not. @Havenstone has stated in previous posts that the constant crop growth is causing the soil to deplete faster than it normally would. It’s a ticking time bomb because the decreasing soil fertility in regions that use Theurgy for accelerated and increased crop yield require more and more aether to get the same amount.
Just one more ticking time bomb our character will have to deal with.
@Havenstone do you ever plan to introduce a ‘cred_ph’ or a way for us to sway significant portions of the Hegemonic soldiery to our cause (not necessarily a majority, just enough to say we have more than a few dozen Phalangites on our side)? Historically, winning over the armed forces has been a big point in favor of any armed rebellion/revolution.
I’d bet a good amount of money that when the revolts hit terminal velocity the central army’s going to dissolve as they get cut off and isolated from the upper command.
It’ll be less of a unified variable and probably trying to convert individual units.
That’s sort of what happened to the Ming Dynasty’s central units. The revolts, repeated military defeats, a lack of food, a lack of supplies, and no money caused them to either join large-scale revolts, defect to the Qing, become bandits, or just melt into the countryside.
@Havenstone not sure if you’ve already done this- but Cataphrak for Lords had some random events that were determined by a dice-roll set up. It could be one of those things for seasonal interludes if you plan on building them in.
That’s why I responded here, for the share of it that was following up on your complaint of a couple days ago, rather than derailing the other thread into discussing the specifics of my intentions or gameworld.