If you guys have ever read the Black Prism series, I’d like for my MC to be kinda like their leader. He represents everyone of the nations in some way but is more of a religious/ political figure head except in times of war or emergency. We would have a Council of 7 and come together to vote on things.
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That will probably be the most common form of the koinon. A defensive alliance united by an eclect who avoids being too intrusive in the administration. I have not read the books, so I don’t know how my description is
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That’s more or less my Mc’s ultimate goal as well
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… Ideally this doesn’t conclude with us being forced to labor as a galley slave on a pirate ship and get an eyeball burned out, but I see what you’re getting at
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Hey it’s called personal growth lol.
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I have discovered the telos of a spoon.
Now, yes, the telos of a spoon.
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OK, if I’ve got enough time to write a Chappell Roan parody, I’ve got enough time to catch up on questions here…
The stories in the Codex don’t always make that clear. Usually, but not always, there’s a priest or prophet who recognizes the Eclect before they start doing great deeds; they often give the call that sets the Eclect on the path of deed-doing. But sometimes people are recognized on the basis of their deeds alone, and there are a few figures who most people would consider Eclect even though Scripturally the term isn’t explicitly used for them.
Nice try. 
They’d be in the air for anywhere between thirteen and twenty hours, depending on what the winds were doing and how familiar they were with the land (to keep to the best flight paths).
The truth about Horion’s demise is going to be hard to expose in a way that anyone would believe who’s not already sympathetic toward you.
Yep. It would infuriate a lot of people, noble and merchant as well as yeoman…but not a majority of the population.
Not beyond the fact that if an Ecclesiast is willing to protect you, it might in some circumstances give pause to the authorities who are chasing you. The Hegemony doesn’t have a single clear system where the Alastor or local aristarch can simply pull rank on the local Ecclesiast. But there’s no doctrine of holy ground where accused criminals can seek protection from would-be avengers.
Ha! I’m not inclined to “fix” that, because it seems to me there’s no way anyone gets that without trying to… and if people want to get the nonviolent achievement because they failed so hard that their nonviolent example and reaction were irrelevant to their band, they’re welcome to it.
Not common, but not rare enough to be astonishing. There are thousands of non-Karagond Theurges, although a disproportionate number of them have Karagond ancestry one way or another – from unacknowledged Theurge parents, or cleruchies, or unions between the lowest ranks of the Karagond aristoi and the upper ranks of the provincial.
I suspect there are plenty, though I’m not sure how many players do in fact find or miss them. I like the Pandocheion path through the tax collector route, and some of the hard-to-find little side paths with Simon/Suzane where you get to kiss or kill them. I think there’ll inevitably be even more of those hard-to-find scenes in G2, and I’m happy with that. Even if only 2% of readers see some of them, I like having a structure that encourages people to explore and find the odd corners.
Adoption, not Harrowing – unless (in the areas nearest to Karagon, where voluntary compliance with child-Harrowing is high) there’s good reason to think the child is a firstborn turned out to escape Harrowing.
Put a pin in that question. I’m still deciding how explicit I really want to be about physical phenotypes beyond the existing fuzzy level…
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I hope this is a good time for feedback and questions. 
I’ve been checking out the WIP over the last week or so and the progress from when it was first posted back in 2022 is genuinely incredible. The writing and world building is top notch, and the Irduin chapter specifically is probably my favorite portion of either book. The web of intrigue and inter-class relations is insanely complex (in a good way).
I do have a couple questions as well:
- Is there a chance that’ll you’ll expand the options you can choose during the nomad/village and Irduin segments by one? There’s so much choice there (especially with Irduin) that I feel like being able to pick an extra downtime activity would really let people get immersed before moving on.
- Will a K or S that gets kicked out of the band go on to lead their own faction?
- Will a 3 int theurge be permanently locked to just one specialization?
- Do you think there’s any chance that Baldassere could be turned? Maybe with Cerlota helping you to convince him?
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That choice is going to get even more brutal when the gamgee/Yed chats are in.
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So assuming that it takes a minute to actually decide on a response and then yet more time to actually mobilize said response, that gives us a few days of leeway to make our moves in Grand Shayard and GTFO before the hammer comes down. Not too shabby.
Do the clergy care much at all about this debate? I imagine they might like a ‘Modern Standard Shayarin’ that’s derived from Codexical Shayarin, which is honestly probably the best starting point for standardizing written Shayarin regardless.
Related, is there a Shayarin alphabet distinct from the Karagond one? If so, how well known is it? Could a literate MC be expected to be able to read both, or can they only read the Karagond alphabet (assuming this split exists at all)?
Hallasur continuing to rack up “not that bad” points. Certainly not as odious as the Hegemony would like to pretend.
That’s fair. It’s mostly just me asking where Wiends come from, since the rest of the setting is fairly easily traceable in terms of ethnic history. Are they an isolate like the Basque or Ainu?
In other news, I found an old political cartoon that may be of relevance or amusement to certain rebels:
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The issue with this is that it really only makes sense for helots. Aristos know this stuff already. Presumably you want something that’s a plausible choice for any character?
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Aristos don’t know “real” court etiquette. They can take lessons from the merchants and nobility just as much as a helot can, and Cerlota’s experience with the great and powerful dwarfs any MC’s.
Not really? You’re known associates, hanging out with your friends is hardly suspicious.
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Doesn’t Cerlota have to be silent 95% of the time? If you did have etiquette lessons, you should have an increase in irduin suspicion for sneaking off with her all the time
I mean fair enough, but the time and place might be suspicious. If you’re only meeting out deep in the woods, or at night, on a consistent basis, that seems suspicious to me.
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Bit more feedback on the Irduin section:
The responses you can have with Cerlota after she uses magic on you feel a little… weak. A high ruthlessness character has probably killed people for things less extreme than her betrayal. Just sending her away feels quite compassionate. I feel like at the very least, you should be able to come to the conclusion that she needs to die, even if you can’t attack her directly there and then. (I assume she needs to live for plot reasons at Grand Shayard.)
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Some arcane metaphysical questions:
Do people in the Hegemony believe that the Angels have bodies, just of a very different composition than those of the sublunar world or that they are without bodies? Do they believe that Angels are really immortal or just that they will exist for a very, very long time?
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Fanfic - metaphysical, moralizing monologue at the end of a training day in Sojourn.
Note: I’m importing “logos” here. It’s a Greek word that can convey a lot of different concepts including “reason”, the ability to engage in speech and discourse, the definition of a thing, etc. I think given the philosophical world of the series, it’s another that would probably be known to the educated.
Note 2: I wanted to play more with what kind of philosophical disputes could potentially exist in this world with its framework. This is very rough and probably won’t hold up to serious scrutiny. It’s more of me trying to use this as a vehicle to get a better grasp on Aristotelian concepts and its interplay and development in the story.
“Cerlotta,” said de Serin as they walked along after the day’s lesson, "I have a wonder. Why is it in all your lessons, you Theurges say so little of form? The works of the Old Philosopher himself would indicate a most intimate connection between the form of a thing and its telos and imply the metaphysical dependence of the telos upon the form, but the knowledge of form is scarcely mentioned by you. You speak again and again of comprehending the teloi of things but not their form. That has puzzled me considerably over the course of our lessons, but I believe an answer has come to me. There are two kinds of change. There is natural change, which is change in accordance with the nature of a thing and there is violent change, or change that is contrary to the nature of a thing. The commonplace example of the natural change is the rock that falls and of violent change, the rock that is thrown upwards. The Theurge, should, if regulated by logos be in essence a metaphysical artisan. The Theurge should comprehend the form of a thing and what the telos of that form is and help each particular thing to move further towards the perfect actualization of its form which is the telos of all things according to the Old Philosopher. In this way all particular things become as much like Xthonos and Its pure actuality as finite and composite beings are able. This accords not only with the Old Philosopher, but also with Revelation. However, Hera, was not willing to conform herself to logos. Either by vice or by weakness, she let her lower appetite for domination overthrow her reason and set up her own arbitrary will as her guide instead of the laws of logos. So too all her spiritual heirs to this day. If form was headed, that would make it obvious that it is not admissible for the Theurge to do whatever she wants in pursuit of her goals, but the Thaumatarchy was ordained by Hera so that she should suffer no let nor hindrance in doing whatever she willed. Hence, form is passed over in silence so that the Theurge may be freed to direct any particular thing towards whatever end she has in mind once she has obtained the skill to do more than basic changes. That is also why so very much of the Theurgical techne is perverted into propagating and perpetuating violent change which is in the end unsustainable and leads inevitably, quickly or slowly, to Xaos. The particular things all become so misaligned with their form and true telos in order to serve the arbitrary telos that exists in the minds of the Theurges that they hasten to their dissolution and can only be held in their unnatural state by ever larger expenditures of aether. The most extreme example of this tendency would be those who practice plektosis and even more especially, those who dream of changing the telos of a thing permanently. Metaphysically, this means that the original form has been destroyed and replaced with another or that all the matter that was joined to the original form of one particular thing has been stolen and given to another. To put it crassly, the techne of the metaphysical artisan has been perverted into being that of a metaphysical rapist under the tyranny of the Thaumatarchs. In our new world, we must restore Magia, Wizardry, Theurgy or whatever name we give it to it’s true self. We must conform our techne to the rule of universal logos and not the individual arbitrary will of each practitioner. We must understand the forms of things and direct them towards their real teloi for their own benefit and not merely of ones devised by us for our own convenience without any concern for the things we change. Would you not agree?”
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Use paragraphs, this looks overwhelming
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Imagining a leader of Helot or yeomen rebellion calling themselves: Savior of the people, The peoples sword, The liberator of oppressed, The destroyer of injustice annd it keeps going.
My point is that everyone is capable of title collection. No matter their pre rebellion status
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A noble named Thanos would be quite possible in the Hegemony (though I guess it would be a family and friends diminutive)
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