However, how about securing a large number of lawyers through immediate cultivation? (I think it’s a decision that involves many unfavorable trade-offs, but if you look at many historical examples such as the United States and East Asian countries immediately after the founding of the nation, I think it’s a decision that has a lot of potential to be chosen.)
Also, what kind of things can trained lawyers be used for, even if they are few in number?
Speaking of, I don’t suppose Earlund is an appropriate name for this kind of state, considering the inclusion of “Shayard proper” yeah? Nonetheless continuing to call it Shayard, considering the intent to reorient the borders out of eastern Shayard and into southern Wiendrj, feels improper. What would be a good name in that case?
Final note, would the Seracca want any territorial concessions for a firm alliance? For example leasing the base at or altogether handing over Scarthe?
For bonus points, sad bad ending Cosmopolitan Earlund:
If you were to enact a code of secular content, what kind of content could you enact?
And how far can we industrialize if we maintain magic under a blood tax and create a unified gigantic democracy?
got it. So what does their “public order maintenance ‘’ work involve? Also, there doesn’t seem to be a national investigative agency, who is in charge of the investigation?
Imagine doing all this and making legal systems when we can just adopt the abhuman federation way of life.
All mage all the time 200 year long span baby
I noticed a lot of people are discussing what their endstates could be, and that got me to start thinking.
Assuming the collapse of the Hegemony into its constituent states, would it be possible to turn Aekos (or the whole of Karagond ig, I’m not picky) into something like the “neutral” diplomatic meeting ground of the ‘League’ between the newly independent states? Basically make it like the headquarters of the UN.
Looks about right. A western Erezziano power might want to expand into the Shayard Coast to feed itself without Theurgy, and an eastern Karagon- or Aveche-based rump Hegemony would be very keen to hang onto it. Giving it away to ensure friendly neighbors will be an option, but will at a minimum inflame any homelander faction (Samena fought the battle of Calebre to claim the Coast!) and depending on the Harrowing policies of the neighboring state, might upset a whole lot more people than that.
Can’t think of one off the top of my head. 
Fortunately we’ve got a long way to go before we really need one.
They wouldn’t want Scarthe. I’m going to hold off on any further comments on the terms of Seracca alliances until I post the draft of G2 Ch4 sometime next year.
Are you asking specifically about law on religion/state-secularism, or law on everything? The latter would be too broad for me to give an answer. When it comes to the constitutional and legal role of religion, you should be able at a minimum to institute:
We’ll see. In pretty much all of the economic/state capacity stuff, just getting your successor state back to the Hegemony’s level of capacity is going to be a massive challenge all on its own. Going beyond it will be possible in some cases, but I can’t tell you what that will look like – the outcomes are going to be emergent from a host of different factors.
Stopping lawbreakers and punishing the ones they catch. That can and often does involve some investigation, but it’s not a specialism, and (unlike in our modern world) not one of the primary things people associate with law enforcers. Where necessary, an investigation can be carried out by people the aristarch or Ecclesiast assigns to the task. Like many aspects of premodern and early modern law enforcement, it’s an ad hoc function, rather than a permanent institution.
If any major successor faction was based there, then probably not, unless the League was that faction’s empire in all but name. If the events of G4 and G5 leave Karagon a splintered wasteland of starving landlocked principalities and ungoverned zones, while stronger states form in its former provinces… then quite possibly. All roads do still lead there, after all.
Cope, seethe, mald, etc. You will love thy neighbor.
This is gonna be a red line for me regardless I think, at least at a state level. We don’t negotiate with people-chippers.
Hearing that makes me uneasy. Based on historical examples and common sense, such a remarkably imperfect system will collapse in the industrial age that the empire is about to enter. Do you have any countermeasures against that?
Let’s change the topic. What ministries and institutions can we set up after the revolution?
No – it will evolve messily, as the historical parallels did, with lots of suffering and sidetracks along the way. It takes a while for any society to adapt to mass urbanization, when much of your social order is no longer reinforced by the mutual knowledge and accountability inherent in the close ties of rural life. Blood magic compounds the problem, giving any gameworld government a disincentive to tackle the root causes of criminality (as long as that criminality doesn’t unduly affect its elites) and incentives to make the prosecutory process as efficient as possible. Executions literally fuel the state’s power; everyone in the Hegemony has grown up in a system where the fundamental function of Alastors is to faciitate that fueling.
We’ll see when we get to G5 what the institutional picture looks like, for this as for other things. You’re going to have a lot of big-picture post-rebellion challenges to face, potentially including war, famine, invasion, economic collapse, massacres, and ethno-religious revolt; if at the same time you’re trying to make your new order accountable, participatory, and emancipatory (for which I warmly commend you!), you’ll be working against the expectations and instincts of a population who’ve only lived under horrorshow authoritarianism their whole lives. Fine-tuning the legal system and bureaucracy is a luxury that few players are going to have. So I’m afraid I’m not going to put a lot of time into spelling out the parameters now; we’ll see what priorities open up as we get there.
(FYI, the forum etiquette is not to post lots of short posts. If you were the most recent poster, just edit your last post to add whatever new thing you’ve thought of.)
So wanted to create a state without Harrowings is going to have issues beyond food production (my main concern, as food is a basic and vital necessity).
I admit, I didn’t consider how to tackle crime once the Hegemony falls, though we are still far away from that.
It’s always easy to want to destroy and get rid of such a cruel and oppressive system, but this game is quickly making me realize that herculean task would be easier than building something kinder after and making it last.
Lets not forget slavery, caste systems and intolerance towards gay people. Those, along with the harrowing you mentioned above are the features that would define non-lawful and therefore illegal religions that have no place in the free religious market.
Hmmm…we did for a while use roving magistrates tasked with more of the investigative side, before that practice became widely spread to police departments. Not every case is big enough to warrant the attention of such a specialized magistrate but big and/or sensitive cases were, as early as the late 17th century. Maybe something like that would be possible? Their early cases under my mc would most likely be focused on maintaining and policing the religious marketplace.
Or we can possibly use it to demonstrate the Hallasurqs whatever magical weapon we have that can induce MAD and the cold war, while simultaneously visiting retribution on Karagon?
If that is the case the Aekos are would be a wasteland, similar to Hiroshima after the bomb but with far less eagerness to do any reconstruction work as rump Karagon under my mc’s morgenthau esque plan would lack the resources to undertake such a massive venture.
That was it for me. Sorry Cerlotta, it looks like Erjan may be a child killing monster but he is my TRUE FRIEND AND ALLY child killing monster. Shayard will have everything back even if it means allying with Halassur.
got it. Let’s change the subject. What will the military look like?
Also, can you enact monopoly licenses and patents? How about creating a limited corporation or an insurance system?
What is the scientific standard of the empire? Also, what kind of discoveries did you make? (For example, have the heliocentric or bacterial theories been discovered?)
Also, will the players be able to invent something? (e.g. canned food, hot air balloons, etc.)
Regarding the demo
Playing as a CHA 2 Kenon leader who brought Breden to the Xaos-lands. I noticed proselytising in Sojourn that Breden isn’t mentioned abstaining/helping you spread the word of Kenon.
IIRC Breden in game 1 they challenge your choice to adopt Kenon to replace Xthonos teachings, even when you do convince your followers, she reluctantly backs down.
Would Breden be an active detractor to a skeptic MC.
I would like to ask if it will be possible to be against theurgy as a whole rather than just harrowing and if a helot protagonist can serve the Laconniers. For feedback, it seemed strange to me that even a ruthless protagonist is so horrified by the revelation that the harrower also harvests the brain. The extra gore doesn’t mean much to me, but I think you might have mentioned that the reaction was because it isn’t possible to make aetherial blood without death. I personally think that the text should be clearer if that was the intention, unless I overlooked it, sorry it is a while since I read the demo, I don’t usually write feedback. There was also a scene with the glowing hunter propositioning you, where the choice for the rejection could be clearer. I just wanted to decline but suddenly, I was apologizing “if with anyone it would be you”. Aside from this, I would like to praise the journey through the Xaos lands, especially with Wolfbait. It was amazingly written, beautifully descriptive. When the demo released I couldn’t pull myself from the screen.
May I ask why?
