Choice of Rebels: Uprising — Lead the revolt against a bloodthirsty empire!

[Norilinde]

@Ramidel

Well, consider that

1: The barriers to reaching the aether through techne are greater than in our world (the sphere of empyreal fire is a bigger bitch than our radiation belts and there may not be a low earth orbit like we have).
2: If you can reach the empyrean aether, you can make talismans, which allow theurgy without blood (and lots of it; talismans sublimate very slowly), which do reduce the need for an exclusively techne program. If you can reach the aether with a manned mission…well, that’s a big question mark, but if you can survive there and make Changes, you can engage in godlike feats of Theurgy (raising a mountain into the sky? Pfft, that’s amateur-hour stuff).

For all we know, the empyrean (sphere of elemental fire) may refer to the Van Allen radiation belt. If you had to attribute being bombarded by high energy particles to one of the four classical elements, fire is probably your best bet. I am somewhat skeptical that the sky would actually burn without oxygen at a high enough altitude. I think it is more likely that it is caused by what is thought of as elemental fire in the same way that the Sun would probably be viewed as a concentration of elemental fire even though combustion is not the dominant reaction there. Alternatively, one might also wonder whether the Elder Scrolls Ayleid view that fire is an impure form of light is actually correct in this world. The fact that Ayleids constructed their magical items from meteors is an interesting parallel and come on, making a mountain float is just asking for it to fall eventually. If my MC ends up eating overgrown insects and mushrooms after the mountain does fall, my MC will not be happy.

@Havenstone

Back in the northern plains of Nyryal, the Nyr increasingly preferred trade to plunder. The coastal city of Umri, where they received trading ships from their newly Imperial cousins in Halassur, became the cultural and intellectual capital of the Nyr tribes. Glorious Nyrnakan remained the political capital, where the great coalitions of families gathered once a year to agree on things like migration routes, trade policies, and the occasional conquest. It was also the religious capital, home of the gods who had sustained the Nyr through all their wanderings.

On the subject of eventual rebellion capital locations, I don’t know how I missed this earlier but Umri would probably be better than Nyrnakan while still keeping the advantages of being in skeptical territory.

Also, YAY for quoting a locked thread!

@Gforce

Is there anybody who can tell me the relation between the no of outlaws we assign for to be taught and the number of literates we finally get after the 9th week?

I can’t figure it out how the numbers work for the final number of literates.

Here is the source code for teaching the band to read.

    #Teach more of my outlaws their letters and numbers.
      *if literacy = 0
        *gosub litjust
      *comment endif
      
      How many of your
      *set d2n_num freefollowers
      *gosub d2n
      free followers do you want to spend the week practicing their alphabeta?
      *input_number students 2 freefollowers
      *set litweek +students
      *if litweek > 100
        Your more experienced students understand enough now to help others get started.
      *if litweek <= 100
        You find a bit of time early in the week and set exercises for them to practice.
      This week,
      *set d2n_num students
      *gosub d2n
      outlaws devote themselves to dogged memorization and shakily scribing letters in dirt and bark.
      *if kids > 2
        Many of the band's children 
        *if literacy = 0
          are mustered by Pin Thatcher to 
        *if literacy > 0
          also
        join them.
        *set litweek +(kids/10)
      *set freefollowers -students
      *set literacy week
      *goto banditchoices

and

*if (week = 10) and (litweek > 0)
  *set literate +round(litweek/10)
  *if literate > 2
    As you turn your mind to this week's mule train, you're gratified to see that
    *if (prevlit > 0) and (literate <= 13)
      *if el_here
        Elery and
      the
      *if bandead > 5
        surviving
      helots you taught the alphabeta back in Rim Square are now comfortably able to read a written message.  A winter of practicing what you taught them has served them well.
    *if (prevlit = 0) or (literate > 13)
      *if el_here
        Elery and
      the
      *if bandead > 5
        surviving
      outlaws who have been learning their alphabeta are now comfortably able to read a written message.  You reckon that thanks to your efforts, about
      *set d2n_num literate
      *gosub d2n
      of your followers have achieved low-level literacy.
    *set cred_h +(literate*2)
    
    *set morale +literate