Yes, though I guess I always imagined it have more of a Turkish/Ottoman then Persian feel to it. That said it is supposedly even larger then the Hegemony itself and likely incorporates a diverse array of peoples and cultures within it.
Although I’d guess the Hegemony actually has the (slightly) more productive land.
The guy pointing looks very much like an “Achilles” for some unknown, random reason. Its not a popular name in Cata’s world so IDk 
The thing with Persia is that it was the watermark back in that era. It was what Alexander wanted to be, he wanted to create an Empire as strong and important as Persia was. Of course he died and his successors all went about and murdered each other but the Hellenistic period had a lasting effect on the world. I want my new Empire to be as important to the psyche of civilisation as those two were and better. While the Hegemony and Empire are bad places, we all can agree that they are going to leave a massive impact across the world even after their deaths at my hands.
He’s too old to be Achilles. He looks like he’s seen a few wars and didn’t die because he chose to wear sandals.
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Deaths? Oh no, states and cultures never really die, just absorbed and refined and regurgitated. The circle of life.
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By death, I meant when I kill them and rebrand them in my image.
If I need to lop off the head of every single Thautmarch statue and place my beautiful visage on it, that’s what I’ll do.
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While my mc has no control over the Empire and does not aspire to it (unless forced to) my mc will endeavour to limit the Hegemony’s lasting cultural and legal impact as much as he can, starting with the legal successor state claims.
Meh, just smash them to pieces and leave it at that. My mc would rather see statues depicting flora and fauna, rather than people, least of all himself. Although I guess certain exceptions could be made for works celebrating the natural human form, particularly if Simon would agree to model. 
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No massive statue for yourself?
or this?
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No, my mc in this really isn’t the type to like seeing images of himself everywhere, no matter how much he enhances said image through magic to begin with.
Your MC’s life expectancy is probably going to be 4 years after your revolution anyway. So it does make sense!
That’s what you think anyway. I think he’ll be around for a lot longer then that, provided he doesn’t die trying, which is a possibility, perhaps even a strong possibility but after the revolution it becomes less likely.
Still it will cost what it will cost and if that’s the price of not settling for being a slave or a puppet of the priests and aristos ever again, but I guarantee it’s going to come at high price.
Anything is better than having to pretend at “lost nobility” or piety and probably having to marry calea and fathering a bunch of mini Hectors.
With that being said I think he’d be quite prepared to step down as long as it secures the values of the revolution and doesn’t lead to his death as I don’t think he’d particularly like the top job, but rather feels he needs it in order to prevent much worse for himself and his fellow helots.
On the other hand if the yeomen or merchants really force him to commission such a monstrous statue I think he’d have it built in a remote location where almost nobody would see it as a compromise. Though it definitely wouldn’t be gilded as that is a display of decadence too far.
But as long as we’re talking about statues he does actually have an idea for a couple of nice new ones.
Statues?
My Captain would only go for statues that commemorate those groups who fought for the Rebellion against the Thaumatarch.
Like two Jackal Werefolk statues outside the house of government for if the Xaos-Landers are recruited, a helot breaking a chain that was tied around his neck, a noble alongside helots fighting a common enemy, a Wiends, Erreziano, Nyr and Shayardene back to back against Phalangites…
Although I’ve always wondered if the Captain could convince the populace to fund a huge broken chain from the Floating Palace down to Aekos.
Maybe it would look more like this 
Oh, and something happened with my helot character today: I sent Breden to bring Linos and Horion back to the camp in Chapter 3 and then Breden… just killed them both. And they kept insisting that it was because on of them was talking about Theurgy and they panicked.
Now I’m much more keen to subscribe to the “Breden as the Kryptast assistant” theory, because damn, that is sketchy. But an actual spy would probably be much more subtle when eliminating two hostages. Maybe Breden is CHA2 and INT0, in the end.
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Greedy? Sybla is just convinced that your rebellion is likely doomed to fail, just like all the other rebellions in the past. Why would she throw away a perfectly okay life to starve in some woods and limit her continued life expectancy to less than a year? It has very little to do with greed, it is just basic pragmatism.
And Zvad is amazing, even my somewhat haughty aristo character thinks he is probably the best of the lowborn bunch. He is altruistic, loyal, and honest. A true Onion Knight, as GRRM might say. Not much greed there either.
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I think that might just represent Breden’s 0 in Combat. She is not a commander or warrior, so it makes sense that the people under her command panic and accidentally kill the guests when they hear something about Theurgy. If we believe her reaction during the Harrowing to be genuine, then we already know that she can panic (and freeze) under pressure.
But yeah, it might also just be her Kryptast assassin training kicking in, although I am leaning towards the “Breden is a Kryptast who now believes in your rebellion” angle. Sure, maybe she was leaking some information during the winter to not alert her bosses to her desertion, but I have a hard time seeing how our rebellion has been so successful if Breden was actively working to get us killed.
Not sure if she is behind the poisoning, or whether that is Radmar (or another Kryptast) trying to blame her, but maybe she just did it to convince you that retreat is better than standing and fighting (and dying).
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There is no way the traitor situation isn’t going to turn out to be extremely complicated.
When you make an Accounting, the Phalangite commander implies that a Kryptast infiltration would be the kind of thing that she would have been told about in advance. If the Kryptasts actually are involved with the rebellion, they are up to something extremely weird.
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I think Havenstone is going to troll us for all five books without definitively revealing what’s up.
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Personally, I think @Havenstone should run a design contest that involves creating a small section of Book 2, based on guidelines and possible outcomes of Book 1. The winner would get to have their work featured in Book 2. I’m thinking no more than 1000 words.
This seems great, gonna play it right away.
“Not sure if she is behind the poisoning, or whether that is Radmar (or another Kryptast) trying to blame her, but maybe she just did it to convince you that retreat is better than standing and fighting (and dying).”
If that would be the case then it doesn’t make much sense that the poisoning happens even if you choose to evade the Phalangite and staying in the woods or to infiltrate the Rim (and this was her suggestion).
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Finished reading this book a while back, and I am very impressed with it. A shame I couldn’t contribute anything to it in its WiP stage.
So far, I have a helot with 2 Fighting and 0 Intelligence, and a noble with 2 Intelligence and 0 Fighting (who’s a Theurge). Their only difference in personalities is that the noble is devout, and the helot is a skeptic.
After thinking for a while, I decided that my noble will be my canon playthrough. It just has a lot more options and variety to it, and if I’m ever struggling, I can always read a tip or two in @Ramidel’s guide.
My second choice is whether I only robbed the Hegemony or every one in the winter. The former doesn’t raise a lot of Anarchy and just feels right to me, the latter makes the winter part much more complex and interesting.
Also, a question: I want to have a good relationship with all the factions. I want the helot and yeomanry and nobles and etc. to see me in a good light. However, I am struggling with this. Any tips?
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