So far so good, in theory at least.
Yeah, not gonna happen…because the most likely non-theurgic authorities in waiting are the nobles and clergy who are quite firmly wedded to a system of chattel slavery that my mc would see extirpated.
See, now my mc would get why idealists like Cerlotta and maybe Sarcifer might think like that, and it is a position borne of generations of privilege…to them the nobility and the clergy are, or used to be their friends and family…where they came from and where their roots were. To my mc they are his mortal enemies, or at least 99% of them are, and the people who have been oppressing his class of people for generations and treating them and him worse than cattle. To them it may just be a reordering of the “family hierarchy” but where my mc comes from his people where never given any seat at that proverbial family table to begin with.
Besides knowing a few fancy magic tricks wouldn’t personally protect him from re-enslavement either literally or in all but name, in such a scenario.
Ideally that is what the WMD’s are for, protecting territorial integrity, at least vis a vis external enemies…besides we need Erezza’s minerals if we ever hope to achieve anything as there seems to be no feasible alternative to get them from anywhere else at a reasonable cost and on a meaningful scale.
I mean very long term it might, theoretically, be possible to trade for them with those faraway other continents that the current order has no real interest in and put the canal to good use…but even that is far less optimal strategically than getting them from your backyard. And my mc won’t trade for essential goods (assuming they’d even trade them in the first place) with Halassur…only for meaningless “luxury” junk and only during periods of thaw at that.
It seems they have less, at least for the moment, as they seem to lack the understanding and skillset necessary to equal the Hegemony’s highest level theurgy, like the wards.
Why do you think my mc is so endlessly fascinated by the Xaos storms? They are eminently suitable for area denial and seem to be self-perpetuating to at least some degree, yes, they may leach off the wards, but they also seem to leach of the life in their area. If only they could be controlled and possibly harnessed to some degree, eh?
Primarily in deterrence of course…unless Halassur really decides to press, then, yes, my mc would unleash the apocalypse upon them if he could and whoever survives can struggle for dominance in the wasteland.
Point is they are primarily potentially advantageous to force a cold war with Halassur…but if push comes to shove it is better to use your capabilities first, rather than last and given that those resources in Erezza seem to be vitally important to our longer term prospects, well…