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

[mshan95032]

@Havenstone

one of the very last things I need to do before rolling it out for playtesting.

Yay (and thanks) for progress!

@Havenstone

Theurgy forces armies to adopt tactics focused on dispersion, cover, and concealment, much as modern weaponry did in our world.

Dispersion, cover, and concealment? Noted.

And on another note, could forming an international assassination guild/agency be another potential Game 5 goal/direction for aspiring mercenary MCs to pursue? (regardless of the endgame levels of anarchy, since even peacetime leaders may occasionally wish to see their political rivals (and other obstacles) discreetly disposed of in "unfortunate accidents")

And considering that the post-Hegemony Karagond Theurges (who go into hiding) sort of count as “Nazis in Argentina,” there’s (presumably) going to be plenty of bounties for assassin guildmaster MC to claim, right?

@Havenstone

As the first major population center to be seriously threatened by a rebellion, Grand Shayard is likely to see the Thaumatarchy come down on it like a ton of bricks.

If MC actively works at keeping his rebellion at a low profile/low anarchy levels, could Game 2 plausibly end with a “nothing to see here folks, move along!” response from the Thaumatarchy? (or perhaps even go to great lengths to fake MC’s death, if MC wanted to drive down his Notoriety level and give the Thumatarchy a false sense of security)

@cascat07

self-change equated with the rankest goety.

@Havenstone

If enough of the priesthood become dissatisfied with their role as hype men for a Theurgic caste that holds all the real power without consistently living up to the Angelic ideal, the regime may not only find itself with a more limited pool of effective propagandists; the ideological system it’s spent centuries honing may swing slowly against it, creating a space where more and more people start looking for opportunities for non-cooperation.

@Havenstone, if self-change is considered Goety, doesn’t Kleitos’ own self-transformation (into his current inhuman/god-like form) count as breaking his own rules?

This could be quite an interesting case of “rules for thee, not for me” hypocrisy to point out in anti-Kleitos propaganda, right?

Then again, how many people have witnessed Kleitos’ true appearance? (AND have lived to tell the tale)

@Havenstone

brutal dictatorships

FYI Reddit comment I saw on this thread:
“It’s the classic issue with all dictatorships. Once you’ve purged all competency and willingness to tell you uncomfortable truths from your government, all you’ve got left are corrupt yes-men who know how to always tell you what you want to hear, so your decisions become steadily more disconnected from reality.”
How has the Thaumatarchy been able to cope with this classic dictatorship flaw over the centuries?

@NotMyRealName

redistributing the noble estates

@Havenstone

By the present day, how much vacant Shayardene land/acres is not yet owned/cultivated by its native citizens? (Or by the Hegemony)

Could this vacant land be a useful asset for binding foreign allies/immigrants to Shayard’s banner/cause?
(Similar to King Alfred of Wessex’s bargain with Ubbe and Bjorn, the Viking sons of Ragnar Lothbrok)

Or would MC first need to evict (and/or kill) some of Shayard’s current landowners to create the vacant land for his scenario?

@Havenstone

shogun

Do the “ashigaru vs samurai” archetypes qualify as fitting comparisons between XoR’s yeomen (the “peasant soldier” ashigaru) and aristo (the “elitist warrior” samurai)?

@Havenstone

Shayardene incursion into “Steswick”

Does Stezyc still have any lingering Shayardene cultural ties/echoes (e.g. Shayardene-Whendish intermarriages) from its old days of being assimilated by Shayard? (Similar to Avezia/Aveche)

Homelander MC is considering forming his G3 (and beyond) Whendish power base around two groups: Wiendrj’s ethnic Shayardene minority (especially those living in Steswick), and Shayardene-Whendish cultural syncretics (assuming of course, that this hybrid demographic does exist in the first place?).

@Havenstone

For all its precocious, magic-fuelled totalitarianism, it’s still a long way off from being able to carry out a precise count of its citizens.

You mean to tell me that Kleitos doesn’t have his own personal, floating “Eye of Sauron” that occasionally scans each province for an approximate count?