And other small officials like him. Helps that in their own way they are almost as abused by the Alastors and the current elites as my mc is but for the certainty of a life-ending Harrowing.
Fortunately for my mc the rural nobility at least can be done away with entirely by simply exposing how completely and utterly reliant they have become on the agricultural theurges. And I’ve already said that when my mc needs to make ugly compromises he by far prefers to make them with the merchant class, not the nobles or the priests, where in the latter case every priest ranked ecclesiast and above is assumed to be a counterrevolutionary traitor by default and the plan is to both open up the religious market for competition and leave then leaderless diakons cut off from state funding and in competition with each other and the new entrants on the religious market to fend for themselves, so as to foster a healthy competition among the lawful religions.
My mc’s state will definitely claim to be the legitimate successor state to the entirety of the Hegemony, or rather all of the pre-Hegemony states. It seems that in the practice of game 5’s competing states it will be centered around Avezia, which means it likely starts out controlling just significant parts of Shayard, Errezza and perhaps a bit of Nyral. .
Needless to say my mc will not be going for “Shayard redeemed” as getting buy-in from the other people and cultures is vitally important to him. In addition, the sort of ancient “Shayardene culture” that would seem to drive the “Shayard redeemed” type of nationalism is not even his own culture. Insofar as it has not been irrevocably corrupted by centuries of Hegemony oppression our mc’s “culture” is Anglo-Shayardene who used to be relatively oppressed and backward even back in Shayard’s glory days when it a was the French-Shayardene culture that was considered to be the Shayardene “high culture” of nobles and royals.
That being said any other factions holding bits of Shayard, likely the Laconniers, will be the highest priority to try to put an end to and not just because there’s a high chance the other surviving Shayardene faction are likely to be those Laconniers my mc hates with a passion.
It’s not called grand, but it is the premier city to my mc. Also if he ever does get that canal that would provide a huge incentive for urban development in Avezia as well as a yet to build city (or more likely one that might grow out of what is now a podunk fishing village) on the northern shore at the other terminus of the canal.
Both, all the Hegemony infrastructure, what roads and canals there are all lead to Aekos and Aekos seems to be designed to be the hub of the whole system with everything significant having to be routed through there. Which is certainly one reason why my mc would favour an expansion of maritime trade and the canal, for cities and villages along the coasts ports are cheaper to build and maintain than a new state highway system that does not solely route towards Karagon. though, yes, new roads will probably have to be built too.
You do realise your MC will be the primary target for any post-revolutionary religious factions? And all of the helots who believe in the Angels(a lot of them). And your MC(if I am correct) is fully specialising in INT, which means he won’t have anywhere near the charisma to convince anyone that this is a good idea.
@KuriosIasoun, the city of Aveche/Avezia is smaller than Shayard City, but the region of Aveche is fairly sizeable – almost as big as the Rim.
A 2-3 province empire will be possible, as indeed will a new Hegemony across all 5 provinces if you beat all the rival contenders and form a stable social order of some kind. As for reasonability, though, a multi-province empire will be a lot harder than consolidating your grasp over Shayard alone, in whole or part, and each province you try to add will increase the challenge.
To be clear, the scale of Theurgy required to deal with mountain ranges goes beyond what even the legends talk about. Dropping a single mountain is rather a big deal and doesn’t happen often. As for burning/flooding, the infamous Scouring of the Westriding didn’t manage entirely to snuff out Cabel’s rebellion, and that was in some of the least friendly imaginable terrain for guerrillas. A Hegemony with a now far more strained blood supply and an emboldened foe on the eastern border would be mad to try to Scour you out of the Whendward or Wiendrj itself.
Aekos is (as idnlun says) the heart of the Karagond trading/finance system, and also contains plenty of high value industrial production.
How much of your time you can spend on counter-insurgency will rather depend on how much territory you’re trying to conquer. The level of violence and chaos in post-Hegemonic Shayard has a numeric variable attached to it which you will continue to do quite a lot to influence. And yes, the 3-4 most important post-Thaumatarchy factions (not counting yours) will all come with extremely experienced Theurges at or near the helm.
While they’re certainly a class vulnerable to accusations of uselessness, it’s worth noting that nobles also include a significant proportion of the legitmate and knowledgable administrators of the rural Hegemony. The aristarch-level families are often much more effective than the Alastors, especially since the latter took their turn toward rent-seeking. You can definitely adopt a “hang the last noble with the entrails of the last priest” strategy, but not without losing some capacities that you’ll find yourself missing as you try to rebuild your massive new empire.
Well, that’s what Breden is for. (Wait–what did you do with Breden again, idnlun?)
If the MC is a 6 INT Theurge, will that be enough to count their factions as one of those? Also, will the 1 attribute point come at the start, middle or end of each game? As well as that, will we get the opportunity to loot the Lykeion, if we can’t have Aekos as our capital?
They are free to believe in the angels, just not in the Karagond codex or the caste system and since the current upper hierarchy of the Church is inextricably linked with the Hegemonic state. Where the Soviet Union had its mirroring of party and state ranks and positions the Hegemony seems to do the same thing with the Church to the point where all of the most senior Hegemony leaders are also the leaders and prophets of the church, the “eclects” and the Hegemony is a (de-jure) theocracy with the priesthood nominally in control of the Alastors and so on. Decapitating the Church is likely not nearly the most difficult thing to do and once that happens and the diakons are cut off both from their leadership hierarchy and state funding then to survive the successful will actually need to seriously start tending to their often primarily former helot flock and actually become responsive to their needs if they want to survive, in addition to having to observe the new restrictions on lawful religions.
Though those are mainly a prohibition on preaching caste and slavery (and unofficially the new state will take a dim view of religions/churches growing too large and making a play for temporal power and they will quickly suffer “incidents” where compelling evidence is found that they are unreconstructed and unrepentant preachers of the banned Karagond Codex).
It’s also a moot point as they would never support my mc under any circumstances (or at least any remotely acceptable to my mc), nor vice versa. As fundamentally someone like my mc is not even human to them. Even if my mc wanted to convince a portion of the nobility it would likely be easier to go with the ones who rarely if ever leave the city and thus have next to no interaction with helots and convince them of his basic humanity by showing that his helots are basically no different from the poor but free city folk. Rural nobles have the firm belief that helots are not human and that brutality is needed instilled far closer to their hearts, so to speak and would be next to impossible to convince otherwise.
Also, they likely rely on their own equivalents of Bleys to actually do anything and those are the people my mc aims to steal away from them anyway. Again, like Bleys, hopefully many of those people would be capable of growing into much more senior administrative roles than they currently occupy with the newly literate former helots under them (and some of them like my mc and Pin and Yebben above them).
My mc doesn’t trust Breden and will dispose of them once he has found a charismatic co-conspirator who actually shares his skepticism. So, yes, he’s planning to dispose of Breden asap, as he really doesn’t trust the guy/gal.
Well since my mc is a mage too, you can count his own faction too in his case. We always knew that was gonna be true however and that is why my mc hopes to pick up a number of tricks in the Xaos lands and maybe even from the unquiet dead later on that most of his magical contenders either don’t know or won’t deign (or dare) to use. Xaos storm over Aekos (hopefully), anyone?
In contrast to Mara, since in his personal experience magic is what set him free and him being a mage is what most exposes the fact that “theurgy” is definitely not a divine gift from the benevolent angels he’s hardly going to give it up. Reform how it is used or practiced perhaps, but definitely not give it up.
At 6 INT, you’d have a decent chance in a toe-to-toe Theurgic duel against 3 out of 4 of the ones I have in mind. (The last one would require, let’s say, a 9 INT or special circumstances.)
In terms of dominating the post-Hegemonic order through Theurgy, the number of other Theurges you can train/attract to your faction is more important than your personal ability to win an Avada-Kedavra-off. A 6 INT MC could do very well there. So of course could a charismatic MC. But only an INT MC could train your own, as opposed to having to cut a deal with the primary perpetrators of the existing blood harvesting system.
You will definitely have the opportunity to loot the Lykeion in Game 4. And the stat bumps will come early in each game.
I’ll refrain from comment until you’ve spoken with Cerlota.
Sarcifer confirmed! GET HYPE! Also, @idonotlikeusernames I’ve got a feeling he’s doing exactly what you want to do with regards to tricks from the Xaos-lands.
Has there ever been an XoR character who’s gotten 9 INT?
We can still cut a deal in exchange for other things, right? Even a high-INT MC might want some more experienced Theurges around them, rather than acolytes.
What the heck even is the last one then? A (fallen) “angel” made flesh? Or arch-lich Gaesh or the Stormbringer ruler of Brorachia in disguise or something? As we cannot actually even reach INT9 in-game. And you did equate the solely int-focused mc to Merlin once, so one presumes a legend in and of themselves, even without leading a rebellion, solely based on magical skills.
A very significant advantage and likely the very thing that makes my mc’s successor state even remotely possible as ideologically it could likely not survive to have to cut a deal of that magnitude with (one or more of) the current “eclects” who also tend to be the current Hegemony’s top mages.
Maybe Yebben, assuming he starts at INT3 (with zero in both of the others, but then again it seems zero or .5 stats with just one 1 are actually the most common for most people) and gets six stat-raising opportunities, instead of the mc’s 5, due to not having the pressure of also having to be a leader and being able to devote himself more to magic. On the other hand even a super Yebben seems more likely to level out at 7, if he really is the superior magical talent in the rebellion over even mage mc. Which means something like 8 or 9 may only be possible with millennia of added knowledge and study, which seems unlikely even for Sarcifer, unless “Sarcifer” is actually the “Stormbringer” or the Arch-lich in disguise.
See above, unless “Sarcifer” is the flesh disguise of another being that’s hardly cause for jubilation, after all if Sarcifer actually is like the story tells he’s just another noble who made it to eclect and you don’t do that unless you are prepared to see helots as sub-human blood-cattle, which would not bode well for my mc.
Havenstone also has them as the leader of their own faction and my mc after having been a sub-human slave all his life is not anxious to have to play the good little, subordinate slave ever again.
Not many in the gameworld, no. While I don’t usually apply the PC stat system to NPCs, I suppose we could say that Thaumatarch Kleitos, who uses so many Talismans he’s barely human anymore, is an INT 7. Ennearchs are by and large INT 5s.
Did you really think I was going to answer that?
Yes. As we get into the late game, there will potentially be a lot of factors leading experienced Theurges to be disillusioned, demoralized, or just desperate enough to join a rebel faction, whatever the rebel leader’s charisma.
Well as to you not answering when has that ever stopped me from speculating, since you did once say the arch-lich might take an interest in (mage) mc I’m going to go with that one in disguise as it seems they could plausibly have INT 9, seeing as how they were around well before even Hera.
Since we cannot have that it seems we must go for those “special” circumstances. As I said before my mc is not willing to become a subordinate slave ever again.
A Talisman is pure aether, the stuff of magic and thus allows you to use magic liberally without any of the need to messily extract the stuff from blood or babies.
The bits about the thaumatarch do make me a bit more worried about his “son” and/or heir, prince(ss) nippletwister and how much access they have to those talisman things and what their stats actually are.
Well, you see while my mc is hardly as enthusiastic about it as @Norilinde 's mc he did promise the kid to teach him once he gets back from the Xaos lands, assuming they both survive, and apart from it looking really bad my mc wouldn’t renege on that promise as he does recognize the need for more mages once the rebellion spreads. He just holds off on teaching Yebben because he doesn’t want Yebben or more likely his sister, Elery to be able to wrest leadership of the rebellion away from him because her brother can now function as the resident mage and supplant my mc.
It’s a simple question of balance and opportunity tho, teaching people like Yebben too soon possibly makes them too dangerous while teaching them too late likely makes them less or not at all useful against the Hegemony.
First, let me remind you all that any discussion of aether still needs to be spoiler protected. Thank you. Those who want to be spoiled can start upthread.
Meanwhile, from the Glossary of Game 1: “Talismans: a handful of immensely sacred, near-mythical objects that allow a Theurge to wield Angelic power without shedding blood. Used by some Eclect heroes in the stories of the Codex, and reportedly by the Thaumatarch and some Ennearchs today.”
That’s a great question. We’ll see as we get closer.
Don’t forget that one of the chapters in Game 4 is called Talisman and Sacrifice which means we might be able to get one.
Sarcifer, if the OP Theurge in question is Sarcifer, seems pragmatic enough to not start a pointless fight with your MC simply because: “Helots bad!”
So, why do the Wards need any blood? If the Ennearchs (who I assume have access to them) are in charge of the Wards, why don’t they just use Talismans?(I’m confident there is a reason btw)
I didn’t realise that the index was being truthful about Talismans, due to no mention of aether.
Also, @Havenstone, will we get a chance to ally with Kleitos once Aekos and by extension the Hegemony has fallen? And thanks for making such a great game and answering my(and others) questions about the lore.
Always assumed that meant one was going to be used against us in that chapter, not that we’d be able to get our own hands on it.
On the other hand my mc is certainly not willing to become the guy’s personal “slave” (complicated by the fact that at this juncture my mc sees any subordination they might request of him as a prelude of their intent to facilitate his imminent return to menial blood-cattle slavery) under any circumstances…so… if your theory proves correct they both might have that particular fight on their hands anyway.
Let’s put it this way, even if the guy wanted to be a mentor and substitute father figure to someone like my mc he’d have done well to come a few years earlier as my mc is hardly in the mood for it now.
Likely because they do not have enough pure aether “talismans” nor reliable means to obtain them, see speculations about the need for a space programme further upthread, to reliably power them, except maybe in emergencies for relatively short terms. It is more likely that apart from being used for high level magical research and experimentation, most likely focused on how to obtain or create more pure aether those “talismans” effectively function as the Hegemony’s “strategic reserve” of magic, which means they are likely to dip into it by game 4 at least, but also makes us rather unlikely to ever obtain more than minute traces of it, at least from that source.
A hypothetical for your MC: Sarcifer is starting Harrowing again and is essentially re-creating a smaller version of the Hegemony, but he doesn’t want any form of fealty or subordination from your MC and will let you keep your land. Would your MC fight him, or be content that his current territory is free?
Since opposition to Harrowing is not only a core belief of my mc but likely a founding ideal of any state he creates it would be an impossible blow to its legitimacy to let those practices stand in any territory it has de-jure claims on. So, yes, one way or another that too is likely to come to blows.
A (fallen) “angel” made flesh? Or arch-lich Gaesh or the Stormbringer ruler of Brorachia in disguise or something? As we cannot actually even reach INT9 in-game. And you did equate the solely int-focused mc to Merlin once, so one presumes a legend in and of themselves, even without leading a rebellion, solely based on magical skills.
On the other hand even a super Yebben seems more likely to level out at 7, if he really is the superior magical talent in the rebellion over even mage mc. Which means something like 8 or 9 may only be possible with millennia of added knowledge and study, which seems unlikely even for Sarcifer, unless “Sarcifer” is actually the “Stormbringer” or the Arch-lich in disguise.