Well… we really can, it just requires being a bit more proactive/“tragically” late in the first game.
On the plus side, conveying messages by flying Theurge is an area of wasting aetherial blood. So that may be one expense we can cut eventually.
@Havenstone Does the Hegemony have some sort of system to authenticate Theurges delivering messages? Just because someone is wearing black robes and can use wisardry, that does not mean they are actually working for the Hegemony. If the Hegemony overlooked this due to it not being a wide-scale problem earlier or because the Hegemony did not like the idea of non-Theurges challenging Theurges, that could get interesting.
Nonexistent. When you’ve figured out a way that people can fly unaided, there’s not much incentive to invest in flight technology…particularly the kind that easily catches on fire while you’re trying to work it out.
A hypothetical visitor from our world to the Hegemony would be able to provide lots of ideas for alternative technologies filling the functions currently reliant on Theurgy. Unfortunately, in the gameworld, those ideas are highly unlikely to occur any time soon. It takes a genius to think outside the main technological paradigm, and geniuses in the gameworld tend to become Theurges…
@Havenstone Havie now it comes a Mara rant about your Judas figure aka Breden. You are giving Breden godlike powers xhe Is most charismatic more spy more loved like me. WHEN SHE WAS NEVER NEAR MY MEN EVEN ONCE. and I am supposed to be more charismatic and the angels prophet for my men.
It causes plot holes big as mountains. And make all not funny. It doesn’t matter What Mara did the Judas is there with more followers I mean if Breden is so superior why is not the hegemony leader. I am about giving up it is soooo annoying.
I got only like 50 followers if They goes with Breden GG Mara could go Halassur if Havie stolen from Me the only I have. No money No weapons No combat and not magic
IF I AM STOLEN MY MAN AND MY CHARISMA IS DIRECT GAME OVER
The Hegemony is huge, what’s the speed limit on a theurge? I suppose as long as they accelerate with human tolerances no in an earth like atmosphere would be problematic. Hitting insects would not be fun…
At passanger jet speeds they could get from the capital to the war zone in 3 hours or so.
I have no helots. Except Simon servants and diacon servants. I only recruit from Serfs and free people NEVER from helots. I have never save a harrowing never helping a helot. So I don’t see how Breden could make my serfs and rebels that believe I am a prophet could go following the Person I DESCRIBE AS JUDAS DEMON . Then for me is GG as i have no money no weapons no combat no magic. The only I have is my followers trained to spread a damn religion where Breden is Judas.
Hmmm…signal towers shouldn’t be that difficult to improvise, if we can teach the rebels to read we can probably also devise a simple sign of light signals using mirrors.
But I have a feeling prince nippletwister would have…in due time.
When it comes to cosmetics removing whip scars and replacing any possibly lost teeth would be attractive even to my mc.
A great area of research for my mc, should he acquire viable test subjects…mostly Hector.
Yes, but not without an alternative in place such as the optical telegraph otherwise the total breakdown of communications would be very bad for anybody who would want to keep a resemblance of a federal government going. Fortunately the optical telegraph was 17th century technology refined in the 18th, so it might be possible with gameworld (steampunk) tech and the true “singing wire” might not be that far off post revolution, assuming we can begin to harness steam power itself more effectively.
Seems like the rebellion too would eventually need its own code system.
Or high int rebels.
Don’t underestimate war-time desperation on both sides either for forcing innovation, particularly of the kind that makes different or better use of already existing tech.
Anyway since really wealthy children in the Hegemony/Halassur seem to have some primitive steam-powered toys it might not be too difficult for somebody to get the idea in their heads to scale them up and make them useful. If not, coming up with alternative energy sources and non-theurgic research would be a very high priority for any post-revolution state.
I think on the old thread I already talked about my mc’s possible intent to dedicate at least one institute (and possibly much more, as non-magical research makes its practitioners far less dangerous than theurgic and is less resource-intensive to boot since it doesn’t use aether) to non-magical, non-theurgic research.
Again, “energy transition” wherever possible is an extremely high priority both during (to conserve resources) and after the rebellion (for pretty much the same reasons but with more of an ideological flavour).
Agricultural theurge pretty much guarantees survival with most rebel regimes, healing ones may or may not. The other ones, someone like my rebel mc wouldn’t look upon them too kindly.
I have a chat with Evil Gandhi and we have decided if my men go with Breden Demon I WILL HELP THEURGES KILL AND DEVASTATED EACH helot in universe LIFE WITH ME OR SLAUGTHER FOLLOWING THE JUDAS DEMON… I am okay if they go following anything else… All except Breden…
@Havenstone How do flying Theurges navigate? Presumably with Telos-vision (particularly at night or in low visibility unless Theurges just don’t fly in those conditions) to augment normal vision, but do they use some kind of Telos landmarks or beacons? Are magnetic compasses or sunstones in use? Are Theurges able and trained enough to sense things like magnetic field lines (if those exist in the XOR world)? There could be problems near the poles if True North and Magnetic North are far enough apart. The Theurges that supposedly flew around the world must have had some way of navigating out of sight of land (the Sun would work until it is directly overhead and stars might work if they’re visible). Anyways, if flying Theurges do use landmarks/beacons, depending on the type (if any) of landmarks/beacons it might be useful to sabotage those. A flying Theurge that gets lost and has to walk to deliver a message is a minor win for the Rebellion and even better if a Theurge that is forced to land gets intercepted on the ground.
Unless I’m wildly misinterpreting this statement theurges have engineered a perfectly effective, broadly available contraceptive. I think it’s extremely feasible theurges could create a perfect anesthetic as well.
I’d be willing to buy that the Hegemony doesn’t care enough about the fate of the harrowed to bother, but I think some mcs who choose to utilize harrowers would be interested in making the process less ghastly and would make a project of it.
Like I said upthread, Mara, I’m afraid the fact that your bandits never met Breden is one reason they might be more susceptible to xhis charm if they do meet xhim while Lady Mara is still off in the Xaos-lands:
By contrast, a band that had Breden around, got poisoned, and had xhim escape from custody will have a lot more actual reason to be hostile.
The idea that Lady Mara might have tried to make Breden the Judas of her religious cult – remembering, again, that in-game Mara has about 500 worries more pressing that the slim chance of Breden reappearing – feels to me like out-of-game knowledge affecting your role-play. A leader who spends too much time ranting about a helot that the band has never met and probably never will as “Judas Demon” would in any case be vulnerable to people deciding that was a little bit over-the-top. Especially as and when said helot shows up as the leader of another successful rebel band and suggests something reasonable, like closer coordination between their attacks.
So I disagree that there’s a plot hole, or that Breden’s charisma would have to be godlike to influence your band. But don’t panic, and certainly don’t give up. Xhe won’t be able to outright steal your band–not this game, and not in future games if you keep using your charisma to drive a wedge between xhis followers and yours. (Or, you know, have xhim killed.)
I think we’re talking human cannonball speeds rather than jet speeds–say, up to around 100 mph. So messages can take a while to get to the Halassurq front. @Norilinde, Telos-sense will keep a flying Theurge from running into a mountain even in poor visibility conditions and makes it easy to e.g. follow a coast, but in terms of not getting lost while flying inland they usually have to navigate visually, with a map and compass to hand to keep them from getting disoriented in unfamiliar terrain. Flying in bad weather or at night is possible but runs a higher chance of realizing when the sun comes up that you’re hopelessly lost. They don’t use special landmark towers; towns and villages make good enough landmarks for such purposes.
You’d think…but mature heliography appears to be a 19th century tech in our world, despite the fact that Hooke had the idea for some similar signal tower system in the 17th century…so I’m happy not including it in the gameworld.
You misconceive them entirely. Your MC has more vanity than the Diadoch, who’s much too pragmatic.
There will be some limited scope for that, yes. But not to invent heliographs, rifles, hot air balloons, transfusion, steam-engines AND all the other stuff discussed on the various XoR threads. One or two techs, not the raft of them.
They get out of breath more easily and have a moderately higher rate of cardiac problems.
It is feasible in theory, yes. (And you rightly interpret the mullow comment.) So, good suggestion, and let’s add anaesthetic to the list of techs that a high-INT rebel might be able to develop in later games.
You have not idea how much hatred me an Mara could have for a character. @JimD could relate you how my hatred for a character could go with Emma. Breden is same level. But it will funny because The hatred Mara will get against her old followers and helotry in general will be interesting. i am imagine a enraged Mara defending that helots are scourge of Xaos and daemons and full on theurge against them I swear If any of my men goes with Breden FIRE TO ALL HELOTRY THEY DON’T DESERVE HUMANITY… To this point my objective is DEFEAT BREDEN. Hegemony is a mere nuisance compared with that daemon
Have already been invented, so that’s just a question of mass use, not invention.
Possibly same as above, but of course in need of much more refinement for reliable industrial use.
Are not something that would occur to my mc, to be honest, but that’s what the non-magical research field post-rebellion is hopefully for.
My mc is quick thinking and desperate enough to elaborate on existing technologies and put them to hitherto unforeseen use, but for those radically diverging strands of thought, he’d need others who are even bigger dreamers or more creative. Given how you have the high-int mc be nearly a walking encyclopedia I think my mc would catch on to the potential of new things very quickly were they presented/explained to him, but he isn’t really an inventor, more of a (social) engineer and more a Jobs than a Wozniak as he’d still be better in devising application than theory.
The mc is, of course, not working alone, getting other geniuses on board would probably not only help but be vital and they don’t all need to be theurges, for non-magical research it would probably be better if they aren’t and there are probably more overlooked ones among the former, helots, yeomen and the lower rungs of the merchants and officialdom who never really got the chance of shine under the old system.
Honestly, I think that is also something that would best be left to others than my mc, as my mc would be a “brute force” researcher when it came to that and while with his sheer determination once he gets into something that is likely to eventually yield results that would cause a lot of Hector’s a lot of pain in the interim. Again better left for someone who’d go about it a bit more delicately and with a bit more specific knowledge from the outset.
That means communication will remain a very significant obstacle if we’re mostly reduced to Qing style drums and flags post-rebellion.
The nippletwisting thing seemed awfully decadent.
Very possibly, still considerably less than many of my other mc’s.
When it comes to preserving appearance I think this mc would opt for middle age, with some gentle graying at the temples, instead of mid-twenties, like most of my other mc’s would if given the choice.
Yes, not all at once, I get it. Since alternative energy is by far the most important, let’s hope we’ll get to put some real steam into the Steampunk appearance of some the cities, as that would be the largest blood-saver in the short term. Possibly augmented with a working difference engine as computation and the beginning of automation would do wonders for administration and logistics and might allow us to punch above our weight.
Not counting the air rifles since they are already very much extant and I’m just proposing to use them to switch from an army comprised mostly of a warrior caste to an army of citizen-soldiers.
Compared to those 2.5 the others are nice to have, but not as vital, unless a better non-theurgic fertilizer is hiding somewhere in there.
In general the broader of an education system and scientific community we can build the faster progress will logically be as proper education and universities/institutions should begin to increase the pace of innovation exponentially within a few decades.
Not so much with staple crops until recently; earlier generations of researchers hadn’t thought they’d ever face significant problems there. Cash crops, like the plants of the Valley of Dyes in Karagon, have had a lot more attention. And a lot of work went into the shrub yam, using many of the lessons from mullow…
Death To Blood Mages… A joke lol
Your MC has more vanity than the Diadoch, who’s much too pragmatic.