Thanks! But, oh, I guess it’s back to the drawing board for me. At least no one’ll have to give ol’ Grandma’s body to the Alastors just yet.
I think one of the biggest challenges with the question of Harrowing and harvesting aether will come when the rebellion increases. I can see a few models (not perfect, mind you) trudging along if the crew just controls Rim Square and environs and the MC and the main leaders can keep an eye out on the day-to-day details of the extraction. It’ll be another thing entirely to create an institution of rules and balances that are supposed to be followed on large swathes of territory.
That’s a very good idea, I think. It could even be applied to other types of leaders. Mao was a military leader during the 20s and 30s (not the CCP’s main one, I suspect?), but he mostly dressed in simple outfits, while Chiang Kai-Shek was often photographed in full military regalia. An MC who chooses to keep their drab clothes and not wear the usual dresses of the nobility might get a bit of support of merchants and yeomen who are clever enough to recognize the gesture.
@Havenstone, just how prevalent is irreligion/followers of the forgotten gods in the other provinces? Are they a silent majority, a small amount of nonconformists, or somewhere in the middle?
In the case of the Nyr, a large but silent plurality. The next largest group are vaguely compliant with the official religion, and a minority are believers.
Only a minority of Wiends try to follow the Forgotten Gods, but the idea of them evokes reverence in almost every Wiendish heart.
I dunno if this has been asked before, but is it possible to marry S, the noble? In my S’ romance playthrough, I just got a moment to tell that the MC returned their feelings, and that was it. I wonder if I missed something…
I thought this was more of an “if” not a when, or have you changed your mind of being able to work from the bottom and/or with the merchants?
My mc would probably wear about the same sort of stuff he needs for his countryside apprentice apothecary disguise in chapter 2, maybe even keep that same alias if that is a possibility. That’s about as far as he’s willing to go in terms of fancy, unless the situation is extremely dire.
My mc also wears that kind of stuff because he feels more comfortable in it. That said sartorially my mc is closer to Mao than Chiang.
I still think That my small Vatican Switzerland half of Shallardene kingdom will work. That and Mr pumpkins and mules citizenship. A religion tailored and carry by specialized merchants bankers it can work. Lol, it worked out well for centuries in Earth.
Archaeology has an uneasy-at-best relationship with nationalisms. (And religions, for many of the same reasons.)
It’s profoundly gappy, relying on the accidents of preservation to put together a picture that can’t give solid answers to many of the most pressing questions involved in putting together a group identity.
As it picks through the past, archaeology also almost invariably reveals that precious cornerstones of our identity are not timeless, but were invented much more recently, and that our ancestors did all kinds of weird things that we’ve lost touch with and don’t particularly want to re-adopt after all.
Mara’s cynical but right: bards have a lot more than archaeologists to do with the construction of a national identity.
You are clearly misinterpreting those ancient tomb paintings my good friend. Those rutabega-like objects were attached to celebratory facial masks poking fun at our barbaric mustachioed neighbors. There was never any actual penetration involved. Our teams of expert archeologists and anthropologists all agree, just as I’ve instructed them.
Stuff and nonsense! Those “ancient” tomb paintings were obviously made by Karagond revisionists to mock pre-Xthonic Shayard’s rutabega-centric shamanic religious practices!
