So there are no cons there? Thats what I thought too. Anyways how is Breden able to force you to that? In my playthroughs even if I gave them many influance bc I didn’t have the charisma for stuff I was still able to make a choice about that without bad results if I picked the opposite choice.
Edit: Unless I have something to say about possible bugs I’m not sure I’d want to bother the author, unless the question seems really important to me. This question doesn’t hit that level.
Because Breden saps the band’s enthusiasm for fighting, which means they don’t train and prepare as well as they should have, which in turn means you either take named characters as casualties or you need to burn down the forest as burning down the forest kills a significant number of their forces and demoralizes the rest, thus allowing you to avoid named character casualties, even with a less enthusiastic band.
In short Breden’s actions force you to make a choice to either sacrifice Elery and Bjel (in my case) or burn down the forest, which likely has unspecified consequences down the road.
Damned Breden!
I see, thanks. For me it was the case of many casualties and burning way more of the forest as I intended to, when I gave this choice a try. At least I didn’t lose one of the important (named) members of the band but it was still annoying.
Well…a couple of your allies got a little burn on their hip. Another con would be you destroyed nature (nature may rebel in vengeance). That is all I can think of at the moment.
Theurgy’s power seems to be drawn from blood - might we not also think of tree sap (and other plant-based juices - orange?) as the blood of plants? All plants are, of course, living things - therefore, might their blood not also give magical powers to draw upon?
Thought this was an interesting consideration with regards to the future of the series. Nature magic?
Seems like it’s humans specifically and even more specifically human brains that are a key ingredient based on the harrower scene. I think it has something to do with the human telos of being the makers of change.
Damn, good observation. Still, I don’t know about you but i’d sure like to be an Orange Mage.
Well depending on how much a powerful theruge may be able to manipulate their own telos I’m not sure your MC couldn’t literally turn themselves orange if they wanted to.
Hm not orange coloured but powered by magic from the blood (juice) of oranges. I think we could really go somewhere with this.
Hmmm…I’d still like to see if that theory is correct how the furries from the abhuman lands and the unquiet dead possibly differ, or would they count as makers of change too?
You’ve just explained how your current president does it. 
If that is at all possible maybe the magical power you get from that isn’t worth the effort and cost it takes to obtain it, you know the juice not being worth the squeeze. That probably goes for animals too.
Though some animals are of course quite intelligent and self aware. Maybe the lack of hands prohibits say elephants from being as worthwhile magically as humans are?
This will be explained in the first chapter of Game II (which I’m currently writing), so your speculations will soon–“soon”?–be confirmed.
For now, I’ll just say that if it were possible to substitute tree sap, the Harrowers would be tree-munching machines and this would be a very different story. 
I figured as much, and knowing your diligence in world building I’m pretty sure The Hegemony isn’t evil just for its own sake (the right to cackle maniacally aside).
@idonotlikeusernames I expect the other sapient species can make changes too. Pretty sure the Unquiet Dead are walking change making machines in particular, however you probably couldn’t harvest any magic juice out of them. One of the many moral quandaries of a future installment most likely will be the harvesting the not-quite-human abhumans as an alternate source of therugy fuel.
@Havenstone I was wondering if The Hegemony has developed the scientific method or if therugy has led to philosophy and theology to dominate the “understanding the observable universe” space.
This is, as I think you’ve suggested before, an interesting and important question. A bit of both, and I’ll try to unpack that more over the course of the series. Sorry to be cryptic.
In part I suspect it is an unfair question as a philosopher would tell you science is just a branch of philosophy. I suppose the more direct one is how do the educated people of the Hegemony seek Truth and do they know what an “empirical” is? I’m sure you still can’t answer it, but it’s what I meant nonetheless…
Yes, it would suddenly be a climate change story. 
But more in the key of Miyazaki.
Well, he did already do a bloody story about giant canines.
Finished my first playthrough.
I rarely write reviews, but I just wanted to say that, in terms of depth and thoroughness, I’ve yet to play a choicescript based game that matches this one. Usually when I play a choicescript game, there’s some option I want to try, but can’t. Not with Choice of Rebels. the choices are distinct, wide-ranging, and nuanced. With only a couple of exceptions, the characters tend to be intelligent and 3-dimensional, each with unique positions on the geopolitical situation.
The choices have far-reaching and both overt and subtle effects on the storyline , the mark of a great choicescript game, and it was easy to immerse myself in the very well developed world, which was detailed without requiring an information dump and a pronunciation dictionary. (except “Xthanos”, still not sure how to pronounce that.).
Really enjoyed how the magical system worked, and it should give rise to some very interesting scenarios in the sequels.
It’s left ambiguous whether the dieties and the angels actually exist, and what side they might be on if they do, and leaves the reader to determine whether they would be good or evil forces.
Over-all, I’d rank this game as a close second behind Choice of Robots (more due to a personal preference for the subject matter rather than any objective criteria), and I think it has the potential to become #1 in my book, depending on how the sequels turn out.
For the record, X in Greek sounds like a hard ch. So “Xthonos” is “Kth-onos.”
Thanks.
One more thing:
If there was one thing that turned me off, it was the title.
“Choice of Rebels” is too generic and unoriginal to really catch my attention, and I almost didn’t try the demo. It brings to mind much of the post-apocalyptic teen fiction cluttering bookstores and libraries. A game of this caliber deserves a better name.
I know it’s a bit late to change it, but thought I’d throw that out there.