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

[thestrangemonkey]

@idonotlikeusernames I don’t know anything about economics other than free trade, freedom of movement, globalization, immigrants and neoliberalism are good, so I’m going to take your words as gospel.

If you plan on open warfare

At this point it’s inevitable. Looking from a Hallasurq perspective, what better time to strike than when your nemesis is at it’s knees, plagued with rebellion?

The only part on which my mc would seem to be in perfect agreement with yours.

Indeed. Shayard is dead and buried. Trying to resurrect it’s corpse is like Mussolini trying to resurrect the Roman Empire. Like, dude, it’s dead, it’s over. We can’t change the past, so let’s focus on the future. Let’s Make The Hegemony Great Again (pardon my distasteful attempt at humor).

impossible for us to vanquish our internal rivals and competing rebellions

“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within” - Will Durant.

I am complete resolute on this. My MC’s vision is clear: overthrow the government, end Harrowing, become the Thaumatarch (if possible, marrying the heir). If the Hegemony becomes like 1930s China, we might as well start speaking Hallasurqiam. It’s of paramount importance that the Hegemony stays intact in regards to it’s territory and borders. Any deals with other rebels, Shayardene dinosaurs or other European union advocates is off the table. Either their bend the knee, or lose their heads.

Hallasurq is just itching for a show of weakness and my MC will not give them this pleasure.

I also got a solution to the Harrowing problem. What if instead of Harrowing our helots, we don’t conquer Hallasurq and Harrow they instead? You don’t need wards if Hallasurq doesn’t exist taps forehead

Also, I remember that the palace in Aekos is supposed to be levitating with huge amounts of blood. If we stopped doing that, would the amount of blood that we save be enough to turn the tide in a war? That blood could be used on the frontier right now @Havenstone

[Ringleader]

@idonotlikeusernames

Shayard seems to be too big and too densely populated right now for Halassur to comfortably “digest”, from what scant information we know they seem to want Shayard as a client/puppet state while reserving their outright genocide of Karagond and Erezza while wanting to Anscluss Nyral and of course plunder Erezza’s vast mineral riches for themselves.

True. But then Shayard becomes Halassurq in all but name. Once Erezza falls, that opens the doors to eventually steamroll the rest of the Continent, obviously dependent on their motives, which as you said we have little knowledge of. I can’t imagine the Empire would let Shayard be a client state for long; once it’s licked its wounds and reinforced it’s military it’ll be on the move again. Wars of conquest, as a rule of thumb in a setting like this, generally don’t stop after the first provincial victory.

@thestrangemonkey

I also got a solution to the Harrowing problem. What if instead of Harrowing our helots, we don’t conquer Hallasurq and Harrow they instead? You don’t need wards if Hallasurq doesn’t exist taps forehead

Even so, you still have the Xaos Lands and Abhuman Federation. While you’re not at war with either, once those Wards are down that might be an issue. And given what Yed has told us about the Storms, I’m not too keen on letting those Wards down just yet. And who knows what’s going on in the Federations mind?

[Sowe]

@idonotlikeusernames

Because it won’t work, the Holy Roman empire was a mess that failed to use innovation and had they been allowed slightly longer would probably have failed to successfully industrialise.

Leaguers vision would be nothing like irl HRE. For example League would not have dominant figure like Emperor in, well, Empire. And im not really buying that “failing to industrialise” thing, Germany was industrializing rapidly even before unification, and you can also look at other countries that were bring into the modern era without having strong, dominant status in their neighbourhood - Czechoslovakia, Congress Poland under Russian Occupation.

[Havenstone]

@thestrangemonkey

We were the first to rise against the Hegemony

I assume this will continue to be true for your MC, regardless of any inconvenient facts that might later emerge?

@thestrangemonkey

You don’t need wards if Halassur doesn’t exist

This… may not actually be true.

@thestrangemonkey

Also, I remember that the palace in Aekos is supposed to be levitating with huge amounts of blood. If we stopped doing that, would the amount of blood that we save be enough to turn the tide in a war?

We’re still a ways out from it making a tide-turning difference; but any sudden shock that significantly constricts the Hegemonic blood supply could change that.

Your intended future spouse is working on that particular problem, and in Game 3 you’ll have the chance to assist or sabotage their efforts.

@Ringleader

who knows what’s going on in the Federations mind?

You’ll know a lot more after Game 2!

[thestrangemonkey]

@Havenstone

@Havenstone

regardless of any inconvenient facts

Hah! As if that would stop me! You said it yourself that Shayardene nationalists would need to “fill in the gaps” of their history. Well, two can play that game. If Karagond can revision history, so can we.

The Glorious Rebellion against the Hegemony spearheaded by the Angel’s Eclect where Hegemonic armies are erased with lighting bolts, Theurges drop to their knees in reverence of his power, Harrowers stop Harrowing when we furrows his brow and Hallasurqians send coins and wives in terror of his fury. He also strangled a hound with just his index and pinky, or so they say.

Now I just need to win for the bards to write that.

[black]

i will ruin your childhood xd

choice of rebels is a board game

[Sowe]

Okay, so my MC would be almost entirely opposite of yours lmao

[thestrangemonkey]

@sowe When the Leilatou cousin talked about Leagues and Lacconiers, my MC cringed. Hard. My way or the highway. What better way to honor our arrogant father and humble the Keriatou than becoming the new Thaumatarch, while married with his daughter?

I hope Mr. Havenstone let’s us designate Heric as Archon of the pigsties and the sewers and Caela of the brothels of Rim Square. Better yet, my first decree as Thaumatarch: slavery is abolished, except for Heric and Calea, who will become slaves themselves. God, I can’t wait to take away their money and burn down their house. Make the two arrogant whelps watch.

[Sowe]

Well, they’re pricks, yeah. But i think Havenstone mentioned that there are much worse houses in the Shayard. Hector and Calea were slandered in Grand Shayard by greater aristocracy and probably that’s why they’re such pain in the ass to MC. Yet, they justice need to be delivered by them, but i fear that striking one of more powerful houses will alienate aristocracy too much.

[thestrangemonkey]

I’m sure you would agree with me that the streets of Rim Square are rather dangerous in these uncertain times, no? You never know when a mob armed with torches and pitchforks could show up at your door. It would be a real shame if, after the rebellion is over, one of our subordinates goes rogue and manages to get a well trained, well armed force and marches to their home. The country would be in turmoil and there would be nothing we could do.

Regardless, we may not be able to kill them, but I’m sure we will be able to humiliate them as they humiliated us.

[Sowe]

Well, im sure we will be able to harm them either way but im saying that it will most likely have severe consequences.

[thestrangemonkey]

Funny how we need to mind our manners with them, but they can do what they want with us. My MC couldn’t care less about them, he certainly will find a way to dispatch them, like he did with Radmar.

[Ringleader]

@Havenstone

This… may not actually be true

Halassurq a bigger threat than the Xaos Lands, potentially? Xaos has the Storms… Halassurq has the ruthless determination for conquest.

[Protagonist]

@Havenstone For those of us whose characters believe in the Shayardene monarchy, will there be an option to relinquish control to the Laconniers in the aftermath of a successful rebellion? I appreciate that this might be a pain from a game design perspective, so I’ll fully understand if the answer’s “no”.

Realistically though, Enguerrand d’Uttrim probably would be willing to pass the reins over to someone who has a decent claim to the throne and to retire to his estates or accept whatever role they chose to give him.

[Idon]

@thestrangemonkey From what we’ve seen so far, only the Pelematou seem to be deserving of such punishment. The Keriatou, while relatively cruel, seem to be doing what is generally expected from powerful families within the system and not excessive cruelty like the Pelematou. Not that my MC will be any more sparing towards his cousins, the current plan is to revoke all their lands and watch their house crumbling apart

[Ramidel]

Havenstone has mentioned that there’ll be plenty of options for those of us who don’t want our rebellion to take charge.

[thestrangemonkey]

I can’t wait for it. Our cousin’s need a lesson in humility. Of all of them, Calea is the most annoying. Hector is brutal, cold and arrogant, but everyone knows that. Calea with her passive aggressiveness regarding our family wealth is actually more effective, because she hits you where it hurts, below the belt, about your status.

Taking away their property would be much better than killing them. Living in the gutter with the rats of Rim Square should be enough.

[Havenstone]

@Protagonist

will there be an option to relinquish control to the Laconniers in the aftermath of a successful rebellion?

Oh, definitely. My intention is that you can choose to be kingmaker rather than king, backing one of a number of other factions for primacy rather than fighting to be top dog yourself.

@Protagonist

Enguerrand d’Uttrim

For the record, if a character named Enguerrand shows up in Grand Shayard this game, it’s because I’ve been taking inspiration from Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror, and not because I’m ripping you off.

[Idon]

@thestrangemonkey

Hector is brutal, cold and arrogant, but everyone knows that.

I wouldn’t say Hector is exactly arrogant or even a bad person altogether as much as he is insecure. The guy is a walking inferiority complex. I’m sure the only reason he loathes aristo MC is because he finds us presumptuous for someone who ranks even lower than him on the social ladder (and to some extent, you can have aristo MC display some of this attitude when interacting with Breden initially). Even when picking the bullied background, it’s clear that our MC wasn’t really as affected by the whole ordeal as Hector was to start thinking of themselves as truly inferior to their cousins, so it’s not really hard to see why Hector would take it against us, given what we know about him.

[idonotlikeusernames]

@Idon

or even a bad person altogether

From what he sees from his perspective as a helot my mc would very much disagree, especially after the whole veneur thing who seem to take actual pleasure in torturing the un-person “livestock”.

@Idon

as much as he is insecure.

Well welcome to the club the Hegemony is a vast and vastly disintegrating empire that makes a lot of people insecure, taking actual pleasure from torturing and raping people like the veneurs (and a lot of the Alastor bullies to be fair) seem to do still speaks more to choice and innate personality even in a situation of profound insecurity all around.