As others have said, the tools avalable for early modern states for managing their economies were pretty blunt, and the Hegemony’s magic-driven industrial totalitarianism is only slightly precocious in this respect. The MC will not get to invent wholly modern economic approaches – the welfare state, state ownership of all the means of production, central banking, etc.
With that said, the economy will play a major role in the stabliization (or not) of any post-Hegemonic order, and following a merchant-centric path should give a particularly extensive range of choices around trade, production, and taxation.
Yeah, you sadly already ruled out my idea to use most of the gold, including melting down jewelry and monuments/statues/building decorations to wage economic war on Hallassur by destabilizing their economy and hopefully triggering a severe economic crisis for them to keep them distracted with said huge influx of gold.
Glad to hear you’re making tangible progress; looking forward to the glorious demo!
@Havenstone @Ramidel
On another note, which INT score/threshold/mastery will be required for Theurge MCs to start building up a resistance (or eventual outright immunity) to poison? (if possible)
Ah, that’s right. I keep forgetting that Alya is fundamentally an arrogant aristo (backstory-wise), and that Alya’s “slightly lighten the yoke on helots/provide helots social mobility opportunities” concessions may not satisfy Breden’s more radical demands for helot freedom/power (in the long run).
@Havenstone @Ramidel How would de Firiac feel about helot MC’s scheme to uplift him/her to the Shayardene throne? (Aka potentially hiring the “Grand Shayard contact” to forge “royal lineage credentials” on the de Firiac family’s behalf,
and if helot MC wants to marry de Firiac (to become de Firiac’s king/queen consort), MC will also arrange for his/her own forged aristo credentials/persona)
Would de Firiac feel flattered (and/or inspired) by helot MC’s vote of confidence/trust?
(Or instead feel conflicted/offended that he/she is reaping the benefits of a grand deception, thus violating her own personal code of honor/honesty)
Might it instead be more productive for helot MC to forge his/her own Shayardene royalty credentials? (and then propose to de Firiac to become his/her king/queen consort)
By the way, would the role of Eclect (with sufficient popular fury/backing) be respectable/potent enough for a helot MC to skip the need to invest time/energy into a fake aristo/royalty identity? (in the context of Eclect helot MC pursuing a marriage with the Laconnier Monarch)
Or is the anti-helot prejudice (both before and after the fall of the Hegemony) still strong enough to require “protection via fake ID”?
By the way, what exactly are Alya’s intended plans for the Keriatous? Will Hector and Calea be killed/imprisoned/impoverished (to maintain Alya’s credibility with the helots), or does Alya instead see potential in co-opting her cousins?
That’s a very clever solution you’ve got there; I like it!
On another note, could similar accommodations/“light treason social clubs” be made for Whendish pagans, Abhuman syncretists, and Nyrish skeptics? (other groups who similarly are in need of a safe outlet to express their “Xaotic/naughty beliefs”)
Or would Alya outright reject such an idea? (out of fear that she would end up permanently alienating her Xthonist supporters)
Since my previously suggested “marriage alliance matchups” turned out to be either expensive (“lol, marrying Phaedrx is political suicide”) or irrelevant (FYI Havenstone explained that the Abhumans/Seracca don’t really practice/care about political marriages), I’d like to try again.
1- Could a marriage alliance between a Laconnier Queen and Jac Cabel (or in general, a marriage between a high ranking Laconnier representative and a similarly high ranking Cabelite) be a viable option for bringing the Cabelites into a Laconnier MC’s fold?
(thus taking one further step to avert civil war/ensure Shayard remains united)
Or would the deep lingering grudge (from Ester and the previous Cabelite generation having been betrayed by aristos) be potent enough for the Cabelites to reject any marriage alliance proposal (on principle) from the get-go?
2- Culture wise, how do the Whends, Nyrs, and Erezzans feel about marriage alliances? (And which of the three non-Shayard provinces would be the most welcoming vs. most resistant to the idea of a marriage alliance?)
Here are my current guesses, so far: Whends- Marriage alliances are already frequent amongst the clans as is (at least during the times that they’re not killing each over petty duels of honor), and would thus happily treat MC’s proposal as “business as usual”. Nyrs- Who has time to get bogged down by spouses/kids, when we can instead read books/debate philosophy 24/7? Erezzans- To quote Littlefinger, “only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.” (unless your name is Cerlota and you have humbler aspirations in life)
I don’t think we’ll have poison resistance/immunity in the game. We’ll see if that changes.
They wouldn’t be happy about forging credentials – either yours or theirs. Too dishonorable.
An Eclect helot would be accepted by a decent number of people as a royal consort, but there’d be a significant risk that your kids would be deposed if they didn’t inherit your charisma.
Jac Cabel is getting old for marriage alliances, and marrying a non-noble would be a big hit to the legitimacy of the monarch (especially but not exclusively among the aristocracy). The yeomen of Shayard would rather have institutions that protect their rights and interests, not a questionably effective link between one yeoman family and a delegitimized monarch.
Marriage alliances are big among the nobility and merchants of all provinces, and the Whends do indeed use them as a way of defusing clan conflict. If you want to strengthen bonds across provinces, marriage alliances will be a useful tool. They’d be less useful however in bridging the massive class divides between helots, yeomen, better-off free folk, and aristos.
Havie, if you don’t mind me asking, would you be able to confirm whether or not the baby that can be named after us will ever appear later on in the series, anywhere from being a toddler to a young adult years down the line? Even if its just a one-time cameo, I really want to see if my name-sake will grow up in my likeness.
#1: Uh-oh. How unhappy are we talking about here?
“Dealbreaker/I’m leaving you forever, MC” unhappy,
or “I’ll still support you, but I’m feeling considerably grumpier towards you going forward” unhappy? The latter of the two is salvageable, right?
#2: Anyways, if MC’s direct possession of the Laconnier throne (versus MC continuing to retain de Firiac’s loyalty/service) are indeed mutually exclusive, then a change in strategy will be required.
What if helot MC (“platonic BFF/wingman/wingwoman to de Firiac”) instead brokered a marriage alliance between…
Option A- Simon and Calea,
or Option B- Suzanne and Abelard?
(with de Firiac serving as helot MC’s ambassador/mouthpiece in both examples)
Option A may turn out to be untenable (if Calea refuses to atone (or fakes atoning) for her past bad behavior, thus offending the honorable/compassionate Simon), so maybe B might be the more achievable option here.
(especially since Abelard’s role as a Game 1 benefactor has already earned him my helot MC’s trust)
#3:In comparison to de Firiac, how would Kalt/Kala feel about being invited to participate in MC’s forged credentials scheme?
Would he/she feel disgusted about constantly having to fake politeness/etiquette around aristos (whose blood he/she would be eager to shed in retaliation for his/her past suffering)?
Or would Kalt/Kala perhaps instead truly recognize the opportunity they’re being given:
To (eventually) relish in the delightful irony of ruling over the (none the wiser) aristos who used to rule over him/her (in his/her new role as King/Queen Consort of Shayard)?
Is Kalt/Kala forever doomed to play the role of the single-minded and vicious blunt instrument, or could he/she perhaps instead (gradually) evolve into a more patient, calculating leader?
(One, who under MC’s influence/tutelage, learns how politics, deception, and intrigue (instead of aimless, impulsive violence) can grant him/her the lasting freedom, power, and revenge they’ve always yearned for)
FYI: inspiration wise, Darth Maul’s post-Phantom Menace character growth (especially during Star Wars: The Clone Wars) comes to mind here.
Other FYI: MC’s potential dialogue/advice for Kalt/Kala (in the context of the above speculation): “Kalt/Kala, if we do things your way, you’ll only be able to kill the aristos once. But it’s the slow knife that cuts the deepest. If you stick with my plan, and we bide our time, our dynasty will be able savor our victory over the damn aristos for the decades (and perhaps even centuries) to come.”
#4: And on a minor separate note, I’ve now suddenly remembered Breden’s Game 1 quote concerning Kalt/Kala (“you’ve invited a wolf into our midst”).
(plus, a recent Google search informed me how wolves tend to be patient animals/hunters, thus culminating into my following suggestion…)
What are your thoughts on a creating a Game 2 (or beyond) XoR achievement named “Wolf Hall”?
FYI, Wolf Hall is the name of Hilary Mantel’s fictionalized biography on Thomas Cromwell, who shares plenty of interesting parallels with Kalt/Kala’s backstory, as described below:
a. Ran away from home after being beaten by abusive father (similar to Kalt/Kala, who likewise ran away after having been traumatized by his/her past experience with abusive aristo owners; though however, in contrast to Cromwell, Kalt/Kala has the distinction of killing his/her aristo abuser),
b. Sought his fortune (elsewhere) as a soldier (similar to Kalt/Kala, who after running away, sought his/her fortune (elsewhere) as a soldier under High Anarchy MC’s banner)
c. And then as an adult, eventually navigated political intrigue/instability to rise to power as the right-hand man of a king (similar to my above proposed hypothetical future for Kalt/Kala)
Here’s the suggested text I have in mind; hopefully, it’s clear and concise enough for everybody’s liking:
“Wolf Hall: Successfully train the helot firebrand into becoming a cunning and patient politician.”
Which is why I will strongly consider taking a page from @idonotlikeusernames’ playbook: forming a “backup plan power base” with the super-industrialized Whendish clans (so that my kids can safely seek alternative careers as High Chieftains (or instead mobilize the Whendish armies to help retake their lost crowns), in the event that they possibly are ousted from the Shayardene throne).
How old will he be when the MC (or their representative) meets him?
I’m now suddenly facepalming myself for previously assuming that a Game 1 Low Anarchy run would automatically translate into an easy Golden Ending (going forward); apparently, the “Status Quo is God” trope will indeed a very tough challenge for a helot MC who wants to be both a “peacenik” and a social climber.
Suddenly, the past discussed topics concerning the “Defenders of the Codex” (and/or the creation of a Grand Moot/Apella) feel more relevant (now more than ever).
And assuming that my MC was able to reconcile (or at least pragmatically unite) the Laconniers with the Leaguers, perhaps Teren (and his entourage) might be willing to assist?
Merchants, too?
Havie, I would like to recant my previous statement about my MC liking Alaine (in a purely platonic fashion); is Alaine (or one of her nieces/nephews) single?
(though I do have a quick followup question: how wide/awkward is the age gap between MC and Alaine?)
And on a separate note, does a “merchant prince/princess” count (or doesn’t count) as being a noble? (in the context of the consort keeping the Laconnier monarch’s legitimacy intact, despite the consort’s helot origins)
Are Korzsata, Bjel, and the other Game 1 Whendish ex-Phalangite recruits still single, or already married? (if MC wishes to use them as his/her loyalist representatives in unifying Wiendrj under his/her control)
And what about Zvad? Is Zvad already past the “marrying age threshold”? (or has he instead already married Sybla, Game 1’s combat instructor, during Game 1’s “Zvad leaves the band” route?)
And this option isn’t strictly limited to monarchist MC’s, right? Perhaps a Leaguer MC could utilize marriage alliances to secure rich patrons that would reliably fund his faction’s re-election efforts (in the anticipated koinon)?
Or in the case that MC betrayed his/her original ideals (because of expediency/desperation), perhaps the name-sake rises up to become a Game 5 antagonist (embodying MC’s Game 1 ideology), woefully reminding MC what he/she lost sight of…
But never mind my random tangent of despair; good luck with your MC’s journey!
At the moment, she considers Calea useful and Hector a problem, and won’t hesitate to eliminate the latter and co-opt the former. Executing Calea would piss off the aristocracy more than she’d like.
She might consider it, yes. It’s likely that Whendish paganism and Abhuman syncretism are not going to be a real threat to her rule, so she’ll quietly tolerate them (since Whends atm are not particularly obnoxious about “Memory”, for example, that’ll work pretty well). Organized Nyrish skepticism, however, is a threat to her order.
With that said, Whendish paganism in its current form doesn’t sound like fertile ground for any kind of conspiracy. Abhuman syncretism is a big “we’d see.”
Playbook of my alternate mc that is and for him the clan-chief thing and “going native” to some extent is the base of his power and plans, not a backup. Since being elected clan-chief is the only road to getting to emperor without having to deny his origins or forge fake credentials, something even my alternate mc is quite unwilling to do. Because he plans to have meritocracy take over from the aristocracy and abolish the caste system as a prerequisite to meritocracy where every “noble” position of significance, at least in Wiendrj is elected, even if for life, on merit. Call it a Bonaparte + model.
Where the ultimate goal still is co-opting the Koinon idea but changing it to be a more equal (con)federation of states on some sort of Holy Roman-esque empire model with an elected emperor from among its heads of state. Which is why it is imperative in that scenario to split Shayard so that it is no longer the big, would-be hegemon state that would be more equal than the others and lead the koinon by default, like Horion and Teren seem to want.
My main mc will go for a more unique state, but, if ultimately necessary will institute a temporary vanguard party, since the model for that is basically already in place with every major hegemony leader being in the nightmare church’s hierarchy too, which in theory makes one able to swap out the church for party affiliation. But, we’ll see other forms of a socialism lite state are certainly possible too, depending on where Havenstone takes this thing.
Note that the current system runs on dynasties, not bloodlines and that is a huge difference because adopted heirs are fully equal to biologically produced ones. In this system that we have historically had from ancient Egypt to ancient Rome what is important is passing on the family/dynasty name, which does not necessarily have to pass down the bloodline. Which is why for all its deeply dystopian elements the world of Rebels has no institutional bias against same sex relations at the moment…at least for non-helots.
Only if you go for the Laconnier interpretation of rulership and dynasty would bloodline become the all important central tenet.
I still remember @NotMyRealName’s commentary about Calea being “exactly the wrong combination of clever and disloyal”, so putting her in charge of any sort of espionage/politics might end up becoming more trouble than it’s worth.
Perhaps Calea could instead become Alya’s appointed overseer/hostess for managing the “light treason Laconnier social clubs” (as an overall franchise)?
Random theory/backstory (about why “Memory” is such a big theme in Whendish paganism):
Prior to being absorbed by the Hegemony, the Whends were previously oppressed by an unknown monster/tyrant (who controlled the populace by rewriting their memories).
However, one day, a handful of Whends had their original memories restored by a sympathetic, unknown third party (today’s generation of Whendish pagans will claim that it was the work of their deity, while skeptics will instead claim that some random Theurge just happened to be in the neighborhood).
But regardless of the debatable identity (and motivations) of the miracle-maker, both the pagans and the skeptics can agree that the cause of the victim’s memories getting restored were hearing three key words (when the speaker spoke with enough passion/conviction): “Memory guide you.”
With the solution being very simple to practice and teach, soon, the rest of the Whends were similarly freed from their brainwashing (and then the monster/tyrant was either banished or killed, depending on the interpretation of the historian/myth-teller).
In the aftermath, the Whends asked for the miracle-maker’s name (so they could know who to properly thank/praise). But to their surprise, the miracle-maker simply repeated, “Memory guide you,” and then walked away into the sunset (without providing any further context).
In the absence of a more concrete explanation, the Whends have taken the miracle-maker at face value (calling him Memory and then interpreted his Theurgic miracle as proof of godhood).
Apologies, I’ve been rather hit and miss with my communication these days.
Perhaps the more appropriate phrasing to use here is that we both (loosely) agree that Wiendrj is an essential province for both of our MC’s respective agendas (despite the radically differing reasons/endgames/philosophies/contexts).
That’s certainly your MC’s prerogative, but I, on the other hand, will relish the extra challenge/complexity/Shakespearean drama of denying my MC’s helot origins (and faking their credentials), thank you very much!
(on another note, however, the prospect of potentially losing de Firiac’s allegiance/services is an important consideration that may prompt my helot MCs to tone down their less-than-honorable antics)
Fully specialized COM build by Game 5, or do you anticipate diversifying between COM/INT or COM/CHA instead?
While I can admire the brilliance/patience of your deception, how do your helot MC plan on surviving the fallout of their decision to subvert Horion’s vision?
Are they going to kill the (probably vengeful) Leaguers, imprison them, or instead bribe them into submission?
I google searched the term and still don’t quite understand what it means. Could you please help explain the term more clearly?
Simply put by exploiting the divisions already rife in his former homeland. For one exploit Cabel’s version of nationalism to split the more anglo-saxon from the more French-esque coastal parts and the Rim is also its own separate culture and while we have seen less of it in game I am sure there are some divisions and old grievances we can exploit there too.
Whatever is necessary…which will greatly depend on the individual context, but ideally the split of Shayard will simply be a fait accompli by the time they realize my mc does not in fact share the whole of their vision. It mostly involves empowering Cabel and other sub national would-be leaders and rebels to do the work of splitting Shayard for us. As a bonus it will probably be easier to sign up new members to the Koinon when they are convinced it is more or less an equal union, instead of a new hegemony lite under indisputable Shayardene “leadership”.
It’s actually an int-cha build the combat aspects are not the bonapartist inspiration I was going for, more the experiments with meritocratic, elected, non-inheritable aristocracy and some of the quasi-republican trappings. Mechanics-wise alternate mc will end up either a 4-2 build in favour of INT if he needs more magic or a straight up 3-3 split. Intelligent enough to formulate a vision and charismatic enough to sell it too.
COM is nice as a story element for making the mc feel badass, but you can always recruit soldiers, even generals with sufficient charisma and vision and for a helot background you, imho, really need to invest in some sort of vision and/or leadership abilities as you need to always subvert the expectation that the born nobles are supposed to lead.
Unless of course you want to use a COM helot to go down the warlord, mother anarchy loves her children path and just see where that ends up.
In very basic language, it’s a collection of people who’ve attained ‘class consciousness’ (i.e. see things for how they are), and oh-so-graciously take it upon themselves to lead the mass of people still caught in the webs of the bygone era, into the future. I imagine in idnlun’s vision, such a party will be a menagerie of anti-clerical cosmopolitans who chose to focus on the helotry/yeomen, and merchants at the expense of the priests and nobles.
Unhelpfully tantalizing snippet, part two: I’m nearly done writing the lengthy bonus segment where you and your companions actually get close enough to see the Storm-source… and I can’t tell you how satisfying it is for a big scene I’ve had in my head for nearly a decade to be CSIDE-playable at last.
Will the MC get an opportunity to adopt a really pompous style at some point if they are successful enough, like “In Xthonos, by the grace of Its Angels, MCName, Basilissa and Autokrateira of the Xthonic Hegemony” or something fun like that?
Will a skill check be required to avoid MC (and companions) getting harmed/changed by the Storm-source, or will we be safe by default? (since the “close enough to see” distance is presumably not the “close enough to get hurt” distance)
Here’s another possibility that comes to mind (inspired by Jon and Daenerys’ very first encounter in Game of Thrones): I imagine that the Thaumatarch (and/or Phaedra) will first be introduced (in person) by their own respective long list of pompous titles, only to then be immediately contrasted by MC’s shorter/single title: “Monarch/Leaguer of the West/South” (FYI: West/South meaning Shayard and/or Wiendrj)
“Chaos is a ladder”, and your MC is clearly on his way to successfully climbing said ladder.
By the way:
Out of curiosity, narrative-wise, how personal (or impersonal) does your helot MC feel about his disconnect from Shayard? Is he purely approaching the “split Shayard” agenda from a pragmatic standpoint, or is there a burning sense of revenge to consider here too? (e.g. revenge as in “Shayard and its dastardly aristos tore our lives apart, so it’s fitting that I (figuratively) tear them apart in return!”)
Compared to our real modern day democracies/presidents, how much absolute power will your imagined elected emperor have (once elected)?
FYI, currently saved two separate Game 1, ruthless helot warlord builds:
1- “Savage Goethe”: 2 INT/1 CHA Male Helot, Ruthless/Skeptical/Homelander
(Atriox Oakfell, named after Atriox from Halo Wars 2/Halo Infinite)
(Game 1 ending/relationship: Romanced Kala, and went into Xaos lands bodyguarded by Kala)
2- “Spartacus” 2COM/1INT Helot, Ruthless/Devout Homelander, High Anarchy - Uprising Start
(Tartarus, named after Tartarus from Halo 2)
(Game 1 ending/relationship: forgot to document, but last I remembered, romanced Kala, and went into Xaos lands bodyguarded by Kala)*
(Tartarus’ goal is to join up with the drudges and Cabelites to get revenge on the aristos, forming “the blue collar coalition/mafia” (while also gaining legitimacy as (or bribing his way towards becoming) Eclect on the side).
Intended title: Tartarus will reign supreme as Shayard’s “godfather”.)
A very proletariat party, indeed! (with clearly defined goals, pawns, and enemies) Thanks for clarifying!
Expanding upon/branching off from our past topic (about the post-Hegemony new world order (and merchants) tolerating MC’s smuggling ring), what are your thoughts on the possibility of MC acting as a “the devil you know/lesser evil” Raymond Reddington-inspired informant?
(To discreetly sell out MC’s more violent/barbaric/uncooperative/sinister criminal acquaintances (and/or rivals) to the “polite society” authorities in exchange for “immunity from prosecution” agreements (and other relevant boons) for MC and his criminal empire)
Anyways, to clarify who Raymond Reddington is, he’s the protagonist of the NBC TV crime drama, “The Blacklist”.
TV Tropes describes the premise of “The Blacklist” as follows:
“Raymond Reddington, ex-U.S. Navy officer and wanted fugitive, calmly strolls into FBI headquarters and turns himself in. While in custody, he claims to have a list that they would be very interested in, containing the names of criminals so cunning and careful in their plans that law enforcement doesn’t even know they exist.
Reddington is all too happy to help catch them, but he has some conditions. First and foremost, he’ll only speak to one person: Elizabeth Keen, a rookie profiler. She’s never met him before, but he knows a startling amount of information about her, and he’s reluctant to reveal why.”
If this above description also covers the organized crime subfaction of merchants, then I look forward to cultivating my network of allied dynasties/syndicates (of mafia princes/princesses).
For those of us with dishonorable/arrogant aristo MCs (who find Jac Cabel’s demands to be too radical and/or too expensive for their liking), could control of the Cabelites (along with the control of the “negotiations”) be usurped?
(By discreetly assassinating/replacing Jac with a “better-off free folk” (aka “nouveau riche”) puppet leader of MC’s choosing)
MC’s reasoning: Plenty of the nouveau riche yeomen might be envious that they don’t (yet) have the aristo-equivalent social status/prestige to match their (relatively) newfound wealth (and would thus eagerly embrace any deal with MC that grants them aristo privileges/recognition).
MC’s dastardly plan:
1- First, assassinate Jac (and while doing so, plant evidence to suggest that the culprit is a helot kryptast working for the Hegemony).
2- Second, arrange for MC’s nouveau riche contact to be the “hero detective” who successfully “solves” the case (aka throwing the helot scapegoat under the bus).
3- Third, leverage their newly acquired “murder mystery stardom” (along with making use of charisma/leadership opportunities provided by MC), the nouveau riche contact (“NRC”) now has the opportunity/“legitimacy” to become the new leader of the Cabelites.
4- Per the slimy deal that MC negotiated between himself and the NRC, NRC (once he becomes Cabelite leader) will offer a scaled down version of Jac’s demands
Minimum a sort of primus inter-pares who coordinates and leads the negotiations with the others regarding the mutual defense and economic/trade laws.
Maximum the elected emperor would, in addition to their own state,gain control an imperial city/domain (could still be Avezia including possible future canal) where its revenues go to funding and maintaining highways (in the roman style) to connect the various member realms, including a pony-express esque postal service and maintaining a series of border forts and highway patrol regiments and a small imperial navy to protect commerce. This is kinda like what the US federal government used to be in its earliest days where revenues from the port of New York, in addition to tariffs were a huge part of the federal budget.
The latter setup could even have a federal appella for the Koinon to check the emperor a bit where the member states sent more permanent representatives to. Like how the EU parliament used to be in its earliest days when it was not popularly elected but the member states determined in their own way who to send to it.
In all cases though, just like how it used to until very recently in the EU (and in many cases still is) the heads of state of the member states would always have a veto.
Varies from mostly symbolic to about the power of the president of EU Commission and the head of state who holds to rotating presidency combined. In all cases, if going for the Koinon, the power of the emperor is far from an absolute, autocratic monarchy.
The main difference with the EU being that the Koinon will have a military/defense alliance component from the start.
My mc’s both primary and secondary never held a particularly strong connection to their supposed homeland? Why should they when it was mostly a place of misery for them.
For my second mc, the one who goes for the Koinon it is mostly pragmatic, for my main mc…it is mostly the same, but if there is some schadenfreude to be savoured there along the way well that is just a bonus.
My main mc wants to split everything, except his own district, up in new provinces that are as interdependent as possible economically. My second mc just needs to split up Shayard to have the chance to lead the Koinon as the head of state of Wiendrj and that can only happen is Shayard is not the new Hegemon by default, like the Leaguer’s want and for that Shayard needs to be split up, simple as that.
That said, if you look at Wiendrj then it is also obvious that a more Anglo-Saxon state led by Cabel’s faction could be a far closer ally and partner than a Shayard led by the southern, coastal, french-esque aristos ever would be.
Yep, my main mc will go for a far more radical and, in theory, more centralized state. Firmly rooting out the monstrous caste system will be the foremost goal there. Though in both cases a degree of federalism or in the case of my alternate mc even confederalism will be unavoidable due to the state of communications technology if nothing else.
To some extent, yes, chaos can be a tool and it is quite obvious neither of my mc’s fears it as much as the guys who made the current, mostly stagnant, social order literally divine with the caste system.
I think you’ll be fine. If you leave someone like Zvad or one of the others with military experience in charge they will likely just steal some new ones as they’ll understand the importance of supply.
I always do the same thing as Ramidel, so my band only has (I think) 9 mules left at the end of the game.
