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

Choice of Games games
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5076

@Havenstone, if Homelander MC wanted new vocabulary to describe post-Hegemony ex-helots: what is Shayarin for “unshackled”?
My current guess is either Libre (French for “unshackled”) or Togian (the “Old English” translation of “free”, per Old English Translator ― LingoJam).

This is the “Chairman Mao” @cascat07 spoke of, correct? How closely does your interpretation of the Mao archetype align with @cascat07’s?

New inside joke FYI: my MC’s new name will be Partiro (solely for the purpose of triggering “Conte Partiro” responses from NPCs, if my post-Hegemony MC became Shayard’s new Archon).

Yikes, and on another note: today, I’ve now just learned that Strzyga/Striga is a Slavic mythological demon!
But Goety-related superstition aside, are there also any past recorded war crimes known to have been committed by historical strega? (That prompts Cerlota to want to distance herself from such a label)

For the female MCs who are interested in courting Cerlota, what is the Erezziano cultural attitude on courtship/marriage/sexual orientation/monogamy/polygamy? Does the Erezza-wide obsession with political wrangling pretty much discourage “marriages for love”?

New idea for an achievement name: “From Magia to Maggia” (If MC’s post-Hegemony faction became a Theurge-led mafia?)

(FYI, Maggia is a reference to the Maggia, Marvel’s take on the Mafia)

And on another note, could Cerlota see herself following a Vito Corleone-inspired, “rule through both respect AND fear” Godfather MC? (not afraid to get his hands dirty/violent (if the situation calls for it), but would strongly prefer to instead keep his relationships tidy via an honor-based system of favors/brotherhood)

Or if I had to rephrase the question, is there any room for low anarchy “organized crime” MCs to participate in Cerlota’s envisioned/idealized “balance of classes/orders”?

Since we’ve already got Homelander and Devout out of the way (observation wise), shall we next ponder the extreme consequences of “gone too far” (and/or “failed miserably”) Cosmo and Skeptic, too?

Cosmo extreme success: The non-ruling member provinces’ rich and vibrant cultures once again end up getting tragically/violently suppressed in the name of the elites’ proclaimed “continental unity” (therefore following the Karagond Hegemony’s footsteps)

Cosmo extreme failure: MC’s “empty cosmopolitan globalism ends up making many people feel left behind”, e.g. the “Cabelites withdraw into a narrow Westriding-plus-Rim yeoman nationalism that feels betrayed by and alienated from the coastal elite”.

Skeptic extreme failure: Fouche’s atheistic Cult of Reason ends up gaining a bad reputation for being “lurid, licentious, and depraved”, while Robespierre’s prominent position in the deistic "Festival in Honor of the Supreme Being" ends up bothering some of Robespierre’s deputies (to the extent of triggering rumors “about Robespierre’s fanaticism and desire for power”).

Anyways, at the moment, I don’t have any specific analogies in mind for “Skeptic extreme success”, so if somebody else could fill in the blanks for me here, that would be very much appreciated.

Other than their shared agreement/enthusiasm for G1 Ch 4’s “let’s wipe them out!” option, I’m surprised that these two didn’t interact with each other heavily in Game 1 (despite their shared “trigger happy” mindset and anti-aristo leanings).

Isn’t it rather hypocritical for Erezza to call Shayard greedy? (when Erezza conveniently (and happily) benefited from Karagon’s annexation plan)

But “pot calling kettle black” criticism aside, MC is still eager to negotiate/settle for other kinds of Avezia-related gains (that don’t involve Shayard directly seizing/buying ownership of Avezia’s land):
If MC’s faction helps Erezza successfully fend off (or mitigate) Halassur’s territorial grab, then could MC reasonably ask for his faction to receive the privilege of discounted prices (when buying Avezia’s precious metals/alchemical salts) and lowered tax rates (when making a profit within Erezza’s borders/jurisdiction)?

Duly noted. And on another note: in the context of a potential “Earlund vs. Brimlund civil war”, is there any unique “peasant/yeomen niche dialect of Shayarin” (amongst the Cabelites and their other Earlund movement allies) that Shayard’s Brimlund aristos would disdainfully refuse to learn?
(thus giving the Earlund faction an espionage advantage against their coastal elite opponents)

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5077

I’m not satisfied with the “feel” of either libre or togian; I’d rather run with an untranslated “Unshackled” than either.

No, it’s just the word for “witch” with a lot of the same baggage that carries in English.

I’ll save comment on that until Ch 1 is out. And the Cerlota-and-Corleone question is not one I’m ready to answer until we see how the crime pathways play out.

You could look at the violent, long-term suppression of religions under modern totalitarian regimes (Stalin, Mao, the Kim dynasty). That’s only an “extreme success” for exclusionary and intolerant forms of skepticism, needless to say – but the same is true for the other sources of social order.

Don’t be surprised when two NPCs don’t interact heavily in any Choicescript game, given the additional time and effort that writing those pathways requires. :slight_smile: Maybe I should have prioritized some K-R bonding over the Zvad-Elery romance.

A Shayardene nationalist could definitely paint it that way. An Erezziano nationalist would challenge the idea that Erezza should be held in any way responsible for 300 year old Karagond imperialism, and that three centuries of close ties with the rest of the isthmus should outweigh ancient history.

Erezza would be much happier to offer economic privileges in exchange for military support.

Good question. There are lots of niche dialects, as you’ll find out when you leave the Rim. No single one of them would unite Eärlund without a major linguistic unification project.

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5078

Code-wise, could the new “Unshackled” title (or another equivalent) completely override the (former) helot label on future games’ menu/interface?

Or would it be more plausible to instead see Unshackled as an additional bullet point/asterisk? (underneath the “relationship with helots” text description)

On a sillier (but still related) note, I sincerely hope there will be opportunities for “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”-inspired banter/jokes between MC and Cerlota, e.g.
1- “I turned (insert) into a newt! Don’t worry, he/she got better, though!”
or
2- “If she weighs the same as a duck … - she’s made of wood. - And therefore? - A strega!”

Apologies, I forgot about the logistics involved (and extra burden on your part).

But still though, K (on their own) is difficult enough as is to keep disciplined; a K who’s formed their own splinter faction and is supported by Radmar (and Radmar’s Game 1 followers) will undoubtedly be an even more frightening character for MC to contend with.

Aside from copying Sarcifer’s preferred lategame MO (of Theurges ruling from the shadows, Illuminati-style), another analogy for kingmaking has come to mind:

Can MC (and his allied Kryptasts/Theurges) opt to become “Praetorian Guards” who have the power to kill/overthrow the post-Hegemony monarch they’re (nominally) bodyguarding, with the requirements being that the monarch is proven guilty of being “too incompetent, corrupted, depraved or stupid enough to seduce/rape (the spouses of the guards)?”
(And then the guard immediately installs a puppet monarch successor of their own choosing)

And on a related note, how does Kleitos (and the Thaumatarchs before him) prevent/discourage the Ennearchs) from banding together to overthrow him, Praetorian-style?
Did Kleitos simply manage to hoard so many talismans that he became impossible to kill (by conventional means)?
And will there be any Game 3 (or 4) opportunities for MC to weaken this anti-betrayal system? (thus opening the door for an alliance with one or more disgruntled Ennearchs that later duel against Kleitos at the Battle of Aekos?)

If Poric dies in Game 1 and MC rejected Kalt’s advances, do those combined factors open the door for Kalt to become Radmar’s “second love”? (similar to how unromanced Breden picks Ciels as her partner)

Loved their Game 1 chemistry, by the way! (And am earnestly hoping that MC will help this beautiful couple live long enough to make it to retirement age, thus facilitating their Game 5 happy ending)

And on another note, could a Zvad-Elery marriage alliance be a viable option for later bringing “departed during Game 1” Zvad back into MC’s fold during Game 3’s Wiendrj segment?

And on yet another separate (but related) note, will Zvad have gained sufficient leadership skills/confidence (by Game 3 and/or 4) to become MC’s appointed governor of (hopefully united) Wiendrj?
Or will be Zvad instead be perpetually content with his current “comfort zone” role as a bandit/soldier hybrid?

By the way, how familiar are you with Avatar the Last Airbender?

Avatar had a compelling post-series comic storyline (titled “the Promise”), in which the (recovering) Earth Kingdom and (“previously villainous, but now under heroic new management”) Fire Nation had a severe disagreement on the post-war fate of the Fire Nation colonies (that had occupied Earth Kingdom territory during Avatar’s “Hundred Year War”).

FYI, the Harmony Restoration Movement “was a campaign to remove the Fire Nation presence in the Earth Kingdom by transferring the Fire Nation colonials back to the Fire Nation.”

“Realizing that the conflict could never be truly solved, as the colonials were no longer Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation divided, though rather a new people, Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko abandoned the Harmony Restoration Movement. Instead, the colonies were led into autonomy by (newly elected) coalition governments”.

Anyways, the reason I brought up the Avatar tangent is because it now just occurred to me that the Earth Kingdom’s Harmony Restoration Movement could potentially parallel the Shayardene nationalist campaign to retake Aveche (with Erezza (sort of?) standing in as the Fire Nation of the analogy).

Likewise, could it be reasonably expected for MC to peacefully achieve an “Aang and Zuko”-inspired compromise? (in which Avezia becomes jointly owned by a coalition government of both Shayardene and Erezzan representatives)?

#1: How much effort would it take for “unite Shayard under new management” MCs to mobilize Earlund to subjugate Brimlund? (instead of staying content as “grumpy separatists/isolationists”)

#2: And if MC’s Abhuman/Whendish nationalist allies could be convinced to join this hypothetical “Earlund invades Brimlund” campaign (to support Earlund’s bid for dominance), then could a post-civil war Shayard (led by the recently victorious Earlund) start warming up to the idea of a “koinon of allied nationalists”?

#3: And on another note, how vital is it for a Laconnier monarch’s legitimacy that the monarch picks Grand Shayard as his/her first choice for Shayard’s capital?
(Or do the remaining known/existing records of Shayardene royal history have a flexible gray area on the topic of what should be defined as “an ideal royal headquarters”?)

Building upon the current “Earlund invades Brimlund” topic, could the Earlund movement become excited that they’re getting “knighted”/legitimized as the “royal vanguards” of a “One True King/Queen” claimant? (in their shared goal to “purge Shayard of Hegemony goons/sellouts, starting with Brimlund!”)

(And MC will also clarify that the Laconniers and Leaguers of Grand Shayard are MC’s inside men/“secret sympathizers of Earlund”, ready to open Grand Shayard’s gates (and other “blind spots”) at his command)

FYI, and if my MC has anything to say about it, then said claimant (whether it’s MC himself or his puppet) will most likely “sweeten the deal” by declaring the Westriding (or somewhere super close to the Westriding, e.g. maybe Corlune?) as Shayard’s new capital)

Which players will be best equipped to manage such a project:
CHA-specializing players,
INT-specializing players,
CHA/INT hybrid players,
or players who’ve recruited a blend of CHA/INT-specializing NPCs?

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5079

Is there a tumblr to find updates on the sequel?

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5080

All updates will be here on the CoG forum. I’ve never tumbld and am afraid I don’t intend to start now…

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5081

If you’re doing tumblrin might as well take some time and Myspace for yourself as well. :stuck_out_tongue:

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5082

What would happen to Zvad later on if he left the band?

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5083

Sybla pumps him for information to feed to the Empire. I don’t know if he survives.

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5084

I think this approach would fit better than the other one you suggested, but we’ll see.

Maybe! :slight_smile: I don’t know how Praetorian the relationships are going to feel, but I’m sure there will be G5 opportunities for the MC to violently betray the major faction you’re allied with (if any).

There’s a bit of dialogue I quoted earlier from Cerlota that may be germane here:

“Also, it was said in the Lykeion that Kleitos holds the lives of the Nine in his hand at all times.”

“Does Sarcifer not disprove that?”

“Perhaps. Or perhaps it is just that Sarcifer is the only one to have found a way to break free.”

I’ve got no comment on whether there will be any possibility for other Ennearchs to betray Kleitos in G3/G4.

They’d make a hell of a couple. We’ll see.

Marriage alliances do solve some problems, but “my lover abandoned me because he thought we were going to die, the bastard,” is not one of them. Bringing Zvad back into the MC’s fold will be easier than bringing him back into Elery’s.

You aren’t going to have power to appoint anybody governor of Wiendrj in G3 or G4. For you to be the one calling the shots, the old order (not just Karagond, but indigenous Wiendish) needs to have collapsed or been subordinated, and you need to be the strongest actor in its place. If you take an imperial path in G5, that will be thinkable, but not before. And I’ve no comment on whether the first Wiend you met will turn out to be your best candidate for the role.

Well, yes and no? It’s fairly easy to imagine a G5 outcome where Avezia isn’t part of either Erezza or Shayard (or what’s left of them). Fragmented states and ungoverned areas all across the continent is clearly on the table. That doesn’t mean that in that scenario Avezia would consider itself “jointly owned” by anybody, though. An indepdenent Aveche would probably elevate the Avezchene dialect over either Erezziano or Shayarin and would have leadership based on local power dynamics, rather than an artificial balance of representatives in the name of the two former Karagond archonties to its east and west.

If your goal is eventually to reign over Shayard as a unified country, “Earlund” is not I think going to be a wise concept for you to promote. A major power-shift to a network of previously marginalized Westriding and Rimmer nobles (i.e. “Earlunders”) might well spark a civil war with the currently privileged Southriding and Coast bunch; you wouldn’t strengthen your side by trying to frame that war as an “invasion” of half the country by your other half.

Rather, “Earlund” nationalism might come in handy as a way of consolidating power in an area more manageable than the whole of Shayard – or as a divide-and-rule approach if you want the Laconnier movement to collapse on your path to a continent-wide empire that has smaller provinces than the Hegemony’s archonties.

The de Syrnon bloodline is a Shayardene one, i.e. from Grand Shayard. The idea of “Earlund” is of an older, culturally distinct area that was subjugated by Shayardene conquest. To cast yourself as both the heir of the de Syrnons and the champion of Earlund would be a really, really tricky balance – “I’m the One True King! Because my ancestors conquered and imposed their language and culture on this suppressed nation in whose name and honor I shall now begin to fight!” and inevitably you’d lose a lot of Laconniers (especially but not exclusively from the Coast and Southriding) if you tried.

You’re right that it would take a mix of CHA and INT work. I think there would be multiple pathways, any of which would need to involve NPCs – this would be too big a task to undertake alone.

We’ll see!

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5085

Beyond your word/speculation, what other evidence/foreshadowing do we have that Sybla is untrustworthy?

Duly noted. And while we’re still on the topic of historical analogies/labels, can a Homelander Warlord Helot MC eventually establish a sustainable shogun-emperor dynamic with a Laconnier monarch NPC, up to and including the Gryphon claimant? (Or will the Laconniers immediately push back by organizing their own version of the Meiji Restoration?)
Or does this once again trigger the same “Gryphon claimant won’t accept regents” problem we encountered earlier?

Hopefully, there will be enough dialogue options to frame MC’s motivations (for the speculated G5 violent betrayal) as nuanced, reluctant, and/or tragic. (Beyond the standard “seizing power for its own sake” motive)

Concerning the previous Sauron-Kleitos and Ennearch/Nazgûl comparisons I pointed out earlier, what is your opinion on the overall Lord of the Rings franchise?
I’m a huge fan of the Peter Jackson movies, the “Shadow of (Insert)” video games, and the recent Rings of Power series (but haven’t read the original source material books yet); what about you?

“Couples counseling” subplot, here we go!

How much G5 political fragmentation would you say the game code allows for us to achieve, once all is said and done? Can we get as decentralized as “every XoR town/city/tribe is now independent”?

Assuming that Karagon didn’t evict every Shayardene from Aveche, how many Shayardene-Erezzan intermarriages have there been across the centuries?
And could these dual-nationality descendants (by the time of G5) be key allies in MC’s quest to keep the peace between his Shayardene nationalists and the Erezziano nationalists?

How loyal are Hector and Calea to the Laconnier cause? (Or instead, how attached are they to their new lifestyles/comforts in Grand Shayard?)
Might an aspiring Earlunder aristo MC be able to “poach” his cousins from the Laconniers? (Via a “better to reign in ‘hell’/Earlund than to serve in ‘heaven’/Brimlund” argument)

Next suggested analogy: MC has no genuine love for the Laconniers, but infiltrates their ranks , all for the sole purpose of eventually orchestrating a decisive Earlunder betrayal/military victory (similar to how Arminius set up the Battle of Teutoburg Forest).

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5086

If Zvad runs away, the Hegemony gets intel out of it. The fact that he runs off to Sybla is good evidence that she’s the channel for it. That, and the fact that she trains your people just enough that they think they can fight and win (which the Hegemony wants - the Hegemony doesn’t think you can win).

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5087

Huh, wonder if there will be any consequences for Sybla if you win the battle? Might serve as an effective scapegoat got if they can get their hands on her.

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5088

Possibly, though there will be limits to how “sustainable” we can show any of this to be – you won’t be around to see if your successor as “shogun” keeps practical power out from returning to the monarchy or not.

Heh, no.

I grew up on the books, and Tolkien was unquestionably the biggest influence on my imagination through my teenage years. I loved the Peter Jackson films (though his Hobbit ones were sadly a train wreck). I haven’t played any LotR themed video games, and have yet to watch the Amazon series (my wife and I have agreed to catch up on Outlander first, and that’s going slowly with me spending most evenings writing XoR).

Some would take over their neighbors, or hold together in larger blocks of territory. There wouldn’t be a uniform density of post-Hegemonic microentities.

Lots! Most of the population has mixed ancestry, and most of them would think of themselves first as Avezchene and secondly as Erezziano. Only a distinct minority, three centuries in, are Shayarin-speakers who think of themselves mostly as Shayardenes. It’s not unthinkable for the Avezchene majority to decide it’s time to be affiliated with Shayard again, but that would have a lot to do with how appealing it is to be a citizen of your realm versus Erezza. The Erezziano authorities in Soretto will resist the idea regardless.

Let’s say that the single biggest barrier to you attracting your cousins to “Earlund” is how they feel about you, not how they feel about the lost de Syrnon heir to the throne.

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5089

With G4 Nyryal being under attack from Halassur, I wonder what sort of conflict/crisis could be considered to be equally urgent at the Reach? (the origin story birthplace of Shayardene Xthonism)

Perhaps at the Reach, MC will get the chance to either mediate (or escalate) the growing religious tensions between Xthonists, Abhuman syncretists, Whendish pagans, Nyrish skeptics, and all the other “not-yet-named weirdo hybrid religions”?

(along with potentially applying everybody’s combined past ideas about pragmatic unity/truces, contrived creation myth compromises, and/or “Shayard becoming XoR Vatican Switzerland”)

Duly noted.

And apologies if I sound like a broken record here, but Homelander MC’s dreams of Laconnier monarchy (AND of ruling a continent-wide empire) are not mutually exclusive, correct?

Having recently come across the Cosmpolitan-Homelander wiki page, a certain section caught my attention: “If you want to try to keep some kind of Empire going on the ruins of the Thaumatarchy, you’ll want to have a good cadre of cosmopolitans around you.”

If MC suppressed (or reformed) enough Shayardene hard nationalists, and invested the time to cobble together a diverse royal court of soft nationalists/light cosmopolitans (aka MC reshapes the Laconniers via “Leaguer makeover/takeover”), then might the leaders of the ex-Hegemony, non-Shayardene provinces be convinced to accept the de Syrnon family as the hereditary “High Kings/Queens of the Imperial Koinon” by the time of G5?

Or would a good faith-negotiating Homelander MC ultimately be limited to settling for a “far more decentralized continental alliance of nationalists”? (per what we discussed earlier)

In the context of a Laconnier x Westriding marriage alliance that reunites Earlund/Brimlund back into Shayard (thus stopping the G5 civil war), do any of aristo MC’s Westriding cousins (aka, the descendants from the G1 Ch3-mentioned grandaunt/granduncle) qualify as eligible “altar diplomacy” suitors?

(while also being yeomen-friendly enough to plausibly serve as the Cabelites’ representative on MC’s Grand Moot)

How would you best describe the Lykeion?

Is it…

1- Karagon’s version of the Xthonic Codex/Bible,

2- Theurgic techniques manual

3- Karagon-biased history textbook/propaganda (intended to justify all of the Hegemony’s war crimes/atrocities)

4- A text with some other bigger picture purpose? (that MC is not yet aware of)

According to Bleys (during G1 Ch3), House Leilatou’s former Shayardene name (prior to Karagon’s conquest of Shayard) was Lelle.

Will it be possible for Teren to consider changing his/her surname back to Lelle (or “de Lelle”) to increase their Homelander reputation? (For a similar reason that Cosmo aristo MC sees value in changing their Shayardene surname to a Koine version)

Or does the Leaguers’ Cosmo Lite direction prefer that Teren keep their Leilatou surname as is?

While MC would be super pissed that Sybla betrayed his trust (AND hurt/betrayed Zvad as well), MC would also be pragmatic enough to attempt converting a “captured and (potentially) begging for mercy” Sybla into a double agent.

(or if Sybla refuses to repent, then at least MC could turn Sybla into an unwitting pawn who’s tricked into giving bad intel to the Hegemony in later games, since “doing business with the spy you know” (instead of being on the hunt for the next mysterious enemy spy) is a valid tactic)

@Ramidel, what are your reason(s) for why Corlune was excluded from Alya’s consideration? (in terms of choice of royal capital)

Does Corlune share the same “Shayardene imperial might” symbolism as Grand Shayard? (which Alya presumably does NOT want to emphasize)

Or could Corlune (since it’s a commercial capital) instead emphasize/deepen Alya’s relationship with her merchant allies? (especially since her envisioned new world order has big plans for empowering said merchants)

Who is your favorite Peter Jackson LotR character?

I’m particularly torn between Boromir (a patriot of Gondor who was tragically twisted/consumed by the One Ring, before ultimately redeeming himself in a tragic final battle),

Aragorn (a runaway heir who overcomes self-doubt to become a dependable leader whom everyone can rally behind),

and Gandalf (who, in my opinion, is fiction’s sassiest, wisest, and most quotable wizard).

Is that so? I, on the other hand, found the Hobbit trilogy to be a brilliant prequel series! (especially the parts concerning Thorin Oakenshield’s compelling/tragic character arc)

Could you please elaborate which parts of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit adaptations you disliked?

Was Cerlota born in Avezia, or was instead born in a different part of Erezza?

And who does Cerlota feel more loyal to: Erezza’s average citizen (aka the described ‘Avezchene majority’), or the people in power at Soretto?

I’m still dreading the possibility that Homelander MC’s ambition to reunite Aveche with Shayard will culminate in Cerlota angrily breaking ties with him, so could this “Avezchene majority eagerly joins Homelander MC entirely out of their own free will” scenario be a feasible compromise that reconciles MC’s irredentist dream with his desire to remain close friends with Cerlota?

(since that scenario would probably remain consistent with MC’s “rule through respect/charisma/incentives” approach, instead of “rule through theurgic dominance/oppression”)

Or would Cerlota instead potentially feel that she’s betraying her friends/ex-bosses from Soretto? (if she were to accommodate MC’s ambition of taking Avezia back from Erezza)

Religion-wise, how does Erezza lean? (compared to Shayardene Xthonists, Whendish pagans, Abhuman syncretists, and Nyrish skeptics)

Does an Eclect MC have a head start on winning over the Erezzans? (in comparison to Inner Voice Prophet MCs and Kenon Cultist MCs)

Alternatively, since Erezza has had frequent clashes with Halassur over the past few centuries, how much exposure did Erezza’s soldiers have to Halassur’s religious practices (concerning the “pantheon of Mother Ummay, Consort Kormuz, and Evren the Firstborn”)?

E.g. has there ever been any peaceful cultural exchanges between Erezzan and Halassurq troops during ceasfires/truces? (similar to the Christmas Truce of 1914)

If MC and Teren are secret allies (and/or secret lovers), then can a “Strangers on a Train” murder-swapping collusion be arranged between MC and Teren?

(and also, is the question equally applicable for male helot MC and Calea’s relationship?)

Quick Quote FYI for how the “Strangers on a Train” trope works: “A couple of fellows meet accidentally, like you and me. No connection between them at all. Never saw each other before. Each of them has somebody he’d like to get rid of, but he can’t murder the person he wants to get rid of. He’ll get caught. So they swap murders.”

E.g. MC and Teren (or Calea) take advantage of the Battle of Aekos (or some other massive conflict) as a smokescreen to covertly (and simultaneously) assassinate each other’s most significant political rivals, while having convenient alibis for the rivals we’re infamously known for disliking)

5090

Tbh, I hope there will be an option for building a new capital or at least having multiple capitals for different purposes like administrative, ecclesiastical, etc… as to prevent concentration of power in one specific area.
Also this may look incredibly egotistical (and it is) will there be an option to turn the MC’s Rim birthplace (if the MC choosed to become eclect) into a holy site where pilgrims congregate? From a historical standpoint it did happen with Mecca being Muhammad’s birthplace and the holiest city in Islam, it can also allow the state to gain a source of revenue from pilgrims (if you want to, I am of two minds about it)

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5091

To be monarch of Shayard and ruler of the continent are not mutually exclusive, no…but don’t imagine that in the wake of the Thaumatarch’s fall you’ll be able to non-violently “convince” the rest of the continent to submit to rule by a hereditary line of Shayardene monarchs. A consensual koinon would need to involve substantially more power-sharing than that; a continental empire that wasn’t a consensual koinon would need to be imposed by force.

And you’d still need your cadre of cosmopolitans to rule a polyglot, multi-cultural empire, even if your own ideology is an uncomfortable fit for them.

I don’t think your “cousins” will play any role in the game. Your father didn’t leave you with the information to identify them, and at this point they wouldn’t themselves be aware of their ancestral connection to the Rim.

The Lykeion is not a text, but an institution: per the glossary, “the Thaumatarch’s school of Theurgy in Aekos.” It’s where Theurges are trained.

No, not interested.

Ah, there’s so many. :slight_smile: Sean Bean did an amazing job of making Boromir more sympathetic than he is in the books, and Ian McKellen’s Gandalf is warm and wise and kickass. Gollum and the hobbits are all fantastic, too. Aragorn’s a bit of a second-tier character for me, but my wife would definitely put him top-tier.

I’m glad that you liked the Hobbit movies! They were perfectly cast, and I wanted to like them much more than I did. But I found them bloated and very weirdly paced. Their action scenes, unlike 90% of the LotR ones, were packed with weightless video game CGI nonsense that threw any remotely plausible physics out the window (notably fleeing the Great Goblin in #1, the river barrel battle and the fight with Smaug in #2, and half the Battle of Five Armies in #3). By copying the tone, scope, and plot rhythm of the LotR movies rather than the much more whimsical tone, small-scale scope, and episodic rhythm of the book, it also sacrificed most of the charm of the book, which is a deserved classic of kid-lit.

No, she’s from the other end of the country – from Moncesano.

She’ll be quite hostile to any attempt to weaken Erezza, including by severing Avezia. She wouldn’t see this as “bad for the bosses in Soretto” but bad for all of Erezza that isn’t Avezia. It will be very difficult (if possible at all) for an irredentist to stay friends with her while also actively trying to entice the Avezchenes to secede and join Shayard.

Erezza is Xthonist and (as with Shayard) has no active practitioners and little memory of its pre-Xthonic religion. An Eclect or Inner Voice Prophet MC could do well at winning over the Erezziano. Erezza’s engagement with Halassurq culture has been mutually hostile; there’s no scope for something like the Christmas truce, since the two sides don’t celebrate the same festivals. The truces have just been truces, not occasions for a deeper common culutre to temporarily re-emerge.

I have no plan to incorporate the Strangers on a Train trope with Teren or anyone else.

Absolutely, whether you go the religion route or just a high-CHA cult of personality.

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I assume a vision of Shayard and Erezza taking their place as two separate and independent states, with a defensive military alliance and close trade relations would be something she’s much more likely to go for?

My MC will probably limit herself to annexing the part of old Shayard that Karagond took directly. Even there, Phaedrus or Sarcifer might be able to talk her out of it.

Her nonnegotiable position is going to be a unified and independent Shayardene state that holds all the territory within the current archonty. Beyond that it will be played by ear and depend what Caroline thinks will be most conducive to this new state’s survival and security.

Erezza seems pretty unified. How likely are the Whends to form a single state vs split apart? The apparent strength of their clan system seems like it would probably result in any central authority they have to be pretty weak.

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Yep, she’d have no problem at all with that.

It could fragment easily, especially given that almost every other city and its environs consider themselves the equal of Soretto and resent the prominence it was given by the Hegemony. But there is one strong force pushing in the other direction, which is the enmity of Halassur. Every Erezziano knows that Halassur wants to overrun the isthmus and Harrow them all. If the Wards come down and that external threat becomes acute, there will be a lot more Erezziano thinking “unity is strength”. Those who, like Cerlota, have a higher-than-usual awareness of that threat already are going to be the ones least tolerant of the breakdown of the country.

The Whends, on the other hand, have no impending invasion to worry about, and are very likely to splinter into dozens of hill micro-states when the repressive hand of the Hegemony is withdrawn (unless you replace it with a new repressive hand of your own).

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If we can maintain control of enough resources and keep the roads maintained and safe enough (likely build new ones too as the current network is inefficiently laid out for anything other than siphoning everything towards Karagon and Aekos) then parts of Wiendrj are favourably positioned to potentially become the new workshop of the continent and thus one of its cities old or new may become the manufacturing capital, like Detroit and the US Steel belt…before it all turned to rust. :wink:

While this ultimately depends on as of yet non-existent trade routes to the other continents I did once speculate that whatever podunk fishing village lies at the northern terminus of the canal may have the potential to eventually become a cross of New York and Rotterdam and therefore the trading/financial capital and single largest port.

Avezia will always be the national and political capital and the main seat of the national government as well as hopefully the southern terminus of the canal and an important port in its own right.

As for ecclesiastical capital…since my mc plans to formally separate church and state there is no need for one of those although certain places will always remain more important than others to the various lawful religions.
My only hope is that we do not end up with a Jerusalem analogue though, that is a never abating headache no matter how much you try to separate church and state.

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If Panama or Suez is any indication simply being along a canal is not a certain path to Trade Capitaldom. I would think the intersection of important land routes, sea routes, and interior waterways like Amsterdam, New York, or New Orleans would be a greater draw. By my reading of the map that would be Grand Shayard, Corlune, or Rehges more than any other cities in the current Hegemony.

Actually if had to dream up a continent spanning canal project looking at the more detailed map now it would run from the eastern portion of Aekos Lake through Stegras to the head of navigation at Yeraylek. Ideally you you could keep the grade low enough to avoid locks like the Suez. This of course would only further cement Aekos as the natural capital.

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