Silly post.
I’ve been replaying this game to get a couple of saves ready for the sequel and I’ve been watching Mel Brooks films.
Every time I hire Sybla to train my rebels, I can’t help but imagine the training goes something like this.
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@Havenstone Could we have an option to talk with Horion for a moment when we free him in Chapter 4, or at least an ability to explain we did it to try to prevent Theurgic strike on our camps? It’s a bit weird now when we just free him and nothing really happens.
Of course if it’s a too big of addition for Game 1 and you’d prefer to focus solely on Stormwright then it’s entirely understandable.
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Adding on to the above and also completely irrelevant to the above, can we please please please get a Calea romance for Aristos? Calea seems like a really interesting character, and although she clearly has a type, I think it could be cool to kinda pine for her as an Aristo, and maybe high CHA ones can convince her to give them a shot? I only ask because Hector had a small romance for Aristos, and it could be cool seeing the differences between Helot and Aristo romances for Calea since she’d obviously treat them differently.
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Belatedly: I’ll see about adding this. It should be something I can get to when I’m writing Ch 3 of Stormwright and linking Horion relationships to how Teren/the Leaguers and other Grand Shayard factions treat you.
Sorry, @Fate – both for the delay in welcoming you to the forum, and for having to say no to a Calea cousin romance. She’s just not interested. I agree she’s an interesting character, and so far in G1 only aristo MCs can get her interesting scene. But for a potential terrible-idea, what-are-you-even-thinking-people romance with Calea, I’ve only ever planned writing it for helot MCs. GIve that side of the tracks a try if you want to see that particular train wrecked.
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I can’t remember if you mentioned it before, but will we be able to take opportunities as the series progresses to decrease our anarchy rating, or does it only ever go up?
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Here’s the last thing I think I wrote about it, almost exactly 7 years ago:
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I do have to ask, since it’s come up, why does leaving Horion’s head on the Keriatou doorstep bring substantially less notoriety than leaving his body on the crossroads? I feel like these would be similarly brutal and shocking acts, even if there is a bit of delay between them.
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I would guess that fewer people saw it.
I think another factor is that if I’m the Keriatou I don’t want that story running and I’m in a better situation to stop it if the head is on my doorstep.
Archon’s cousin being killed by my former helot is not news I want to get out there. So I think they are able to do a little more damage control in this situation
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Fewer physical eyes sure, but “HEAD OF ARCHON FAMILY MEMBER FOUND ON RIM NOBLE’S DOORSTEP WITH THREAT STAPLED TOO IT!” is an equally gorey headline as “BODY OF ARCHON FAMILY MEMBER FOUND HANGING ON RIM ROAD”. Assuming we are taking Notoriety as a measure of attention paid to you by the powers that be, the head thing should probably do more if anything. Using his body as a direct threat on a noble house is scarier than just leaving it out to rot.
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Ah man, I did just finish my first Helot playthrough after playing Aristo over and over in the past, so that’s good, but I won’t lie that I’m disappointed, I def prefer my Aristo MC and would have liked his 2 Cha to help me win her heart over, even if she didn’t treat me much differently from a Helot MC. Oh well, love the game, super excited for the sequel, thanks for replying and minorly crushing my dreams lol.
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How many RO are in this book if you don’t mind me asking?
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In this book, three ROs, two of which are the opposite sex to the one you first indicate attraction to (so their romances will generally be open only to bi/pan MCs).
The sequel, in progress now, will introduce seven more ROs.
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Doesn’t that mean in practice that they’re always the opposite sex to Breden, whether you express attraction to Breden or not?
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Sorry, I should have said “attraction or potential romantic interest.” To the extent a reader might be construed to be expressing a preference, either romantic or sexual, K and S will be the opposite of that preference.
An aro-ace MC will get a randomized gender for Breden, and I’d been thinking that in that situation, K and S weren’t really “ROs”… but the MC can still choose to pursue a relationship “against nature” with them, as they can in any other non-bi case, so I’m wrong. 
Yes, their gender is just set to be the opposite of Breden’s.
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@Havenstone Which endgame strategies would be considered optimal for a rebel who wants to attract the different factions of nobility? Presumably, each has a preference for how they’d like to see the Hegemony’s attack on the Whendward Pass get resolved. Could you provide a basic synopsis on how the influenceable noble factions would feel about each successful rebel strategy?
EDIT: Made a mistake on the location of the events in Chapter 4, so I’m sorry if I confused/annoyed you @Havenstone.
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Sorry, I’m blanking on what this refers to.
If you’re serious, I mean the attack by the Hegemony in Chapter 4. If you’re just being coy, I guess I’ll wait for the Grand Shayard chapters of Stormwright.
FWIW Whendry (Wiendrj) is it’s own country bordering Shayard, which the Whendward Pass leads to. It’s near this pass that your band sets up, hence their name. The battle actually takes place at a place called High Crag.
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You’re right. That’s what I meant. I’m going to edit my post.
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Ah, got it, thanks. And sorry for coming across as coy, that wasn’t the emoji intent.
Your strategy options in G1 Ch 4 – fight, run, disperse – don’t correspond to how the noble factions feel about you. Those choices (and whether you succeed in the strategy you’ve picked) mainly affect how big, spread out, and notorious the rebellion in the Rim will be in G2 Ch2.
The Loyalists will be horrified at a rebellion enjoying any degree of success at all. The Laconniers and Leaguers will be cheerful at the Hegemony getting a bloody nose, but may be negative toward you based on how you’ve treated nobles, how much anarchy you’ve created, and whether your reputation is cosmopolitan/strongly nationalist (respectively). The bigger your impact gets, the more nervous they’ll get about you unless you’re a known client of their faction (you can start G2 as a tacit Laconnier client if you chose the jailbreak start of G1, but that won’t last if you’ve gone in a direction they dislike).
Endgame wise, if you want to attract the nobility as a class to your rebellion and eventually new regime, don’t target them in your war, don’t even think about land reform, institute a noble-centric administration building on the aristarchate, and minimize or disguise your social levelling policies that elevate merchants, yeomen, and helots. Beyond that, the different noble factions have their own specific goals and preferences that will turn some of them against you even if you’re impeccably pro-noble in general; it’s unlikely that you’ll ever get support from both the Laconniers and Leaguers at the same time, for example, unless one faction has been weakened to the point where it doesn’t really matter that they’re on your side. Their values and visions for the future of Shayard are just too different.
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