I figure there’ll be replacements. Diakon Edwer may be one.
I can confirm that any MC who hits INT 2 in a future game will have the option to learn basic Theurgy.
(And bugs fixed and update package heading to CoG–thanks @Ramidel)
Edit:
Breden won’t be the last high CHA NPC in the game. But they’ll continue to have various distinctive pros and cons.
And as a general note, the leadership bumps from Chapter 2 aren’t just there to make the start of Chapter 4 a bit tricky. Henchfolk who accrue leadership experience can come in handy for the rebellion from Game 2 onward.
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Well, that’s the trade-off. Do you want incompetent minions or disloyal ones?
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And as a general note, the leadership bumps from Chapter 2 aren’t just there to make the start of Chapter 4 a bit tricky. Henchfolk who accrue leadership experience can come in handy for the rebellion from Game 2 onward.
Looks like all my Low Anarchy Aristocrat playthroughs with Radmar as my main recruiter (after getting rid of Breden) will come in handy after all!
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Aren’t they disloyal anyway? Or is that my mc’s budding paranoia speaking. The tradeoff will be the incompetent, disloyal minions are easily foiled, the competent ones not so much. So never have more competent minions than can be kept under surveillance by your die-hard loyalists I say.
I think making a stand and fighting was the best call at the end of the first game, that doesn’t mean Radmar will always be right and facing every adversary head-on in open combat will be in any way beneficial.
For example we may want to strangle some of the cities by starvation, instead of getting bogged down in needlessly messy urban combat, even if we theoretically have the numbers to prevail. Just an example.
I hope we meet a skeptical one soon, cause the main drawback of Breden (and hypothetically the Diakon, but he doesn’t join my mc, can’t imagine why?) is the same one being as caught up in the religious falsehoods that perpetrate the Hegemony’s abominable caste-system and social order as they are.
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I think the optimal decision is based on what kind of rebellion you want to run.
If you want to build a mass movement of slaves and yeomen, then you’re better served by evading the army or returning to the camps so you can play the long game and keep building support among the masses. This was Mao Zedong’s plan, and he was the most successful rebel in human history, if nothing else.
If you want to enlist nobles and the like, then you’re better served by fighting the Archon. Wealthy and powerful people are not interested in derping around in the woods till kingdom come, they want to know that you can win, and they have something to gain by supporting you. The best proof of concept you can provide is defeating the Archon.
I use a similar logic when (as an Aristo Theurge) I don’t bother teaching my rebels to read. It might make them more effective, but it also makes them harder to control. The slaves and yeomen are beasts, and it is above their station to know how to read (according to my Aristo Theurge).
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Given the Hegemony’s history of supressing most rebellions in a single season even the masses I think would become more supportive if you show you’re unlike all of the other rebellions in living memory that have been suppressed. The Hegemony is not China after all and they don’t have concept of the mandate that, at least theoretically encourages the occasional rebellion and lets even farmers and slaves stake the claim to it, if they’re lucky. Where the helot is concerned the Hegemony is probably more like India with its caste system and if my mc, being regarded by their precious religion as sub-human filth succeeds that will be one hell of a blow to the system and the religion (and my mc of course hopes it would prove to be a shattering one at that).
I also think the blow to the Hegemony’s prestige and faith that losing to a helot rebellion, because that also seems to be unique for Shayard is that our rebellion can be primarily helot driven instead of originating from the nobility or yeomanry, stings particularly hard.
It does become rather difficult to claim that you’re the chosen of Xthonos when a group of starving helots can fight against your armies and survive…
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Any method works, simply because any method means three dead Plektoi with nothing to show for it. At that point, the Archon is going to start suffering heat from her superiors, which will become highly important in Book 2.
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I’ve updated my guide (2INT/1CHA Aristocrat) with a 2COM/1CHA Aristocrat variant that plays fairly similarly. Let me know what you think, and remember that the goal of the guide is ease of play (while solidly defeating the Archon) rather than strict optimality.
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https://anndr.deviantart.com/art/My-Love-O-The-Greenwood-739099604
Art inspired by XoR! Commissioned by a reader who loved the end of winter bonfire scene. I’m touched and delighted that someone would pay an artist to realise their image of my game. (And a very talented artist too… CoG cover art department, take note).
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I really enjoy their ability and talented work.
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@Havenstone will we be able to meet ganelon or the man who rescued us from keriatou dungeon in the next book, even if we don’t choose their route in the prologue?
No, I’m afraid he’s a Book One character. I’ve got no plans to extend his arc.
on the other hand, will be a major character in Books 2ff, if you don’t kill him. And a potential Romantic Option.
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ooh interesting! at least there’s gonna be another RO if my beloved Breden turns out to be the traitor 
so excited for part two!
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There will be more RO in book 2 , according to the author…
But if you already marry with Breden , you should forgive all her mischievings right ? That’s in your vows 
and “Till Death Do Us Part” right ? 
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my MC haven’t married him yet so things are really gonna be interesting in the next book
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I got 2 main playthrough … the first married Breden, got the Kryptash code from her and used the code when i was captured ( so this pretty much solidify Breden as one of Kryptash ) , then i killed the commander and captured the magic sword , Elery died so i gave the sword to Simon and promote him to leader before i left for the Taos Land with Breden … I strongly advice you to try the marry route because only then you can receive the code and get the magic sword, although Elery will die… like i said, i already forgave Breden even though i knows she is the assassin …i don’t think Breden was the traitor though, i still think it was Joana… there are 2 spies within our rank 
my 2nd saved game I plan to romance Suzanne, but i still pardon Breden …Elery survived but i pass the leadership to Alina , Suzanne went with me to the Taos Land… I also love this playthrough because Suzanne presented such aura of nobility that worthy of Arthurian’s courtly love , Suzanne will only allow me to kiss her hand for now but she asked me to properly propose my courting to her in a gala event, where she will most definitely accept my courting…that is just so cool , she got style 
so i think you can try this route as well… because in Book 2, there may have such gala event for us to propose to Suzanne
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you can still get the kryptast code from breden even when you don’t marry him. though i admit i haven’t done a playthrough where i use it, my 2COM MC always fight them off
but maybe i’ll do a playthrough where i get captured and get that magic sword you say (though i don’t like elery getting killed, i love her!)
i also didn’t let breden go with me, because we might end up like yed and i don’t want that to happen to him (i still love him even though i can’t help but think he is the traitor! so let’s just say i’m confused 
) so i just went to xaos-lands alone. though i’m planning to do one where i bring him with me.
and yeah i agree with you on suzanne, i like her (not romantically though) more than kala. kala just want to kill everyone that is not a helot
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Very nice, that being said I do think the band there looks less haggard then they probably are and even for the mc’s who care about it where are they getting a shirt that fine and pristine and white in that forest just after the rainy season? 
Aww…well for a single book and arc character Gan did have an outsize impact on my mc, second only to Hector himself for a “noble”. So does this mean poor Gan gets himself killed somewhere between book 1 and 2, even if we, or indeed our band, don’t do the deed ourselves. In a sickening but also rather predictable twist I could certainly see Hector taking his repeated failings in subduing our band of rebels out on the kid.
From what I got of that only for the aristos, guys like him don’t fraternize with lower castes and classes it seems. He’s also a Laconnier and probable Halassur spy, or both?
Fortunately the Tiger helped me craft my “it’s raining men” adaptation for personal use that really does let me ignore Simon’s canon bisexuality. Now to hope it hasn’t corrupted the saves and will work in part 2.
Given what I know it seems both bi (gay? So if you are same-sex romancing the gender-flipping ro’s are they envisioned as bi or gay canonically in that case? ) men open to helots are either traitors (Breden) or about as “evil” as you can get even in this grey and gray world (prince nippletwister).
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