Sort of like the Alliance of Men, Elves( Wood Elves and High Elves) and Dwarfs ? 
No, it is more then just a military pact or alliance of opportunity and would likely have its own laws and bureaucracy, albeit subject to veto from any member-state, much like the current EU.
Again, think EU, not Axis or Allies from WW2 or Entente and Central Powers before that, those were just alliance pacts of opportunity and convenience, not the long-term commitment our EU and Horion’s Koinon would likely be. I do think Horion overlooks just how backwards and lacking in fully mature civil society the Hegemony is outside of Karagond and its major cities, and even there I don’t think what existing civil society there may be would be at all equipped to cope with the millions of new free citizens with all the rights and privileges thereof that the helots and lower rungs of the yeomen are going to form post-rebellion in my mc’s case.
Thus, as far as I can see, making the Koinon Horion pursues nonviable except as a union of slavocrats and my mc would fight such an abomination to the death, same as the old Hegemony.
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The Koinon Horion envisions is a Shayard led confederacy of the various former provinces of the Hegemony that would be formed around mutual defence and economic union between the former provinces.
I honestly don’t care for it because my goal is to form an Empire with my MCs at the centre. Far easier that way rather than trying to make a decentralised confederacy that will be ruinous to try to administer.
But, at least it will be better than the nightmare that @idonotlikeusernames is going to unleash due to his misguided precognitions and radical views that need to be moderated in order to save his people from disaster.
The biggest things my MC has acknowledged is that key institutions of the Hegemony need to be coopted and reformed in order to ensure stability during the transition between regimes. The second is that we need to develop a fairer system of land distribution and give out land to the Helots and Freeholders who supported our rebellion.
Certainly we can ennoble Freeholders and name former Helots as freeholders who supported our rise to power. Since I am fairly certain that various freeholders and nobles will find themselves dead for opposing me which gives me a lot of land to play with and boundaries to redraw in the aftermath to reward my supporters.
Another key thing my character will push for is schooling. We need to educate former Helots in basic mathematics and their alphabet and work on opening up opportunities for them by expanding the chances for apprenticeships and ensuring that they can work the farms they are given.
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And there’s always the option of setting up a ‘Koinon’ that is not actually what you proclaim it to be. A powerful Shayard that’s taken a dramatic hand in liberating the rest of Karagond would pretty easily be able to set up the old provinces as ‘free’ puppet states.
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It seems you share the same folly of the Laconniers and Cabel, whereas I think the era that the smallholder family tending the family farm as the basic economic unit of Shayard has long since passed. To feed its new population Shayard now requires the efficiency that large scale agriculture aided by liberal use of theurgy brings.
You’ll note that agriculture is the blood use even my mc isn’t planning on cutting in any significant ways (in the short to mid-term), except for maybe streamlining it where possible and trying to introduce more non-magical techne into farming in order to try and make it (far) less labour-intensive.
Schooling always seems key, but students need to be able to advance on merits and talented (former) helots and yeomen shouldn’t be limited to just basic literacy.
Yeah, my mc wouldn’t like that as he really wouldn’t like being a yeoman farmer anymore than he did being livestock. He hasn’t got much farmer in him. It would also ignore the merits of a great number of helots, such as Yebben, Elery and Pin in order to keep a milder version of the current class and caste system intact.
That would be the modern Russian federation in relation to its Federal Republics (insofar as I get their constitution right), except for Chechnya which is run as Kadyrov’s hellish, medieval fief in practice instead.
One of those might also have been what the rump Soviet-Union might have transformed into without Yeltsin’s coup.
My mc problem with that is that he really doesn’t care for the idea of Shayardene primacy, that would just be repeating same of the same mistakes Karagon made, except with Shayardenes assuming the roles the Karagonds used to hold. Furthermore I still think that in a Koinon Shayard is poorly positioned to industrialize, except for mechanized agriculture and light industry.
As even Mao would have been an extraordinarily mild and benevolent ruler by the standards set by the Thaumatarchy I think if anything ever needed widespread and radical reforms it would be the Karagond Hegemony.
First and foremost remains shattering the caste system and the power of the church that propagates it. Ultimately that will take what it’s going to take and my mc wouldn’t “moderate” on that because that would cost him support and ensures he’d personally end up a slave again or a poor and exploited “freedman” sharecropper in perpetual debt-bondage at best.
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That’s an impressive range of characters. But dare I ask about ROs for the more nationalistic sort of noble (either in Book 2, or later in the series)?
For example, my main MC is a heterosexual male nobleman (Enguerrand de Eramant), whose rebellion was largely prompted by a desire to boot out the Karagands and restore the lost glories of the Shayardene monarchy. Entanglements with Helots or foreign agents are therefore undesirable, for obvious reasons.
At present, this generally results in a bit of subterfuge at the start of Book 1 so that he can court Suzanne when she appears. (Although, to be honest, raiding the Hegemony is generally too much fun to resist… which tends to result in Kait popping up instead.)
Greeting kurios Havenstone, I want to express my appreciation for wonderful literary game, also, I have some question I couldn’t find an answer to so far.
I am Aliki Liddelatou, the devoted fan of XoR who has spent 100+ hours into this game, I don’t want to sound like I’m exaggerating, but… Xthonos, your game is amazing! It is the most well-written fantasy book I have ever read (including LOTR and GoT). Choice of Rebel deserves much more fame than this! It also is a best CoG (and Hosted Game) ever exists. I absolutely love the flavored text depending on my characteristics, and the unending possibilities of outcome your game offers.
My real age is 20 (which seems to coincide with the protagonist’s age at the end of Chapter 4), seeing that the first game took 7 years to finish, I expect to finish this whole series when I’m 48. I’ll wait for it. Kurios, Please don’t abandon this project. Don’t abandon your Hegemony. Don’t abandon the rebellion you make it starts. I implore you.
Now, question time, I guess?
Chapter 1
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Overall, I feel like even a cha 0 protagonist talks more eloquently than most people I know in real life. Shouldn’t she use different wordings than her cha 2 counterpart? (Anyway, from your writings, it seems like you can write nothing that is not beautiful and articulate. So the current wordings is more than acceptable.)
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Just a suggestion, but I would welcome some flavored text from Breden and the gang if my name appears to be “Elery”, “Calea”, etc., or if I’m a helot with “de XXX”, “XXXatou” family name. Also, I’m not suppose to be a Keriatou?
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I have read your code, and there seems to be many instances where aristo protagonist refers to her comrade as ‘helot’ ( like, Elery the Brilliant ‘helot’ tactician). I would never think of them that way. Shouldn’t that be the case only with an arrogant aristo?
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Looks like there is no choice to be a secretly-arrogant aristo (like, always talk nice to Breden but seeing helots as pawns for a noble like herself to control them to her own benefits). A secretly-arrogant aristo (with enough charisma?) should be able to take Breden as her plaything, like what my cousin Calea does with Dann.
Chapter 2
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At the start of a week, sometimes I have no option to sell mules and arms, leaving me to buy a less-than-ideal number of grains.
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Maybe int 0 noble should not be literate?
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Fedrel seems to have a very high standard. From the code, there is at most one week I can feed my band less than “a healthy diet for everyone”. That makes it very hard for me to go through the winter “without robbery and brigandage” AND no casualty (I only managed it once, with high amount of luck involved). Shouldn’t he be contend if I feed the band like… mixed diet for week 1-2 and healthy diet for week 3-4 ?
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If I’m a theurge who have practiced levitation enough (maybe have done it at least 2 times?), I think I have enough skill to lift the telone’s daughter without killing her.
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Shouldn’t my deputy have some reaction if I choose my alias exactly the same with my name?
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Minor suggestion, but I would like to forbid the whole Whendward band from Xaotic copulation outside of matrimony. And I’ll make a brutal example of the swiving couple, even if they’re Elery and Zvad.
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Why can’t I teach my followers an alphabeta in week ten?
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If I can go through the winter with little/no casualty and do not raid anyone (and/or raid from only Hegemony), shouldn’t that increase my credibility with yeoman and helot (and/or noble, merchant)?
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If my band has about 300 followers and they need 81 bushels. I’ll need about 1300 drachams to buy enough grains for everyone. Why would I do that, when I could buy ale, beef and cheese enough for a feast with only 300 drachams?
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I feel nervous by Kala’s blood-thirst. It would be relieving to have option not to accept her into my band (though if I have com 0 and be a noble, she may kill me on the spot?)
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I know there are nobles with Hegemonic name and Shayardene family name, like Ismene de Galis, but I prefer to change my name to a more Shayardene-sounding name along with my family name ( like, Aliki to Alice). I would appreciate that option.
Chapter 3
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I feel like if I’m very ruthless and/or performs bad in the winter, Linos should not think that, or not be sure if, I’m an Eclect (though he may still offer to proclaim me as one if being threatened, or if being treated very well).
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Like the 16), followers should not believe a leader who proclaims herself an Eclect after she led them through the winter with 100+ casualties and leaves morale utterly dismal, even if she has extraordinary charisma. And if she tries to teach them to hear their inner voice, shouldn’t some of them hears the Angel tells them to leave the band? That would be darkly amusing.
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Sometimes, I want to kill Linos after he proclaims me an Eclect (though it may cause deep plunge in morale). I couldn’t find an option to do so.
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After Hector attack, it would be wonderful for a male helot protagonist to admit something like “I have a summer with Calea once” and/or parley with her. Male helot has an option to seduce Calea would be amusing. (Well, assuming that any helot Calea feels bored would goes straight to the Harrower, that means the protagonist is either Calea’s current lover, which makes the whole sequence more amusing, or a recently-discarded lover whose his name is to be called in the fourth Harrowing.)
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I would like to have an option on what to do with the venuers’ bodies. They deserved to be nailed to trees near the Keriatou estate.
Chapter 4
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I would like to sell mules and buy more arms before choosing the strategy with my band.
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I feel like some option that require my followers to follow my commands (like telling them to stop Radmar from killing Breden, or the “pull me up/ push it down” with Plektoi) should be a morale check. Eclect may get a free pass and high charisma may pass a morale check easier.
Some curious questions about the game’s lore
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I know that Hegemony is based on ancient Greek, but I couldn’t find an information about ancient Greek family names end with -atou. Instead, they seems to have no family name. What is the meaning of -atou?
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When same-sex noble couple chooses to adopt, where could they find a child for adoption? It seems unlikely that they would adopt a child without noble lineage.
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Would I, as a master thuerge, have a chance in later game to give a tongue back to Poric?
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The Hegemony’s religion could be a real religion! It looks like a perfect mix of Roman afterlife, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Hindu caste system. Do it has a name (like Xthonosis?). And is there a ritual for a person who want to converts to the religion of Xthonos? (not that I’m gonna to convert! I’m just asking!)
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I have not seen much of the region, but I suspect Shayard City has the advance level about England in Industrial Revolution era. And the most advanced part of Hegemony would be about 2030-2040, considering how it creates a mutant dog. Is that correct?
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It is very unclear to me which countries these are based on. But Whendery gives me an Irish/Scottish feels. And Halassurq gives me a Chinese feels. What would you say about that? What is an inspiration for the tale of Oton and Katta-Kack?
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I have heard that your game is the bestseller of CoG (which is not surprising at all). Do you intend to write something like… a companion book, explaining the religion of Xthonos, the lives of nobles and helots, the history of Shayard, etc. ? It doesn’t have to be long (10000 word count is fine). It doesn’t have to be interactive. I (and probably many of your fans) would give many drachams for it.
Kurios Havenstone, thank you for readings this. I understand that you probably not agree with me on many points, and I respect and cherish your decisions.
I have known your game since it came out and I have always kept an opinion to myself. But after seeing that you have made many small changes to the game from the fans’ suggestions… bleeding Angels, I couldn’t keep it all to myself any longer.
Also, sorry for my bad Shayarin (is Shayarin = English?). I am Thai, and Shayarin is my second language. I really want to write like a noble (from the code, noble sometimes use a “higher” word choice and sentence structure than helot), but this is the best I can manage.
Thank you for creating this wonderful game and literature!
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Moved this here since it’s a suggestion box rather than a hint request.
Anyway, here are some of my (non-Havenstone) answers.
2: No, you’re not a Keriatou, they’re your cousins.
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That’s because you have enough money to buy grain at your current level of consumption. You can sell mules and arms during the week, of course.
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No, you’d still be taught to read, you’re just not very good at using that.
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Yep, Fedrel’s a jerk.
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Control with theurgy is very difficult. You won’t really get fine control until the next book - right now, you’re a dabbler in a very complex field.
10, 18. You don’t generally get options that will lead to an immediate mutiny.
12: No, but you also won’t lose credibility by raiding. Besides, the helots like it when you do bad things to nobles.
- Three things. One, the feast is for one night, two, winter is over and prices are down, and three, you already have some of the supplies (venison, very bad helot ale) to hand.
16: If you are extremely ruthless, he’ll be offering you the Eclect position to keep himself alive…
17: The followers who are still with you are going to want to believe.
19: That’ll happen in book 2.
27: Plektoi aren’t technological, they’re magical. With a couple of exceptions, theurgy and techne are separate areas.
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I wouldn’t put it past some very wealthy same-sex noble couples to be able to afford complex enough theurgy to create a child that is genetically the offspring of both of them somehow.
That being said in the Hegemony what counts for noble families is passing on the family name. Much like was the case with our ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilisations that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to do the procreating yourself and you can adopt a competent (adult) heir who takes on the family name but isn’t related to you by blood.
This, I assume, is one of the key parts that enables the Hegemony’s prominent families and the Xthonic religion to allow for same-sex couples and marriages in the first place. From what I read between the lines this may be an area of significant tension and difference in interpretation between the Karagond and Shayardene cultures and their respective versions of the Codex as Shayard seemed to have historically valued blood-relations above all for determining eligibility and inheritance within its prominent families.
Thus restoration of “Shayardene values” and the Shayardene codex might be spectacularly bad for the LGBT people of the Hegemony and certainly for my gay mc as the absolute last thing he wants to do in his personal life is having to marry a woman, any woman.
There is also the fact that helots are not included in this tolerance and acceptance of same-sex relationships even now as they are more or less forced to reproduce by the dictates of the caste system .
As @Ramidel already said most of the really advanced stuff is done by magic, that said I believe pure technology might be at as much as a late 19th century level in Karagond proper, but the Karagonds are very paranoid and secretive about letting Techne propagate outside their borders and due to wanting vast numbers of helots and drudges seem entirely uninterested in many of its possible labour-saving prospects.
Making Techne propagate and industrializing is one of my mc priorities, probably right after shattering the caste system.
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Can’t see that happening, to be honest. The Xthonic religion and its attendant metaphysics (which are what inform the attitude toward homosexuality) came from Shayard, so I’m pretty sure Shayarin “traditonal” culture has included gay marriage since before the Hegemony.
Not to mention that technological adoption is inevitably very slow in a slave state because labor is cheaper than technological capital.
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Well, yeah, but then my mc plans to end the slave state as not doing so would be a Pyrrhic victory that would ensure he’d remain a slave himself…
But In this world, if anything, technological progress seems more rapid then in ours in spite of the pervasive slave-state. To bad I can’t quote old threads directly but here’s Havenstone piece about the pace of technological advances. So it seems it took Karagond less than half the time to hit some of the same milestone’s as our historical Europe did.
Point is Karagond is keeping the provinces technologically backwards on purpose and that likely goes even for the provincial nobility.
Whereas I very much can. The Xthonic religion has undergone major changes from the Shayardene original and the Laconniers in particular seem to value their bloodline not the family name, as would be custom in today’s Hegemony. It has also been blood-magic that allowed the culture to become more egalitarian and less sexist (for the upper classes anyway). So I could well see Shayardene traditional culture and the original version of the Shayardene Codex as having the same crap about marriage is between a man and a woman and the value of pure bloodlines as some of our cultures.
This seems to be a prime question to ask @Havenstone himself though we’ll probably get a cryptic answer at best.
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sorry if this has been asked before, but can a INT1 MC learn theurgy in book 2?
Thank you very much for your answer!
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point 2) I’m suggesting that you should not be able to give yourself a family name “Keriatou”. If you do that, Breden should says something like “Truly? Kuria, forgive my upstart tongue but I think you’re joking. Your family crest says otherwise. Excuse me, kuria, but from what I have known your family name is…”
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point 5) There should always be an option to sell mules and arms before buying barley. Sometimes I want to buy more than my current level of consumption, like when I (have an option to) send a barley run even if there is already enough grain for that week.
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point 8) Understand that you’re just a dabbler in Thuergy. But it looks almost like cheating to an int 2 player for an innocuous choice of levitating the telone’s daughter to have 100% chance of accidental murder. (Com 2 has its ‘correct’ choice, and cha 2 choices are clear that they’re not gonna work). At least please give some description that there is a risk involved and/or give that choice 50% chance of success.
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Continue from the last post
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point 10) The leader telling the band to refrain from extramarital copulation is basically telling the devoted band to resist Xaos and to keep up the band’s reputation, why would that lead to immediate mutiny?
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point 16) Would Linos still think you’re an Eclect if you’re a very incompetent band leader?
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point 24) If I understand correctly, the same-sex noble couple may ask yeomen/ merchants or fellow nobles (but never helots) who are willing to give up their children?
From what I have read, yes if you increase your int to at least 2 (you’ll have a chance to increase your skill)
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I think they prefer war orphans from the lower/less wealthy nobility as upward mobility is heavily frowned upon by the Hegemony. Still it might be possible so long as you at least adopt a free citizen. So no helots.
There was some interesting potential with the helot dad apparently having been in the same situation as Dann before, except with a “noble” slightly less sanguine then Calea is a while back. But Havenstone ultimately chose to keep the story about the unknown brother firmly in the past but it could potentially have been interesting to explore the helot mc having had a half-sibling raised as a “noble” as a partial subversion of the Karagond caste and chastity strictures.
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sweet! can’t wait for my COM2 MC to learn theurgy and wreak havoc!
thanks!
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Detective work! My MC really liked Horion so it will be interesting to meet Teren. As for the Leaguer faction, the only thing about Horion that my MC disliked was Linos and Linos’ speech about how attempting to end Harrowing was misguided. I think future relations between the Leaguer faction and my MC’s rebellion will hinge on how much influence Linos’ view holds. In any case, I suspect my MC’s rebellion would attempt to keep knowledge of how to refine aetherial blood to itself. The rebellion may end up working with the Leaguer faction but my MC’s rebellion would try to be the only rebel force with the ability to refine aetherial blood or any equivalents.
I am PLEASED to see Yebben planned as a RO. 
My MC Alya will wait for Yebben with all of the patience for which she is known. (Ok, she is not known for patience but the sentiment sounds nice.)
Your MC passed on the chance to teach Yebben due to lack of trust which is hardly a good basis for romance. My MC Alya taught Yebben as much as she could of wisardry as soon as she could.
If the MC goes to Szeric to find Cerlota, the MC is told that Alastors killed everyone they could in the Pan of Szeric’s fortress having charged the Pan of Szeric with “speaking sedition and helping traitors to the Hegemony”. The MC assumes that the charge referred to Cerlota, but I think that is unlikely. The Hegemony would not send Alastors alone to deal with a hostile Theurge of the third rank. The Theurge could simply escape which is what we are told happened. If the Hegemony had actually known that Cerlota were present, then I think it is more likely that the Hegemony would have sent some of its best Theurges. Horion mentioned that Cerlota was only hinted at in the least penetrable parts of his correspondence with the Pan of Szeric so I think it is quite likely that the Hegemony was unaware that Cerlota was at Szeric. Perhaps the Hegemony merely acted against the Pan of Szeric due to his lengthy interactions with Horion even if those interactions were not fully deciphered or perhaps the Hegemony believed Horion could be found at Szeric. We do not know whether the Hegemony actually believed the story of Horion’s death. A government like the Hegemony would not wait for absolute proof of treachery before acting against those merely suspected of such.
There are a lot of possibilities there. The only one that really should not happen so far as I know is for the noble MC to have the family name Keriatou.
I have never managed it with a band including the children so congratulations for having pulled it off.
I got the impression that Zvad had been somewhat prestigious so picking his name as an alias might not be a good idea anyway.
@Havenstone The game seems to assume that the MC may be reusing that alias in the future, but I think at least on certain playthroughs that reusing the alias would be a mistake. If the MC uses the alias to determine the timing of the Architelone visit from merchants, then that alias cover will have effectively been blown since the MC never carries through on going back to the merchant. So the merchant would be suspicious about that and the fact that the Architelone was robbed would not lessen the suspicion. The possibility that the merchant may have discreetly asked the merchant’s contacts about someone by that name would render that alias unsafe at least for that route and possibly for other routes.
I like this idea and my recollection from the WIP thread would be probably yes by stimulating the tissue’s telos to heal itself though I seem to recall it is not just wisardry rank but specialization and I suspect it could require a lot of aetherial blood.
From the XOR 1 WIP thread by @Havenstone:
Theurgy to change the body from male-female and female-male is extraordinarily rare, however, as it requires an incredibly knowledgeable anatomical specialist to achieve it without permanent damage or death to the subject – and is moreover hugely costly.
and also from the XOR 1 WIP thread again by @Havenstone:
A Theurge who understands well enough how the skin heals itself could undo a scar by temporarily enhancing the healing telos of the skin. A less proficient one could heal wounds but leave a scar. A clumsy one who just wanted to increase the smoothness of the skin (something much easier to comprehend than the telos of healing) could temporarily remove a scar, but it would come back as soon as the blood ran out.
Radmar never seemed to appreciate the value of literacy before the Fourth Harrowing and although Radmar never commented on them, I doubt Radmar understood the importance of the winter literacy lessons. However, explaining that literacy is the key to wisardry which may permit healing Poric would be a tempting way of convincing Radmar of the value of reading.
I thought Kala/Kalt was blood-thirsty as well at first. However, in my personal opinion, Kala/Kalt is not actually that blood-thirsty as becomes clear if your MC talks to Kala/Kalt on the sheep raid in Chapter 3.
Yes, I think XORverse could definitely benefit from a wiki.
@Havenstone It occurs to me that in Chapter 4 if the MC chooses to defer judgment on Breden till after escaping, the game makes it sound as though there is no way of allocating blame to one specific individual (Breden). However, there is a very clear case to be made for blaming Breden specifically because unlike the other two rebel cooks, Breden had been brought into the inner circle’s hunt for traitors so even if Breden is not personally the traitor, this completely invalidates Breden’s defense that Breden was unaware of the presence of an enemy in the camp. So a strong case could be made that Breden is if not a traitor then guilty of the equivalent of criminal negligence or dereliction of duty.
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Yeah, but I think surviving the Xaos-lands will change his mind. Not teaching Yebben before is more so he couldn’t steal the band out from under us while we would essentially have no chance to speak for ourselves due to prolonged and enforced exile beyond the Wards. You’ve got to remember Goety is all my mc has for special skills as he isn’t the most charismatic (CHA 1) and an outright crappy fighter and tactician (COM 0).
As far as trust goes, well up until now the events of his life have only made my mc more paranoid, not less and all of the canonically gay options are downright untrustworthy.
- Enough has already been said about the trustworthiness of Breden.
- Erjan literally serves another master that just so happens to be the other superpower whose strategic goals are guaranteed to be at odds with my mc’s wants and desires. They are also sexist and practice slavery, which wouldn’t bode well for someone both gay and a slave.
- If Teren is anywhere near as clever and crafty as his uncle he cannot be trusted. He’s also a noble, so he wouldn’t quite respect a helot mc, even Simon has difficulties with that and that boy is a pink unicorn.
- Speaking of Simon, without modding he’s only available to bisexuals.
- Abelard is available to born aristo’s only, if I recall correctly. He’s also a Laconnier. Both facts that would naturally rule him out for my mc.
- Prince(ss) nippletwister is likely of the same gender is Simon and the opposite one of Breden, thus available to bisexual mc’s only. Also they are the complete opposite of my mc and would likely view even mere provincial nobles as filth and helots as being, much, much lower then that. Much like with Calea I can’t see any romance or a remotely happy ending there.
So canonically that would seem to leave me solely with the hopefully cute and male furry.
On the other hand Radmar isn’t know for his patience, the mc is not an expert on the human body and with all of the other pressures on them may never become one (which might also mean my mc will unfortunately never get rid of the whip scars. 
). In any case I don’t think the mc should promise things they may never be able to live up to.
Kala/Kalt have very little self control though. Which becomes very detrimental to the Rebellion with them in our band.
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I am actually hoping Teren would be every bit as clever as Horion. I disagree that being a noble would necessarily mean never quite respecting former helots. Horion seemed to me when I played a helot MC to genuinely accept that an INT 2 helot proved the point that the distinction between free and non-free was false.
From the XOR 1 WIP thread by @Havenstone:
While much of your analysis captures the mindset well, @P_Tigras, I don’t think this does justice to how a highly stratified caste society judges the people at the bottom. (Maybe because my writing so far hasn’t done justice to it either!) Most nobles would have the default assumption that even a thoroughly dumb or corrupt noble is still naturally superior – ethically and intellectually – to the helotry. (It helps that most of them meet very few helots, and almost always on terms that reinforce the prejudices.)
A fairly open-minded noble might get as far as to think that the smartest helot beats out the dumbest noble; you can be sure that Horion Leilatou believes that lots of his acquaintances are dumber than a smart helot. But to think that the average helot is smarter than a dumb noble is a pretty big shift from the conventional wisdom.
@idonotlikeusernames I did prefer the earlier answer about Yebben but authorial vision can change. Still perhaps it may yet change back.
Well, as I mentioned earlier, my MC expects the rebellion to end up with thousands of wisards and for the war against the Hegemony to last for decades. So in that much time with that many wisards, it does not seem unreasonable to suppose that some would specialize in healing and become proficient at it through sheer practice. I do agree that my MC as well is probably never going to specialize in healing but stating that literacy is key to wisardry and wisardry is capable of healing even Poric is a statement of fact not a promise.
That is a personnel management issue. Kala/Kalt is useful properly deployed. Don’t send Kala/Kalt to interact with nobles (such as Chapter 3) if you want the nobles to survive the meeting but as I mentioned before, facing the Hegemony there is no shortage of targets appropriate for Kala/Kalt. In any case, I prefer Kala/Kalt to going easy on the Hegemony just to get Simon/Suzane.
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