There is. Simon/Suzette are eligible to romance and will most likely be marriageable in the next game.
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Does anyone know if it matters how often you use magic? Like, does your characters ‘XP’ with it go up everytime you use it or might you just as well not reveal your abilities until the battle in order to strike down the 4 Theurgy at once?
Yet! There are none except for Simon. But, starting with game 2, I have a feeling that will change as the scope does. Game 1, we’re a fish in a small pond. But, starting from now, we’ll go and find ourselves dealing with the fact that the world is a bigger place than you could imagine. Besides, you could always find a lover or two until you decide who you want to marry. No need to just be abstinent eh?
@AbelGijon, this is the thread that you should use to find an answer to your question. But some basics are you need to have enough weapons in the band, make sure you have high morale and have them trained, and finally make sure you choose decisions that support your skill choice. Always try to choose your strongest skill in these situations.
Choice of Rebels-Uprising Help/Hints - #93 by MichaelCrank -aforementioned thread.
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Or decide that you don’t want to marry at all since marriage is just a religious institution devised to prop up a corrupt caste system, particularly among helots where it is synonymous with breeding and thus requires the opposite sex.
Simon would have to be(come) really, really persuasive to rope my mc into anything resembling a formal marriage.
“We the People of …, in Order to form a more perfect Nation, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of sexual liberation and orgies for all to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution.” 
That come close to what you had in mind Bryce? 
On a more serious note if any nation was ever in need of a good deal of sexual liberation it would be the Hegemony.
You don’t need a “noble” for that “marry” a helot or yeoman or a furry, the class system is nothing but nonsense anyway.
Or just decree yourself Monarch and make new nobles if that is such a big deal.
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I was developing my path forward for building a new nation. But the biggest problem is that since we don’t really know what exactly Theurges do with the blood we get from Harrowing I can’t exactly chart a plan for them. But, I do have quite a few ideas to make a better Hegemony for me to rule.
I basically have six key things to reform.
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Alastors: a police force is important but not one that allows extra-judicial powers due to the ability to use this to abuse their powers and supplant local officials. Need to reform them so that they can only maintain the peace. Need to go and also create a body to fight their corruption. Might keep Kryptasts around just to go and wipe out anyone who doesn’t like my future reforms.
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This goes in with number 1, but is incredibly important. We need to establish and empower a court system. I’m thinking of establishing a court in each of the districts and having a superior court in the provincial capital. I’ll also work on updating the legal code and training a class of public defenders to ensure that we can keep up the fascimile of Justice.
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Governmental participation for Yeomen and Merchants. I feel that we should go and allow the yeomen and Merchants to have some representation, not sure what kind yet, but the basic plan is to enable them to have a voice in the running of things. At the least the right to petition and a deregulation of the guilds and allowing them to buy land.
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This is where you probably expect me to go and do some helot things. But until we get more information about what’s true and what’s propaganda in regards to the wards. I don’t want to go and have some ironclad commitments. But, my basic thing will be doing land reclamation to try to open up a lot of farmland for them to grab. There will also be loyalist Karagond scum who own large swathes of land that probably won’t need it anymore.
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Updated tax code, in order to enable our newly freed Helots some time to develop their lands. We’ll probably do a flat rate for Helots for like ten years to allow them to develop their lands and work on some money. We’ll also work on trying to establish a common code to enable better economic development.
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PUBLIC WORKS! Who wants a new aqueduct? Who wants shiny new roads linking you to Grand Shayard? I know I do! With this we can also enable Helots who can’t get land steady jobs. If we link together the realm, we can start trying to get greater cooperation.
Those are some of the things I was thinking of. I’ll love to have a civil discussion about my ideas with everyone.
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One major sticking point other than the whole nightmarish human blood-as-coal aspect of the Hegemony is that it’s citizens have no familiarity with non-religious law. Legitimacy is derived from scripture and miraculous feats not “we the people.” That is going to be a pretty big logical leap. I think if you would like to preview the potential results attempting to modify the wellspring of legitimacy look no further than the Arab Spring…
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But the thing is, I am not going to throw away any of the old Hegemonic institutions. I’m going to still use the old system as a way to cling to legitimacy. The reforms I mentioned are ambitious, but they still fit within the framework of the Hegemony. I never said I was going to supplant religion. Religion is important to my MC and they are the Elect. So, if I win and start these reforms. It’ll be as the Elect and I’ll always be sure to maintain my religious legitimacy. The biggest thing that my MC wants with these reforms is to try to ensure their continued rule and that of their descendants due to trying to fix the problems of the old regime to enable the MC’s regime to prosper. I feel that if I can get enough nobles happy, on top of enough Merchants, and freeholders, that I can build a lasting regime.
Touching religion isn’t a smart policy, but I can work on favouring those who promote my ideology and personal view on theocracy while minimalising conflicting views or unpopular ones. Religion is always a testy thing and I know that it can be a double edged sword. Which is why I don’t really want to touch it and mess with it directly.
Thanks for pointing that out @cascat07, it does give me quite a lot to think about!
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This part in particular I think may be problematic because it means wresting control of the administration of justice away from the clergy.
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I’m not sure, but I think that they can only judge in regards to theocratic matters. The Aristarch is the judge of the district IIRC.
But the priests can have anyone arrested and punished on charges of heresy. In the opening with the priestess, Zebed gets her and a noblewoman, and no one can do anything.
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“The Codex of Liturgy, which the Ecclesiasts claim is the authoritative revelation from the Angels, spells out in great detail the Canon of Laws by which all humans should behave.”
Linos also describes Hiron’s trial for sedition as being religious in nature. Part of the reason the Strategos lost it.
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Part of that is because they own the Alastors. If you disarm and rebrand the Alastors and place them firmly under the command of the local nobility and provincial officials as an actual policing force instead of these extra-judicial militarised police. They lose their enforcement arm. The Alastors and Corrupt Ecclesiasts work together to maintain their authority. By ripping away their military arm and placing it under the authority of the Aristarchs, it will ensure that they can’t just haul people away to be summarily executed.
There are probably a lot of decent and good Ecclesiasts running around in Shayard trying to keep a low profile to prevent people like Zebad from hurting them. The thing with a legal code is that I’ll be defining what things the Church can handle and what the nobility can handle. My goal with this is to basically try to define what the two major institutions of the realm can do and try to create accountability. They are mortal men and women and can make mistakes. If I can create various tiers of accountability. Abuses are much harder to conduct. I’m not naive enough to believe that corruption will vanish, that we’ll all hold hands and get along. But, my MC’s goal will be to try to create a society that can function without having to be built on fear.
Another thing I can do is give the Church the ability to educate. If I can go and have them teach Helots and Yeomen they’ll have a lot of influence and the like. Theological schools can form the basis of future universities and the like to try to train a class of public officials and bureaucrats. (It also helps with brainwashing if I give them the curriculum).
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But what will the priests be given in return?
Priests are also educated, many of them can read and write and they know the legal code. They are also very powerful to have on your side. That’s part of why I’m doing this. So we can try to have a dialogue. I don’t have all the answers and I’m sure people have many great ideas on how to try to refine the system.
The problem is “where does this new legal code derive its legitimacy?” The Canon of Laws was revealed by the Angels. So is the new law the “true revelation?” If you are trying to derive legitimacy from a new source like “the consent of the governed” for example you’ll have to contend with your orthodox opponents being able to claim the legitimacy high ground.
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As the Eclect, I believe I can try to use that as a way to basically say that this is the best way to sustain the Order of Xthonos. That the old ways only bred more Xaos and that a new path forward based on the best aspects of the old regime can ensure that the Order of Xthonos is upheld. Or at least this is what I can try to do. Who knows if I’ll succeed. Because it isn’t too far off, especially if we punish corrupt and decadent members of the priesthood and reward the heroic men and women who suffered for their rightful beliefs. Another thing is that you can always influence policy by working on getting those with sympathetic ideals put in charge of the Order of Xthonos.
Also not every single Province believed in Xthonos. Only Shayard and Karagond seem to be the most devout in that regard. The rest believed in their own things. Karagond and Shayard have their own differences in this regard as well. So if we factor in this, it gets even more confusing because we’ll need to orient policy based on what we’re able to get. Like if I had Shayard by itself, I would orient my religious policy based on the old Shayard codex.
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-blindly scrolling to botton-
Trying to avoid spoilers since I plan to play this a few more times…
Loved the story and prose; but damnit the middle mule wrangling part was so addictive…
Verrrrry basic question: can you emerge from winter as a badass or are you generally going to be in rough shape?
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Define badass. What I think is a badass, others might not.
Generally, you only prove competence in the Winter. This attracts badasses of all sorts to your cause though.
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It’s also a fun balancing act to make sure you remain the most important figure and can’t get undermined.
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