The “prince” you’re talking about here is, I assume, the heir to the thaumatarch, the Diadoch, prince(ss) nippletwister? They may be many things, but they are also one of the people who fully benefit from the whole scala of cruelty of the Hegemony. If anybody in the game is going to make Hector Keriatou look like a choir-boy it’s probably going to be them. Helot lives, particularly that of a single helot are probably as inconsequential to them as swatting a fly or stepping on a bug.
I fully expect any “romance” between them and the helot mc to be nothing more than being reduced to their personal sex-toy. Aristo mc, being a lowly provincial “noble” is probably already even barely human to them, helot mc would probably be nothing more then perhaps a vaguely amusing toy, if that.
If you hadn’t noticed the peddling of fairy tales like that is probably going to be the providence of the Laconnier rebellion, trying to harken back to the supposedly good and benevolent kings and queens of old Shayard. My mc, naturally, wouldn’t believe a single word of it.
The problem is that while some rare priests and nobles might oppose the cruelty they do not oppose the caste system, nor do they see helots as fully human. They are, I believe, more comparable to our modern crusaders against animal cruelty. None, but the most lunatic fringe of those, however, are for giving animals truly equal rights, the vote, etc, etc.They might seem more benign then the current crop of rulers, but you’ve got to wonder how those ideals will hold up once they start to more fully comprehend the nature and horrors of the blood economy, as the Hegemony mages hide the truth of that even from most priests and nobles.
True, doesn’t matter in the slightest though, because the contemporary reality is far different from their near mythical reigns and the caste system and slavery are both institutionalized as well as the fact that the realm now functions on a blood economy. Even the Laconniers would have to deal with those facts and my mc is pretty sure he won’t like their ideas of how to deal with it in the slightest. Besides they let Hector be a Laconnier, that alone makes my mc seriously doubt their judgement. Actually it wouldn’t surprise me if Hector turned out to be the hidden Laconnier “heir”.
However whoever they are the other fact that remains is that they are probably no more educated or prepared to take the reins of power than my mc himself, so there’s no reason in my mc’s mind why he should bow down to them just because of some ancient fairytales.
My guess is that he isn’t. Or more to the point that he is siphoning power from the wards themselves somehow and as we all know they are powered by harrowing on a massive scale. Which would mean that, albeit indirectly, Sarcifer, still draws his power from Harrowing. That he might not do the dirty deed himself would not change that, assuming my speculation is correct.
Relax, almost everything I say here is either roleplay or thought provoking intelligent discussion baseless speculation.
Speaking of speculating, anything you feel you need to weigh in on @Havenstone or are you just content watching us blindly fumble and stumble about from the top of the world?
I’d say not the only purpose, but certainly one of them and one that would be shared by the security forces of any new state too. That being said the current Alastors have powers and jurisdiction that are too broad and the new state having a gendarmerie of its own does not prevent the formation of other new, rural and municipal police forces to exist alongside them, as they do in many countries around the world.
That’s part of what I meant by multiple new law enforcement agencies.
Remember all law-enforcement agencies are to some extent designed to project the might of the state.
Are the Alastors or anything like them even necessary? They seem like an expensive and deeply authoritarian force whose only purpose is to remind everyone of the might of the hegemony. I’d rather just disband them and go with a more bottom up, traditional law enforcement of sheriffs and bailiffs.
My very Karl Pilkington esque attitude toward alot of the Hegemony’s institutions are going to be basically: “What are you for? We don’t need that. Get rid of it.”
Far too expensive, IMO. I’d much rather a more decentralized system of law enforcement. I don’t really see what use a state police would be to a medieval kingdom.
A purely decentralized system of law enforcement is likely going to be ineffective, particularly when it comes to making sure the new laws of the new central government are actually, properly enforced. State or national law enforcement agencies can also, if necessary, be used to deal with corrupt or out of control local ones. My mc is not prepared to surrender that lever of power.
The Hegemony is not a medieval kingdom, we just come from one of the poorest and least significant parts of it. Much like in some parts of China there are still dirt farmers not too far removed from the stone age, right @Cataphrak ?
Eek!
Not even the backing of a million eclectoi will make Hector into a remotely fit ruler for anything, so for your sake I hope he doesn’t turn out to be the Laconnier heir.
I don’t really intend to allow anything like the hegemony to exist again and will lead my band of crusaders to dismantle it entirely and restore the pre-Hegemony governments of the world, with Aekos and it’s surroundings itself becoming my own “Papal States” to enforce the new world order of free kingdoms and city states through mostly soft power means. I and my successors will not tolerate a HRE-like entity.
Also, yes I will be personally putting the crown on a Laconnier heir’s head to rule Shayard with the backing of the Elect, boo!
I doubt he is, but if it comes to that Simon/Suzanne’s getting the crown after I find a totally non-forged document proving they’re the rightful heir to Shayard. (Hm, I might do that regardless.)
I am confused. I’ve explored Choice of Rebels thoroughly and yet many of the things mentioned in this thread are perfectly alien to me. Is this thread also serving as a closed beta discussion?
Centralised bureaucracies keep everyone uniformly on message and in conformance with wider policy goals. Letting decentralised authorities dispense justice means giving them the authority to not only build rival power bases, but also derail any form of political or cultural uniformity by giving them the ability to make “compromises with local traditions and conditions”.
A decentralised law enforcement system means an increasing sense of regionalism, to the point where individuals see themselves as loyal to a region over their central government. When enforcement of a theoretically uniform code of justice and theoretically uniform policy becomes regionalised, then the regions cannot operate on a fair an equitable basis with the state or vice-versa. To build a functioning modern state, you need some form of unified institutions capable of exercising force, which is something early-modern states trying to impose their will on fractious and often rebellious feudal lords knew far too well.
They are based on the background information of choice of Rebels, where we interpret perception , potential happenings on past, present and future as well as personal role play within the game
You have to understand many of us have been reading this 6 years previous launching the beta thread and have discussing a lot with the author. However most is in game As Insane replay value. One play could give a totl different lore. For instance try a Mara run as Aristo focus and charisma nacionalist that doesn’t stop harrowing and use no violence and without Breden. you will find yourself in almost another game
I can’t speak to @Havenstone future intentions, but except for one final stretch near the very end beta-testing for XoR has always been totally open on the forum. Hopefully he’ll post a shiny new beta/discussion thread for part 2 sometime early next year.
Agreed, the usual beta process is not a process I feel comfortable committing myself to, due to rather unpredictable demands on my time. Well you know what that’s like too I guess.
I hope so and hope the openness continue and don’t go the orthodox choice of games process or no way I could be part of process. And testing this is really fun due saint Havie has lot oof patience
Self-correcting problem after I establish Hegemonic courts. Once enough Alastors are Harrowed for their crimes, their replacements will get with the program.
Remember that a couple of generations ago, the Alastors could be counted on for incorruptibility. I figure that the new generation will quickly learn that if I establish functioning courts of justice. (If you ask how the Alastors will be policed, the answer is “they don’t have Phalangites or Theurges, and the courts do.”)
That would probably have to happen to rebuild trust between the police force and the people, as if they continue with the name Alastor, then their image will still be tainted in the minds of the generation that lived during the period of Alastor History where they were heavily corrupted
No it isn’t. This isn’t about the caste system, it’s about competence. Police investigators who can’t read and are incapable of accurately recording the testimony of witnesses are useless as investigators. The ones who learn to read and write are welcome to apply for higher positions, but if you can’t read or write than your usefulness in conducting police investigations is very limited.
The hegemony is a big place, that’s a lot of helots to teach literacy and numeracy to, and your luck with teaching most of the adults in all probability will be far below your target, and it will be decades before the children are old enough to take over even if you can find enough teachers for them.
It isn’t that I don’t want to stock the upper ranks with helot veterans, it’s that I think it would be a disaster to do so. They can’t read or write, even addition and subtraction above ten would likely be a problem. Good look putting them in charge of more people than they can count on their fingers and toes. There would be no record keeping because they can’t read or write. Imagine dealing with worker and workplace issues as well as police brutality when there are no records. They wouldn’t even be able to read the laws they’re supposed to be enforcing. You’re just going to end up with something very similar to the Alastors you got rid of. Good luck with all that.
I’m doubtful that most priests and nobles would want to sully themselves by working as gendarmes. It’s work for commoners, not the upper classes.
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