Choice of Rebels Part 1 WIP thread

Oh I have millions of slaves to sacrifice and millions of theurges too. We could be friends with furry people… I could use my bard powers to singing them hippie songs also a bigg barley party!!

1 Like

Perhaps it is dependant on stats, but when I asked Horion what he thought of my rebelion and then responded “We’ll end harrowings” when he asked what I would change, he had a very interesting story to tell.

I’m just having the most sinisterly hilarious image right now. It’s like Be Prepared in the desert. With furries. Hay bales. And more sand.

1 Like

If the xaos-storms are indeed geographically limited by something other than the wards then that would certainly be good to know. In fact, any information we can get about the storms would be good to know. Because as far as I can tell, they seem to be the most dangerous thing in this world including the Hegemony with their thurges and yes, even the liche lords of the north.

Yep, but note that the Hegemony has been pushing those wards and borders for centuries now, and depending on where in the “sixth nation” the stalled frontline was exactly we might stand to lose a good chunk of territory, still almost anything is preferable to harrowing and the wards.

I’m really sharing the same sentiments as you’ve been saying. Palace will fall no doubt about that. I just have a really strong feeling that when the wards fall it’ll be like Pandora 's box being opened. I fear it’ll be like removing a dam, everything we’ve been holding at bay will break through and wash us all away.

3 Likes

We know the Abhumans are shapechangers, right?

For some reason, I’m now thinking the way they might (obviously, I’m not certain) survive Xaos storms…maybe because since their forms are fluid, any change they might get isn’t stay permanent since they do change shape.

Humans, on the other hand, are basically restricted by their biology…

Do we know this?

@Havenstone I thought they was just like, furries.

is this confirmed? not confirmed?

From the World View, we get this snippet about the Abhumans:

Past Shayard to the south is the Abhuman Federation, a land of deserts and dense jungles inhabited by tribes of nomadic werefolk who can adopt half-animal forms.<

I took this to mean they had some form of shape-shifting. Maybe not as expansive as I first thought, but they do.

Of course, we know little else about them…for example, is each Abhuman confined to just one form?

1 Like

Even if you’re completely right about everything, I’d say that is a reckoning the Hegemony has been overdue for a couple of centuries now.

And in holding it back you become exactly like the old oppressors, only with an even more restricted resource base to draw from, might as well not fight if that’s all you’re going for, or at least that’s what my character would think. That’s aside from the fact that if you’re going to leave the caste system intact the majority of society isn’t going to stand for you making yourself a “noble”.

1 Like

…Isn’t this just Gallia?

@Sneaks. Sneaks.

Greil: Titania! Take Shinon and Gatrie and make sure we have a secure road from here to the great forest. We’ll make our way to Gallia through the sea of trees.

Ike: Is Gallia beyond this forest? How do the people who live here tolerate this heat?

Sneaks. Come over here. Do ol’ annoying Tea a favour and look 'ere with me.

Gatrie: Blazes, why does it have to be so blamed humid? If we weren’t being chased, I’d strip off this armor here and now!

Sneaks. Sneaks, back me up here, isn’t this just Gallia?

Shinon: Dense forests such as these are not made for us delicate humans. The sub-humans love 'em, though.

Ike: These…sub-humans… Are they really so different from us?

Shinon: What, you mean to tell me you’ve never seen a beast-man before?

Ike: No, never.

Shinon: Well, I have. They’re a hairy bunch, I’ll tell you. And ugly as sin, too. Their faces are all fangs and whisker. Their claws are like daggers, razor sharp and deadly. And even though they can speak our language, they’re beasts through and through. Savages, every one.

2 Likes

But those people of society are my helots and the allies of my helots. All enemies to the revolution would be destroyed. Regardless of morals my goal was accomplished. My friends and family would never be harrowed. My torturers now live in prison camps. My people prosper. I’d consider that a victory.

@Havenstone I’ve been thinking a bit more about the problem of taking down the Theurges. If you’re interested, this is what I came up with.

Since their flight and invulnerability make it so difficult to take them down in flight, my focus would be on finding ways to surprise them while they’re still on the ground.

If infiltrating their encampment isn’t viable, then what about co-opting some of the Helots or servants within their encampment to perform an assassination? Who cooks their food and prepares their bedding? Who are they having sex with? Any of those people - given the right persuasion or coercion - could be used to kill them.

Another thought that strikes me - if the Theurges are expected to be in the air for hours or days at a time, what do they do when nature calls? Do they lift their robes and do their business mid-flight, or land and risk ambush while they’re fumbling around for an appropriate leaf or handful of moss? Either option would offer opportunities for assassination, if you were interested in introducing an element of black comedy by allowing the player to set up a suitably undignified end for an otherwise terrifying enemy.

If none of these things are possible, then I’d probably focus more on destroying the Phalangites. I’d therefore be looking for an opportunity to ambush the enemy force while it’s on the march down some narrow forest road, preferably when rain or a heavy forest canopy makes it more difficult for the Theurges to scout ahead and offer air support.

After a successful run through Chapter 3, my rebels normally outnumber the enemy force by more than 2-1 and have plenty of experience of guerrilla warfare with Alastor garrisons and the hostile nobles. The intention would be to exploit my force’s advantages of knowing the terrain, having the element of surprise and vastly superior numbers to annihilate the enemy.

If the Theurges want to continue pursuing me when the Phalangites are dead or routed then they’ll be easier prey now that they’re not protected at night.

3 Likes

You’re going to need at least one of the “educated” castes on your side to have any hope of forming a stable government post-rebellion though as even if we could get a better education system going, much like breeding the former nobility as the new “helots”, like your mc seems to want to do, it is going to need a generation or two to do its work.

For my mc the only option for that has to be the merchant class supplemented with low-level government officials like Bleys, considering his rebellion is against the priests and nobles first and foremost, even though this would give them a fair bit of influence over him, though perhaps @P_Tigras might prefer “moderating influence” eh? :stuck_out_tongue:
If you’re going to restrict yourself to just the helots you’re ultimately going to fail.
Besides my mc would rather not start a new cycle of the old system he’d rather try for something genuinely new.

Not for long if you continually need to harrow them. My mc is likely against the death penalty, even if it is for the same reason some of our most nasty conservatives are against it “because death is merely the cessation if life and not a punishment”

To each their own approach.

@idonotlikeusernames.
Simply being killed might be considered not a punishment, but Harrowing is known to be a painful death, and we know that Slow Harrowing is even more excruciating. Why would your MC keep the enemies alive while he could slow-harrow them?

1 Like

@Bagelthief

Only if they have majestic lion men to sweep my fem PC off her feet.

hubba hubba

:smirk:

1 Like

Majestic? Skrimir? He’s only alive because Resident Babysitter Ranulf had the good graces and downright selflessness to lionsit this giant OP manchild even after the big oaf purposefully fractured nearly all of poor Ranulf’s bones.

Yes, it’s true, I like Ranulf. Shut up. :persevere:

…You make a good argument there, Sneaks. You clever bastard, you.

I know I would come to your MCs furry wedding (?). I’d like to think that all our MCs exist in some sort of megaverse, where we’re all rebelling at the same time, and yet not really doing anything, in a kind of eternal stasis.

I feel very close to the people in this topic; it feels so lonely imagining this world without you guys.

2 Likes

GROUP HUG :hugging: Barĺey party with furries aĺlowed sadly no horses. No one want to piss the grumpy helot horse slayer in a crussade against fançy clothing and nude oiled athletes.

2 Likes

Sadly no horses… except as snacks for @idonotlikeusernames.

Group party is good! But it gets me thinking. Hey, @Havenstone, like, if you ever run out of NPC names, I’m sure none of your testers would mind being mentioned in your saga.

1 Like