Yeah, group party.
I really like you all. 
Aww, you’re all being so considerate it makes me want to hug you all. 
I never said my character didn’t approve of nude oiled athletes just that he wouldn’t want to spend scarce state-funds on an Olympic games equivalent for them. 
Otherwise since the Hegemony doesn’t like public nudity it would make sense that my mc might want to encourage it. Depending on exactly how much the Hegemony exactly values its modesty rules and nudity taboos it could even cause him to revise his stance on and Olympic games equivalent, particularly if Simon would be one of the nude, oiled competitors. No equestrian events though, for one it’s not a sport that lends itself very well to competing in the nude, particularly for guys (ouch! 
), and having the equestrians be the only ones to compete in (fancy) clothes would be a definite no-no.
Most of my other mc’s actually like those, however with a helot, particularly a clever and slightly charismatic one they would be something to be avoided.
For one wearing them causes one to look like the decadent oppressors.
Secondly my mc doesn’t have any “fashion sense” and is clever enough to know that he doesn’t and like I said before he wouldn’t trust anyone who does to dress him up, as having to be told what to wear, when to wear it and how to wear it (like a little kid) would be as bad as being under the thumb of the Keriatou overseers all over again.
Thirdly, if the experiences Kalt describes are in any way common among helots, which I unfortunately suspect they are, then being fitted for those things would be tantamount to torture.
Fourth and last when it comes to fine shoes and boots, particularly if they are heeled they would be very uncomfortable and hard to walk in for someone who may have never even worn boots before and at the point where you do become used to them then going barefoot for an extended period of time may become uncomfortable potentially turning them into a weakness.
So in short fancy clothes make you look like the decadent oppressors and would have a great many drawbacks with not that many positives for my mc.
It is also a nice change of pace for me, compared to what I normally have my mc’s do.
Did anyone say yummy horsemeat? 
Tasty snacks always make for a fantastic party! 
Maybe we will need to invest in state horse-breeding ranches after all.
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More to the point, extra harvests with theurgic ripening looks to be the most efficient form of Theurgic agriculture.
Theurgic agriculture has to be really efficient to justify itself - because the blood you get from Harrowing a helot, when used in agriculture, has to produce more than twenty years’ worth of helot food. And altering crops to produce bigger harvests sounds like it’d take the equivalent of Plektoi-izing the seeds, and Plektoiization is really, really blood-inefficient, while ripening wheat is just urging it along its natural telos and seems to be pretty cheap. I don’t know if Plektoi modifications can breed true - if they can’t, then there’s no point in improving yields directly because the helots sacrificed don’t justify the helots fed. (If they can, then there’s room for a theurgic Norman Borlaug to improve the telos of our wheat crop, but that’s kinda outside the scope of the game.)
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Almost forgot about the artifically expanded population from the enhanced harvests. Another reason to continue the practice of theurgy, at least in the short term. Mass famines are not a happy thought.
Really starting to hope that the blood drive idea is viable (able to produce aetheral blood)
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Well, the wayback machine says:
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Using blood for magic is just wrong for my MC.
It’s probably not actually a desirable avenue to go down in the game, but I know if I were a member of the world, I’d be interested in a kind of metamagical examination of why blood works, and whether a more inoffensive material could be somehow itself altered via theurgy to be useful as such a source of power.
Don’t imagine it would work, of course. Internal logic seems like it would demand a kind of conservation of magical energy, that imbuing, say, water with theurgic potency would require more such power than could then be drawn from it.
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Maybe the special blood theurges use is special because of the harrowing machine.
Maybe the blood is mixed with something that is only gained when they kill the helots.
Maybe it has to do with harnessing energy from human teloi?
Like when a human goes against their teloi it creates lots of energy and it’s added to the blood to give it that power?
True, but cut the wards and all “luxury” blood spending and we just might be able to manage, or at least that’s what I hope.
Plus while helots may be a large plurality of the total population a blood drive would have an expanded base from including everyone, or at least mine will.
This is actually an important part of the story, and you’ll get it early in Game 2. Hopefully it won’t be too midichlorian for people’s tastes.
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Yeah, I wasn’t even thinking of that, but I suppose that’s a factor too. Too much in the way of explanations for mystical matters rather wrecks them.
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I have a feeling it’s something to do with an early death… /His Dark Materials flashbacks/
Oh, and it’s “midi-chlorian”, Havie, in official material. Pronounced “ˈbʊlʃɪt”.
Shit. Shit I didn’t quote it. What am I doing. I could have bloody quoted “Something There” from bloody Beauty and the Beast. I didn’t do it. I didn’t take the best shot at showing my friend how much I support them despite their bad choice of fictional boyfriend. I didn’t take advantage of the best time to pun. This dishonours my family name. I’m forever crippled by this mistake
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@Bagelthief
smh
c’mon bagel you’re better than this
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Am I? Am I really, Sneaks? 
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Yes, well… We’ll just have to wait for the MC to discover more details on the nature of theurgy before setting any plans in stone.
Yes – it’s (belatedly) worth emphasizing that, despite their Greekiness, the Karagonds would be about as likely to have nude Olympian athletes as the Victorian Brits.
Well, I don’t think I’ll run low on NPCs, and Bagelthief de Marin and Idonotlikeusernames Tanner would stick out a bit. But I’ll be mentioning you all in the credits.
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Just throwing this arround, but what if… it has to do with the telos of blood.
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Oh, no, the… ankles! The indignity!
https://s3.postimg.org/giadw7u4z/20160823_220051.jpg
We’re doing this.
I’m shocked! I, Tea, am mentioned in something! I am a part of something! I can point to XOR and go, look! It is me! I helped edit this! It’s a published thing, too, a real published thing which you can buy! So I’m not just a loser! I have made my mark, I have helped people!!! YAY 
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This post and some of the surrounding ones are my thoughts on it. You’re not far off the mark in my opinion.
Interesting idea but I’m not sure I like the concept that the telos of the components of a something can maintain the telos of the whole once separated. For example if I file some shavings off a metal hammer is the telos of the shavings still “to hammer?”