??? I didn’t really get the impression that Elya is power hungry, particularly low leadership Elya. If anything I think she is just not really ready to think about the situation with Krorid considering… you know… the civil war about to break out in Kanton. The current crisis taking precedent over what they might do after.
There is no point in her sitting on whether you should be made ruler of Krorid when currently there is already a ruler, she doesn’t know if you will be alive at the end of the war to take the title, and they are literally jumping from battlefield to battlefield. She nor the Marshal have time to fully consider it in the situation. Plus you are still a bastard and still dishonoured, figuring out if you can even be eligible is important to know too. [Though I assume both are lesser sins considering the war hero status that the Marshal has there.]
Of course, the idea would be to break the nobility by using the succession war as justification, and then start centralising after their power’s been broken. Doing it while they’re still powerful…
Ask Miguel d’al Rendower how that worked out for him.
I think the difference is that the pressure isn’t there. Elya’s the legitimate heir, especially if Vedran’s dishonoured. She doesn’t have to break the nobility the way the Bastard Monarch would, because she has enough legitimacy to start with. While it is possible that she (or the Marshal) will come to the same conclusions (Sobik himself might have, if those retinues are an entirely new thing), that doesn’t mean circumstances will encourage them to.
I think my biggest issue with monarch Marshal is just how mentally unstable they appear to be. I can’t imagine someone constantly battling the demons they are being well suited for rule, particularly the more frilly aspects of it. While I do think they might be capable in matters of war my understanding is that they are not well suited to the things that Elya is well suited for. It’s why I advocate for shadow puppet! [Not demonizing mental illness obviously, but someone who will almost shank anyone who touches them seems like… a potentially fraught endeavour.]
That said, when Rade started his campaign, he claimed to be fighting for paying the veterans, and only said he’d come too far to stand down once the Marshal offered him a solution that would give him what he was ostensibly fighting for (and probably wouldn’t end with him on the scaffold or in prison) without crowning him. The Marshal only has spite and jealousy pushing them to claim the throne. Whether that changes to something more constructive (and gets them a chance at achieving what Cataphrak hints at) or remains that way (and the Marshal earns the “King of Ashes” achievement that Bacon loved the idea of) is a question that will be answered in ITUO.
@Phenrex Yeah, I’m pretty sure that will be part of Book 2. Even cold Elya has some level of compassion and lack of power hunger (she doesn’t feel anything in Ending 2 upon wearing the crown (and calls it a hunk of metal that so much blood has been shed over), but resolves to wear it well because so many people bled and died so she could wear it and she must honor their sacrifices. This is the ending when Elya is warm and when she is cold).
Now my canon Usurper Marshal should be called Fryderyk (more fitting than Frederick for the setting, I think, even if the historical figure probably would be antithetical to the name).
Gosh, so power hungry of her to be pleased with being allies with Krorid and thanking Marshal for that. She goes for “I might have a claim” card only when we realize that we got swindled by Moren.
You shrug. “Sounds like a decent deal.”
“${name}, this’ll be the first time Kanton and Krorid have ever been allies. This is the closest our two peoples have ever been,” Elya says. “And most of it is thanks to you.”
King of Ashes is a great name for a Bastard Monarch whom ends up destroying the nation they fought so hard to take. I can’t imagine that achievement coming about through a good course of events but maybe that is me. Being “king of ashes” implies that everything you worked for has been destroyed.
Also I’m of the opinion that the Marshal will probably be able to talk with Elya about the repaying of Vets in an ending where she doesn’t get yeeted, non? Like, Sobik is the one who did not live up to his promises, not Elya. I can’t see her saying “I’ve seen all you have went through sibling, and think thusly that none of the veterans whom you fought alongside of deserve any form of compensation.”
If it’s not actually there, then you are simply negatively overinterpreting what i’ve said. So, let’s clarify: i think that the Ruler MC path is going to be relatively difficult to pull off, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to be impossible to end up with MC holding onto the throne in the end.
I suppose this might come down to the level of support you can gain in the first game – ironically, a low support Elya with most of the nobles choosing to support Rade could wind up in better spot in the long run, because of this need to break her opponents.
It really does fit: young soldier-monarch with an abusive dad, childhood trauma, and clinical depression. Time for the Marshal to learn the flute, find out how to make coffee, and develop some truly rancid opinions about women…
But she isn’t power hungry, a tyrant or whatever. She is a girl who ties to survive, to do what must be done and to look after her family in the ways she can. And at the start of the game… well, she is pretty much sweet and innocent even if she was taught some things about court life.
@Zaya27477
I feel like you just view Elya as a power hungry demon though? Elya is not as innocent, and not as naive as one might assume, but that doesn’t mean she is evil or against the Marshal. She really does seem to value them, and while she might rely on them a lot particularly toward the beginning of the game, that is because literally over half her immediate family either betrayed her or died. She hasn’t experienced death the way you had and she lacks the tools you were forced to evolve to manage seeing it (unhealthy as they are).
@Cataphrak
I mean, I do know it has happened plenty in real life, I just meant how well I was imagining their rule to actually go. If you don’t know how to make friends, those who do will gladly gather beneath your feet and scheme. If not for your rule than for the weak whom follow after you.
I think the difference here would be that while the Marshal still has to fight for legitimacy, Rade, since he won the final batte and killed off the royals, would kinda already have it.
The way I see, the years of internal fighting that succeed Rade’s coronation wouldnt have been a full on civil war, but a struggle to consolidate his power as the “new royal”. There would have been no coalition force to oppose him, as those with claims stronger then his are already dead, just years and years of attrition with a few cadet branches and resolving battles that would arise in between his new vassals (I imagine there would have been many more lords like the Count we meet in-game, trying to take some porfit out of the whole ordeal).
However, in the ursurper ending, not only is Elya still alive, but there is also an activem strong threat to the Marshal’s rule still lurking around: Rade himself. If not for that, we are explicitly told that we will see an escalation of the Civil War, with foreign powers hopping in to get their share. The circunstances that Rade faced after sucessifully claiming the Crown are very different then the ones an ursurper Marshal has to face, to the point I would argue they are hardly comparable.
Now, if the Marshal manages to, somehow, end this whole conflit while retaining the throne and some glimpse of power, be it political, financial or martial, I could see how he would be in a position to enact these reform you speak of. However, I doubt that will happen lol.
Speaking of Obren, his romance is probably my favourite gay romance I’ve experienced so far out of all the IF’s I’ve played. Something about the beneath the nose nature of it, the explorative and quiet, it feels really grounded. I’m unbelievably glad the author decided to include him as a romance option. I don’t know if I will ever bring myself to romance the other characters. (Though I have liked how a lot of IF have handled romance, the fact that it’s ‘forbidden’ and it’s intended to be subtle just hits different. Though I’ll admit that the ending felt really fast with how the pacing was up until that point? Like you go from barely holding hands to 'lets go to bone zone.’ )
@Cataphrak
What a twist! Historians will say they were the best of friends who shared a bed for fourty years.
There isn’t a sex scene in the story (implied or otherwise) with any of the ROs. Milon and Lada got the cuddles and kisses earlier, so now it’s Obren’s turn.
