Royal Affairs Discussion Thread and Romance Guide (Spoilers Within)

My Princess Beatrice will certainly have a rather interesting time of it. She is glad that the burden of being the Crown Princess does not fall to her, though she will do what she can to assist her elder sibling, as Beatrice is likewise concerned for the future of the monarchy and country. Beatrice will also do what she can to provide support and comfort for her younger brother, as he is in that difficult adolescent phase.

Beatrice is a scholar at heart, ever passionate about learning, especially philosophy. She is very much the sort who will grow to become a patron of the arts, culture, and learning. As a matter of fact, she may start very soon with Hyacinthe, whom she sees as having the potential to become a truly great prima ballerina assoluta.

Another who has come to Beatrice’s attention is Estell Trevelyan. She has decided to befriend him in order to monitor him, as she senses that he could cause significant difficulties. If possible, she hopes to steer him away from becoming a complication. If not, she can at least gather intelligence to use against him if necessary.

Staunchly asexual and aromantic, Beatrice is uncertain but is planning to reach a suitable marriage partner that will benefit the crown, one with whom she is hoping to at least form a strong friendship and partnership. While she is not interested in fleshly pleasures, she will have the requisite number of heirs, seeing as it as another royal duty to fulfill.

Currently, Beatrice is considering Laurie and Dominique as potential candidates for marriage. They would both bring considerable benefits to the crown. Laurie is the sole heir of his family’s great wealth. As for Dominique, well, he is dear to Beatrice, being a childhood friend. Marrying him would further strengthen the bonds between their families, and she is hoping to help him continue becoming more determined and less dependent upon others. It helps that she joined the student council with him, excited at the power and influence that being in the student council would give her.

Regarding Asher, well, Beatrice does care for him dearly as a childhood friend, but being both asexual and aromantic, her priority for marriage is how it would benefit the crown. Asher, unfortunately, does not exactly qualify in that regard.

As for that git, Javi, well, Beatrice simply tries her best not to think about him and continues with her life as much as she can. Beatrice is aware of the need for good relations with Zaledo, but she is planning to strengthen those relations in a way that does not require marriage with Javi. Beatrice is not looking for romantic love, no, but she is at least seeking a marriage partner with whom the relationship will not be tumultuous. With Javi, Beatrice winces upon thinking of the acrimonious years ahead of her in a marriage with him.

Of course, while Beatrice is a calm, subtle sort to plan carefully, scrupulously adhering to etiquette and courtesy, she is not a doormat. She tries to find solutions where every party can benefit, but if it does not work, with the other party pushing her too far, she will demonstrate a surprisingly ruthless streak. After all, while Beatrice excels in Eloquent, Underhanded is close behind, along with Appeal.

Javi learned it the hard way when he tried to have Asher fight Ibarra. While Beatrice had been polite or at least neutral to Javi up to that point, even reluctantly asking to start over when she did not think it would work, dragging Asher into his petty feud with her was the breaking point. Beatrice put her foot down, fought Javi herself, and then mercilessly pressed her advantage to win. She could have just defused the situation without anyone fighting, but Beatrice wanted to make a point to Javi, along with being aware of how winning against him would reflect well upon herself and the royal family, along with gaining approval from the rest of the student body. As a royal, Beatrice knows all too well that there are times when one must be ruthless, should the other party spit upon the hand offered in peace.

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So! As it stands at the moment, you can matchmake Asher and Hyacinthe, or romance one of them. Although Asher does admire Hyacinthe a lot, Asher’s romantic storyline is more focused on the MC if the MC’s available and, if the MC doesn’t want to romance Asher for whatever reason, Asher will actually ask the MC for permission to romance Hyacinthe.

Asher and Hyacinthe are not currently a polyamorous option. I’m not so far through creating the game that it would be impossible but at the moment that’s where they are!

I love this! Hyacinthe is so starstruck themselves by hanging out with royalty that it would be fun to see the whole thing just being like:
MC: :star_struck:
Hyacinthe: :star_struck:
Trevelyan: umm are you going to actually talk?

And I’m so glad you’re enjoying Trevelyan!

Ooh, in the chat over dinner with Trevelyan and Javi, that can affect the Westerlin/Zaledo relations. But don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of opportunities to increase or decrease how nice the countries are being to each other through the game. (Also - thank you for mentioning it because I realised I’d accidentally stated that Zaledo already has universal suffrage - which it doesn’t as of Chapter 2! That’s now been corrected)

@Gadriel this is all awesome, I’m so glad the game’s been inspiring you!

I’ve just pushed a demo update with a few small fixes and changes (I haven’t included @Jess1973’s suggestion about being starstruck over Hyacinthe yet as it’s a bit more involved, but I plan to).

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Just so I understand, based on the conversation with Javi…

Westerlin is a (somewhat) constitutional monarchy with non-universal suffrage based on property qualifications. But I don’t get what Zaledo is? The same but slightly less openly elitist about it?

Because one of the replies you can give makes it sound as if Zaledo doesn’t have a parliament at all. Or is the Zaledoan parliament like an advisory council the monarch can dismiss, like the Duma was for Nicholas II here?

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Oh, dear. If it ever reaches the point where Asher asks for permission to court Hyacinthe, Beatrice is going to be having a rather stressful time of it. On the one hand, Beatrice would like them to find happiness together. On the other hand, there are considerations and complications.

As someone who hopes to be a patron to Hyacinthe, Beatrice knows that in order to reach the pinnacle of the ballet world, Hyacinthe must dedicate all of herself to that path. Engaging in a romance could distract from it. If it goes even further, should Asher desire to have a family with her, well, Hyacinthe will not be able to fill both roles of prima ballerina and full-time mother and wife simultaneously. If Hyacinthe were to choose the marriage and family in that case, Beatrice would be very sorrowful if Hyacinthe had not reached her full potential, or the ballet world prematurely lost one of its brightest stars.

Beatrice knows that she cannot give Asher the sort of happiness that he wants, and she therefore would probably not be able to bring herself to refuse if Asher asked her for permission to court Hyacinthe. In this case, she is also worried for Asher that it may not be successful in the long-term. If Hyacinthe ultimately chooses to reaffirm her dedication to reaching the heights of the world of ballet, she may have to cut off any thoughts of continuing a romance with Asher and everything to which it might lead. Beatrice does not want Asher to be heartbroken in that case.

Most likely, if it does reach a state where Asher asks Beatrice for permission to court Hyacinthe, Beatrice will very reluctantly consent. Beatrice will probably be hoping that given her close positions to both Asher and Hyacinthe, she will be able to delicately steer them towards maintaining an equilibrium where they can find happiness without Hyacinthe having to give up her dream and ambition of becoming one of the best stars to ever grace the world of ballet.

As to other potential couples, it did not escape Beatrice’s notice that the spirited argument between Trevelyan and Beaumont could well become something more. In this case, Beatrice’s position is much more simple. She will nip it in the bud, prevent it from potentially becoming more at any cost. The idea of a political firebrand like Trevelyan having access to the Beaumont wealth is enough to give Beatrice nightmares.

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Zaledo has a constitution, where Westerlin doesn’t, and a parliament where the monarch has the right of final veto on laws but in relatively recent history (say the last 200 years or so) they haven’t exercised that. Though the Zaledoan monarchs have a LOT of political influence, they lean more towards being figureheads and their parliament does most of the day to day politics that would affect the average citizen. Zaledo doesn’t have universal suffrage in Chapter 2 (despite my error in leaving that in for the v4.0 demo!)

The Westerlind monarchy is more hands-on, and there’s much more of a culture of them being openly hands-on about influencing legislation, political appointments and so on. In contrast if King Mateo of Zaledo was seen to block a proposed law or similar, that would be a big shock and there would be a lot of suspicion about whether there was something dodgy going on or deals being made under the table. In Westerlin, that’s fairly expected and isn’t seen as unusual.

A lot of Zaledoan people consider Westerlin much more classist and stratified than their society. As Trevelyan mentions, Zaledo isn’t particularly fair either - but there are various systemic and cultural aspects of Zaledo (eg less focus on marriages within class lines) that allow for more class mobility.

@Gadriel - awww I love it, the dilemma of having so much responsibility is definitely something I want to highlight in the game!

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Sorry Hyacinthe ( btw how do you pronounce that?) Asher’s mine I’ll fight you! :joy: anyway I loved the update :heart:

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I pronounce it like this when I’m talking but it can be pronounced in a more French way if preferred (or honestly however you like!)

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Ah okay, got it. Thanks so much for explaining! <3

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Hey, just started the new Royal Affairs Demo! I noticed what I believe is a typo on the page concerning Asher’s height (a welcome surprise btw!); the 4th option has a spelling error.

I think it’s supposed to say, and for clarification, I have set Asher as a woman, so I do know know what it looks like if I set them as a man or enby

…and she towers over me

but instead it is shown as

…and shetowers over me

I don’t know if this worth pointing out here, or not, but thought I should mention it.

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Asher, you don’t need permission to court Hyacinthe… go do you XD.

Regarding Asher…

… what did you do to Trevelyan ? XD

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LOVED the update and man I was sad when I saw play again screen great job as always👍
I really loved Hyacinthe and the way she is introduced she would be a great ro for Asher


Found this after choosing call on the support option.

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@ArthurVandelay Thank you for finding that! It’s fixed as of v4.1.

@Mit Thank you very much for spotting that! That’ll be fixed in update v4.2.

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I’d like to additionally add, on the very last page of the demo, when I requested Asher to put my coat on for me, but also leaned into her, the first paragraph was repeated. I did not take a screenshot. But it was something like:

You say, “Yes, I would like that.”

You say, “Yes, I would like that.”

So, that as well.

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My revolutionary MC who supports universal suffrage :handshake: Estell Trevelyan

Everyone else at the dinner: :eye::lips::eye:

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My MC who loves political discussion and loves getting into a debate. Loves it even more when people don’t grovel at her feet and are extremely honest with her :handshake: Trevelyan who doesn’t mince his own words and opinions about the monarchy and are too blunt for his own good

Everyone else:
image

Me, the player :… I just think they’re neat (and they’re going to be BFFs)

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It would be nice if my MC can state they are looking forward to intellectual discussion with Estell when being asked about their preference. They are too calm for a passionate debate, but would welcome civilized sharing of opinion (which can also help the royalty build a better image)

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Just wanted to note the {(trevelyanspeech = 4) thing, Hannah, if you were not yet aware of it.

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I’m sorry for the double-post, but this was another thing that stood out to me. The last sentence of the first paragraph feels like it’s missing a sentence fragment.

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Or the “When” is supposed to be “Then.”

Yeah, I think it was a typo. Thank you for noticing @calagon1! Both those will be fixed in the next update.

By the way, thank you for noticing that repeated text in the coat section @ArthurVandelay - it will be fixed in the next update too.

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