This is really well-designed. I see the outcomes of my own decisions within mere pages of making them, and it feels well-balanced with respect to choices locked into different skills. If I have any complaint, it’s minor - it’s not super obvious which skill will help out with negotiating with the Legate or the Senator, respectively. I haven’t played all the character builds so I’m probably missing something but I was surprised when Scholarship III was of use with the Legate and Subterfuge with the Senate. (It’s really not necessary for it to be clear - I was noting this in case it was intended to be so.)
That being said, I want to reiterate the comment above about the setting being fantastic. It truly does feel as if there is a sprawling city outside the castle and territories beyond Iudia slowly but surely pressing inward. I have a lot of positive thoughts about this and the character writing, and although I haven’t the time at the moment to compile them I want to let you know anyway.
A sidenote: I encountered an error but neglected to screenshot it, sorry! I believe it was line 127 during the scene where I try to get the Legate to be my personal ally: “ally” does not exist.
Thank you! I’m glad the quips I put in were entertaining lol.
Thank you! Prefect Agrippa will always start at 40, but time will march on throughout the story. You will have at least one chance to upgrade a skill each chapter, and there will be occasions (there is already one such in Chapter 1) where you can upgrade a stat as a trade-off for losing out on another statistic or a particular opportunity.
Thank you!
Thank you! With all of the power players and factions at court, it will be difficult to keep the competing interests at peace, let alone satisfied. If you give someone something, you’re taking it from someone else most of the time.
Thank you! I’m glad that optional subplot has been interesting, I really enjoyed coming up with it and writing it. Also, you’re totally right about the descriptions and I just updated the game with a few that should be helpful.
Thank you! I thought that the idea of a more ‘grounded’ matriarchal society would be interesting fodder for writing, and I’m glad it’s been enjoyable to read.
Alright, finally an excuse to nerd out! The Empire is mostly based on what people wore in the Roman Empire, but there are some important distinctions. During the Roman Empire, women did not wear togas, instead wearing a long garment intended to be more ‘modest’ known as the stola over a tunic. That isn’t the case here. Here, women who can afford it (so mainly matricians and well-off plebeians) all wear togas over a tunic and likely a short trouser. Men of matrician families do wear togas, but plebeian men, as they are not heads of their households, would likely just wear a tunic and short trousers. As a high ranking official, the male!MC is an exception and does wear a toga to court. The climate is a factor as well, as Imperials in the eastern deserts of Midyan will dress for the occasion differently than the northern forests of Hevernica.
One fashion fact that is politically important is the color purple, reserved for the Empress, her consort, and her children. Purple is often used as an euphemism for royalty itself (a child born into royalty would be considered 'born to the purple). Senators are entitled to wear a purple fringe on their togas, but it’s prohibited to display purple on your clothes otherwise.
For the other cultures that have appeared so far, the ‘barbarians,’ who are mainly Gruthungian and based on the Germanic peoples of late antiquity, do not wear togas. Instead they wear what we would consider more ‘conventional’ clothes, sleeved tops and longer trousers.
Pharians are based off the Parthian and Sassanid periods in Persia, and they make use of more vibrant colors and materials in their fashion than the more subdued Imperials, and they make frequent use of silk.
At least, I think this answers your question. I’m not an artist unfortunately, so I can’t really draw what I write/imagine much.
Thank you! The skill thing is actually by design, I want to provide ways to use skills that you might not expect in certain situations, so I pepper in some choices like that to not pidgeonhole the player into certain paths that would appear to fit more with a particular skill.
The error is my bad, I have been updating the game a bit and fixing up some awkward variables, I did just update it now and that should fix that since I uploaded a new startup.txt file, but if it persists let me know so I can check my work again.
On the topic of characters - the deviation between scenes is extraordinary. I had no idea Titus could blow his top like that. This can be a real telenovela if you make the right (???) choices, and it’s great.
Oh absolutely, writing those parallel scenes was great for me because it explored alternate versions of the same character. It helps me envision more fully realized, nuanced characters that you get to know better on subsequent playthroughs.
Wow! This looks incredible so far. I love the interpersonal relationships, the amount of specialization and plot branching already present in the first chapter, and the realistic depictions of power balancing. For example, when dealing with the barbarians, you can convince them to forgo additional lands, but you have to grant them access to the legionary supply network. Likewise for the Senate, where smoothing over support requires you to accept Senate confirmation of Iulian government posts. I love that we are able to exercise power but constrained by other political actors! I’m looking forward to more opportunities to influence public policy.
One thing that I’m surprised about is how my intended play style changed. I wanted to play a high economics, high rhetoric financial leader utterly devoted to the Empire. As part of that, I thought I would be siding with the Empress and the Legions over the Senate or barbarians. While I have 85% Imperial favor and the Senate despises me, the first chapter doesn’t really allow you to side with the Legions. It instead makes you choose to be either the Senate’s darling or a Barbarian hero. I hope Chapter II allows you to strengthen the Legions. I just want to be an Iulian purist, dang it!
Also, could we eventually become Imperial consort and replace Titus?I was utterly taken by Julia and Augusta (and the possibility of those purple togas). I know the Empress wants his influential House in her corner, but if we eventually have more to offer…
Thank you! I love politicking and intrigue and it definitely shows in this game lol.
As for the legions, the reason why there isn’t a single “legion faction” to ally with in Chapter 1 is twofold. First, the Empress herself actually has a good grip on the loyalty of the legions, as a former Legate and war hero. The problem for her, and by extension you, is that the legions are stretched thin on the Empire’s vast frontiers. By providing her the support of the Senate or Barbarians, you may shore up her position. You don’t need to actually personally ally yourself with one of the two factions, and choosing to ally with them will have trade-offs vs remaining more neutral and only allied to the Empress.
Additionally, the leader of the legions, the Magister Militum, has not yet appeared in the story, but she will eventually. She is briefly mentioned in the Codex as a staunch loyalist who has served more Empresses than just Julia. She is currently on the eastern frontier with Pharia, as the Empress is aware that Pharia has by now recovered from the last war.
So the Legionary Favor is an abstraction of how much support the MC can count on from them, rather than a specific political camp like the Consul or Legate. It’s similar to how Popular Favor is an abstraction of how much the common people like you (incidentally, this will be the focus of Chapter 2).
Perhaps. The Empress does mention that you may get your due, one day…
The servants unveil a marble bust, carved in the Empress’ image, though obviously a much younger woman. It’s actually…not all that great. You’ve seen many better ones. The man is an artist, but you never knew him as an good one. He is only treated with respect by other sculptors due to his imperial status.
“What do you think?” He looks hopefully at his wife.
Some of the choices cause you to have some weird spacing after with the text, I reported this before and I believe that one was fixed
Titus seems ill-suited to his role as Emperor Consort. Now that I think about it does he have even a ounce of political ambitions, or he just simply exists?
Have we met all the romance options in the demo already? Also, what exactly would be the ramifications of a Male!MC being caught learning/researching the sacred “magic” of the kingdom. Only asking for curiosity’s sake of course, no nefarious planning or “Knowledge” as my main motivation going on over here…
Titus is just a very undistinguished person, in terms of his qualities and skills. He never wanted to be involved in politics, and he was born into an imperial family so he never had to struggle for much. His aunt, the old Empress, used him as a way to bring Julia “into the fold” back before she became Empress through an arranged marriage. He did actually fall in love with her though, and all he really wants to do is pursue his passion for sculpture and have her love. Of course, he’s unable to acknowledge the fact that she wants nothing to do with him, and depending on player choices takes his frustration out on the MC. There will be more elaboration on the history between his family and Julia over the course of the story.
Yep, all of them appeared. The only one who I didn’t fit in a romance flag for was Ceto, but she will play a bigger role in Chapter II now that I’ve introduced the political elites and we pivot to the capital outside the palace and the common folk.
Well, pretty much everyone would laugh in the MC’s face and say something like “men cannot comprehend magic.” No one’s really made a formal punishment for it, because it’s considered an absurd idea. What you really want to be worried about are the powers that be, who have a vested interest in making sure their narrative is in control…
Thank you!
Holy Fire is a more potent distillation of Greek Fire, the analogy is deliberate. What the big Iudian innovation with it is, is they have vastly improved the delivery and production methods down to make it usable outside of mounted on ships and upon certain siege engines. Gunpowder is Godsash, though this is a relative newcomer to Iudian arsenals and is currently only used in primitive Fire Lances (a super cool but inefficient weapon from Chinese history btw) and crude grenades/explosive barrels. Cannons have yet to be invented.
At character creation, choose a male or trans female character (if you choose a sexuality that isn’t attracted to women, you’ll need to put a point in Subterfuge), then when prompted select that you enjoy the Empress’ intimate favor. At the end of the Training Yard or Library sequences select the dialogue option where the MC comments that Augusta has too much of them in her.
Holy moly macarono this is awesome. I prayed to the gods for Roman Empire-esque IF and I got it. Praise be Gaia.
I really like the detail given to the political structure of the empire, with the powerless-but-still-politically-significant-because-of-tradition senate really reminding me of the good-old days of the Principate. The foederati are likewise well placed into a context where the not-Rome is too stretched to properly take care of its own frontiers. And also not-Sassanides! And the not-Huns! And the purple toga! Its like taking the most interesting parts of Late Antiquity Rome and stuffing them all together for a blockbuster!
Leaving aside the fanboying over Rome, it is quite a breath of fresh air the matriarchy aspect, can’t remember encountering it before in such a context, and it also feels like a natural evolution, with the religious aspect reinforcing it. What is also refreshing is that someone is named the WITCH KING, which is, in my humble (objective) opinion, the most badass title you could ever possess. I wonder if we can become besties with the lad.
The story itself is great. Great flow of information, you are not overwhelmed with stuff to process (big ++++ considering the historically-charged context) and the player can accomodate to the position of Prefect smoothly. The characters are also believable (flawed) human beings, you can really see it with our ruthless Empress herself and especially Titus (Shockingly, I actually feel bad for the guy. Will still sip tea as he seethes though sorry not-sorry.
Okay my rambling is done. I look forward to teaching Augusta how to become the best Empress ever.
I like to think I use Rome as a basis for my worldbuilding, working off a familiar concept to go in new and interesting directions. I take very heavy inspiration but my goal is to develop Iudia into a beast of its own over time.
Thank you! I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed what I’ve written so far. I’ve taken different elements from different periods of Roman history as well, both the Republic era with making the Senate more important yet still sidelined and the late empire, and a bunch of the characters are based off real historical people, some more than others. I’m curious to see if anyone will figure that out.
I’m also glad people seem to enjoy the matriarchy of it, I was worried it would be ‘weird’ but I always see fantasy settings adopting the historical patriarchy of our world, and wondering, well why couldn’t a society evolve differently? It’s supposed to be fiction, after all.
The MC will get to meet the Witch King, though it will be close to the end of the story. Still, he’s an interesting character and I look forward to getting him on page eventually.
I’ve definitely tried to mix in both an initial “so here’s what’s up” at the beginning of the story and a drip feed of info as it goes on. I find the “in media res” thrown to the wolves start not my favorite, though a lot of IF does use it well.
One rule I have in character writing is everyone is a human. No one is just evil in my story, though they may do evil things, nor is anyone simply a good guy either. Some people are more self-interested or callous, or they may be more selfless or empathetic, but they’re all people at the end of the day who are inherently flawed, yet aspire to more.
This is a really well written demo and a cool concept! By chance, did you take any inspiration from Kevin Gold’s COG “Choice of Alexandria?” The subterfuge abilities and motivation to manipulate your way into control seems to share some similarities to the manipulation path in Choice of Alexandria is why I ask. That was one of my all time favorite COGs and I’ve replayed it a million times to see every possible outcome so I imagine I’ll end up doing the same with this one.
Also, would you say it’s a better idea to focus on one or two really strong stats or an even spread through them all? I always end up worrying that I’ll get super invested into the story and then find out that my “build,” so to speak, doesn’t really work for my goals and get disappointed when I have to restart and figure out how to optimize the stats to get there.
Honestly I kinda love the story line of us being the hidden protector/lover, doing everything in our power to help guide Augusta into becoming empress and doing our best to support Julia both in public and behind closed doors.
Question is Augusta willfulness meter like a level of independence and how does it work with high level of trust?
