Writing has been a bit slower this past month due to work and travel unfortunately, but I’m hopeful I can try to get this chapter finished by the end of August. If not, certainly September. There’s quite a lot of branching from previous chapters to account for before I wrap up and end the first act.
Iblin will certainly have a role to play in the story to come.
Yeah, this is a DashingDon issue, unfortunately, nothing I can do on my end.
Just for a quick low down:
The head of the Church of Gaia is the Holy Matron, referred to simply as Her Holiness most often. She is clothed in white to represent her purity and stainless virtue as the Goddess’ most faithful servant. She is selected by the high priestesses of Kyro to serve for life, with the blessing of the Goddess. The Matron oversees the vast empire-wide Church, handing down decrees and dispensation, and ensuring the absolute unity of faith from schismatics. Her Holiness was chosen 8 years ago, after the passing of the previous Matron.
The Mother of Sorcery is, as you could expect, a far more shadowy figure than the public facing Holy Matron. She is clothed in red to represent the Holy Fire that is most sacred to the sorceresses, symbolizing the gift of knowledge that the Goddess has bestowed upon her faithful. No one knows how the Mothers of Sorcery are chosen, not even the sorceresses, but they appear to serve for life. Few know who the current Mother was before ascending to the title due to her age and secrecy.
I was imagining it as “you-dee-ah” if that makes sense.
I dislike the fact that I can only speak to either Lethungius or the Magistra after I decide with one of them.
How could I get the empire to treat barbarians well if I support a consul which is largely discriminatory towards “barbarians”? My mc is idealist, he wants the empire to be a republic AND treat its inhabitants fairly (including “barbarians”).
How can I do that if I’m forced to choose between Lethungius and the Magistra?
You are not forced to choose. If you refrain from making personal alliance with either faction, you get on the “try to make them cooperate for the benefit of the Empire” path, so to speak. And even if you do align yourself with a faction personally you are not prevented from making decisions which benefiit the other.
The fact that you can’t meet with both the Legate and the Consul after choosing to deal with one is deliberate. As they state explicitly in their meetings, both of these factions have conflicting goals, and one of the aspects of Shattered Eagle is that there are trade-offs and the MC must live with the consequences of performing one action instead of another.
To grant more power to the foederati barbarians diminishes the remaining republican institutions as they draw their support from both the matrician elite in the capital who make up the Senate and the urban citizenry. That faction wishes for an Empire more responsive to the institutions that represent them, which requires the power base of the Empire to be centered on Kyro and the other urban centers.
Vice versa is also true, in that Legate wishes to shift the power base to the frontiers and foederati tribes which provide military support to the legions, they wish for an Empire to shift focus to be more responsive and representative of them instead of the urban citizenry and matrician class. Having a more decentralized government which delegates imperial powers to the foederati is part and parcel of that, in contrast to the traditional elected institutions such as the Senate which once governed in their own right and seek to prevent the further expansion of said imperial powers at their expense.
Both of these visions cannot feasibly coexist with one another, which is why the Consul and Legate are bitter rivals. It is possible to try and bridge the gap and earn goodwill with the other faction, but they will still feel the sting of having your favored faction enact its goals. Compromise will be possible if the MC plays their cards right, but things may well get worse before they get better.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you can ‘soft kill’ Julia by simply withholding the cure for her disease (whatever cybernetic implant side effect that may be) when you’ve found it.
Pretty busy, sorry to say. I’m chipping away at my writing goals but it’s been a bit of a slog to maintain the 2k+ words a day I was managing April to July. Hoping to get back into the swing of things more!.
Apologies for being unable to keep up monthly updates, I suppose it was inevitable I’d hit a bit of block at some point unfortunately, though I already have everything outlined out, the main issue is just finding and devoting the time to write all of the branching.
I have 30k w/o code done for Chapter V but it goes a lot less far than you think considering the ways the previous chapter can end. I think it’ll probably end up the longest chapter (though I’m counting that as total word w/o code, it may well be shorter in average play terms) at this rate, which considering that my last was over 60k w/o code is a daunting prospect to consider.
