She probably will once its released, but wip posts are mostly populated by people who are on the forums in my experience.
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way julias romance is done is fundamentally different from all other relationships in game, and most of difference is in favour of julia.
one of biggest difference with julia is that prefect can already start in relationship with her and frankly there is almost no reason to not like her, She is empress and what power you derive is from her and is also your ticket to higher power. She mainly is fare while interacting with you and mainly expects that you do your job, and can also have very sweet moments, She is also one of characterâs that prefect interacts most, every other characters interactions/scenes are choices you must make you are not missing julias scenes so most player spend a lot of time with her. and cruelty and coldness is not really shown or at least player cant make educated guess about juias character Before you decide to start romance with her, Because most of julias character exploration Happens After i start romancing war criminal. and if someone tells me that my lover just burnt down city to ground i will say that they deserved it 
when i see her burning town with its civilians prefect is already in love with her sooooo that represents a little problem. generally you want to know these kind of information before you make decision to fall in love or not. and while character knows player dose not. and people donât really like changing there mind once they decide to make decision. and as i said above while julia can be dick and horrible person to a lot of people shes can also be quite sweat if you are romancing her. and how character interacts with player characters is much more valued then how she interacts with other characterâs(she can be horrible to them i donât care ).
So point is that players decide to start romance with julia before they understand whatâs happening in game and at that time decision to start romance looks like with no downsideâs.
these then fundamentally changes how they start to see other factions, going close to any other factions needs me to do actions that will either weaken empire Or things i know that will make julia angry, and player has already decide to like julia so every other faction starts to look like antagonist.
other factions are foderati, patricians, criminal, and Persian prince, all of them are on some kind of level responsible for fall of rome. so if you know even basic history non of these faction look good for future of ludia AND we are in charge of ludia and our lover can be empress so not best first looks for these factions.
whats worst is that all of them want something from you constantly, give us more lands, we need more rights, let me free my friend from jale, these is not good look. it feels like that i have to literally buy there favour. interactions with julia dose not have same feeling.
also interacting with all of them is optional and all of the can also betray you so add another minus to them. people also like agusta and non of these factions are really that good for her 
extinguishing heirs of opposite dynasty sound pragmatic thing to do
and from all i know cadanu deserved it
there is difference between hearing that a person died and seeing it and i think same effects also works in here on some level.
i do think that overhaul is not worth it at these stage. jullia will just enjoy a advantage over other characters. even if we knew her backstory before we made that decision i still think she still would end up as most popular character (not by same margin but still ) because her romance just works different from every other character.
for example my favourite characters is cato. but i only did her route after i beat game multiply times because i thought i would not enjoyer her characters from first impressionâs .
there was also discussions about game balance and for every time i post my run here i have three more where ibhin made barbeque of agusta, getting good outcomes is not easy by any means.
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This issue is why in part I included this blurb on the screen where you decide whether to romance Julia. Itâs an awkward compromise, to be sure, but given the structure of the story I would need to entirely rewrite the early chapters to have the reader see Cadanu destroyed before committing to a romance, let alone other instances of cruelty such as her order to murder Tristitia and Victoria.
Overall I decided not to commit to that kind of overhaul in large part because, chronologically, the Prefect enters into a romance before the worst of Julia begins to unfurl (at the wedding). The blurb above is sort of summary of what to expect from her actions and history.
EDIT: Suffice to say that the non-linear retelling of the Prefectâs backstory, though something I have 0 intention of wasting my time revising hundreds of thousands of words for, has shown me that if I want to convey a backstory of a main character like this, it might be easier to bite the bullet and do so at the beginning of the story and suffer the annoyance of what would effectively be a long, long prologue. Food for thought.
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finally got to try this one. interesting story so far.
i wonder if there is other chance to learn sorcery as a man again ?
i though the gentle kid i spared come to bite me but apparently the other hitman got the same idea? 
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Iâm actually not too sure about the popularity of a potential Victoria betrothal option for Augusta. Itâs neat, and tidy, sure, but it also comes with tradeoffs and conditions. I imagine it will require a paragon Augusta, a reluctant rival (enemy faction opinion >40) and a decent skill check. The thing is, I would assume most of the people with the sort of conciliatory, feel-good playstyle required to meet these conditions are also trying to be as pro-Augusta as possible. It seems fairly popular to break the cycle of ruthless and paranoid broken women on the throne, and players may thus may want to avoid any kind of political betrothal for Augusta in favor of letting her choose her future.
Plus, of course, itâs just so messy. One of Augustaâs parental figures killed Victoriaâs mother, and in turn Victoriaâs father killed Augustaâs mother. Victoriaâs father tried to kidnap and kill Augusta and potentially came to blows with Augustaâs surrogate father. It seems like the epitome of the intra-familial kinslaying that characterizes the last century of Imperial rule.
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Pretty much my opinion.
The only caveat I would add is that it is precisely because such a relationship would be messy that it could be popular in the first place. Enemies to Lovers is a pretty popular trope.
Plus you got a likely tragic backstory for Victoria. Her mother got killed, she was forced into hiding and endured the hardships of a runaway. And I bet that Iblin et co. made sure to raise her with the idea that her birthright was denied and revenge was required. So, she was raised to be pretty much a political tool and an instrument for revenge. Pretty tragic stuff and goes well with âThe main theme of Shaterred Eagle is Powerâ.
Maybe she has opinions and actions that go against what her father wants. She even might go against an Iblin that just wants Augusta dead, if she is convinced by the compromise. Maybe Tristitia will have a role no Iâm still not giving up on the idea
For my part, if need be, I would rather have an additional several thousands of people die just so Augusta can choose her future spouse free of any political pressure. Not the nicest choice, but she deserves nothing less.
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The thing is, I donât think weâre going to get a romance with any of the betrothal options. Thatâs the whole point of the N/A option, apparently - to wait and marry someone she actually wants to. These are all purely political marriages, I suspect. There may be some respect that grows between Augusta and her betrothed spouse, but a 14-year-old suddenly finding their soulmate is not quite the story the work is trying to give us, I feel.
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It could be left rather vague. âThere are some signs that it is a possibility, but only time will tellâ kind of epilogue. Of course, with Victoria it will depend a lot on variables. There might be some endings with her where she and Augusta canât wait to get at each otherâs throat.
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after 2 hours of scrolling i have now come upon the bewildering, shocking realization that Cataphrak plays this WIP.
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I remember him posting on the forgotten one thread along time back as well so this doesnât surprise me very much
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Fair enough
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More or less, yes. Theyâre betrothal options, not romantic options, after all.
However, itâs possible Augusta and her future consort could grow to care for one another. It happens in arranged marriages, sometimes. It could also be that resentment bubbles up, on one side or both, festering over time. Itâs a gamble, to say the least, and as the Prefect now has guardianship over Augusta, they have the authority to make such decisionsâŚbut Augusta is still Empress/First Citizen, with authority of her own.
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So Victoria the fan favorite, Marius the option that no one will take, Euric the son of King Dagr, who is the fourth one ? Perhaps Consentia son ?
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Laurentius, the Prefectâs nephew. An option that will fit an ambitious Prefect seeking to put their family in the palace, his option is conditional on the Prefect not being Augustaâs bio parent, however.
The Senate isnât terribly concerned with having an imperial marriage. They would probably prefer if the institution of âimperial familyâ went by the wayside altogether and bloodright succession was abandoned in favor of adoption.
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I think the âmarriage arranged for reasons of state turning into mutual affectionâ is a dynamic we donât see a lot of, even though it was probably reflective of most political arranged marriages (or at least, the successful ones).
Seeing it through the lens of a mentor/parental figure rather than as one of the participants, and within the context of a same-sex match in a matriarchal society rather than heterosexual match in a patriarchal one probably makes it a story that doesnât get told very often too.
Wouldnât that make them lean towards Augustoria a Victoria/Augusta match too? Youâve established that the tech/magic doesnât exist for same-sex pairings to have biological children, right?
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The Senate would be quite pleased with it coming to fruition for those very reasons, in fact. While to bring about peace may require compromises of power and policy that neither side will enjoy, if same-sex marriage becomes normalized amongst the Empresses/First Citizens, it will mean a serious blow dealt to bloodright succession. Itâs difficult to have a hereditary monarchy in those circumstances, after all, and the couple would have to resort to adoption which would place the onus of succession upon a potential successorâs merit, not blood (that is, if they can agree upon an heir to adopt).
On the other side of it, the foederati would be less pleased, if for reasons that they respect the âblood of kingsâ far more than Iudians do the âblood of the purple.â Thereâs a reason why Euric is an option exclusive for their path, for arranging a marriage between Euric and Augusta will be a great scandal in Iudia, but potentially engender much loyalty and respect from the foederati.
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Simple solution: Marry Victoria, adopt Euric, problem so-
LOCAL PREFECT FOUND DEAD FROM 561 STAB WOUNDS
âPROBABLY AN ACCIDENTâ - PRAETORIAN PREFECT
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