I kind of wonder now, if it’s for the power of the family, or personal survival and influence. All things considered, Leta has survived her family purge relatively unscathed thanks to her machinations, and is now positioning herself to have her grandson, who seems quite a bit like her puppet, to get back in the reigning saddle. This would benefit her personally for sure. And she might go as far as to have Titus killed for that. Again, hardly family-oriented behavior.
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Me too, I included Leta since she was written into the last poll but it turns out she’s quite the popular character. Good to know. You’ll be seeing much more of her and what she’s trying to accomplish over the course of the story.
I’d say that Leta loves her family, it’s not just about her…but what does that truly entail? You haven’t seen the full picture yet, is all I’ll say.
(As an aside, I’ll say that I find characters that are solely out for themselves not particularly interesting from a writing perspective. Many characters might be schemers, or seek out power, but they’re meant to have deeper motivations and goals.)
Well, she jumped ships before that. As she admits to Julia in the last flashback, she discovered the MC and Julia’s plot to kill Scilla and explained that she allowed it to happen because Scilla was driving the Empire into an early grave, albeit reluctantly since she cared for her sister deeply for many years.
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I think few know the game as well as Leta by this point. It doesn’t feel to me like all she does is fully dispassionate, I believe there surely is love somewhere in the parameters. How that love manifests might seem cold-hearted, but I’d expect of Leta to put her feelings aside to play the long game.
Her actions so far seem to always have been either for the sake of the Galerii or the sake of the empire, at least on the surface one way or another, she clearly felt the way the wind blew when Scilla she discovered the plot on Scilla’s life and chose to jump ships with that in mind.
I can’t believe she’s not seeing the way the wind blows now, and not making plans for damage control while trying to ensure a future for the galerii and perhaps for Iudia as well. The scheming around Augusta and Titus certainly seems to point that way.
She definitely has the depth of character for both familial love and ruthless cunning.
Time. My eternal enemy.
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So Paragon is the Augusta we need. Tyrant is just Julia 2. And Puppet certainly does not exist.
Also is it possible to get a Paragon Augusta with a lot of willfulness?
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Who are the most popular generals in the empire after Julia who’s been pretty active leading armies still until recently?
Anyone who would be a clear contender for the purple in the event of Julia’s death if it’s in the next couple of years?
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Yes, willfulness and alignment are separate. In fact, you can have pretty willful (30+) puppet Augusta.
But beware what you wish for, Augusta with very high will is quite a handful (you get a 14 year old with the typical attitude of “i have it all figured out” and limited desire to listen)
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You certainly can. Gaining willfulness can be done one of two ways: you allow Augusta to make decisions instead making them yourself, let her speak first, help her believe in herself, and tell her blunt truths.
Or, you can directly antagonize her, demean her in front of others, shift blame from yourself onto her. Resentment is fine enough fuel just as encouragement, but high will low trust is a dangerous combination…
To decrease her willfulness, you have to be much more subtle in taking away Augusta’s power, always speaking up first, sugarcoating the truth, coddling her instead of giving her responsibility, and assuring her that she doesn’t have to make difficult decisions.
Willfulness is a measure of Augusta’s self-confidence and independence. You can either build her up (intentionally or otherwise) or tear her down.
Among the legionaries, the most senior officer is the Magistra Militum Drusa Spuria Petra, an older woman who has served under multiple regimes. She’s not a particularly political figure, and is currently stationed in the east with a large portion of the legions in order to ward off any potential Pharian aggression.
Of course, among the Empire’s auxiliaries it’s Legate Antonius Lethungius (or Amalrik Wulfhid to his men) who is the most popular figure. That isn’t to say there aren’t other popular generals, of course, but most are firmly loyal to Julia due to her years of campaigning and legionary background.
Other than Augusta? As far as the board stands now, there isn’t one person who could easily step up in a world Julia and Augusta are gone. The Prefect might be confident in assuming that the power vacuum would lead to a civil war, barring unexpected circumstances.
That’s correct, you can make any Augusta into any alignment. Of course, nothing could possibly go wrong from trying to turn a willful Augusta into a puppet.
It turns out there may be downsides to a political system that gives middle schoolers the power over life and death.
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Puppet is such loaded word. I prefer to view it as having good judgment when to lean on your trusted and experienced advisor who wishes nothing but the best for you. /s
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A willful puppet is how you get the cookie monster.
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What does the organizational structure of the government departments look like? A Treasury Prefect background seemed to lead the treasury, but then we have the Magister Aerarium.
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None of the background prefectures, the offices held before becoming Prefect of the State under the Empress, were the heads of the entire department itself, instead they were ‘merely’ high ranking bureaucratic positions (or military for the legionary, religious for the sorceress). This is outlined in the initial descriptions in Chapter I.
Think of it like deputy ministers/secretaries under a cabinet member, each with different purviews. The Treasury Prefect was custodian of a certain set of payrolls, vaults, or mints, not a Magister Aerarium themselves. That position has been held by Rufinia for many years.
For another example, a Watch Prefect only oversaw a particular area/division of watchmen, think of them relative to a precinct captain and not the Watch Commander/Police Commissioner for all of Kyro. Commander Marcella is a recent appointee, however, and served under the Watch MC during their time.
And just for clarification, the MC is no longer a Prefect of what they were before, Treasury, Watch, Collection, etc. The office of Prefect of the State and oversight of the imperial government is what has concerned them for the past decade.
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Found a bug. I’m having an affair with Julia and chose to ignore Titus when he confronted me. I didn’t even hear his plans this time but the story treats it as if I plan to assassinate him.
Also would it be possible to tell Julia that Titus is working with someone when we tell her about the threats he made? He mentions that he now has friends in high places and I feel like that’s an important detail that needs to be considered before assassinating him.
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I’ll go and correct that. Let me know if the problem persists
Of course, I’ll put some text in there.
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Okay, I think I saw what the problem was. The coding around this particular sequence is a bit more complicated than I would have liked, but tell me if this is still happening now.
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This game’s setting remind me of a game called Age of Decadence, post-apocalyptic world inspired by Roman Empire with ancient technologies disguised as magic.
I will wait for the plot twist about the “Key” ( which turns out to be a world-destroying biological superweapon )
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That is one inspiration, I played that game a while back, but only one of many. Eventually I’d like to talk about my inspirations but a good deal of them would be spoilers at this point. There’s a lot that hasn’t been revealed, and judging by comments that y’all haven’t hit on yet…
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ahh yes, , the famous paternalism
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I’m a big believer that the Axis Mundi is some kind of fucked up brainwashing chamber. The key probably also turns on Kyro which is some kind of secret mech under the city.
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The world axis, running through the sky and the ground? I’m thinking some sort of power generator.
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