Only if there is a Siberia to send outcasts to.
Well, you know fiction does imitate history, and increasingly vice versa it seems. 
For most of Laghuna, roughly subtropical, though more temperate further north, where there are also more mountains. Laghuna is inland, and most a transitional zone between forest and steppe, so there is a lot of variation. It also has some major riverways that include, y’know, marshes. Where the MC is, there are definite seasons, but while the winter is chilly, snow is highly unusual. Summer is very hot and drenching with rain.
I haven’t worked out all the crops yet 
mostly just that they grow a lot of rice nearer the coast, but not so much in Laghuna, so you’ll see lots of wealthy people with imported rice.
She can try 
It will slightly less difficult than what @idonotlikeusernames wants to do.
I was planning to call the monarch of Laghuna king/queen, but this is where I throw up my hands and say “it’s all translations of a different language anyway.” I might reserve Emp(e)r(ess/or) for if you take over more than just Laghuna, I d’no. That might be more ambitious than I wanna write though.
Though, I mean, there’s also marrying an Emperor, and there is one of those nearby.
Thanks 
I’ll just solicit feedback once I have more to go on.
Generally speaking, his own elites are whatever peasants are fighting for him and serving as his best generals/support personnel. He grew up in a peasant village himself.
Do keep arguing I need the dialogue options!
Heh. Well, I came up with the original seed of the idea a few years ago, so any resemblances are all too uncanny.
The republic elites tend to be more accepting of homosexuality due to their valuation of the classical lifestyle. Some republic elites go in for modern philosophies which consider heterosexuality superior due to procreation fulfilling a supernatural purpose, but wouldn’t go so far as to condemning homosexuality. The empire to the northwest is homophobic, and the uprising tends to favor that side, but don’t necessarily share their views. Some do. So I guess on average the monarchist uprising is less accepting, but it’s not a hard-and-fast rule.
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Emperessor… the ultimate title… 
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Yeah, but he doesn’t really share/want to share power with them, they likely serve completely and utterly at his whim and his whim alone. Or, you know that’s what my mc will say and think anyway.
Yeah, in a peasant village, but probably not actually as a mere peasant, eh?
Well even if it is not “hard and fast” I think we can safely rule out my mc ever siding with either of them as he will never support anything that backslides the rights and/or acceptance people like him get in society.
So it will probably either be reforming the current republic from the inside in order to be more inclusive or else starting his own alternative, republican rebellion.
Aww…
So you’re a secret reactionary eh, well no matter I shall persevere. 
And yes, it seems like that will be made easier if my mc can indeed find a way to begin by introducing things like the spinning wheel, so that unlike the wannabe, absolutist “king” he can actually point out to how he has made life easier for many peasants and will continue to do so.
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Actually, since I was mentioning crops earlier, if anyone has any suggestions on crops that’d fit the climate I outlined above, I would take them in consideration.
Eh, not just your MC, that’s pretty much entirely accurate.
They say he was raised as a peasant under an assumed family name in order to keep his identity secret from the lords and ladies of the republic. Lost heir and all that. Your MC, of course, wasn’t there. I’ll say no more…
Really, influencing the uprising in the direction of less homophobia would be one of the easier things to do. It’s only certain individuals, and nobody’s really suggesting institutionalizing anything. The king can’t really afford to discriminate, and doesn’t particularly wish to. On which topic, the rebellion is also notably looser with gender roles. Traditional Verdant culture does have some roles that are considered generally male and some generally female (they all have exceptions), but I’m not planning on barring anything based on gender. With the rebels, they need everybody, and in the republic, being a peasant is a far bigger obstacle than anything else.
I mean, both sides have their issues 
Hey now 
what @Eiwynn’s talking about doing is reinstating a historical government and putting herself on top. What you’re talking about is revamping a whole society without precedent. As a person, I may support what you want to do, but as an author, I’m not going to pull my punches.
I’d better start thinking about what other crazy modern technology’s around.
Windmills exist up north. Laghuna wouldn’t have many yet, though they have watermills. There’s a lot of good countryside for them, though.
I’m on the fence about gunpowder; my current leaning is that it’s been invented in the southeastern feudal rainforest kingdoms, but they don’t have artillery let alone guns yet, so it’s still in the “light it on fire and send it out with a sacrificial beast of burden and let it explode” phase.
I don’t know about a printing press, but woodblock printing should be inventable.
They already have crop rotation, medieval plows, stirrups, all that sort of thing.
The southeast would also be a place likely to have lenses, or at least better glass.
The southeast also has the best steel manufacture.
Eh, I’m sure there’s some newfangled improvements in crossbows. Not an area I know much about.
Relay systems and distance signalling by smoke or flags already exist.
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Which is why my mc is going to need his own side in the general mayhem as that gives him options and leverage, since with our own rebellion we can either win it outright or ally with the Republic eventually. But that means that we will have an opportunity to dictate or negotiate terms, to what extent would depend on the exact situation of the time, but it should at least be better than going directly into the Republic’s service where, as you say, being a former peasant will likely hinder us too much to really achieve anything.
I’ll take some extra difficulty over my mc’s wealth and power existing solely at the whims of one man and/or his heir(s).
Absolute power in the hands of someone allied with a known homophobic empire/society would make my mc feel very uncomfortable indeed. Even if the first absolute king doesn’t act on any of that, like I’ve said before, the nature of absolute monarchy is such that it is only a matter of time before you get some little shit like Joffrey on the throne, and with absolute power…
My mc in short is far more comfortable with a reformed republic with some checks and balances, even if that does limit his own power too.
Emperor sounds like a full-time job, a dangerous full-time job, which would distract my mc too much from his other favoured pursuits, building that business empire geared towards better garment and leather production (which is sorely needed in this world) for himself.
In short being a patrician in a reformed Republic sounds a whole lot better than being emperor to my mc.
Well since the mc here already lives in a republic it would be more tweaking to make it more inclusive than revamping, which I’ll note happened in our own, Dutch republic shortly before its end (sadly enough) with the constitution of 1798, which would have instituted universal, active and passive (male) suffrage, so it is possible to make a formerly “noble” or patrician republic more genuinely inclusive. The dual threats of the monarchist revolution, backed by the old, socially regressive former conquerors and my mc alternative but republican rebellion will hopefully force those currently in power in the republic to consider this (and ally with my mc’s rebellion).
Sounds like the southeast generally seems to be the most inventive place in this world, what is to the southeast? Can we visit there and bring some of the innovations back? Can we gain the (tacit) backing of the powers of that area for our own rebellion?
As I did recall you saying both empires lie to the north.
Some primitive form of rocket artillery, which the Chinese had and then forgot about long ago, might be doable then.
Would make a particularly effective terror weapon against the monarchist uprising and their imperial allies, should we be able to get our hands on it. Accuracy won’t be too great, but if the monarchists use the standard tactic of massing their peasant levies, that shouldn’t matter all that much.
Combined with the crossbow you could even make some exploding bolts, depending on how good that steel is.
In any case on a more personal level the crossbow certainly sounds like the weapon for my mc.
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Which is totally valid. I don’t intend to sugarcoat the monarchy.
The empire to the northwest is pretty much generally awful, being also rigidly hierarchical, sexist, tyrannical, all that good stuff. It’s supposed to be one of those tradeoffs of “do we ally with them for practical reasons” or “do we reject them and run the risk of them acting against us?”
Very dangerous, yes. Becoming a monarch in one’s own right would also be one of the trickiest challenges. I’m not going to go easy on @Eiwynn either if she goes for that goal.
The more ambition you have in changing the world, the harder it will be 
All goods points for your character to make. But do expect resistance:
“We model our government after the classical age, when we were the greatest power in the world and had an age of wealth and prosperity. You think you can improve on that?”
“A republic will always become dominated by wealthy lords who vote to increase their own power. We need a strong king to keep them in check.”
“The lords and ladies have been granted their monopolies in exchange for their service to the state. An elite class is necessary to maintain public works.”
“The king has supernatural favor. I know because he says so.”
“Peasants smell bad.”
“A king enthroned by the people will reward the people in turn. He will open his granaries to the starving instead of the monopolists.”
“Actually, I just like killing people and stealing their stuff.”
They do. The southeast is extremely fragmented, and therefore has no great powers, although in most regards it has the most technology. Which is probably a result of being so fragmented. That’s the hilly rainforest, bounded by mountains, where you’ll find feudal kingdoms. They also have lots of good ore sources, and have generally been the best metallurgists.
They don’t share a border with the republic, though. I don’t currently plan to write a visit to them (except maybe an epilogue), because, interesting as it would be, it’d be enough of a departure from the main storyline that it’s not something I want to focus on. There will, however, be mercenaries and traders from there around.
The newer power to the center north is generally the second most advanced. It is where you’ll find the windmills and spinning wheels. The republic is fairly stagnant, but does have a long history of very good roads and urban planning.
Um, here, I’ll whip up a ridiculously rough map to show you where everybody is:
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I think I got a brain haemorrhage just looking at your map… 
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Sorry, I’ve only ever made schematics of the continent through the few thousand years of history 
I don’t have anything that looks nice.
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Sorry; I just get a bit OCD when I see bad maps (even when I know they’re not supposed to be good)…
Also, the forum is telling me to stop posting here… 
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Same here, but you know what, I’m just going to rebel against Skynet. If they really don’t like it one of the human mods can always tell me, right @FairyGodfeather?
I understand, I have no graphical artist skills worth a damn myself and I’ve never really progressed beyond stick figure drawings. 
My mc making both his own fortune and improving the fortune of some of the peasants, with say the full-scale manufacture and introduction of the spinning wheel would go a long way towards rebutting that particular argument.
So if he can accomplish something like that then he’d probably say “Yes I can”.
Wrong we need universal suffrage to keep them in check and a government (co)-run by the people.
Our constitution of 1798 would have addressed that with the Senate, which would have been made up of both indirectly elected members from the provincial assemblies and prominent citizens awarded a Senator ship for life (though unlike the British House of Lords the position would not have been automatically inheritable and the only way to get it would have been to be recommended for it by the government and then have it confirmed by the lower house in a majority vote.
My character would probably not be unwilling to consider a compromise along these lines as the current Republic also has a two house assembly structure after all.
Government granted monopolies are bad though my mc does of course strife for control of a good portion of the garnment industry and its supply chains (leather, wool, cotton and silk and with the sub-tropical climate local production of all four of those should indeed be possible). Particularly since the spinning jenny, is only a small step up from the spinning wheel and perhaps something my mc could invent himself in this world.
“While his heir(s) are liable to forget the people that enthroned them, having been raised in a palace instead of a peasant village” Again the inevitable nature of absolute monarchy works very much against the people here.
As for opening the granaries if necessary my mc’s own rebellion could probably easily make a similar promise and my mc should also have some “peasant cred”.
With that much technology they are probably feudal in name only at this point, or rapidly becoming so, unless there are reasons beyond the economic why they are able to keep large amounts of people tied to the land of the feudal overlords, such as widespread chattel slavery or a caste system reminiscent of India.
Not if my character can get the right education and the right allies/contacts. But roads and urban planning are good that should help the spread of new tech once introduced immeasurably.
Umm…public baths in every city and major town/village should help quite a bit with that and as a bonus improved hygiene ought to improve public health too. Which does raise the question I hope my mc can bathe regularly, even if it is just under a cold waterfall or in a rapidly moving stream.
With the people saying this there is likely no arguing and they need to be fought.
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Why?I never heard about it(maybe because I new?)
Yeah I’m totally a human mod. 
Just ignore the forum warnings! I know I do! It’s just jealous of how awesome your posts are. I think in WIPs it doesn’t matter so much unless you’re drowning out everyone else and their opinions.
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I won’t share you my folder of schematics, then. There are 37 (one for almost every century), all even uglier than the one I whipped up just now (because they have more detailed clutter, and are in jarring blocks of uncoordinated color).
This thread specifically? 
What did it say?
I’m good at drawing fish and squids and… yeah, that’s about it. I don’t know why I have such oddly specific abilities.
Some people will always be able to point to something they consider better about the classical era, even if it’s something as unprovable as “the spirits favored us more then.”
But it will help, yes.
Ah, here you would get to work out what sort of system you’re implementing and how much of the old two assemblies you’re salvaging. But let’s get into that when the character’s a bit older
That’s gonna be one of the major entrenched forces you’d have to contend with particularly whatever families dominate the cloth industries.
Definitely lots of cattle around, leather armor for people who can’t afford metal. I’d lean towards cotton as the mainstay, with silk for the rich (plenty of sericulture in Laghuna). Maybe some presence of linen also?
I’ll be sure and allow you to say these…
Well, they’re still overall more at a late medieval than renaissance level of technology, but I should note that feudal here refers mostly to having various vassals with their own holdings who swear fealty to higher level kings. The rugged geography combines with forests unsuited to cavalry to make it very difficult for any king to impose centralization over his vassals. As for serfs bound to the land, yeah, it’s a bit different since it’s tropical agriculture anyway, where they have to shift plots more frequently.
But that’s a distant place, so this is a tangent
Heh. Yeah, Verdant-derived cultures do actually tend to be pretty good on hygiene and sanitation by ancient or medieval standards. I was just talking like a snooty aristocrat
A river runs through your village. Villagers are expected to bathe there every morning anyway. It is a religious ritual which is supposed to purify them of harmful influences.
Oh, is it a thing that happens if you post too often in the same thread?
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Yes. It’s the “dominating topic minimum percent.” If you make above a certain percentage of the posts in a thread, the forum gives you a warning to stop posting and give other people a chance to speak. This is a discourse automated thing.
I think it’s one thing if this is just one line replies. If it’s actually contributing to the discussion and not spamming I can’t really see the issue.
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You see now, that sounds far more fun. What shape is the continent? Are there any oceans or mountain ranges that could make things interesting? Forests? Rivers for trade?
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wow… that is news to me… thanks for the info 
and sorry @TSSL… i didn’t get involved with the discussion, coz beside the “annoying” condition at my cluster area–residential complex/ (not sure how to put it in english) lately. a.k.a power outage problem, i just got confused with some topic (im not really good with politic and history ). so i just skipped most of the post that has a long paragraph 
. i’ll be silent and keep my eyes out for more story (mostly that involved big brother and RO) for this WIPs thread 
really… after most of my acquantaince in this forum decide to learn choicescript.(example : Lizzy, moondragon, and you) i feel like i should follow you guys soon and make my own IF games
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Um, roughly square I drew enough in my original square that it’s too late to make it much fancier. I mean, I figure the coastline’s more irregular, it’s rotated a little clockwise, the republic’s coastline has more of a curve, the rainforest area blobs out and has a sort of arced peninsula growing from it, but it’s still roughly a blocky blob.
Just the main coast. The geography’s never really inclined anyone to do much seafaring. Theoretically there probably would be other continents somewhere on the world, but I’ve never even decided a single thing about them.
Yes there are some rather narrow ridges of mountains just to the north. They’re more Appalachian than Himalayan, though they include some significant peaks. The biggest mountains are the ones that set the southeastern rainforest apart, but I’m not planning on writing any trips there.
Near the village, thickets of trees tend to grow along rivers and streams. You’ll get more forested the closer you go to the coast, particularly when you get to Kuthumikha. A lot of them have been cleared for farming, but they’re around.
Yes, I just haven’t mapped them. There’s a main big river thoroughfare through Laghuna; the MC’s village is on a tributary of it. Plenty others too. Especially coming out of those mountains in the north.
No worries you should be able to get all you need to know from the story itself, and if you don’t, I’ll know that’s something I need to work on.
If you want to, follow your dream
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Well, okay then. (Square continents, indeed. )
Presumably north-south between the Meanies and the New Guys, as that would be the most logical place based on the international relationships…[quote=“TSSL, post:59, topic:21980”]
There’s a main big river thoroughfare through Laghuna; the MC’s village is on a tributary of it.
[/quote]
If it’s big enough, it would act as a border almost as well as the mountains. Presumably this is one of the ones that comes from the mountains, too?
Also, how large is this continent?
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