Oh yea i got pissed at that too, like she’s allowed to use her aether (that literally burns us) but we can’t utilize the environment and some dirt?
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Well her using aether was the entire point of the spar. She was demonstrating they would have the upperhand in battle with her magic. It wasn’t a spar as much as a display of their Queen’s strength to boost faith in leadership.
MC wasn’t actually supposed to fight her, it was Will. It was planned and set up to where Will would help show off her prowess. They weren’t going to cancel the demonstration because MC butted in.
Will explains this to MC. I get the frustration from the side of MC, but it was a crafted maneuver on Ariana and Will’s part. MC could have messed it up.
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I feel like Arianna’s lacking some awareness here, she’s tunnel visioning the whole revenge thing, i get that regicide is a really serious crime but two people’s deaths can’t justify Arianna wanting to cause more conflict both from Arcadie and Katland, i think her problem is viewing the entire thing in a more personal manner than looking at the bigger picture, the loss of resources, the death of thousands of people, wrecking the economy since war prevents people from farming and trading, etc. What she’s doing is what Stanislas was talking about, prioritizing the royal blood and it’s status above her actual kingdom. She wants retribution but can’t or refuses to see how her desire and beliefs affects what most matters; the fate of the Arcadie.
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I think part of the reason is because Ariana has been raised as a weapon and has a chosen one complex. So she thinks everything can be solved with more war and that everything is going to go her way. At least that’s what I got from her I can be totally misreading her.
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It’s true she’s focused on revenge, but saying that there shouldn’t be any consequences when another country murders a country’s leaders while signing a peace treaty is also narrow minded, just narrow mindedly focused on peace. It sets a precedent that Arcadie is weak, and will lead to it being taken advantage of in the future.
Arianna’s weird genocidal rambling in that one scene is over the top, but there absolutely needs to be a proportional response to Katland.
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I don’t mind and see no problem about arianna wanting to give a reasonable reprecussion for the death of the king and queen, the main problem is that Arianna seems to want to commit too much to the continuation and extremity of the conflict and becomes ignorant on how it affects the majority of her kingdom.
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Lmao. My smart mc would just eliminate Ariana, Stanislas and Kalltlanders and everyone else who stand in his way.
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True. I can’t just let Kalltlanders take over Arcadie. Stanislas plan is just short sighted.
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This story is profoundly interesting and Arcadie is definitely the WIP I am looking forward to the most.
For my part I’m suspicious of Stan’s bonafides. I don’t think this is just a coup in the name of peace. According to Wil, Stan was a little soft on the southern front, but he did his duty to Arcadia. It was only when he got to the north that he wen turncoat. What does the north have that the south doesn’t? A unified opposition. The south has “tribes”, which sounds like a group of tough but decentralized soldiers. Kalltland, on the other hand, is a powerful state with the capacity to resist Arcadiean invasion. Stan conspired with this powerful state to support a coup against the government of Arcadie. He took control of the Royal Castle and, as far as we know, hasn’t made overtures to the nobles of the realm or other generals. To my MC, this looks like a Pearl-Harbor sort of move. Stanislas led a decapitation strike and took one of the country’s principal fortifications by subterfuge. Sending the government into disarray and capturing a major defensive position is the perfect opening move for an invasion, and he would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids. That said, the kids survived along with one of Arcadie’s top military officers, so Stanislas is now faces a dilemma. He has converted most of the Arcadiean northern forces to his side. He could retreat to Kalltland with his troops and, adding them to the Kalltlander forces, hole up in the Kalltlander cities and make them obscenely difficult to capture. Or he could hold out and make a play for control of Arcadie, which he appears to have chosen since he has held the Royal Castle and demanded the surrender of the d’Arcadie line. However, we know Stan is outnumbered. He doesn’t even have the troops to take Cyril’s garrison, let alone all the other garrisons around the country, and there remains the possibility that King Lavic’s home country on the west will step in to aid their cousins the d’Arcadie heirs. Stan might be gambling on his ability to wage a propaganda war and subvert the Arcadiean populace with rhetoric like he did Lieutenant Thomas, but that is a gamble. The presence of the Kalltlander diplomats and their obvious complicity indicates another, more ominous option. To my MC, an invasion by Kalltland in support of Stan’s expeditionary force is imminent. They will move out of the north, link up with Stan’s troops at the Royal Castle, and deal with Arcadie on their terms. Given Stan’s former time in the south, the tribes he was dealing with might also be invited to capitalize. Arcadie is facing a crisis on multiple fronts all because of him. This is beyond regicide. This is the fullest example of treason to home and country possible. And, since Stan will presumably be at the top of the new Arcadiean order, his pacifist propaganda (spoken whilst instigating a war) appears to exist hand in hand with an imperative for personal ambition.
My MC will not allow Stan to survive. He killed his parents. He tried to kill him and his sister under the guise of friendship, and was clearly willing to kill his own old friend Wil under the same guise. He drove them from their home, and holds that home hostage while demanding their surrender. For these actions alone, he will pay the ultimate price. But it’s worse than that. He has killed or imprisoned loyal Arcadiean soldiers in his capture of the Royal Castle. In cooperating with a foreign power, he has invited the invasion and subjugation of all Arcadie. My MC is troubled enough by the defections of the northern troops and Lieutenant Thomas that he realizes that Stan’s pacifism might have merit, but his actions are beyond the pale. Perhaps in a future day, my MC will accommodate some of Stan’s philosophy out of sheer pragmatism. But neither Stanislas, nor Kalltland in its present form, will see that day. For regicide, for fratricide, for high treason, and giving aid and comfort to an enemy power, Stanislas delenda est.
And for orchestrating and taking advantage of the same, Kalltland delenda est.
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That’s exactly how I feel, regicide is a treason worth capital punishment enough and he had no rights to kill king and queen of his own country and he even did it with guise of peace. No peace ever started from regicide.
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What do you mean? What about the first french revolution? They killed their king and queen and everything turned out fine, right?.. Right?
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To put all my joking aside about revenge and all that, Stanislas is definitely not a good guy despite the persona he presents. Historical instances where a family was killed outright like this didn’t turn out well for the people. The Russian revolution led to the rise of Stalin and the French Revolution lead to The reign of terror under Robespierre. Plus we see no indication that the king and queen were that bad, other than the conflicts in north and south. And on that note, the queen seems to want to use more of a diplomatic approach going forward.Most citizens seem to live comfortably. Stanislas and most of his supporters seem to be military officers and it would make sense if his government turns out to be a military junta. At the very best it would be a “republic” under a “lord protector” much like Cromwell’s regime. The previous queen and king are called tyrants and warmongers but Stanislas committed treason, regicide, and attempted murder against two members of the royal family and one member of the military for the sole purpose of not having the same political views as him. Despite his mercy to the soldiery, he still seems willing to make war on his own people if they do not share his ideals. Now, that being said, Ariana is clearly mentally unstable and would not be a good choice to take over. That’s where the MC comes in: they could keep the status quo, introduce a constitutional monarchy, etc, but have the capacity to reign fair and just. Some may support Stan and try to lead him away from his inevitable tyranny, but as we’ve seen in history, tyrants usually keep sycophants for company. I apologize for the long post lol, this WIP is just one of the more interesting ones I’ve read 
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I think you raise some good points. I’m curious to see more of the state of Arcadie and how that might play into the political dynamics. I especially want to visit the big city where the noble council hangs out and see how the populace lives. We did get to see the village with Cyril and…honestly, it didn’t seem that poor. Cyril was able to requisition supplies and if I recall correctly the village still had a year of supplies stocked up. That’s not bad at all. So, from what we’ve seen, the wars have not beggared the population of Arcadie. Perhaps it’s different in the cities themselves.
It’s possible that the people don’t like the sort of authoritarian style that the d’Arcadie line and their officers use in their rule. Cyril is pretty brusque and demanding with the village elder and the nobles of the realm definitely feel that the balance of power isn’t appropriate, though I think every group of nobles everywhere have felt that if their ruler wasn’t a complete ragdoll. So it’s possible that the people are irritated with the top-down system of Arcadie, and Stan might capitalize on that. I would think, however, that top-down governance is only objectionable if ya society has libertarian cultural elements and I’m not sure how prevalent those are. Especially since it looks like Arcadie has a developed state infrastructure - brusqueness by state officers isn’t just going to cause people to revolt against that.
So, basically, I don’t know why anybody would want to join Stan’s revolt and I’m kinda befuddled. Why would so many soldiers (the northern army and Lieutenant Thomas) defect? Perhaps they are all war-weary and tired of campaigning. That doesn’t seem to affect Cyril’s troops…but they are literally the Peacekeeping Force and have the quiet border to boot so they probably wouldn’t be as weary as the rest of the army. That might explain it. If more army units defect then the war-weary-soldiers theory might work
I’m really interested in the rationale behind the mass defections because I agree, even from my third-person perspective outside the story the d’Arcadies don’t seem that bad, or at least any worse than most pre-modern states. War on the borders has been a constant for most of humanity and war for vital resources (like the Aether-conductive metal) has also been constant. I hope the story provides a good justification for why pacifism such as Stan’s has convincing power, and does so without importing wholesale First World concepts of war and pacifism into this supposedly militaristic society.
Also, Stan doesn’t seem to pull many high-ranking military officers as it stands. His replacement government would probably be him governing with the recalcitrant nobles…all operating with the “advice and counsel” of his sponsor Kalltland of course.
Yeah, screw Stanislas.
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I must say that the more and more I’ve been replaying through this lovingly written piece of fiction, the more I’ve come to see Arianna in a more different light. At first glance, I thought she was just a bloodthirsty despot looking to quell a just and honorable rebellion, but now I’ve come to see her in the same vein as Caesar and Augustus. Someone who recognizes the flaws in the system, that they’re the only ones capable of fixing them, and takes it upon them to remedy the situation and punish those responsible for them, and that is precisely what I believe Arianna will do once she puts down Stanislas and the rest of the so-called “liberators”. I think she’ll work on decreasing the nobility’s grasp on wealth and power and give more rights to the common people and her veteran soldiers and usher a golden era of peace and prosperity for Arcadie that would put the Pax Romana to shame.
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i do not fully Understand but I agree Good Sir! 
Arianna is a very passion and inspirational young Woman who with the Right surroundings will grow and blossom into a real Mother of the nation… indeed her character keeps me up at night. I could only imagine how far I would follow her if only she existed in real life as powerful and inspiring as she is she even shows grace and good sportsmanship 
in the duel with the protagonist and by the Way she is fully justified in being so furious if you fight dirty 
and it is just Punishment sometimes I wish someone would punish me so when I was this jealous and bad 
hahaha but Oh Yes to summit up she is powerful and Just like Athena and empathetic and feminine as Persephone Ok see you next time Good Sir!
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This whole “She’ll become the Great Mother of this Great Nation” gives me dictator vibes, lmao. I have no idea what she will become, but just my thoughts: being inspirational, especially in war, isn’t always a trait associated with being a fair and just ruler afterwards.
I’ll just wait and see. Right now, I have no clue how her character will continue to develop.
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Wait, who said the Great Mother thing?! Did I miss that? It’s definitely weird. Sounds like something W would say 
. Homegirl can’t even be a great sister to her sibling; how’s she supposed to be a Great Mother to the country?! lol
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This is how I feel about Ariana. Also I played as someone who prefer to be less into revenge and boy she’s constantly dismissing mc’s opinion. So if she’s only nice to mc when mc is supporting her murderous intent and rude when they are against that, that is definitely not a trait of a good leader.
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I would agree with that sentiment in real life. The problem is that that is basically npc default reaction in all games. Don’t agree with them? They don’t like you and are, at best, indifferent to you and, at worst, outright hostile to you. So I have a hard time holding her reactions to mc disagreeing with her against her considering that that’s literally the trope in rpgs and IFs in general.
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Having murderous intent towards a traitor doesn’t necessarily mean a bad leader. Not everyone is siding with the sister to appease her. Cooperating with the sister to stop Stan, a pawn of Kalltlanders is beneficial for Arcadie since Stan will have Kalltlanders as advisors who will sap the power of Arcadie and will constantly interfere with Arcadie politics whenever they think Arcadie is gaining power. Kalltlanders aren’t always seeking for peace. They aren’t willing to trade with Arcadie. They have always viewed Arcadie as their enemy and will not compromise a thing if it benefits Arcadie. They are smart and tactical enough to withstand a long-standing war against Arcadie. Arcadie didn’t have any progress in the past because they weren’t using a more strategic approach and it had only cost Arcadie resources and men. It’s time for smart mc to take charge against the cunning Kalltlanders and eliminate the threat for once and all. Here, a militaristic mc isn’t a bad leader for not taking a peaceful approach, for he is aware of the long term interactions with Kalltlanders, and is doing what he seems the best for Arcadie.
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