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The Second Rome: A Quest of Ancient Byzantium

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Arlos said:
Yah, but what can we really do in our 60s? That's very Old for the time period and I somehow doubt someone living a military life will be all that healthy by then, maybe our son ? :p
Let's focus on surviving first, surely, Manuel will find someone with extreme military talent but abysmal skill in every others matters to be someone useful.
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At 67 years old, Basil the Bulgar-Slayer was crushing rebellions and leading armies in Italy, and he was the greatest of the emperors of the ERE.
 
[X] The Purple Eminence
[X] Blessing of Saint Michael

I think it's a neat setup to be a man raised very closely in his mother's confidence, who has learned subterfuge and what are considered 'womanly ways' in an ancient society, even as he possesses great military talent.
 
Arlos said:
Yah, but what can we really do in our 60s? That's very Old for the time period and I somehow doubt someone living a military life will be all that healthy by then, maybe our son ? :p
Let's focus on surviving first, surely, Manuel will find someone with extreme military talent but abysmal skill in every others matters to be someone useful.
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Actually, people regularly lived into their 70s.

And Justinian lived to 83.

You're not accounting for the fact that most averages include massive infant mortality. (Which was rampant)
 
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Imrix said:
[X] The Purple Eminence
[X] Blessing of Saint Michael

I think it's a neat setup to be a man raised very closely in his mother's confidence, who has learned subterfuge and what are considered 'womanly ways' in an ancient society, even as he possesses great military talent.
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So do I. Unfortunately, most people seem to be of the more... Palaiologan mindset.

No, wait. Belisarian.
 
[X] Mikrodrakon
[X] Blessing of Saint Michael

Imrix said:
I think it's a neat setup to be a man raised very closely in his mother's confidence, who has learned subterfuge and what are considered 'womanly ways' in an ancient society, even as he possesses great military talent.
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...Are you saying political maneuvering and mercantile endeavours were considered 'womanly ways' in the Byzantine Empire? By my understanding, that's entirely wrong.
 
Fezzes said:
...Are you saying political maneuvering and mercantile endeavours were considered 'womanly ways' in the Byzantine Empire? By my understanding, that's entirely wrong.
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No, I'm saying I'm saying I think it's a neat setup for a character to be a skilled facepuncher while also having womanly interests due to being raised very close to his mother. I'm less concerned with what those womanly interests are as the social context it puts the character in.
 
Imrix said:
No, I'm saying I'm saying I think it's a neat setup for a character to be a skilled facepuncher while also having womanly interests due to being raised very close to his mother. I'm less concerned with what those womanly interests are as the social context it puts the character in.
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Aaaah. That makes much more sense. I agree that it's fun to see a character who 'crosses the streams' so to speak. However, I personally find my voted route more interesting, so I'll maintain my vote.
 
[X] Mikrodrakon
[X] Blessing of Saint Michael
Adhoc vote count started by Japanime on Feb 3, 2019 at 10:09 PM, finished with 42 posts and 25 votes.
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Adhoc vote count started by Japanime on Feb 4, 2019 at 5:06 AM, finished with 155 posts and 33 votes.
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Adhoc vote count started by Japanime on Feb 5, 2019 at 3:56 PM, finished with 96 posts and 46 votes.
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[X] Mikrodrakon
[X] Blessing of Saint Michael

Yeah, time to be the next Julius Caesar. A family with some prestige, but not as much as the top families. We'll fight our way up with the support of our armies. Let's hope we get a better nickname and not end up like Caligula, I would rather be remembered as something like "The Dragon Lord" and not "Little Dragon".
 
Holy crap, I just realized how similar we are to Caligula. Both sons of amazing generals with awesome names, our father being "The Dragon" and Germanicus meaning something along the lines of "The slayer of Germans". We're both the mascots of his armies, and we both have "Little" in our nicknames. Guys, this could go very badly for us and our sanity if history is to be believed.
 
Revan Skirata said:
Holy crap, I just realized how similar we are to Caligula. Both sons of amazing generals with awesome names, our father being "The Dragon" and Germanicus meaning something along the lines of "The slayer of Germans". We're both the mascots of his armies, and we both have "Little" in our nicknames. Guys, this could go very badly for us and our sanity if history is to be believed.
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Just because we have a very similar setup does not mean we are Caligula.

There's "those who do not heed history" and there's "OMG EVERYTHING WILL TURN OUT EXACTLY THE SAME."

The latter is far less true than the former.

relax....


All we need to do is avoid becoming a megalomaniacal egomaniac. With a god complex.
 
I know, it was a joke. There are a few similarities, but none of the childhood trauma that arguably made Caligula into an insane maniac. On the plus side, we don't have an siblings, so we won't be tempted by incest (Also a joke, I know Caligula probably didn't do the thing with his sisters.)
 
I was imagining more Little Conqueror than Little Boot.
 
Revan Skirata said:
I know, it was a joke. There are a few similarities, but none of the childhood trauma that arguably made Caligula into an insane maniac. On the plus side, we don't have an siblings, so we won't be tempted by incest (Also a joke, I know Caligula probably didn't do the thing with his sisters.)
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.... ah.

Sorry about that. It was hard to tell.
 
King Tharassian said:
.... ah.

Sorry about that. It was hard to tell.
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That's all right, without hearing voices it can be tough to realize a joke. I had realized there were some similarities, and I was over dramatizing them. It was meant to be like:

Loud gasp Our character and Caligula have sooooo much in common. A total of four things. We better take preparations or we might turn out exactly like him.

I was just continuing on the with my own reference to Caligula I had made beforehand, but I'll admit it would've made more sense if someone else had mentioned it and I was making fun of them.
 
[X] Mikrodrakon
[X] Blessing of Saint Michael

A lot of times, it's not really that great to all-in on one stat in ck2 styles, but here, I feel like it's our best chance. To become prominent, we'd either have to survive long enough to get out of mediocrity, or have most/every other general die/assassinated or be more overall competent than them, if we wanted to truly cement ourselves in history. Now, if we start of with greater martial capabilities, we might not automatically be the next Sun Tzu or anything, but we will have a much easier time rising to such levels of greatness without all the extra time it would take to get to our martial-specific baseline.

Also, I agree that we should level the scheming to the court. While we need to worry about it, especially the higher we rise, we also have a path of hoping escaping any grudges with the Emperor by way of being too useful for the military to get rid of, among other options.

To me, at least, it seems like intrigue we would need to really double down on improving anyway, so why bother? And the same for stewardship. Diplomacy might be helpful, but I again also believe that being capable of fighting all enemies even better is superior to only non-Christians and a slight boost in both martial and diplomacy where the blessing of Saint Michael is worded to be a massive boost to one stat.

If you want to have other stats be higher overall, I just think you should take a different education path than the military one in that case. However, I hope to work our path to greatness through our military capabilities.
 
Oshha said:
Alright.

I want to play as a warrior character. While we could go a diplomatic route or an intrigue route, we didn't pick the lady or the noble character in the previous vote so I feel like we should commit to being a warrior, the soldier who slays his foes and the general who crushes the enemies of the Empire. Let others scheme and plot against each in the background while we loyally lead the armies of the Roman Empire against the heathens, heretics and infidels that beset the greatest empire in the world.

Our character's father was a general and I want Michael to follow to follow in his footsteps. That means doubling down on being a warrior/general for me. Michael shall grow up on the campaign, watching his father at work and see the army of Roman Empire in action. He will not grow up in court, knowing to scheme, plot and talk his way into trouble and then back out again, but shall instead be a soldier to the core, willingly and ready to fight for his people. He shall be at home on the battlefield and amongst his fellow soldiers and not those scheming vipers back in the court.

As for the blessing, if we are going to be a mighty warrior, then Saint Michael is the only choice. Let's increase our military skills and be the greatest of Rome's warrior. Saint Gabriel is good, but we are not a talker who needs to sway the nobles, merchants and priests to his side. Saint Constantine could serve us well, but we need to fight all of Rome's enemies and not just the non-Christians and why split our focus on military skill when we can go all in? No, Saint Michael shall guide his namesake and Michael Drakonopoulos shall be a promising young soldier who shall become one of the greatest generals that Rome has ever seen.
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This fucking screams "I'm dismissive of non-warriors as weak and inferior, and will gleefully march my armies into Constantinople to get myself into power." Seriously, this speech gives off major barracks emperor/modern day dictator/late Republican Roman general vibes.
 
[X] Mikrodrakon
[X] Blessing of Saint Michael

I haven't played a true loyalist character in a while so let's go with this I'm getting tired of all the petty power plays, backstabbing and blatant violations of human rights I have to perform to get myself into power in other quests.
Andres110 said:
This fucking screams "I'm dismissive of non-warriors as weak and inferior, and will gleefully march my armies into Constantinople to get myself into power." Seriously, this speech gives off major barracks emperor/modern day dictator/late Republican Roman general vibes.
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...His speech emphasizes loyalty to the people and exoneration of the state though, nowhere does it really make mention of wanting to claim power for himself or ascend to the imperial throne.
Adhoc vote count started by Sir LagsAlot on Feb 4, 2019 at 2:48 AM, finished with 152 posts and 31 votes.
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[X] Mikrodrakon

My reasoning for this besides being a good idea is that were heavy in the fighting aspect, we can pick up people to help do the talking for us as emperor we can get advisors...
Also in these kinds of area infantry is king for now, at least until we get the Mil tech for cross-bows and other technologies to make things more interesting with time

[X] Blessing of Saint Constantine

This is to balance out our Diplo penalty, yes it doesn't give as much as Saint Michael, but being able to actually talk with people will give us even more advantages against the Ottomans in the east and the people of the Russ when they come knocking at our doors.

Plus I look forward to seeing if we can truly re-forge the roman empire...we might however need to find a good island to make our true capital so we can keep a united empire going...with two sub-capitals just in case one is burnt to the ground.
 
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