Anyways, now that I'm off my phone I can give less terse answers.
On the oracle, we don't have much information about the Sybil herself. We know about the books and the Roman legends, but these are just that- legends, and the crater lake being the path to Avernus is also mostly Roman mythologizing. Even though geological or other oddities certainly contributed to the prestige of a given oracle, the actual staying power of these oracles had far less to do with that. Indeed, the Pythia often didn't even directly provide prophecies but was sometimes supplemented by priests who gave simple yes or no answers based on divination techniques. The Oracle of Delphoi grew for a number of reasons, and the peculiar gas deposit involved is only one of them, if it was even real as the argument about it rages. Hellenes asked Delphoi when they wanted to colonize, when they made major political decisions, when they went to war, etc. If you want the Sibyl to give you clearer answers, then obviously you shouldn't ask her questions that are very politically sensitive. But you will anyway because it can provide moral weight and insight to your decisions.
Oracles do much more than provide annoyingly two-sided answers to questions. They are an essential part of life for Greeks and the Pythia is one of the few true pan-hellenic institutions. Having an oracle would mean having visitors from a vast array of places, including Italians, and the same would go for the Kymaians.
Finally, on religion and augurs, bluntly, it's part of the quest. It's not an addition and I don't know why people keep saying that the Grand Mantis is obviously rigging things. I have said multiple times that the system is not being rigged, and in any case the Grand Mantis is a
sortition position which gets switched out every four years. There are permanent priests and seers, but they don't have anywhere near the same power as they do in Ancient Rome where the Pontifex Maximus is a major position. In any case, it adds an element of randomness to elections, and forces players to consider things as people in the era, not ruthless maximizers. That the augurs allowed Demos Antipatria to blow open what was once the massive dominance of the Demos Drakonia isn't a bug, it's a feature, and it's also one that helps protect democracy so long as it remains neutral.
If players don't pay attention to culture and religion or try to avoid making choices in that direction they will be punished. If not by the augurs then by other means. Hannibal marched into Italy with a Greek propagandist and claimed himself as a representation of Herakles-Melqart, and it aided him in swaying many Italian cities in the south to his cause, and the Romans had their own attempts to reclaim Hercules for themselves and convince the Italians of their own Greekness and that they were not barbarians destroying the old Mediterranean system and its culture. I don't think players have done badly so far in culture and religion so this isn't a reprimand so much as a piece of advice to keep in mind.
People seriously cannot overestimate the power of cults and shared religious commonality in this era. Almost every single league that existed started as a religious league with a shared cult center. The Italiote League in real life had a cult center to Akhaian customs. The Delian League. The Akhaian League, the Aitolian League, etc. Religion and politics are bound together and intertwined; religious observance helps protect democracy and justify monarchy.
Speaking of generosity and how our league relies on Vassal Levies
@Cetashwayo I was thinking. For our new Adriatic holdings we mainly want them for the trade income to enrich us and their trireme levies to help us fight pirates and Corinth. But of course, building a merchant fleet and a military fleet is expensive and time consuming, as our own experiences in the past proved. At the same time training experienced rowers is also time and money consuming.
As it stands, in our league, Eretria seems to be the best suited to build up new ships. Especially one our harbor expansion completes, which will open up more space. And the fact that we will need to train a stupidly huge amount of new rowers for our new ships.
With that in mind I have two proposals.
1. Once our fleet and harbor expansion is finished, turn Eretrian Shipbuilders into an extension of the Linos Law. Any of the Epulian/Adriatic colonies that wishes to have a military and merchant fleet suited for their size need only to send a representative to talk with us and we will help them construct said ships now at a price. Hopefully this can be a engine of growth as it allows our Adriatic holdings to come online much sooner both in trade and in force projection and potentially give us a new income stream.
2. Open up our the rower training of our navy to those in the new holdings who wishes to be the foundation of their native fleets. Like the previous idea this is to help boost the time for their fleets to come online. But at the same time its also to create a cultural unity within the league centered on our navies, who will receive Eretrian influence. And also even more pragmatically, if the league rowers are trained in the same manner as Eretrian Rowers, coordination in naval warfare will probably improve.
What do you think? Doable?
1. It's much cheaper for them to construct ships at the source, especially as the greatest expense is the wood and most of these places have lots of wood lying around.
2. Don't overestimate how much training rowers get. Most of the ability of Eretrian rowers is from military experience; if Eretria spent a generation at peace they could row a bunch and it wouldn't necessarily help as much as you'd think. Eretria's naval tradition comes from the training
and military experience which they are able to get, as well as from its mercantile nature which means many rowers also work as sailors in the off months/years. Also, because rowing is a collective endeavor and rowers are very poor, and due to the crazy crew complements of ships, you'd never be able to bring enough people to Eretria to train them usefully in any capacity. Especially given the Adriatic crossing is risky.
@Cetashwayo: If you feel able to chip in on this, can you tell us if keeping the oracle in Nea Kymai will speed the growth of the cult of the Divine Marriage? And if it is speeded up, will it be by a little or a lot?
It will grow in different directions and ways, and have a slightly different flavor. But it will certainly grow faster because it is no longer just an ethnic cult of Eretria but a more general cult that cuts across cultural differences. At the same time, keeping it at Eretria will give you some cool stuff like being able to call upon the Sybil for advice or receiving delegations from Romans and other Italians seeking the Sybil.
We went along with re-building the temple of Divine Marriage, but I don't think we HAD to.
Pretty much. I believe I said people would be angry if players went away from rebuilding the temple, but it wasn't required (if it was, why have a vote?). There are a number of cases in which auguries were ignored or re-rolled historically. However, if things then fuck up, then citizens will blame ignoring the augurs as for why that happened and it could be deleterious to morale and unity.
