(854 words.)
Seriously though, here are some arguments for Diplomacy:
*I want to fight the Shard. She's a jerk.
*She and her minions are one of the few remaining Pick sources in reach, and we really kind of need those to unlock Pillars of Creation. (Or Ruling Ring, but that one is even more pick-dependent.)
*Augustine is
dangerous in combat, but probably less adroit in the social sphere - she appears to be a Sorceress of the Arcanist, rather than of the Maiden. Also, I suspect a Gisena-tier manipulator would have been just fine conquering the kingdom as a pretty pink princess, rather than dressing up as an evil overlord.
Anyone have clever write-in ideas? Diplomatic plans, etc.?
Thank you for reminding me of the possibility. Let's see what our goals are here?
*Get lore and powers.
--Especially utility and short-term-prep - our build doesn't have a lot of infogathering tools, and the latter would really help optimize our action economy.
--Augustine has both, but the Shard likely has greater still.
*Leave the world as well-off as we can.
--Augustine seems like the sort of person who might be convinced to repent, and she's definitely more useful alive than dead. (Remember Sten? We can get picks from beating her, even if we spare her life.)
--Shard of the Arcanist is totally willing to murder innocents for the sake of power. She's also much,
much older, and commensurately unlikely to change her principles. Keeping her knowledge would be useful, but the woman herself? Needs not to be a threat to anyone, which probably means
dead. ("The only way to keep
my family in line would be to
bury them in a row", and all that.)
--Obviously the genocide has got to stop. The unification probably isn't a bad thing in principle, though. Can we manage Hungertopia #3, and if so how?
--The soldiers need to be dealt with in such a way that they don't turn to banditry, and ideally return to society as functional members. I
think Augustine's plan for this, if she thought that far, was to get most of them meatgrindered in a mutual-kill with the Shard? Alternately, to keep conquering until there's enough land and riches to give them all cushy retirement plans.
All these in mind... what if Hunger pretends to be the Lord Protector? If I'm right about Augustine's powers being souped-up Graces, we can probably mimic a lot of them with Edeldross. That could do several things, including keep the transfer of power from being too messy, but it's only part of a plan.
Need to know more about Augustine's motives. If her deal is "willing to kill tens of hundreds of
thousand-thousands of innocent neighbors in order to keep the Shard from torturekilling at her current rate"... well, honestly it
might be a net positive in the long term, but
surely there's a plan with fewer atrocities total?
Whereas if her deal is closer to "present a united front against the Shard before her ritual finishes and turns the Realms of Myth into a torture dimension, and imperialism was by far the most expedient method the local ontology would support", she would seem a
lot more reasonable.
Her motives determine how we can approach her, what to offer, basically everything about diplomacy (and diplomacy-into-violence). So actually, I'll go more detailed:
*The basic tension of her character, as we know it, is between her
rage at her parents' crimes, and her
willingness to hurt uninvolved parties. How can these resolve?
-Sheer myopia: "I don't care how many innocents I hurt, I just want vengeance for myself and my siblings specifically." Implications: Wants to hurt her mom, wants to be
responsible, any attempt at getting her on-side will have to be framed as her being the motive force in the relationship.
-Plausibly higher calling: "Due to Circumstances (probably some combination of intensity, temporal scope, and expected scaling), Mom's atrocities considerably outweigh those of my soldiers." Implications: Wants the Shard dealt with by any means available. Will likely be willing to trade
very large concessions for this. Not so stuck on personal vengeance, but really wants to be sure.
-Semi-innocence: "My soldiers are extremely well-disciplined and atrocities are severely punished; this will ultimately be a good thing for the nations I conquer, and also provides my best shot at very-well-deserved vengeance." Implications: Wants vengeance, power, and good things for her people, in more-or-less that order. Both emotional and pragmatic reasoning mean she'll prefer to keep her existing power base to, say, becoming Hunger's companion - but she might be talked around, if we offer it as a choice between her pride, and her
vengeance.
I guess these are mostly tactics for diplomacy. There's probably some clever tactic to do with finding the Shard's dungeon, but I'm tired and want to get this out before Sunday.
I have jack fucking shit lol
Then why not play in my
subquest? That generates Arete!
No interest in the genocidal Brat, neither her, or her magic have any appeal to me, and Urg, another 25 Arete companion buff, I would pay money to defeat this thing.
Why not buy votes, then?
You have convinced me away from his EFB, though.
[X] Diplomacy
[X] A Burning Spirit
Burning Spirit improves Aobaru's buffing power, but both of the other options offer considerably more independent strength for him! Could be very useful in separated party situations like this, especially A Blazing Sun which improves his versatility massively!
Hey, weren't we going to get the option to give her True Shadowcord and Threnody Sorceress? Did the Lion just interrupt that, somehow?