[X] send messengers to the infuriated sailors of the ironclad Sakarog: now is the time to reclaim your great vessel, and turn it's guns to a worthier cause: the defense of the Sanhedron, the Patriarch, and the Holy City! Shell the great prison, control the river, and protect the Holy Mount!
The bridges to Alangan have been closed by order of the Grandmaster so you wouldn't be able to get there easily right now, and Little Eykshir is blowing up with people so there's big crowds and As Hahayiim in the way.
There are right now, but the Hadit is in total chaos and it's difficult to even get over. It's important to keep in mind your 'range of movement' - it's very hard to do anything that's not directly within the Navel.
Another thing to keep in mind: you are not alone in the city. Besides the outraged masses there are many active sects. As Hahayiim (in Little Eykshir), Makabam (in Old Nach), and Ohr (in Wisdom's Heart), and smaller sects besides. Around the Sanhedron, Melecha, Yam Soph, and Kedesh all hold the line.
[X] March on the Sanhedron and protect the Elders at all costs.
To my brothers and sisters who go now to support Sarbadgar and his push to reach the Sanhedron, worry not about the possibility of arriving too late! Me and my fellows will run ahead to ensure that the Elders are safe until you arrive! So march with sound minds and swift feet, for while we'll protect them at all costs, do not expect us to last forever. Our holy guns and righteous fists may be strong, but our enemies are numerous, and it is only with our combined strength that we can be expected to prevail against evil!
[X] Retrieve Sarbadgar from Karogen Academy and reinforce his push on the Sanhedron [Scourge of God will be supporting this action].
NOW IS THE TIME, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, LET US SALLY FORTH WITH THE BLOOD SPILLED RIGHT, THE ANGEL OF FREEDOM STIKES WITH THE FIST OF GOD! LET US CONTRIBUTE TO THIS DAY OF LIGHTS WITH PYRES ALL THE WAY TO KAROGEN ACADEMY, LET US BLESS THESE WAYWARD SOULS WILL OUR HOLY BRASS AND FISTS, BLOOD ON EVERY STREET, A SWORD ALTER HEATHEN FOR EVERY LAMP POST! PASAN GHANDI IS YOUNG AGAIN!
On a normal day, Maraki Zebadee would not be so well-dressed for battle. The students of Nachivan pay him to learn them history and poetry and theology and mathematical bone-setting. In none of these fields does he excel - especially not after eight years in exile - but he is a good teacher and likable, in a sour sort of way. So he makes good money from Nachivan's upper-class students, those with too much coin and too few thoughts, who still have enough adolescent edge to study under a radical provincial instead of someone with prospects. On any other day, he would be in their casual dress - shirt, waistcoat, trousers. Good clothing for a background figure in a revolutionary painting.
But it is Orlachag. It is a holy day. And Brother Zeb is a holy man. Today he celebrates, and he celebrates in the attire of his profession - a stiff-collared black frock coat. It is not the black his parents purchased when he first entered the priesthood. Nor is it the black he wore to fail his exams, the same black he would be sentenced to exile in. It is a new black, commissioned upon his arrival in Nachivan with his own money. Happy coincidence that he's wearing it now - he has said he wishes to be buried in it.
He is standing on a cart now, and some small fraction of the mob is drawn to the black coat and the rifle and the headband. Ma'on braves, local residents, even a few well-dressed students who had come to the HaKhofshim Mekdash to hone their anti-Pugilist arguments, much as the son of Mara had done himself a decade earlier in Yomri. A lifetime ago. They are drawn in as he was, and they will not escape either.
And he sings an old epic of Karogen and Harasdad which has held his mind for weeks. He sings of seven men before the Temple, of Abrasha the son of Chesh, the rider of horses whose armor rang around him as he fell with a spear through his throat, of the brothers Cherut and Zebulon whose limbs went limp from sling-stones, leaving their father without a son in an instant. And then he skips over more beautiful death (for there is so little time!) that he might reach the great rage of the good Rav.
And he sings of Karogen killing the Last Guardian with seven holy blows. Of how the Guardian changed under the blows - how the first slash turned his right arm to a branch of sycamore, and the second turned his left leg to a spring of iron, how the creature was disassembled and warped until the evil spirits left his body. And after six blows, the man that was the Last Guardian begged for mercy, and the good Rav said "Life is the currency of God - I would not deface his stamp by murder - neither shall I counterfeit it by mercy - so die, knowing I must follow."
And his voice is shaky and flat, and his body shivers, and he smiles through it all. And he sings of aristeiai and death, and jumps down from the cart, and turns towards the Heavenly Mount to pray. And then he walks.
[X] Fortify the streets around the Heavenly Mount.
(i finally found a face reference for zeb that I really like: hope he doesn't go and get himself shot!)
Lets think about what our allied Sects are likely to do.
As Hahayiim are the only ones not cut off from us by the bridge. But they are smugglers with great contact and networks across the city. They are Amalists as well. So I think they are going to go rally the sailors and others from the provinces who are out working day to day.
We can also expect them to help us reinforce Sarbadgar
Ohr and Makabam are likely to be striking at Sword Altar Garrisons across the city, preventing the mass of their numbers from gathering on the Sanhedron and the Patriarch right away.
So Blockaded in the Navel as we are, there are things only we can uniquely do. These should probably be our priorities.
Building Barricades and Reinforcing the Great Synod is something only we can do. We must have a lot of power there.
Fortifying the Streets of the Heavenly Mount and Saving the Patriarch is also something only we can do. No one else is in a position to help him. So we need to mass manpower there.
Menace Vikrag Prison and prevent sorties buys more time for the Patriarch and the Elders. It prevents more Originator Forces from streaming in unopposed. So we need to put a decent amount of manpower there as well.
Everything else, the children and elderly to safety, getting our military allies. They are fine as well. Because they serve to render those 3 actions safer and easier.
Adhoc vote count started by Deadly Snark on May 6, 2022 at 9:08 PM, finished with 36 posts and 24 votes.
[X] Retrieve Sarbadgar from Karogen Academy and reinforce his push on the Sanhedron [Scourge of God will be supporting this action].
[X] send messengers to the infuriated sailors of the ironclad Sakarog: now is the time to reclaim your great vessel, and turn it's guns to a worthier cause: the defense of the Sanhedron, the Patriarch, and the Holy City! Shell the great prison, control the river, and protect the Holy Mount!
[X] Menace Vikrag Prison and prevent sorties [Nuns of the Gunpowder Eucharist will support this action].
"Vikrag protects Mushad Bridge and threatens the Heavenly Mount. Its garrison must not be allowed to defend the blasphemers separating the Holy City or aid the butchers who will doubtless march upon the citadel of the Patriarch. It must be guarded, and if it can be managed it must be seized."
I'm okaying the send messengers to Alangan Yards write-in @DocMatoi posted but I'll say you don't need more than 1-2 votes for it, especially because the city is going to very rapidly become difficult to navigate.
[X] Send scouts to observe Jury movements on and off of the bridges leading out of the Navel, with their intent to send their swiftest runners when it appears that they are mobilizing reinforcements from elsewhere in the city.
Changing my vote. The Jury's biggest advantage is that they control movement between the different sections of the inner city. If they're canny they'll use it to send reinforcements where they're needed - if a strike team comes riding out from the Mushad Bridge(which is likely to have the most movement because it leads to the section with the city's largest fort) and we aren't informed of it in time it could cause some serious harm.
I'd say this vote alone may be enough - though perhaps a second person on it would also let us extend it to the other bridges on the Navel as well.
It's likely the sailors of the Alangan Yards will eventually take control of the Sakarag and get it under steam but the sooner they can start shelling Sword-Altar forts the better. And a loyalist Ironclad in the Hadit over by the Temple Mount would make things very, very dicey for any attempt by the coup forces to storm it. I suspect the Grandmaster who controls the Navy might be in on the coup given the closure of the bridges but revolutionary sailors tend to be very, very willing to just shoot reactionary officers.
So it's a very high payoff option requiring little investment if a couple of people do vote for it, and that's all we'd need.
