I would like to take this opportunity to poke fun at the fact that DraftierDruid accuses us of being the ones who use out-of-character arguments. Sure, this technically isn't "worrying about things Rhyza wouldn't even care about right now," but not worrying about things Rhyza would absolutely care about doesn't seem any better
That was more my annoyance at people about the whole oaths thing. That said I really don't see Rhyza worrying about it. From my perspective on her thoughts, I really don't see a down side that see would even think of. Which in my opinion are fairly minor anyway.
[X] You find yourself… liking the idea. How many times had you been worried about people not liking how friendly you are with Artemis? This way, they won't have any excuse! Besides, having some people who have promised to help you could be useful. You think you'll probably take him up on it.
-[X] You definitely need to talk about it with Artemis first. Hopefully tomorrow, if she has time.
Like I said, regardless of her abilities, Ryza's still a child. It's going to be quite some time before she's in a position to pursue ANY sort of goal without an adult-looking minder to head off the inevitable efforts by well-meaning-if-uninformed humans to corral her as they would anyone else her apparent age.
And being a manakete puts a target on her back far wider than she can possibly defend alone, even in peacetime. In war (don't kid yourself, this is Fire Emblem, the world's ALWAYS a powderkeg), the need for a flag to stand under is even greater. Above all else, Ryza needs support or she's very quickly going to end up following her mother into the grave.
And being a manakete puts a target on her back far wider than she can possibly defend alone, even in peacetime. In war (don't kid yourself, this is Fire Emblem, the world's ALWAYS a powderkeg), the need for a flag to stand under is even greater. Above all else, Ryza needs support or she's very quickly going to end up following her mother into the grave.
Honestly, I think the issue is the oath again tbh. We are going to help, make no mistake, but oaths are generally a lifetime thing which has people, including me, to fear it.
The Stone Oath thing had people in a frenzy, and that was with a very specific end-goal. We can very much support them, and them us in turn, but we can never turn back after making such an oath.
Watch Ryza take the Knighthood Oath and the war, then end up sleeping for a couple centuries before waking up and she's getting praised as a Dragon God
[X] You don't know if you can tie yourself that strongly to Agrithe. You like it here, you like the people, but you've only known them for a few weeks. Things could easily change over the years and decades. Best to just stay friends. Besides, it'd be weird taking orders from someone younger than you. You'll probably respectfully decline.
From an IC perspective this is a serious long term commitment to people we just met and won't live to see the vast majority of it filled.
From an OOC perspective it's tying us down to responsibilities in what we do and how we do it beyond our own morality and interests really early on in the game.
I'm pretty confident that a job opening for "nearly immortal dragon sorceress with loads of ancient knowledge" will open up again in the future if we pursue it. Can't undo it if we swear now.
[X] You don't know if you can tie yourself that strongly to Agrithe. You like it here, you like the people, but you've only known them for a few weeks. Things could easily change over the years and decades. Best to just stay friends. Besides, it'd be weird taking orders from someone younger than you. You'll probably respectfully decline.
I'm not a woman and nobody with eyes or ears would mistake me for one. But from what I've heard from people who are/are mistaken for women, flirty assholes don't stop bothering people if they just get ignored.
I think you're really overblowing it. From what we've seen he appears to be one of the "Mildly annoying but harmless flirt" archetype rather than some sort of predator.
Artemis: Ryza, do I want to know why you tied a magic tome to the end of a spear?
Ryza: So, I realized that tome damage scales off magic and thought to myself, 'There wasn't anything in the literature that said that still wasn't true if you physically hit them with the tome.'
Artemis: ...
Ryza: ...
Artemis: ...
Ryza: ...
Artemis: ...does it work?
Sypha: She won the Knights Tournament held by the Royal Guard!
Artemis: ...yeah i'm out
Artemis: Ryza, do I want to know why you tied a magic tome to the end of a spear?
Ryza: So, I realized that tome damage scales off magic and thought to myself, 'There wasn't anything in the literature that said that still wasn't true if you physically hit them with the tome.'
Artemis: ...
Ryza: ...
Artemis: ...
Ryza: ...
Artemis: ...does it work?
Sypha: She won the Knights Tournament held by the Royal Guard!
Artemis: ...yeah i'm out
That got me thinking about the weapons that scale off magic (like the Light Brand or Levin Sword), and now I'm wondering what Ryza's weapon ranks and proficiencies are.
Adhoc vote count started by SoaringHawk218 on Nov 7, 2022 at 10:54 AM, finished with 64 posts and 38 votes.
[x] You find yourself… liking the idea. How many times had you been worried about people not liking how friendly you are with Artemis? This way, they won't have any excuse! Besides, having some people who have promised to help you could be useful. You think you'll probably take him up on it.
-[X] You definitely need to talk about it with Artemis first. Hopefully tomorrow, if she has time.
[X] You don't know if you can tie yourself that strongly to Agrithe. You like it here, you like the people, but you've only known them for a few weeks. Things could easily change over the years and decades. Best to just stay friends. Besides, it'd be weird taking orders from someone younger than you. You'll probably respectfully decline.
-[X] You definitely need to talk about it with Artemis first. Hopefully tomorrow, if she has time.
[X] You don't know if you can tie yourself that strongly to Agrithe. You like it here, you like the people, but you've only known them for a few weeks. Things could easily change over the years and decades. Best to just stay friends. Besides, it'd be weird taking orders from someone younger than you. You'll probably respectfully decline.
Looks like we've got a tie so far. I had intended for this to be the vote on whether to accept, but since everyone's making such a point to talk to Artemis I'll have that discussion happen and give a final vote after that.
I am also loving the discussion: I just got my electricity back and so can do more than quickly post the chapter, so here are some responses.
I think you're really overblowing it. From what we've seen he appears to be one of the "Mildly annoying but harmless flirt" archetype rather than some sort of predator.
This is certainly the way I intended him: I very much had Sain in mind when I wrote him. A man who likes to flirt and has a bit of an inflated sense of his own heroics, but is ultimately a good person. His response to hearing that the neighboring kingdom his family has feuded with is calling a meeting to deal with a problem was to go and publicly provide a united front rather than try to figure out how his Kingdom could make sure Agrithe took the worst of whatever was to come.
Whether or not I succeeded in portraying him that way is a different story.
Sadly, the slim Fire Emblem mechanics are very much based on 7 and 8, where reclassing wasn't a thing. Ryza does have a promotion in mind, but it's well down the line.
To be fair, this sort of thing isn't in Fire Emblem itself: the allegiances are much more direct there. One thing to remember, though, is that I don't give trap options: if I give an option, then it's one that isn't guaranteed to get Ryza screwed over. Might it cause some problems? Possible, but when you're the last of a race of powerful dragon-people, your actions are going to bring you problems no matter what you do.
Decades isn't necessarily the problem here. It's the centuries and millennia that follow. Tiki managed to live from literally Marth's time all the way to Chrom's time so Manaketes can live a fuck long time on that point, and anything can change during that time.
Compared to humans, Manaketes can essentially live for an eternity.
Manakete on this continent aren't quite so long-lived. Ryza's only 93, while a similarly sized/emotionally-developed canon manakete like Young Tiki or Myrrh is usually close to a thousand.
This continent's manakete become biological adults somewhere around 250-300, stay mostly unchanged until around 900, then start to slowly decline until they're in their late 1100-1200 before eventually passing on.
The second would be to get the Whitewing Alliance in as soon as possible as well. They're apolitical IIRC, and definitely mercenary, so it's not likely that Agrithe could count on them to throw their lot in with the Southern Kingdoms just because the Empire is being a bully
You brought up a lot of really good points in your post, and rest assured Archduke Letoro is thinking about them, but Ryza would know this isn't quite accurate. The Whitewings are mercenaries, yes, but they are also a nation. A nation who's founding myth is being the first group to successfully tell the Empire to F off. They will work for Imperial nobles, but they won't work for the Empire as a whole, and are generally very friendly with people who also seek to tell the Empire to F off.
I will also ask that everyone keep the discussion civil. You're doing a good job so far, please keep it that way.
...are we missing something? This vote tally shows 17 leaning favorably + asking Artemis, 16 leaning opposed + asking Artemis, and 5 leaning opposed without asking Artemis. No matter how we do the math, that doesn't seem to add up to a tie.
Not that it matters as much since we're talking to Artemis before the decision gets finalized, mind, but we're still confused.
...are we missing something? This vote tally shows 17 leaning favorably + asking Artemis, 16 leaning opposed + asking Artemis, and 5 leaning opposed without asking Artemis. No matter how we do the math, that doesn't seem to add up to a tie.
Not that it matters as much since we're talking to Artemis before the decision gets finalized, mind, but we're still confused.
[x] You find yourself… liking the idea. How many times had you been worried about people not liking how friendly you are with Artemis? This way, they won't have any excuse! Besides, having some people who have promised to help you could be useful. You think you'll probably take him up on it.
-[X] You definitely need to talk about it with Artemis first. Hopefully tomorrow, if she has time.
[x] You find yourself… liking the idea. How many times had you been worried about people not liking how friendly you are with Artemis? This way, they won't have any excuse! Besides, having some people who have promised to help you could be useful. You think you'll probably take him up on it.
I'm not a woman and nobody with eyes or ears would mistake me for one. But from what I've heard from people who are/are mistaken for women, flirty assholes don't stop bothering people if they just get ignored.
I mean, you're not wrong, as a non-woman who's seen these things happen. Historical and current gender power imbalance issues aside, I read Alejandro as someone in the Inigo / Sain / Jesse / Virion line of "yes, they're flirts, and they might get a tiny bit obnoxious, but there's an underlying genuinely-less-of-an-asshole-than-most element to them such that they actually accept a polite-but-firm shutdown for more than two scenes."
I mean, if I'm reading our QM right, he sees 30+ votes for "talk to Artemis first" and ~5 votes for "decide immediately in the negative", so that conversation's going to happen before the final vote.
...are we missing something? This vote tally shows 17 leaning favorably + asking Artemis, 16 leaning opposed + asking Artemis, and 5 leaning opposed without asking Artemis. No matter how we do the math, that doesn't seem to add up to a tie.
Not that it matters as much since we're talking to Artemis before the decision gets finalized, mind, but we're still confused.
You're not missing something: I must have miscounted. I'll still be having a talk with Artemis, then a final decision vote, but it'll have Ryza leaning towards no but wanting a second opinion.
Well, if we vote for allying with them and it backfires down the line, we will have to deal with it. If not sorry. Keep up the amazing job with this story.
Well, if we vote for allying with them and it backfires down the line, we will have to deal with it. If not sorry. Keep up the amazing job with this story.
[X] You find yourself… liking the idea. How many times had you been worried about people not liking how friendly you are with Artemis? This way, they won't have any excuse! Besides, having some people who have promised to help you could be useful. You think you'll probably take him up on it.
-[X] You definitely need to talk about it with Artemis first. Hopefully tomorrow, if she has time.
