I don't know what that means, but on further thought I'm inclined to let people pick up to 3 things to vote on, with the highest three totals being the three things that get most priority, ordered from 1st-highest votes to 3rd-highest votes. (I was under some time pressure when finishing the post, and formatted the vote 'on automatic')
I don't know what that means, but on further thought I'm inclined to let people pick up to 3 things to vote on, with the highest three totals being the three things that get most priority, ordered from 1st-highest votes to 3rd-highest votes. (I was under some time pressure when finishing the post, and formatted the vote 'on automatic')
[X]You were actually more interested in the local Breeds. Breeds manning stores and selling goods, keeping roads in good condition, patching rooftops, transporting food, and doing many other things necessary to keep the city functioning. Many of them ignored you when you tried to engage them in conversation, but the exceptions were often quite chatty, reminding you a bit of Delegate.
[X]Scaled Folk. One day you were walking by the river, and spotted scaled humanoid figures hawking wares from inside the water to those on the shore. You wanted to learn more in case you could translate this knowledge back to helping with the hostile Scaled People back home.
[X]You actually found yourself speaking most regularly with Integrated humans. You learned a lot of clear relevance to your own Integrated life, even as there was much contrast since they were of course not married.
[X]Cultivare. At first you mistook them for very strange Breeds. Eventually you became aware they were humans, clad in bark for armor, with greenery growing right out of their armor; you were particularly curious as to why they were here at all given how they seemed to universally dislike the city's darkness.
[X]Scaled Folk. One day you were walking by the river, and spotted scaled humanoid figures hawking wares from inside the water to those on the shore. You wanted to learn more in case you could translate this knowledge back to helping with the hostile Scaled People back home.
[X]You were actually more interested in the local Breeds. Breeds manning stores and selling goods, keeping roads in good condition, patching rooftops, transporting food, and doing many other things necessary to keep the city functioning. Many of them ignored you when you tried to engage them in conversation, but the exceptions were often quite chatty, reminding you a bit of Delegate.
[X]You actually ended up talking mostly with the fully-human Freelanders. Your only prior experience with non-Integrated humans having a close relationship with Gendarmerie was the brief encounter with Sergent Allerd in Freewheeling Raptors' territory, and you found yourself fascinated by how these people lived and thought.
[X]Cultivare. At first you mistook them for very strange Breeds. Eventually you became aware they were humans, clad in bark for armor, with greenery growing right out of their armor; you were particularly curious as to why they were here at all given how they seemed to universally dislike the city's darkness.
[X]No group in particular. The city was vast and there was a lot to take in: who knows what else you might see with further exploration? The possibilities interested you more than any particular thing.
[X]Cultivare. At first you mistook them for very strange Breeds. Eventually you became aware they were humans, clad in bark for armor, with greenery growing right out of their armor; you were particularly curious as to why they were here at all given how they seemed to universally dislike the city's darkness.
[X]Scaled Folk. One day you were walking by the river, and spotted scaled humanoid figures hawking wares from inside the water to those on the shore. You wanted to learn more in case you could translate this knowledge back to helping with the hostile Scaled People back home.
[X]You actually ended up talking mostly with the fully-human Freelanders. Your only prior experience with non-Integrated humans having a close relationship with Gendarmerie was the brief encounter with Sergent Allerd in Freewheeling Raptors' territory, and you found yourself fascinated by how these people lived and thought.
[x]You actually found yourself speaking most regularly with Integrated humans. You learned a lot of clear relevance to your own Integrated life, even as there was much contrast since they were of course not married.
This is my top priority due to the high relevance to our life.
[X]Scaled Folk. One day you were walking by the river, and spotted scaled humanoid figures hawking wares from inside the water to those on the shore. You wanted to learn more in case you could translate this knowledge back to helping with the hostile Scaled People back home.
This is my next priority due to relevance back home, as well as because Scaled Folk might know more about the flying kidnappers.
"Nasty little infestation in Ice Lake eighty years ago, if it weren't for the Scaled Folk and the Divers I might've had to just move Lac De Glace away entirely. Very unpleasant business."
[x]You were actually more interested in the local Breeds. Breeds manning stores and selling goods, keeping roads in good condition, patching rooftops, transporting food, and doing many other things necessary to keep the city functioning. Many of them ignored you when you tried to engage them in conversation, but the exceptions were often quite chatty, reminding you a bit of Delegate.
Third choice to get ideas for Caras, and better understanding of how Breeds think for us.
[X]Cultivare. At first you mistook them for very strange Breeds. Eventually you became aware they were humans, clad in bark for armor, with greenery growing right out of their armor; you were particularly curious as to why they were here at all given how they seemed to universally dislike the city's darkness.
[X]You were actually more interested in the local Breeds. Breeds manning stores and selling goods, keeping roads in good condition, patching rooftops, transporting food, and doing many other things necessary to keep the city functioning. Many of them ignored you when you tried to engage them in conversation, but the exceptions were often quite chatty, reminding you a bit of Delegate.
[X]You actually found yourself speaking most regularly with Integrated humans. You learned a lot of clear relevance to your own Integrated life, even as there was much contrast since they were of course not married.
[X]You actually ended up talking mostly with the fully-human Freelanders. Your only prior experience with non-Integrated humans having a close relationship with Gendarmerie was the brief encounter with Sergent Allerd in Freewheeling Raptors' territory, and you found yourself fascinated by how these people lived and thought.
[X]You actually found yourself speaking most regularly with Integrated humans. You learned a lot of clear relevance to your own Integrated life, even as there was much contrast since they were of course not married.
[X]Scaled Folk. One day you were walking by the river, and spotted scaled humanoid figures hawking wares from inside the water to those on the shore. You wanted to learn more in case you could translate this knowledge back to helping with the hostile Scaled People back home.
I'm pretty curious about the local humans, and it'd be nice to have their talking points to reassure the Neustadters- after all, their shadowlands accusations are looking to be true, now.
I'm pretty curious about the local humans, and it'd be nice to have their talking points to reassure the Neustadters- after all, their shadowlands accusations are looking to be true, now.
Not really? This might be the capital, but it is still just one city. There aren't clouds covering the whole countryside or anything. It is also a long distance away from Neustadter, so it isn't like they are ever going to see it without spending a bunch of resources.
"I see," Tanja says ambiguously. She's proven sufficiently prone to this sort of clipped response you figure that's all she's going to say, so you're surprised a few seconds later when she says, "We should talk more," as a firm declaration.
"Uh... okay?" you say, not entirely sure what she's thinking.
On a completely different note... I feel like Tanja was thinking "If you attack places when you don't know enough about them, please talk to me more so I can tell you about them, so you won't attack"
After all, Tanja told us "We can be safe in a wine cellar." And Sabrina responded "Sure, lead the way." And then she said "I'm not safe in this wine cellar", and again we listened. And more people end up listening when she calls out it's safe to be with us. We also listened to her when she said she and her sister needed to be away from their uncle and the priests.
So maybe she thinks we are a very confused monster and she's our morality chain. "Please talk to me next time you're contemplating attacks/atrocities so I can talk you out of it. Or at least direct you to more appropriate action."
... Are we Caras in her eyes? Is she our Commoner Sabrina?
Not really? This might be the capital, but it is still just one city. There aren't clouds covering the whole countryside or anything. It is also a long distance away from Neustadter, so it isn't like they are ever going to see it without spending a bunch of resources.
I should be clearer with my language- the Neustadt propaganda is looking to be exaggerations and generalizations, rather than pure fabrications. Honestly, I'd be a little surprised if Teufel isn't the name of a prominent gendarme on the council.
This is just one city, but it is the capital- this is the idealized state of gendarme rule. Are humans in this city a downtrodden slave class, kept docile and productive with drugged food? A culturally vibrant and thriving democracy that rules coequal with the council? I'm curious.
In theory, Caras obeys these people. It's not out of the realm of possibility that we oust the priests from Neustadt and offer to bring them under Caras' protection, and into this realm. If humans here are seen as livestock, we might not be so eager to do that. Or more likely, we might try to get Caras to join some sort of internal opposition.
The people coming back from Caras' territory claiming to have seen a world without sun are still full of shit.
As for these people being Caras' bosses, this all being new to us doesn't make it new in general. They've been his bosses the whole time. We know how humans on the periphery are treated under them.
The fact that the leaders made it so Caras, with his complete lack of understanding of humans, couldn't hire human soldiers makes this pretty clear they care about humans to some extent. They put limitations on how many humans could be hired by the other counts too. That makes it pretty obvious that most don't see humans as livestock. (They might not even have a concept of slavery TBH)
Also, humans are horrible livestock. The calorie to meat ration and time to maturity are both extremely bad. Using the Feed Conversion Ratio (FDR) their best livestock would be farming fish in the water. Of course, grasslands are better for grazing animals such as goats, sheep, and cattle, with shrub/woodland areas supporting poultry and pigs.
The fact that the leaders made it so Caras, with his complete lack of understanding of humans, couldn't hire human soldiers makes this pretty clear they care about humans to some extent.
I wouldn't go that far. Historically, banning a demographic from military service has not been a sign of good intentions for that demographic. More often it's a sign of concerns about an armed uprising, which...
...is not inconsistent with other characterization.
That said, since humans do actually have different capabilities from the Gendarmerie, there are other explanations. Concerns about a sunwalker arms race, humans being the ideal farmers, various other sun-related stuff. But not wanting to arm too many imperfectly loyal beings is, I think, the big one.
I wouldn't go that far. Historically, banning a demographic from military service has not been a sign of good intentions for that demographic. More often it's a sign of concerns about an armed uprising, which...
...is not inconsistent with other characterization.
That said, since humans do actually have different capabilities from the Gendarmerie, there are other explanations. Concerns about a sunwalker arms race, humans being the ideal farmers, various other sun-related stuff. But not wanting to arm too many imperfectly loyal beings is, I think, the big one.
All reasonable potential motivations, to my mind. I'd argue that there likely can't be a singular reason, because of the conflict within gendermerie culture. They are quite willing to fight each other. If one side or the other could recruit a large army of humans by offering markedly better conditions, I expect they would.
Doesn't make the current situation for humans ideal, but I expect it puts a lower limit on dystopian possibilities.
maybe she thinks we are a very confused monster and she's our morality chain. "Please talk to me next time you're contemplating attacks/atrocities so I can talk you out of it. Or at least direct you to more appropriate action."
... Are we Caras in her eyes? Is she our Commoner Sabrina?
I expect Sabrina will be looking for somebody to serve as her local minion. Seems fitting.
Maybe Sabrina could deputize her to live in or regularly visit in Sabrina's home village? Improve local gendermerie/human communications, and keep an eye on Sabrina's family (to also hopefully have a better family experiences, even if Sabrina's sisters will likely cause mischief).
I always like it when the worldbuilding does in fact prompt people to consider what the yet-unseen parts of the world might be like.
Anyway, this post is actually going up predominately to do a thing I wanted to do years ago: getting my info threadmarks better-organized! Mostly because the merging of the index post with the character info post makes it an annoying nuisance to update the index with every update.
And also to fix up various bits I should've updated/expanded years ago.
Sabrina Vieuxpont Overlord is our story's protagonist. Questor choices have shaped her into being a person of intense curiosity, similarly intense affection, and a great ability to accept even very different beings from herself mostly pretty smoothly... with a notable tendency for approaching situations with a fairly cold calculus hiding behind her near-perpetual smile.
Her hometown is Abandonne. It's a nice place, honest!
She is a Freelander, of the Freelands. It is a place ruled largely (Possibly exclusively) by Gendarmerie, a distinct species of nighttime creatures who act as the noble class but also handle the main of military duties.
The Baron of Soul-Consuming Carapace Shadows
The Gendarme in charge of the still-unnamed castle, who Sabrina volunteered to marry. He's a bit clueless when it comes to humans. His form is that of a vast millipede-ish being, though ending in the face you see above.
Sabrina calls him Caras as an affectionate pet name that isn't as much of a mouthful as his proper name.
His primary Council-assigned duty is keeping 'Burners' out of the Freelands.
He talks like "This", to Sabrina's ears post-Integration.
Virmire
An assistant to Caras, long-suffering and only somewhat less clueless about humans. He seems to be better at speaking in a human-pleasant manner than the Baron, possibly from having more experience with humans. He was designed to handle many administrative duties so Caras doesn't have to do them, and seems pretty suited to the task.
He's the seventh of his type to serve Caras. Prior versions were apparently... flawed.
He talks like "This", to Sabrina's ears post-integration.
Papa
(No picture available)
Sabrina's father. He's oddly comfortable around the Baron.
Currently dying of an illness that has plagued him for years.
Maman
(No picture available)
Sabrina's mother. Sabrina clearly gets her affectionate behavior from her mother.
Cares very much about Sabrina's father.
Simone and Sophie
(No picture available)
Twins, younger sisters to Sabrina. They are quite in tune with each other. Sabrina tends to find them annoying and a bit unlikable even though she cares about them and they do sometimes do right by her.
The Baron of Shifting Sands
(no picture available)
A Baron who borders on Caras' territory. Called a 'stripling' by Caras, though Sabrina knows little of him overall.
His territory was granted to him by Freewheeling Raptors.
The Baron of Freewheeling Raptors
(No picture available)
Another Baron who borders on Caras' territory. Disliked by Caras for reasons somewhat unclear to Sabrina, having to do with him being trusted enough by The Council to be exempt from a rule forbidding the recruitment of human soldiers. Supposedly concerns himself primarily with 'internal affairs'.
Focuses heavily on flying Breeds.
Sabrina hasn't met the Baron himself as yet, but his one Breed she's met -one 'Vaerm'- talks like "This" to her ears. It bothers her a bit.
The Baron of Subterran Maggots
(No picture available)
A third Baron who borders on Caras' territory. Also supposedly concerns himself primarily with 'internal affairs'.
Subterranean focus, no sunproofing. Prefers smarter/talking breeds, so they can spy for him.
The Viscount of Dire Hollows
(No picture available)
A Viscount who Caras doesn't dislike. He doesn't border Caras' territory at all. These facts may be related.
Major sunproofing focus, details hazy beyond that.
Sabrina hasn't met the Viscount himself yet, but she's met his Delegate. Delegate talks like "This" to her ears, and he seems perpetually cheery. He apparently is friends with Virmire, and maybe is now friends with Sabrina?
The Marquis of Black Rain
(No picture available)
A Marquis who apparently provided a partial explanation to Caras for how to 'integrate' humans... and, Caras claims, 'always' leaves out the important details.
Count Wheel of Teeth?
(No picture available)
This is possibly not his actual name, but it's supposedly something about wheels and spikiness. An individual who apparently specializes in temporary Integration.
The Council
(No picture available)
The shadowy authority that rules this land. They've currently forbidden most Gendarmerie from recruiting human soldiers, or more precisely put heavy caps on such ability, with some Gendarme Lords being given exemptions for reasons so far unclear to Sabrina. They live in Soissons, which is the overall capitol of the Freelands.
Individual members all carry the title 'Premièreombre'.
Oroxthanp
Pictured: his head.
Sabrina doesn't know much about him. He seems cranky.
Talks like "this". He consistently 'grinds out' his words for whatever reason.
Plenarios
Sabrina doesn't know much about him. He's huge and defenseless-looking, though. Doesn't seem to have much patience for 'childishness'.
Talks like "this". He sounds like a tired old man to Sabrina.
Zamvek
Somehow seems extra-dark to Sabrina's nightvision. No eyes. Tubes on back that emit a green mist. Sabrina doesn't know much about him. Has flight as a part of his Breed reportoire, anyway.
Talks like "this".
Sussuron
Apparently invented the modern Integration process that is expressly aimed at human women and works much better than the old process. (On women. It still works horribly on men) Got onto the Council as a result of this.
Talks like "this".
Zyzixion
Apparently she has the unusual distinction among Gendarme of not fearing fire. Same for her Breeds. Was probably a border Lord herself in her youth. Seems very focused on combat and specifically the killing of enemies.
Talks like "this". Sounds very flat or indifferent.
Quevale
Sabrina doesn't know much about him. She's not even sure how he walks! He apparently was main member of the Council making decisions regarding Caras and his territory, historically.
Talks like "this".
Perilintheque
Looks like a crab. Sabrina dunno.
Talks like "this".
Mortifère-ami
Looks like a spider. Even has webbing. Very small for a Gendarme Lord.
Talks like "this".
Fa-Zoliv
Extremely strange in appearance to Sabrina. Apparently has flight as part of its Breed repertoire?
Talks like "this".
Hisstop
Looks a decent amount like Caras, except with his head weighed down by oversized jaws or claws. Apparently a veteran Council member. Runs concerts in Soissons to lift human moods or something.
Talks like "this".
Flittertrust
Snake-like, or flower-like? Sabrina isn't sure. Seems to have little patience for 'youths' being ignorant. Sabrina suspects this translates to impatience with humans in general.
Talks like "this".
Efflu-zame
A hollow fluid-filled bag with a face dangling from the Council chamber's ceiling. What?
Has a very terse style of speech. Apparently has an interest in 'leftovers' (Breeds whose Lord is dead) with unusual features. Apparently one of the Council members with flight in their Breed repertoire? Seems especially unfond of religion.
Talks like "this".
Chistomeque
In spite of Sabrina's expectations regarding butterfly-looking things, has perhaps the most intensely masculine voice Sabrina has ever heard. Apparently one of the Council members with flight in their Breed repertoire. Had good things to say about Virmire's historical reports, specifically regarding their detail and precision.
Talks like "this".
Tamzen
Zamvek's second. Sabrina doesn't understand his appearance. Or how he speaks with no mouth.
He talks like "this".
???
Who?
'Burners'/Shellmen/The Common People
(No picture available)
Raiders of a foreign nation. Caras ḣ̗̠̬͇̗̬̽̇a̮̔̋ͪt̬̟̺̻ͪ̈́̓e̝ͤ̆̍͊̎s̙̹̰͍̹̐́ them. There are also 'Burner worms', and Caras is prone to calling individuals "Shellmen", after the armor their soldiers wear.
'Burners' is primarily Caras' term for those infected by the worms. The worms themselves infect animals of at least house cat scale, and once they're large enough glow and burn, killing the animal from the inside. And eating wormflesh can leave you with a live infection!
The Common People is their name for their people.
Burner Worm/Brandstifter
(No picture available)
Parasitic worms of some kind, which apparently can protect their hosts from other illnesses, and somehow ward off Szumowiny raids with their young. Said young are grown in boiling cauldrons for as-yet unknown reasons. They were introduced to Commoner territory relatively recently, and seem to be heavily controlled by the Commoner priests.
Kill their hosts from dehydration and ultimately spontaneous combustion if specific measures are not taken. Sabrina as yet has only partial clues to what such measures might be.
The worms are, Virmire believes, susceptible to cold, to certain herbs (Gildsprig, which is fairly poisonous to humans, as well as Turpid Rose sap, Wraithspun flower mash, and Stickling Beets), and possibly to water though this is less certain. When Sabrina has seen wormflesh, it was hard, pale, and reflected light slightly differently to her eyes. Other people seem to mistake it for a hard candy of some kind.
Northseamen
(No picture available)
Humans who raid from the North Sea. They've been giving the Viscount of Dire Hollows trouble for years, and more intermittently they've hit Caras' territory.
Scaled Folk
(No picture available)
Undersea beings of some kind. Intelligent enough to work alongside the Northseamen's raids deliberately. The northern population has darker green scales than the Ice Lake population, and is less overtly hostile to Caras and other Gendarmerie.
Storm Beasts
(No picture available)
Strange raiders who come with storms, have some manner of control over storm clouds, and are borderline unkillable within the rain. They're also terrifyingly fast in the dark, able to teleport or something of the sort when lightning strikes (They've also been seen to generate lightning and somehow use this to transport themselves through a keyhole, though it seemingly requires a pair for the effect to be doable), and can actually heal rapidly by heading back out into the rain. Even beheaded, lightning will strike their faceplate and generate a new body from seemingly nothing.
Conversely, they seem to have some serious psychological limitations. Or possibly physical limitations. They can open doors, for example, but won't bash one down, nor do they have any notion of unlocking a locked door. In general tools are apparently an alien concept to them, even though they could benefit from using them.
Their speed in the dark apparently involves some bizarre dopplering effect, and being able to see them does nothing to stop it. They seem to bleed -a little- a pale fluid that is probably blue. Their heads are disconcertingly difficult to mar, as well. A mortally wounded Storm Beast will apparently 'awaken' from death simply from stepping out into the rain, even before a lightning strike. A mostly-intact body missing the head will apparently be delivered a new one if it's returned to the rain.
Storm Beasts themselves behave as if the head is the most important element of their species' body.
Szumowiny
Some kind of flying creature that kidnaps fleshy creatures to feed them to some manner of water-based nest. Yikes.
They've currently forbidden most Gendarmerie from recruiting human soldiers, or more precisely put heavy caps on such ability, with some Gendarme Lords being given exemptions for reasons so far unclear to Sabrina.
I'm trying to remember something. What is the policy on hiring non-combatants long term? People like clerks to help Virmire doing all of the administration work. That is if we can't create a Breed to do some of it.
Hopefully Virmire will have non-traumatically questioned the prisoners and guests during Sabrina's absence. That way we only need to follow-up for gaps due to miscommunication.
I really want burrower breeds. Even if it takes Caras a hundred years to get tunnels of useful length, the ability to dig semi-permanent bases seems incredibly useful as a force projection capability. It would also be super useful for creating isolated facilities for Sabrina's experiments on burner worms, storm beasts, and Szumowiny.
She could also dig out a honeymoon vacation home for her and Caras, and maybe root cellars for the freelanders in Caras's territory.
I'm trying to remember something. What is the policy on hiring non-combatants long term? People like clerks to help Virmire doing all of the administration work. That is if we can't create a Breed to do some of it.
Which reminds you: "I know you are forbidden hiring human soldiers, but... exactly what are the limits on human servants?" A scribe to assist Virmire might be justified.
"It's been a while since I read the original proclamation... hm. I'm sure Virmire kept a copy somewhere. The two main points are that I cannot hire anyone in a temporary capacity who is armed or that I provide arms -no mercenaries, essentially, though rendered in some legalese form- and that anyone who is incorporated as a standing member of my hold of greater position than 'taxpayer' must be integrated. I'm allowed to hire non-combatants to perform specific tasks, such as running messages to distant lands, but I cannot, for instance, sign a contract with a construction crew to keep them on hand in a more general way. And I'm not allowed to integrate more than... hm. The exact number depends on how much taxes I draw, but last I checked I was only allowed 3 integrated." He pauses a moment, adding thoughtfully, "I have been hesitant to commit, with so low a limit, truthfully... I always worried I'd make a mistake and it would haunt me."
So. Anyone who would be a long-term member of this hold... would share the integration with Caras.
'Must be Integrated, cap of 3 Integrated humans for Caras currently'. (And Sabrina not happy with other people being Integrated) With allowances for hiring people to do specific one-time tasks for pay.
Though Sabrina might change that with meeting the Council.
----------------------------------------
Not closing the vote today, decent odds I'll do it tomorrow (If I don't do it tomorrow, I probably won't until Monday), vote is currently sitting with 'Breeds, Integrated humans, and Scaled Folk' as the winning triad, all perfectly even. (To my annoyance) Non-Integrated local humans is a close enough fourth option I won't be surprised if tomorrow finds it pushing one of those three out, though. Cultivare is further behind and so unlikely to get a turnaround like that, but not like how 'Kheprians' and 'nobody in particular' are sitting at 1 vote apiece.
Reminds me, I was meaning to ask. Wonder if we could look into a way to make Sabrina sound, well, like a normal person to outsiders? The integration evidently had some side effects, but if mutations are on the table that could perhaps include an off switch? A way to temporarily de-integrate may also make time in the sun more bearable.
