Now catching up on everything else...
So... regarding the rolls.
For your Innovation challenge you rolled a 6 last turn and a 1 this turn, when you've been on the cusp of a discovery for quite some time, so I decided that this indicated active suppression of innovation.
Ah, truly shitty luck.
You also rolled doubles twice for mysticism related things, so I decided that it was a shaman who uncovered the conspiracy. In this instance a medical shaman who was once a Blackbird who enjoyed the mystical aspects so much he transferred over to Carrion Eater training before retiring to an inner city hospice.
He may be named Mordin.
Main More Blackbirds desirable, got it. We have some room for them now too.
Then there are the Metal Workers, who rolled a 1 last turn for their survey action, and then a 1 again this turn, while also rolling shit on their "general success", so I ruled that they blew up.
Dug Too Deep.
They got Dwarf Fortressed.
The Swamp Folk rolled a 1 on their war roll to keep eating the southern lowlands, the Xoh critically succeeded on their war roll, and then burned their golden age to complete a plot they have been working on for generations to get the ruling Thunder Horse to intermarry with them and prefer to live in their city and worship their gods.
...I'm still somewhat confounded how they convinced the Thunder Horse that Moloch Calls was a desirable belief system.
But their pottery is so pretty...
The Highlanders critically succeeded on taking a bite out of the Hathatyn. The Hathatyn will either stabilize under a heroic leader with thoughts of revenge, or collapse completely next turn.
That's going to complicate the Lowlands a lot if they stabilize, since they'd drag the Highlanders into a two front war with the Hathatyn Hero behind and the Xohyssiri in front,
but the Xohysirri Empire will be fighting a two front war with the Nomads scouring the Thunder Speakers and the Highlanders on the other.
Nope! Every trading post can support a saltern, so instead of +1/2 after the first one, every saltern/expansion after the first gives +1 if there is a trading post to support it.
Also, forgot to update all of the prestige you got from the temple and the salt gift.
Oh wow, this shit prints money.
Because of your values, you are not aggressively expanding into Hathatyn territory like that. Your borders have remained the same, even as you encourage more people to drain out of the territory and into your population.
Basically bleeding them out slowly as things go on, so we don't get as much land other than grabbing up their border settlements and possibly occupying their river mouth?
With the benefit that their resultant Hero won't be as hostile towards us if shit catches on fire.
]
Getting the equivalent of +1 Stable would solve the issue, but to have everything go well enough you want the equivalent of the +2 Stab, and the higher you roll the more remnants you mop up and the more the People support the actions. Having a Heroic Admin and Diplomat does help a lot though.
For Great Justice!
Thunder Horse due to abusing a rule about vassals, followed by you. There's a status regarding having the highest regional prestige.
Are they doing the "I have the Thunder Speakers and Xohyssiri as vassals, then the Xohyssiri hold my Swamp Folk vassals" trick to dodge the cap or some other stunt?
They're mostly around the waterways, and their primary use at this point would be a momentum break for chariot attacks. With watchtowers you can signal people to move and those out in the fields will have more time to get behind walls.
Can't really be helped given the aridity.
This is probably his last turn.
His reign started with the fire of hemp and ended with the fires of nations.
Silver and lead ore. Very high in trade value. Also good for bludgeon traps.
Lead also helps with making smaller ornaments. It's heavy but malleable, so it's great for experimental artwork even if it'd bear basically no weight.
I just dislike having any periphery state having an iron mine and the Stallions have stayed too long as a periphery state for me to be comfortable with. This last update showed they want more access to our resources which is denied to them on the basis of being a March.
Not true. They have more rights regarding independent military action, but they are not able to found new provinces. A Colony can found new provinces.
I don't know if i'd go with that particular dichotomy:
Seems less "political vs scholarship" and more "government/admin vs religious/scholarship"
Considering we've already had warnings from our admin king about the complexity of governing valleyhome with our current system, i think the admin boost would be best
Admin/Political vs Scholarship/Religious
I strongly favor Scholarship, because I think the Palace(which is next in line) should be what you actually use if you want to solve Admin problems, and that the true value of the Library is preserving the purpose and meaning of our academic discoveries before time causes them to drift away.
But I'd admit that it's not like building a library for admin/political purposes is going to be a disaster. It's second best, but it's not going to be anything like a threat or disaster.
Ideally, we do a Great Library in Sacred Forest, setting the keeping of knowledge as a sacred duty first, then we build the extended project branch version in Valleyhome to provide that lore to the administration once it's been nicely solidified that truth is sacred to it.
@Abby Normal actually make a good point for the Library in Valleyhome causing an admin upgrade. I figure with the recent law issues, our Library is going to be crucial in evolving that most dread of beasts. The Lawyer. No matter where we put it.
So what will it mean for their development for each site.
In Valleyhome:
Pro: Will be faced with the problem immediately. Likely development in short order of Lawyer profession.
Institutional knowledge will build quickly. Will be focused on corruption in particular.
Con: Politically biased Lawyers may interpret the Law unfairly and unjustly. Will be focused on corruption in particular, letting other parts fall behind.
In Sacred Forest:
Pro: Will be unbiased. Institutional knowledge will build quickly. Will have a more general focus on The Law.
Con:
Will develop slower. Will be some distance of travel for their centre, impacting journeying lawyers and the king.
My thoughts.
Loosely agree on all but the bolded. Sacred Forest is the center of religion and research, with the highest per capita Intellectual ratio . It developing slowly does not make sense when most of the Valleyhome population will nto be contributing to it.
Rather it's:
-Sacred Forest - Focused on rituals, the study of stars, forests and metal.
-Valleyhome - Focused on administrative and psychological lore, the study and philosophy of dealing with shitloads of people.
Y'all realize that cracking down on the lumpers now means that the splitters will be left unchecked next turn just as the diplo-admin hero who couldn't even keep a lid on this mess is replaced by an average schlub, right?
The splitters are less of a problem, even if less desirable than truly balanced situations, it doesn't calcify easily since the power is dispersed widely.
If anything, this particular crisis helps with that, since the plotters were dumb enough to show up under a Heroic King, and are relatively simple to deal with as a result.
Deploy Force would not have been fun, even if necessary to set a strong precedent, if we didn't have a Hero backin it.
] Discreetly send Blackbirds to assassinate the corrupt officials.
