Paths of Civilization

[X][Main] The Law (Iron Age)
[X][Secondary] Proclaim Glory
[X][Secondary] Plant Hemp
[X][Free] Change Passive Policy - Defence (+1 significant walls/turn)
[X][Free] Found Colony - Change Greenshore Trading Post to a Colony

Provinces – [Main] Law x2, [Sec] Support Artisans
Policy - Redshore Aqueduct (1/6), Significant Walls (7/41)
Stallion – [Sec] New Settlement, [Sec] Art Patronage
Western – [Main] Build Wall, [Main] Survey
Greenshore – [Main] New Settlement
Gulvalley – [Main] New Settlement
Heaven's Hawk – [Main] New Settlement
Txolla – [Main] New Settlement -> To Core, [Sec] Build Walls
Tinriver – [Main] Build Dock

"What is best in life?"

"To honour the gods, till fine soil, and watch your children and trees grow tall and strong."

"Such is the way of the People, and when the People live to these ideals, the gods offer their blessings."

"Such is the way of the People."

In years past the People had considered war with their neighbours, and had resisted that impulse, choosing instead to offer their hand in friendship to the most dangerous among them, a hand that had been accepted. Reining in the worst impulses had seen to the gods rewarding the People for their prudence, resulting in the gods sending fair winds and perfect rains to the People. Fields and orchards blossomed, and the demons of plague and disease were blown away with the fair air. Fythhagyna soothed the Devourer's feathers and life took prominence over death.

Baby Boom -> Population Explosion
Ironblooded now applies, expanding 12 Econ slots per turn. If run out of Econ slots, colonies can absorb up 2 growth each per turn to reduce the risk of overcrowding. Very likely to reduce back to Baby Boom, but no penalty for doing so.

Instead of war, the great challenge of the age for the People was internal conflict and self-perfection. The king called a great council to assess the law, to go over all that had been written by the ancestors, and refine them to fit harmoniously together with the new innovations that they could not have predicted. There was also a massive library of precedent and individual exceptions that needed to actually be codified, as there had been more than one case of rulings that were made without knowledge of prior decisions that, in retrospect, would have been made better had the law reflected the full breadth of the thought about it in the law itself, rather than as a side piece. Even in seeing about condensing things down, the entirety of the law would be huge after all was said and done. Gathering together all the required parties was also going to be quite the challenge, as when it came to reframing the law there were a considerable number of interests at play. This wasn't even an issue of short-sighted greed - different groups had different interests and sometimes those interests conflicted. All groups could not be made entirely happy - compromises would have to be made. The question was where those compromises should be made. What would be the overall guiding principles of these councils and consultations?

Choose a philosophy
[] [Law] Honour the gods
[] [Law] Maintain stability
[] [Law] Balance of interests
[] [Law] Community health
[] [Law] Flexibility
[] [Law] Practicality of enforcement

And then, of course, there was the fact that a great deal of the legal code was tied up in taxes and how they should be assessed. With the introduction of currency, the old laws requiring everyone to contribute labour to the king had resulted in gigantic headaches. While those in administration theoretically already contributed all of their labour to the crown and thus didn't need to do extra, there were now huge numbers of people who did vital and important work that didn't fit into any of that, and thus in order to function many of the higher ranking individuals simply paid off unskilled labourers to do the necessary work for them. It was technically illegal, but it was so vital to function that everyone ignored it... but when the idea of 'you have to break a major law to function, and no one will call you on it' gets into people's heads, it leads down dark avenues. Corruption was of course endemic, and many called for all taxes to be switched over to be based purely on currency to simplify things to the greatest extent. While this was obviously quite popular with the urban populations and the wealthy farmers, for the vast majority of the People paying taxes in food or labour was still well favoured. There was the obvious compromise of allowing multiple forms of payment to be valid for paying taxes, but that would increase the complexity of implementing the process successfully.

How can taxes be paid?
[] [Tax] Coin only
[] [Tax] Food or coin
[] [Tax] Labour or coin
[] [Tax] Food, labour, or coin

Of course, there was also another question, and that was the sale of food. The original theory behind coins was that they represented an amount of food, but that had diverged wildly over the years. There was also the question of, if coins represented food, was it just to refuse to feed someone without coin? Further, if you could exchange coin for food, and also exchange coin for other things, could one trade food? New boats were getting larger and faster and some could haul large enough cargoes of bulk material to take significant amounts of food far across the sea or up river. Previously this had been impractical outside of short-term emergency resupply in times of crisis, but in times of plenty could excess food be sold like any other product?

Can food be sold?
[] [Food] Food should not be traded outside the kingdom, except perhaps in times of crisis
[] [Food] When granaries are full, those with excess should be able to distribute the fruits of their labour as they see fit
[] [Food] The crown will maintain emergency supplies through taxation, the rest is not their concern

As a side discussion, the issue of the heir came up, and the fact that the current heir was another compromise candidate and a bit of a twit. Not terrible, but certainly sub-par. With everyone together, if they wanted to they could sort out a new heir. There weren't any stand-out candidates for king exactly, but the Spirit Chief of Sacred Coast had been talked about significantly lately as a brilliant mind, and many were wondering about the old tales of the wonders worked by shamans as kings. There was also another candidate in the form of a skilled War Chief from Western Wall, and while many considered the current prosperity a sign from the gods that peace was favoured, there were enough dangers that perhaps a skilled general was what the People needed for the near future.

Change the heir?
[] [Heir] No, compromise is good (Mediocre Admin and Martial, Average Diplo)
[] [Heir] Let the wise lead us (Poor Martial, Mediocre Admin and Diplo, Heroic Mystic)
[] [Heir] A strong general is needed in these times (Mediocre Admin and Diplo, Excellent Martial)

Upon completion of the law, choose a bonus
[] [Bonus] Upgrade government to Classical Elective Monarchy
[] [Bonus] Gain new Social Value slot
[] [Bonus] Randomly upgrade a value
[] [Bonus] Enter Golden Age immediately
[] [Bonus] Gain at least two tech upgrades (Admin and Social biased, exploding rolls)

AN: Note, I can't tell you what the stats for Classical Elective Monarchy are yet, but they are definitely better than Early Classical Elective Monarchy. Exploding rolls for the tech upgrades means that I will be rolling sequentially, and high rolls or doubles will generate additional rolls​