Analysis post
Diplomacy 2 [+2] -> 2 [+5]
With the participants we now have a passive income of 4 Diplomacy per turn.
Games Stronk. This is very useful for Influencing and Integrating subordinates.
Or Terrify.
Economy
16 [-3+14] ->
16 [-3+14]
No expenses yet
Sustainable Forests 12/14 -> 12/14
No expenses or gains yet.
Econ Expansion 16 [+3-14] -> Econ Expansion 18 [+3-14]
-Aqueducts +2
Nothing much here, just the previously forgotted aqueducts.
Martial
20 {
25} -> 18 {
23}
-Pirates! -2
A chunk of our warriors ran away to be assholes. Justice demands that we take care of our troubles, for this is what we demanded of the Thunder Speakers when their rogue warriors raided us in the past. We will clean up our shit.
On the bright side it's not red anymore?
Minor Pirate Group: -1 Wealth/turn until hunted down
A seemingly minor wealth drain, but history shows Minor Pirate groups only need a few big hauls to become Large Pirate Fleets. They're basically sea-nomads, though they cannot recover from battle damage unless they build their own port, use a friendly port or jack additional ships.
The problem is we have pirates on speedboats specifically designed to run circles around their competitors. If we don't catch them the only way they're going down is if they surrendered to the Trelli in exchange for giving the Trelli catamarans to copy.
Trait evolutions meanwhile:
Divine Stewards:
Divine Stewards
Through the blessings of the spirits and the efforts of the People, the land is reshaped, and its management and protection is a good above all others. No effort is to great when it comes to the stewardship of the land.
Pros: Bonuses to all actions relating to land management, bonuses when fighting on own terrain, additional Econ and Stability whenever completing a land management type Megaproject, may spend Stability to double the effort of megaprojects and in defensive wars
Cons: Additional strife caused by deliberate environmental disruption unless it is for the long term betterment of the land, or loss of territory to others
Becomes Personal Stewards of Nature
Personal Stewards of Nature
Through the blessings of the spirits and the efforts of the People in individual and whole, the land is reshaped, and its management and protection is a good above all others. No effort is to great when it comes to the stewardship of the land, and many pursue their own little projects where it does not conflict with the symphony of the whole
Pros: Bonuses to all actions relating to land management, bonuses when fighting on own terrain, additional Econ and Stability whenever completing a land management type Megaproject, may spend Stability to double the effort of megaprojects and in defensive wars, certain projects may receive additional actions at the midturn at the cost of Centralization
Cons: Additional strife caused by deliberate environmental disruption unless it is for the long term betterment of the land, or loss of territory to others
It's a fairly straightforward fusion of Wildcat Prospecting's individualism into our communal views and laws, recognizing that, rather than use it for mining, the best way to dedicate your individual effort is towards environmental improvement.
So I suspect that unlike Wildcat Prospecting, Personal Stewards is limited to Land Management type projects(current samples are all land management). It'd be interesting to see if we can trigger Personal Stewards to accelerate a land management project.
We'll see if it works for agricultural cash crop production, but it does come at a good time, Wildcat Prospecting puts a lot of power into the hands of traders and guilds. This gives us the benefit of a Centralization drop without the same risks.
Cosmopolitan Acceptance
Cosmopolitan Acceptance
The People see not outsiders but fellow humans in need of assistance, and are always willing to offer aid, knowing that even when friendship is uncertain the act of offering is a cleansing one.
Pros: Enhanced absorption of new ideas, +1 social value from current or historical neighbours, whenever a neighbour suffers a stability drop have the option to also suffer a stability drop in exchange for a large boost to Econ and technological and social advancement by absorbing especially large numbers of people, the first Econ boost a turn only has a chance of causing a stability drop rather than a guaranteed drop
Cons: Many think you weak, no longer have the option to turn away the needy, sometimes you get values you didn't expect
Evolves to Pride in Acceptance
Pride in Acceptance
The People see not outsiders but fellow humans in need of assistance, and are always willing to offer aid, knowing that even when friendship is uncertain the act of offering is a cleansing one.
Pros: Enhanced absorption of new ideas, +1 social value from current or historical neighbours, whenever a neighbour suffers a stability drop have the option to also suffer a stability drop in exchange for a large boost to Econ and technological and social advancement by absorbing especially large numbers of people, the first Econ boost a turn is free and the second only has a chance of causing a stability drop rather than a guaranteed drop, massively increased inward tech spread, new CBs
Cons: Many think you weak, no longer have the option to turn away the first two boosts, sometimes you get values you didn't expect, increased outward tech spread
The fluff is unchanged, though the name indicates that this goes
beyond merely accepting that foreigners are people.
So we look to the individual elements:
-The name indicates how we're reducing Stability now. People feel PROUD that they are taking in the needy, so much that it offsets the inherent social disruption of refugees. They're happy enough about this that they tolerate people not fitting in.
-The first drain is free and automatic. If neighbors suffer a drop of 1 Stability, we just automatically eat them up for nothing more than small temp econ damage. If Neighbors lose 2 Stability they're going to automatically lose 4 Econ, which is a small settlement. It also means hitting the levels of 'suck off entire chunks of territory' 'only' costs 3.5 Stability now, though the temp econ damage might sting a bit.
--This makes Storehouse annexes and Centralization increases in general much more valuable. If we were still on Palace(or Mandala) this would be bullshit powerful, we'd be able to eat entire countries with a burp.
-The inward tech spread is enormously boosted. If they have a connection to us, we welcome them, put them next to the fire and then beer the shit out of their people to get their techs.
--We also passively uptech the region. This obviously favors those trading with us and attending our Games. Khemetri nobles in attendance will go home talking about the lightning fast boats and the strange Ymaryn bows to spur imitation, etc.
---BUT, this also means we passively culture convert the region to use our techs, and incidentally generates a selection pressure, those at war with us, or not attending our Games will fall behind slowly techwise against the other parties.
----But the biggest benefits would be to other Great Powers, who are not competing with us and can use our techs out of sight. The Khemetri are going to have a LOT of fun in the Mediterranean with our stuff.
-We gain new CBs, multiple in fact. This will likely take the forms of:
--Internal intervention. Refugees fleeing oppression? Why your local Great Power is happy to attack their tyrants as liberators!(note history says this has a shitty track record of being effective once the initial cheer wears off)
--Foreign intervention. Refugees fleeing invasion? Don't worry, Ymarynzilla will fight a
defensive war for your sake. This can be a prelude to assimilating them as a protectorate afterwards. We've already done this before for Stonepen and Northshore, if you recall.
The Northerners were a very strange people, but once Remaharmati got to see one of their major cities when it wasn't on fire, he got a better look at them and found them... very strange, but also strangely appealing in several ways.
Much like his father, he is frightened and aroused!
Finally though he decided that he just had to ask.
"Do your people not suffer from the pox?" The prince asked through his translator.
There was some back and forth as his intent got through, the translator showing several scars to demonstrate which pox exactly that he meant. Eventually the rather surprising answer came back as, "Our ancestors received a ward against the pox from the gods in centuries past. It is our most powerful and sacred magic, and it is also extremely dangerous if mishandled."
The information that the Northerners had a ward against the pox caused the entire delegation to stop dead in their tracks in amazement. What then followed was a deep discussion between the prince and the priests accompanying him. Finally they said, "We will have the royal court astrologers brought here the next time we come to teach you everything we know about the heavens and divining the future if your priests will teach us this magic."
That's just how much they value the possibility of the innoculation. This would also conveniently keep the Khemetri busy for a while. The Sacred Warding is an enormous project as a reminder, if not for Bynwyn, it'd normally take 12 dedicated actions AND building a holy site per settlement.
Assuming our tech transfer basically takes the place of Bynwyn's Knowledge, it'd keep them busy for maybe 2-6 turns depending on how much they invest. We'd probably ship a few cows over too as a starter set.
And according to them, this is basically all their astrology techs, which according to AN won't make Place to the Stars any faster, but DOES improve it.
A ward for the pox? Such magic would be invaluable in saving lives... in more ways than one. One of Remaharmati's younger brothers had been badly afflicted in his youth - well, several had, but the worst cases were dead - and the experience had left him badly disfigured. Rather than taking up any duties, he had retreated from public life and into the royal harem, where he was... well, were he not of divine blood he would have been dealt with already.
If Remah became king he would strangle his brother himself just to keep the man away from the throne. He'd let the affliction get to him and had become as ugly on the inside as he perceived himself to be on the outside. And from the position of prince, Remah was of the opinion that more than a few disasters in the history of his people had come from promising princes perishing early, and some of them being twisted by the demons of disease. Reducing that by warding against the pox... the possibilities were incredible.
Horrifying.
And here we see a few of the flaws of absolute heritable power coupled to infallible god-king system. It makes the solution to bad heirs being some form of kinslaying or assassination.
Elsewhere, the new heir to the throne of the People was working on the list of things that needed to get accomplished in the near future. At around the top of that list was the fact that a few hundred warriors and a dozen ships had gone missing.
"The same young fools - or at least the same sort - that triggered the riot and fire seem to have decided that they want to go be pirates and raiders. We've officially warned the Trelli that they may be attacking isolated settlements and traders, and that if they catch them they can do whatever the wish as these renegades have shunned our protection," one his investigators told Hertythyn. "Oh! They've also reported back their interest in attending the games."
-2 Martial
Minor Pirate group preying upon your shipping, -1 Wealth until dealt with (Requires sending a Sailing Mission to find them, followed by a War Mission or deployment of mercenaries to deal with them
You know, I hope that we drag these damned pirates home and give them the full interrogation works. Successfully jacking a fleet of 12 ships is rather huge, even if Catamarans don't need as many people to crew.
The Trelli joining is good, but we knew they wanted to join already. They BADLY need the Prestige to support more mercenary bands after all.
That and the event is the single biggest artificial centers of trade in the region, if they don't show up they can't protect their financial interests with counteroffers if the Ymaryn find somewhere else to sell their goods.
"The Swamp Folk and Metal Workers have also reported interest in attending. The Storm Wolves don't see the point, and the Thunder Horse snubbed our delegate. Incidentally, both of those latter two groups are currently making gains against the former two, so that may have something to do with it," a second man reported to the heir.
This will help us learn more about the Swamp Folk at least, hadn't talked to their people ever. Must have been surprising to them to get this out of the blue, and they'd be traveling to us via the Xohyr route.
The Metal Workers basically have no reason to refuse, we're their oldest trade partners after all.
The Storm Wolves don't see the point, which is a fairly neutral refusal. Funny thing is, for Nomad tribes, grand contests like this are a means of tying disparate tribes together. He just didn't see it.
Thunder Horse still hate us, though that's hardly a surprise by any standards, they went further to snub us over it. If we weren't about to go take a swing at the HK soon I wouldn't mind renting out the Red Banner to show what we think of that...but we can't really do anything to the Thunder Horse any time soon, so not worth it.
At that Hertythyn grunted in dissatisfaction. That was probably going to cause issues in the future. Nothing quite like having attractive youths coming over to talk with your elites about sob stories from home to whip up sentiment to do something. Hopefully it wouldn't be his problem though. Wars were a stupid way to sort things out. They just made messes that poor clerks had to go and clean up afterwards.
Heh, the new CBs was Not Approved by poor Herty.
They make his head hurt.
Although, reflecting upon some of the discussions being made, he considered the right to club some of the People upside the head an option he wished he could resort to.
I have word that the HK has a trait that allows you to smack troublemakers with banhammers!
The elites were complaining that the infantry were receiving all the support and they wanted more chariots for their sons to ride around on instead of doing other things and absorbing large amounts of luxuries. Well, given that bored young men with too much combat training and not enough to do had already sparked off a minor pirate problem, just increasing the funding for chariots was out of the cards. They would have to prune things down or introduce more discipline.
That's another solution to the martial cap problem.
But raising a Mercenary company should allow us to do that if we wanted.
Note that leaving this unattended is
not good. Nobles sitting around spending large amounts of luxuries will soon develop the ability to JUSTIFY that sitting around spending large amounts of luxuries as a good thing.
Long term solution is to build the Gymnasium, but allowing the quest to fail is not good long term either.
We should build secondary chariots next turn we have control. It'd synergize with Highlander war mission anyway.
Of course the traders were sort of happy that the elites were starting to buy more stuff locally, but their returns were better elsewhere so they were clamouring for the People to either increase production on something somewhere or get in on other trade channels. While the priests were glaring daggers at them over the idea that maybe there were some outsiders who no one would mind being sold to the Trelli because they were bad people anyway, there was another problem with the traders.
And this is why we don't put merchants in charge. Wealth optimization is short term.
The Trader quest is painful in it's penalty, but ultimately won't do anything good or bad for us unless it plunges us into negative stability.
The priests meanwhile are the voice of sanity. Yay!
Selling iron the People made to outsiders was forbidden, but with the Metal Workers having their own mines and production there were a few traders who were staying within the letter of the law and flagrantly violating the spirit by buying up Metal Worker iron and reselling it elsewhere. Given that the secret was definitely out now, and the Khemetri were going to pursue the ability themselves, there was a lobby within the traders to simply lift the old restrictions and allow iron to be traded.
We're getting better regional info. Might be a product of the Games bringing rumors to one place.
Still, bloody traders.
Some even suggested that by doing it themselves they might suppress the spread of iron outside their control. They had the best quality because of experience, so if it was cheaper to buy from the People than to natively develop the smelting and then look for ore deposits. Not everyone was convinced... but then again it would probably keep them from doing something further stupid and get them to shut up about things.
Selling iron tools should shut the traders up at least.
And they have a point, if we sell good quality iron tools more cheaply than local smiths can produce it, they'd never get going without state investment. Which would only really be done for strategic steel like weapons.
Meanwhile the guilds were interested in expanding a number of operations, most notably glass since there was a high demand for the material for various other things - art and the storage of materials like vitriol or quicksilver - that had not entirely been filled before now. The priests were glaring daggers at them because their demands were going to rapidly start threatening the forests. According to them, if the guilds wanted all the charcoal and timber heavy projects they were pursuing they should grow the forests some more.
So we have a lot of industries in need of glass that we hadn't provided for the handling of acid and mercury. We'll meet that once the forestry policy catches up.
Priests are going to need glasses if they keep glaring too.
The traders chimed in and suggested that a trading post in the far north would not only be able to tap into new markets, but there were those distant tales of giant trees. Imagine what the People could do with access to those markets!
The North Trade Post WOULD solve a bunch of issues handily and add a bunch of trade goods certainly. Still no idea how we'd keep them under our control long term though. The Triangle Canal should help cut the logistical distance?
The yeomen farmers were only asking for the relatively tame request of more land to farm and that the trails be in good enough condition to take their produce to market.
No biggie providing this, but their demands for expansion will be complicated in a bunch of ways like oh...
...starting a settlement next to the HK just before we plan to declare war on them is not very bright.
But the roads are good. Need more roads.
Feeling ignored, the Priests were stating that the temples needed to be improved in order to placate the wrath of the gods, who were not impressed by the bellicose and proud attitude the People had taken in recent generations.
Of course, some of that might be jealousy over the powers the priests of the Khemetri had, now that they were in communication with them, and had a better idea about them. While obviously the People's gods favoured locally, the priests of the Khemetri were backed up extensively by their king, and the People were so welcoming of others that the priests were clearly worried.
Khemetri are apparently very very high in religious authority, naturally enough.
We'll meet this with passive infrastructure policy I think? Won't take long!
