Myranyn was most displeased with the reports coming out of the far west. His grand reforms had become something of a laughing-stock, given that the new Banner Company raised at his urgings had been absolutely ravaged by the pirate clans, leaving him in a rather poor position politically, given that he defanged the rural militias by promising that there would always be a core of professional warriors at the ready to pounce upon enemies in the period between the beginning of a conflict and the mustering of the levies, only for his vaunted companies to either be away on foreign ventures or losing badly. There were growing concerns and fearful whispers that with the militias so depleted and the Banner Companies far from the core, the enemies of the People would surely pounce
Ouch, yeah, i suppose our recent poor showing militarily would give the reforms a bad reputation
Given that there were dark rumours that the trade mission the Heaven's Horse had sent out to the east out of concern for gathering danger had been wiped out by the Mountain Horse...
Fuckkk. So most likely either the Mountain Horse are becoming more hostile or there's a nomad horde out there making trouble...
Still, despite all of that, as king Myranyn knew very well the sort of power he now held. With a few words he could begin a mass levy and arming action, drawing upon the reserves of equipment stockpiled in palaces and fortifications to rapidly turn tens, possibly hundreds in the future, of thousands of men into warriors able to saturate a battlefield in bolts. Sadly, his peers didn't entirely agree, and there was already a major push in the council to begin freeing up funds to expand the Spiritbonded.
Myranyn Reforms Result: Mass Levy Active Policy
Mass Levy - While this policy is active, the sum of Econ + Wealth + (Sum of Ironworks Levels) x2 added to Temp Martial Score one combat phase after policy activated, but Expand Econ and most Wealth generating actions disabled while this policy active. Otherwise acts as the Offensive Policy
...Well damn thats powerful
Dangerous, but powerful... And of course, its most dangerous when its weakest (at low econ and/or wealth), which is interesting... Would have been very nice to have had this during the Great Power War with the khemetri, thats for sure...
Patricians (5*) - Power: Add or subtract their faction power from factions they are supporting/opposing. Objective: Have Light cavalry at or above 3 within 1 turns. Success: Free equestrian tech
Well at least it got adjusted to "at or above" instead of "above"...
Guild (6) - Power: Half faction power added to Max Wealth. Objective: Have a Level 2 Ironworks within 2 turns. Success: Free random megaproject, no faction power increase
Interesting that this doesn't increase faction power for them...
Yeomen (2* {-3})- Objective: Have a new province within 3 turns. Success: Free Random Plant [Good] action [0/2]
Looks like we failed their previous quest early by way of "you literally dont have enough actions to succeed at this by the deadline anymore"
This is a decent quest. Worst case, its got no failure penalty. Best case, we get some free stats and trade power...though i'm curious if it still eats EE? Presumably not, given "free". But yeah, we'll probably succeed at this, especially if we do decide to integrate gulvalley.
Priests (3)- Objective: Have maximum Econ within 2 turns. Success: Free Spiritual Value slot
This will succeed next update, when our pending econ comes in
Urban Poor (4) - Power: +1 Max Legitimacy every 3 full power. Objective: Have a Level 2 market and a Level 1 market in another city within 3 turns. Success: Grand Bazaar Megaproject completion, no faction power increase
Urban poor have matured and developed a power and HOLY SHIT is it a good one! =D They also got a new quest thats ALSO super amazing! =D Requires 12 progress of infrastructure to get it, but a free megaproject is always nice, and we do want marketplaces given how good they are for wealth; level 1 in redshore would give +1.5 wealth a turn on its own! Assuming lv2 gives at least the same bonus, the required markets listed here would be at least +4 wealth a turn.
Warning: The Patricians have decided that they are not failing their quest. They're proud like that, expect repeat performances.
Blegh
AN confirmed in later posts that the Patricians
will hijack actions if we're not going to be passing their quest or supporting them to make it not fail yet D= If only they could somehow take over/replace the action we lose from overcentralization and just use that for it... :/
Fortunately, that probably wouldn't be necessary. While the pirates clans had made laughingstocks of him through repeatedly handing embarrassing defeats to the Blood Rain Banner, Tinriver had basically devoured their land holdings, leaving them with no safe spaces to strike from along the coast. While some were certainly taking up the way of the bandit and raider, their ability to sea trade was over... of course their damned pirate 'king' had decided to go down swinging. Whether or not he had survived the battle was unknown - rumour had it he had and then went to sell his services to the Trelli in their conflicts to the south in the Saffron Isles - but he had crippled much of the remaining warships of the People.
Well at least that went well...no more pirates is good, and Tinriver sounds like it got a good influx of territory to get it started as a colony, so thats nice
Having our navy crippled and the trelli with a naval hero is less good, but not
too terrible.
The Trelli were taking advantage of this by charging 'tolls' to protect shipping, and with no warships to contest them...
Technically they were providing an actual service, but it was enough that if Myranyn really wanted to he could declare war over it. It would be profoundly stupid until they had a navy once more, but the option was there for future kings. Of course, if they had a navy worth a damn the Trelli would surely back off anyway.
Stupid trelli...not actually a big deal, 1 wealth a turn isn't much normally, and we'llget back to 1 naval by next midturn from veterancy refunds anyway...but its annoying
right now, since we have a tight limit on wealth for next turn
Also i suppose its possible we'll need more than 1 naval to break it... Still, shouldn't be a big problem except for this coming turn
In other news, the new charcoal kilns in Redshore were causing quite the stir, in that they were disrupting the production of black soil regionally. The kilns had such a high demand for fuel that they were outcompeting the latrine pits for forest debris. While the city itself produced a considerable amount of black soil from all of its waste production, there was overall a subtle shift in attitudes locally. The kiln workers saw themselves as artisans and guildsmen, performing a skilled trade, and they loudly objected to in any way being compared to half-exiles. Somewhat similarly, while the urban leatherworkers were also an artisan guild, they were not appreciative of being mistaken for half-exiles - although the half-exiles did do the work of collecting all of the exceedingly unpleasant materials required for the curing process, so the comparison wasn't entirely unfair. Still, the issue was starting to bubble up, and as king Myranyn should probably make some sort of proclamation on it.
Interesting. We had just been talking about how at some point we'll need to take black soil and trigger this issue, but turns out kilns are enough to trigger it
Talk about bad timing...
What to do about dirty artisans and half-exiles?
[] [Art] Do charcoalers and the like really need to be experts? (Efficient Charcoal Kilns become cheaper, no longer considered Guild actions, ???)
[] [Art] Ignore it (Black Soil production gains an additional Wealth cost)
[] [Art] Sanitation is too important not to entrust to experts! (Several actions gain or increase their Tech costs, +1 Urban Poor power, ???)
[] [Art] The entire half-exile practice should be reviewed (-1 Stability, ???)
First choice is pretty terrible. Even aside from the whole "make more of our workforce pseudo slaves" bit, kilns being guild actions is very useful.
Second choice is basically the "put it off completely" action, because adding wealth cost to an action we almost never take isn't a big deal.
Third (and to my knowledge the winning choice) is "improve things a bit, dont try to rework everything while dealing with all this other shit". Adding tech costs isn't terrible for most things, with our refund, but i'm sure some of the increases will be to ones that already have a tech cost, like kilns, and so we'll start having more of an actual tech drain. Urban poor power can be nice, their faction power to add max legit is great, but we do have to be wary of them hijacking actions or the like, or if they roll a bad quest...
You have many new cities online, choose five more passive policies
...Well that escalated quickly
Specifically, we had 3 more come online this phase, and apparently we never gotthe policy for blackmouth activating last turn, and Redshore is a level 2 city now, which gives another. I believe our choices here are pretty well settled voting wise by now
Myranyn had just about decided that he had his legacy set after decades of labour, when a most peculiar visitor arrived at the palace, escorted by border guards who had checked his credentials.
The Highlanders, of all people, had sent an envoy. It seemed the the insular kingdom had something of a problem that they were blaming on the People and demanding that something be done about it.
...Interesting
"Let me make sure I have this right," Myranyn said after hearing the issue at hand. "In the few trade caravans you share with us, the Harmurri, and the Khemetri, some Mylathads travelled back into your territory and began preaching. Only, your version of Crow is not just Creator but also King, and has much more authority and power among your conception of the divine than all your other gods and spirits put together, so when the Mylathads were talking about seeking Ultimate Truth, several of the converts among your people decided that your head of pantheon and the Truth were the same entity, to the point where they are proclaiming that there is only One God, One Truth. And your king was okay with because it enhanced his own power as your crown is closely tied to divine investment in the right to rule... right up until a splinter faction of these radicals decided that he was offering too many consolatory words towards the priests of other gods, and even began proclaiming that those who refuse to acknowledge their One God as the Only God are being mislead by charlatans and deceivers. And they are becoming increasingly vocal and unhinged in their beliefs and calling for violence. And your king has decided that this is our fault and is demanding some form of compensation or assistance to deal with the problem."
Huh. Monotheistic rebels, huh... That could be a problem
Also i find it interesting how even our king follows at least some tenants of Mylathadism, what with the "different religions' gods are just different interpretations of the same universal gods/truths" bit
"That is correct," the Highland emissary stated.
"I will speak with my advisors," Myranyn said, gesturing for the emissary to leave the Great Hall while he conferred over this strange request.
"Their king must be stupidly desperate," the war chief said scoffingly.
The foreign advisor considered for a moment before he said, "Actually, it is possible that this is a probing mission. They want to know if we are eager to jump on their offer, or if we will decline. If we decline, that is a strong indicator that we are too militarily weak to offer proper aid and thus it is safe for them to pounce, while if we accept this could be the lead up to an ambush."
"That's... suspicious, even for you," Myranyn said of his advisor.
"The Highlanders are known for their intrigue, or at least they were, so they may have a better idea of our situation than we do theirs. We should be cautious," the man offers with a shrug.
The spirit chief strokes his white beard contemplatively for a moment before he says, "I am not liking the sound of these new fanatics, and I worry that if we simply leave them be they might filter into our own territory and cause trouble. Seeking the Truth is fine, but disrespecting the lesser spirits can only lead to devastation."
Blegh, yeah, stupid highlanders and their intrigue... but also stupid fanatics and their potential trouble
Thinking it over a bit more, the war chief says, "Freehills are about ready to end their contract for the Banner Companies, we could transfer their contract to the Highlanders to help take over... or..."
"Or...?" Myranyn asked.
"Well, even if they know we are a bit weak in standing warriors, they probably can't appreciate what we have in the armouries. We could send over aid, and then just keep sending aid, until we've basically occupied their territory for them, and even if they have surprises in store for us they would be powerless to resist the raw numbers," the advisor explained.
"Devious. I like. Probably not going to do it, but I like that sort of thinking," Myranyn said while mentally making a note to get the man transferred somewhere with less authority.
...Interesting strategy indeed
The Highlands Problem
[] [HK] Ignore them
[] [HK] Offer tribute to patch over the issue and improve their king's standing (Targeted Sec Salt Gift)
[] [HK] Offer to let them buy the Banner Company contracts
-[] [HK] Gold only
-[] [HK] Show goodwill (Pay upkeep costs yourself but gain Diplomacy instead for duration of hire)
[] [HK] Offer to send military aid
-[] [HK] No policy change
-[] [HK] Offensive Policy
-[] [HK] Mass Levy
Still, given our prediction for the turn:
Astrological Prediction: Those who help those in need will find themselves aided (90)
We should send help of some kind, without charging and without secret invasion tactics. Sending regular military aid with so little martial seems a poor decision, so mercs + goodwill it is, and i believe thats the winning vote by far
