Well, this is obviously about Hunger's newfound power. I wonder if he actually got a new shiny crown? If she, it is not good enough for his panoply at least, which is a pity. But IIRC there is a pretty great Crown in Human Sphere, so there is that; we should leave a slot open for it.
Public opinion had shifted enormously in the wake of the Rotbeast's defeat. The powerlessness and apparent incompetence of the government stood in stark contrast with the single-handed valor of 'Lord Hunger,' who had ventured alone into the depths of the Rotbeast and put down that primeval monster for good. Many called for a re-organization of the Sovereignty at the highest levels, and the renunciation of such policies as the mandatory conscription of Elementalists.
I wonder what people actually wanted Sov.Government to actually do. I do think that they had options to... well. A bunch of options, actually. Submitting to the Empire was one, as Letrz said. Waiting until Surgecrafters mature and become powerful enough to handle rotbeast was actually a semi-decent strategy that could have worked if not for Apocryphal curse - pity that Sov.Gov didn't know about Elixir's gradual diminishment, though. Trying to actively seek out powerful champions to save them probably was on the table, too, but required powerful Surgecrafts to go who-knows-where and risk their lives. Mizuki did that, look what happened to him even if his tactics and strategies were entirely sound.
Well, I guess I must bring up a trite, tired but-true point about people not really caring about what could be realistically done, but about doing
something.
"The people are effectively unanimous," Aobaru said quietly, eyes wide. "They sincerely want you to be their king."
I wonder why this is even surprising at this point. Charisma blaster was fully active back then; Aobaru should have expected people of his nation to react in the same way he did - with unquestionable adoration.
I wonder how much of Hunger's distate for his new title comes from understanding of how fucked up his effect on other people is. That Gleam advancement was as fucked up as it was good. I wish we could turn it off like our charisma, to modulate its effects and leave it on only when it is actually important.
Though there had certainly been misrule and corruption, Hunger empathized slightly with the current government. They had simply lacked the power to address their people's troubles, and Hunger had not. That was no accident of circumstance - they had strived relentlessly to reach their current heights - but neither was it some great moral or intellectual victory for himself and his party.
To add to that - somebody surely put forward a pretty hefty amount of effort to actually get into the depths of Voyaging Realm and found a nation in there. Unless we presume absolute idioicy on the side on Sov.Founders, there probably has been pretty hefty reasons for an entire nation's worth of people to pack their things, show Empire the finger, and settle down on a literal death world.
Hunger sighed and rubbed his eyes, while Letrizia gave him a commiserating back massage. "It's okay, Lord Hunger! As we say in the Empire, noblesse oblige! Elevating nobility to the position of sovereign occasionally is merely what's done around these parts."
I wonder if Letrz leans toward her imperial beliefs mostly out of inertia, or she has some additional incentives. I suppose somebody who burned a significant chunk of their lives through piloting Devouring Armament would be motivated to ignore bad bits of what they have been protecting and highlight the good ones. Simply due to the fact that she wants to believe that she has been sacrificing her lifespan for an unambiguously good thing, not a messy authoritarian policy a lot of people entirely reasonably hate.
"Oh really?" He scoffed. "And when was the last time that occurred?"
Letrizia hummed and paused the massage to tick off her fingers. "Hm... I suppose it was a couple minutes ago!"
This does bring up a pretty interesting point; I wonder how is the social mobility in the Empire? How easy it is for the lower-class citizens to actually get somewhere, become someone? It is easy to be noble when you have an Armament, and could realistically Fuck Some Shit up; how things are for the noble houses that do not own stellar-grade WMDs?
"I'm glad you find this so amusing."
Aeira tentatively gripped a stack of paper held against her chest. "Um- sir- If I may, I have a few suggestions as to the administration of this province, once you undergo your accession..."
TIME FOR NEPOTISM
Seriously though, I am gladdened we didn't choose to rely on Aeira's family to run Soverignty; maybe their mistakes were not definitive proof of their competency - or lack of thereof - but nepotism is still a pretty shitty way to run things.
...Unless you can make it work with magic or something, I suppose.
"Don't I get a say in this?" Hunger grumbled.
"It's not like you want to be their king or anything, stupid!" Gisena sang cheerfully, sweeping by with, of all things, a duster in her hand.
This was a good one. Gisena hadn't managed to get Hunger this good for awhile. If ever, really.
"You did say you'd go with what the people want," Letrizia pointed out. "And this is what they want. Hail to the king!"
"It's impossible for me to stay here and rule."
Letrz really is having entirely too much fun with this. Lets see how long it'll last.
Besides, situation forcing Hunger into ruling IC is kind of problematic, as outlined above and, additionally, in term of practical concerns; with Apocryphal Curse, with Decimation these people don't really know what they are asking for. At least Decimation could be managed with Pillars, I suppose, but there is no shield from Apocryphal threats without Hunger just up and fucking off as far as possible. Best we could manage so far is Adorie's spare the innocent, but that also presumes Hunger actively not ruling people.
Man, we really should be grabbing as much Apocryphal Mitigation as possible.
"They're well aware of that," Letrizia rejoined. "That's part of what makes them so willing to elevate you to that position! Vacant yet uncontested at the same time - who could challenge such a throne?"
"The dangers of supernatural charisma," Gisena tittered, laying a hand on Hunger's shoulder. "What'll it be, my Lord? Learn to say no or take up this burden upon yourself?"
Like we even could refuse.
...I suppose Hunger might have actually refused, if we didn't spend those 12 arete.
"If they really only desire an absentee monarch," Hunger sighed, "I suppose it's an opportunity to do some actual good with the power we've gained."
Well, a good symbol is good for one's country, too. I wonder if Power That Be are planning on regaining any power; I wonder how many elements of the old administration managed to stay in old one. Dramatic changes to the system are hard; in many countries even after revolutions and such, a lot of people stayed on their old positions, even if they were directly connected to the regimes that were overthrown.
Letrizia cheered, pounding him enthusiastically on the back. "The seat of our sub-Empire rises! I'll make sure you have favorable trade terms with my fiefdoms. There are a couple of planets that would really benefit from even a few Elementalists!"
Letrz is awfully cheery about making Hunger nobility. I wonder if there are any issues between Duchess interacting with non-nobility in Human Sphere? Or maybe she simply wants Hunger to occupy a "suitably" high social position. That is entirely possible to be honest; Letrz does sounds like that kind of girl that wants only good things for her friends, even if her "good things" are not necessarily agreeable to her friends.
"We'll have to be careful that our reforms don't end up doing more harm than good," Hunger continued, "Especially with the populace so zealous. If we were to emigrate Elementalists on top of that, provoking the Voyaging Realm... Aeira, you've mentioned that your family are not the biggest fans of the current government. I trust you to give an objective evaluation. Is this mostly a matter of factional strife or is there truly considerable abuse of power in the current regime?"
Yeah, history is pretty full of well-intentioned reforms fucking things up. Even occasional overzealous reforms fucking things up; from famines to blatant lack of tools, extinction of "harmful" species induced by people who know nothing about animal systems, you could found most hilarious and tragic examples.
Trusting Aeira that was pretty risky, though. Well, Hunger has shown himself to be a decent judge of character so far, so maybe it'll work out. Excessive amounts of charisma are certainly good at compelling cooperation and truthfulness out of children... Man, that charismablaster. To be horrified or to be amused, ever the question. I sometimes wonder how it would've been with Threefold's
tripled CHA.
Aeira considered carefully. "Certainly there is a great deal of corruption in the system, though I do not know if it rises to malfeasance on the level of, say, the Republic. But our education on the matter has likely been skewed. Our sources are mostly Imperial, and the Republic has long been embroiled in a rivalrous contention with their border Houses."
Even Soverignty seems to be shitting on Republic. Are they truly so bad, I wonder? I guess we'll see eventually, although I'd prefer to get a republic companion sometime soon to get their perspective proper...
...Cast inflation might be a little bit of a concern, though.
Nothing for it but to decide. He contemplated deeply for a moment.
"sounds of manifold pages of internet forum debates echo in the distance"
"A constitutional monarchy," Hunger finally said. "With technical sovereignty in theory, but limited powers of appointment in practice. The main objective will be an overhaul of the current government structure emphasizing the elevation of officials that are both capable and well-meaning. We can skimp somewhat on the former as long as we prioritize the latter; at my current Rank I can permanently augment them with Blood enhancements. All of you will pitch in and assist with both the design and execution. We've only got a week and a half before the Decimator's Affliction returns, so we can budget no more than five days here."
"F-five days," Letrizia blanched. "To overhaul their entire apparatus of state? That's-"
And here we go, seconds thoughts are starting. Don't worry Letrz, with your sharpbright you are only going to get mediocre amount of work. Just enough to trouble you for the entirety of these five days. Hunger and Gisena are the ones who'll be pressured the worst...
"What the people want," Hunger said, eyebrows raised. "And we're going with what they want. Isn't that right, duchess?"
Hunger does sometimes produce a pretty reasonable comeback moments, from time to time.
Afterwards, as Hunger retired to his room, Gisena dropped by with her newly completed Artifact. "This will make hunting for Decimator's mitigation much easier! You may praise me now."
"Truly you are a genius among geniuses," Hunger said dryly. "A star of grace come to earth and enlightening us by your presence. I simply don't know what we'd do without you."
"Ah~ wonderful!" Gisena fanned herself. "Praise me more!"
I wonder if Lens qualifies as at least 2 arete grade artifact. Probably not, Gisena's arete production levels do not seem to be terribly high despite her sky-high potential.
He took the Artifact from her to examine, a lens comprised of red quartz that could be placed before the eye. Already two figures were apparent on the display, potential targets with a high probability of replicating the phenomenon he'd tapped into against the pirate captain. Gisena had indicated that the first was most promising, a faraway tower woven from ancient magics that held some connection to his cloak of sky.
I wonder what happened to the fishing competition. Did it evaporate from reality when we failed to choose it? Well, is so, good riddance.
"How does it work?" He mused. That the Artifact was capable of interfacing with his Curse was no surprise - Gisena had always demonstrated keen insight into the nature of his afflictions - but he hadn't expected it to be capable of pulling such volumes of data from the world itself.
Occasionally, lesser items somehow manage to affect the curses disproportionally; Hunger sated is equivalent to like, 4 levels of mitigation IIRC? It is really not surprising that an artifact like Ring could at least accomplish this much.
"It's connected to our Rings," Gisena explained brightly. "Among the lesser domains of my Ring is the Domain of Truth! Gathering a limited subset of data from our semi-immediate vicinity weighs against its ontological budget, but removing the Decimation's Affliction is absolutely a worthy cause!"
Oh, Truth. Broken as shit, this domain. I wonder when she is going to unlock Act As Truth, and if it is even possible to unlock in this ontological realm.
He smirked at the Azure. "Trying to escape our accusations of slacking? It's an ingenious design. I expected nothing less."
Wonder how much of the Ring is showing in Gisena's talk lately. She doesn't seems be changed much, or at all; but the ring did have awfully high compatibility... We also choose the option that had it show us a proper measure of respect; maybe that also prevents it from fucking our companion.
...Well, and Gisena being able to null it into non-existence at any time, really.
"Naturally," Gisena feigned demureness. "But let's talk politics. Are you sure about this, hun? You've got a mission to follow and it doesn't involve this Sovereignty, charming as it may be!"
Ah, Gisena. Ever the voice of "perhaps, for a moment, we should consider a less extreme option." Sadly, this time her talk does not have a +mental stability to go with it, which is regrettable. But this time Hunger is not under a threat of miserably dying for basically nothing, so whatever.
He nodded seriously. "If we can make things better for these people, then we should at least make the attempt. Their society has been structured around Rotspawn defense for nearly two decades now. I don't want to see this place collapse into a military junta when their armed forces try to reclaim political relevance. Imperial culture places a fairly high regard on martial valour, from what Letrizia has told me. Edifying in times of war, but in peacetime..."
This bit really should be quoted repeatedly when people mention that Hunger doesn't care about people now or something something whatever, I suppose. This is the choice the made, not "Our work is done, time to fuck off." Kingship is a tool to make people prosper for Hunger, not some sort of obligation.
"This has been an odd turn of events," Gisena mused. "I'm surprised the powers that be allowed their official organs to broadcast such results! It's all but tantamount to treason."
Nothing particularly odd in not making your own people tear your apart. Just roll with the blows and hope that you could retain at least some of your former power; that is what these people did. I wonder how much they actually managed.
There might have been an element of long-forgotten idealism, too. Not that these people actually had any *good* ways of their situation; all potential exits outlined required a lot of luck. And then there individuals like Mizuki, who were threatening to pull the nation apart and rob it of all future, in some ways; what has been done to his family is vile and not particularly acceptable, but understandable. If everyone or just half of the elementalists followed his example, the nation would have been proper fucked.
"The groundswell of organic support put too much pressure on them," he said, "According to Aeira. I wonder if her family pulled some strings. They were previously discredited... but now their daughter is one of the only Elementalists confirmed to associate with our party. It wouldn't surprise me if some of their old contacts suddenly rediscovered their affection for her dynasty. Aeira herself seems earnest enough, but I don't know far to extend that trust..."
Dynasty, huh. I wonder if they weren't one of the people who pulled incipient Sovergnity into Voyaging Realm. Well, I did say some words about trusting these people previously. Nepotism bad, etc, etc.
Although this maybe could have easied up initial stages of forming gov.administration.
"Always trying your hardest," Gisena said fondly, resting her head against his shoulder. "Cursebearers deserve vacations too!"
"If only we all got what we deserved," he deadpanned.
"Exactly!" She rejoined, eyes wide. "So much acclaim would come my way! Perhaps I should be Queen instead?"
Queen doesn't really work with that hip cool old people image she is projecting tho
Cursebearers do get vacations by mitigating Curse of Indenture, btw
"Aren't Sorceress queens the very stereotype of jealous evil? But if you want the job, I wouldn't be opposed. My strengths trend more towards matters military. Not everyone can be a truly all-encompassing genius."
"Sorry!" Gisena chirped. "Flattering as the position would be, a genius knows never to take direct responsibility when she can instead deflect it onto others."
Except when it is acclaim and credit. Then it surely all belongs to the genius, subtle hand she is. Despite the bants, she did most of the heavy lifting regardless, so one cannot be too critical here, I suppose.
"How cruel, baiting me with false hope like that."
"Aren't you a master fisherman? For shame."
A fisherman is no fish, I must say. Hunger might know the bait, but it doesn't mean that he is immune to bait, should he someone encounter one while swimming in capricious waters.
...That metaphor is pretty weak, but what can you do.
"I'm but an enthusiastic amateur. For a genius of your calibre to bully me is truly reprehensible."
She giggled. "My apologies! Let me make it up to you."
A masterful turnaround. Look at how miserable I am, how dare great you strike at me!
...Honestly, dragging on a little.
"Sure thing, I'll make you regent in my stead. You can do the hard work of vetting and selecting all our appointments."
"So long as it isn't Queen Regent. I'd hate to be a stereotype!"
"Princess Regent, then."
Choosing titles like this is the best part of conquering a nation overnight, I suppose. We should have named ourself Grand Emperor of All Springs That Lie Under The Evening Sky, I think. Or something lengthier. Include the blade and the ring into that title, too. If it is shorter than 10 seconds, it is too short.
She batted her eyelashes at him. "How about Princess Consort?"
"How about another three Artifacts? We've Curses to be mitigating."
"Yes, your Majesty!"
Such cheek. Gisena really should be crafting artifacts like three ranks above her actual rank if she bants like this.
[ ] Constitutional Design - There's not much time, so Hunger will have to work within the limits of the Imperial framework to some extent, but he's popular enough that major revisions are feasible. People are impermament, but a structure of government can outlive generations both great and timid. Focus on establishing the soundest possible foundation for the long-term stability of the government, guaranteeing basic civil rights and balancing the arms of government while maintaining enough of a continuity with the prior semi-Imperial system to maintain legitimacy in the eyes of the powerful traditionalist faction.
The winning option. I guess I see the appeal; no half measures, no compromise, no building government that could not exist without Hunger's influence. Only recently I argued about how unlikely it is for Hunger to build a state that would suffer without him. I must say tho, that circumstances weren't most receptive to this; we really were in a hurry and our journey barely started. There were strong incentives to do a good enough job, and then return here after we deal with most of the problems that were plaguing us.
Well, nonetheless, we went for it, we succeeded, if only barely. You don't judge the victors, I suppose.
[ ] Finding Capable Administrators - The intent behind any given document matters little in the face of its implementer. What's most important is to find people who share Hunger's vision and are reasonably capable at their job. Genuine well-meaning combined with a modicum of judgement should suffice to advance the public interest in Hunger's absence.
A really good option this was; Constitutional Design maybe was the "correct" option, but this did a good enough job without significant risk. Less time IIRC, too, and it was becoming a really precious resource right around that point.
[ ] The Elementalists - Ultimately the military and utility value of the Sovereignty lies in its Elementalists. Though naked advantage is not the purpose of Hunger's rule, it would be blithe idealism not to maximize the benefits of conquest in order to defray its considerable cost in time and attention.
I must say, as a consequences of this, a lot of people in power are going to be awfully young. Not necessarily a bad idea considering mental augs Hunger offers, but it certain to tilt Soverignty's policies in more dramatic and daring directions, I suppose.
Not necessarily a bad option; none of these are. This is going to result in some really good mages down the like, walking around in really pretty uniforms... But my heart lies not really here.
[ ] The Traditionalists - The Elixir Springs are the core of their eponymous Sovereignty, and its resorts the beating economic heart. Encourage cultivation and stewardship of the Spring waters and their healing powers, even at the cost of reduced Elementalist numbers.
Not here either, even though non-military focus kind of appeals. Not that Elements are necessary military focused, but somehow I am getting that kind of feel, what with the Saiyan comparison and every Elementalist being able to demolish a building even if their element is not primary-combat oriented.
[ ] None - Seek only the welfare of the nation. You've no interest in self aggrandizement on such paltry scales. [+1 Arete]
This was my favorite option. Forego minimal long-term advantages of favour of people's wellbeing - all "long term" benefits that aren't granted by Progression are typically weak asf anyway. Arete didn't hurt either. Was such a great character statement on top of all that... Not that periodically compromising with the world is wrong, but overcoming the need to compromise through sheer excellence is one of the main Rihakuquest drawing points. Choices like this are the essence of it all.
