Ok, so what will happen to the seat in the Vox that was left empty after that one magister resigned frommental break? Do we have to personally select someone or will it naturally fill in?
Vox are elected, they will simply have an election before the end of the term. I really need to get to putting up the constitution in a more accesable place and do some more interludes with the Vox on campaign.
Mind you that the delegates in the Curia being sent by the Ducal assemblies means we should likely have a replacement for that seat by the end of the month, as there only needs to be a vote in the ducal level assembly to pick the successor.
Indeed, there is only so much attention to go around from the folks you cannot fool, only so much magic and info to 'unbend' truths. The wheels of bureaucracy are vast and in this case shaky for being new forged
It's not even fooling really. At some point, someone can just have an idea, makes his underlings check if it is feasible and useful, and when that is truth, then he can kick the proposal up the chain to get it funded. Where this idea came from is not really important for the process, so a local lord can easily slip in a few proposals of his own and see which ones stick.
It's not even fooling really. At some point, someone can just have an idea, makes his underlings check if it is feasible and useful, and when that is truth, then he can kick the proposal up the chain to get it funded. Where this idea came from is not really important for the process, so a local lord can easily slip in a few proposals of his own and see which ones stick.
You misunderstand. We have not to work with bad data, but with incomplete data. Our administration can not in any way shape or form check which of the infinite possible placements of a bridge over the Mander would be best, last but not least because what is best depends a lot on what your measurements for the outcome are. A bridge built for trade might be better placed a few klicks away from where it would be most useful for the local peasantry and yet another few klicks away would be the best location if you care about military supply lines.
Which of these infinite possible configurations is even evaluated is decided by a bureaucrat and if you can convince that bureaucrat that looking into your proposals would be a good idea, then you instantly have a vastly higher chance to have your desired outcome happen. Especially if you actually know what you are doing.
These are in the end a NP-hard, continuous optimization problems. Worse yet, they don't even have a clear definition of which criteria would constitute the optimal solution. You simply can't solve this perfectly.
You misunderstand. We have not to work with bad data, but with incomplete data. Our administration can not in any way shape or form check which of the infinite possible placements of a bridge over the Mander would be best, last but not least because what is best depends a lot on what your measurements for the outcome are. A bridge built for trade might be better placed a few klicks away from where it would be most useful for the local peasantry and yet another few klicks away would be the best location if you care about military supply lines.
Which of these infinite possible configurations is even evaluated is decided by a bureaucrat and if you can convince that bureaucrat that looking into your proposals would be a good idea, then you instantly have a vastly higher chance to have your desired outcome happen. Especially if you actually know what you are doing.
I shudder to imagine the first time something like this happens with a military R&D budget, an end product is produced which performs within the bare minimum expectation of the proposed project but uses materials sourced from a specific province, and then someone on the same project who was scorned or just saw an opportunity to get an edge on a workplace rival brings a proposal up to the right person that would have resulted in far more explosive/penetrative force...
... this is just going to be a case of baiting people into being competitive and luring different departments into behaviors we find pleasing in a passive manner instead of just doing something insane like extending the intelligence gathering mandate to more and more people down the chain.
Raymun Darry sat gingerly on the crimson-backed chair, as though the place might carry some curse of dark lore that would set his mind into the depths of despair again though he knew that was folly and superstition. There was no ill will here, no malice in what he had said with sorrow and with as much care as could be managed. No more than it was an evil thing to print an account of the perils of devils and dark fey in the Times to ensure that the smallfolk had some protection against the perils they might bring. So with a prayer he sat beside the new Lord of the Twins, glad in his heart that he would no longer have to deal with Walder, for all he did not show it in his face nor voice.
"What was the plan for the day?" he whispered, feeling as he had when he was a boy and he forgot the maesters assignment, needing to ask his brothers what he aught to have learned.
"Infrastructure," the older man replied, not bothering to keep his voice back as much. "Time and past time, if you ask me. Too many kings were worried about upsetting the High Lords and did not get aught done for all my kin profited from it, I bet you will be seeing a new way of doing things today."
The laugh was very familiar for all it lacked the dry edge of old Walder's. Raymun was glad to have them more or less on their side, as much as the Freys could be said to be on any side save their own.
The lord of Darry had made his points about the need of more roads in the Riverlands as soon as it became known that there would be a new Scholarum in his lands at Saltpans, forcing down a twinge of unease at the thought of so many magickers about. There were folk good and evil among those, just as among any other craft, he reminded himself, and in this new world their craft would be among the most needed. One had but to walk the streets of the Deep to see that, nevermind what he had heard two days past. His House and his smallfolk would be well served by such a school, but they would still need more, much more, if they were to match up to their neighbors. King's Landing would pull trade south as it had ever done, and all the more now that...
***
"Over the next quarter I expect the King's Road to be improved to the standards of an Imperial highway, with arterial roads branching out to bind the North and the Vale closer to the rest of the realm. For too long have those who traveled there suffered from great peril and expense on the road and by both have we all been made poorer and less united..." It was usually hard to read the Imperator beyond what he wanted you to hear in his voice, bright and terrible or deep and forbidding, a light in his eyes that caught you, but it seemed to Raymun in that hour that he was almost offended by the road he had inherited from the greatest of his forefathers.
Like he would rather rule over Essos and from Essos, a niggling fear kindled in his heart a little brighter even as he clapped along. One could not deny that the capital, for all its strangeness, was a Essosi city. Most of its people prayed to the fire god in his gilded temples and the tongue heard beyond this chamber rang with the oily smooth tones of Valyrian. Robes you were more likely to find here than honest breeches and shirts, and of Westeros the most you might see were the pale trees with leaves of blood that gave the new Duke Darry a chill down his spine. Not enemies, no, but allies strange and uncanny, and not the heralds he would have preferred in the city of the King... fuck, the Imperator.
Too many new words, too many new things to name if things were to be said aright, but he would manage.
"...a canal shall be cut between Seaguard and the Twins with the widening of the tributaries of the Blue Fork while a new City with a harbor shall be built near the Twins and the harbor at the Saltpans shall be expanded to make room for greater traffic. Thus, room shall be made for trade in the manner that has been common in the Riverlands for many a long age, only made more effective with new means..."
There was something about locomotives, whatever those were, for the spell on the chamber could not find aught to translate them into the Common tongue, but Raymun was not listening anymore, already considering the implications of a new city, a Riverlander City of the sort that had not been in all the years of the realm, with high septs and wide streets, with bells to call the hour by the ring of arcane mechanism, with strong walls against invaders, but welcoming docks for traders and scholars from distant lands. He would have to talk to Cox about the taxes... though with his daughter being a Companion, he dreaded being able to exert his proper authority on the old Knight of Saltpans.
I'll have to speak to uncle Willem on the matter, and mayhap to Royce. He was a Valeman true, but not as high and mighty with it as some and with the new roads the harbor at Saltpans would be the best way to transport goods from the Narrow Sea to his own lands. If he could broker some kind of understanding between him and the Freys to vote and act together, then they would have a voting block not soon discounted, and not just in the halls of the Curia.
"Roads shall also be improved in Dorne all across the province with special care given to the connections to the Bridge of the Arm, by which goods and travelers shall be able to cross the realm from east to west and west to east without call on ship or sorcery," the Imperator finished his announcements to polite applause from most of the chamber and the sort of smug look from Doran Martell usually reserved for foxes that had made a meal of the whole henhouse.
Nevermind the bloody Essosi, the Dornish were about to steal a march on us all and all the trade of King's Landing. Nevermind Saltpans would not be worth shit beside what might come over that bridge. "Lord Frey, I would be honored if you could meet with me at my townhouse this evening. In light of recently announced spending, there is much that we might speak of..."
"Much indeed," Stevron Frey replied, puffing up and looking not so much like a weasel as an old grey pigeon with his eye on some shiny prize.
Upgrading the King's Road to Imperial standards and building Arterial Roads in the North and the Vale (1 Action from the Ministry to Public Work)
Building a network of roads in Dorne (1 Action from the Ministry to Public Work)
A canal cut between Seaguard and the Twins along with widening the tributaries of the Blue Fork (1 Action from the Ministry to Public Works)
A Trade City with a Harbor near the Twins and expanding the harbor at Saltpans (1 Action from the Ministries of Public works or the Ministry of Administration)
Making tracks useful for train service (1 Action from the Ministry of Public Works)
Getting locomotives fit for tram use (1 Research Action)
What next?
[] Write in
OOC: I still ended up rushing this a bit so I could get it out before I have to run. Hope it did not suffer quality-wise for it. I wanted to get across how the Monarchists think about politics from the inside, so a person who is not that important to you guys like Ser Quincy Cox suddenly seems very notable indeed in the eye of someone who still thinks in terms of individual relationships like the one you have with Rina.... and never mind that Rina is an immortal fey now. Duke Darry did not even meet her so far. Not yet edited.
Here's an edited version of the chapter, @DragonParadox.
I shudder to imagine the first time something like this happens with a military R&D budget, an end product is produced which performs within the bare minimum expectation of the proposed project but uses materials sourced from a specific province, and then someone on the same project who was scorned or just saw an opportunity to get an edge on a workplace rival brings a proposal up to the right person that would have resulted in far more explosive/penetrative force...
... this is just going to be a case of baiting people into being competitive and luring different departments into behaviors we find pleasing in a passive manner instead of just doing something insane like extending the intelligence gathering mandate to more and more people down the chain.
I wouldn't mind some more reaction interlude POVs related to the announced infrastructure upgrades. They aren't as world shaking as the revelations about the state of the Celestial Planes, but our plans for Westeros are still way, way out of left field for the average lord or lady.
For example, I imagine there are already many among the Westerosi Curia who are salivating at the prospect of new income from tolls they will levy on the roads, bridges, and canals being constructed through their lands. I want to drink their tears when they learn there won't be any such tolls levied.
Preferably after we kill the fifteenth
Can we work with Syrax to create a artifact
Mirror similiar to the ones we have now but a lot more stronger by sacrifices to Syrax and convince her to imbue the artifact with some of her power.
Seeing as syrax is the goddess of prophecy creating a artifact which can peer in to the past present and the future would be very impactful in dealing with corruption and treason if this is possible
[X] Plan Princeps Equuus Irrumator Praetor & Curia Sessions
-[X] Rhango will be treated as roughly equivalent to a baron in terms of nobility, and as a General Pro Tempore by the Imperial Legion.
-[X] Arrange the first session of the Curia to start at the 17th of the month, to be held as Join Open Full Session unless otherwise specified.
--[X] 17th: General meet and greet with and between the Princeps and Vox Curiae, and explaining to them how we want the show to run. Remaining succession issues will be hashed out, Baratheon land readjustments reversed, people formally promoted and governors appointed.
--[X] 18th: Confirmation hearings of the Ministers and High Court judges. List is carefully curated beforehand so that all options are fine for us.
--[X] 19th: A fair and unbiased trial for Tywin and the other Lannisters, followed by some public executions.
--[X] 20th: Confirmation hearings for the remaining Marshalls. Sorting out which fiefs we will keep and what lands we will buy for erecting military bases all over the Imperium.
---[X] Initial proposals to be voted on beforehand, then final decision after the Curia had their say. (That is: Had a chance to make their case for getting a slice of the pork.)
--[X] 21th: Princeps Sanguis pick the succession laws for their titles and we go on with the bribery steps. City charters are handed out and still vacant titles handed out. Princeps Suffragium have to officially putt heir election systems in writing too, so that Imperial courts can check that things go right there. No stipulation on how those laws will look, just that they have to be written down.
--[X] 22th: Closed Joint Full Session about security concerns of the realm. Heaven is fucked and so is the wider universe. (The people here have the funds and ability to get this information on their own, so it's pointless to try and hide it.)
--[X] 23th: Day off. Counseling for any who need it.
--[X] 24th: Infrastructure, economic development and especially prospecting for and exploiting rare ressources for the war effort. Which war? All of them. Also more Scholarium branches and general development goals.
--[X] 25th: Talk about the establishment of the first courts, taxation offices and other imperial infrastructure in Westeros. What has already been achieved, where are the problems and what needs to be done. Happy blaming each other for stupid shit.
--[X] 26th: Talk about the organization of Voice elections in Westeros. This will take time.
--[X] 27th: Overflow day in case any other topic overruns and we need to reschedule. Otherwise, Petitions to the crown.
--[X] 28th: Petitions to the crown.
--[X] 29th: Closing feast. Announcement of the wedding date. You may now go home if you want, as the Curia will not meet in full until necessary again. Or you can stick around and do stuff here. Politics is happening in SD, not the pile of rocks where you keep your stuff.
--[X] 30th: Viserys spends a quiet day with his future Imperatrix Lya.
-[X] Ensure that the major population centers of Westeros just as Essos have Mirror Vision set up in appropriate locales for maximizing viewership of events approaching the end of this month, in the Curia and of other momentous things.
-[X] As the next action, speak with your first Oracle and see about making more of them.
Here is the itinerary again. We are pretty much done with the 24th and can move on to the 25th, which deals with giving some proper bureaucracy to the barbarians.
You misunderstand. We have not to work with bad data, but with incomplete data. Our administration can not in any way shape or form check which of the infinite possible placements of a bridge over the Mander would be best, last but not least because what is best depends a lot on what your measurements for the outcome are. A bridge built for trade might be better placed a few klicks away from where it would be most useful for the local peasantry and yet another few klicks away would be the best location if you care about military supply lines.
Which of these infinite possible configurations is even evaluated is decided by a bureaucrat and if you can convince that bureaucrat that looking into your proposals would be a good idea, then you instantly have a vastly higher chance to have your desired outcome happen. Especially if you actually know what you are doing.
These are in the end a NP-hard, continuous optimization problems. Worse yet, they don't even have a clear definition of which criteria would constitute the optimal solution. You simply can't solve this perfectly.
This reminds me a lot of some assignments I've done. The criteria for completion was 'we're moving these machines from here to here.' And the engineers involved didn't consider where we'd be storing the parts to feed those machines in their new location. The decision ultimately came down to me, not because I was in charge of the project, but because I was the one on the ground moving things.
Because it's easy to forget individual details that don't actually hard-stop the project.
This reminds me a lot of some assignments I've done. The criteria for completion was 'we're moving these machines from here to here.' And the engineers involved didn't consider where we'd be storing the parts to feed those machines in their new location. The decision ultimately came down to me, not because I was in charge of the project, but because I was the one on the ground moving things.
Because it's easy to forget individual details that don't actually hard-stop the project.
Nonsense like this is why I always advocate to involve a few people from the ground floor on every project. Engineers tend to be well meaning, but have their blind spots, and middle management is usually completely oblivious.
[X] As per the Curia itinerary; Discuss the establishment of the first courts, taxation offices, and other Imperial infrastructure in Westeros. What has already been achieved, where are the problems and what needs to be done.
[X] As per the Curia itinerary; Discuss the establishment of the first courts, taxation offices, and other Imperial infrastructure in Westeros. What has already been achieved, where are the problems and what needs to be done.
[X] As per the Curia itinerary; Discuss the establishment of the first courts, taxation offices, and other Imperial infrastructure in Westeros. What has already been achieved, where are the problems and what needs to be done.
This reminds me a lot of some assignments I've done. The criteria for completion was 'we're moving these machines from here to here.' And the engineers involved didn't consider where we'd be storing the parts to feed those machines in their new location. The decision ultimately came down to me, not because I was in charge of the project, but because I was the one on the ground moving things.
Because it's easy to forget individual details that don't actually hard-stop the project.
Nonsense like this is why I always advocate to involve a few people from the ground floor on every project. Engineers tend to be well meaning, but have their blind spots, and middle management is usually completely oblivious.
Reminds me of how on more than one occasion since I've been working here, my company has opened a branch in a new location without some crucial steps being taken.
The property will be leased or purchased, the warehouse and yard made ready to receive material, computers shipped, etc. Typically, before a branch is even open, contracts for delivery of products will already have been made for nearby customers or job sites, along with orders to begin stocking the warehouse and yard.
And at least twice that I can recall, despite all of these arrangements being made (including hiring people to staff the branch or temporarily transferring people from other nearby branches while new people are trained), employees will show up for the first day of business and find that no one remembered to buy the other essentials, such as desks, chairs, filing cabinets, office supplies, etc. And there was one memorable instance where all of this stuff was accounted for, but a cargo truck rolled into the yard with the first load of what would be the new branch's inventory, but then discovered someone had neglected to purchase forklifts for that location. 🤯
We now have a Facilities Management division whose sole focus is on making sure branches have the shit they need from start to finish.
Reminds me of how on more than one occasion since I've been working here, my company has opened a branch in a new location without some crucial steps being taken.
The property will be leased or purchased, the warehouse and yard made ready to receive material, computers shipped, etc. Typically, before a branch is even open, contracts for delivery of products will already have been made for nearby customers or job sites, along with orders to begin stocking the warehouse and yard.
And at least twice that I can recall, despite all of these arrangements being made (including hiring people to staff the branch or temporarily transferring people from other nearby branches while new people are trained), employees will show up for the first day of business and find that no one remembered to buy the other essentials, such as desks, chairs, filing cabinets, office supplies, etc. And there was one memorable instance where all of this stuff was accounted for, but a cargo truck rolled into the yard with the first load of what would be the new branch's inventory, but then discovered someone had neglected to purchase forklifts for that location. 🤯
We now have a Facilities Management division whose sole focus is on making sure branches have the shit they need from start to finish.
All of our road construction projects are reminding me of how in my part of Ohio, the roads are always in an endless purgatory of construction and repair.
Though I am sure the Imperium's roads are higher quality and not so easily worn down.
All of our road construction projects are reminding me of how in my part of Ohio, the roads are always in an endless purgatory of construction and repair.
Though I am sure the Imperium's roads are higher quality and not so easily worn down.
Speaking of road building projects, are we going to do anything with that Landwyrm egg that we found in Valyria? That thing lays a form of asphalt that lasts for centuries as the walls of Volantis and the demon road can attest.
Volantis also has a gigantic one sleeping underneath it too...
Speaking of road building projects, are we going to do anything with that Landwyrm egg that we found in Valyria? That thing lays a form of asphalt that lasts for centuries as the walls of Volantis and the demon road can attest.
Volantis also has a gigantic one sleeping underneath it too...
All of our road construction projects are reminding me of how in my part of Ohio, the roads are always in an endless purgatory of construction and repair.
Though I am sure the Imperium's roads are higher quality and not so easily worn down.
It's nice that magically fixing mundane items is so easy in D&D. Once you've made the initial infrastructure investment, the maintenance costs are so much cheaper than in real life.