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Shoot, apologies. Nobody select Corner of Empire, please. I'll... hrm. Okay, Turn 15 you said? Then there should be new options, but, hrm.
Shoot, I should have a checklist of what Provinces you've done the Action-Opener for.
Behind the Serpent Throne (CK2)
- Thread starter The Laurent
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
Shoot, apologies. Nobody select Corner of Empire, please. I'll... hrm. Okay, Turn 15 you said? Then there should be new options, but, hrm.
Shoot, I should have a checklist of what Provinces you've done the Action-Opener for.
Looking back, it also seems like Public Works and Public Deeds has been done.
Random Member
Gardener of Human Happiness
- Location
- Behind You
I, eh, also don't think we've done The Turtle Part 2, so I have no idea how we've unlocked Part 3.
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Shit. Wait. The bit with the armor wasn't part 2? Hrm. Shoot. Sorry about the mess... gah.
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Okay, I'm going to work on that. Which turns did I do the options in? The ones that have already been done? If you've only done Part 1, then Part 2 has to do with movement, for the Turtle.
Behind the Serpent Throne (CK2) - Original - Fantasy | Page 161
Behind the Serpent Throne (CK2) - Original - Fantasy | Page 162
The last time was here, but it was special due to the planning of Ha'dong's capture and us dedicating influence to the General Meeting.
Behind the Serpent Throne (CK2) - Original - Fantasy | Page 162
Random Member's plan won if it helps you.
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I promise to have an updated version of the, uh, update by tomorrow. The changes won't be major, so you can continue to discuss/plan/vote until then, and always change it at the last moment if something nice crops up.
Behind the Serpent Throne (CK2) - Original - Fantasy | Page 157
The last turn with the full action list is here too, as there's a few ones that are missing from the current turn, but originally I just thought they weren't available anymore. That may not be the case though.
For that turn above, Random's plan also won and was this:
----
While we're on that sort of topic, we didn't really get a follow up on the actions we took at the meeting either, as it segued into Ha'Dong being removed then into Ayila's mission, and this is the turn after. Although given some of the narrative within Ayila's turn, it seems like there may have been a mini-time skip with Kiralo taking some actions as there was no overall influence plan for Turn 16. This may be where some of the confusion is coming from.
The last turn with the full action list is here too, as there's a few ones that are missing from the current turn, but originally I just thought they weren't available anymore. That may not be the case though.
For that turn above, Random's plan also won and was this:
----
While we're on that sort of topic, we didn't really get a follow up on the actions we took at the meeting either, as it segued into Ha'Dong being removed then into Ayila's mission, and this is the turn after. Although given some of the narrative within Ayila's turn, it seems like there may have been a mini-time skip with Kiralo taking some actions as there was no overall influence plan for Turn 16. This may be where some of the confusion is coming from.
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Okay, there. I did the Public Works rewrite thing.
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[X] Plan Neptune
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Vote closes tomorrow!
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Vote closed!
Turn 17--Part 1
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Turn 17--Part 1
"You are perhaps the most ambitious man I've ever seen," Ayila said, quietly, as she leaned back on a set of pillows. She'd turned her room into something from the Southlands, full of pillows and dark colors, the spirits so numerous that there's no room to breathe, barely room to be human at all. It was frustrating, and yet he smiled. He smiled and meant it, even.
"Oh?"
"The Imperial Mages' Academy. You know what they have there? You know the kinds of defenses I'd have to deal with?" Ayila said. "I'm… I… yes, of course I'm confident in your abilities, but. Wait." Ayila had this way of shifting, her eyes going skyward when she was talking to her powerful spirit.
They called them Great Spirits, and Kiralo thought the term fair enough, but it invoked too much the ancient 'Great Spirits' that ruled the world badly before the Gods came, different in substance and power, and different in character.
"I'm confident in your abilities," Kiralo said, softly. He paced a little. "I don't know about this spirit of yours, but I believe in you, and if it believes--"
"He, actually," Ayila said.
Kiralo blinked, not used to being interrupted. Nowadays he so very rarely was. He was a man of substance, as it were. So he smiled, no doubt it'd be annoying if it kept up. "He, very well. If he believes you can too, then I'm going to have to ask you to proceed. But be careful, both for my reputation, and your life. I will do all I can to preserve you. If you're caught, I'll…"
He should say that he'd deny that she was his, or say she was secretly a, or.
If he were being the right sort of courtier, he'd not say that but he'd be thinking it. Instead, he said, "I'll stand with the consequences, which would probably be exile. Or, I'd disavow you and then break you out of prison to go on the run back to the Southlands. Either way, it wouldn't be good. You understand that, Cs-Ayila? I'm asking you to do something dangerous because I believe you are the only person who can do it. But if you do not wish to do it, I cannot force you."
"You can't?" Ayila asked, softly. "You, of all people?" She sat up a little, crossing her legs and glaring. "You? You know what spirits say of you? That you smell of secrets and ink."
"I need to ride my horse more often," Kiralo said, quietly.
Dismayed.
"Well! I'm going to be going south to my new estate in a week. That's time to get in some exercise," Kiralo said, deciding that he had to encourage himself. The last thing he wanted to imagine was that he was going soft, getting too used to paperwork to even be a Captain, let alone a General worth following, one that could go out in the field.
But north of here, he wasn't in the field, he was just waiting for reports. A spring cleansing campaign, one that he wouldn't even have wanted to participate in.
So he made small talk, made sure Ayila wasn't having any problems--indeed, everyone left her alone and fled at the sight of her in a way that might be miserable after a few months, but for the moment made the sixteen year old feel powerful in a way she hadn't before.
Kiralo supposed he could understand that. He supposed he shouldn't feel quite so old at twenty-six, especially when he was comparing him to someone as terrifying as Ayila. But there were moments of youth, when Destiny was the least of the things that followed her.
The moments were brief, both thankfully and not.
*******
Kiralo pushed the paperwork out of the way, glancing at the secretaries, at the scribes, who all blinked, but didn't do much more to look up from their tasks. He'd made sure to check all of their work, and it was interesting to be kept so clearly to a schedule.
He knew that one of the tests of his power would be to see who went to him. Who came with paperwork to be looked at, and who thought instead of his father, or decided that since he wasn't in court, he couldn't lobby.
Kiralo was already writing letters, and trying to line up people to help him with the work, his hand cramping a little. But the best solution for it was a little brainwork, and so he stood up and pulled out the loose pages of the play, and began first by taking his brush and cutting through large sections of it with black.
He needed to keep the central interpersonal conflict while turning it into something else. Something more.
The House-Drama was a genre of distinction in the Southlands. With all four sides of the house open to the audience, different perspectives came from different seats, and more than that, there was a looseness, a flowing focus on interpretation and very mobile and three-dimensional props.
Traditionally, it focused on shopkeepers, artisans, merchants, and the lesser nobles and courtiers, since those who were poorer than that didn't have much of a house to talk about, in the traditional sense. Those richer, too, would have servants, servants that would complicate the narrative.
Kiralo could have written a Commentary of the faults and virtues of the petty courtiers. Their wisdom and sagacity; their foolish rapacity. Their long-view and their inability to see the next sunrise. He marveled at the quiet loyalty he'd seen, but also the desperate struggle for every single scrap, as if death in the gutter awaited someone who took even a single wrong step.
It was a lot like the Imperial Court, actually. No wonder he was so used to it, because when he did go to the courts of the Southlands, that's who he was. A petty courtier, coming at it from a military perspective, but with the same status and the same struggles. He could leave, though. Some of those courtiers had little else, at least for the way they wished to live.
So that's what he'd started out writing. An aging patriarch in the Weights and Measures division of a Prince, who seemed at first noble and shrewd, a little cold but not the worst person. But he had an ethereal, dying wife who never quite died, and four children. One, the youngest girl, who wanted to marry a man who was of the upper-Merchants, just a step below where he was. The father, of course, saw it as a threat. The older daughter had married above her station, though the man was cruel, she seemed glittering and perfect in the first half of the story. The oldest son had run away to be a Rassit, and the younger was seemingly intemperate, passionate and given to fits of melancholy.
The story evolved, showing how each person was different than expected, as the patriarch turned out to lack real loyalty to his Prince, and the whole play ended in a series of explosive scenes, in his first draft, that end with his wife secretly handing the servant, in the covert employ of another noble, information on a scheme of his.
The servant leaves, and once the information reaches its destination, it will tear the rest of the family apart. But they were left hanging there, the younger daughter having run off, the older daughter having been stabbed to death by her husband, the foolish son turning out to be loyal and skilled enough to get his own position, the older son leaving, having seen enough.
Yet even those who had won something would still fall as their families fell. Perhaps he was in a melancholy mood when he'd plotted it, thinking of his mother and father, thinking of the scars and wounds that family brought. Maybe Kiralo was the Rassit Son and the Foolish Son. The patriarch actually didn't resemble Kuojah much, though. Kiralo didn't know, and he didn't much care, because now that this was for a Csiritan audience, he'd need to change all sorts of details.
More than that, he had an idea.
A child-Emperor needed a child Prince.
Prince Ismali, of Sizkis died almost eighty years before, after a very successful reign. But first he was a child-Prince, having to fight off his bastard older brother who made a claim after his father's sudden death. Many of the real details were a lot messier: there was a husband of an older sister, there were back-alley deals between some of their allies, and so on. But the basic framework of a city on the verge of a civil war, and a family torn by and eventually destroyed by the war and the conflict between loyalty to self, loyalty to family, and loyalty to the state…'
He could use that, even if he'd have to be careful about some of his themes, to keep it from being seen as an attack on family. But he could imagine it: instead of a petty wrong, the patriarch covertly sided with the pretender, while his son stood with the child Emperor. Then, when the wrong is revealed, they both suffer. The son can't abandon his father, gives a speech to that effect… but at the same time the mother speaks of suffering, speaks of the conflict of chains. Loyalty to family first of all, but what of the consequences?
Yet, by having both of them speak, and putting such a speech in the mouth of a sick, strange woman, it would seem more a culmination of her bad and failing character.
Kiralo began to write, and took an hour or two off of the endless, ceaseless, senseless paperwork.
Paperwork that he'd do, and do as well as he could, despite all that.
*******
It was not easy to get a banquet hall, and most of his parties over the last four or five days had been in his room. Lunches, breakfasts even, dinners. He'd met with so many people that even his memory was becoming slightly strained. Everyone was coming out now, friend and enemy, to meet with the new Ainin, who wasn't going away and clearly wasn't going to stop with merely military matters.
To get such a prestigious hall as the Red Flower Hall, at such a late date… surely it was an important matter, people whispered. Their whispers were even less loud when he made it invitation only, no slipping in with bribes--guards ready to stop them and told he'd pay twice any bribe if they cooperated--and chosen each and every person carefully. A mix of neutral figures and allies, young and old, people who could in some way represent the kinds of people he would want to persuade.
So of course they knew that he had some grand announcement, some cause he was sounding out. In theory he could simply talk to the Emperor and simply make it so. In theory he could also gather enough bird feathers and spirits and glue it all together and flap his arms and fly. He was not going to ruin himself, not going to have to fight them every step of the way for what he wanted.
They knew it, even.
So he had added a few tapestries to the already rich walls, careful to lay out the simple ones to blend in with the rest, but putting the one he'd been given from Hari-Su at an artfully chosen location, so that perhaps some collector would comment on it and he could use it to create a connection, or even a trade.
By the time the night was near its end, nobody had, annoyingly enough. Hiro had glanced at it a few times curiously, but that was more because Cs-Hiro was wondering if perhaps Kiralo would talk to him about his work on the expedition.
He hadn't had to pay for the rice wine that he'd had a little too much of, but he had had to pay for a few extra guards, and the food, and he knew that if he kept up doing this it'd all add up. As he sat at his seat of honor, he kept on looking over, towards the corner.
There was someone there he hadn't invited, and yet who had been let in, with. With… the man from Lineage Nasir, Tsao-Zun, who was a figure at the official printing company, in charge of the religious prints. Someone not to be offended, who had asked if he could bring his distant cousin, new to the court…
The boy had to be just eighteen, his dark brown hair longer than court standard, his features a more open, accessible form of the traditional Csiritan male beauty, his robes pink darkening towards red and even purple at the cuffs, with flowers just as carefully displayed in the weave and weft of--
He was handsome, his dark eyes glittering with amusement as he listened to the half-drunken conversation. "I would like to make a toast," Kiralo said, distracting himself from the puzzle, but most of all the worries that there was someone scheming something. "It will be a long one, I apologize, but drink deeply to it, I know I will."
He took a breath. "The Empire is on the ascent. As a sunny day after a cleansing rainstorm, this new year shall bring us peace, under the wisdom of the Emperor, and the loyal service of his courtiers and vassals. Our armies are unmatched, and with support for our borders and the vast wealth that this great land provides, there is nothing we cannot do. Our borders shall be secure from foreign invasion, and our lands free of treason and rebellion." He raised his bowl up a little higher. "May we, loyal servants, work to ensure that the kind prosper, that there is peace everywhere and none suffer unnecessarily, that our laws are always just, that our acts are always right, and let none scorn honest ambition if properly used. Under our new Emperor, the Csiritan Empire will be so great, that…"
Kiralo cleared his throat. Time for a half-lie. "I have been in the Southlands for many years, and yet let us follow our Emperor in creating an Empire that even they cannot help but admit our superiority, that they might, as the world should, supplicate themselves before the glory and power of the Emperor and those who obey him, such as ourselves."
They knew what that meant. They knew that he'd all but declared war on certain of Kuojah's assumptions--though they couldn't know that he'd gotten his father's permission, not so much not to oppose it, but not to fight it out at all costs--and the assumptions of isolationist scholars.
One of the Emperors had spoken of the supplication the world owed the Empire, during one of the expansionist phases of Csiritan history. Isolationists and others argued about which supplication it was.
There were two words for it. First, supplication by passive consent. In other words, when the Emperor passed on a carriage and peasants threw themselves to the side of the road, on the ground, babbling praise. One hoped in one sense for a boon, even if it be the Emperor's good will (for what other boon could be valued higher?), but one did not expect in one sense to be noticed.
One was there. This was the word they used, that the world stayed outside their borders and should the Empire wish to deign to give them some minor gift, perhaps it may in theory.
Then there was supplication. Supplication was active. It was crawling up to the Imperial Seat to ask something of the Emperor. There was an expectation that it would be noticed and answered, whether or not in the affirmative. Someone who supplicated before the Emperor, if the Emperor ignored him, might as well consider his courtier career at its end. And an Emperor who ignored all supplication, even from his most loyal subjects, well…
There were many stories.
So by using that word, he was suggesting in some way that the Southlanders, that the foreigners in general, might approach the Emperor or the Empire to beg for things. Beg, and perhaps not expect to get anything, but have reason to expect an answer other than superior silence.
So they stared. Not all of them. Hiro was smiling in amusement, thinking of all that Kiralo wasn't saying. Kiralo knew he was laying it on think.
"So, let us drink to a better tomorrow, a new year, and a glorious Empire!"
And so they drank.
Kiralo didn't have all of them, but all of them knew that he was after them, and so he spent a lot of time talking with one person and then the next. He spent time talking to Hiro about how he'd be able to send materials and men for his expedition, and how he'd hopefully give them official Imperial Support, though not authority. Hiro was a little less drunk than Kiralo, and was also in very good condition, having been training for the hiking and climbing he expected to do.
It was after Hiro walked away that he finally got to meet the newcomer.
"You know, one wonders at the wisdom and the skill of the rumor-mongers in the Imperial Seat," a smooth, soft but masculine, voice said. "If they saw how you looked at Cs-Hiro, perhaps they would stop trying to push their twelve year old sons, knees trembling, at you with inappropriate suggestions and inane conversation topics."
"I do not believe I have been introduced to you," Kiralo said. "I am Kiralo of Lineage Ainin, though I know you're… aware of it." Kiralo was a little too tipsy, but he kept his mask on, even though he'd stumbled. By introducing himself, he'd looked--
"Jiahao of Lineage Wen," the young man said, with a carefully crooked brow. "You know, that's an excellent tapestry. I assume it is new, the style doesn't fit with the first revival form at all. New, but excellent and in very good taste."
"Thank you," Kiralo said, suddenly tense. Lineage Wen, if it was the one he thought it was, was important. They were one of the few families that had branches in more than one Province, in this case Irit, Csrae, Xissand, and Rerin. They were not the top dogs in any of those places, but they had power and influence in each, and that meant that the fractious family could exert outsized influence. "I am surprised I did not hear of your arrival in court."
"It was only this morning," Jiahao said, quietly. "One cannot expect the gossip, so very incompetent, to catch up so fast."
"And what brings you to court?"
"I come with a fell and dread purpose," Jiahao, said so dramatically and absurdly different from his regular voice that Kiralo… believed it. Believed that he was deflecting from the truth.
"Truly?" Kiralo asked.
"No, Cs-Kiralo. I came here to amuse myself, and perhaps find a friend or two. It is quite lonely, up in Nazing Peak."
Kiralo didn't blink, but he did have to hide his surprise. That was one of the most remote places in Rerin, overlooking some very good mines and near a very vaunted monastery… but near was the word, not at. He hadn't known there was a manor there. "So you are a Wen of Rerin?"
"It is not quite so simple," Jiahao said. "And a young man's got to have his secrets, doesn't he?"
"I believe I had very few secrets at your age," Kiralo said. "But you are not me."
"To my great misfortune, the way your own good fortune continues," Jiahao said, with a teasing, sly smile.
"The Emperor is wise--"
"Yes, he is very wise to see your wisdom," Jiahao said. His words were mostly unobjectionable, but the way he said it and the way he cut Kiralo off felt like a veiled insult. "Apologies, Cs-Kiralo, I have drank too much, and my words are intemperate and foolish, and I hope you will forgive me, for I am new to the court, and yet presume so much."
That last part seemed almost as if it was aimed at Kiralo, in some small way, for in the time of the court, having been there almost a year and a half meant he should still be trailing along after old men. Kiralo couldn't be sure. "I suppose I will forgive your inability to indulge in rice wine such as this."
"Yes," Jiahao said with a throaty chuckle, head tilted up for a moment. He was clean-shaven, and carefully so. "I find it the best rice wine I have ever had."
"You should take a bottle with you, then," Kiralo said, quietly, plotting to get control of this conversation.
"I… should?" Jiahao asked, licking his lips in clear nervous habit, his courtier's mask breaking beneath his shock.
"Yes, and give it to your cousin, with a message asking exactly why he brought you? For what purpose."
"Oh." Jiahao looked all of eighteen now, his confidence in tatters on the ground, his control and insinuations seeming a little childish. "I will do so, then, Cs-Kiralo. But not at the moment, if I may, Cs-Kiralo."
"Very well," Kiralo said carefully, feeling that strange danger--that spirits couldn't feel coming from him--and that edge of near-arousal.
"I would like to ask your cook how he did some of the things he did. I have an interest in many things, and cookery is one of them," Jiahao said, his voice so earnest it sounded like it had to be a lie. "If he is available. I heard that he kicked out some of the others in charge of this Hall."
"He is a Lord among Cooks, now that he has mastered his own problems with drinking. Be careful, Cs-Jiahao," Kiralo said, feeling far too much like a fatherly figure for the arousal that was tight in his chest. "Having spent some time among my fellow courtiers around my age, if drink makes one foolish then one will be a fool quite often."
"They say there is wisdom in folly. Then again, we know what they say, don't we?" Jiahao asked, recovering some of his control, the smirk slipping slightly back in place. Even though he'd seen the youth and inexperience behind it, he couldn't actually see through it to his real emotions.
He thought about Jiahao's first comment. "We do," Kiralo said, allowing himself to be included. "Now, I must take my own leave. Please, pass on your question, along with perhaps some contents of the bottle of rice wine, with my compliments."
"I will," Jiahao said, to his retreating back.
*******
He moved slowly through the forest, the last remains of late snow echoing beneath his horse. The spirits were whispering of spring, they were in a good mood, and so Kiralo tried to be as well. He had talked to the Emperor last night, and knew what sort of puppy he would get, if he could find it. Had asked the Emperor to wait, that the puppy he sent would be just the right sort.
He'd also had talks almost as important, to four likely candidates for General of the East. Not that the title existed, of course. Anymore than the Council was actually five people, five main Generals, instead of dozens and dozens.
And then this morning he'd spent his time outpacing all of those courtiers who thought that they were equestrians. Only his bodyguards had kept up, and only then because he'd told them where he was going.
Perhaps one day one of them would keep up.
So he had plenty on his mind, and that not even counting the trip down south, starting tomorrow. Kueli, too, was going to look at them. At the moment he merely wanted to narrow them down a little bit. Cut some of his options.
One preferred candidate each, he'd told Kueli, and made sure to tell Kueli not to lean too hard on being Kiralo's friend. Or, rather, let them react how they would to such an obvious Southlander, so that Kiralo would know what their limits and flaws were.
Who is the candidate that Kiralo would least support, and which candidate would he most support? [Least] and [Most] in order to differentiate them.
[] General Lo of Lineage Aisim: A coastal boy, and something of an expert in the area of ships, he's in his late forties, and is very reliable, if a little independent for the purposes of being reliable as a vote. He has the trust of at least a decent portion of the Generals who formerly were aligned behind the disgraced and dead East General. But there are others who question him, and whether he has the strength of will to manage them, even if he can stand up for himself. He expressed interest in the new cannon technology and in more active defenses against any future Sea-Raider activity, and seemed not to be trying to get on Kiralo's good side or bad side. Reserved, and yet there's no evidence that it's hiding anything.
[] General Chun of Lineage Baoriti: Very, very distantly related to the former General of the East, this is a major weakness of his now, and yet it could in theory be a strength. From an older generation, he has many years of experience, and was a very competent General, at least until his young-and-distant-relation came on the scene. They did not, despite vague family ties, truly agree on anything, and he found himself almost relegated. He told only bits and pieces of this in the meeting, treating Kiralo with respect and deference surprising for one his age, considering how many older Generals react to Kiralo's authority. Accepting it, but… always having an air of suspecting it.
[] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
[] General Maoh of Lineage Mei: Forty years of age, he's skillful at managing subordinates, but many have thought that he lacked ambitions to be his own man, having drifted from the control of several of the Five Generals purely through doing his duty. The others would respect him, and yet think him in some ways a puppet either of South or Kiralo, and he was said to be quite uncharismatic. Yet, when he talked with Kiralo, he spoke fervently and intelligently of major reforms, especially to military structure, and was polite and even supportive without seeming particularly cloying.
*****
A/N: So, here we go. Some meetings! I hope you enjoyed.
"You are perhaps the most ambitious man I've ever seen," Ayila said, quietly, as she leaned back on a set of pillows. She'd turned her room into something from the Southlands, full of pillows and dark colors, the spirits so numerous that there's no room to breathe, barely room to be human at all. It was frustrating, and yet he smiled. He smiled and meant it, even.
"Oh?"
"The Imperial Mages' Academy. You know what they have there? You know the kinds of defenses I'd have to deal with?" Ayila said. "I'm… I… yes, of course I'm confident in your abilities, but. Wait." Ayila had this way of shifting, her eyes going skyward when she was talking to her powerful spirit.
They called them Great Spirits, and Kiralo thought the term fair enough, but it invoked too much the ancient 'Great Spirits' that ruled the world badly before the Gods came, different in substance and power, and different in character.
"I'm confident in your abilities," Kiralo said, softly. He paced a little. "I don't know about this spirit of yours, but I believe in you, and if it believes--"
"He, actually," Ayila said.
Kiralo blinked, not used to being interrupted. Nowadays he so very rarely was. He was a man of substance, as it were. So he smiled, no doubt it'd be annoying if it kept up. "He, very well. If he believes you can too, then I'm going to have to ask you to proceed. But be careful, both for my reputation, and your life. I will do all I can to preserve you. If you're caught, I'll…"
He should say that he'd deny that she was his, or say she was secretly a, or.
If he were being the right sort of courtier, he'd not say that but he'd be thinking it. Instead, he said, "I'll stand with the consequences, which would probably be exile. Or, I'd disavow you and then break you out of prison to go on the run back to the Southlands. Either way, it wouldn't be good. You understand that, Cs-Ayila? I'm asking you to do something dangerous because I believe you are the only person who can do it. But if you do not wish to do it, I cannot force you."
"You can't?" Ayila asked, softly. "You, of all people?" She sat up a little, crossing her legs and glaring. "You? You know what spirits say of you? That you smell of secrets and ink."
"I need to ride my horse more often," Kiralo said, quietly.
Dismayed.
"Well! I'm going to be going south to my new estate in a week. That's time to get in some exercise," Kiralo said, deciding that he had to encourage himself. The last thing he wanted to imagine was that he was going soft, getting too used to paperwork to even be a Captain, let alone a General worth following, one that could go out in the field.
But north of here, he wasn't in the field, he was just waiting for reports. A spring cleansing campaign, one that he wouldn't even have wanted to participate in.
So he made small talk, made sure Ayila wasn't having any problems--indeed, everyone left her alone and fled at the sight of her in a way that might be miserable after a few months, but for the moment made the sixteen year old feel powerful in a way she hadn't before.
Kiralo supposed he could understand that. He supposed he shouldn't feel quite so old at twenty-six, especially when he was comparing him to someone as terrifying as Ayila. But there were moments of youth, when Destiny was the least of the things that followed her.
The moments were brief, both thankfully and not.
*******
Kiralo pushed the paperwork out of the way, glancing at the secretaries, at the scribes, who all blinked, but didn't do much more to look up from their tasks. He'd made sure to check all of their work, and it was interesting to be kept so clearly to a schedule.
He knew that one of the tests of his power would be to see who went to him. Who came with paperwork to be looked at, and who thought instead of his father, or decided that since he wasn't in court, he couldn't lobby.
Kiralo was already writing letters, and trying to line up people to help him with the work, his hand cramping a little. But the best solution for it was a little brainwork, and so he stood up and pulled out the loose pages of the play, and began first by taking his brush and cutting through large sections of it with black.
He needed to keep the central interpersonal conflict while turning it into something else. Something more.
The House-Drama was a genre of distinction in the Southlands. With all four sides of the house open to the audience, different perspectives came from different seats, and more than that, there was a looseness, a flowing focus on interpretation and very mobile and three-dimensional props.
Traditionally, it focused on shopkeepers, artisans, merchants, and the lesser nobles and courtiers, since those who were poorer than that didn't have much of a house to talk about, in the traditional sense. Those richer, too, would have servants, servants that would complicate the narrative.
Kiralo could have written a Commentary of the faults and virtues of the petty courtiers. Their wisdom and sagacity; their foolish rapacity. Their long-view and their inability to see the next sunrise. He marveled at the quiet loyalty he'd seen, but also the desperate struggle for every single scrap, as if death in the gutter awaited someone who took even a single wrong step.
It was a lot like the Imperial Court, actually. No wonder he was so used to it, because when he did go to the courts of the Southlands, that's who he was. A petty courtier, coming at it from a military perspective, but with the same status and the same struggles. He could leave, though. Some of those courtiers had little else, at least for the way they wished to live.
So that's what he'd started out writing. An aging patriarch in the Weights and Measures division of a Prince, who seemed at first noble and shrewd, a little cold but not the worst person. But he had an ethereal, dying wife who never quite died, and four children. One, the youngest girl, who wanted to marry a man who was of the upper-Merchants, just a step below where he was. The father, of course, saw it as a threat. The older daughter had married above her station, though the man was cruel, she seemed glittering and perfect in the first half of the story. The oldest son had run away to be a Rassit, and the younger was seemingly intemperate, passionate and given to fits of melancholy.
The story evolved, showing how each person was different than expected, as the patriarch turned out to lack real loyalty to his Prince, and the whole play ended in a series of explosive scenes, in his first draft, that end with his wife secretly handing the servant, in the covert employ of another noble, information on a scheme of his.
The servant leaves, and once the information reaches its destination, it will tear the rest of the family apart. But they were left hanging there, the younger daughter having run off, the older daughter having been stabbed to death by her husband, the foolish son turning out to be loyal and skilled enough to get his own position, the older son leaving, having seen enough.
Yet even those who had won something would still fall as their families fell. Perhaps he was in a melancholy mood when he'd plotted it, thinking of his mother and father, thinking of the scars and wounds that family brought. Maybe Kiralo was the Rassit Son and the Foolish Son. The patriarch actually didn't resemble Kuojah much, though. Kiralo didn't know, and he didn't much care, because now that this was for a Csiritan audience, he'd need to change all sorts of details.
More than that, he had an idea.
A child-Emperor needed a child Prince.
Prince Ismali, of Sizkis died almost eighty years before, after a very successful reign. But first he was a child-Prince, having to fight off his bastard older brother who made a claim after his father's sudden death. Many of the real details were a lot messier: there was a husband of an older sister, there were back-alley deals between some of their allies, and so on. But the basic framework of a city on the verge of a civil war, and a family torn by and eventually destroyed by the war and the conflict between loyalty to self, loyalty to family, and loyalty to the state…'
He could use that, even if he'd have to be careful about some of his themes, to keep it from being seen as an attack on family. But he could imagine it: instead of a petty wrong, the patriarch covertly sided with the pretender, while his son stood with the child Emperor. Then, when the wrong is revealed, they both suffer. The son can't abandon his father, gives a speech to that effect… but at the same time the mother speaks of suffering, speaks of the conflict of chains. Loyalty to family first of all, but what of the consequences?
Yet, by having both of them speak, and putting such a speech in the mouth of a sick, strange woman, it would seem more a culmination of her bad and failing character.
Kiralo began to write, and took an hour or two off of the endless, ceaseless, senseless paperwork.
Paperwork that he'd do, and do as well as he could, despite all that.
*******
It was not easy to get a banquet hall, and most of his parties over the last four or five days had been in his room. Lunches, breakfasts even, dinners. He'd met with so many people that even his memory was becoming slightly strained. Everyone was coming out now, friend and enemy, to meet with the new Ainin, who wasn't going away and clearly wasn't going to stop with merely military matters.
To get such a prestigious hall as the Red Flower Hall, at such a late date… surely it was an important matter, people whispered. Their whispers were even less loud when he made it invitation only, no slipping in with bribes--guards ready to stop them and told he'd pay twice any bribe if they cooperated--and chosen each and every person carefully. A mix of neutral figures and allies, young and old, people who could in some way represent the kinds of people he would want to persuade.
So of course they knew that he had some grand announcement, some cause he was sounding out. In theory he could simply talk to the Emperor and simply make it so. In theory he could also gather enough bird feathers and spirits and glue it all together and flap his arms and fly. He was not going to ruin himself, not going to have to fight them every step of the way for what he wanted.
They knew it, even.
So he had added a few tapestries to the already rich walls, careful to lay out the simple ones to blend in with the rest, but putting the one he'd been given from Hari-Su at an artfully chosen location, so that perhaps some collector would comment on it and he could use it to create a connection, or even a trade.
By the time the night was near its end, nobody had, annoyingly enough. Hiro had glanced at it a few times curiously, but that was more because Cs-Hiro was wondering if perhaps Kiralo would talk to him about his work on the expedition.
He hadn't had to pay for the rice wine that he'd had a little too much of, but he had had to pay for a few extra guards, and the food, and he knew that if he kept up doing this it'd all add up. As he sat at his seat of honor, he kept on looking over, towards the corner.
There was someone there he hadn't invited, and yet who had been let in, with. With… the man from Lineage Nasir, Tsao-Zun, who was a figure at the official printing company, in charge of the religious prints. Someone not to be offended, who had asked if he could bring his distant cousin, new to the court…
The boy had to be just eighteen, his dark brown hair longer than court standard, his features a more open, accessible form of the traditional Csiritan male beauty, his robes pink darkening towards red and even purple at the cuffs, with flowers just as carefully displayed in the weave and weft of--
He was handsome, his dark eyes glittering with amusement as he listened to the half-drunken conversation. "I would like to make a toast," Kiralo said, distracting himself from the puzzle, but most of all the worries that there was someone scheming something. "It will be a long one, I apologize, but drink deeply to it, I know I will."
He took a breath. "The Empire is on the ascent. As a sunny day after a cleansing rainstorm, this new year shall bring us peace, under the wisdom of the Emperor, and the loyal service of his courtiers and vassals. Our armies are unmatched, and with support for our borders and the vast wealth that this great land provides, there is nothing we cannot do. Our borders shall be secure from foreign invasion, and our lands free of treason and rebellion." He raised his bowl up a little higher. "May we, loyal servants, work to ensure that the kind prosper, that there is peace everywhere and none suffer unnecessarily, that our laws are always just, that our acts are always right, and let none scorn honest ambition if properly used. Under our new Emperor, the Csiritan Empire will be so great, that…"
Kiralo cleared his throat. Time for a half-lie. "I have been in the Southlands for many years, and yet let us follow our Emperor in creating an Empire that even they cannot help but admit our superiority, that they might, as the world should, supplicate themselves before the glory and power of the Emperor and those who obey him, such as ourselves."
They knew what that meant. They knew that he'd all but declared war on certain of Kuojah's assumptions--though they couldn't know that he'd gotten his father's permission, not so much not to oppose it, but not to fight it out at all costs--and the assumptions of isolationist scholars.
One of the Emperors had spoken of the supplication the world owed the Empire, during one of the expansionist phases of Csiritan history. Isolationists and others argued about which supplication it was.
There were two words for it. First, supplication by passive consent. In other words, when the Emperor passed on a carriage and peasants threw themselves to the side of the road, on the ground, babbling praise. One hoped in one sense for a boon, even if it be the Emperor's good will (for what other boon could be valued higher?), but one did not expect in one sense to be noticed.
One was there. This was the word they used, that the world stayed outside their borders and should the Empire wish to deign to give them some minor gift, perhaps it may in theory.
Then there was supplication. Supplication was active. It was crawling up to the Imperial Seat to ask something of the Emperor. There was an expectation that it would be noticed and answered, whether or not in the affirmative. Someone who supplicated before the Emperor, if the Emperor ignored him, might as well consider his courtier career at its end. And an Emperor who ignored all supplication, even from his most loyal subjects, well…
There were many stories.
So by using that word, he was suggesting in some way that the Southlanders, that the foreigners in general, might approach the Emperor or the Empire to beg for things. Beg, and perhaps not expect to get anything, but have reason to expect an answer other than superior silence.
So they stared. Not all of them. Hiro was smiling in amusement, thinking of all that Kiralo wasn't saying. Kiralo knew he was laying it on think.
"So, let us drink to a better tomorrow, a new year, and a glorious Empire!"
And so they drank.
Kiralo didn't have all of them, but all of them knew that he was after them, and so he spent a lot of time talking with one person and then the next. He spent time talking to Hiro about how he'd be able to send materials and men for his expedition, and how he'd hopefully give them official Imperial Support, though not authority. Hiro was a little less drunk than Kiralo, and was also in very good condition, having been training for the hiking and climbing he expected to do.
It was after Hiro walked away that he finally got to meet the newcomer.
"You know, one wonders at the wisdom and the skill of the rumor-mongers in the Imperial Seat," a smooth, soft but masculine, voice said. "If they saw how you looked at Cs-Hiro, perhaps they would stop trying to push their twelve year old sons, knees trembling, at you with inappropriate suggestions and inane conversation topics."
"I do not believe I have been introduced to you," Kiralo said. "I am Kiralo of Lineage Ainin, though I know you're… aware of it." Kiralo was a little too tipsy, but he kept his mask on, even though he'd stumbled. By introducing himself, he'd looked--
"Jiahao of Lineage Wen," the young man said, with a carefully crooked brow. "You know, that's an excellent tapestry. I assume it is new, the style doesn't fit with the first revival form at all. New, but excellent and in very good taste."
"Thank you," Kiralo said, suddenly tense. Lineage Wen, if it was the one he thought it was, was important. They were one of the few families that had branches in more than one Province, in this case Irit, Csrae, Xissand, and Rerin. They were not the top dogs in any of those places, but they had power and influence in each, and that meant that the fractious family could exert outsized influence. "I am surprised I did not hear of your arrival in court."
"It was only this morning," Jiahao said, quietly. "One cannot expect the gossip, so very incompetent, to catch up so fast."
"And what brings you to court?"
"I come with a fell and dread purpose," Jiahao, said so dramatically and absurdly different from his regular voice that Kiralo… believed it. Believed that he was deflecting from the truth.
"Truly?" Kiralo asked.
"No, Cs-Kiralo. I came here to amuse myself, and perhaps find a friend or two. It is quite lonely, up in Nazing Peak."
Kiralo didn't blink, but he did have to hide his surprise. That was one of the most remote places in Rerin, overlooking some very good mines and near a very vaunted monastery… but near was the word, not at. He hadn't known there was a manor there. "So you are a Wen of Rerin?"
"It is not quite so simple," Jiahao said. "And a young man's got to have his secrets, doesn't he?"
"I believe I had very few secrets at your age," Kiralo said. "But you are not me."
"To my great misfortune, the way your own good fortune continues," Jiahao said, with a teasing, sly smile.
"The Emperor is wise--"
"Yes, he is very wise to see your wisdom," Jiahao said. His words were mostly unobjectionable, but the way he said it and the way he cut Kiralo off felt like a veiled insult. "Apologies, Cs-Kiralo, I have drank too much, and my words are intemperate and foolish, and I hope you will forgive me, for I am new to the court, and yet presume so much."
That last part seemed almost as if it was aimed at Kiralo, in some small way, for in the time of the court, having been there almost a year and a half meant he should still be trailing along after old men. Kiralo couldn't be sure. "I suppose I will forgive your inability to indulge in rice wine such as this."
"Yes," Jiahao said with a throaty chuckle, head tilted up for a moment. He was clean-shaven, and carefully so. "I find it the best rice wine I have ever had."
"You should take a bottle with you, then," Kiralo said, quietly, plotting to get control of this conversation.
"I… should?" Jiahao asked, licking his lips in clear nervous habit, his courtier's mask breaking beneath his shock.
"Yes, and give it to your cousin, with a message asking exactly why he brought you? For what purpose."
"Oh." Jiahao looked all of eighteen now, his confidence in tatters on the ground, his control and insinuations seeming a little childish. "I will do so, then, Cs-Kiralo. But not at the moment, if I may, Cs-Kiralo."
"Very well," Kiralo said carefully, feeling that strange danger--that spirits couldn't feel coming from him--and that edge of near-arousal.
"I would like to ask your cook how he did some of the things he did. I have an interest in many things, and cookery is one of them," Jiahao said, his voice so earnest it sounded like it had to be a lie. "If he is available. I heard that he kicked out some of the others in charge of this Hall."
"He is a Lord among Cooks, now that he has mastered his own problems with drinking. Be careful, Cs-Jiahao," Kiralo said, feeling far too much like a fatherly figure for the arousal that was tight in his chest. "Having spent some time among my fellow courtiers around my age, if drink makes one foolish then one will be a fool quite often."
"They say there is wisdom in folly. Then again, we know what they say, don't we?" Jiahao asked, recovering some of his control, the smirk slipping slightly back in place. Even though he'd seen the youth and inexperience behind it, he couldn't actually see through it to his real emotions.
He thought about Jiahao's first comment. "We do," Kiralo said, allowing himself to be included. "Now, I must take my own leave. Please, pass on your question, along with perhaps some contents of the bottle of rice wine, with my compliments."
"I will," Jiahao said, to his retreating back.
*******
He moved slowly through the forest, the last remains of late snow echoing beneath his horse. The spirits were whispering of spring, they were in a good mood, and so Kiralo tried to be as well. He had talked to the Emperor last night, and knew what sort of puppy he would get, if he could find it. Had asked the Emperor to wait, that the puppy he sent would be just the right sort.
He'd also had talks almost as important, to four likely candidates for General of the East. Not that the title existed, of course. Anymore than the Council was actually five people, five main Generals, instead of dozens and dozens.
And then this morning he'd spent his time outpacing all of those courtiers who thought that they were equestrians. Only his bodyguards had kept up, and only then because he'd told them where he was going.
Perhaps one day one of them would keep up.
So he had plenty on his mind, and that not even counting the trip down south, starting tomorrow. Kueli, too, was going to look at them. At the moment he merely wanted to narrow them down a little bit. Cut some of his options.
One preferred candidate each, he'd told Kueli, and made sure to tell Kueli not to lean too hard on being Kiralo's friend. Or, rather, let them react how they would to such an obvious Southlander, so that Kiralo would know what their limits and flaws were.
Who is the candidate that Kiralo would least support, and which candidate would he most support? [Least] and [Most] in order to differentiate them.
[] General Lo of Lineage Aisim: A coastal boy, and something of an expert in the area of ships, he's in his late forties, and is very reliable, if a little independent for the purposes of being reliable as a vote. He has the trust of at least a decent portion of the Generals who formerly were aligned behind the disgraced and dead East General. But there are others who question him, and whether he has the strength of will to manage them, even if he can stand up for himself. He expressed interest in the new cannon technology and in more active defenses against any future Sea-Raider activity, and seemed not to be trying to get on Kiralo's good side or bad side. Reserved, and yet there's no evidence that it's hiding anything.
[] General Chun of Lineage Baoriti: Very, very distantly related to the former General of the East, this is a major weakness of his now, and yet it could in theory be a strength. From an older generation, he has many years of experience, and was a very competent General, at least until his young-and-distant-relation came on the scene. They did not, despite vague family ties, truly agree on anything, and he found himself almost relegated. He told only bits and pieces of this in the meeting, treating Kiralo with respect and deference surprising for one his age, considering how many older Generals react to Kiralo's authority. Accepting it, but… always having an air of suspecting it.
[] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
[] General Maoh of Lineage Mei: Forty years of age, he's skillful at managing subordinates, but many have thought that he lacked ambitions to be his own man, having drifted from the control of several of the Five Generals purely through doing his duty. The others would respect him, and yet think him in some ways a puppet either of South or Kiralo, and he was said to be quite uncharismatic. Yet, when he talked with Kiralo, he spoke fervently and intelligently of major reforms, especially to military structure, and was polite and even supportive without seeming particularly cloying.
*****
A/N: So, here we go. Some meetings! I hope you enjoyed.
[X][Most] General Maoh of Lineage Mei: Forty years of age, he's skillful at managing subordinates, but many have thought that he lacked ambitions to be his own man, having drifted from the control of several of the Five Generals purely through doing his duty. The others would respect him, and yet think him in some ways a puppet either of South or Kiralo, and he was said to be quite uncharismatic. Yet, when he talked with Kiralo, he spoke fervently and intelligently of major reforms, especially to military structure, and was polite and even supportive without seeming particularly cloying.
[X][Least] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
Someone who'd do the job properly, not make waves even while seeking reform is just the thing.
But no ambitious underlings. Today's asset is tomorrow's plague
[X][Least] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
Someone who'd do the job properly, not make waves even while seeking reform is just the thing.
But no ambitious underlings. Today's asset is tomorrow's plague
Random Member
Gardener of Human Happiness
- Location
- Behind You
[] General Lo of Lineage Aisim: A coastal boy, and something of an expert in the area of ships, he's in his late forties, and is very reliable, if a little independent for the purposes of being reliable as a vote. He has the trust of at least a decent portion of the Generals who formerly were aligned behind the disgraced and dead East General. But there are others who question him, and whether he has the strength of will to manage them, even if he can stand up for himself. He expressed interest in the new cannon technology and in more active defenses against any future Sea-Raider activity, and seemed not to be trying to get on Kiralo's good side or bad side. Reserved, and yet there's no evidence that it's hiding anything.
Pro: Somewhat reformist, naval expertise, decent support among former Eastern faction, independent and neutral enough to not be seen as a puppet
Con: Unknown if reformism stretches to anything other than cannons and the navy, too independent to be an actual asset
[] General Chun of Lineage Baoriti: Very, very distantly related to the former General of the East, this is a major weakness of his now, and yet it could in theory be a strength. From an older generation, he has many years of experience, and was a very competent General, at least until his young-and-distant-relation came on the scene. They did not, despite vague family ties, truly agree on anything, and he found himself almost relegated. He told only bits and pieces of this in the meeting, treating Kiralo with respect and deference surprising for one his age, considering how many older Generals react to Kiralo's authority. Accepting it, but… always having an air of suspecting it.
Pro: Experienced and competent, relation to Ha'dong could theoretically be somewhat of an olive branch to former Eastern faction
Con: Related to a traitor
[] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
Pro: Skilled
Con: Ambitious
[] General Maoh of Lineage Mei: Forty years of age, he's skillful at managing subordinates, but many have thought that he lacked ambitions to be his own man, having drifted from the control of several of the Five Generals purely through doing his duty. The others would respect him, and yet think him in some ways a puppet either of South or Kiralo, and he was said to be quite uncharismatic. Yet, when he talked with Kiralo, he spoke fervently and intelligently of major reforms, especially to military structure, and was polite and even supportive without seeming particularly cloying.
Pro: Reformist, unambitious, candidate most likely to dance to our tune
Con: Obvious puppet combined with being uncharismatic will not make him popular, so don't expect a large faction to form behind him
[X][Least] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
Whatever the case, we don't want an ambitious man.
[][Most] General Lo of Lineage Aisim: A coastal boy, and something of an expert in the area of ships, he's in his late forties, and is very reliable, if a little independent for the purposes of being reliable as a vote. He has the trust of at least a decent portion of the Generals who formerly were aligned behind the disgraced and dead East General. But there are others who question him, and whether he has the strength of will to manage them, even if he can stand up for himself. He expressed interest in the new cannon technology and in more active defenses against any future Sea-Raider activity, and seemed not to be trying to get on Kiralo's good side or bad side. Reserved, and yet there's no evidence that it's hiding anything.
[][Most] General Maoh of Lineage Mei: Forty years of age, he's skillful at managing subordinates, but many have thought that he lacked ambitions to be his own man, having drifted from the control of several of the Five Generals purely through doing his duty. The others would respect him, and yet think him in some ways a puppet either of South or Kiralo, and he was said to be quite uncharismatic. Yet, when he talked with Kiralo, he spoke fervently and intelligently of major reforms, especially to military structure, and was polite and even supportive without seeming particularly cloying.
Both are reformist enough, question is whether we want someone who'll be a puppet yet is uncharismatic or someone who can get the support of the former Eastern faction yet is somewhat neutral and independent. Chun doesn't really appeal to me to be honest.
Pro: Somewhat reformist, naval expertise, decent support among former Eastern faction, independent and neutral enough to not be seen as a puppet
Con: Unknown if reformism stretches to anything other than cannons and the navy, too independent to be an actual asset
[] General Chun of Lineage Baoriti: Very, very distantly related to the former General of the East, this is a major weakness of his now, and yet it could in theory be a strength. From an older generation, he has many years of experience, and was a very competent General, at least until his young-and-distant-relation came on the scene. They did not, despite vague family ties, truly agree on anything, and he found himself almost relegated. He told only bits and pieces of this in the meeting, treating Kiralo with respect and deference surprising for one his age, considering how many older Generals react to Kiralo's authority. Accepting it, but… always having an air of suspecting it.
Pro: Experienced and competent, relation to Ha'dong could theoretically be somewhat of an olive branch to former Eastern faction
Con: Related to a traitor
[] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
Pro: Skilled
Con: Ambitious
[] General Maoh of Lineage Mei: Forty years of age, he's skillful at managing subordinates, but many have thought that he lacked ambitions to be his own man, having drifted from the control of several of the Five Generals purely through doing his duty. The others would respect him, and yet think him in some ways a puppet either of South or Kiralo, and he was said to be quite uncharismatic. Yet, when he talked with Kiralo, he spoke fervently and intelligently of major reforms, especially to military structure, and was polite and even supportive without seeming particularly cloying.
Pro: Reformist, unambitious, candidate most likely to dance to our tune
Con: Obvious puppet combined with being uncharismatic will not make him popular, so don't expect a large faction to form behind him
[X][Least] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
Whatever the case, we don't want an ambitious man.
[][Most] General Lo of Lineage Aisim: A coastal boy, and something of an expert in the area of ships, he's in his late forties, and is very reliable, if a little independent for the purposes of being reliable as a vote. He has the trust of at least a decent portion of the Generals who formerly were aligned behind the disgraced and dead East General. But there are others who question him, and whether he has the strength of will to manage them, even if he can stand up for himself. He expressed interest in the new cannon technology and in more active defenses against any future Sea-Raider activity, and seemed not to be trying to get on Kiralo's good side or bad side. Reserved, and yet there's no evidence that it's hiding anything.
[][Most] General Maoh of Lineage Mei: Forty years of age, he's skillful at managing subordinates, but many have thought that he lacked ambitions to be his own man, having drifted from the control of several of the Five Generals purely through doing his duty. The others would respect him, and yet think him in some ways a puppet either of South or Kiralo, and he was said to be quite uncharismatic. Yet, when he talked with Kiralo, he spoke fervently and intelligently of major reforms, especially to military structure, and was polite and even supportive without seeming particularly cloying.
Both are reformist enough, question is whether we want someone who'll be a puppet yet is uncharismatic or someone who can get the support of the former Eastern faction yet is somewhat neutral and independent. Chun doesn't really appeal to me to be honest.
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That was a great update, and everything tied together wonderfully so you must have been in some writing flow, while still leaving your readers in anticipation for what's to come next. The play in particular seems like it could be very successful, though I forget if it's not just us writing the play for New Years but having it be performed. Creating a great play and having it be performed wonderfully are different things after all, and the latter is particulary hard if the play is difficult or complex for the performers and they don't have much time to rehearse.
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@The Laurent - something about the Mage Academy action slightly confused me though in the update, as while I thought the Mages themselves wouldn't like outsiders (and both Ayila and Kiralo himself would count in this instance though they differ in scale, as neither belong to the Academy) finding out their secrets and would try to skirt around it as they could, I didn't think it would as dangerous politically on a macro scale such that Kiralo's exile would be a thing.
This was kind of cute, and references Kiralo's previous feelings about how he's changing, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You can do much more with a pen, paper and delgation than trying to do things yourself; and Kiralo does have grand ambitions. Still, I believe we have it so Kiralo rides once a day anyway, so he still has leisure time and maintains his connection to the Rassit.
Exclusivity does do wonders for changing a persons perception of what they want, as it becomes a game of who's it and a way for courtiers to rank themselves. The party itself to promote ourselves to a large and varied group of people, us deciding to advance the idea of the supplication of foreigners before the court, as well as mitigating the downsides via speaking to Kuojah seem to work wonderfully; even if it seems that speaking with Kuojah may have only been a minor success. Or perhaps it was a great success, and the isolationist ideal is so embedded within him even him giving this much is an accomplishment in itself given him and his factions great importance.
And this just shows how smart he is becoming politically, and how while dictating something to happen can be effective in the short term, building a consensus around the idea gives it a much more solid foundation long term.
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@The Laurent - something about the Mage Academy action slightly confused me though in the update, as while I thought the Mages themselves wouldn't like outsiders (and both Ayila and Kiralo himself would count in this instance though they differ in scale, as neither belong to the Academy) finding out their secrets and would try to skirt around it as they could, I didn't think it would as dangerous politically on a macro scale such that Kiralo's exile would be a thing.
As I thought the reason that Ayila specifically got such a large bonus to the rolls compared to Kiralo was not only due to her magic skill itself, but the decree of the Emperor giving her specifically access to the Academy. Notably there isn't really a limit for his decree either, which is why I thought it possible to research the knowledge they prefer keep to themselves, as otherwise they'd be going against a decree from the Emperor that was rewarded in exchange for saving his life. So I expected the Mages to oppose her research subtlety using misdirection or diversion or simply hiding it, rather than what gives the impression of being blatant opposition.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
It depends on what she's doing, actually! Some of what she's doing is harmless, some of it... uh, not so much? You'll see more.
Also, Jiahao was fun to write.
[X][Most] General Maoh of Lineage Mei: Forty years of age, he's skillful at managing subordinates, but many have thought that he lacked ambitions to be his own man, having drifted from the control of several of the Five Generals purely through doing his duty. The others would respect him, and yet think him in some ways a puppet either of South or Kiralo, and he was said to be quite uncharismatic. Yet, when he talked with Kiralo, he spoke fervently and intelligently of major reforms, especially to military structure, and was polite and even supportive without seeming particularly cloying.
[X][Least] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
We're advocating for a Maoh lol
[X][Least] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
We're advocating for a Maoh lol
- Location
- Germany
[Most] General Lo of Lineage Aisim: A coastal boy, and something of an expert in the area of ships, he's in his late forties, and is very reliable, if a little independent for the purposes of being reliable as a vote. He has the trust of at least a decent portion of the Generals who formerly were aligned behind the disgraced and dead East General. But there are others who question him, and whether he has the strength of will to manage them, even if he can stand up for himself. He expressed interest in the new cannon technology and in more active defenses against any future Sea-Raider activity, and seemed not to be trying to get on Kiralo's good side or bad side. Reserved, and yet there's no evidence that it's hiding anything.
[X][Least] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
[X][Least] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
Random Member
Gardener of Human Happiness
- Location
- Behind You
Inb4 he's a trap option who's actually allied with the peasant/heretic uprisings and the Bueli.
Hmm, reformist and a puppet? Seems to be a bit too good to be true.
Zeitgeist Blue
Currently Made of Metal
- Location
- Manila, Philippines, GMT +8
[X][Most] General Lo of Lineage Aisim: A coastal boy, and something of an expert in the area of ships, he's in his late forties, and is very reliable, if a little independent for the purposes of being reliable as a vote. He has the trust of at least a decent portion of the Generals who formerly were aligned behind the disgraced and dead East General. But there are others who question him, and whether he has the strength of will to manage them, even if he can stand up for himself. He expressed interest in the new cannon technology and in more active defenses against any future Sea-Raider activity, and seemed not to be trying to get on Kiralo's good side or bad side. Reserved, and yet there's no evidence that it's hiding anything.
[X][Least] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
[X][Least] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
To pick it up, put an (X) before the 'most.' Only, you know, not like I'm doing.
[X][Most] General Maoh of Lineage Mei: Forty years of age, he's skillful at managing subordinates, but many have thought that he lacked ambitions to be his own man, having drifted from the control of several of the Five Generals purely through doing his duty. The others would respect him, and yet think him in some ways a puppet either of South or Kiralo, and he was said to be quite uncharismatic. Yet, when he talked with Kiralo, he spoke fervently and intelligently of major reforms, especially to military structure, and was polite and even supportive without seeming particularly cloying.
[X][Least] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
I'd forgot to vote too. Given the plan had two dice spent on it so success odds should be pretty good, I'll just go with what choices tell us and take it as face value and for me General Maoh comes on top. He's good at managing subordinates so has the administrative skill down, doesn't have so much ambition to have wider political goals, yet also believes in the military being reformed. Particularly given he's noted at being skillful at managing subordinates, his own special desire for reform to the military structure may mean he's ideal.
[X][Least] General Nai'kao of Lineage Ulli: The youngest of the lot, at thirty-three, he's definitely ambitious, but also quite definitely skilled at what he does. He's a numbers guy, skilled at logistics, someone that Kiralo has worked with before, albeit in a very indirect and brief way, during the prior war. He sometimes, during the meeting, seemed a single degree over-familiar, but he always shrank back at that. Of all of the candidates, he'd be the one most likely to not only have his own ambition and mind, but to pursue them, and so whether he'd be adequate for Kiralo's purpose depended in part on whether he believed he would truly be able to take him in hand.
I'd forgot to vote too. Given the plan had two dice spent on it so success odds should be pretty good, I'll just go with what choices tell us and take it as face value and for me General Maoh comes on top. He's good at managing subordinates so has the administrative skill down, doesn't have so much ambition to have wider political goals, yet also believes in the military being reformed. Particularly given he's noted at being skillful at managing subordinates, his own special desire for reform to the military structure may mean he's ideal.