Blood of the Gods: A Fantasy CKII Quest

[RedV]

Trying to play at being an absolute monarch when you don't have the respect of powerful subjects or a solid powerbase you van rely on gets you a knife in the back/a lifetime stay in a dark dungeon.

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Martial training will get us military support, which should be a good boost to our legitimacy. Eurydice ain't no pampered Pharaonette. She going to take her rights Alexander style with force of arms!

Also, it was a long term goal, not something to do as a kid.

 

[Arcus]

Martial training will get us military support, which should be a good boost to our legitimacy.

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Says who, exactly? I find your assertuon difficult to believe, given that it's unsupported and we have few details on the state of the military. If it's mostly conscripted peasants, that doesn't really help. If it's mostly mercenaries, they'd only care about getting paid. Even if we have some hidden tactical genius, the soldiers may very well not listen to us if we have no battlefield experience.

Past that, we must assume that the military is actually effective enough to be capable of enforcing our will. We didn't pick the option that would have guaranteed us that.

(Also, remember that Egypt is a hydraulic state. Power comes from control of the waters.)

We won't be getting good military training with the tutors we have now. You don't get a math teacher to teach PE. You get the PE teacher to teach PE. I'm sure we'll get the chance to change focus later, with a different set of tutors, seeing how this is only the first year.

 

[RedV]

Says who, exactly? I find your assertuon difficult to believe, given that it's unsupported and we have few details on the state of the military. If it's mostly conscripted peasants, that doesn't really help. If it's mostly mercenaries, they'd mostly care about getting paid.

Even then, who says the army is going to listen to a girl playing at being a military tactician, moreso if she only has theory?

Past that, we must assume that the military is actually effective enough to be capable of enforcing our will. We didn't pick the option that would have guaranteed us that.

(Also, remember that Egypt is a hydraulic state. Power comes from control of the waters.)

We won't be getting good military training with the tutors we have now. You don't get a math teacher to teach PE. You get the PE teacher to teach PE. I'm sure we'll get the chance to change focus later, with a different set of tutors, seeing how this is only the first year.

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Game mechanics?
Like it's pretty simple: in CK2 type games your martial stat reflects how powerful and usable your army is. Also, if these guys won't listen to their monarch in this then it is mutiny.

And that doesn't mean we ignore the army because of that. We are a princess and the regent will import good tutuors for us. Alexander had Socrates as a tutor despite him not being Macedonian. And controlling the waters does nothing for legotimacy. Military glory does. Ramses was pretty much famous because of his wars and all.

 

[RedV]

Like, look at it this way:

1. We don't have any guarantee of being able to change our focus later on
2. Choosing a focus explicitly allows us to be much better at it; enough to catch Mom's attention
3. This makes it more likely she imports tutors
4. Egypt finally gets a decent army + commander
5. We get military backing and so can overcome lack of legitimacy
6. As a bonus, we avoid Piety/ Learning route which is so common among female CK2 quest protags.

 

[Arcus]

Basing things off "because that's what the stats mean elsewhere" is naive. The GM isn't a computer and is quite capable of having his own interpretation of what the stats mean. I don't particularly care for "CK2 mechanics" anyway.

And soldiers and generals betraying their liege is something that's happened a lot of times throughout history. So what if it's treason?

We don't have any guarantee of being able to change our focus

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I don't know, common sense says we'd be able to change our focus at some point. I'm sure we're not going to have a one track education.

 

[RedV]

I don't know, common sense says we'd be able to change our focus at some point. I'm sure we're not going to have a one track education.

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Yeah, but if we vote it now we can get more opportunities with it. And I care for Martial more.
And I think you are misunderstanding what a focus is.

You can however select a Focus here. That's what draws Eurydice's attention the most and represents who she is listening to and what she finds (relatively) interesting. A Focus means extra chances to pick up extra points in the stat in question and might lead to Trait gain or even improve her relationship with other characters. Right now Eurydice doesn't know much of anything about the Court but that will change in due time.

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It represents what Eurydice is best at and gives us more growth there. We can improve other stats, but the Focus gains more opportunities there.

Basing things off "because that's what the stats mean elsewhere" is naive. The GM isn't a computer and is quite capable of having his own interpretation of what the stats mean. I don't particularly care for "CK2 mechanics" anyway.

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...you were asking why training in and gaining experience in leading armies won't strengthen our army. Raising Martial means we become a better commander, and so will strengthen our army.

And soldiers and generals betraying their liege is something that's happened a lot of times throughout history. So what if it's treason?

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By that measure, aren't the nobility also going to distance themselves from us because we are named in a foreign fashion and not following traditions? If we are going to be fucked than each group has legit reason to loath us. But the army has no real reason to, or at least less reason than the treacherous nobility or mandarins.

Nobility and priests don't exactly have the best track record of not being traitors.

 

[Arcus]

It represents what Eurydice is best at and gives us more growth there. We can improve other stats, but the Focus gains more opportunities there.

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Ah, you're right there. I skipped over that part.

 

[Arcus]

Right, that misunderstanding's cleared up, though there's a couple of things I'd like to note.

Raising Martial means we become a better commander, and so will strengthen our army

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It will not make our army better or increase the size or quality of our military, not without some work on our part. Alexander inherited what was already one of the most dangerous fighting forces in the world at the time, which was a large part of why he was able to go so far. No matter how good our knowledge or personal skill, it's worth nothing if our army is not up to scratch (until we get some changes made).

It's very likely our father neglected the army quite a bit in favour of his libraries; public works and soldiers are both expensive.

Also, we would first have to win the loyalty of the army or at least whoever is commanding them, and do it quickly and quietly enough that we don't attract someone's ire first. We certainly won't be able to start until we're at least a little older. One can only hope our aunt doesn't care too much for the loyalties of the army, if that's not the traditional power base of the pharaohs.

Also, power =/= legitimacy. We can certainly rule through brute force, and crush all dissent using the army, but that's a different thing (and also requires that the army be strong enough to suppress all dissent and loyal enough not to turn on us)

Having legitimacy means that people believe that we are the rightful rulers of the country and accept our rule; whether because of precedent/tradition, because they believe we're of divine blood, or because we've demonstrated our fitness and ability as a ruler.

Foreign conquerors could invade and occupy the country, and keep dissent down through fear. That doesn't necessarily make them legitimate.

The military isn't going to give us legitimacy. This is not Rome where there is a well established tradition of the army acclaiming emperors. At best we can use the army to keep unrest down while people get used to the new status quo.


There is admittedly some appeal to playing as the warrior queen; crushing the traitors who rise up against us and reforming the military into a brutal and effective instrument of conquest and oppression. That said, I'm personally leaning towards an intrigue focused game with lots of court politicking and plots in every corner.

 

[RedV]

It will not magically make our army better or increase the size of our levies (presumably in CK2 this is an abstraction representing better organization or something). Alexander inherited what was already one of the most dangerous fighting forces in the world at the time, which was a large part of why he was able to go so far. No matter how good our knowledge or personal skill, it's worth nothing if our army is not up to scratch (until we get some reforms done).

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To be fair, Alex also faced levies that were way above his grade of soldiers, like Persian Immortals, regularly. He made up for huge differences in numbers by the quality of his command, inspiration and cavalry. We can't get cavalry right now but we can work on two of those now and buy cavalry or a good navy when we become monarch.

It's very likely our father neglected the army quite a bit in favour of his libraries; public works and soldiers are both expensive.

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Yeah, but the thing is that because he focused on public works we won't have too many floods or crisis at home, meaning we can focus on expanding our empire. This is as much an opportunity, given many countries will think us soft and underestimate us.

Also, we would first have to win the loyalty of the army or at least whoever is commanding them, and do it quickly and quietly enough that we don't attract someone's ire first. We certainly won't be able to start until we're at least a little older. One can only hope our aunt doesn't care too much for the loyalties of the army, if that's not the traditional power base of the pharaohs.

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Wasn't the monarch the traditional head of the armies in Ancient Times? being an actual well trained warrior should also get their approval, as well as program of offering sops like improved pay to soldiers, etc. All we need is to win one crucial battle and any doubts on command skill should go. And we can delegate that stuff too!

Also, power =/= legitimacy. We can certainly rule through brute force, and crush all dissent using the army, but that's a different thing (and also requires that the army be strong enough to suppress all dissent and loyal enough not to turn on us)

Having legitimacy means that people believe that we are the rightful rulers of the country and accept our rule; whether because of precedent/tradition, because they believe we're of divine blood, or because we've demonstrated our fitness and ability as a ruler.

Foreign conquerors could invade and occupy the country, and keep dissent down through fear. That doesn't necessarily make them legitimate.

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No, but getting actual legitimacy means toadying to the entrenched interests of the Priests/ Nobles and making concessions to the Crown's power. If we just rule by force and outlive our enemies, we have our own brand of legitimacy. Surely the gods favour such a long reigning queen, right? Say otherwise and she can smash your army and send you to them to check it.

There is admittedly some appeal to playing as the warrior queen; crushing the traitors who rise up against us and reforming the military into a brutal and effective instrument of conquest and oppression. That said, I'm personally leaning towards an intrigue focused game with lots of court politicking and plots in every corner.

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I like Intrigue. It would be my second choice. But its been done to death, especially with female protags. I'm more in favor of kicking ass and taking names here.

 

[HavocKeeper]

[X] Intrigue
[X] Chase the cat.
[X] Sit down by the pool and watch what happens.

 

[Kipeci]

Let's look at the tutors we have. We have the royal scribes, who are presumably learned bureaucrats knowledgeable in things such as bookkeeping and administration. We have the temple priests, who would know a lot about the gods and are also probably learned men. We have our mother, who we know is skilled in the arts of magic. The royal scribes could teach us stewardship, the priests could teach us piety, I'm assuming that learning is what you need for magic so our mother probably has a lot of that.

It's highly unlikely that any of our teachers are going to be good at Martial. Similarly, I doubt that Diplomacy is going to be their area of expertise here. Maybe our mother could teach us Intrigue. Given our current choice of tutors, I would recommend steering away from choices like Martial and leaning towards either Learning, Stewardship, or Piety.

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I wouldn't be so quick to dump on their collective capacity for diplomacy. Most archaic states were a distance away from being meritocracies; positions of power attract politicians, and that means folks who know people in the right places and also the correct situations to break the rules that hold others back. In other words, measures represented by the diplomacy stat. Royal scribes and temple priests are powerful positions that people would compete for, and being likable instead of an asocial jerk is a huge advantage in the process of getting ahead. This is not to say that they won't be skilled in their major associated category; given that they spend most of their time in that job at the moment, they're going to be skilled for sure and a legitimate talent is often necessary aside from the most blatant cases of corruption. That said, to say they have no diplomacy to speak of is not something I would put stock in.

Now, that said, I also don't think that at this stage it particularly matters what the advantages of the tutors are. At such a young age, it's going to be hard to find an area where any reasonable adult isn't far ahead of us. I think we're going to have to develop our skills for a fair while longer before we begin to surpass their capability to teach.

I have to disagree with this choice here. As it stands, we do not have the authority to make other people listen to us. Our first priority has to be to establish our legitimacy and our fitness as a ruler. So, instead of trying to settle this dispute with authority we don't have, we should instead try to impress the other children, and get them to acknowledge our superiority. Similarly, before we can start meddling in the affairs of state, we first need to show that we are the best and the most suited to rule, that we should be the one on the throne and not someone else.

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The importance is not in whether we immediately succeed or not, the importance is in what the character takes an interest in so that they'll develop it on down the line. I am not terribly interested in a rulership-inclined CYOA to make the character oriented around displaying how badass they are, so for that reason I'd not go for the beating everyone in a race thing. I mean, I'm sure it will work on down the line (if for no other reason than that their parents will tell them to lose intentionally to avoid irritating the potential pharoah and generating a grudge), but that's not how I want to approach this. My interest in this sort of thing is more inclinced towards establishing peace and mighty feats of organization, let's say, rather than ones of direct strength.

At any rate, we've got to crawl before we can run. We'll want to "meddle in affairs of state" eventually, and I'd rather bring in a reputation as someone who puts an end to squabbles among the noble children to the table than as someone who is really good at running.

Onto my general statement: quite frankly, I don't see why boosts to our own intrigue are considered as something that will help out Eurydice incredibly here. She's a kid, and her intrigue is basically garbage as it stands now. The best defense she has going for her is making sure that people who are actually more intrigue-inclined and already developed among her servants are willing to protect her, and the option that best goes with that is boosting diplomacy. When she gets to the point that she can actually select her own staff and the like it'll be good to have a decent intrigue stat to determine who's good and who's not, but that's not going to be the case until we can convince the regent to devolve that responsibility.

 

[Cavalier]

Well.

There's a lot of good discussion about how you want to proceed long-term. There are mechanics related to Authority (and which disadvantage low legitimacy) that will be introduced later. Intrigue is definitely one way around the problems that might cause. There are also ways to raise Authority by a successful reign or with various decisions, and you can lose Authority due to disasters and bad decisions or unorthodox behavior. There are going to be substantial trade-offs in any case so you'll need to balance (say) loyalty versus competence or personal power versus the broader good of the realm or building Authority (and stability) against introducing changes.

I wanted a Quest that would simulate a lot of internal politicking; we'll see if I can deliver.

As to the vote here, the Focus can be changed at each "turn" of the prologue. Right now Eurydice is not old enough for intensive education; the focus is just what draws her attention the most in a given period. Obviously there are benefits to maintaining consistency, but there are also benefits to exploring around and getting a broader perspective on how things work. There's synergy with tutors but an "off" choice won't be penalized per se.

Right now if you chose Martial, for example, Eurydice would probably just be playing warrior a lot and watching the guard drill and so on.

Magic draws on different stats based on the system involved and potentially on the exact rite being invoked. Learning and Piety are by far the most common. It would be almost unprecedented to reach a point where magic can solve all your problems, or even many of them, by itself. But it can certainly help solve most problems and carries a lot of benefits on a personal level.

Also publically Eurydice is known as Princess Meritamun. I'll discuss the public name versus True Name distinction when I get into magic.

 

[force200]

[X] Intrigue
When you play the game of thones, you either win or die. Better learn how to win.

[X] Chase the cat.
This might lead to interesting things involving the godess Bast.

[X] Wade into the dispute and use your authority to distribute the toys.
Might resut in makeing new friends and/or enemies. Both mean extra opportunities for plot.

 

[Arcus]

Super quick write in, not going to flesh it out because that would take more effort than I can be bothered to spare right now.

You decide to intervene in the ongoing dispute. With all the confidence of a 5 year old, you stride over to the spot where the two girls are fighting over the boats.

"I saw it first! It's my boat!"

"No you didn't! Prove it!"

"I was already playing before you got here!"

"You didn't take the boat until I got here! That means you didn't want it!"

You draw yourself to full height and try to exert your authority. "The two of you are so noisy! If you can't decide amongst yourselves, I'll decide for you!"

"Why should we listen to you?" One of the girls asks, eyes narrowed.

"Because I'm the princess, and your li-liege!" You were rather pleased with yourself for knowing a tricky word like that, even if you stumbled on it a little. Mama even praised you.

"My father said he wasn't going to take any orders from 'that foreign blooded spawn of a witch'. I don't know what that means, but I think it means we shouldn't listen to her." One of the girls whispered to the other. It wasn't a very good whisper, since you could hear what she was saying quite clearly.

"Hey! I heard that!"

"Well, why should we listen to you then?"

"Because… because… I'll be a fair and im-impa--just and both of you will be happy!"

"Really?" One of the girls asked skeptically.

"O-of course! I'll show you!"

 

[Crow]

[X] Intrigue
[X] Chase the cat.
[X] Wade into the dispute and use your authority to distribute the toys.

Nice.

Also can we get some Diplo later? Me wants to be loved by both moms.

 

[Cavalier]

Alright, calling the vote now so I can try to get an update out tonight.

Looks like an Intrigue focus, Chasing the Cat, and Wading In win. That's certainly helpful for establishing Eurydice's character. She's looking fairly assertive/confident. But we'll see what the dice have to say.

As far as the write-ins go, I'm not going to be asking for them very often if at all. Keeping consistent characterization is important. That said, I'll give a dice bonus if the action supported by a good write-in wins the vote. If you have a bad write-in, or one that trips over stuff you don't know about that would be a factor, you'll get no bonus but I won't impose any penalties to the roll. You can also do omakes and artwork and suggest music or write about aspects of life in Ancient Egypt for a bonus to a roll.

After all, appeasing the gods is legit a way to earn good fortune. Just ask the High Priest of Atum.

PS he says giving money to the Temple of Atum is a great way to earn the favor of the gods.

 

[Cavalier]

Interregnum Years 5-6 Education Results

Despite a short attention span and frequent distraction, the tutors assigned to your care make significant progress teaching you the fundamentals of education. By the age of 6 you are fully literate in the hieroglyphs of Kemet and can do division and multiplication. You also show modest talent with weaving. Your uncanny intelligence is a source of hope to some, a surprise to most, and unnatural to others. The praise of your tutors risks making you conceited and prideful, while the Dowager Queen seems at a loss when she observes you reading a portion of the Theogony of Memphet during one of her rare visits to oversee your education. You notice her coming around more frequently afterward, to praise you and offer toys and to have servants bring you rosewater and honey sweets.

Your mother is a more frequent visitor. She clings to the shadows when she enters your rooms at night and teaches you. You are Eurydice to her, and to her alone. It is a secret that the two of you share, a real True Name instead of the false True Name Satatumpere that your aunt claimed for you. She teaches you another language that sounds harsh and guttural to your ears, and is written in a very different angular alphabet. She calls it Atlantaen, and tells you it is a distant cousin of the Mynosians who bring olive oil and wine over the dark Northern Sea to the ports of Delta province. And she teaches you to be wary of others, not to expose your true feelings and thoughts even from a very young age. She tells you to put on a mask, and though you don't really understand that now, you learn to keep your face very still and to stifle a laugh or a shiver.

+2 Stewardship, +2 Learning, +1 Intrigue
Gain Trait "Poker Face" (+1 Intrigue)
Revealed Trait "Quick" (+3 to all stats)

Cat Crossed Your Path
1D100 => 12

Of course you follow the fluffy!

It breaks out of the storeroom and runs down the corridor with your royal self in pursuit. You dodge around the legs of a servant as you chase the wayward cat further into the palace. You're through storerooms deep into the palace when eventually you lose sight of your furry objective. You finally pause in a storeroom full of flax bales and weaving equipment. You realize, suddenly, that you are completely lost and have no idea where you are or where your handmaiden is, and you didn't even get to pet the cat some more.

You briefly consider simply finding a servant and telling them that you're lost.

But you see a broken loom nearby and take the heddle to play with. It's a sword! You head out of the room and run around swatting the heddle at invisible djinn and evil barbarians, and some not-so-invisible servants. Eventually an angry steward grabs your sword and demands to know what you are doing; you command him to escort you back to your room after he turns an interesting shade of pale on hearing your name. Your handmaiden thanks him effusively when you run into her as she frantically checked a sewing chamber and swears to never turn her back on you again.

Gain Trait "Impulsive" (+1 Martial, -1 Stewardship, -1 Intrigue)

Playmates
1D100+10 => (75 + 10) = 85

You ignore the servant children running around the room and instead stride into the garden toward the toy box. There are two boys and the girl; the girl clings a reed boat tightly against her chest, while the two boys taunt her to surrender it to them. They seem to think they deserve both boats just because they're boys. That won't do at all.

You command them to silence. You, Princess Meritamun, will resolve the matter with your royal authority!

The first boy laughs, and then gets quiet when the second, somewhat older boy grabs him by the shoulder and whispers in his ear. The girl looks at you with hope. Well, how can you fairly allocate the toys? Of course they all belong to you, really, but you need an idea.

You point at the boys and challenge them to a boat race. Girls against boys! Winner gets both reed boats to play with. That's fair, right? And what are they, afraid of losing?

They consent to the race. The other girl introduces herself as Tayuheret, the daughter of Meryawy the priest of Ra. He's one of your tutors, you remember. One of the less boring ones. He tells you stories about the gods. Not the really lame ones about Atum and the Primordial Waters either, but the exciting ones about how Ra fights off the chaos-serpent Apophis each night.

The two boys set their reed boat in the pool as you come to a plan with Tayuheret. As the older boy blows the sails of the reed boat as hard as he can, as often as he can, you and Tayuheret take turns blowing the boat. He can blow harder, but together the two of you can blow the boat more often. As the older boy tires out he has to switch over to his friend, and in the interval you push ahead. Soon the boats are out of breath range, and yours has a strong lead. You and Tayuret jump up and down for joy in victory.

The older boy demands a rematch. You generously oblige, but he and the younger one cheat by stealing your idea! The nerve! They win, and you demand another match.

After the third match ends the older boy and his friend have enough fun to agree to share the boats. The elder boy gives his name as Bakenptah the son of Ipy, and the younger boy is Paneferer the son of Khereuf. Neither of the names sound familiar to you but they work from the palace so they must be important right?

You spend the rest of the day racing boats, swimming in the pool, and running around with your new friends. By the time your handmaiden makes you dry off and hustles you out of the room to your lessons you've declared everlasting amity. None of the three gainsay your word.

+1 Diplomacy
Friends: Tayuheret, Bakenptah, and Paneferer.

 

[RedV]

Martial Trait? Martial Trait.
I love this.

Friends seem pretty cool.
I'm not sure why we got much more improvement to Stewardship and Learning rather than Intrigue despite not picking them as foci. Is this about the time we can start petitioning for a Roman/Greek/Whatever war tutor? We've established that Eurydice likes swinging swords.

GM signal.

Click to shrink...

If we do a sufficiently good/long omake, can we get a new retainer or something?

 

[Kipeci]

We didn't get much more stewardship and learning than intrigue from taking the focus, we had equal in all three of those categories from the first part of the update. The problem is that we damaged it for stewardship and intrigue with the pointless cat expedition and gave her that reckless streak, not unexpected from ditching the safety of our caretakers to go off alone for no good reason. If you're asking why the other stuff was as good as our intrigue education, it probably has to do with the inclinations of our tutors... scribes and our magician mother are going to appreciate learning, and the scribes and the priests are going to want Eurydice to be a decent administrator of the land in order to make sure the kingdom continues to be prosperous.

It seems to have gone pretty well from the toy distribution. It's a good thing we got some friends in place with great family for at least one of them, that connection-forming is necessary for survival. The diplomacy boost didn't hurt, either, that'll help out on that front in the future.

 

[Cavalier]

Stat gain is partially random, but tutored subjects and the Focus get more chances. As it happens Stewardship and Learning rolls were just that good, while Intrigue was not. Unless you count the trait roll, which can be upgraded with further effort and luck.

I may grab a character from an omake but I'm going to stat them out myself and there's no guarantee they would remain the same. Determining who is and is not loyal or competent or corrupt is going to be a major challenge of the Quest, after all.

 

[RedV]

Cool.
Given he is a Mandarin equivalent I have no problem to being forced to kill him off later.
Killing eunuchs and Viziers is a tradition, after all.

I'll see if I can pump out the omake tomorrow, it's night here.

 

[Nervos Belli]

Hey @Cavalier, just a head's up, but you should probably threadmark the latest update.

As to the turn results, things went pretty okay. Decent stat growth, and two good traits vs one kinda bad one. Plus friends. Hopefully the Queen Mother paying more attention to us will improve the quality of our education.

 

[Cavalier]

Interregnum Years 7-9
Regent: Dowager Queen Neferet

Choose Tutors
[X] Meryawy, Priest of Ra
[X] Governess Maatneferure
[X] Your Mother

Choose Focus
[ ] Martial
[ ] Diplomatic
[ ] Stewardship
[ ] Intrigue
[ ] Piety
[ ] Learning

The Dowager Queen is around more often now that you're older and has taken more of an interest in your education. Soon after your eighth birthday though she starts coughing and coughing, and then you don't see her much the remaining year. Your Mother tells you it is a sickness of the blood and that your aunt is very ill. In the meantime the Dowager Queen has placed you in the care of her personal handmaiden, Maatneferure, who has taken over the task of transforming you into a proper lady. She is always cool and poised, ready with a treat and praise when you do well and with a switching when you slack off or misbehave. She isn't as warm as Meryawy, the priest of Ra who was your favorite tutor of the last years and remains your primary teacher for religion and mathematics and literature.

School Daze

You were glancing out of the window down on the courtyard at the soldiers drilling there when Maatneferure brought her sycamore switch down on the table. You started and looked over at her with alarm. Her mouth was set at in a stern expression. She had been talking about the essentials of a household and the types of servants a noble lady would be expected to manage. It was boring and didn't you have a eunuch for that kind of stuff anyway? Your protest to that effect did not appease her.

Instead she criticized your posture. Sit up straight, she commanded. Chin level with the floor. Her own bearing was more fluid, but she proclaimed that one must walk before running. And that you would be bearing the Double Crown before the assemblages of nobles and priests in the rites and ceremonies of office. How could you bear such weight if you could not pay attention to her for a little while?

She bade you stand as you fidgeted. She swatted your hands and had you drop them to your sides. She bent down to draw your chin up. You were to remain motionless, standing by the table. It took you some time to satisfy her. You thought back on what your mother told you about controlling your facial expressions, and you applied it being as still as you could. Your governess gave you a brief nod of approval before taking a nearby scroll and balancing it precariously upon your head.

Once you have learned patience and posture, she said, then you would be ready for many other lessons of being a lady. You should strive to be elegant and regal in everything, even your walk. She would check back on you… soon. You should stay and stand there and keep the scroll from falling off.

Of course your resolve starts wavering once Maatneferure actually leaves the room, and there's so much more interesting stuff you could be doing…

[ ] You will be an elephant elegant lady! Try to comply.
[ ] This is boring, go…
-[ ] Find Meryawy and get him to tell you a story about the gods.
-[ ] Check out the soldiers in the courtyard.
-[ ] Play with your friends.

Sick Friend

You have the afternoon to yourself and so order your handmaiden to take you to the harem pool. The morning had been less fun than usual, as Meryawy was giving math lessons instead of going over the adventures of Horus and Ra. But you looked forward to seeing Tayuheret, Bakenptah, and Paneferer and playing with the reed boats and toy soldiers and having a race around the room afterward. And you still needed to pay Paneferer back for pushing you into the pool the other day by surprise…

But when you get to the pool the other children aren't around. You pout at your handmaiden before wandering down to the wicker chest and pulling out your favorite reed boat. You float it on the pool for a while but it isn't very interesting without the other children to race. It gets boring quickly and you are already considering how to impress the eunuchs watching over the room for your amusement when Tayuheret and Paneferer are finally escorted in. You run up to them to drag them over but they aren't too enthusiastic. You get around to asking them what's wrong and inquire where Bakenptah is.

Paneferer tells you he was with them in the morning in classes with the royal scribes when he threw up. He was warm to the touch and coughing harshly before being taken home by the eunuchs. Tayuheret says that she fears he was cursed by the evil eye of a sorcerer while visiting the market yesterday. They're both feeling sad, and you can't help but worry about the situation. You're a Princess, though, and Princesses are supposed to deal with things like this.

[ ] Visit Bakenptah and bring gifts to make him feel better.
[ ] It is an evil spirit! Arrange an exorcism.
-[ ] Ask Meryawy.
-[ ] Ask your Mother.
[ ] It is just a cold. Reassure Tayuheret and Paneferer.

 

[Zaratustra]

[X] Piety
Because Magic, and we do have both a priest and our mother as tutors, so there is a lot of synergy here.
[X] You will be an elephant elegant lady! Try to comply.
Because we need this in court.
[X] It is an evil spirit! Arrange an exorcism.
-[X] Ask your Mother.
Better safe than sorry, also synergy.

 

[Kipeci]

[X] Diplomatic

I figure that what I said before stands now just as well now. We still need more friends and allies and abilities to influence people, and diplomacy is still the best carriage through which to achieve it. Focusing on piety will help to eliminate weaknesses, sure, but I'd like to establish a clear strength in some area of skill before rounding out the rougher edges.

[X] You will be an elephant elegant lady! Try to comply.

It's dangerous to impulsively wander off, both for the switching we'll be sure to gain and the opportunities others will gain to do us harm out of the watch of our staff. Hopefully, this will prod our character towards a greater patience which might just be able to cancel out that nasty trait from before... at any rate, developing a poise that can be held despite the difficulty of the situation will especially help our woman main character to be taken more seriously as well as to help in shielding reactions so that Eurydice is not read very easily. This seems to be a decent option to take.

[X] It is an evil spirit! Arrange an exorcism.
-[X] Ask Meryawy.

I think that this is a pretty solid option. It doesn't potentially expose Eurydice to what could be a nasty illness (the sick are removed from the palace for a reason), and it doesn't set up Eurydice to be a liar to her friends if it turns out to be something very serious after all. Meryawy is likely going to be the best authority around regarding evil spirits, so talking to her about this is probably a pretty good way to get a look into how spirits of disease fit in with the theology. Even if she says that it won't work out that way, that demonstration of royal concern can easily lead to greater attention regarding the care of the boy.