I'm not sure what you are asking.
1) Again, ask questions in the thread. You want to know about stuff, ask about it in the thread and I'll answer them here. Ask me the questions in the discord and I'll answer them there. Don't ask me any questions and you don't find out until the information is relevant to the update.
2) Fair. I'll acknowledge Urth set things up to benefit whether she got peace or war.
3) I make it so that they only operated at limited effectiveness unless they are being opposed by another Hero or Genius. For example, a Martial Hero like Urth is effectively downgraded to Excellent Martial unless going up against another Hero. Incidentally, this is why I didn't mention that the Caradysh had a Diplo Hero because she was operating at Excellent Diplo rather than Heroic Diplo.
Each Immortal Hero/Genius also reduces your chance of generating a Great Person, immortal or not. Right now, the Caradysh are effectively incapable of getting a Genius, even via a random event and they have very low chances of getting a Hero.
4) The Caradysh previously knew about the Maradysh culture and values from when Urth infiltrated and took a guess that they hadn't changed to much since. The Main Turn they sent the peace offer, they also begin to influence the more 'barbarian' half of the Maradysh using what was effectively a Trade Expedition since that is your diplo action at the moment. They also send his Diplo Daughter to the lowlands to form connections with them. In the following Mid Turn when you rejected his peace offer, he used both of his Mid Turn actions to send two trade expeditions to the Maradysh 'barbarians' and the lowlander tribes.
5) Hmm, I suppose it does like that on that map. I may need to update it. For now, I'll state that since the Maradysh have expanded, their southern lands are east of the most northern parts of the Cursed Forest. As for the scouting/trading to the lowland options, I can see how you might feel that way. It isn't my personal stance, but I'll acknowledge that it is a valid position to hold on the matter.
Urth did infiltrating the Maradysh and learning about the Maradysh and Arthwydish cultures before she attacked Greenbay. She also did the majority of work for her blessing before beginning to infiltrate the Maradysh as the Blessing of Arthryn was the final piece she went for with the Blood of Evalyn being a bonus she went for after she learnt about it from the Maradysh. Furthermore, Urth completed the blessing a turn early because she got a crit so she got it done quicker than she would have otherwise.
You don't know.
Urth wasn't guaranteed to win. He could have failed his infiltration of Greenbay. Brys or Gwyn could have spotted the trap he set for them. Urth could have taken longer to make his blessing. You could have attacked the Cursed Forest again with the reminder of your troops at the price of heavy losses and leaving yourself open to attack. You could have attacked last main turn instead of settling or study metal. All of this would have their prices, but you could have come closer to defeating Urth. As things are, you have left Urth alone and given him time to prepare and plot another plan to deal with you so now Urth is in a better position and is harder to defeat.
No because it is a dumb idea to expect it to be a magic button that will save the day and this request is nothing more than needless salt.
This is nonsense. You have had plenty of opportunity to explore and do other things. You could have pursued the Caradysh after Urth's defeat instead of deciding to go for the extended megaproject. You could explored or expanded back then.
Yes, there have been times when I have made a decision instead of leaving up to a player vote. That is my right as QM and I am under no obligation to leave everything up to a vote for the players to decide. I have made it up clear upfront you are only influencing and guiding the civ in the broad stokes and most of what happens in the quest is depending on factors beyond your control and your civ won't be directly control by the players and will make its own decisions based on what path you have guided them down.
You can call that railroading, but it is just complaining that you don't have micro-management and don't get to decide everything. This quest has NPC characters who can make their own decisions without the players voting on it and sometimes they do that because I don't want to bog things down by leaving everything up to a vote.
But you didn't just complain about that. Instead, you claimed that everything apart from a few actions has been me railroading the players
I didn't force the players to go for the extended megaproject when the Epic Age ended. I have forced the players to focus on keeping the Maradysh as a vassal and I didn't force you to get them as a vassal in the first place. I haven't stopped you from exploring the lowlands or anywhere else. I haven't stopped you from expanding. I didn't force you to keep put Bronwyn on the throne. I didn't force you to get a marriage alliance with the Maradysh. I didn't force you to restore the personal union with the Maradysh. I didn't force you to go for a non-hereditary government. I haven't kept you from trading with the nomads or lowlanders. I haven't forced you to study metal or magic when you have or stopped you from doing so when you didn't. I didn't force you to complete the temple. I didn't force you to reject the Caradysh's peace offer.
Take this last vote for a example. I expected the thread to realise that you were limited in your ability to fight the Caradysh and kill Urth so you would take a peace, temporary or not, in exchange for some goodies and use the time to expand, build infrastructure or whatever the thread decided, especially since there were enough clues to figure how what the Caradysh would do if you rejected their offer. To my surprise, the thread to vote for war despite some posters figuring out that Urth would do what he has did and you having limited ability to hurt Urth whilst waging war limits your ability to do other things.
But hey, I am totally force the thread to vote for all of the options that they have chosen. Or perhaps you can hold yourself and your fellow posters responsible for their choices instead of whining that you have been railroaded for vast majority of the quest.
So please explain to me how Urth was able to steal Brys' body and none of her targets survived. Explain to me how her blessing isn't limited to the female gender and is distinctly obvious when anyone has it. Explain to me how the Arthwyd have accepted the Caradysh's peace deal and ended the current hostilities between them. Explain to me why only half of the Maradysh are rebelling while the other half is firmly in your camp and are against the Caradysh.
The Maradysh have been terrible vassals. Even beyond your initial relationship being bad for future relations, their culture makes them hard to diplo due to how charity and outside help are viewed as weaknesses and the fact that your cultures are so different makes matters even worse. The Arthwyd making a loyal vassal of the Maradysh is a hard thing to do because in many respects, they are opposites. The Arthwyd are strongly communal while the Maradysh are strongly familial. The Arthwyd are deeply religious while the Maradysh are irreligious and dismissive of spiritual matters. The Arthwyd are tolerant and accepting of many things while the Maradysh expect you to confirm to the strict expectations of society.
Despite this, you have made progress over the centuries despite a rocky relationship that has gone back and forth over the generations. Note how the Maradysh are divided into two camps, the Arthrynite Maradysh which are loyal to you and follow a lot of your ways versus the more traditional Maradysh who are opposed to the Arthwyd more than they are to
the Caradysh.
As for the Caradysh causing a revolution in a single turn, I wouldn't call either part of that true. What
the Caradysh has done is less of a revolution and more identifying a flashpoint amongst the Maradysh and took time to ignite it in addition to sending in the lowlanders to cause more trouble. T
he Caradysh did this by finding out about the Maradysh culture when they infiltrated them and make a guess that their culture wouldn't have changed too much over the century. So they sent a trade expedition to the Maradysh to get on the good side of the Maradysh barbarians, a trade expedition to the lowlander tribes to get on their good side alongside sending the peace treaty and then using their goodwill,
the Caradysh used another part of trade expeditions during their midturn to ignite the flashpoint within the Maradysh culture to get the current conflict when you rejected their peace offer.
The Caradysh took three turns and five actions to get ignite a civil war using temporary goodwill and a disregard for developing long-term good relations with either the lowlanders or Maradysh.
That would be due to the perception of the current conflict. A large portion of the Arthwyd currently feel that the Maradysh civil war is only a thing because the Cadlon foolishly rejected the Caradysh's generous peace offer and that if they had accepted it instead of being stubborn and prideful, the current loss of life could have been avoided. So while the Caradysh may be at fault for their actions in starting this and the barbarians need to be stopped, you got a Stability and Legitimacy hit from members of the Arthwyd blaming the Cadlon for not avoiding this by accepting the Caradysh peace deal.
Since they are not being directly attacked and there is a general belief this could have been avoided if the Cadlon accepted a generous peace offer instead of continuing a pointless war so instead of uniting against an outside foe, they are already blaming unpopular leaders for making a decision that was harmful to the People for no good reason.
The Arthrynite Maradysh are considered part of the People, but you won't get a stability hit for not helping them if they hold their own. If they begin to lose and you haven't been helping them, the Arthwyd will feel that their leaders have been failed to protect members of the People.
So if you don't help, no effect if the Arthrynite Maradysh continue to win, but if they start to lose, you will take a stability and legitimacy hit.
Traditional Maradysh burial rites consist of burying the body if you got time and respect the person, but if you don't care about them, just dump the body out of the way. This is due to the Maradysh being a harsh culture that doesn't really care for the spiritual and are more focused on everyday life.
The barbarian Maradysh still hold to this, but the Arthrynite Maradysh begun the burial rites of the Arthwyd as part of them properly converting through some continue to follow the old ways.
The Arthwyd get to elect their leaders. That doesn't automatically equals the players being able to pick the players of the Arthwyd. Despite your misbelief otherwise, you don't get to vote on every last thing.
Furthermore, this is factually wrong as the players didn't vote Morbyn, Verfyl or Arwyd to be the Cadion or Cadlon so it isn't just Brys.
Yeah, this is a load of nonsense since I never said this and this is neither you making an unfounded assumption or making stuff up.
You aren't making a valid comparison. While you have been at war with the Caradysh, you never been able to send a trade expedition to them and since you are currently at war with the barbarian Maradysh and the lowlander tribes, you can't trade with them until the war is over.
What happened with the Caradysh peace offer is that they approached you, which is fundamentally different to you approaching them. The Caradysh sent overtures of peace via proxy and you listened to them rather dismiss their diplomats out of hand. If the lowlanders sent diplomats to speak with you, you would listen to them just as you did with the Caradysh.
I'll give a detailed answer when I have access to all of my notes.
