[X] continue as we did, the loss of power is regrettable but you need numbers. (Reduces the power of step 1 cultivator's and their chance at succeeding in their tribulation).
Distant Stars. (a WH40K/Xianxia civ Quest).
- Thread starter uri
- Start date
Mid turn 1: In the stroke of a quill.
The sound of shuffling paper rebounded throughout your throne room.
The big, decorated room is empty save for you and Netik, your steward.
Currently, you're reading the reports Netik and his subordinates prepared for you at speeds beyond mortality, absorbing and contemplating the new information in the blink of an eye.
For anyone else it would take hours to sift through all the information, for you it will take less than ten minutes and only because you need to be careful your claws won't rip the paper.
So far, nothing seems out of the ordinary, the reports encompassing everything from the expense for the place cooks to damage assessment for the flood around Netrak far to the south and how it'll affect your budget.
You continue reading in silence for another minute or so, until you reach a particular page.
Your gaze rises from the pepper to look at Netik who up until this point was quietly seating in front of you at the table that was dragged to the throne room for this meeting and the large stacks of reports was currently occupying.
Your rightmost talon is tapping a certain point on the report in front of you.
"I see that you spent the reserves to increase the salary for the administrative teachers, care to share your reasoning?" you ask, handing Netik the report.
Taking it from your hand he takes a moment to read it before replaying.
"As you know, our main effort to increase the number of available administrators was the construction of a central academy and subsidies those who wished and were able to learn, everything was going as expected but just before the academy was finished, we hit a snag"
"Hmm?"
"It seemed that no Keku wished to leave a well-paying and influential job to teach. I decided that increasing the payment would be enough to solve the issue, most of it as an upfront payment. I was right"
"Well, the cost is negligible in the long run, I approve"
With that said you go continue reading the reports but are interrupted "if we are already on this subject, I have a few options I need to pass by you"
You put down the report again and give Netik your full attention.
"The training program for new administrators and bureaucrats is going well. Well, enough to stabilize the situation" he takes a small pause "but that still leaves us with a huge deficit in the manpower needed to administer the empire and something needs to be done"
"I'm assuming you have a few ideas already?" you ask.
"Yes, the first and easiest one is to decentralize, the reason we need such a large amount of bureaucrats is because with the dissolving of all former states you've decided to have a far more centralized empire"
"You think it was a mistake?"
"Your reasoning was sound, being able to more easily tap the resources of the empire to prepare for the coming the crises was the right choice, and if we do decentralize, I expect that in a few decades when the situation stabilizes, we'll centralize again"
"It isn't going to be easy, the only reason I didn't need to murder half of the ruling class to allow it is because I already did so in the war if we decentralize and then later attempt to reverse the decision, we may face heavy unrest"
"Which is why, we should only do this if you judged the price of the other proposals as too high"
The throne room is silent as you take a moment to think before speaking "very well, what other options do we have?".
"Well, the second option is to give some of the land to the nobles".
"The nobles?" you ask.
"yes".
"The same ones who still plot to kill me behind my back?"
Netik winces at the glare you give him but continues non the less "you and I both know that they can't really succeed at that and if we choose wisely, we could get a few to support us for the land we'll give them".
"Hmm… let's table it for now, what's your other proposal?" you ask.
"Well," Netik begins one of his talons scratching his neck feathers "many of your disciples have both the experience and knowledge to be good administrators"
That is an interesting proposal. He isn't wrong, many of your older disciples are around a hundred years old and have picked up many skills in that time. they could certainly serve in that role but in doing so would have less time to use for other pursuits.
Looking at Netik it seems that this was his last proposal and all that remains is for you to decide.
"I think we should ---"
[] give some lands to the nobles increasing their strength but winning a few to our cause.
[] give some of my disciple's land to administrate even though it will take a large amount of their time. (OOC: this means –1 AP in the disciple's section but as you did get enough recruitment for a +1 AP you will remain at 2 AP).
[] decentralize the empire, reducing the total amount or resources we could draw upon but more efficiently managing what we could.
"There is one other matter," Netik says after you reach a decision.
"Yes?" you assent.
"The funding for rebuilding the organizations that were shattered in the war isn't enough to fully rebuild them all, I'm already working on getting the messengers guilds up and running, it'll take some time for them to reestablish their experience but they are on the path of recovery. I need you to decide on which organization to focus next, the one I won't focus on will take more time to fully reestablish itself but we have enough funding to put them on the path to recovery".
"Ah... yes. You should focus on ---".
[] the garrison, were going to need them prepared.
[] the spy's, having eyes on the nobles will be important going forward.
The work of an emperor never stops.
Following a long day of meeting and audiencias, from diligent clerks reporting on the many matters of the empire to belligerent nobles you see them all.
The few moments of relaxation used for meditation.
The workload is heavy but your body is strong and aside from supernatural stamina, your need for sleep has been reduced by rising to the third step oh so long ago.
Unfortunately, even in the dead of night your work never ends.
You've retreated to the balcony attached to our chambers to have some peace as you go over the many reports detailing the efforts at compiling the laws of the empire.
A gentle gust of wind brings with it the cold of night, a quick stirring of your Fire pillar and the cold is banished and you can go back to reading.
The bureaucrats assigned for this project are very competent and you barely needed to correct some of the details that were either forgotten, overlooked or misremembered.
But there are a few details that are up to you alone.
The first and biggest one is how much do you want to tax the various provinces.
A high tax rate would increase poverty and unrest as the tax collector would do his best to extract the wealth out of the peasantry and common man.
But it would also give you the resources to do a lot more projects.
On the other hand, a low tax rate would decrease the ability of your government to act but would decrease unrest and might even help the economy but is that worth a lower ability to act and accomplish.
How high should the taxes be? (Choose 1).
[] Very high. Unavailable, as you expect massive revolts and famine to erupt from such a policy.
[] High- more money and more control over the economy means that bigger and better projects can be done faster but would spark a wave of unrest.
[] Medium- the compromise option, not too high but neither too low, this is the option that's been used up till now by both you and most of the previous nation states.
[] Low- reducing the tax rate would make the peasantry happy but wouldn't be healthy for your treasury.
[] Very low. Unavailable as doing so will bankrupt your treasury.
The next law that needs your personal attention is also related to taxes.
But in this case, you need to decide how much you tax the nobles (or more correctly how much you tax their personal holdings and businesses).
It's pointless to point out that any kind of taxes beyond the most symbolic ones would anger them, even if they were paying the same as before.
But even reduced, their personal holdings are large and could very much help your treasury.
There is also an opportunity here should you try to grasp it.
In some kingdoms noble families were given a reduction in their owed tax if their family members served in the army as officers and the like.
You have no need for officers yet but said law could easily be modified to allow service under your cultivator force to count.
The noble families would of course jump on the chance to learn the "secrets" of your success and most would send at least one son.
It would be a trivial thing to ensure that those trained are loyal to you (or at least the empire) over their families and over time as they inherit their holdings you'll have a loyal noble class.
Of course, as nothing is absolute you would have to assume that some would retain their loyalties and some of the nobles could train their own cultivators although you doubt, they would be even half as powerful as those train by you but still something to consider.
How much are you taxing the nobles? (Choose 1).
[] Minimal- the highest you could get without angering them, you'll still get a good amount of silver to your treasury but not much.
[] Reasonable- you'll tax them a reasonable amount, filling your treasury quite nicely but doing so will anger the nobles.
[] Service- you'll offer the nobles the chance to pay their tax in service, slowly training a loyal powerbase in the noble class but you'll still anger them as you need to have high enough taxes to push them to said service.
The next matter is one that would need to be delicately handled lest you'll face another full noble rebellion. You don't think the empire could function if it'll lose four fifths of the remaining administrators and bureaucrats of the empire.
This matter is protection for the commoners, while more than three centuries have passed since you were a normal Keku farmer you still remember that such a life is always at the mercy of the local lord who more often than not could do as they wished.
Writing down some minimal protection for the common Keku will make you beloved by the masses and go a long way to quieting any unrest -up to a point of course- but will also massively piss off the nobles.
If you don't wish to face a rebellion you must give the nobles something, preferably land.
Of course, an errant thought squashed before it could be uttered angers no one.
The common men.
[] minimal protection- write minimal protections to the common Keku, reducing the influence of the nobles and winning the masses to your side but also massively angering the nobles.
[] as it was, so its shell be- table this idea for now and come back to it in a few decades when the situation is as unstable.
The last matter is mostly a formality.
You could grant the title of Tentaku to all cultivators making them all landless nobles. This would have very little practical effect other than slightly increasing the soft powers of cultivators and even though the existing nobles wouldn't like it wouldn't lead to anything.
There is no real reason not to do it. but if you wish to give the common Keku the protection of the law against nobles it would be best to not rub salt on those wounds and do it later.
Do you grant the title of Tentaku to the cultivators under you?
[] yes.
[] no.
I wanted to have this done earlier but it just wasn't having it, anyway as there are a lot of options and they do affect one another at least some, this vote is in a plan format. As always, I'm around for question if you have any.
Hope you enjoyed.
The big, decorated room is empty save for you and Netik, your steward.
Currently, you're reading the reports Netik and his subordinates prepared for you at speeds beyond mortality, absorbing and contemplating the new information in the blink of an eye.
For anyone else it would take hours to sift through all the information, for you it will take less than ten minutes and only because you need to be careful your claws won't rip the paper.
So far, nothing seems out of the ordinary, the reports encompassing everything from the expense for the place cooks to damage assessment for the flood around Netrak far to the south and how it'll affect your budget.
You continue reading in silence for another minute or so, until you reach a particular page.
Your gaze rises from the pepper to look at Netik who up until this point was quietly seating in front of you at the table that was dragged to the throne room for this meeting and the large stacks of reports was currently occupying.
Your rightmost talon is tapping a certain point on the report in front of you.
"I see that you spent the reserves to increase the salary for the administrative teachers, care to share your reasoning?" you ask, handing Netik the report.
Taking it from your hand he takes a moment to read it before replaying.
"As you know, our main effort to increase the number of available administrators was the construction of a central academy and subsidies those who wished and were able to learn, everything was going as expected but just before the academy was finished, we hit a snag"
"Hmm?"
"It seemed that no Keku wished to leave a well-paying and influential job to teach. I decided that increasing the payment would be enough to solve the issue, most of it as an upfront payment. I was right"
"Well, the cost is negligible in the long run, I approve"
With that said you go continue reading the reports but are interrupted "if we are already on this subject, I have a few options I need to pass by you"
You put down the report again and give Netik your full attention.
"The training program for new administrators and bureaucrats is going well. Well, enough to stabilize the situation" he takes a small pause "but that still leaves us with a huge deficit in the manpower needed to administer the empire and something needs to be done"
"I'm assuming you have a few ideas already?" you ask.
"Yes, the first and easiest one is to decentralize, the reason we need such a large amount of bureaucrats is because with the dissolving of all former states you've decided to have a far more centralized empire"
"You think it was a mistake?"
"Your reasoning was sound, being able to more easily tap the resources of the empire to prepare for the coming the crises was the right choice, and if we do decentralize, I expect that in a few decades when the situation stabilizes, we'll centralize again"
"It isn't going to be easy, the only reason I didn't need to murder half of the ruling class to allow it is because I already did so in the war if we decentralize and then later attempt to reverse the decision, we may face heavy unrest"
"Which is why, we should only do this if you judged the price of the other proposals as too high"
The throne room is silent as you take a moment to think before speaking "very well, what other options do we have?".
"Well, the second option is to give some of the land to the nobles".
"The nobles?" you ask.
"yes".
"The same ones who still plot to kill me behind my back?"
Netik winces at the glare you give him but continues non the less "you and I both know that they can't really succeed at that and if we choose wisely, we could get a few to support us for the land we'll give them".
"Hmm… let's table it for now, what's your other proposal?" you ask.
"Well," Netik begins one of his talons scratching his neck feathers "many of your disciples have both the experience and knowledge to be good administrators"
That is an interesting proposal. He isn't wrong, many of your older disciples are around a hundred years old and have picked up many skills in that time. they could certainly serve in that role but in doing so would have less time to use for other pursuits.
Looking at Netik it seems that this was his last proposal and all that remains is for you to decide.
"I think we should ---"
[] give some lands to the nobles increasing their strength but winning a few to our cause.
[] give some of my disciple's land to administrate even though it will take a large amount of their time. (OOC: this means –1 AP in the disciple's section but as you did get enough recruitment for a +1 AP you will remain at 2 AP).
[] decentralize the empire, reducing the total amount or resources we could draw upon but more efficiently managing what we could.
"There is one other matter," Netik says after you reach a decision.
"Yes?" you assent.
"The funding for rebuilding the organizations that were shattered in the war isn't enough to fully rebuild them all, I'm already working on getting the messengers guilds up and running, it'll take some time for them to reestablish their experience but they are on the path of recovery. I need you to decide on which organization to focus next, the one I won't focus on will take more time to fully reestablish itself but we have enough funding to put them on the path to recovery".
"Ah... yes. You should focus on ---".
[] the garrison, were going to need them prepared.
[] the spy's, having eyes on the nobles will be important going forward.
so just some context to this vote, when you reform a shattered organization, it takes them time to fully reestablish their experience and members, and that s is portrayed by the fact that they still give half of their malus for a turn before fully reforming and so next turn the messengers and whichever organization you'll choose above are going to give half their malus before the turn after the malus disappearing.
Now, because enough was invested the organization you didn't choose is also on the path to recovery, they will give their full malus next turn, the turn after will give half of it and then in turn 4 they won't give a malus at all.
Now, because enough was invested the organization you didn't choose is also on the path to recovery, they will give their full malus next turn, the turn after will give half of it and then in turn 4 they won't give a malus at all.
The work of an emperor never stops.
Following a long day of meeting and audiencias, from diligent clerks reporting on the many matters of the empire to belligerent nobles you see them all.
The few moments of relaxation used for meditation.
The workload is heavy but your body is strong and aside from supernatural stamina, your need for sleep has been reduced by rising to the third step oh so long ago.
Unfortunately, even in the dead of night your work never ends.
You've retreated to the balcony attached to our chambers to have some peace as you go over the many reports detailing the efforts at compiling the laws of the empire.
A gentle gust of wind brings with it the cold of night, a quick stirring of your Fire pillar and the cold is banished and you can go back to reading.
The bureaucrats assigned for this project are very competent and you barely needed to correct some of the details that were either forgotten, overlooked or misremembered.
But there are a few details that are up to you alone.
The first and biggest one is how much do you want to tax the various provinces.
A high tax rate would increase poverty and unrest as the tax collector would do his best to extract the wealth out of the peasantry and common man.
But it would also give you the resources to do a lot more projects.
On the other hand, a low tax rate would decrease the ability of your government to act but would decrease unrest and might even help the economy but is that worth a lower ability to act and accomplish.
How high should the taxes be? (Choose 1).
[] High- more money and more control over the economy means that bigger and better projects can be done faster but would spark a wave of unrest.
[] Medium- the compromise option, not too high but neither too low, this is the option that's been used up till now by both you and most of the previous nation states.
[] Low- reducing the tax rate would make the peasantry happy but wouldn't be healthy for your treasury.
The next law that needs your personal attention is also related to taxes.
But in this case, you need to decide how much you tax the nobles (or more correctly how much you tax their personal holdings and businesses).
It's pointless to point out that any kind of taxes beyond the most symbolic ones would anger them, even if they were paying the same as before.
But even reduced, their personal holdings are large and could very much help your treasury.
There is also an opportunity here should you try to grasp it.
In some kingdoms noble families were given a reduction in their owed tax if their family members served in the army as officers and the like.
You have no need for officers yet but said law could easily be modified to allow service under your cultivator force to count.
The noble families would of course jump on the chance to learn the "secrets" of your success and most would send at least one son.
It would be a trivial thing to ensure that those trained are loyal to you (or at least the empire) over their families and over time as they inherit their holdings you'll have a loyal noble class.
Of course, as nothing is absolute you would have to assume that some would retain their loyalties and some of the nobles could train their own cultivators although you doubt, they would be even half as powerful as those train by you but still something to consider.
How much are you taxing the nobles? (Choose 1).
[] Minimal- the highest you could get without angering them, you'll still get a good amount of silver to your treasury but not much.
[] Reasonable- you'll tax them a reasonable amount, filling your treasury quite nicely but doing so will anger the nobles.
[] Service- you'll offer the nobles the chance to pay their tax in service, slowly training a loyal powerbase in the noble class but you'll still anger them as you need to have high enough taxes to push them to said service.
The next matter is one that would need to be delicately handled lest you'll face another full noble rebellion. You don't think the empire could function if it'll lose four fifths of the remaining administrators and bureaucrats of the empire.
This matter is protection for the commoners, while more than three centuries have passed since you were a normal Keku farmer you still remember that such a life is always at the mercy of the local lord who more often than not could do as they wished.
Writing down some minimal protection for the common Keku will make you beloved by the masses and go a long way to quieting any unrest -up to a point of course- but will also massively piss off the nobles.
If you don't wish to face a rebellion you must give the nobles something, preferably land.
Of course, an errant thought squashed before it could be uttered angers no one.
The common men.
[] minimal protection- write minimal protections to the common Keku, reducing the influence of the nobles and winning the masses to your side but also massively angering the nobles.
[] as it was, so its shell be- table this idea for now and come back to it in a few decades when the situation is as unstable.
The last matter is mostly a formality.
You could grant the title of Tentaku to all cultivators making them all landless nobles. This would have very little practical effect other than slightly increasing the soft powers of cultivators and even though the existing nobles wouldn't like it wouldn't lead to anything.
There is no real reason not to do it. but if you wish to give the common Keku the protection of the law against nobles it would be best to not rub salt on those wounds and do it later.
Do you grant the title of Tentaku to the cultivators under you?
[] yes.
[] no.
I wanted to have this done earlier but it just wasn't having it, anyway as there are a lot of options and they do affect one another at least some, this vote is in a plan format. As always, I'm around for question if you have any.
Hope you enjoyed.
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This vote is in plan format as things do in fact affect each other.
[X] One King to Rule Them All
- [X] give some of my disciple's land to administrate even though it will take a large amount of their time. (OOC: this means –1 AP in the disciple's section but as you did get enough recruitment for a +1 AP you will remain at 2 AP).
-[X] the garrison
-[X] Low
-[X] Service
-[x] minimal protection
-[X] yes
- [X] give some of my disciple's land to administrate even though it will take a large amount of their time. (OOC: this means –1 AP in the disciple's section but as you did get enough recruitment for a +1 AP you will remain at 2 AP).
-[X] the garrison
-[X] Low
-[X] Service
-[x] minimal protection
-[X] yes
From the name of the plan I'm assuming you're trying for a rebelion? Because you're giving them nothing and are pissing them off
Err, how well would we do in case of a rebellion then?
Very well, too well in fact, the problem isnt that you'll not be able to put down a rebelion, the problem is that you'll decimate the social class thats comprises about 80% of your educated work force.
Map.
All right, so the next update is being worked on but for now have this map, its not super detailed but its enough for now.
A few things, this planet is smaller than earth about 70% of its mass and more of that mass is ocean, so the total landmass is about the size of Europe +Asia+ half of Africa.
I'll tell you right now that this is the entire planet so you wont be finding any new continent (the exploretion part of this quest is saved for the spacefaring stage).
Note: the cities you see are major ones (100K+ population) I couldn't be bothered to put everything on the map for various reasons.
A few things, this planet is smaller than earth about 70% of its mass and more of that mass is ocean, so the total landmass is about the size of Europe +Asia+ half of Africa.
I'll tell you right now that this is the entire planet so you wont be finding any new continent (the exploretion part of this quest is saved for the spacefaring stage).
Note: the cities you see are major ones (100K+ population) I couldn't be bothered to put everything on the map for various reasons.
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Turn 1 end: the end of the beginning.
In your long life you have come to find that time is often subjective.
And so, as you sit in your private chambers going over the reports of the past decade it feels as if it was just yesterday you ascended to your throne.
But a decade has passed and you are now one step closer to the end.
Currently you estimate that the apocalypse will start anywhere between 9-29 decades (turns) from now.
And as your information about the crises is almost nonexistent you cannot estimate how prepared you are for the coming crisis.
And can only hope that the actions in the past decade have pushed you closer to survival.
The first matter is one of law.
With the resources invested and your personal attention to the project you can safely say that the current laws are of excellent quality taking into account regional cultures and problems to reduce friction, increase the harmonization of the empire and make administering it less of a challenge.
The only thing left to do is to spread the book to all corners of the empire. You suspect that it will take some time to make the transition, about 2 decades of it for most of the work to be done.
Your decision to lower the taxes would see the treasury reduced but already you get reports of some celebration's arising in your honor by the common Keku for both this and the granting of protection -however minor- in the eyes of the law.
- Lose "the laws of an empire" modifier and gain the "law reform" modifier for 1 turn and after then replace it with the "Book of laws (excellent)" which starts at half strength and slowly increases to its maximum potential.
- Base economic power decreases to 200 due to low level of taxation.
- Major reduction in unrest and opinion boost with the common Keku.
The second report is about the mending of the organization destroyed or vastly harmed by your conquest.
Things are going well, the messenger guilds are fully reformed and their numbers are increasing, new rest stops have also been constructed to help with the need of swiftly delivering messages and news to all parts of the empire.
Likewise, the garrisons are once again ready to stand in the defense of their home and to help with enforcing the new laws, under the command of loyal officers who fought under you in the unification war.
Recovering the spy rings will take some more time as new spy are needed to be trained wholecloth and new contacts must be found but thankfully such will not require more funding or at least not enough to come across your desk.
- The garrison and messengers shattering penalty is halved and will be completely gone by the end of next turn. Improving administrative efficiency and increasing order and security.
- The spy's will have their penalty halved at the end of next turn and the turn after will end (the penalty will go away in the start turn 4). This requires no further investment.
The next report contains worse tidings.
In the start of the decade, you have sent out hunting parties to root out any all-rebel partisan presence and to foil any action they might attempt.
Unfortunately, even with their attention focused mostly on the latter many small actions of sabotage and assassination have been carried out across the empire disturbing matters and just generally making your life your life difficult.
All culminating in the assassination of Bekbe, one of the more successful and loved governors under you.
Thankfully, many more such attempts have been foiled by the work of the hunting parties sent out.
In brighter news, with the massive reduction in unrest it seems that the rebels are having trouble in finding new recruits for their cause, so even with the relative lack of successes in rooting them out, progress has been made and their numbers are slowly but surely decreasing.
- Minor acts of sabotage and unrest have lowered economic growth, have reduced administrative efficiency and lowered taxing efficiency for the turn.
- The assassination of one of your governors has worsened the "lack of administrators" problem.
- Strength remains the same but support has fallen from very high-low depending on the location to high-non depending on location and an average of low across the provinces.
The next matter is a general report of the empire affairs.
As expected, the lack of Keku with which to rule the empire has dearly hurt any effort to meaningfully attempt at efficient and quick ruling.
But an attempt has been made all the same.
And it seems that the effort has been well placed as several trade disputes have been mediated and stopped from becoming a larger problem.
- The negative event "trade disputes" have been negated by the high funding assigned to rule the empire competently.
Your steward spent much of the decade scraping up any and all suitable Keku into the task of administering the empire.
Your decision to land your disciples and his efforts have somewhat stemmed the wound and supplied much needed labor and oversight to the empire land.
Unfortunately, rebel assassinations and the noble fiasco have wiped most of the gains made leaving you in much of the same position as you started in.
The new academy has also opened its doors and even though it needed all of the treasury reserves to do so, it now trains just barely enough new bureaucrats that the situation is at least not degrading.
- Make good progress on the "lack of administrators" problem... and then have most of it wiped away by events and choices.
- The status of the "lack of administrators" rises to stable- slight degradetion.
Over the years a small amount of funds has been directed towards the treasury to be used should delays or opportunities arise.
Your steward Netik used those funds to avoid delaying the opening of the academy from a lack of teachers.
- Negates delays due to bad roll in the "unseen ruler's" action
Knowing that you'll soon face a noble rebellion, you have devised a plan.
Under the guise of teaching the sons of noble families the secrets of cultivation, you have gathered a large amount of their sons and hairs and confined them to be used as hostages.
Predictably, not long after a rebellion erupted but with little ability to move the peasantry and most nobles refraining for the safety of their family it was crushed swiftly and mercilessly.
At the end another forth of the nobles all lie dead and the three fourth are as pissed at as they could be.
But with their sons and family members held hostage they could do little to openly possess you.
By your action you have prevented a large-scale rebellion and all it had cost you was the hatred of the current generation -and probably the next too- of nobles.
- A good roll has prevented wide scale rebellions due to your choices but you still had to strike down a fourth of the nobles.
- The "lack of administrators" problem is worsened.
- The noble opinion of you is now "hatred" and it will stay that way for at least 5 turn's.
The past decade has seen more than one advancement but alas nothing noteworthy.
- +1 advancement point
The last report is from your daughter.
She has spent the last decade organizing and overseeing the recruiting and training of four hundred and seventy-three new cultivators of the first step. If not for your decision to switch to an apprentice-master style of training she could have probably trained ten times this number.
But at least the quality of their refinement is stable and high, not as high as yours or your direct disciples but good enough.
An interesting note is that with an ability to check for talent and your low number of recruits only the best found are accepted ensuring that they will cultivate faster than their predecessors who didn't care for such things.
In the last decade seventy-nine Keku have attempted to reach the second step, three have succeeded and seventy-six have either died or been crippled.
- A net of 394 new 1st step cultivators.
- A net of 3 new 2nd step cultivators.
You have spent the last decade cultivating in the few free moments you had.
Carefully and diligently gathering the needed Qi to construct a pillar and imbuing in with the concept of teaching.
You are about hallway into your efforts to construct your sixth pillar another decade and it'll be complete.
- +1 progress to the creation of the "sixth pillar" now at (1/2).
Much of your time this decade has been dedicated to working on drafting the new laws of your empire.
A special tree that consumes Qi and a rune amplifying its effect has given you a crude way to check for one's talent.
Allowing you to focus your effort on those with a higher potential.
And with you choosing to reduce the number of disciples trained at once this has only become more important.
You have also discovered a new cultivation discipline (artificing) that holds great promise, waiting only to be grasped.
- See mid turn 1: inspartion.
And so, a decade has passed in but the blink of an eye and the end has inched ever so closer but your work is not yet done.
As there are two new matters to resolve.
First, with the empire now at least stable and on the recovery, it is time to decide what will be your focus for the foreseeable future.
There many ways you can guide the development of the empire from wide sweeping reforms to precise and fast paced developments.
[] Economic focus.
You'll have your empire focus on expanding, more farms, more roads, more cities, more trade, more population, just more of everything.
You'll do your best to ensure that the economic power of the empire grows.
Choosing this focus will open large infrastructure megaprojects to improve the empire.
[] Knowledge focus.
Knowledge will win the day and you'll ensure you have as much of it as you can. Expending the education of the masses and increasing the funding for experiments.
Choosing this focus will open different ways to gain extra advancement dice.
[] Martial focus.
The end comes and when it does you'll meet it with thunder and steel.
Choosing this focus will see you expending both the training and number of your military as well as special reforms.
[] Stabilizing focus.
Although stable and recovering, more could be done to ensure the empire's stability.
Choosing this focus increases the efforts to heal the empire's current woes.
The next is more of an opportunity than something that must be resolved.
It seems that a significant minority of your disciples have found a love of teaching the new generation and have petitioned to make it their permanent job.
Such an agreement has obvious benefits, mainly the fact that such will lead to specialization and greater experience in teaching and make them better able to train new cultivators, increasing the numbers and quality of new recruits.
Of course, this will fully occupy their time and so you will lose some of the free labor they can provide.
[] Allow the petition. (-1 AP for cultivation actions but gain a passive and growing recruitment of first step cultivators).
[] Reject the petition. (Nothing happens).
Alright so with this we finish the first turn at about 7k words. I would like to hear what people think so far, what's good, what's bad what you think can be improved and how. in general, I would apricate any and all feedback you may have.
The following vote is a regular one so no need for plans and I also don't think I need a moratorium for this (honestly at this point I think that they actually hurt engagement).
I'll update the empire sheet either later today or tomorrow when I have the time. in the mean time feel free to ask me question's and I hope you enjoyed.
And so, as you sit in your private chambers going over the reports of the past decade it feels as if it was just yesterday you ascended to your throne.
But a decade has passed and you are now one step closer to the end.
Currently you estimate that the apocalypse will start anywhere between 9-29 decades (turns) from now.
And as your information about the crises is almost nonexistent you cannot estimate how prepared you are for the coming crisis.
And can only hope that the actions in the past decade have pushed you closer to survival.
The first matter is one of law.
With the resources invested and your personal attention to the project you can safely say that the current laws are of excellent quality taking into account regional cultures and problems to reduce friction, increase the harmonization of the empire and make administering it less of a challenge.
The only thing left to do is to spread the book to all corners of the empire. You suspect that it will take some time to make the transition, about 2 decades of it for most of the work to be done.
Your decision to lower the taxes would see the treasury reduced but already you get reports of some celebration's arising in your honor by the common Keku for both this and the granting of protection -however minor- in the eyes of the law.
- Lose "the laws of an empire" modifier and gain the "law reform" modifier for 1 turn and after then replace it with the "Book of laws (excellent)" which starts at half strength and slowly increases to its maximum potential.
- Base economic power decreases to 200 due to low level of taxation.
- Major reduction in unrest and opinion boost with the common Keku.
Law reform.
"A wide scale reform is a chaotic project and it will take some time for people to get used to the new conditions and until they do, their work will suffer."
-30% administrative efficiency, increased chance of random negative events.
"A wide scale reform is a chaotic project and it will take some time for people to get used to the new conditions and until they do, their work will suffer."
-30% administrative efficiency, increased chance of random negative events.
Book of laws (excellent).
"The work of yourself and the finest servants of the empire you could have gathered, this set of law's takes into account hundreds of different factors to customize the laws to the local situation and give it some needed adaptability to handle unknown factors which may or may not pop-up"
+20% administrative efficiency, +10% tax efficiency, reduces cultural tensions, reduces unrest rise, reduced grift, reduced blot, increased responsiveness, +20% economic growth.
"The work of yourself and the finest servants of the empire you could have gathered, this set of law's takes into account hundreds of different factors to customize the laws to the local situation and give it some needed adaptability to handle unknown factors which may or may not pop-up"
+20% administrative efficiency, +10% tax efficiency, reduces cultural tensions, reduces unrest rise, reduced grift, reduced blot, increased responsiveness, +20% economic growth.
The second report is about the mending of the organization destroyed or vastly harmed by your conquest.
Things are going well, the messenger guilds are fully reformed and their numbers are increasing, new rest stops have also been constructed to help with the need of swiftly delivering messages and news to all parts of the empire.
Likewise, the garrisons are once again ready to stand in the defense of their home and to help with enforcing the new laws, under the command of loyal officers who fought under you in the unification war.
Recovering the spy rings will take some more time as new spy are needed to be trained wholecloth and new contacts must be found but thankfully such will not require more funding or at least not enough to come across your desk.
- The garrison and messengers shattering penalty is halved and will be completely gone by the end of next turn. Improving administrative efficiency and increasing order and security.
- The spy's will have their penalty halved at the end of next turn and the turn after will end (the penalty will go away in the start turn 4). This requires no further investment.
The next report contains worse tidings.
In the start of the decade, you have sent out hunting parties to root out any all-rebel partisan presence and to foil any action they might attempt.
Unfortunately, even with their attention focused mostly on the latter many small actions of sabotage and assassination have been carried out across the empire disturbing matters and just generally making your life your life difficult.
All culminating in the assassination of Bekbe, one of the more successful and loved governors under you.
Thankfully, many more such attempts have been foiled by the work of the hunting parties sent out.
In brighter news, with the massive reduction in unrest it seems that the rebels are having trouble in finding new recruits for their cause, so even with the relative lack of successes in rooting them out, progress has been made and their numbers are slowly but surely decreasing.
- Minor acts of sabotage and unrest have lowered economic growth, have reduced administrative efficiency and lowered taxing efficiency for the turn.
- The assassination of one of your governors has worsened the "lack of administrators" problem.
- Strength remains the same but support has fallen from very high-low depending on the location to high-non depending on location and an average of low across the provinces.
The next matter is a general report of the empire affairs.
As expected, the lack of Keku with which to rule the empire has dearly hurt any effort to meaningfully attempt at efficient and quick ruling.
But an attempt has been made all the same.
And it seems that the effort has been well placed as several trade disputes have been mediated and stopped from becoming a larger problem.
- The negative event "trade disputes" have been negated by the high funding assigned to rule the empire competently.
Your steward spent much of the decade scraping up any and all suitable Keku into the task of administering the empire.
Your decision to land your disciples and his efforts have somewhat stemmed the wound and supplied much needed labor and oversight to the empire land.
Unfortunately, rebel assassinations and the noble fiasco have wiped most of the gains made leaving you in much of the same position as you started in.
The new academy has also opened its doors and even though it needed all of the treasury reserves to do so, it now trains just barely enough new bureaucrats that the situation is at least not degrading.
- Make good progress on the "lack of administrators" problem... and then have most of it wiped away by events and choices.
- The status of the "lack of administrators" rises to stable- slight degradetion.
Over the years a small amount of funds has been directed towards the treasury to be used should delays or opportunities arise.
Your steward Netik used those funds to avoid delaying the opening of the academy from a lack of teachers.
- Negates delays due to bad roll in the "unseen ruler's" action
Knowing that you'll soon face a noble rebellion, you have devised a plan.
Under the guise of teaching the sons of noble families the secrets of cultivation, you have gathered a large amount of their sons and hairs and confined them to be used as hostages.
Predictably, not long after a rebellion erupted but with little ability to move the peasantry and most nobles refraining for the safety of their family it was crushed swiftly and mercilessly.
At the end another forth of the nobles all lie dead and the three fourth are as pissed at as they could be.
But with their sons and family members held hostage they could do little to openly possess you.
By your action you have prevented a large-scale rebellion and all it had cost you was the hatred of the current generation -and probably the next too- of nobles.
- A good roll has prevented wide scale rebellions due to your choices but you still had to strike down a fourth of the nobles.
- The "lack of administrators" problem is worsened.
- The noble opinion of you is now "hatred" and it will stay that way for at least 5 turn's.
The past decade has seen more than one advancement but alas nothing noteworthy.
- +1 advancement point
The last report is from your daughter.
She has spent the last decade organizing and overseeing the recruiting and training of four hundred and seventy-three new cultivators of the first step. If not for your decision to switch to an apprentice-master style of training she could have probably trained ten times this number.
But at least the quality of their refinement is stable and high, not as high as yours or your direct disciples but good enough.
An interesting note is that with an ability to check for talent and your low number of recruits only the best found are accepted ensuring that they will cultivate faster than their predecessors who didn't care for such things.
In the last decade seventy-nine Keku have attempted to reach the second step, three have succeeded and seventy-six have either died or been crippled.
- A net of 394 new 1st step cultivators.
- A net of 3 new 2nd step cultivators.
You have spent the last decade cultivating in the few free moments you had.
Carefully and diligently gathering the needed Qi to construct a pillar and imbuing in with the concept of teaching.
You are about hallway into your efforts to construct your sixth pillar another decade and it'll be complete.
- +1 progress to the creation of the "sixth pillar" now at (1/2).
Much of your time this decade has been dedicated to working on drafting the new laws of your empire.
A special tree that consumes Qi and a rune amplifying its effect has given you a crude way to check for one's talent.
Allowing you to focus your effort on those with a higher potential.
And with you choosing to reduce the number of disciples trained at once this has only become more important.
You have also discovered a new cultivation discipline (artificing) that holds great promise, waiting only to be grasped.
- See mid turn 1: inspartion.
And so, a decade has passed in but the blink of an eye and the end has inched ever so closer but your work is not yet done.
As there are two new matters to resolve.
First, with the empire now at least stable and on the recovery, it is time to decide what will be your focus for the foreseeable future.
There many ways you can guide the development of the empire from wide sweeping reforms to precise and fast paced developments.
[] Economic focus.
You'll have your empire focus on expanding, more farms, more roads, more cities, more trade, more population, just more of everything.
You'll do your best to ensure that the economic power of the empire grows.
Choosing this focus will open large infrastructure megaprojects to improve the empire.
[] Knowledge focus.
Knowledge will win the day and you'll ensure you have as much of it as you can. Expending the education of the masses and increasing the funding for experiments.
Choosing this focus will open different ways to gain extra advancement dice.
[] Martial focus.
The end comes and when it does you'll meet it with thunder and steel.
Choosing this focus will see you expending both the training and number of your military as well as special reforms.
[] Stabilizing focus.
Although stable and recovering, more could be done to ensure the empire's stability.
Choosing this focus increases the efforts to heal the empire's current woes.
A focus is -as should be obvious- what you're focusing upon, in this case it affects the kind of empire actions you get to do and vote upon, a focus lasts anywhere from 4-6 turns or until its completed.
You do get actions outside of your focus but they would be more uncommon and some actions are unique to certain focuses, for example if you choose the knowledge focus you'll get an action that lets you exchange money to advancement point/dice.
When you finish a focus, you also gain a culture point, we'll get to what they do when you get one but they basically give certain buses and maluses depending on their type and strength.
You do get actions outside of your focus but they would be more uncommon and some actions are unique to certain focuses, for example if you choose the knowledge focus you'll get an action that lets you exchange money to advancement point/dice.
When you finish a focus, you also gain a culture point, we'll get to what they do when you get one but they basically give certain buses and maluses depending on their type and strength.
The next is more of an opportunity than something that must be resolved.
It seems that a significant minority of your disciples have found a love of teaching the new generation and have petitioned to make it their permanent job.
Such an agreement has obvious benefits, mainly the fact that such will lead to specialization and greater experience in teaching and make them better able to train new cultivators, increasing the numbers and quality of new recruits.
Of course, this will fully occupy their time and so you will lose some of the free labor they can provide.
[] Allow the petition. (-1 AP for cultivation actions but gain a passive and growing recruitment of first step cultivators).
[] Reject the petition. (Nothing happens).
Alright so with this we finish the first turn at about 7k words. I would like to hear what people think so far, what's good, what's bad what you think can be improved and how. in general, I would apricate any and all feedback you may have.
The following vote is a regular one so no need for plans and I also don't think I need a moratorium for this (honestly at this point I think that they actually hurt engagement).
I'll update the empire sheet either later today or tomorrow when I have the time. in the mean time feel free to ask me question's and I hope you enjoyed.
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
[X] Stabilizing focus.
[X] Allow the petition.
[X] Allow the petition.
Counterpoint, money and administrative efficiency will also help all other projects, and we've got massive penalties to both right now.
A few ways There is an action that helps, there are a few advancements in the cultivation tech tree that could help specifically for tribulation and generally the better the quality of the cultivation the better the cultivator fares against it. (So, maintaining the high quality this turn helped there).
Also, this wasn't a bad ratio, this was a good one. 1 in 20 succeeded, you were expecting 1 in 50.
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
Is that some quality of technique or how many small ranks beyond the minimum they pushed?
Yes, to the first. there is a certain quality to the cultivation you do and it effects how much you get from every stage and as the tabulation is the same begins stronger and tougher helps.
As to the second, you don't know there aren't a lot of cultivators who reached that stage and those who do are old people (80+) that decided not to risk a tribulation but continued to push in their current step anyway… and they aren't the kind of people to take risk's so they don't attempt it. and as such you don't know if something changes because they went up a small realm.
[X] Knowledge focus.
[X] Allow the petition.
Screw it, we can appoint our own nobles later on, the current ones wont be much of a problem
[X] Allow the petition.
Screw it, we can appoint our own nobles later on, the current ones wont be much of a problem
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
Concern.
I mean, I get it, I'm usually all for diving deep into teching up, but we've barely dedicated any actions to stability, especially since we keep making moral but noble alienating choices. Having a cool ubertech castle built on a swamp seems bad.
I mean, I get it, I'm usually all for diving deep into teching up, but we've barely dedicated any actions to stability, especially since we keep making moral but noble alienating choices. Having a cool ubertech castle built on a swamp seems bad.
You'll still get actions for stability; a focus just means that from the 6-8 option you get 3-4 will be related to it and that doesn't bar it from being dull purpose and a completing more then one thing.