IRL this would be a bad deal: if they're doing this they aren't really earning actual money, which makes them utterly dependent on the boss (us) to get anything (food, clothing, services). Unless everyone gets that "stipend for living here", and not just Haru's family?
Pretty much the biggest cost of living for a family involves either food or rent. They no longer have to worry about that. Plus we have an economy of scale when it comes to purchasing things like large amount of food plus storage seals.
That mean the people who live on our estate can afford to focus on "luxuries" and other goods and services that traditionally couldn't be afforded by mere civilians.
There's something I want to get a broad pulse on before I type up a thousand+ word plan based on a book on developmental economicsbefore we become God and nothing matters, or failing Him at least Uriel before we begin planning in earnest for the next year and a half:
On a scale from -5 to 10, how much do you all want to mess with changing/modernizing the world economy and governing structure?
-5 being "I will actively campaign against anything related to actively messing with the economics/politics/governing structures of the world", 0 being "I'm indifferent and could be swayed by a deal", 5 being "I will choose to vote for such plans, optimize such plans, and campaign for such plans", and 10 being "I'll literally submit a plan every cycle to do something."
As we are now? -2
We're simply too weak, and trying to modernize change the world now in the timeframe of an year and an half end would probably ends with the other villages attacking us/Acute case of ninjutsu poisoning.
Trying to grow our personal power/preparing the terrain for doing so/recruit minions to change the world? +5
Also, we should bring Haru in the conspiracy(Uplift) and see if Minori(?)(The Jonin that survived the Akatsuki Battle) is still alive
Loved the update! Lots of great worldbuilding and subtle/not-so-subtle degrees of uplfit acceptance. It's always fun to get out of Hazou's head for a moment and get a different perspective on what we're actually accomplishing. #feelsgood
Speaking of Hazou, I think you may have flipped the names a bit at the end of the chapter.
Loved the update! Lots of great worldbuilding and subtle/not-so-subtle degrees of uplfit acceptance. It's always fun to get out of Hazou's head for a moment and get a different perspective on what we're actually accomplishing. #feelsgood
Nope. As a ninja and also one of the inmost members of the ninja who are the Gōketsu (inmost because there's only a handful), Haru is entitled to the term 'Lord'. Since Haru is a ninja, his father, father's girlfriend, and father's girlfriend's children are therefore entitled to a moving bonus and (as head of the civilian household) his father is entitled to a weekly stipend.
There probably should have been a stipend for Haru but I didn't think to mention it.
IRL this would be a bad deal: if they're doing this they aren't really earning actual money, which makes them utterly dependent on the boss (us) to get anything (food, clothing, services). Unless everyone gets that "stipend for living here", and not just Haru's family?
This is (unfortunately), still a pretty good deal IRL. Mapping it over here, you basically get (in exchange for parent or parents of the family working one full time job, lets say):
-Free room and board for your family in a major metropolitan area with good living conditions.
-Dining hall access to nutritious/healthy meals
- Free healthcare
- Free equivalent of community college/night school/trade school/super expensive private school education for you and your children.
That's still a pretty good deal if you don't have some sort of support network (i.e. living with parents/family ) to rely on.
In universe, this is ultra solid, to the extent that I'm surprised at how ultra solid it is. The in-universe specifics may be a bit off: they may be working 9-10 hour days of tiring work hauling junk or something before going to night school, but OTOH that sort of education would be literally inaccessible to them or their kids otherwise. Ditto for the healthcare.
I wonder if we could create new bloodlines by experimenting with the chakra from chakra beasts? Or from tailed beasts. I mean, pseudo-jinchuuriki are a thing in canon, so they might be a thing in MfD. Or maybe tailed beast chakra has a sort of mutagenic radiation that kills/damages most people but in some of those exposed to it, it causes beneficial (or just non-fatal) changes? As for the chakra beasts, Velorien hinted that drawing chakra from animals might have side effects... so maybe this? Or maybe Orochimaru might have some ideas. I mean, the Cursed Seals from canon are almost like bloodlines.
This is (unfortunately), still a pretty good deal IRL. Mapping it over here, you basically get (in exchange for parent or parents of the family working one full time job, lets say):
-Free room and board for your family in a major metropolitan area with good living conditions.
-Dining hall access to nutritious/healthy meals
- Free healthcare
- Free equivalent of community college/night school/trade school/super expensive private school education for you and your children.
That's still a pretty good deal if you don't have some sort of support network (i.e. living with parents/family ) to rely on.
In universe, this is ultra solid, to the extent that I'm surprised at how ultra solid it is, The in-universe specifics may be a bit off: they may be working 9-10 hour days of tiring work hauling junk or something before going to night school, but OTOH that sort of education would be literally inaccessible to them or their kids otherwise. Ditto for the healthcare.
Just to be clear : it's a deeply flawed deal that you shouldn't accept if you have any other choice, even IRL.
This sort of system has the potential to become incredibly exploitative very, very fast.
This sort of system puts the employees utterly under the power of the boss who runs everything, and even if we disregard "the boss is malicious" situations (the boss controls what you have access to and can use this to put pressure on you: "the boss sleeps with the daughters of his workers because otherwise they'd instantly lose their home and the clothes on their backs and they have zero savings or friends outside the community from which the boss just evicted them" used to happen IRL, after all) this sort of system doesn't actually provide everything the employees need to live and doesn't provide them with money to get it either.
Wow, that was an ugly and run-on sentence. Does it make sense?
To elaborate:
You will need money, because you will need things that fall outside of this system. For example, clothes every few years, even if you're living very frugally and don't want luxuries of any sort.
How will you get this money? You can't work a second job, you're busy working around the compound for the boss who you're dependent upon in every way. You don't have much to trade (neither items nor valuable skills), especially if you were born and raised within this system.
So what can you do? Basically, beg. Or sell the small amount of labor you have left over, doing small jobs for pocket change (reading stories to wealthier kids, things like that).
Obviously such a system is better than being homeless and dying of hunger on the streets, but it's definitely fundamentally flawed. Well, unless the employees had rights guaranteed by an external justice system and the employer provided them with absolutely everything, precisely planned and tailored to each individual...
I know that the barrier to entry for BioSealing is stupidly high (medical knowledge, sealing expertise, questionable experiments, etc) but a part of me really, really wants to see what we can do with it! But I'm not sure that Hazou's morals would allow for that.
...I wonder if we could sway Honoka towards BioSealing without putting her moral compass/personality through a blender?
Obviously such a system is better than being homeless and dying of hunger on the streets, but it's definitely fundamentally flawed. Well, unless the employees had rights guaranteed by an external justice system and the employer provided them with absolutely everything, precisely planned and tailored to each individual...
Just to be clear : it's a deeply flawed deal that you shouldn't accept if you have any other choice, even IRL.
This sort of system has the potential to become incredibly exploitative very, very fast.
This sort of system puts the employees utterly under the power of the boss who runs everything, and even if we disregard "the boss is malicious" situations (the boss controls what you have access to and can use this to put pressure on you: "the boss sleeps with the daughters of his workers because otherwise they'd instantly lose their home and the clothes on their backs and they have zero savings or friends outside the community from which the boss just evicted them" used to happen IRL, after all) this sort of system doesn't actually provide everything the employees need to live and doesn't provide them with money to get it either.
Wow, that was an ugly and run-on sentence. Does it make sense?
To elaborate:
You will need money, because you will need things that fall outside of this system. For example, clothes every few years, even if you're living very frugally and don't want luxuries of any sort.
How will you get this money? You can't work a second job, you're busy working around the compound for the boss who you're dependent upon in every way. You don't have much to trade (neither items nor valuable skills), especially if you were born and raised within this system.
So what can you do? Basically, beg. Or sell the small amount of labor you have left over, doing small jobs for pocket change (reading stories to wealthier kids, things like that).
Obviously such a system is better than being homeless and dying of hunger on the streets, but it's definitely fundamentally flawed. Well, unless the employees had rights guaranteed by an external justice system and the employer provided them with absolutely everything, precisely planned and tailored to each individual...
If you translate this one too literally into IRL contexts it basically becomes "Join a cult that pays for stuff for you", so yeah. Its terrible to take as written, of course.
Primarily, my point is that a similar offer modulo weird cultural contextual stuff is still pretty decent depending on some slight tweaks. The (pretty much inescapable) cultural context in character mostly coming down to:
This sort of system has the potential to become incredibly exploitative very, very fast.
This sort of system puts the employees utterly under the power of the boss who runs everything
Welcome to ninja-deathworld, where the superpowered elite soldier-class can pretty much get away with anything up to and including literal murder except sometimes in this one city... sorta kinda...if they happen not to be nobility ...or decently important with a good lie... Enjoy the screaming in Kagome :/
E: And I am assuming we're not literally working these people from dawn to dusk. While working two jobs really sucks, theres still a lot of room for them to use free time and their new skillsets to earn some cash.
Translate into our world and cutting away any weird culty aspects, this isn't too dissimilar to "Full time job to cover basic living expenses, this job pays for tuition or certifications at [insert community college/whatever], you have another job (full or part time) to accrue savings."
(Now, there is a large reason I prefaced this comparison with an "unfortunately", which is another bag of worms , various aspects of which I can literally rant on about for a few hours, which I'd rather not get into.)
(Now, there is a large reason I prefaced this comparison with an "unfortunately", which is another bag of worms , various aspects of which I can literally rant on about for a few hours, which I'd rather not get into.)
This is (unfortunately), still a pretty good deal IRL. Mapping it over here, you basically get (in exchange for parent or parents of the family working one full time job, lets say):
-Free room and board for your family in a major metropolitan area with good living conditions.
-Dining hall access to nutritious/healthy meals
- Free healthcare
- Free equivalent of community college/night school/trade school/super expensive private school education for you and your children.
That's still a pretty good deal if you don't have some sort of support network (i.e. living with parents/family ) to rely on.
In universe, this is ultra solid, to the extent that I'm surprised at how ultra solid it is. The in-universe specifics may be a bit off: they may be working 9-10 hour days of tiring work hauling junk or something before going to night school, but OTOH that sort of education would be literally inaccessible to them or their kids otherwise. Ditto for the healthcare.
Had a thought: Haru kinda reminds me of a young Jiraiya, before Hiruzen picked him up and ironed out that misdirected anger.
Anyhow: So jutsu submissions have a whole section in the rules, bloodlines are meant to be relatively niche and singular in their application, but the rules don't really say anything specific about potential seal submissions, so I'm going for a relatively restrained one.
"Slowdown" Seal
A one-tag seal that, when activated, slows down all movement within its area of effect (5 meters) by a minor amount. This slowdown effect lasts for several minutes. The seal does not discriminate between friend or foe, but prior application of the counterseal can nullify the effects. This seal was made relatively early in Jiraiya's career as both a prank on Orochimaru and also an experiment in AOE seals and counterseals.
"Screw You Orochimaru" Counterseal
A one-tag seal. Counters the effects of "Slowdown Seal" and has no effect beyond the AOE range of the Slowdown Seal. Made in part to prank Jiraiya's teammate and in part to experiment with styles of AOE effects and counterseals. If one squints their eyes hard enough and tilts their head, it kinda looks like a raised middle finger --if the observer is being generous.
Thank you @eaglejarl! Loved the most recent post. Haru being on the back foot isn't something we get to see enough (same with Compassionate!Haru towards the step-sibs), appreciate him being flushed out from the howling abyss rage machine.
Also, I like the balance with the compound/uplift. I know the QMs don't want to play civ quest, and the hivemind is more pro-leaning, so chapters like this strike a good balance for me. We get to see plans and ideas we've voted on, or just talked about, or just come from what we've been doing, and see that it's making a difference. And you don't get infrastructure plans every other vote. Everyone wins. Especially the civilians!
Incidentally everyone, next time (if she ever does again) Tsunade visits, think we'll get a smidgen of respect for finally walking the walk a bit?
IRL this would be a bad deal: if they're doing this they aren't really earning actual money, which makes them utterly dependent on the boss (us) to get anything (food, clothing, services). Unless everyone gets that "stipend for living here", and not just Haru's family?
Or maybe every family tries to have one person who works for actual money, to supplement what they get from us. That could work too (but then we could have problems if someone is alone, or if a family can't have someone who can do that for some reason).
I'd say that's not necessarily fair, since room, board, medical, and education for labor with the ability to leave is a better deal than most people have even by today's standards.
(Edit: MMKII beat me to saying things and said them better.)
This is (unfortunately), still a pretty good deal IRL. Mapping it over here, you basically get (in exchange for parent or parents of the family working one full time job, lets say):
-Free room and board for your family in a major metropolitan area with good living conditions.
-Dining hall access to nutritious/healthy meals
- Free healthcare
- Free equivalent of community college/night school/trade school/super expensive private school education for you and your children.
That's still a pretty good deal if you don't have some sort of support network (i.e. living with parents/family ) to rely on.
In universe, this is ultra solid, to the extent that I'm surprised at how ultra solid it is. The in-universe specifics may be a bit off: they may be working 9-10 hour days of tiring work hauling junk or something before going to night school, but OTOH that sort of education would be literally inaccessible to them or their kids otherwise. Ditto for the healthcare.
Tsunade, being the ultimate tsundere, would not show any respect either way, but I think she'd at least appreciate that there's one more batch of people out trying to fix the world instead of break it.
This is (unfortunately), still a pretty good deal IRL. Mapping it over here, you basically get (in exchange for parent or parents of the family working one full time job, lets say):
-Free room and board for your family in a major metropolitan area with good living conditions.
-Dining hall access to nutritious/healthy meals
- Free healthcare
- Free equivalent of community college/night school/trade school/super expensive private school education for you and your children.
That's still a pretty good deal if you don't have some sort of support network (i.e. living with parents/family ) to rely on.
In universe, this is ultra solid, to the extent that I'm surprised at how ultra solid it is. The in-universe specifics may be a bit off: they may be working 9-10 hour days of tiring work hauling junk or something before going to night school, but OTOH that sort of education would be literally inaccessible to them or their kids otherwise. Ditto for the healthcare.
Regarding the housing deal, you should remember that we aren't just giving free healthcare, food and education, we are giving it in levels that are pretty much unobtainable by almost any civilian in this society who isn't a noble, accomplished trader, important civil servant, or being personally supported by a jōnin.
And we aren't asking for people to give up their prior savings or professions. So at worst they leave with what they came with, plus the burden of going back to their old standard of living after having gotten used to relative luxury. Which is definitely harsh and gives the Goketsu a lot of leverage, but not really more than any noble clan already has over any peasant by default and without providing anything other than protection.
@eaglejarl@Velorien With Hazō being the final judge and arbiter on the land and there being a village-sized population for several weeks under his oversight, what has been the worst case he had to pass judgement on?
Also, what's the difference in stipend between a random ninja and Haru? And when did we change from tax rebate through "gambling" to an actual guaranteed stipend?
Also, what's the difference in stipend between a random ninja and Haru? And when did we change from tax rebate through "gambling" to an actual guaranteed stipend?
So one thing we can do to prep work for scroll hunt is to track down ninjas and merchant that have been in the area. Get everything we can that might be helpful
To copy another sealmaster's seals, you have to strip it down to its most basic parts and then "translate it" into your own "language"
Kagome and Jiraiya are two different sealmasters and, therefore, have different "languages"
My question is this: is Hazou proficient enough in Sealing to translate other sealmaster "languages" into his own? Kagome's a sealmaster with a mastery of his own "language" and he's a damned good cryptologist on top of that, so it's not unlikely that Kagome finds "translations" to be relatively easy --if not a little fun. But is Hazou skilled enough with his sealing to "translate" other seals?
Furthermore: if we found working Bioseal notes/seals, would we need to have Biosealing specific knowledge in order to translate them, or would a sufficiently advanced sealing knowledge be enough to decode and "translate" a working Bioseal? Would it be possible, but with a minor penalty to the decryption without the Biosealing knowledge? I mean, it's a working seal, so it's not as though we're trying to tread new area.
To copy another sealmaster's seals, you have to strip it down to its most basic parts and then "translate it" into your own "language"
Kagome and Jiraiya are two different sealmasters and, therefore, have different "languages"
My question is this: is Hazou proficient enough in Sealing to translate other sealmaster "languages" into his own? Kagome's a sealmaster with a mastery of his own "language" and he's a damned good cryptologist on top of that, so it's not unlikely that Kagome finds "translations" to be relatively easy --if not a little fun. But is Hazou skilled enough with his sealing to "translate" other seals?
Furthermore: if we found working Bioseal notes/seals, would we need to have Biosealing specific knowledge in order to translate them, or would a sufficiently advanced sealing knowledge be enough to decode and "translate" a working Bioseal? Would it be possible, but with a minor penalty to the decryption without the Biosealing knowledge? I mean, it's a working seal, so it's not as though we're trying to tread new area.
The trick here is that 'translating' is just 'researching' with reference material. It's not that you look at another sealmaster's seal and try to find some way to port what they did over to your language as much as it is you seeing what their seal does and trying to recreate it from scratch in your language - except that you can study how they did it in their language to get some insight on the structuring and stuff, making it easier to do your from-scratch research.
Mechanically all it boils down to is that if you have a copy of the desired seal you get a bonus on your research rolls, which means Hazou can 'translate' any seal he could research on his own plus a few just a little too difficult for him to research on his own.
Biosealing we know very little about. Having MedKnow is probably required, and imo we'll be lucky if we don't have to buy a whole new Biosealing skill to represent how fundamentally different it is from the regular Sealing tradition. Insofar as translating goes it's still the same situation of 'you're making a seal from scratch, here's a reference to how someone else did it to give you a few pointers'. If Hazou wants to translate a bioseal he'll need enough biosealing skill to at least almost do it on his own, but perhaps if he finds a non-bioseal project sufficiently similar to a bioseal he's found, he might be able to retain some of that bonus as he ports the effect from bioseal traditions over to paper traditions.
This bloodline is of the optical variety. Wielders of this bloodline are able to see into the "soul" of the person they look at. The truest depths of personality of the target of observation are expressed by an optical illusion --most often draped over the person's shoulders or in their shadow. For example, a saboteur/spy might be exhibited as a snake hiding amongst grass, or a wolf clad in a sheep's pelt. A motherly person might be expressed as a hen warming her eggs, glaring balefully at the world. A reluctant ninja might be symbolized as a bloodstained bird in a gilded cage.
This bloodline cannot be lied to and the optical illusions --seen only by the bloodline wielder --are tied to the wielder's opinions. This bloodline's symbolism is based upon the opinions of the wielder. So if the wielder is of the opinion that beetles are the purest symbol of purity and innocence, then a newborn child's mantle might be seen as a beetle. The Soulsight Bloodline cannot be lied to, seeing through masks, facades, and self delusion as we might see through a clear river to the riverbed.
A Soulsight-bearing ninja is not born with an innate understanding of their own illusions. They might see the "beetle" on the baby's shoulders, but if they are inexperienced with their bloodline, then they may or may not understand what it is that they're seeing. "Seeing" and "understanding" are two different things.
Soulsight ninja tend to be specialized socially, often serving as diplomats, advisors, or trusted secretaries. Because of the forced sympathy that is inherent in seeing the truth of an enemy's soul, Soulsight ninja tend not to do well in saboteur/spy roles --save for those few ninja that are born with too little heart and too great a thirst for blood or those few that are born with something... missing from their soul, but those scant few ninja are not found solely in the Soulsight numbers.
Edit:
Possible Mechanics:
Empathy, Deception, Intimidation, Persuasion, and other Social Stats are half-cost? (thanks @Sentient Tree)
Aspect Bonus to Empathy Rolls (tag: I can see your soul?) (thanks @Sentient Tree)
Toggle on/off
High Chakra Drain
Toggle On is Highly Noticeable
Penalty against Fire Jutsu and Bright Lights
Overuse causes debilitating, multi-day migraines
Cooldown for Ninjutsu use after Bloodline Deactivation
