Or finding out how Yenyna was doing in her studies. She was such a precocious youngster, turning 15 this year and sprouting like an absolute weed for the past two years. Already she was as tall as Nokly and seemed not yet ready to fill out into full womanhood, so how much taller she would get was still an open question.
So uh...seems like metagreen playrooms might be doing A Thing.
Nokly harrumphed. He had, and while the man clearly had talent, Yenyna knew that he also had philosophical disagreements with the painter. The latest fad to sweep out of the Syffryn had been the "realist" movement, a group of painters and poets who had bent the styles and trappings of art away from the heroic and grandiose towards the mundane. To some extent Nokly was a fan, but in other ways the movement troubled him. He himself had liked to mix up the heroic and the mundane in his youth, but as his skills and tastes had matured he preferred to think of it as finding the heroic in the mundane. This latest wave of artists, they seemed to revel in utter mundanity and even wretchedness for their subjects. There was less celebration in the virtues of rural simplicity and natural beauty as there was casting the common folk in grim light, be it drudging in the fields or toiling away in dark and filthy conditions. Nokly knew that happened, even in his own kingdom despite best efforts to care for his people, but he didn't like the way some artists seemed to like to rub the faces of the powerful in it, as if it was somehow their fault for the state of the world. He at least held his tongue from personal knowledge that anyone stupid enough to speak out against this sort of thing would get the whole collective turning against him.
Realism! As art its well...art, but its art which really highlights the impact of pollution and industrial harm upon the lower classes.
Which probably would help socialism and environmentalism once Idealism rolls past. If I'm not mistaken we should have those open in the lottery for academy picks once we finish Realism OR Idealism.
Of course Yenyna had picked up his own subtle distaste and liked to wave it in his face just to annoy him. Curse the girl for picking up that trait from him!
Of course, he also had to harrumph, because if he did not express his displeasure in some way she would know that he was trying to resist and thus she would go to further effort to annoy him. He knew how the game was played.
Nokly publishes: Memoirs of a Shitposter by Anonymous
Sighing in exasperation towards her mother, Yenyna said sarcastically, "Yes, I am keeping up with the potential courts I should be expected to sell myself to."
"Yenyna!" Weihar snapped, while Nokly just brought his hand to his mouth to conceal his grin. At the withering glare from his wife he said, "Anonymous' Memoirs of a Princess, Act Two, Scene Three."
"Thank you for catching that father," Yenyna said gleefully.
Is it just me or does that sound like something Nokly might have written in his youth?
I wonder which era this was written in.
"A lot of it's the same stuff: the wars and the like, and how international relations make for shifting internal alliances for the royal courts of everyone else. Although, do you think we could go visit the Khemetri? I've been sending letters to Dorqi and she has been talking with excitement about the cooperation between our people for the new museum-academy-thing we're setting up, and how so many wondrous things are being dug up," Yenyna asked.
Nokly considered this for a long moment before he sighed and said, "Perhaps, although not for the near future. As heir your safety is paramount, and to be honest you should know how much the Khemetri worry about disease down there. Still, it may be a good idea, especially if we seek dynastic ties with Khemetri."
"I though the new prime minister was talking more about Behryvar or Styrmyr?" Yenyna asked.
"He is, mostly because the Ochruhr tossed a shoe into the gears with their political maneuvers. I don't know if we have the attention to make trouble for them, but I don't like the shape of this 'Ochro-Etalian Empire' they seem intent on building, especially if it might haul us in with the Styrmyr," Nokly noted, wrinkling his nose at the politics of it all.
"Clearly I should marry the Kielmyr Crown Prince and the Ochro-Etalians should marry into the Styrmyr and then we can all get together and form the Octo-Crown," Yenyna noted.
Sipping her tea, Weihar said evenly and primly, "It's what my side of the family did, I don't know why you barbarians can't figure this out."
"Dear, I know you kid, but remember what happened last time you brought this up?" Nokly noted, glaring at his headstrong daughter to not start shit with her mother.
"Yes husband," Weihar replied in a manner that just caused Nokly to roll his eyes. He loved the women in his life dearly, but they did so know how to annoy him.
Sigh... yeah, he had been putting it off for too many years, but he had to acknowledge that the time was almost here for the discussion of who Yenyna should marry. Part of the issue was of course that the political landscape was shifting rapidly. Would a husband from one of the prominent families within the Dual Monarchy be seen of as strengthening internal power or the People closing themselves off? Would a Behryvar or Styrmyr match be a commitment to the region or a provocation against Ochruhr ambitions? Would a Khemetri or Black Sheep prince be the solidification of ancient ties or further foreign exoticism? Whatever the choice it would be a problem in some way. Especially since there were internal issues that needed addressing.
Lets see:
-Domestic - Stability, but no alliances in a time we sorely need them. We can't afford isolationism and its awfully tempting given the cost in blood for engagement.
-Khemetri - Reinforces ancient alliance. Visibly foreign. Slavery woes.
-Black Sheep - Reinforces ancient alliance. Visibly foreign. Unstable grip on their own lands.
-Behyvar - Secures the Tortuns as a new alliance, but ground zero of the inevitable next Tortun clusterfuck. Ochruhr definitely pushed into Sketch camp.
-Styrmyr - Secures our border with the Tortun clusterfuck. Commitment into the next Tortun clusterfuck. Ochruhr likely pushed into Sketch camp.
-Kielmyr - Secures
Steel production. Sketch goes REEEE~
-Yenyna's Plan - Lots of Crowns. Lots and Lots of Crowns. The Octocrown would have a nice coat of arms!
I'm leaning Kielmyr myself.
While some of the refugees were trickling back to their homes as the situations stabilized, many were settling in, and there were hundreds of thousands of men coming back from mobilization to find foreigners working at new factories in their home towns and cities. There was resentment and entitlement there, and while some of that issue was being addressed by rotating foreign men who sought citizenship into the army for their conscription period, that was just delaying the shock, especially since the combination of the war and the Constitutional Convention had produced a problem. A big problem.
Before, when the Lower House had merely been an advisory body, the question of citizenship had mostly been a nebulous one. For most it represented a point of ancestral pride and the potential to earn a knighthood through meritorious service, but now that the Lower House had teeth it meant that citizens could be politically active. No one wanted to touch the issue of universal service with a war on, but now that it was over, many questioned the combination of universal service, service granting citizenship, and all citizens having a vote. While the Lower House as a whole could only veto the Upper House and the Haddyth, where the real power law, there were already calls to restrict the franchise. However, refugee immigrants had a tendency to be very engaged politically even if they also didn't want to rock the boat, and with several notable officers, artists, and academics in recent years having come from elsewhere and being highly visible...
Nokly had pushed hard for the extension of liberties to the People on the pragmatic grounds of wanting to get ahead of potential republicans before they got his head. He had pushed for them on the pragmatic grounds of the fact that the lower classes tended to like the distant idea of the king more than the local idea of nobility and so giving them more power would help protect him from the upper nobility. He had pushed for them on the Romantic grounds that he liked the ideas of free expression and assembly and the inherit dignity of Man. Unfortunately those lovely weapons could now cut him.
This was something that parliament was going to have to hash out over the next few years before it exploded, one way or another, but for now the populace was still on a post-victory high and Parliament was still stretching it's legs, figuring out what it was doing and what it could and could not get away with.
Sounds like a good time to give Parliament equal power to the Upper House! More PW!
Internal Security Sweep comes up with nothing urgent...
[] [Security] 0 PW - Exile some rabble rousers to Kyberi (-1 temp Consciousness, -1 temp Militancy, Settle Kyberi action used)
[] [Security] 0 PW - Point the People at the Sketch or Nohon or something (-3 temp Consciousness, +1 temp Militancy, ???)
[] [Security] 1 PW - Improve Security funding (-3 temp SoL, +1 Espionage)
[] [Security] 0 PW - Keep digging (-1 temp Espionage, internal security sweep continues)
We probably want to up the funding. The Sketch are
strongly incentivized to fuck with us via intrigue. Thus we can assume they will try.
Major Infrastructure
Trans-Kyberi Railway - 1 PW, -4 Temp IC, +1 Max Development, (4 more uses to remove Undeveloped Hinterlands status, 0/30 Actions to Completion) (0 PW for the first use a turn)
Kale-Yllthon Railway - 1 PW, -4 Temp IC, +1 Max Development (0/8 Actions to Completion)
Valleyhome-Khemetri Railway - 1 PW, -4 Temp IC, +1 Max Development (0/6 Actions to get to Khemetri, 0/6 Actions on their end [Diplo Outreach to coordinate])
Valleyhome-Kus Railway - 1 PW, -4 Temp IC, +1 Max Development (0/4 Actions to get to Black Sheep, 0/16 Actions on their end [Diplo Outreach to coordinate])
Found <X> Railway Company - 1 PW, -2 IC, founds company to automatically expand <X> arterial line each turn, IC refunded at end of project
We'd want to found as many Railway companies as we can. Prioritize the Kale-Yllthon line.
Invest in Maharathan Ports - 1 PW, -1 IC, ports better developed)
Invest in Hung Port - 1 PW, -1 IC, port better developed)
@Academia Nut
How are the conditions of these ports respectively compared to our domestic ports? Projected number of actions to equal standards?
