"So, as you can see, this is where the gods cut the rock for the Great River to pass through here. It is the hardest rock in the valley system, which makes it a pain to work with, but also the best place to drive our anchors, and one of the narrowest points in the entire region. The plan currently has us building a temporary dam just upstream to divert at least some of the water into one of the side canyons. That region is a bit calmer but the river is wider and the bed is made from gravel and mud rather than solid rock, so it won't hold in the long run once we get a reservoir built up behind it. Anyway, the hard rock here means that once we cut anchor points in, the anchors will fail before the rock. Now, there's a bunch of things that can fail other than the anchors, but those will be fairly significant in terms of overall strength. Still, the stronger we can make the pilings and anchors, the better,"
So a few things:
-We have some kind of extra hard bedrock here. I'd say granite except the Valleyguard region is metamorphic rock IIRC. Slate?
-We're using anchors for the dam rather than single piece structure. Depending on the level of investment, this could be either sinking a stone pillar into the bedrock and then building a wall around it, using a concrete pillar, or potentially using some variant of reinforced concrete. This also means that we can tank some degrees of partial dam failure without complete failure if the dam wall breaks but the pillars hold and localize the damage.
--In the case of reinforced concrete, yes, corrosion of the metal may be a concern. It depends on the concrete mix so we won't know, but GENERALLY, the limestone component of the concrete would prevent the oxidation of the iron, especially if case hardened.
Nodding, the Chief said, "We can totally do this with just the resources already planned, but we can make it bigger and stronger with more cement and iron. The reservoir already planned will be big, but with a taller dam and some side dams to keep a few of the less desirable canyons from flooding, we can get the water to spill into this one canyon where we could really easily put a couple dozen mills with easy access to existing roads and the planned canal. If anyone ever wants to make it bigger, the only way to do that would be to build a whole new dam, so if we can build bigger and higher and stronger that would be saving our descendants a lot of hassle."
The dam will be at the level its built at. It'd not change.
Noting the expansion plans:
[] [Dam] Keep as is
Basic dam built with brick and stone.
[] [Dam] Use stronger materials, keep as is (1 Wealth and 1 Tech per action added to remaining costs)
This would be making use of concrete pilings, but otherwise keep it the same.
[] [Dam] Move to the bigger but more useful proposal (1 Wealth and 1 Tech per action added to remaining costs, requires an additional 2 actions to complete)
This adds the concrete pilings and raises the dam even higher, which allows a secondary outflow channel to run a massive hydropower plant.
This would, incidentally, start solving the cost increase for the half exile matter, because the sheer availability of hydropower would push a big advancement in mills everywhere, and probably vastly improve the ironworks as a result.
[] [Dam] Make it as big and impressive as possible (2 Wealth and 2 Tech per action added to remaining costs, requires an additional 3 actions to complete)
This would go plus ultra. We're PROBABLY going to develop Reinforced Concrete, Cranes(the lifting apparatus) and Buttresses to make this possible here, extending the dam all the way up the canyon so it's basically an artificial cliff face. Possibly packed sand/earth/clay core if we could cast concrete around that so it doesn't wash away. Packed sand is very good at absorbing and dissipating stress.
Which while very prestigious, also adds a lot to our ability to construct taller buildings. Expect our cities to start getting higher as a result, and likewise to all megastructures.
Walls naturally would get the biggest boost.
Just consider the redefinition of a Colossal wall after THAT.
The king then sighed. Administratively things were going well - someone had misallocated funds for the palace expansion but when it had been caught a number of patricians had practically tripped over themselves to correct the issue with their own funds and contacts, resulting in an even bigger expansion than planned, so there was now in fact a second hall that was where the movers and shakers of the kingdom could gather to hash out their issues with each other before going straight for the king's hall, where important things still happened but it was harder to talk openly without causing issue. This also opened up the lower classes in Valleyhome to come in and talk more, also freeing up valuable time. It was all very nice, and highlighted all the other problems.
And so we discover what the Grand Halls have been doing. The King's Hall maxed out at 4, which then opened up to create an upper house and lower house.
Oh and I think we just created the capacity for lobbyists.
Like the Highlanders, who had responded to the inquiries as to what they were doing as 'Taking the lowlands'. While they hadn't made any direct threats to the People yet, it was pretty obvious that they were going to attack the Harmurri once they finished off the minor tribes, and then the People would have to either intervene or let the Harmurri fight it out. If the Highlanders won then they would probably turn their eyes towards the People, and if the Harmurri won they would undoubtedly be pissed at being abandoned by people they thought had their backs. Either way, inaction was ill-advised, so war was probably inevitable. Whether waiting was advisable was... questionable... but it was the decision that had been made.
So back up the Harmurri. Good that we have the situation confirmed. Bad that this will be expensive(again).
Far worse though was the results of confronting the puritans over the behaviour that had required the execution and exile of so many troublemakers among them and attempting to pull out the philosophy had run into a major issue: the half-exiles. Or, more accurately, the prohibitions against slavery. In the debates more than a few of the orthodox priests had been put on the back foot by being called out for being hypocrites, how they proclaimed all sorts of actions that the puritans decried as impure were acceptable, but that the People weren't to participate in the enslavement or shipment of slaves because it spread spiritual taint. While it was obvious that the line of argument had been intended to silence their critics over the puritanical philosophies, it had instead sparked off a new conversation. Given all the things that the priests said were tolerable to the spirits, was slavery really that bad? History showed that the war over slavery in the Freehills with the Trelli had generally gone poorly, so if the gods truly were with them on the issue would they not have given the People greater success?
Strawman argument turned real.
Purity is ALSO the trait which was anchoring our opposition of slavery to begin with. It's an idealistic concept with no basis in reality to begin with.
Philosopher Kings comes to play here. We cannot just accept the dogma blindly.
How did the debates go?
[] [Purity] The Puritans broke (Lose the Purity trait, possible loss of the prohibition on slavery)
Here, we focus on pressing the Puritans until they break, whatever the costs. The slavery restrictions will be debated on the merits of Injustice rather than Spiritual Corruption, which is a lot weaker because obviously Ymaryn slave owners would be more moral and superior, who wouldn't abuse people right?
[] [Purity] While their vigilante violence was wrong, maybe they have a point here (Pride in Acceptance downgraded to Cosmopolitan Acceptance)
Here we focus on how slaves are wrong because its a foreign idea. Which protects the reason on a Just Because basis, but now foreign practices are more impure than local practices.
[] [Purity] Some hypocrisy is acceptable (Greater Justice modified)
Here we double down. We define slavery and half exiles as different, that half exiles
deserve what they get because they are criminals, while the slaves are not criminals.
As such, we excise a section of the community as Other.
[] [Purity] If slavery is so bad in comparison, maybe even the half-exiles need to be addressed (-1 Stability, the next Patrician, Guild, and Trader quests are all spite quests, all Wealth costs are doubled going forward)
And here we take the choice we avoided last time and as predicted, this will HURT. This isn't necessarily removing the institution(we still need to deal with real criminals), but the reform WILL cut the supply dramatically as we observe abuses.
[] [Purity] Look to the heavens for a sign (Random, could be all good results from above options, could be all bad results from above options, likely a mix)
And here we kick Philosopher Kings in the balls and go back to omens. Even if we roll all good, I think it'd be a Debilitating trap because we have NOT justified slavery resistance.
