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Trails of Tera Steel (Kiseki-inspired Pokemon Academy Quest)
- Thread starter ArvisPresley
- Start date
How would Erika know the spell if we didn't teach it to her first?
Does erika have 6 badge level psychic or dark type with a masterd complex move? Not yet but eh. Thats future Mary's choice/problem.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
God, I see what you have done for Elise and I want that for myself.
Presumably we just give her the training manual and she reads it, and then teaches it to us/our pokemon aha.
Erika learns it, we work with Erika to teach it to Renne (assuming we dont get a different pokemon) and we wont even need 12 KNOW. Everyone wins!
- Pronouns
- Any
...as in, she has high KNOW, isn't the Sealing spell a book we have? Maybe she could learn it and teach our pokemon? Or maybe she eventually gets a Dark or Psychic type and goes with us to seal the stakes?
It's a completely valid way to do it, we don't need to do it all alone, specially on a Stat we aren't very good at
It's a completely valid way to do it, we don't need to do it all alone, specially on a Stat we aren't very good at
- Pronouns
- He/Him
From the same book we would learn it from.
We need both a powerful pokemon, and the intelligence to figure out what the scribblings of a priest mean in terms of "how to teach move to pokemon". The later doesn't have to be us, but it does require Erika to be willing to spend significant amounts of time - 5 AP equivalent to put it into quest terms - on it for us. That requires a stronger bondauch as Erika telling Mariana how she really feels anf Msriana feeling the same.
We need both a powerful pokemon, and the intelligence to figure out what the scribblings of a priest mean in terms of "how to teach move to pokemon". The later doesn't have to be us, but it does require Erika to be willing to spend significant amounts of time - 5 AP equivalent to put it into quest terms - on it for us. That requires a stronger bond
If we were to somehow teach someone the skill it would be waaay later, plus only people with psychic or dark types fro, what I remember are: Mary (Renne), Elise (Murkrow), Ostia with ome of her psychic types (argy) which would probably be a bad idea as long as they are under the thump of whatever evil organization they are and theodora with Sharon the future Delphox (maybe the totally not Zoroark maid?)
Edit: Either way we still need to wait till we have Renne at the 6 badge level, which hopefully we would have bonded with her by then and probably evolved her to Meowstic)
Edit: Either way we still need to wait till we have Renne at the 6 badge level, which hopefully we would have bonded with her by then and probably evolved her to Meowstic)
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
...Where are you getting that idea from for the record? Like, do you have any basis behind the idea it takes that long?
StattStatt
Supplier of suspenders for your disbelief
- Location
- On one of your shoulders
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The sealing move would be pretty broken in an actual fight (assuming it isn't illegal for some reason), especially if the opponent is a ranged special attacker
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I mean it's kinda balanced.
Sure, screws with the opponent hard, but it only works on Ghost and Dark types. So long as you're not one of those two types you'll be good.
- Location
- England
Thinking of Type Null. We know the Alolan plot has concluded, but we're now seeing some of the Aether Foundations work way over here.
What are the odds Faba or Lusamine was recruited by the presumed Ouroboros stand-in? Allowing them to continue their misdeeds in new regions, as per Trails tradition.
Decent odds Lt. Surge got the same treatment as well. Considering he's getting involved in supervillainy in completely different regions these days.
What are the odds Faba or Lusamine was recruited by the presumed Ouroboros stand-in? Allowing them to continue their misdeeds in new regions, as per Trails tradition.
Decent odds Lt. Surge got the same treatment as well. Considering he's getting involved in supervillainy in completely different regions these days.
Do not apologise. You did good.I'm sorry, I have to.
Conveniently, it works on two of the types Renne is weak to. Which would be a wonderful surprise for any opponent who thinks they have the type advantage.
StattStatt
Supplier of suspenders for your disbelief
- Location
- On one of your shoulders
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Oh, didn't read that part properly. Oops
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Absolutely nowhere. It's about trying to justify the commitment Erika would be making in a unit we understand. Would we make a 5 AP time commitment as a favour? Probably, but only for someone we really liked. Similar for Erika.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You underestimate the power of Mary's need to appease people
- Location
- Makati Prefecture, Luzon SSR, RK Philipinnes
Gym Trainer Battle 1d20+13Roll. DC 14
Literally Impossible to fail. How well do you do?
Literally Impossible to fail. How well do you do?
- Location
- Philippines
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Imagine if the nat 20 made the upcoming gym battle harder instead of easier.
- Location
- United Kingdom
We're currently 30xp away from KNOW 8, so as long as Mariana goes full head empty meathead for the rest of the Exercise we might still be able to do a full KNOW turn next week to take advantage of our trait.
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KnownParadox
Not a sphere
- Location
- Canada
This is strategy, Mariana is simply underperforming so Gym Leader Katie will underestimate us, and start off with a weaker pokemon.
Come on Arvis, give us 20 more EXP, you know you want to, push us right to the limit.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
We have more important things to do next week than Study.
Like cute cat dates!
Like cute cat dates!
StattStatt
Supplier of suspenders for your disbelief
- Location
- On one of your shoulders
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Like hanging out with Erika at a cat café
KnownParadox
Not a sphere
- Location
- Canada
We have finish KNOWmaxxing before we can move on! Then after that I think we should try and get CHRM to 13 somehow, then I'm thinking we get PROW up to match it. SKLL seems like it'll rise enough on its own considering we want to keep getting stronger right now.
But once we get to KNOW 8 I'll be glad to be able to do something else. I don't think we'll ever get to KNOW 12 and train the sealing move in time for summer break, so I'm writing that off as a lost cause and vote for Erika to learn it instead and teach it to Renne.
- Location
- Australia
Erika travels to Andosin and meets Mary's parents.
Mary's mother gives her her mother's wedding ring so that she can propose to "anyone she wants, wink".
Mary's father gruffly pulls Erika aside and tells her a story about this time a kid bullied Mary, and he was prepared to take his Pokemon and go burn down all their worldly possessions. He didn't need to, because Mary is a capable girl who punched him in his face herself. But he would have, if she hadn't solved the problem.
Erika spends every single one of her AP that week either at Mary's side or taking actions to win her parent's approval.
Mary and Erika dance together under the stars.
Erika invites Mary to come and meet her parents and see the place where she was raised.
Their parents invite the respective kids back over every week. They take them up on it every year for the duration of the quest.
Mary catches Erika an Applin. Erika shows Mary a pond of wild Luvdisc, and talks about how cute it would be to have an aquarium of Luvdisc in a house she shares with a partner one day.
They still haven't confessed.
- Pronouns
- He/They/She
Shut up there's politics we're deep-diving out of order again.
Wooloo are somehow both even fluffier and even dumber than real sheep.
Anyway skipping past the part where I went into a fugue state and made that last post of mine,
Goats are orders of magnitude smarter than sheep. I'd argue that many of them are smarter than many people, but that's neither here nor there. Rather than the flocking behavior you get with domesticated sheep, even domesticated goats are well known to have a specific leader to look to for direction, and if you want to herd goats or keep goats, you need to establish yourself or some proxy who'll listen to you as that leader.
DRAGON: ASSERT DOMINANCE.
Quiet you you're in the wrong Quest.
Assuming Skiddo work even a little like real goats, Elise is right here. Thea's way would work fine on sheep, who as we see above don't question being manhandled into place as long as they're not afraid (or are being startled in the correct direction). Goats need a reason and they need a leader of some kind who will serve the interests of the herd. And so, Elise steps forth to play the goat-dog and...
DRAGON:
*sigh* assert dominance. And really, she points out quite reasonably that this is how the rural parts of the Pokémon world, or at least this Pokémon world, work. You don't jam every single Pokémon who's symbiotic with human society and economy in a ball and train them to fight shit, you take "Wild" Pokémon and domesticate them, the same as real animals. Or at least to the level that goats and cats are domesticated where it really is more of just introducing the animal into an environment where it gets advantages from cooperating with humans. In this case, defense from predators, which is what Elise needs to prove humans can still provide.
Also I don't usually source my wild assertions but I did get a pretty fascinating article at the top of my google results this time that informed my memery about dominance.
Elise: "You can't solve all your problems by magically brutalizing someone into doing what you say."
Theodora: "I think you're forgetting who my faceclaim is."
And some more deets about Sir Grusha de Glaseado, the rest of which have been in posts I skipped over to get to this one. Noble, gym leader, Ranger - or close enough to one to serve as a mentor - and I'd bet still a professional snowboarder. Between that and being the prettiest dude in Pokémon since Gen V he's a real Renaissance Man. Elise's reflection on her lackadaisical studies here are also a bit of an echo of how Rean looked at his hiatused swordsmanship studies in ToCS 1 - he left the path on hold because he didn't feel worthy of it (because he has the self-worth of an empty Blockbuster gift card) which causes some amount of drama when he deals with other swordnerds. But we're not quite into the weeds on that, and probably won't be because we lack another swordnerd in the party (what with our combat hyperfixater being specific to Pokémon battles).
And then there's the pain in her chest, "her constant companion". This, this, is definitely a direct Trails parallel, a deep and important enough one that I'm not going to go all in on it yet. What I will say is that Rean Schwarzer has a scar over his heart, and chest pains when he taps into an overwhelming power he doesn't have complete control of. Elise Montenix has the same, and it comes when she draws power from her Honedge...possibly in exchange for her life force.
Can normal people do that?
Anyway I'm not being super fair to Pietro here, he's having a time of it and I don't blame him for being sick of the situation.
I've bumped the outburst about the Count down till later when I'm finished winding up to talk about the political worldbuilding.
Not a lot to say on the rest of this other than a namedrop of Alice the beekeeper from last post, demonstrating that word gets around about our merry band of Zoomers.
It's funny how effortlessly you can fluster someone like Elise just by adding a little Ara Ara to your tone and not saying anything saucy. Girl's got no chance.
Anyway
Ostia might be the worst spy in this Class that's probably at least 1/3 spies by volume. Mary hasn't caught on yet but Mary is somehow just getting the dynamic Elise and Thea have going. We got a hint last update that they and whatever secret society is directing them have been messing around in the Ruins and while we don't have firm details on that yet, it seems that they're not comfortable with the double agenting and whatever they're going to have to cover up here.
Also I apparently misread earlier when I thought Ostia caught Poly. If all of Ostia's Pokémon have been provided by their backers...then who are the Pokémon loyal to?
Okay. Here's the meat of this, to me, the worldbuilding politics asshole. The Paldean governmental system, more or less laid out. To preface, it's similar to the system that Trails of Cold Steel shows in Erebonia, but different in a key way. The political conflict in ToCS, at least at the start, is fundamentally Centralism vs. Regionalism, as the civil government under Chancellor Osborne seeks to amass more power under the government in Heimdallr, at the expense of the feudal landholders who traditionally had more or less unchecked authority over their fiefs, with the two sides eventually coming into armed conflict over it. Paldea's situation is different in the details, so let's dig into it.
In Paldea, contrary to the more traditional feudal situation in Erebonia, the nobles lack the de jure military power of a feudal levy system, instead being focused on a mandate of civil administration and "law and order"...although it seems quite apparent that their trainer police forces are still militarized, perhaps accurately called gendarmes as opposed to the civilian police forces of countries like the UK and USA, or Erebonia's full-blown Provincial Armies. Meanwhile, the Pokémon League stands alongside the Imperial Army and Navy (and military branches like the Railway Military Police) as the formal armed forces of the state.
For their part, the nobles running the civil administration seems like a pretty cushy job - as both the owners and administrators of the land, they reap the land's productivity, and can effectively set and enforce law over the people in whatever way they feel best, which has led to the severely class-divided culture and, presumably, a lot of tax Pokédollars ending up in regional palaces and pork barrel spending instead of, for example, in the hands of a visionary modernizing Chancellor.
We also know from earlier updates that the central government League's chief executive, the Champion of the Empire, was prior to the appointment of Geeta dominated by either the Imperial Family or the Three Great Houses, which in the latter case would effectively make the League subordinate to the interests of the nobility (although since the Top Champion is appointed by the Emperor, the Imperial Family always had some level of relevance as the kingmaker, hence why the Vasco Arnors are still the ruling family and the Medalis or whoever aren't). Geeta's appointment changed this historical dynamic completely because (paralleling ToCS's Osborne now) she's opposed to the interests of the nobility entirely and is seeking a stronger central government and less class-divide-dominated society, thus using all of the resources the League has at its disposal to undercut the nobility's civil administration. Considering that the League already formally controls the state military, and its leader is completely off the traditional chain of power being beholden solely to herself and the Emperor, it's not remotely surprising that there's panicked backlash from the nobility whose positions now exist at the pleasure of a commoner who really wants to put all their resources into Making Paldea Great...or whatever her real endgame is, it was impossible to tell with Osborne until well into the series, and we're just starting on this one.
A juicy cherry-pick of future conflicts to see here. Levincia, Fede, and possibly Alfornada are all cities (I guess Fede is more of a town) with Imperial immediacy, meaning that they have local governments that are outside of the feudal structure and are administered by the Imperial Family (and presumably appointed governors/intendentes/what have you) directly. Medali has an elected mayor and is the administrative hub of the Pokémon League, meaning it's basically Geeta's personal little model city (and the fastest-growing settlement in Paldea, seeming destined to be a second capital). And do you notice anything from the list of Gym Leaders?
The Free and/or Democratic cities Levincia (Iono), Alfornada (Tulip), and Medali (Larry) all also have Commoner Gym Leaders. Feudally-administered towns Cortondo (Katie), Cascarrafa (Kofu), and Montenevera (Tyme) also have Commoner Gym Leaders, meaning the latter two could have the same conflicts we see here in Cortondo (I doubt Montenevera does because the Montenixes are established as based liberal aristos, though). Only Artazon and Glaseado have a noble administration and Gym Leader. Also probably intimidating to the entrenched nobility!
Meanwhile Cabo Poco is a glorified navy base (understandable if Paldea's navy is as important as Spain's was - Gibraltar spent a chunk of history as a glorified British naval base, even though it's a self-governing territory with its own parliament today). Porto Marinada is an occupied territory ruled by a military governor-general...who might or might not be the Duke de Medali, if I've pieced together the combination of Noblesse Oblige and Porto Marinada into Theodora correctly. The military is under the authority of the League, yes, but it wouldn't make much sense if nobles can't be officers, now would it? In any case, Thea is from Porto Marinada (which now that I looked back at the initial post, the Marinadan endonym for the city is indeed Marina Marinedo, corresponding to the different language between Spain and Portugal), and she's...I'm gonna be real with you. If Thea isn't a masked revolutionary engaged in a shadow war against the Paldean state for the liberation of Marina Marinedo and the reveral of its expansionist policies generally, I'm going to be disappointed. But we'll get to that much later, I suppose.
Also notable that the Duke of Medali does not actually legally rule Medali, at least not in the same way the Count of Cortondo rules Cortondo. I am sure Theodora's Shitty Dad is extremely normal about this.
Anyway, here's the frustrated local rant I skipped over earlier, and its greater context - the Count of Cortondo is clearly abandoning his responsibility toward peacekeeping in the area, but why?
Well, because the Geeta-appointed commoner Gym Leader set up a parallel authority with practical power even though it has no de jure legal power. The problem here is obvious enough that even Mariana sees it right off, but it's an unsurprising sort of political brinksmanship that both sides are engaging with intentionally - the Reformists undermine the Nobles' authority, the Nobles protest by refusing to do their job, the people get angry at the Nobles, the Reformists expand their authority and look like (and really, are) heroes for doing it. Repeat this cycle until civil war erupts.
(Also referring to the local police forces as a "garrison" is what makes me think of the Noble-led trainers as gendarmes or a militia, although I suppose I could be misreading and Cortondo is abusing his authority to confine an army garrison to barracks, which he shouldn't be able to do but is the kind of bureaucratic technicality that makes my worldbuilding feelings all tingly).
Notably, this is where we begin to bring in a third party, allied to the League/Geeta but technically separate, in the form of Trainer Associations, which seem to be primarily an homage to a third-party crossover setting I don't know jack shit about, Project Moon, but also strike me as a kind of de facto citizen's police force stepping in to replace the politically inconvenient Rangers and the politically recalcitrant Noble peacekeepers. This also strikes me as something I'm pretty sure I heard about in Spanish history as well but I've done enough topic shifting already. Suffice to say, if you leave the people to their own devices, they will find ways to protect themselves.
Like goats.
Anyway I'm actually going to split my analysis of this post in half, contrary to my earlier policy. Getting to the Ruins is when the plot shifts away from politics and into the secret society plot, even though they're basically stated to be interconnected, so this is a good stopping point because this is a very long post and I had a lot to say about the political worldbuilding.
Here I was connecting Yin to the Rocket plot when it seems that the role of Yin's Triad-like employers are all Pokémon (this is not what's happening). Interesting that you've got three Bug types with this sort of...theming? They're all martial artists or ninjas or other people who wouldn't look out of place in a shlocky orientalist 80's action film, generally. All working together. To hassle the town with the Bug-type Gym Leader. Hm.
Everyone goes on and on about Mongol horses, but you can't eat horses. Well you can, and they did, but then you can't ride them after, and have you tried wearing clothes made of horse hair? Mongol sheep, now, that's what kept the largest land empire the world has ever seen fed and clothed.
Wooloo are somehow both even fluffier and even dumber than real sheep.
Anyway skipping past the part where I went into a fugue state and made that last post of mine,
So as a sequel to the post I just did in real time for like...eight updates before this one, we get some more details on this world's version of Eight Leaves One Blade. It's a form of martial arts based on humans observing how Pokémon fight, rather than the other way around. We see Elise using it in the way Honedge trainers, presumably, do, by directly wielding the swordmon, using its Tera Energy and the trainer's form, a kind of custom move that blends human and Pokémon together. I have some off-site confirmation from Arvis that Pokémon capable of wielding weapons, not just Pokémon who are weapons, can use 8L1B techniques - like Chairman Rose's Perrserker and Escavalier, fitting his role as this universe's version of nationalist swordweeb Colonel Richard. It also calls out Autumn Leaf Cutter as specifically inspired by the bladed Moves of Leavanny and Scyther, two roughly human-shaped Pokémon who use their natural weapons and Bug-type energy to cut plants (hence the name), so likely it's using Bug-type Tera Energy (and maybe Grass too). Should be effective on a grass goat.
So here's the thing about goats.
Goats are orders of magnitude smarter than sheep. I'd argue that many of them are smarter than many people, but that's neither here nor there. Rather than the flocking behavior you get with domesticated sheep, even domesticated goats are well known to have a specific leader to look to for direction, and if you want to herd goats or keep goats, you need to establish yourself or some proxy who'll listen to you as that leader.
DRAGON: ASSERT DOMINANCE.
Quiet you you're in the wrong Quest.
Assuming Skiddo work even a little like real goats, Elise is right here. Thea's way would work fine on sheep, who as we see above don't question being manhandled into place as long as they're not afraid (or are being startled in the correct direction). Goats need a reason and they need a leader of some kind who will serve the interests of the herd. And so, Elise steps forth to play the goat-dog and...
DRAGON:
*sigh* assert dominance. And really, she points out quite reasonably that this is how the rural parts of the Pokémon world, or at least this Pokémon world, work. You don't jam every single Pokémon who's symbiotic with human society and economy in a ball and train them to fight shit, you take "Wild" Pokémon and domesticate them, the same as real animals. Or at least to the level that goats and cats are domesticated where it really is more of just introducing the animal into an environment where it gets advantages from cooperating with humans. In this case, defense from predators, which is what Elise needs to prove humans can still provide.
Also I don't usually source my wild assertions but I did get a pretty fascinating article at the top of my google results this time that informed my memery about dominance.
Elise: "You can't solve all your problems by magically brutalizing someone into doing what you say."
Theodora: "I think you're forgetting who my faceclaim is."
And some more deets about Sir Grusha de Glaseado, the rest of which have been in posts I skipped over to get to this one. Noble, gym leader, Ranger - or close enough to one to serve as a mentor - and I'd bet still a professional snowboarder. Between that and being the prettiest dude in Pokémon since Gen V he's a real Renaissance Man. Elise's reflection on her lackadaisical studies here are also a bit of an echo of how Rean looked at his hiatused swordsmanship studies in ToCS 1 - he left the path on hold because he didn't feel worthy of it (because he has the self-worth of an empty Blockbuster gift card) which causes some amount of drama when he deals with other swordnerds. But we're not quite into the weeds on that, and probably won't be because we lack another swordnerd in the party (what with our combat hyperfixater being specific to Pokémon battles).
This, though...we finally hear from Rin, and it seems that ghosts can communicate mentally similarly to Psychics. You just have to attune yourself to listen to the whispers. Rin speaks with an archaic dialect (probably being quite the old sword), and plays another note in the same referential song. Although it's probably more meant to be saying "this Skiddo is powerful enough to evolve but hasn't yet for personal reasons" than being an echo of Laura talking about Rean's sword skills in ToCS.
And then there's the pain in her chest, "her constant companion". This, this, is definitely a direct Trails parallel, a deep and important enough one that I'm not going to go all in on it yet. What I will say is that Rean Schwarzer has a scar over his heart, and chest pains when he taps into an overwhelming power he doesn't have complete control of. Elise Montenix has the same, and it comes when she draws power from her Honedge...possibly in exchange for her life force.
Can normal people do that?
I am the pride of my freshman level literature classes.
You know what I missed from Trails in the Sky when I played Cold Steel? Questgivers who are just kinda assholes. There's plenty of assholes in Erebonia, obviously, but very few of them are the ones you do quests for. On the other hand Sky 1 you're basically playing trainee Bracers so you probably just get the bitch work. You think Agate or Kurt or anyone with a letter rank is going to sign up to deal with that boomer lighthouse keeper if they can help it? No.
Anyway I'm not being super fair to Pietro here, he's having a time of it and I don't blame him for being sick of the situation.
Pietro misses what the narration catches here, which is a worry that the Skiddos, or at least their Top Buck, are going to evolve if they keep getting in fights with Wild Pokémon - and it might have already happened if not for whatever X factor Rin mentioned was holding it back. Still definitely aware of the concern here that individual Pokémon ranchers with no formal Training training just don't have the capability to deal with what's Probably A Wild Hunt.
I've bumped the outburst about the Count down till later when I'm finished winding up to talk about the political worldbuilding.
See, Pietro's not a bad guy, he's just going through it. I am still gonna judge him for naming his son Peter though. That's like if my name was Luigi and I named my son Lewis. Without putting a 1930's era emigration to America in there I mean.
Not a lot to say on the rest of this other than a namedrop of Alice the beekeeper from last post, demonstrating that word gets around about our merry band of Zoomers.
It's funny how effortlessly you can fluster someone like Elise just by adding a little Ara Ara to your tone and not saying anything saucy. Girl's got no chance.
Anyway
Ostia might be the worst spy in this Class that's probably at least 1/3 spies by volume. Mary hasn't caught on yet but Mary is somehow just getting the dynamic Elise and Thea have going. We got a hint last update that they and whatever secret society is directing them have been messing around in the Ruins and while we don't have firm details on that yet, it seems that they're not comfortable with the double agenting and whatever they're going to have to cover up here.
Also I apparently misread earlier when I thought Ostia caught Poly. If all of Ostia's Pokémon have been provided by their backers...then who are the Pokémon loyal to?
I sure hope our team training option does what I hope it does and helps address some of Roland's socialization.
Okay. Here's the meat of this, to me, the worldbuilding politics asshole. The Paldean governmental system, more or less laid out. To preface, it's similar to the system that Trails of Cold Steel shows in Erebonia, but different in a key way. The political conflict in ToCS, at least at the start, is fundamentally Centralism vs. Regionalism, as the civil government under Chancellor Osborne seeks to amass more power under the government in Heimdallr, at the expense of the feudal landholders who traditionally had more or less unchecked authority over their fiefs, with the two sides eventually coming into armed conflict over it. Paldea's situation is different in the details, so let's dig into it.
In Paldea, contrary to the more traditional feudal situation in Erebonia, the nobles lack the de jure military power of a feudal levy system, instead being focused on a mandate of civil administration and "law and order"...although it seems quite apparent that their trainer police forces are still militarized, perhaps accurately called gendarmes as opposed to the civilian police forces of countries like the UK and USA, or Erebonia's full-blown Provincial Armies. Meanwhile, the Pokémon League stands alongside the Imperial Army and Navy (and military branches like the Railway Military Police) as the formal armed forces of the state.
This is different from the situation in Erebonia most likely because Paldea is, of course, meant to mirror Imperial Spain, which maintained a central standing army from pretty much the 15th century on, with feudal nobles serving as its officer class, rather than maintaining their own medieval-style personal armies. Erebonia, by contrast, stands in politically for a very young German Empire (despite being a fairly continuous empire for a millennium), which through most of its 50 year existence still had some of its various subsidiary crowns with their own armed forces, at least on paper, even if its central forces evolved out of the Prussian army are the ones best-remembered in history.
For their part, the nobles running the civil administration seems like a pretty cushy job - as both the owners and administrators of the land, they reap the land's productivity, and can effectively set and enforce law over the people in whatever way they feel best, which has led to the severely class-divided culture and, presumably, a lot of tax Pokédollars ending up in regional palaces and pork barrel spending instead of, for example, in the hands of a visionary modernizing Chancellor.
We also know from earlier updates that the central government League's chief executive, the Champion of the Empire, was prior to the appointment of Geeta dominated by either the Imperial Family or the Three Great Houses, which in the latter case would effectively make the League subordinate to the interests of the nobility (although since the Top Champion is appointed by the Emperor, the Imperial Family always had some level of relevance as the kingmaker, hence why the Vasco Arnors are still the ruling family and the Medalis or whoever aren't). Geeta's appointment changed this historical dynamic completely because (paralleling ToCS's Osborne now) she's opposed to the interests of the nobility entirely and is seeking a stronger central government and less class-divide-dominated society, thus using all of the resources the League has at its disposal to undercut the nobility's civil administration. Considering that the League already formally controls the state military, and its leader is completely off the traditional chain of power being beholden solely to herself and the Emperor, it's not remotely surprising that there's panicked backlash from the nobility whose positions now exist at the pleasure of a commoner who really wants to put all their resources into Making Paldea Great...or whatever her real endgame is, it was impossible to tell with Osborne until well into the series, and we're just starting on this one.
A juicy cherry-pick of future conflicts to see here. Levincia, Fede, and possibly Alfornada are all cities (I guess Fede is more of a town) with Imperial immediacy, meaning that they have local governments that are outside of the feudal structure and are administered by the Imperial Family (and presumably appointed governors/intendentes/what have you) directly. Medali has an elected mayor and is the administrative hub of the Pokémon League, meaning it's basically Geeta's personal little model city (and the fastest-growing settlement in Paldea, seeming destined to be a second capital). And do you notice anything from the list of Gym Leaders?
The Free and/or Democratic cities Levincia (Iono), Alfornada (Tulip), and Medali (Larry) all also have Commoner Gym Leaders. Feudally-administered towns Cortondo (Katie), Cascarrafa (Kofu), and Montenevera (Tyme) also have Commoner Gym Leaders, meaning the latter two could have the same conflicts we see here in Cortondo (I doubt Montenevera does because the Montenixes are established as based liberal aristos, though). Only Artazon and Glaseado have a noble administration and Gym Leader. Also probably intimidating to the entrenched nobility!
Meanwhile Cabo Poco is a glorified navy base (understandable if Paldea's navy is as important as Spain's was - Gibraltar spent a chunk of history as a glorified British naval base, even though it's a self-governing territory with its own parliament today). Porto Marinada is an occupied territory ruled by a military governor-general...who might or might not be the Duke de Medali, if I've pieced together the combination of Noblesse Oblige and Porto Marinada into Theodora correctly. The military is under the authority of the League, yes, but it wouldn't make much sense if nobles can't be officers, now would it? In any case, Thea is from Porto Marinada (which now that I looked back at the initial post, the Marinadan endonym for the city is indeed Marina Marinedo, corresponding to the different language between Spain and Portugal), and she's...I'm gonna be real with you. If Thea isn't a masked revolutionary engaged in a shadow war against the Paldean state for the liberation of Marina Marinedo and the reveral of its expansionist policies generally, I'm going to be disappointed. But we'll get to that much later, I suppose.
Also notable that the Duke of Medali does not actually legally rule Medali, at least not in the same way the Count of Cortondo rules Cortondo. I am sure Theodora's Shitty Dad is extremely normal about this.
Anyway, here's the frustrated local rant I skipped over earlier, and its greater context - the Count of Cortondo is clearly abandoning his responsibility toward peacekeeping in the area, but why?
Well, because the Geeta-appointed commoner Gym Leader set up a parallel authority with practical power even though it has no de jure legal power. The problem here is obvious enough that even Mariana sees it right off, but it's an unsurprising sort of political brinksmanship that both sides are engaging with intentionally - the Reformists undermine the Nobles' authority, the Nobles protest by refusing to do their job, the people get angry at the Nobles, the Reformists expand their authority and look like (and really, are) heroes for doing it. Repeat this cycle until civil war erupts.
(Also referring to the local police forces as a "garrison" is what makes me think of the Noble-led trainers as gendarmes or a militia, although I suppose I could be misreading and Cortondo is abusing his authority to confine an army garrison to barracks, which he shouldn't be able to do but is the kind of bureaucratic technicality that makes my worldbuilding feelings all tingly).
Notably, this is where we begin to bring in a third party, allied to the League/Geeta but technically separate, in the form of Trainer Associations, which seem to be primarily an homage to a third-party crossover setting I don't know jack shit about, Project Moon, but also strike me as a kind of de facto citizen's police force stepping in to replace the politically inconvenient Rangers and the politically recalcitrant Noble peacekeepers. This also strikes me as something I'm pretty sure I heard about in Spanish history as well but I've done enough topic shifting already. Suffice to say, if you leave the people to their own devices, they will find ways to protect themselves.
Like goats.
Anyway I'm actually going to split my analysis of this post in half, contrary to my earlier policy. Getting to the Ruins is when the plot shifts away from politics and into the secret society plot, even though they're basically stated to be interconnected, so this is a good stopping point because this is a very long post and I had a lot to say about the political worldbuilding.