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Who Needs Harmony?: An MLP Empire Quest

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PyrrosWarrior said:
I mean, Captain Kaboom might make a good replacement for Redbeak :p
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I'd vote for that, though wasn't Redbeak already the replacement for... *looks back into the beginning of the quest* Gustav Kingfeather? If anybody needs apprentices, it's probably gonna be Archimedes (Learning) and Ravenburg (Intrigue), who are basically the only ones left from our OG Council, wow.

Anyways, I was thinking, what departments could we feasibly assign the rest of our kiddos to (maybe somehow, idk buff out their stats too)?

Royal Kiddo Assignment Speculation:
Gwyndyln (*maybe not quite yet since she's still an Adolescent dragon? Unless she asks maybe):
-Martial: Easily her best stat, but doesn't really jive w/ her storywise imho, if anything taking this would overspecialize her, kinda boring considering all of our kids have either middling to spectacular Martial stats, plus I'd rather put Gilda in the Martial department
-Stewardship: Gwyn's 3rd best stat tied w/ Learning, fits narratively w/ her Gardening pastime, has narrative potential but not as interesting as Intrigue (*I'm a little biased, sorry)
-Intrigue: Gwyn's 2nd best stat, and I'd like to have like, 1 Intrigue Department (Ministry of Information) savvy child in case things get dicey, plus it fits a bit narratively since her Gardening bonus includes this (plus imagine all the poisonous and medicinal, magical and mundane plants she could grow...)

Gleaming Pearl:
-Learning: She's supposed to be studious, why is this her worst stat, I'd pick this anyways if only to remedy this, plus extra slot get

Gilda:
-Martial: Fits the best in terms of storywise (Dueling Pastime) and statwise, her 2nd best stat, I appreciate narrative continuity
-Stewardship: Appropriate stat-wise (her 3rd best stat) and narratively if under the narrative guise of wanting to round her out (*only if Gwyn isn't there, no repeats pls)
 
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In my mind the primary use of Orichalcum bullets is not (hand them out to the grunts) but instead (give them to snipers and spec ops equivalent.) The reason to use Orichalcum bullets is to take out enemy hero units (i.e. dragons, demi-goddesses, units with magic defenses) Maybe if the cost was dramatically lower we could use them more generally but they are too expensive at the current time.

The above said, I absolutely think that we should pursue Orichalcum bullets. I think it is only a matter of time until we encounter someone who has an anti-projectile magic or is immune to conventional weapons. If they don't exist yet, they will eventually. As such, we should get ahead of the counter to our military (antiprojectile magic or equivalent) by developing a counter-counter (Orichalcum bullets), even if it is expensive.
 
Pyre said:
In my mind the primary use of Orichalcum bullets is not (hand them out to the grunts) but instead (give them to snipers and spec ops equivalent.) The reason to use Orichalcum bullets is to take out enemy hero units (i.e. dragons, demi-goddesses, units with magic defenses) Maybe if the cost was dramatically lower we could use them more generally but they are too expensive at the current time.

The above said, I absolutely think that we should pursue Orichalcum bullets. I think it is only a matter of time until we encounter someone who has an anti-projectile magic or is immune to conventional weapons. If they don't exist yet, they will eventually. As such, we should get ahead of the counter to our military (antiprojectile magic or equivalent) by developing a counter-counter (Orichalcum bullets), even if it is expensive.
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Gryphus-made Railguns and Gyro-Jets (Bolters) with Orichalcum ammunition, when?
 
Markala said:
I'd vote for that, though wasn't Redbeak already the replacement for... *looks back into the beginning of the quest* Gustav Kingfeather? If anybody needs apprentices, it's probably gonna be Archimedes (Learning) and Ravenburg (Intrigue), who are basically the only ones left from our OG Council, wow.
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That was a joke, hence the emote. I don't seriously think Captain Kaboom should be our next martial advisor since I doubt he will bring any relevant doctrinal changes to the table.

Also, already pointed out two people who can succeed Archimedes because he does have two apprentices.
 
PyrrosWarrior said:
I've a related question to Gawain. Seeing as Garrick is off to war, are Gawain and Gabriella going to be ruling in his absence (alongside the advisers of course)?
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In the event that the head of state is not present or available to rule for any reason, but is not actually dead, temporary rulership will typically fall to the designated heir. If they too are indisposed, or otherwise unable to lead, the responsibility falls to the individual deemed the best fit for a regent. This individual is typically designated in advance.
 
PyrrosWarrior said:
One thing I'd like to note is that I believe Cyba's concerns stated here:

are not nearly as bad as he believes. For one, though the Crystal Empire is still legally a protectorate, it has been noted that is just legal fiction at this point. The ponies have adopted the culture of their liberators, the religion question is as settled as it will ever be (barring a crisis from a few voters wanting to make the Crystal Heart cult our state religion), and the bureaucracy and economy are intrinsically tied to our own. They are already practically part of the core.

As for the possible problem of "entrenched identities, culture(s), and nationalism," I'd say it's important to remember that Maretonia was a highly decentralized feudal monarchy that seemed to have more power and wealth in the hands of the nobility than in the Queen proper. Most "identities" would be to local land, which has already been disrupted thanks to the civil war causing displacement both internally and through emigration. Likewise, the assassination and civil war has also already destroyed any power structures and centers of pre-war governance.

There would still be some left in the form of the cities and the Royal Guard, but Pegicles blew down almost every city, burned down the last one in the form of Roam, murdered and destroyed the Royal Guard, and overall has managed to destroy what little left of entrenched powers and identities that might have been left due to mass population displacement and destruction of any remaining traditional governance.

There is also the potential power base of the nobility under White Star, but they've mostly died out (sometimes literally) or otherwise gone bankrupt due to our heist and due to investing in holing themselves up to try not to feel the consequences of the civil war. Their post-war power will be mostly dead.

There would definitely be a bureaucratic mess with integration, but it wouldn't be from entrenchment. It'd be from the lack of entrenchment meaning we'd have to build a bureaucracy from the ground up, all while dealing with a potential famine due to the population being everywhere and not having farmed significantly AND also dealing with pre-war land claims. Those are all dealable, however, and would just require time and investment to solve, rather than the difficulties we would have in fighting entrenched locals that Cyba proposes had they still existed.
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It's for these stated reasons that I believe Pegicles to have either been replaced by a changeling, or mesmerized by one of them. His actions have in one fell swoop created a situation where a gang up could lead to Canterburry's most dangerous rival shattered into pieces.

The only thing they need to do is to have Canterburry to declare war on Pegicles and then win decisively coming from the completely other side of the current conflict, something that would be easy if the enemy leader himself is compromised.
Then divvy up Maretonia between Canterburry, Griffonia and any number of rump states.

Thanks to positioning and their likely influence, they will try to lay claim to Pegasopolis itself, co-opting the most militant and thus militarily valuable piece of Maretonia once it's pacified, giving Canterburry new aerial doctrines and - populations to assimilate to its own. Meanwhile griffons would likely take the port cities and some of the mainland, or create an Abolitionist-led splinter of what remains.



Or the completely off the rocker option: Canterburry declares war on us while we are waging against the Maretonians, maybe with the pretext that it would've been us to assassinate Queen Mareia and "trying to frame Canterburry" over their death. Then use their mind alteration magics to have enough revolting peasants to mess with us and "liberate" Maretonia for themselves. More unlikely, but something technically possible.
 
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Somebodynobody10 said:
It's for these stated reasons that I believe Pegicles to have either been replaced by a changeling, or mesmerized by one of them. His actions have in one fell swoop created a situation where a gang up could lead to their most dangerous rival shattered into pieces.

The only thing they need to do is to have Canterburry to declare war on Pegicles and then win decisively coming from the completely other side of the current conflict, something that would be easy if the enemy leader himself is compromised.
Then divvy up Maretonia between Canterburry, Griffonia and any number of rump states.

Thanks to positioning and their likely influence, they will try to lay claim to Pegasopolis itself, co-opting the most militant and thus militarily valuable piece of Maretonia once it's pacified, giving Canterburry new aerial doctrines and - populations to assimilate to its own. Meanwhile griffons would likely take the port cities and some of the mainland, or create an Abolitionist-led splinter of what remains.



Or the completely off the rocker option: Canterburry declares war on us while we are waging against the Maretonians, maybe with the pretext that it would've been us to assassinate Queen Mareia and "trying to frame Canterburry" over their death. Then use their mind alteration magics to have enough revolting peasants to mess with us and "liberate" Maretonia for themselves. More unlikely, but something technically possible.
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I feel like this is an example of attributing more things to the Changelings than we should

Firstly it is entirely possible based on everything we know that Pegicles is just an enormous narcissist who would literally rather burn Maretonia to the ground than let anyone else rule it

Secondly I feel like if Canterbury were going to make a move on Maretonia they either would have done it by now or there would have been some mention of them ramping up to do so recently

And finally there's no real reason to believe that the Changelings actually want to expand, in fact it's probably in their best interests not to do so, for several reasons, A) It would probably be a lot harder if not impossible for Queen Phalanx to rule over hives that far removed from her, B) It's also probably a lot harder for the Changelings to subtly build hives and whatnot that far outside of their territory, especially when they'd be sharing it with others and C) The Changelings are at their best when the people whose emotions they're feeding on are happy and burning Maretonia down is not exactly conducive to having a happy, stable population to feed on
 
TheLordofAwesome said:
I mean, he was still away so, yes, she would be acting regent at least until he got back. So for about a week she was leading the nation.
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Not really. Regencies are an actual legal issue. They wouldn't shift over from the Prince-Regent to a secondary regent just because he's gone for a week. The advisors would just be told to hold over their positions while he's away on the short trip, maybe give instructions for what to do if anything happens to him, and Gawain might carry some paperwork for him to do while he's on his trip.
 
Somebodynobody10 said:
does calling the levies and knights up with the pretext of cleansing areas that are secretly changeling controlled, count? They are effectively mobilized.
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I would argue it could be possible but it is very much a long shot to be true.

It is not impossible that the Changelings might do a mobilization for one reason then attack another target, it is something I would expect them to employ, but I doubt that is the situation here. Remember that they might be puppeting Canterbury but that doesn't mean they have mindless devotion from the whole country to do anything they are told. Pretending to be a benevolent Goddess mean that they need to have their order at least seem like they are benevolent to their followers. A holy crusade to cleanse the lands of monsters? Clearly a righteous cause! Surprise attacking you neighbor of good relations while they are bringing their army to defeat a villainous warlord from a country you hate? People might start to doubt if this is really the words of the Goddess. A good Casus Belli can be manufactured to mitigate that somewhat but going from good relations to war without any diplomacy when you thought you were going to clear your home of monsters is a big push.

Plus it is something that probably wouldn't work and they know it. Even if our army is down south we still have a national trait about how fortified we are and a ton of militia that fight like regulars in our home territory due to our wonder project. Plus that army is still capable of turning around if they hear about trouble at home and our defensive alliance with neighpon. Any attack like that would basically be risking everything on a blitzkrieg to destroy our empire before we can organize enough to strike back or die trying when we mobilize back. Pretty much all of this is public knowledge or easy to find out with a basic sweep that would be expected for an intrigue faction like the Changelings to find out easy enough.

Frankly I think that the Changelings feel perfectly safe right now and are happy with the state of affairs. The assassination of the Queen lead to a civil war that has destroyed a hostile power save for one warlord who is about to be crushed by the Griffon army without them lifting a finger. Maybe down the line the military power of the griffons will be a problem but for now that have good relations with Canterbury and no reason to look for any invisible infiltrator who might in place. Depending on how arrogant they are they might even be congratulating themselves about how smart they were for 'setting up' the Griffon unification for all the work it does maintain world peace for them to feed off of.

My guess is that the mobilization is just part of a pivot in policy to prevent them from losing their current puppet. The monster scheme worked to keep them away from changeling lands before but now that the outside world is showing you can clean them it is only a matter of time till the Canterbury knights try with or without their permission. So why not prevent that problem by having them clear out the monster at your command so you can shift to a new model? This is as fine a time to secure their current powerbase as any while everyone is focused on the Maretonian Civil war to deal with the new world order where international interaction is a thing again. Any attempt to sabotage foreign powers will probably wait until they are done with this. That being said however we won't know for sure till we can take an action to find out for sure.
 
masterofmadness said:
I would argue it could be possible but it is very much a long shot to be true.

It is not impossible that the Changelings might do a mobilization for one reason then attack another target, it is something I would expect them to employ, but I doubt that is the situation here. Remember that they might be puppeting Canterbury but that doesn't mean they have mindless devotion from the whole country to do anything they are told. Pretending to be a benevolent Goddess mean that they need to have their order at least seem like they are benevolent to their followers. A holy crusade to cleanse the lands of monsters? Clearly a righteous cause! Surprise attacking you neighbor of good relations while they are bringing their army to defeat a villainous warlord from a country you hate? People might start to doubt if this is really the words of the Goddess. A good Casus Belli can be manufactured to mitigate that somewhat but going from good relations to war without any diplomacy when you thought you were going to clear your home of monsters is a big push.
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you just meshed two different points together.
Even if the unlikely event of them declaring war on us is indeed unlikely just like I said myself, the army could still be redirected against Maretonia through the use of "divine visions.
 
Somebodynobody10 said:
does calling the levies and knights up with the pretext of cleansing areas that are secretly changeling controlled, count? They are effectively mobilized.
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Theoretically yes but the issue there is that the whole motivation of their mobilisation against the monsters is that it's basically a holy war started to defend themselves, it would be incredibly suspicious for them to say "lol, forget that, let's go attack Maretonia instead"

Not to mention that Canterbury doesn't have a standing army and is dependent on the various nobles organising their levies quickly and in line with what the Queen wants, which can't exactly be done on a dime
 
jonasquinn said:
Theoretically yes but the issue there is that the whole motivation of their mobilisation against the monsters is that it's basically a holy war started to defend themselves, it would be incredibly suspicious for them to say "lol, forget that, let's go attack Maretonia instead"

Not to mention that Canterbury doesn't have a standing army and is dependent on the various nobles organising their levies quickly and in line with what the Queen wants, which can't exactly be done on a dime
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The first point could be easily counteracted with "The Lady has given me a VISION!" and because they are Canterburrians they will believe it.

The second point... they are already organized for striking the anti-magic areas, why would it be so horribly difficult to redirect the host when they are already together?
 
Personally i kinda wouldn't be surprised if Canterbury invades Maretonia as they were enemies before to some measure and our preparations for war were unlikely to be ignored/unnoticed by Changelings,plus it was them that started this civil war in first place. As for justification, they can use our justification and intervene on basis of house Storm commiting mass murderer, if you add a little "divine" intervention it's even better as it goes good with their chivalry and religion, plus with us around but it's easy picking.

Edit: Regarding the host against monsters, it could have been smoke operation to lul house Storm (and everyone else really) in false sense of security because given the lack of infrastructure they need more time than we do to mobilize , as for us well house Storm probably didn't expect us to mobilize so quickly so they decided to act rashly and end the war quickly.
 
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Star said:
plus it was them that started this civil war in first place.
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...How many times does it have to be said we have no confirmation at all of who did it, besides the type of poison used?
Really, this shows why it is not really good to be known as expert spies, it is so easy to potentially get blamed for things that you didn't do...
Maretonia negaverse almost certainly at minimum have suspicions of our involvement.
 
Themarineguy said:
...How many times does it have to be said we have no confirmation at all of who did it, besides the type of poison used?
Really, this shows why it is not really good to be known as expert spies, it is so easy to potentially get blamed for things that you didn't do...
Maretonia negaverse almost certainly at minimum have suspicions of our involvement.
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Look, we had numerous intrigue actions, with the last one in the chain critting us a Changeling Turncoat. I think it's pretty clear who did the deed.
 
Themarineguy said:
...How many times does it have to be said we have no confirmation at all of who did it, besides the type of poison used?
Really, this shows why it is not really good to be known as expert spies, it is so easy to potentially get blamed for things that you didn't do...
Maretonia negaverse almost certainly at minimum have suspicions of our involvement.
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Ah ,yes my bad, innocent until proven otherwise (though we had a lead ) also second part is kinda true, while we cannot prove changeling involvement we certainly know that that our convert actions did have influence on destabilizing Maretonia so it isn't only on them.

Edit: But at the end of things it's simply a politics and even if they didn't do the deed intervention still wouldn't come as surprise given other already pointed reasons.
 
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Somebodynobody10 said:
Look, we had numerous intrigue actions, with the last one in the chain critting us a Changeling Turncoat. I think it's pretty clear who did the deed.
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That´s a False Correlation, pal.

Yes, it is likely that they did it and yes, us critting that one Intrigue action gave us Rose - but NO, that does not mean that they actually did it

"Not me this time" is a trope after all.
 
TheGleeman said:
That´s a False Correlation, pal.

Yes, it is likely that they did it and yes, us critting that one Intrigue action gave us Rose - but NO, that does not mean that they actually did it

"Not me this time" is a trope after all.
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If this was real life you would have a point, but this is a quest where we crit-rolled the relevant action.
At the very least we should've gained a note on how the spying should continue to find the culprit, if it was supposed to be left ambiguous by the GM. Instead the trail stopped with the changeling.

You can make correlations from that.
 
Somebodynobody10 said:
If this was real life you would have a point, but this is a quest where we crit-rolled the relevant action.
At the very least we should've gained a note on how the spying should continue to find the culprit, if it was supposed to be left ambiguous by the GM. Instead the trail stopped with the changeling.

You can make correlations from that.
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...Or maybe like us, they only played a small part, and the crit was learning about another element without sparking a war, AND getting a very capable infiltrator. 🤷‍♂️
By sheer dint of being the best at disguise, they are one of the biggest suspects, but well, from an outside perspective, so would we by the same, or similar reasons. Except the fact we created the chaos that facilitated the assassination and we aren't currently aware of how exactly they were involved besides the poison being linked to Canturbary.
 
Themarineguy said:
...Or maybe like us, they only played a small part, and the crit was learning about another element without sparking a war, AND getting a very capable infiltrator. 🤷‍♂️
By sheer dint of being the best at disguise, they are one of the biggest suspects, but well, from an outside perspective, so would we by the same, or similar reasons. Except the fact we created the chaos that facilitated the assassination and we aren't currently aware of how exactly they were involved besides the poison being linked to Canturbary.
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*Nods*

For all we know, the true culprit could have been someone within Maretonia (Pegicles?) trying to *frame* the Canterlotians as a casus belli against them and simply didn´t account for the nation simply *imploding* in a civil war instead of rallying behind them as their "savior".

So in the end this possible inside job just so *happened* to implicate the TRUE rulers of Canterlot in the Changelings - a species of emotiviorous shapeshifters *no-one* (except MAYBE Celestia, if something similar to Chrysalis´backstory happened in this quest after all) even knew existed past mere fairytales.
 
TheGleeman said:
For all we know, the true culprit could have been someone within Maretonia (Pegicles?) trying to *frame* the Canterlotians as a casus belli against them and simply didn´t account for the nation simply *imploding* in a civil war instead of rallying behind them as their "savior".
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Or maybe said noble died in the chaos, with the leads either being lost in the chaos, or potentially changelings whom noticed what was going on and covered it up to prevent a war between the two nations. In fact, it could have been legitimately done by Canterbury with the changelings panickily covering it up to avoid disaster. 🤷‍♂️ :whistle:
 
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