No, but being vampires helps. This guy sure as hell did not know the details of five hundred year old noble claims. Being immortal and superhuman gives you a lot of time to learn how wield soft power.
"They are stronger than us, smarter than us, live longer than us, and are far better looking than us. They are our superiors in every respect, and the taxes are lower when they rule. When they come back I will be the first to welcome them."
—Hanskarl Denk, Sylvanian.
other than taxes being lower all that "counts" for normal human nobles as well. being vampire does not actually make you smarter or better looking, it often does the exact opposite, it makes you immortal ,super string and tough and a bit better at some forms of magic at the cost of being able to sue others. The vampire counts have a propaganda of being better rulers for sylvannia than stirlander colonists yes but that's not intrisic to them being vampires. That is to do with their nativist claims over the stirlanders.
Which is why the republic has explicit rules designed to limit the societial influence all their immortals (not just vampires) can grow and weild over the mortal constisuants.
other than taxes being lower all that "counts" for normal human nobles as well. being vampire does not actually make you smarter or better looking, it often does the exact opposite, it makes you immortal ,super string and tough and a bit better at some forms of magic at the cost of being able to sue others. The vampire counts have a propaganda of being better rulers for sylvannia than stirlander colonists yes but that's not intrisic to them being vampires. That is to do with their nativist claims over the stirlanders.
Which is why the republic has explicit rules designed to limit the societial influence all their immortals (not just vampires) can grow and weild over the mortal constisuants.
I'm pretty sure, Lahmians at least get better looking and probably better at talking, Von Casstains get inspiring and all of them are immortal so they can acquire scales of pure experience in whatever they please that are simply put inhuman. Nothing says any particular vampire has to be ambitious or focused enough to get that scale of skill, but some of them could, incidentally the very ones who would be most inclined to try to take over the republic
You can limit their hard power, their official influence, but one cannot legislate away taking advice and do that often enough and the advisor is the boss. The republic is flying blind here and should probably be careful about what kind of vampires we let in.
Given that with the Third Principle, our necromancers are capable of achieving immortality without too much issue, eventually those factors gonna be leveled out.
If a bunch of Lahmians get in early enough, sure, we might have some problems. We are heading away from that trajectory, though.
I'm pretty sure, Lahmians at least get better looking and probably better at talking, Von Casstains get inspiring and all of them are immortal so they can acquire scales of pure experience in whatever they please that are simply put inhuman. Nothing says any particular vampire has to be ambitious or focused enough to get that scale of skill, but some of them could, incidentally the very ones who would be most inclined to try to take over the republic
You can limit their hard power, their official influence, but one cannot legislate away taking advice and do that often enough and the advisor is the boss. The republic is flying blind here and should probably be careful about what kind of vampires we let in.
You can in fact regulate taking advice. There's not going to be that many vampires no matter what we do, keeping track of whether they go around whispering in politicians' ears is totally something on a scale we can do.
But it's also not the mode of vampire power that causes the most issue. That would be setting themselves up as landed nobility. The advisor is not in fact the boss, even if he can derive power from influencing the boss.
You have 8 Resource Dice to spend between various actions. 1 is locked on Wyrdstone Purchases. 1 Must be spent on Gretchen. You have 6 dice to freely distribute.
Legislative Directive: Expand
Diplomacy
[] Court Independent Villages
[] Attempt to talk to King Isaac or Queen Sarah
[] Attempt to talk to Thane Josef Okrisson
[] Talk to Dante Across the River
[] Build Merchant Connections
[] Send out Agitators
[] Try to buy Warpstone
Public Works
[] Promulgate Wight Burial Rites [] Build More Libraries
[] Build More Bathhouses
[] Build More Theaters
[] Buy technical manuals for libraries -[] Crafts
-[] Science
-[] Merchant
[] Survey for resources
[] Improve farmland
[] Set up new Skeleton Plantations
[] Collect taxes from new territories
Magic
[] Teach Light Wizards
[] Train Necromancers
[] Magical Panoply: Sinfi pt 3
[] Magical Panoply: Moti pt 2
[] Make Warpstone (Warning: Dangerous)
[] The Riddle of Gromril [0/???]
(Requires one die, costs 1 Warpstone per turn, locks die in until action completes or runs out of warpstone. Progress decays if left fallow)
[] Create Necrofex Colossus, requires 3 dice
-[] Corpse Giant (3 warpstone)
-[] Nightmare Colossi (6 warpstone)
[] Prototype Dhar Sinks [0/???]
[] Prototype necromancy based Dharscope [8/???]
[] Construct Mortis Engine (Requires 3 warpstone, and a truly dead necromancer.)
Gretchen
[] Purge Dhar from Territories
[] Prototype Personal Protective Talismans [0/???]
[] Ward Infrastructure against Dhar and Curses
-[] Write in Which kind of Infrastructure
[] Prototype light magic based Dharscope [11/???]
Judicial Services
[] Compile Law
[] Promulgate laws
[] Train More Arbitrators
[] Enforce laws on new territories
Martial
[] Scout surroundings. [] Raise Monstrous Infantry Skeleton Legion
[] Outfit a Skeleton Legion
[] Outfit a Crossbow Skeleton Legion [] Outfit Black Knights
[] Mass Raise Skeleton Legion (may spend up to 3 warpstone)
[] Mass Raise Crossbow Skeleton Legion (may spend up to 3 warpstone)
[] Raid Blue Tooth Goblins
[] Improve Walls around Halomik Town
[] Improve Defenses throughout the Republic (costs 2 dice, lasts 3 turns)
[] Engage in counter-raiding
[] Attack a nearby prince in force
-[] Write in prince.
[] Help a nearby prince defend their land.
-[] Write in prince.
[] Monster Hunting: Seek monsters and take their bones
Statebuilding: These actions each permanently take up a die, but they also cause scale increases and can generate additional dice.
[] Patrol Territory
[] Clarify military chain of command
[] Create Central Bureaucracy
[] Formalize Mage Registry
[] Formalize judicial system
[] Create diplomatic corp
To encourage discussion there will be a 1 hour moratorium on voting.
Prestige: I think I've heard of them?
Territory: Major Barony
Population: Rounding Error
Manpower: Undead Legions
Infamy: Extreme!
I just want to do this. I have no other planning ideas but I want to see what keeping wights around long term does to our society as a way to keep interacting with ancestors.
[] Plan State Building
-[] Court Independent Villages 3 dice
-[] Promulgate Wight Burial Rites
-[] Prototype light magic based Dharscope [11/???]
-[] Monster Hunting: Seek monsters and take their bones
-[] Patrol Territory
Reasoning
Yes, that is a lot of dice but it is also what we were asked to do and unlike conquest, does not come with any complications, sweep them up while the sweeping is good, they will start to conglomerate around local strong men again soon
This keeps up the supply of elites and also gives us a non-necromancer, not-vampire form of immortality, the more of them we have the less chance that any one immortal will take over
We have already started on the thing might as well keep at it and get that instrument
Get some more monsters for their bones again while they are all rilled up from the Waagh, they should be easier to find
I was going to take scouting for safety, might as well invest a dice in patrol and never worry about being caught with our pants down by enemies again
...Actually, yes. Due to the recent Waaagh, idk if we could expect new settlements to maintain themselves without grain ration.
And our food indicator is merely at "stable" right now; if expansion goes well we might get in the red by accident.
[] Plan State Building: Food Edition
-[] Court Independent Villages 3 dice
-[] Set up new Skeleton Plantations
-[] Prototype light magic based Dharscope [11/???]
-[] Monster Hunting: Seek monsters and take their bones
-[] Patrol Territory
Swaps burial rites for Food. I am also not really sure about monster hunting; maybe we should raise a skeleton legion or two, instead. Spend some warpstone...
[X] Plan State Building
-[x] Court Independent Villages 3 dice
-[x] Promulgate Wight Burial Rites
-[x] Prototype light magic based Dharscope [11/???]
-[x] Monster Hunting: Seek monsters and take their bones
-[x] Patrol Territory
[x] Plan State Building: Food Edition
-[x] Court Independent Villages 3 dice
-[x] Set up new Skeleton Plantations
-[x] Prototype light magic based Dharscope [11/???]
-[x] Monster Hunting: Seek monsters and take their bones
-[x] Patrol Territory
[x] Plan State Building: Food and Wight Edition
-[x] Court Independent Villages 3 dice
-[x] Set up new Skeleton Plantations
-[x] Prototype light magic based Dharscope [11/???]
-[x] Promulgate Wight Burial Rites
-[x] Patrol Territory
I swear once the Legislative agenda goes for something that we can both agree on I will try again for the Necrofex Colossus. It's gonna be great with the best carpenters, smiths and Necromancers to create a momument to our collective talents as a Republic. 22 years strong. But if not soon I'd like to try for the 25th Anniversary of the Strigany Republic. That would be a Quarter a century and a testament that our system is working out for us. And hopefully once that happens we can survive without Lahmians or other zealous Vampire Bloodlines trying to tear down the peace we built.
I want both Dharscopes to continue development since that's still a ongoing problem and I also want to create a central bureaucracy in the hopes it causes a scale increase and generates additional dice. Also because it'll probably help with integrating new territories and should come before all the other actions there other than patrols anyway.
[X] Plan Bureaucratic Expansion
-[X] Court Independent Villages 2 Dice
-[X] Improve farmland
-[X] Set up new Skeleton Plantations
-[X] Prototype light magic based Dharscope [11/???]
-[X] Patrol Territory
-[X] Create Central Bureaucracy
[X] Plan State Building: Food Edition
I think that trying to bring new burial traditions to the villages we are convincing to join us as the first thing is a bad idea. Building infrastructure and luxuries first, then introducing the rougher side of necromancy has worked well for us in the past.
