[LP CYOA] Epic

[Baltika9]

So you're saying... it feels like Bizarro World? Like every dice keeps falling in Ean's favour ever since the rift opened?

Ex-fucking-xact- ... oooh. Shiiiiiit.
Well, fuck. Fuck sandwich with shit slathered on top.
God fucking damnit, I knew things were too good to be true. Well, might as well ride the lightning and ask Sekhenun for a cure, Artemis for a threesome with Athena and the masters for a last cigarette before our execution.

Edit:

...you get the point. It feels too wrong, bro. Too easy. Too... popamole, even.

Well, you completely failed to take the bigger picture into account. The Gieloth are stirring shit up in China and we aren't doing shit about it. Hell, we don't even know how the war is going presently. The stalemate we knew about was. like, 10 years ago? Also, we completely failed to scout the miasma for 3 YEARS. And now it started to expand. Yeah, things are going REALLY smoothly.

That would will be met with a hyper Empire. Or manipulated to our ends via spies and military intervention, but then treave told us what is really going on. So, yes I did take the bigger picture into account, only I focused in the things that already happened up to this point in time.

 

[treave]

Honestly, I wouldn't spend 10 updates to set up that sort of troll.

Things haven't been as screwed up because there's less micromanaging and more macromanaging this chapter. Things are still screwed up though, and none of the major problems in the world have actually been fixed.

 

[Baltika9]

Honestly, I wouldn't spend 10 updates to set up that sort of troll.

Things haven't been as screwed up because there's less micromanaging and more macromanaging this chapter. Things are still screwed up though, and none of the major problems in the world have actually been fixed.

Guess that means I really am crazy. Might as well enjoy the ride.

Edit: actually, now that we have Imperial stability with the Empror about, we could secure the time to succesfully breed with Sekhenun, if we'll be trying to bend the Gieloth to our side, one way or the other.

 

[treave]

Well, not your fault, I can see why you'd think that, seeing as things seemingly get much better after the 'project' gets handed over to another Master.

 

[Azira]

The miasma grows after the Terasphagos did the large incursion. It's feeding, and it first appeared inside the protective cocoon Zeus threw up around him and Marduk.

Guys, the miasma might actually be Marduk. We get to the center, find the protective shield still in place, need to pierce it somehow to get to the two other pieces of Vajra, and then we can send the Marduk miasma to where the Masters dwell..

Or am I getting paranoid, just like Baltika9 here?

 

[Baltika9]

Well, not your fault, I can see why you'd think that, seeing as things seemingly get much better after the 'project' gets handed over to another Master.

Unless, that Master either wants Ean to win or is on our side, in his own way.

Edit: and the Northerners are mysteriously protected by pure luck. Just by chance, no direct/subtle intervention. Maybe the new regional manager was meddling under Zeus' nose?

Edit 2: As for the capital, how about Constantinople? True, it is rather far from Egypt and Sumeria, but it is closest to our problem regions, as well as in a better position to march to China and geographically closer to the Northerners.

 

[Smashing Axe]

I like storyfag's suggestion of Antioch, it's the right location and historically was a very prosperous city. It's also near the sea.

For the first choice, I just don't know. I'm going to lean towards B for the moment since Athena's more likely to approve. I don't like the idea of 40k Imperial Guard tactics right now.

I think marrying Athena would be a good idea if she would go along with it. She shares similar values to Ean and would be the best regent in his stead should he disappear or go questing. I only suggest this for political reasons, please don't just reject the idea out of a knee jerk reaction to the concept of Bioware romances or whatever, because it's not, or at least, shouldn't be. The simple fact is that a successful marriage to Athena would have the most utility.
Edit:
B A (Antioch) C (Athena Adoption - We must keep ourselves pure and celibate. If there is no chance of this option winning, then marry her or whatever if that's enough to make C win)

 

[treave]

B1 is propositioning Athena. Unless you're saying you want only one consort.

 

[Bloodshifter]

BAC 100 years is a good amount to advance down our tech in a attempt to better kill the xeno

Antioch for the capital central stong and we need one to bind the people

C I suggest a hybrid of harem and marriage we accept the Consort idea (ala Human breeding 101) as well as attempt to get Athena to outright marry us explaining to her the need for a leader for the Imperium should we go and disapper or bite the bullet purely in name no FORCED bed duties attached ( for now ) its not insanely important for now but I rather not watch our super nation crumble due to our sword incline brethen *you know who you are*

Edit: yes this is B1 but I felt the need to ensure that we explain the need that we don't wish to outright bed her

 

[Smashing Axe]

B1 is propositioning Athena. Unless you're saying you want only one consort.

I was thinking more of making her an empress/queen, but my only real frame of reference for this sort of thing is medieval/renaissance royal marriages. I've no idea how it'd work in Ean's time and society. B1 seems to lower her quite a lot to just another harem woman.

 

[treave]

Almost equal status to the Emperor then, with a greater say in imperial administration than she has now? Noted.

 

[Storyfag]

B1 is propositioning Athena. Unless you're saying you want only one consort.

I was thinking more of making her an empress/queen, but my only real frame of reference for this sort of thing is medieval/renaissance royal marriages. I've no idea how it'd work in Ean's time and society. B1 seems to lower her quite a lot to just another harem woman.

I can provide a bit of Egyptian reference for the time period. If I understand correctly, the Pharaoh would have many wives. One of them would be his "first wife", the most prestigious one and in essence his Queen Consort. Only sons born to the Pharaoh's first wife would be considered for succession.

I have no idea how it might have worked in the Minaon culture (the Greeks from our period ought to be culturally similar, even though old Minos himself bites the dust), Assyria, or in Babylon.

 

[newcomer]

Sadly Sekhenum doesn't have enough legitimacy... She really need to present herself as a goddess...

Now what to do... should I fight for my lovely tentacle? Or should I put the empire on top of her?

AA(Constantinople)B1(With Athena as main wife)


And treave , do you really mean Ean to marry the twins for B3? Will they be gelded first or....
(Emperor Ean of Shin'Ari Empire gained the trait Homosexual)

And one more thing treave , can you count the wife vote separately for named wife and unnamed wife? Coz it'll disappoint everyone if more people vote for marriage but lose because some vote Athena, some vote Sek, etc.


Edit: Or maybe 3C with Sekhenum ONLY will work, since we can ensure at the very least no kingdoms get benefit / political sheaningans, but maybe it will greatly disappoint all kingdoms except Greece who see this as an opportunity to get closer to you

 

[treave]

And one more thing treave , can you count the wife vote separately for named wife and unnamed wife? Coz it'll disappoint everyone if more people vote for marriage but lose because some vote Athena, some vote Sek, etc

The answer is C <insert your own proposal>, so it's up to you to have people support your preferred vote and not up to me to create an elaborate system of voting just for a waifu decision (2 waifus? 3 waifus? 4 waifus? Who's the main waifu!?) You have the entire weekend to do so.

 

[TOME]

A - Ean should be scouting the miasma too.
A - The palace should be build either in Hittie land or in Assyria since those areas are the most volatile. Having emperor present and all the kings visiting could help integrate them better to our empire.
C(Athena) - Political marriage, if she turns Ean down, go for D.

BA(Antioch)D

 

[Esquilax]

I'm a little hesitant about putting our capital in Assyria, that's where Antioch would be. It's also right next to Anatolia, making it somewhat unattractive to me. Does Antioch even exist at this point? What about Nineveh or Damascus? I really don't know much about ancient history, so feel free to tell me why these are bad ideas.

It's also clear to me that the new Babylonian King wants the Emperor out of his hair for some reason. Maybe he's got an ulterior motive, maybe he's a shitty King. treave, Akilptah and Nabukudzur are young, but how do they show potential as rulers? What are they like?

I don't recommend offering Athena marriage. Remember how she reacted when we offered her a position as Queen of Greece? Sure, many decades have passed and she has a better opinion of us, but she may see this as a cynical power move. You guys keep thinking that by offering Athena MOAR POWER that she'll be our pal, but she doesn't think like that.

Well, as for scouting the mist, it's a bit of a dilemma isn't it? We wait further, and risk a buildup of Terasphagos and an increase of the miasma, rendering our efforts futile. On the other hand, if we have more men involved in scouting, it might also be futile; we've only discovered a tenth of the area!

However, our society has invested very heavily in scientific advancement and knowledge, so I think the smart play here would be to wait a bit, even though I was determined to scout the rift before:

The miasma is moving slowly enough that it shouldn’t pose a risk for a long time to come. You cannot be lulled into making a rash decision based on this. You continue with the current way of mapping the miasma. Maybe there’ll be some new discovery that will help you find your way within.

I'm curious as to what kind of advances a Bronze Age society could make to ensure the expedition goes more smoothly, however. What could we figure out?

B A (Antioch) C (Adopt Athena as our daughter. No consorts, we already have an heir)
AAA

 

[TOME]

We have been wasting enough time already. Ean is completely useless here. We could have hiked to China and get cracking some immortal and gieloth skulls but instead we are waiting one scientists to solve our problem. And let's face it, we could be waiting for a very long time. Mean while the other problem is still there, and we know how to do something about it.


treave

Maybe an option to fuck it and go to China some time soon?

 

[Storyfag]

I'm a little hesitant about putting our capital in Assyria, that's where Antioch would be. It's also right next to Anatolia, making it somewhat unattractive to me. Does Antioch even exist at this point? What about Nineveh or Damascus? I really don't know much about ancient history, so feel free to tell me why these are bad ideas.

Antioch doesn't exist in any form yet. It was only founded in late 4th century BCE. However the site is highly advantageous, with a crossing of two major land trade routes (one of them the Silk Route, which should have been connecting us to China since 2000 BCE, but initially focusing only on jade trade, treave ) and a nearby shores of the Mediterranean. And I'd say locating our capital in Assyria and close to the Hittite domains in Anatolia is the best option ever. Have you read "The Prince"? Machiavelli advocates that princes should personally settle troublesome provinces if they can. And guess what, the Assyrians are grumbling to be recognised as a kingdom in their own right, while the Hittites are a fresh conquest.

Nineveh is far too far from Greece and the Olympus Rift to be a good location. We'd be somewhat close to Assyrians and Hittites, still firmly in Babylonia, but distant from Egypt and Greece. Damascus would be better, but isn't really that different from Antioch, apart from being slightly closer to Egypt and slightly further from Greece, Anatolia and Assyria. It is also in the middle of a fucking desert, while Antioch is (well, will be!) comfortably connected to the Mediterranean by means of a river.

However, our society has invested very heavily in scientific advancement and knowledge, so I think the smart play here would be to wait a bit, even though I was determined to scout the rift before:

The miasma is moving slowly enough that it shouldn’t pose a risk for a long time to come. You cannot be lulled into making a rash decision based on this. You continue with the current way of mapping the miasma. Maybe there’ll be some new discovery that will help you find your way within.

I'm curious as to what kind of advances a Bronze Age society could make to ensure the expedition goes more smoothly, however. What could we figure out?

Thing is, I find this promise of a scientific advance a bit too vague to pick it instead of more intensive scouting. Had treave said something along the lines of: "Sekhenun is on the verge of mass-producing mind-controlled scout pigeons* with a constant data relay" I'd be all over it. But "Maybe something will be discovered"? meh.

*BTW, Naram had the neat trick of controlling sheep (the Andahiran way, no doubt) - maybe we, or any of our supernatural allies, could learn something similar and REALLY use aerial scouts in the miasma? Only if we'd be able to access their memories after retreiving them, of course.

 

[Kipeci]

Isn't Ninevah pretty firmly Assyrian? That's pretty much where Mosul is today, anyway, its just a bad location for dealing with trouble in Anatolia and Greece. Let's go for Antioch-- its a good site for trade, we can march quickly from there to problem regions in Anatolia and Assyria, and statt dailing for Greece at any moment.

 

[Kipeci]

B
A - Antioch
C -Sekhenun

 

[Esquilax]

The Sekhenun shippers have lost their minds - people are seriously going for it? Alright Storyfag, I'm sold on Antioch. Everything you said makes sense.

B might work given the investments we've made on education and knowledge. We have a literate population and the Scientific Method, so we've invested a ton of energy in making our people more enlightened.

Off the top of my head, the things that we could feasibly improve on would be (a) better, more visible markers and (b) other methods of improving visibility in the rift. Sekhenun created some kind of a primitive gas mask for the expedition, maybe she could create some sort of primitive flare? It would certainly make visibility far easier.

It's the only hard choice here, if you ask me. Making Antioch the capital and avoiding this consort business is the way to go (stop trying to get on Athena's good side by granting her power, it won't work). Going all Imperial Guard on the rift might be a huge waste of time too. We do need a smarter way of doing this.

We have been wasting enough time already. Ean is completely useless here. We could have hiked to China and get cracking some immortal and gieloth skulls but instead we are waiting one scientists to solve our problem. And let's face it, we could be waiting for a very long time. Mean while the other problem is still there, and we know how to do something about it.

Do you think China would have been any easier? Both of these problems are extremely difficult and take decades to solve, and trying to focus on solving both would have lead to us solving neither of them. We're barely beginning to deal with the rift situation, and that's while we're devoting 100% of our energy towards solving it.

This isn't something you can multi-task; the China situation is equally important, but that would have involved infiltrating and fighting a force with hundreds of Gieloth. Assuming we started this chapter by heading to China, we would still be at war with them.

As far as royal succession, couldn't we simply avoid finding a consort and just adopt an heir? Astarth adopted Akil, so I don't see why Ean can't do the same. We could adopt Athena as our daughter, or perhaps adopt Gursu as a son so that he becomes Emperor.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Oh, that would be cool. I don't know why I didn't think of that. Yeah, let's do it. Adopt Athena I mean.

 

[treave]

Uh, if you're talking about the jade trade, Storyfag , I believe that was between parts of what is now Xinjiang and the Chinese around the Yellow River. Not sure it would stretch that far into current empire territory until maybe in a few centuries.

As for the two young kings, not as reliable as their fathers, but you have cranked out enough advisors to compensate for any deficiencies in governance. Also it's obvious what is their plan by asking you to take consorts.

Finally, the miasma is too thick to be scouted by air. You barely have a few meters of visibility while standing right in it, and that's only if you use a torch.

Edit: put adoption under option C if you would please, and state desired marital status.

 

[Storyfag]

Edit: put adoption under option C if you would please, and state desired marital status.

Arright, editing the original vote accordingly

Uh, if you're talking about the jade trade, Storyfag , I believe that was between parts of what is now Xinjiang and the Chinese around the Yellow River. Not sure it would stretch that far into current empire territory until maybe in a few centuries.

Well... I stand corrected. Sorta. The Chinese reached northeastern Afghanistan at most, while we have yet to reach it.

 

[Baltika9]

As far as royal succession, couldn't we simply avoid finding a consort and just adopt an heir? Astarth adopted Akil, so I don't see why Ean can't do the same. We could adopt Athena as our daughter, or perhaps adopt Gursu as a son so that he becomes Emperor.

Adoption, huh? treave, besides the new kings, who are the other promising nobles at court and I'm not just talking about generals/warriors, but more about administrators, leaders and organizers. Would there be a Nebuchadnezzar (He was, after all, a "Son of Marduk"), in name or skills?

I'm thinking if we go the adoption route, we won't need another conqueror, but rather a charismatic leader that can keep the Empire together, maximize it's trade opportunities and profits and bring about a Golden Age for the people.

I'm especially interested in any distinguished scholars/spies. And about the spies: can they double as assassins? If not, we should really look into teaching them that, it would be good for our eyes and ears to have some teeth as well.

Also, an arrangement with Sekhenun is not as bad of a deal as most of you seem to think: worst case scenario, if she's doing playing Ean as Azira says, we don't give a shit. Ean still gets what we need, she still gets what she needs and everyone walks away happy.

Edit: sign me up for Antioch. While building Ean's capital at the places of his myth or building Constantinople, the former are in disadvantageous positions and the latter is way too ahead of schedule.