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You name Owyn as your heir.


A delegation of Tiftit administrators has arrived to discuss with you a certain proposal. It happened before, and you rejected it.

"Most blessed Emperor!" THe head admin bows. "The land of Tiftit is fertile and has many sloped terraces and hills suitable for vineyards. After years of Methiantese education, even Hurthling farmers believe that this would make the region richer than before." Your courtiers murmur while the Advisor steps forward.

"That will require a rather large amount of current farmlands to be demolished, am I right?" The administrator bows.

"Well, yes, but Hurthlings' expertise won't expire, and think of profits and happiness that bottles of Tiftit Wine will bring!"

You decide to...

A) Turn down their proposal and keep Tiftif valley dedicated to grain and other foodstuffs.
B) Transform the Methiantese breadbasket into a winecasket. Drinks for everyone, yay!

Hmm, B or B... I'll go with C

That reasoning

---

You decide to send as many troops as possible to relieve the Orcworld outpost, of course within reasonable margin of reserves, plus so that people don't get lost during the trek through Ironbone Mountains.


Victory! The orcish savages were repelled, and true to their nomadic nature, had little in terms of loot on them.

Officers within the Army wonder however if it isn't time to enlarge the encampment as well as station more troops there.

A) Indeed, a proper fortress will secure Methiant from orcish raids forever. A tenth of the Army stationed within will man it well.
B) Such big construction project will only attract unwanted orcish attention. No, let's just keep big enough force in the outpost, and we will do fine.
C) Seen that? We've responded in time and that's all we needed. Neither fortresses nor dividing of Methiantese Army is required!
D) A big, tough fortress will make any invader think twice before attacking. Even skeleton crew can comfortably protect such a building.

MILITARY EDICTS:

Matters of military hierarchy, philosophy of war and development of military tech.

-

Expand Primogeniture Law:
A string of bad luck can render a monarch without a male heir or cause succession debates. Rather than risk some unpleasant consequences of such a situation, it might be better to allow a skilled female to ascend to the throne, especially if she is as good at matters of the governance as any other ruler.

Issue the Bill of Rights:
A standarized code of basic laws of the common peoples. Even if peasants will have nothing else left, they will always have their basic freedoms, helping ease their minds in times of emergency - and perhaps allow the spirit of liberty and humanism to blossom (for good or worse).

Enact Settlement Policy:
Guarantee that those willing to settle in previously undeveloped lands or territories yet unclaimed by any nation will be given a certain amount of money to help further their effort. However, this might cause a severe drain on the Treasury, especially during times of sudden, mass migrations to the countryside.

CULTURAL EDICTS:

Matters of religion, culture and art.

Establish Calendar of Festivities:
Rather than throw a festival every few years to celebrate a bontiful harvest, let's instead establish a cyclic and stable calendar of state-sponsored festivities for the whole year. This will cause a drain on the Treasury, but hey - people love festivals!

Endorse State Patronage of Arts:
To help develop the nation culturally, set aside certain amount of budget money to sponsor sculptors, poets, musicians and painters. It will be a constant drain on the Treasury, but think of how prestigious your nation will become, what with those masterpieces of art popping left and right!

Establish The Royal House of Learning:
Scholars scribbling down books in secluded libraries and scriptories should be a thing of the past! Let's instead establish a centre of learning, where those of intellect can exchange ideas and educate those willing to learn. It will help the nation develop technologically, although maintenance of this beacon of enlightenment will obviously require yearly costs.

REVOKE EDICT: Revokes a previously implemented edict, either to cut spending, appease some disgruntled subjects, or both. On the other hand, it might tick off some other peoples, potentially causing a deadly cascade of discontent.

Late Spring, 1135 AD: Established the Fireblood Court:
Creation of a specialized military branch devoted purely to development of Fireblood arms to ensure they are aplenty and of best designs around. This will allow to centralize the production, research and budgeting of Fireblood weaponry rather than having some errant alchemists and engineers running around, trying to make things happen.

End of Year 1135 AD: Proclaimed Religious Equality:
Travelers, merchants, immigrants; they all bring new beliefs and philosophies into the country. Rather than fight those foreign influences, it might be best to allow all peoples free worship on equal level no matter the size and beliefs of the congregation, to help all different worshippers achieve a certain degree to harmony and peace.

End of Year 1139 AD: Established Recruitment Offices:
Mandatory training for youths is a good thing, but after bloodier-than-usual wars, there might be shortage of men to replenish the ranks. If we were to expand on the royal bureaucracy to include offices for traveling civilian recruiters and offer citizenship grants for mercenaries and travelers looking for a new home, our Army could refill its ranks much faster.

End of Year 1140 AD: Established The Council of Statesmen:
Creation of a small council of governmental officials who will be tasked with helping the government run smoother alongside traditional advisors, and, of course, the monarch himself. This will help strengthen the Imperial Authority, even in dire times, and help pass edicts quicker, although giving even more political power away from the throne than in the past might become a source of troubles one day.

End of Year 1142 AD: Established Passage Tax:
All those travelers, adventurers, merchants and others are moving through the country for free! Let's establish a tax for those entering and leaving our country - this will earn us nice profits each year, although it might slow down immigration and convince some merchants to seek passage through elsewhere.

End of Year 1146 AD: Established Diplomatic Corps:
Creation of a small but highly professional cabinet of diplomats and ambassadors that would visit neighbouring countries on regular basis to strengthen ties with nearby rulers and their nobles, and maybe even develop favorable treaties with them.

Summer 1152 AD: Issued the Codex of Training Regimen:
A set of efficient (and slightly draconian) requirements and practices of training to ensure that the Army gets only the best recruits of them all. This will make the Army much better in combat, although there might be a problem to fill yearly recruitment quotas sometimes.

End of Year 1153 AD: Established the Shadowranks:
Politics often involve underhanded tactics. A castle full of commoner staff and visiting foreigners just asks for a disaster to occur. Let's have the military form a professional division of most loyal of soldiers, who would protect the Emperor, his family and important state officials, during the day, night, war, peace, revelries of festivals and monotony of daily life.

End of Year 1154 AD: Established Religion Tax:
Various congregations are given away territories and various tax exemptions for those. With erosion of religious influences upon the state, its prime opportunity to dip our hand into prime source of income that is donations and tithes gathered by those numerous cults present in the empire. It will surely not please them, and, by extension, your subjects.

You order him thrown into the dungeon. The guards drag him away as he shouts about dishonor, your questionable parentage, and so on.


Another day of working out minor domestic things with your noblemen. With Coronation Staff in your hand and the leaf-necklace on your torso, you're ready to help guide the Empire into bright future.

Suddenly, you feel terrible pain in your chest. You clutch the spot, feeling the absolutely alien warmth coming from the necklace. You scream in pain and fall to the ground, as few noblemen and guards rush to your side.

A wave of pain worse than moments before washes over your body and then your chest explodes in puff of crimson mist. The nobles scream in terror as a tree root has just brust from your innards! You scream for sweet release of death, but nothing comes of it. The root grows and you writhe in pain. Then the pain multiplies by thousands and you live through every second as second, third and further roots burst through orifices of your body; from your ear, from your penis and your anus. Blood pools undernearth your still alive body and bits of flesh hang from the bursted wounds like scraps from butcher's table.

The excruciating, absolutely gruesome spectacle continues for several minutes, and every tissue of your self experiences the pain as you writhe on the floor, the onlookers having no idea how to help you in any way.

Finally mercy arrives in most twisted of ways; a root bursts from your throat through your mouth, taking all the space, and letting you choke to death from lack of oxygen.


Entirety of the court is in shambles. Thoroughly shaken, especially those nobles who witnessed Houlandin II's gruesome demise. It hasn't escaped some that the violent, root-related death of the Emperor came exactly at the time, to the very day and hour, of the opening of the strange honeycomb tomb. The corpse is entagled in numerous roots, of which one possesses a strange matrix of silvery veins around it tip, the tip adorned with only three small green leaves.

The Advisor strikes the table with the iron ball of authority.

"Noblemen of Methiant! Please calm yourselves down. As terrible and gruesome was the death of our short-lived Emperor, Houlandin II, we must concentrate and solve several issues, especially the matter of succession. His wife, Empress Herta, is pregnant with a child, of unknown gender. But there are two sons of Cyl, and the retired Emperor himself."

"Long live the long lived Emperor! He should take over the Empire!"

"No! We must wait till the child of the Empress leaves her womb first!"

"Fools! Just pass the Staff and Crown to Eivan, he will make a wise and just Emperor!"

"Take Saenn to the throne instead!"

CLANG CLANG CLANG! The Advisor speaks again:

"And what shall we do with the corpse of the Emperor? Ought we burn it to cinders and seal the ashes away?" The court murmurs, shouts and bemoans the fate of the Empire...

What will become of Yoean Dynasty now?

As for succession to the throne of Methiant...

A) We wait till Empress Herta gives birth, then we can consider a solution.
B) Return the throne to Emperor Cyl, for who knows how long. Hopefully only a short while.
C) Install Eivan as the next Emperor of Methiant.
D) Install Saenn as the next Emperor of Methiant.

As for the burial of Houlandin II...

A) Burn the root-infested corpse and seal the ashes far from the palace, just to be sure.
B) Even in this nightmarish state, the Emperor deserves proper burial in family tombs of Yoean dynasty.

You praise their bravery, despite their earlier disloyalty, and bestow upon them autonomy they always desired. They shall be your vassals now.

They leave the palace with the treaty of vassalage in their hands.


Gemstones arrive in the Treasury.

3to6, 4

Silver miners managed to fill half the quota, and an optimistic report arrives from their manager; he believes that draining of the flooded tunnels, barring any further disasters, shouldn't take more than one more year.

Glassware provides some profits, and the quality of the crafts brightens the mood of Methiantese craftsmen, merchants and noblemen alike!

Few days later, as you're convening with your courtiers about some less than important business, you suddenly hear a crash, some shouting, and sounds of a beating. Nobles curiously peek through windows, and few minutes later, the Captain of Shadowranks arrives with several of his men, dragging a beaten up, bloodied man with them. He can't be more than twenty five years old, and has somewhat charismatic aura about him. Of course, he would look better if not all this... battle damage he suffered.

"Sire, this man attempted to scale the wall of the palace and jump into this very room! My men shot him in the leg, beaten him up and dragged him here before your judgement!" The youth has, indeed, been thoroughly beaten. The Shadowranks take their guardian duties very seriously.

A) "And I say, throw him into dungeon! I have things to discuss with my noblemen."
B) "Help him stand up, so I can see his face and hear what this man has to say!"

You decide to negotiate.

6*

After many minutes of negotiating, haggling, persuading and attempting to find common ground, the diplomat nods.

"It is as the Crown Prince predicted. Very well then. You will give Evalians a degree of autonomy they desire, and issue a formal apology to the courts of Lametania and Rucus, Emperor."

A) Let's try to get an even better deal!
B) This won't do after all. Begone!
C) Alrighty then, time to sign the treaty.

You send two messengers; one to Damdamians, one to Cydwyl.


A Damdanian envoy with several guards have arrrived to discuss with you the course of this 'senseless' war. But then one of your aides leans near and whispers that the Spymaster has a report about Eval.

A) Internal reports are most valuable.
B) Politics must be done first.

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Quote from: Harry Baldman on March 24, 2018, 11:02:33 am

It's two kingdoms fighting us, each with a well-equipped army, plus what seem like coalition forces involved. Makes sense they'd have a lot of troops to throw in our direction.

One of them is still in a civil war you know :/

Neither Rucus nor Lametania is suffering any civil wars at the moment, dunno where you getting at :v