Messages

136

Helpline / Re: Woo me to your realm

« on: June 27, 2011, 05:51:09 AM »

It's got meaning, but it's not internally consistent.

See, if you lose it's because of a lack of faith.  You may not yet know it but you clearly sinned.  It's one of the advantages of having a founder that's gone missing, you can pretty much take things out of context to make your case for anything.  Well, almost anything.  Though it's often an excuse to do wierd things and then back-justified, which is awesome.

It's not a personally revealed religion, but it is old school celtic in a lot of ways.  We had one Lord announce that leaving food in large piles for the birds was his way of giving praise through sacrifice.  Another who is convinces a giant black Moa plots her downfall for an impure thought.

If it's awesome, we'll find a way to fold it in.  Somehow.

137

Helpline / Re: Woo me to your realm

« on: June 27, 2011, 05:43:47 AM »

Well, Arcachon is completely bat!@#$ and allowing holy pilgrammages (I have no idea how to allow it in the game mechanics).

The wooing of Arcachon as the only true theocracy could be summed up as "It's the only realm where it's nobles will quite literally invoke 'faith' as the counterpoint to pretty much anything."

Don't have an army?  Faith.
Don't have a diplomatic grand strategy?  Faith.

It's the CM Punk of the FEI.

138

Development / The ability for leaders to invite

« on: June 27, 2011, 05:22:02 AM »

It would be cool if leaders could invite people from lands they are at war with so there was no worry of arrest.  Just set a flag that a ruler can turn off or on.

139

Dwilight / Re: Is Dwilight really SMA?

« on: June 23, 2011, 11:55:15 PM »

I think that tends to vary by region and state.

Clearly the Medici's were not a very religious bunch, and they installed a couple of Popes (there is one great letter in which instructions are given on how to make sure the Pope pays his bills).  The nature of any given state probably influences just how cynical the lords are likely to be.  Nobility in England or Italy were in constant danger and thus the "fiddly bit" in religion were glossed over in favour of practicality.  In later Spain, there were not the same concerns, so leaders would naturally become less cynical and "stabby".

Wonkspeak: True faith is probably like absolute morality and can be expressed as a luxury good in the personal consumption matrix.

140

Far East Island / Re: Dude, where's my C'thonia?

« on: June 21, 2011, 08:36:29 AM »

Well, either way most people probably assume they're in the bag for Arcaea, which just goes to show if you're going to jump in to a fight, make sure you win it.

Meh, if Ciann can manage to destroy Arcachon and Aenelia utterly and really pisses Jenred off in the process, she might take her merry band there.  Probably the good merry band too, given the Vanimedle/Himoura feud.  She'd stir up something within a month.  It would probably take a year to lose that badly, so by then C'thonia will probably be a ghost town.

141

BM General Discussion / Re: Too large realms (possibility of penalizing bigger realms more?)

« on: June 21, 2011, 08:28:29 AM »

I think the political progression system depends on the realm.  Some realms are inherantly more anarchistic then others so progression is easier.

Political identity is a hard thing to get, as it is historically more religious and racial then regional.  I'll use Chenier and myself as modern examples.  Compared to other nations we are Canadian, except in reference to our "home" (say, France and Ireland) countries, to whom we are provincial (Quebecois or Avalonian), however, while we are clearly from different areas, the term RoC (Rest of Canada) is a shared concept.

A French Catholic is Quebec has more in common with a Catholic Avalonian then a Protestant Avalonian has with that same Catholic Avalonian who grew up two blocks away.  Eastern Canada is vastly more progressive then any state represented in battlemaster and while I wouldn't want mechanical forces put in play, I'm really of the mind that there should be a mental pecking order for many nobles.

1.  Same religion
2.  Political advantage
3.  Regional allies

This will solve the "big realm" issue as say, Dutchy #1 in the north will constantly be trying to keep Dutchy #2 in the sotuh from gaining position and power, which will eventually lead to either a political or scessionistic throwdown.  I'd love to see more Dukes pushing "their guy", rather then "who's the best".

142

Far East Island / Re: Dude, where's my C'thonia?

« on: June 21, 2011, 08:07:10 AM »

They're kinda stuck.  They can't hold their land without attention, but they threw in their lot with Arcaea in the invasion of Zonasa, so they are now surrounded by nations who would love to absorb them with a decent cassus belli, but they don't dare declare away from Arcaea either.

The animus that drove them was Solifereum but with everyone stuck at home trying to hold their lands together, they probably can't do much to gain a new passionate cause which means they'll continue to dwindle.  It's a real rough spot, especially when they're the only nation not getting in on the action.

143

Feature Requests / Re: Rebellions, real upheavals

« on: June 18, 2011, 07:55:45 AM »

Royal status seems to remain and it probably should.  After all, if you throw out the bums and have a new ruler but don't have a problem with the old-old retired ruler they still command great respect.

You could just give a 60 day window for kicking out Royals after a rebellion, but really, you could drop metric tons of fines on them.  It should be amazingly hard to remove a duke who was one a king who didn't declare during the rebellion.

144

Dwilight / Re: The Crusade against SA

« on: June 18, 2011, 07:44:32 AM »

That's how brilliant it is, you can't even get the brilliance.  Brilliant.

145

Dwilight / Re: Barca

« on: June 18, 2011, 07:43:01 AM »

Chenier, you know that's not true.  We're Canadian and as such we have a holy duty to harrass/bribe people who don't agree that whatever party we support is the best so they pretend to agree so we go away.  Then we campaign for our side on the basis that everyone says they like us.

The only people who can't be swayed are government analysts.  We are bastions of morality and never, ever, twist results or have party alligiances.

(apologies to everyone who doesn't live on the Canadian East Coast for the inside joke)

146

Dwilight / Re: What is and what should be SMA?

« on: June 18, 2011, 07:38:46 AM »

Just a side note, I'm kinda careful about the thought that "people believed X".  We know people were highly religious, but BM doesn't deal well with minutea and cultish attitudes, because (shock) not run by millions of people in an aggregational fashion.

Yes, the metaphysics in SA are a little wierd, but we don't have hundreds of philosophers refining it over a millenia to make it seem logical or having to adopt it to local tastes.  For me the big thing is that it isn't all "You go your way and I'll go mine."  Cultural relativism, or even the idea that foreign religions might have something worthwhile to say is a new concept.

SA is the most german-medieval of the current religions around, IMHO.  I just don't particularly enjoy playing within it's sandbox, probably because I really enjoy playing the villian.

147

Dwilight / Re: What is and what should be SMA?

« on: June 16, 2011, 10:30:53 PM »

Wierd by Western standards, but logical in some sort of celestial beurocracy.

Doesn't fit within europe at all (with the possible exception of Florence), but while such theologies are difficult for people with massive amount of time and resources, I suspect it would be impossible in BM.  Maintaining a sufficiently large religion is hard enough without actively creating internal politics and debate.

You could...hmmm...If you claimed God Time was Different from Human Time and said that elections were every 100 years or something and then said "The current high god is X, but it's expected that the God of Y will move against him."

Need to get a character killed and learn to use the wikipedia...

148

Dwilight / Re: Dwilight IC and OOC updates and news!

« on: June 08, 2011, 07:13:35 PM »

SA is all about using babies blood to add zest to the Blood Lord's meals, and they secretly serve an undead monster who has three heads.

Everyone knows there are no such things as "stars" those are gods in the sky looking down on us.

149

Feature Requests / Re: Limiting unjustified diplomatic actions

« on: June 08, 2011, 07:07:22 PM »

Heeheeheehee,
Oh my.  No, Alliances are often with people you -hate-, not even dislike, but hate-hate-hate.  Leave aside the idea that it's a gangbang when GA is winning the war in the south and OW is being absolutely devestated by Arcachon, but OW and Arcachon were long term "allies" who have never been friends per say, but just didn't have a reason to attack each other and so said "Eh, look, we're uh, friends?" while sharpening their knives.

Xarnelf helping Arcachon led to pretty much exactly what OW and Arcaea didn't want from the start, and what Cathay is now desperately trying to avoid, which is another total war in which half of the FEI gets burned to the ground.

If anyone should complain about a potential gangbang it should be Cathay, but they entered the war (second to) last and chose their fate, especially if the wind blows the other way and C'thonia/Kindara shanks them.

This who FEI continent wide war is really even, Arcaea/OW/Cathay start with an edge, but due to their lack of food they effectively have a timer running on their war machine.  It's really exciting.

150

Development / Re: Treaty friction is boring

« on: June 08, 2011, 04:57:13 AM »

Just a correction on Nothoi.  It -has- a religion, just not one for the common masses or one that is acceptable to anyone else right now.

I was hoping the blood cult would set up camp, but since it's folded there is no in-game mechanic for secret cults (maybe a guild?).  Everyone from Bara'Khur knows what insane cult I'm talking about.  It's not in the wiki or listed anywhere, but rest assured there is at least one person in Beleuterra trying to cause a fifth invasion, though from a different source (sort of, maybe, depends on if all the undead come from the same place).

Not going to keep that listed on the religion page though, might make diplomacy tricky.

"Good day sir, I see you're trying to destroy the world, would you like to be allies?"

"Oh no, just purify mankind through the perfection of undeath, but sure, until my mistress returns from the grave to lead her enternal minions we can be the best of friends.  Unfortunately, you're sure to try to stop her reclaiming her throne, so then I'll have to murder you and everyone you know because you have not been made cleansed through alchemical ritual."

Yeah.  Not good PR.