Sage_of_Eyes
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V8: Chapter 8
🕑 Added 2024-07-29 00:31:03 +0000 UTCV8: Chapter 8
…
In-game, it takes a lot of investment to kill a leader off.
I mean, it makes sense.
Leader characters don’t exactly grow on trees. Even with DLCs, there’s six tops for each Faction. If you change leaders, the whole playstyle of a player would need to change, because there’s no overlap between them. The bonuses and debuffs they give across their civilization demand the change. If you lose your Faith-based leader dedicated to boosting how much Faith your religious districts give, those religious districts will suddenly have higher maintenance costs for lower Faith outputs, and that’s without considering the loss of leader-based events, artifacts, buildings, and units. Whoever you’ve got next, you need to rebuild for, so that you can have a chance at winning.
If you don’t, you’re just going to lose.
So, of course, assassinations through espionage are hard as hell to pull off. There are dozens of technologies that just give bonuses to resisting assassination to boost defenses against it. You’ve researched public libraries and built them? Have a 2.5% resist to assassination attempts for having slightly smarter citizenry. Sewers have been researched and built? 2.5% resist to assassination, since people aren’t distracted by the smell of your cities. Any reason they can use, they slapped that on as a bonus, and called it a day.
The Devs built resisting assassination attempts into the tech tree, so actually pulling off an assassination isn’t a cheesy strategy but something worth shaking hands over. You pull it off in a multiplayer match is something people will laud you for after the game… because it’s just a massive pain in the ass. Pulling it off requires hours of planning, the RNG going your way with the right events and artifacts, and finally you need to shape the whole attempt with various other operations beforehand too. And, what do you get if you do everything right? For everything right, you get a twenty percent chance to succeed.
One in five.
Not only that, but all the while, you’re rolling and acting against your enemy on their home territory on the espionage layer. If they researched policing and built it, they’ll just auto-generate guards on the espionage layer that need to be avoided. If they have their own agents on the board, they’ll have an easier time of finding you in their territory and uncovering the whole plot. Then, of course, there was the chance of the Agent just rolling poorly and getting caught by local forces. Everything is against the player trying to achieve it, while everything was in favor of the target.
All for the sake of balance.
I really hoped that I could hit that 1-in-5 chance, because I really, really didn’t want to deal with the Wardens and their bullshit. Sure, endlessly reviving armies seems great to have on paper against the coming threats, but the Wardens are fucked in the head.
How fucked in the head?
They’ll kill us all, even before finishing off the endgame threats, to save us from suffering.
Yeah.
They don’t just offer the kool-aid, they’re ready to kill you if you don’t drink it. When the going gets tough, they just kill you and don’t offer, either.
So, they’ve gotta go, before they sabotage our defense efforts and before they become massive pains in the ass.
…
There are three things that need to happen before an assassination attempt takes place. One of them is optional, but most players consider it necessary, and I agreed and worked on it first. It was setting up another Leader to take the place of the current one. In multiplayer matches, you pick the one most opposite of the Leader your opponent currently has, so that they must rebuild and redevelop that much more. Doing it also ensured that you know what to build after the assassination takes place, since if you don’t set the new Leader up, they’ll just a random leader from their pool, or their faction automatically falls to their closest ally.
Since Khalai is confederated with the Forgers, Merchants, and Guardians, that would be a terrible result, so it was imperative that I get to choose the next leader of the Wardens.
It’s easier than you think, since they’re a bunch of religious fanatics.
I just needed to find and invigorate the rival sect to the dominant one.
In-game, the Wardens can go through a schism and even a full-on reformation. When everyone just comes back to life after dying, you can afford to have a civil war and not end your faction’s chances at winning. But I was hoping to avoid the schism and facilitate the reformation instead. The reformation of the Wardens of the Caverns was usually player-selected, if they didn’t want to go the route of endlessly spawning armies and fucking up their endgame framerate during the movement section.
The Reformation Faction espoused extreme views in their society such as:
People should have the right to decide whether they want die or not.
We shouldn’t throw ourselves into battle expecting to die. We should try to stay alive.
And, finally, we should do our best to convince people to join our religion, but we shouldn’t force them to.
Yeah.
I know.
Pretty extreme religious views, right?
Anyway, since the Reformation Leader was the only Leader that could possibly become an ally and get the Wardens off the path of suicide-cult, I searched for them while setting up the rest of the operations needed for the assassination attempt. Since the Reformation Leader was a randomized character every run, I had to look out for their small, budding movement instead of the person themselves.
I half-expected to find them half-dead from stoning outside a Warden city.
Instead, Khanrow found three potential reformers running around the continent.
“Sitha. Former priestess of one of the first churches set up near the Warden’s Citadel. Claimed the Wardens refused to help those who needed help without being part of their religion, officially denounced.” Khanrow sure had a great spy network. Sent him off to find one of the big threats, but he still managed to get the task of finding possible replacements of Khalai without any issue. Scary guy, honestly. “Now travels around the continent in a caravan a thousand people strong. They offer blessings, miracles, and other alms of the Wardens’ religion to all those in need. People are calling the path her journey is taking the Trail of Miracles.”
A painted sketch made by an Iterant showcased Sitha. Long white hair, ebony skin, and brilliant blue eyes and wearing flowing silks… whilst walking on water to a watching crowd in the coast.
Yeah, she’s got the messiah fame going on, but that’s not all a Leader of a whole nation needs.
“Education level and ability?”
“Poorly educated. Raised by the Warden’s Church. However, she has raised many who have recently perished on occasion. Bandits that attack her caravan perish and are revived regularly. No news of her rousing centuries-long dead Saints.” Khanrow delivered the information in a straightforward manner. The portraits of the three leader replacements were a step apart from each other. Thanks to the talents of the Iterants, they were practically photo-real. He gestured at the portrait of Sitha with a grunt. “A good backup option, if the latter two don’t work.”
“I agree. Too conservative. Just a bit more alms isn’t what we want. Whatever remains of the Warden’s church after will have too much power over her, and we can just end up at step one. Let’s move on.” Sitha sounded more like a light reset than a complete retooling. She was against the current doctrine of the Wardens, making her a good candidate to stop the Wardens from going full on genocide mode, but it sounded like the Wardens will just keep going full faith route and keep building up to their cultist fanatics ending. Not what I wanted. “You said this one’s more militant?”
“Riza of Clan Kalith, a lineage of paladins with strong political influence and wealth. They state that the theocracy does not suffice as an institution to rule over the Wardens, and that a militant arm and militant leaders must be raised to help guide the nation of the Wardens.” I was liking what I was hearing. This guy sounded like a terrible Leader for the Wardens. If they didn’t play into their resurrection shtick, their armies become stupidly expensive because they can’t just freely replenish them anymore, thanks to them being all speedy glass cannons. “High Justiciar Khalai is in talks with their faction—
I cut Khanrow off there.
“Yeah, that’s not happening then. Khalai’s got probably got the guy wrapped around his finger. Or, maybe, Khalai’s wrapped around his finger. Whichever’s the case, we can’t trust someone Khalai’s spoken to. This guy’s out.” Khalai’s a strong diplomacy build. The raw diplomacy stat is probably maxed out. Given his various outfits, I’m sure he’s got all the artifacts needed to pump that stat up. At this stage of the game, he should be halfway through his perk tree, so it was possible he’s got all the foundational diplomacy perks too. Morale buffs, lower chance of betrayal, and even converting spies. All those things were possible. “Put him on the list for the decapitation strike after we hit their resurrection centers.”
I call them resurrection centers, but they were also known as places of worship.
Y’know.
Churches and such.
Can’t be helped, if I don’t blow them up, whatever civil conflict pops up will have endless reinforcements for both sides.
Don’t want to deal with whatever comes out of that sort of slaughterhouse as an opponent.
“Very well. Then we only have two candidates. This one barely qualifies. Half-Warden with a Descendant Mother. Practicing head priest in Academy lands. Has denounced the main body of the church as forgetting him and his own.” The last option honestly made me blink. Khanrow noticed me staring at him. He sighs. “Yes. The resemblance is uncanny.”
“That’s just Khalai with some piercings and with black hair.” If Khalai went with the boy-princess-next-door-look, the third option was just Khalai from a highly conservative family and who was now rebelling. Silver ring piercing on the lip. Hoops in the ears and a stud in the nose along with a scowl and furrowed brow. In a nun outfit complete with habit, with slits on the sides of the short skirt to show off garters. In other words, depressed with daddy issues twink asthetic. If Khalai’s the polyamarous icon, this one’s the fix-me-please idol. “Have you ever seen these two in the same room together?”
“We have. Typically, they yell at one another.” Bet a few degenerates would pay to watch that, even if they’re only just yelling at one another and doing nothing else. Khanrow cleared his throat and plainly addressed the fact that I didn’t believe I was looking at Khalai Goth Nun Ultra-Rare version. “I’ll make sure to get a painting of such a meeting. Let’s move on.”
“Go ahead.”
“Lisander was born in a mining house and was accepted into the clergy for his innate talents. He was sent to the lands taken by the Wardens from the Academy’s lands along with his extended household, so that it could be exploited. Tensions began to arise when they focused on caring and protecting the people of the land, instead of focusing on exploiting it.”
“Are they actually doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, or are they trying to take it for themselves?”
Khanrow nodded at my statement.
“Both and with Lisander as the leader of the rising faction. If nothing is done, I believe that they’ll become a political power that contests against Khalai’s people. A rising, influential province not beholden to the central pillar of the Warden Theocracy.”
“They can do it, because they have enough immigrants in their province not entirely bound to their culture and a lot of excess raw materials that they can sell off to surrounding territories.” There was probably more to this story. Some sort of rivalry that led to Lisander being sent off to the frontier along with the rest of his family and their supporters. However, from what we could see now, the opposition was obvious and they were working towards gaining more independence. If we left things alone, then this’ll just end with Lisander and his family dead while Khalai’s people stepped in and retook control. “Sounds good. We’ll start giving them our support. Quietly. We want them to move into the coming chaos like the heroes of yore.”
“Then, what of the first option? The Priestess Sitha?”
“Track her. Start inserting people to rise up her organization’s ranks. Feel for her actual endgame. Prepare her for use. Maybe, as a third party coming in to make an even bigger mess, while Lisander and his separatist forces stay back until they can charge in.” Khanrow nodded and moved on from the portraits. Now, we both looked on the map of Khalai’s lands. Since they were the last faction to start, and we have helped them out since the very beginning, we were able to make maps of everything and keep an eye on the goings on. We had merchants and open trade with them at the moment, so updates were still pretty common. Just as expected, most of the settlement areas were filled up, but there were no cities yet. The major population area was still their capital at the base of their Citadel. Since they were wonder-focused, it made sense. Just extract materials and production from the outside, and funnel them all into the capital to build quickly. “How’s progress regarding the other stages of the plan?”
The replacements coming in to replace Khalai was pretty much the last step.
Before that we had to destabilize the whole country, foment unrest to the point of an uprising, and finally kill Khalai off. Basically, create so much confusion and chaos that people cling to the first person who shows up with the ability to end the violence. Very complicated, lots of points of failure, and it may blow up in my face and have my whole nation condemned by the remaining factions. Thankfully, though, Khanrow had a lot of experience as a spy, no one knew that I had Iterants, and doing everything needed was a lot cheaper than running a war.
So, I had the people, the funds, and the plan.
Only time will tell if it all works, or just fucks things up, and I find myself with a crusade/jihad on my doorstep.
Fun.
Comments
Zarik0
"I didn’t believe I was looking at Khalai Goth Nun Ultra-Rare version" Khalai Goth Nun Ultra-Rare version xP xDD
Christopher Thomas
TBF, this isn't intending to actually leave them in charge indefinitely. He fully intends on coming back and fully conquering them later.
Valerian
Copying the CIA playbook rarely works out. But as already established there is only a 20% chance of this plan succeeding. I expect it to blow up epically and Jack had to scramble to deal with the consequences.
