Dice Trial by Fire - Exalted 2e OOC

[Thief of Words]

I can only hope to be active at that time sadly z.z This insomnia whiplash is liable to knock me out as soon as I get home.

Hopefully I'll hit a second wind of sorts by then.

I won't be on until tomorrow afternoon or evening. I have work early tomorrow, which I stated in my post in the other ooc thread.

 

[Rykon]

Ah, best of luck with that. Coming back immediately after a trip is pretty rough.

 

[Thief of Words]

May be worse. Flight delays and a very vocal toddler behind me. Yaaaaaaay.

 

[Thief of Words]

yup. Missed connecting flight and lost my ride home.

 

[MasterDAF]

Rykon Just finished reading your Empire Organization onedrive post, super great!! I like the way you adapted the first half of the Bill of Rights (plus a few including abolish slavery) for citizen rights, that was a cool idea. I do have a couple thoughts on it:

House of Divinity and Solar Representation
- "This house is comprised of both the Celestial and Terrestrial Exalted elected by their peers to represent their interests..."
- Are all Celestial Exalts to have seats and votes in the House of Divinity, or will it only be select individuals who are picked to represent the rest?
- The ancient Solar Deliberative's laws were debated by Solars/Lunars/Sidereals, but only voted on by Solar deliberators. Obviously we aren't trying to copy-paste their gov. for our system, but I do like the idea of the Solars being first-among equals. Even if this is just achieved by every Imperial Solar being an automatic member of the House and having a vote, whereas all other Celestial/Terrestrial must be chosen as a representative, I think it would help to establish the Solars as being at the top via increased representation, while still incentivizing other Exalts to join because they have the opportunity to represent their peers.

The Emperor's Veto and Imperial Decrees
- There are rules in place for passing a law without the Emperor's support, but they seem contingent on the Emperor not using a veto within a year of the proposed law passing through the legislative houses. If the Emperor does choose to use a veto, is there a higher percentage of votes that can be achieved within the legislature to overturn the veto? The Scarlet Dynasty uses a "unanimous" overturn system, wherein if she vetoes a proposed law, they can overturn her veto with a unanimous vote of support for the proposed measure. She even gave them additional leverage, by allowing a vote to count as unanimous if it is only blocked by one legislator. Of course, historically the few times they did this, she followed it up by trapping all the legislators inside the building and killing them as punishment; I imagine we would not follow that example.
- I think such a system of unanimous support for overturning vetoes (as well as Imperial decrees) could be useful to balance power slightly in case the Emperor decides to start denying the house legislators everything and making his own laws with impunity.

Rights of Citizens - Fruit of the Poisoned Tree
- Warrants must describe "the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
- Obviously the fourth ammendment was worded in a way to protect citizens from abuses involving the fruit from the poisoned tree, as law enforcement would otherwise be tempted to create faulty warrants to allow themselves access to search people/locations for contraband that was previously unknown to them.
- That being said, as the possessors of paranoid Solar Essences and god-powers to investigate crimes and rule as we see fit under the Mandate of Heaven, I sorta see us being more susceptible to this risk. I feel like we'd require the use of warrants (due to an intent to be fair) but then also make the mistake of allowing for the 'recovery' of items during searches not listed on warrants (due a flawed interpretation of properly upholding justice/punishing evil-doers).

Rights of Citizens - Timetable for Obtaining Citizenship
- This right states that immigrants must submit themselves for legal documentation upon entry to the Empire "within reasonable time."
- No critic or question here, just a suggestion for a definitive period of time as opposed to a flexible one. The Perfect of Paragon allows visitors to remain in the city for up to a month before choosing to either accept his mark and citizenship or leave the city.
- I think that could be a good template for us to base our timetable on, allowing immigrants a month from the first day they are recorded entering the territory to begin the process of citizenship, and perhaps another month or so (dependent on how long the process takes) to have their citizenship completed. Failure to abide by this (one month + processing time) would of course result in death as you stated.


What are your thoughts? I'm appreciative of the time you obviously sank into putting this together, and if you're married to it then I'm certainly fine with giving it the thumbs up. Ironically, I think it actually functions really well as a fair treatment of citizens and their representation within the Empire. My suggestions/questions are mostly just predicated on adding a bit of that "better-than-you god-king attitude" to it, so that we can "accidently" create mostly-overlooked issues (like unbalanced representation or faulty investigative practices) to have to deal with down the line when they balloon from small discrepancies to vast problems.

 

[Rykon]

Lot to mull over here but here's what I got by heading.

House of Divinity and Solar Representation
Each aspect of Exaltation elects a number of representatives commensurate to the active number allied with the Empire. Terrestrial "districts" for lack of a better term, is just an Imperial Gens, their representative is selected by the Gens itself according to their own bylaws. The intent with each aspect getting voices and votes is to foster mutual understanding and cooperation, which is also why any House of Divinity Rep sits in on a given session of the House of the People. The reason for limited representation is so the majority of Exalts are free to do other works while having their grievances aired. Solars are top by the fact that we nearly monopolize Executive power, and thoroughly influence all lawmaking power by having a Solar Emperor and Solar Deliberators.

The Emperor's Veto and Imperial Decrees
My thought here is that the balance of power is at threat of swordpoint. Tyranny will not long be borne by the deliberatives. I only included the bypass in the event of an extended absence of the Emperor. If you think the term of response should be shorter or that complete unanimity among the deliberatives should supercede the Emperor's veto, I reckon we can make that concession. Though I had fully intended each veto to be accompanied by an audience with the appropriate deliberative body(s) to hash out what is going on. I expect to veto a lot of stuff for excessive page length and breach of scope. Each law should be precise but brief, on a single topic. Most of the populace is not likely to be literate, but by dammit they should know how to be lawful citizens or we're building a paper trap (which disgusts the very core of my being).

Rights of Citizens - Fruit of the Poisoned Tree
While stuff like the scrying stone is a thing, I don't see a sane way to legislate around supernatural investigators with our limited understanding of their experience. If anyone has a proposal here, I'm all ears. So stuff like warrants and right to trial is as best as I can come up with.

Rights of Citizens - Timetable for Obtaining Citizenship
The benchmark would be as soon as they could reach a census office within any settled part of the Empire to report entry into the nation. Literally the form would be a 5-10 minute interview of stuff like: Name, Age, Sex, Profession, Purpose of Entry, Classification (Mortal, Exalt, etc.) Citizenship for mortals is one year in lawful labor under an Imperial guild of their profession. If they don't have one, they can be tested and trained for one by guilds, as will be their lawful obligation.

Other Stuff
There was quite a bit I held back due to the setting and age of civilization. Like freedom of religion will not be a thing. Yozi cults are maximum nope. There was also the rest of the bill of rights I left off because I was too addled by fatigue to appreciate their inclusion in a bronze age world (for the most part). Also because Aredin fantasizes about murdering Raksha slowly with a Cold-Iron Sandblaster on the nights he isn't writhing from nightmares.

In other news I added a section on the Imperial court, the Lords of the Court, their authority, and what their staff manages. This should be an open discussion for what you'd like to see your role and title to be everyone.

 

[MasterDAF]

House of Divinity and Solar Representation
Each aspect of Exaltation elects a number of representatives commensurate to the active number allied with the Empire. Terrestrial "districts" for lack of a better term, is just an Imperial Gens, their representative is selected by the Gens itself according to their own bylaws. The intent with each aspect getting voices and votes is to foster mutual understanding and cooperation, which is also why any House of Divinity Rep sits in on a given session of the House of the People. The reason for limited representation is so the majority of Exalts are free to do other works while having their grievances aired. Solars are top by the fact that we nearly monopolize Executive power, and thoroughly influence all lawmaking power by having a Solar Emperor and Solar Deliberators.

Okay, I understand a bit better now. That makes a lot of sense, using representation to free up other Exalts and allow them to pursue agendas separate from being stuck there in governance. You mentioned earlier today something about ways to encourage other Exalts to join our fledgling empire as we try to found/grow it, and I suppose having an equally proportioned selection of reps. for each aspect does show an opportunity to join and rule in good faith. They wouldn't have to worry about joining but always being underrepresented or unable to press their own important issues; I suppose if that was the case, perhaps they would just choose not to join and go somewhere else (thus defeating the purpose). I agree with your previous sentiment concerning succession, its gonna be interesting to see how that plays out IC!

The Emperor's Veto and Imperial Decrees
My thought here is that the balance of power is at threat of swordpoint. Tyranny will not long be borne by the deliberatives. I only included the bypass in the event of an extended absence of the Emperor. If you think the term of response should be shorter or that complete unanimity among the deliberatives should supercede the Emperor's veto, I reckon we can make that concession. Though I had fully intended each veto to be accompanied by an audience with the appropriate deliberative body(s) to hash out what is going on. I expect to veto a lot of stuff for excessive page length and breach of scope. Each law should be precise but brief, on a single topic. Most of the populace is not likely to be literate, but by dammit they should know how to be lawful citizens or we're building a paper trap (which disgusts the very core of my being).

Power balanced at threat of swordpoint, gotcha. I made the mistake of comparing it to the Scarlet Dynasty, but the flaw there is that massive portions of their legislators are mortals. If they don't like what the Empress is doing, they're kinda up a creek without a paddle. But in the government you propose, our deliberators (at least in the House of Divinity) won't be a bunch of slack-jawed yokels who can be bullied to roll over. If the Emperor goes drunk with power, they've actually got the Essence and power to step up and pose a credible challenge. Taking that all into consideration, I can see where a year for the Emperor to respond with the veto makes sense and why a unanimous veto to overturn his decisions isn't needed. If it gets to the point that they are that opposed to his actions, then he's in trouble whether they have the legal power to overturn his decrees or not. And I agree with you, definitely no hard to understand laws and crazy legal jargon! Half our agrarian population will be arrested by mid-day tea, and they won't even know why!

Though on the topic of our eventual population's lack of literacy...might not be a bad idea to flip through our discovered library at some point and see if there's any mention of I AM. If we could discover that it existed in the First Age, then searching for any surviving terminals could be some of the first steps towards reestablishing an actually effective system of public education for our people. Plus mass communications, which would be helpful in terms of coordinating against enemies and proliferating propaganda...but I digress (I'm getting so many exciting ideas the more I type!).

Rights of Citizens - Fruit of the Poisoned Tree
While stuff like the scrying stone is a thing, I don't see a sane way to legislate around supernatural investigators with our limited understanding of their experience. If anyone has a proposal here, I'm all ears. So stuff like warrants and right to trial is as best as I can come up with.

Rights of Citizens - Timetable for Obtaining Citizenship
The benchmark would be as soon as they could reach a census office within any settled part of the Empire to report entry into the nation. Literally the form would be a 5-10 minute interview of stuff like: Name, Age, Sex, Profession, Purpose of Entry, Classification (Mortal, Exalt, etc.) Citizenship for mortals is one year in lawful labor under an Imperial guild of their profession. If they don't have one, they can be tested and trained for one by guilds, as will be their lawful obligation.

Yeah, you're right. Going in depth to the exact legalese used for search and seizures might become bit difficult, especially with the supernatural abilities that exist in Creation. A cut and dry law might just be the most efficient here. I got my B.S. and M.S. in Criminology, so when I was reading about this I was immediately drawn into thinking about the ways the system could be abused for drama, but it wouldn't be worth the headache for such a small payoff. And I like your plan for obtaining citizenship, I didn't realize it would be that straightforward but I like it. That's also a neat idea, using the guilds to test/train mortals for the profession they will hold within the empire. Would definitely help us to make sure our citizenry have the skills needed to provide useful productivity.

Other Stuff
There was quite a bit I held back due to the setting and age of civilization. Like freedom of religion will not be a thing. Yozi cults are maximum nope. There was also the rest of the bill of rights I left off because I was too addled by fatigue to appreciate their inclusion in a bronze age world (for the most part). Also because Aredin fantasizes about murdering Raksha slowly with a Cold-Iron Sandblaster on the nights he isn't writhing from nightmares.

In other news I added a section on the Imperial court, the Lords of the Court, their authority, and what their staff manages. This should be an open discussion for what you'd like to see your role and title to be everyone.

Haha, I'll admit the worrisome implications of the freedom of religion aspect crossed my mind while reading the First Rights of Citizens. Half our nation will be Yozi cultists, and the other half will be busy worshiping their ancestors at the edge of the Labyrinth! xD I haven't looked at the newest section yet, will do so and let you know if anything jumps out at me.

Again, you've done a hell of a job putting the skeleton of our fledgling Imperial government together, and I can't wait to see it get fleshed out in play! Anticipation just continues to build!!

 

[Thief of Words]

From what I'm seeing at a cursory glance...Feihan's going to hardcore hate a lot of this. XD Like, hard veto with her fists hate part of it.

Can't say more til i get the chance to sit down and actually go through everything tomorrow night, but heh. No surprise on that bit, I'm sure.

But then, Feihan is a more Confucian individual than the modernized mindset behind these laws.

...then there's her on lectionary on grounds that "no man has ever ruled over a significant proportion of creation alone, not successfully. Men are simply too prone to bickering and overemotionality and pride to rule with a clear head. Well, a eunuch-Emperor might be capable of it, as it does tamp down on the overabundance of masculine humors or yang, which is the cause of masculine tendency to arrogance and overreaction..."

 

[Rykon]

Restoring I AM would be amazing but in the interim I plan to stick trade schooling and apprenticeships as an obligation of the guilds and basic education as an obligation of the state.

Most of my perspective comes from a BS in Accounting and Finance, which was my initial course in college. My frustration with the professional community led me to add computer science and eventually become a developer.

Edit: also worth mentioning, the limited representation in the deliberative was also intended to allow executive appointments of celestials (military officials in particular) to avoid role overlap. Terrestrials will probably be joining them for dominance as judges too so it's not like there will be a lack of political power available for exalts with talent and desire to earn it.

 

[Kwops]

Hey. I'm incredibly sorry about not posting the last few days. I was gone to the beach to do some work on the house there, and for some reason my phone didn't send me any alerts about you guys posting here. I'll make sure to at least notify you guys when I'm going to be leaving like that next time, in case I dont see messages again.

 

[Rykon]

From what I'm seeing at a cursory glance...Feihan's going to hardcore hate a lot of this. XD Like, hard veto with her fists hate part of it.

Can't say more til i get the chance to sit down and actually go through everything tomorrow night, but heh. No surprise on that bit, I'm sure.

But then, Feihan is a more Confucian individual than the modernized mindset behind these laws.

...then there's her on lectionary on grounds that "no man has ever ruled over a significant proportion of creation alone, not successfully. Men are simply too prone to bickering and overemotionality and pride to rule with a clear head. Well, a eunuch-Emperor might be capable of it, as it does tamp down on the overabundance of masculine humors or yang, which is the cause of masculine tendency to arrogance and overreaction..."

I have anticipated opposition to Aredin as sole ruler and have a planned response, though I hadn't anticipated that to be the reason. As for the rest of the organization I'd have to see the reason and proposed alternative to come up with anything substantive in character. Though I dont expect a violent veto to go over well for Feihan.

 

[MasterDAF]

Well, a eunuch-Emperor might be capable of it

So what I'm hearing (purposefully drawn far away out of context) is that if we find a suitable person with a supernatural Medicine score and let them have some alone time with Aredin, then Feihan will have less resistance to his ascension?

Rykon I agree that sounds like a good way to split the educational obligations, trades/apprenticeships with guilds and basic ed. with the state.

What are your plans concerning judges? I know you mentioned in the organization form that "Magistrates have full authority delegated by the Emperor to act as a judge in accordance with the common law of the jurisdiction and greater Empire." How will jurisdictions be outlined as territories are added and magistrates assigned? Will new jurisdictions be decided by the two Houses, and Magistrates assigned by the Emperor, or will the Emperor make unilateral decisions regarding both new jurisdictions and assigning of new/replacement Magistrates?

Will there be a higher level Magistrate/Council of Magistrates located in the capital to appeal 'lower' Magistrate decisions (a la Supreme Court), or will the local Magistrate's decisions be final (barring overturn via Emperor)? I know I keep throwing questions at you, but it is just so fun to discuss this stuff!

 

[Rykon]

Hierarchy of districts will be a thing, it will have to be fluid as expansion occurs. It should function much like the court system in English common law nations with appeals being made up the hierarchy. The imperial head of magistrates may end up being the grand vizier, and will be in charge of compiling the legal code of the empire and archiving case decisions for leveraging precedent to consistently apply the laws on the books. Magistrates will have the privilege to address any deliberative house as a speaker to report on the operations of law for making policy adjustments. Though this must be scheduled through the secretary of the house. I haven't come up with a good term for a mayoral or governor equivalent in the empire and I've considered just having magistrates capable of district administration in cooperation with the offices of imperial lords.

I'm sorely tempted to kneecap districts ability to create their own laws, but our bureaucratic machine may become too slow or big to respond to the needs of the people.

 

[Thief of Words]

Half of Feihan''s response is apt to be: "So the Dynasty, but less stable?"

 

[Thief of Words]

Restoring I AM would be amazing but in the interim I plan to stick trade schooling and apprenticeships as an obligation of the guilds and basic education as an obligation of the state.

Most of my perspective comes from a BS in Accounting and Finance, which was my initial course in college. My frustration with the professional community led me to add computer science and eventually become a developer.

Edit: also worth mentioning, the limited representation in the deliberative was also intended to allow executive appointments of celestials (military officials in particular) to avoid role overlap. Terrestrials will probably be joining them for dominance as judges too so it's not like there will be a lack of political power available for exalts with talent and desire to earn it.

I...could comment on that from a professional standpoint, but I didn't make an Eclipse, so my Library/archives/information Science expertize isn't available IC, and anything not available to the character is metagaming.

 

[Rykon]

An expanding entity like that would be about as stable as a puddle in a rainstorm, yes, though he'd question how that relates to the empire with its history of peasant revolts and its politically, and soon to be martially, cannibalistic aristocratic class. Also hurts that we can't hold the world hostage with our arsenal of WMDs that are beyond our capability to reproduce or maintain safely or efficiently. But hey, we gotta start with what we have. Beats lining up for beheading at least.

Seriously though, much of the document is up for negotiation provided we have workable solutions to implement. This is merely what I can conjure up in intermittent fits of insomnia. Though its flaws are much like that of the players in Jade Empire, instilled for a purpose. In this case it would be to appeal to the inherent idealism and transformative appetite of newly Exalted Celestials. So long as they perceive that we can help fuel their idealism and self improvement needs while keeping a safe and stable population we've done the remarkable.

I...could comment on that from a professional standpoint, but I didn't make an Eclipse, so my Library/archives/information Science expertize isn't available IC, and anything not available to the character is metagaming.

You have me curious. I wonder if I gave the wrong impression. I merely mean i was too introverted to be comfortable in the highly social atmosphere of that space. When I had finally gotten an internship toward the latter part of my time in school, most of my work duties was programming automation for modeling so I doubled down on it to "embrace the inevitable" so to speak.

 

[MasterDAF]

Hierarchy of districts will be a thing, it will have to be fluid as expansion occurs. It should function much like the court system in English common law nations with appeals being made up the hierarchy. The imperial head of magistrates may end up being the grand vizier, and will be in charge of compiling the legal code of the empire and archiving case decisions for leveraging precedent to consistently apply the laws on the books. Magistrates will have the privilege to address any deliberative house as a speaker to report on the operations of law for making policy adjustments. Though this must be scheduled through the secretary of the house. I haven't come up with a good term for a mayoral or governor equivalent in the empire and I've considered just having magistrates capable of district administration in cooperation with the offices of imperial lords.

I'm sorely tempted to kneecap districts ability to create their own laws, but our bureaucratic machine may become too slow or big to respond to the needs of the people.

I like the idea of the Grand Vizier taking on the role of 'head magistrate,' since it is a title to be held by a Sidereal. Sidereals are basically set up to be the perfect teachers for other Celestials (when things are working in blessed tandem), and it seems natural that this would extend to the role of an objective judge as well.

What if the districts you describe are labeled as Prefectures, and the governor/mayoral positions labeled as Prefects? Hailing back to the Shogunate era, such a reference could possibly appeal to Outcaste Terrestrials who stand opposed to joining the Scarlet Dynasty and have heard stories of the ancient Shogunate (which some of them still view thorugh a lens of reverence as a part of the low-First Age, rather than beginning of the Second). This could sound appealing to such individuals, and increase their willingness to join our Empire. Of course Lookshy already has a head start doing this, continuing the Seventh Legion of the Shogunate, but anybody located South of the Marukani or West of the Blessed Isle are less likely to make much contact with them and might see us as a worthwhile and beneficial (if slightly underwhelming) alternative. Especially as we get our feet under us, and our Empire makes use of our Solar blessings to eclipse the marvels capable of other pre-established nations, those who dislike the Realm could start to perceive us as a better alternative to Lookshy and other equivalent nations/city-states.

If we were to do it this way, Prefects could manage the administrative affairs of a prefecture and work in coordination with the Magistrates. Though in such a circumstance, it might be good to provide safety insulation by ruling that the magistrates are not subject to criminal prosecution by their local Prefect. So if a Prefect is unhappy with the work of their local Magistrate or thinks they are participating in illicit action, word must be moved up the chain and action taken on the part of the overarching Imperial gov. (either the Houses or Emperor? Not exactly who should be in charge of this) to prosecute the Magistrate and potentially have them removed. Similarly, if a Prefect is found to be acting in an illegal manner, they should be shielded from judgement by their local magistrate and instead be judged at trial by a magistrate higher up the chain (perhaps Grand Vizier?). In this way, I think both the Prefect and the Magistrates would not have to worry about actions being taken against them by opposing individuals hungry for power, as they would not represent immediate local threats to their leading partner in the prefecture.

And (my thoughts on districts making local laws) perhaps the Prefects could establish local laws to be upheld only within the boundaries of the Prefecture, so long as each proposed law only targets subjects unaddressed by Imperial law, and do not in any way contradict existing Imperial law. Each proposed law would have to be submitted to the secretaries of both the House of Divinity and the House of the People, then be reviewed and approved by a 70% vote in both Houses. This would provide a manner through which local ordinances could be enacted, while still allowing the overarching Imperial governance to screen each proposal before its enacted (and thus help prevent potential power-hungry Prefects from creating their own little kingdoms inside the larger Empire). Naturally, the Emperor would have the power to veto such proposals the same as normal as well as the power to repeal a local law he disagrees with (in case he decides to allow a controversial law pass to see how it works in action, using the selected Prefecture as a test subject, but then is unsatisfied with its outcome he can still stricken it from the books).

 

[Rykon]

Yeah the prefecture nomenclature goes back to the early age of dreams if I remember correctly. I still have some qualms with potential corruption of the prefectural layer of government.

Perhaps we need similar speaking privileges for prefects in the deliberative houses to propose laws that can be limited by jurisdiction but on file for the empire. The other alternative would be local trade guild councils to legislate prefectures and prefects to execute and mandate with the ability for super majorities to overrule a prefect. I like this latter option more.

Edit: yeah with this latter option an exalt can harvest taxes of their subordinate prefectures, with terrestrial prefects that actually administrate the regions. Celestials would be in charge of coordinating their jurisdictions cooperative endeavors and benefit from investing in developing the regions resources, infrastructure, and talent... but we would need to regulate their capacity to amass militias under their own banner. Hopefully a Lord Marshal could keep a tight monopoly on military chain of command.

So.. Emperor > Daimyo > Prefect each can have a force deployed for their use subject to the Lord Marshal's authority.

 

[MasterDAF]

Rykon I definitely agree that the potential for corruption grows the more layers we add to the Empire's governance. That being said, I think the risk of becoming bloated and unable to react in a timely manner is a greater one and will necessitate giving at least some form of limited autonomy to lesser political actors. Your latter idea (local trade guild councils legislating prefectures and Prefects executing and mandating with option to overrule via supermajority) sounds like a good way to go about it.

I think I like the way you extrapolated with Terrestrial Prefects administrating regions and Celestials coordinating cooperative endeavors. I have one question though; is one Terrestrial acting as Prefect for a set region and another Celestial acting as their superior/overseer, just with an eye towards multi-region endeavors as opposed to daily-prefecture administration? I'm not quite clear on the role the Celestial would play, or where in the local hierarchy they would be positioned; are they higher than the Terrestrial Prefect or equal to them?

 

[Rykon]

Celestial is the governor/daimyo, terrestrials are the mayors/prefects. Also for what it's worth those guilds will span the whole empire they just get legislative representation in the prefectures they are present.

 

[MasterDAF]

Sherwood Are the manses our newly gained hearthstones connect to inside the tombs, or somewhere else in Creation? Or are we treating them just as 'magic stones,' and the manse portion is kinda swept under the rug? I know different Storytellers like to play it different ways. I like stating out manses when given the opportunity, but I realize that it can be problematic if you want us to get the hearthstone benefits without worrying about the extra benefits manses provide.

 

[Sherwood]

For your initial stones, I didn't want to deal with the issue of having to hunt down all these different Manses and detailing them for you. In the future, we will probably have short time jumps where you can say you went off to find the actual physical location using a Hearthstone Compass. So, if you so choose, feel free to stat your Manses on your character sheet.

 

[Rykon]

I was gonna say, this pinky and the brain process of plotting world conquest will probably entail a long period of research in that library, longer if we shuffle funds and fence random goods discretely. Does a season or year seem enough to get the circle prepared for starting the plan?

 

[Sherwood]

Whichever is fine with me. I just don't want to rush through the game and not give everyone a chance to post.

 

[Thief of Words]

Hi? I have zero idea what's going on now, but from the sound of things I don't think Feihan will belong in the game much longer.

It sounds like the rest of the party is jumping with both feet on a premise that I didn't sign up or make a character intending to play.