TFT Snippet #10

While "rule of the beautiful" is an attractive idea - it would certainly spiff up the 11 o'clock news broadcasts - there are just too many Dumb Blondes out there to make it practical. Even if a few of them _are_ women, it's not enough to make a difference.

Personally, I think Harchong would be better off sticking with their bureaucrats. Keeping them on a short leash might not be a bad notion, but on the whole you'll get better results this way.

PeterZ wrote:< snip >
All the while the beaurocracy will try to deepen their control in the South in an environment where they do not have a monopoly on information gathering nor control of economic activity.
< snip >

Louis R wrote:While "rule of the beautiful" is an attractive idea - it would certainly spiff up the 11 o'clock news broadcasts - there are just too many Dumb Blondes out there to make it practical. Even if a few of them _are_ women, it's not enough to make a difference.

Personally, I think Harchong would be better off sticking with their bureaucrats. Keeping them on a short leash might not be a bad notion, but on the whole you'll get better results this way.

PeterZ wrote:< snip >
All the while the beaurocracy will try to deepen their control in the South in an environment where they do not have a monopoly on information gathering nor control of economic activity.
< snip >

I believe I agree with you. The actual new balance of power will change the Empire moving forward. What that change will mean for North Harchong, for the geopolitical confrontations outside Harchong and for the Return is something I eagerly await.

AClone wrote:

phillies wrote:
Readers would note that the local military apparently does not have rules about relations between people in the same chain of command, or that would also be an issue.

Aside, of course, from the fact that they aren't in the same chain of command.

Nimue was apparently adopted into the Royal Guard, but perhaps that was not meant literally.

She needs to find a way to explain that in addition to being a machine, not a person, she is more or less immortal, so if she were to fall in love and marry she would be doomed to watch her other half age and die while she would not change.

Hi Phillies,

The same is true for Merlin and Nynian, and we may learn how they've addressed these issues.



quote="AClone"]

phillies wrote:
Readers would note that the local military apparently does not have rules about relations between people in the same chain of command, or that would also be an issue.

Aside, of course, from the fact that they aren't in the same chain of command.[/quote]

Nimue was apparently adopted into the Royal Guard, but perhaps that was not meant literally.

She needs to find a way to explain that in addition to being a machine, not a person, she is more or less immortal, so if she were to fall in love and marry she would be doomed to watch her other half age and die while she would not change.[/quote]

Hi PeterZ,

How much of the northern empire is effectively left?

If the C3I network has been beheaded, how can what's left in the provinces coordinate to avoid being overwhelmed by even the few ex-MHoGatA veterans we know about?

If the emperor's spears are largely destroyed, and the aristocrats have only their local militia regiments to defend themselves according to the LAMA textev, they're toast to the experienced veterans, who may have superior weapons, NTM a lot more veterans coming home after the successes the few have achieved.

How quickly can they make the gunpowder sling bombs, that ought to ruin cavalry charges, NTM break up their archery volleys.

Intervention by the ICA, may be limited to coastal areas, that don't extend very deep into the great mass of the NH empire.

What kind of nation the ex-serfs create there will be fascinating to watch. Go RFC!

For South Harchong, we have increasing textev that they are morphing into something far more accommodating to their serfs, previously even considering manumission, which might deter many NH empire old guard aristocrats from deciding to live there, which might improve South Harchong faster if the very far right isn't strengthened either politically or financially, as when FDR created lots of American millionaires out of the French Nazi collaborators when he reset the dollar-franc ratio back to its pre war rate, in a vain attempt to please de Gaulle, who wasn't that interested in the first place.

This is a magnificent epic, that gets even more interesting all the time!

Thank you RFC!

PeterZ wrote:Questions: Does the seat of government moving to Suoth Harchong and the northern serf rebellion mean the plight of the southern serf has worsened? If so, does that mean Green Tree Island will get an influx of immigrants? Do those factors lead to a Charisian colonization of the Barren Lands?

The current story arcs point to the three pillars of South Harchong politics rebalancing their degree of power and influence. The great trading houses of the South will begin asserting their influence as the old noble families of the North come to terms with their diminished wealth. All the while the beaurocracy will try to deepen their control in the South in an environment where they do not have a monopoly on information gathering nor control of economic activity. The trading houses don't relay on government beaurocrats to run things in the South as the nobles did in the North. Sure there is a degree of oversight, but the trading houses will make sure that beaurocrats are far enough removed to be unable to take over.

The dynamic of poor but politically conncected aristocrats, wealthy but common trading houses, a beaurocracy that wishes to become more deeply entrenched and an emperor with a jones on for punishing the miscreants who killed his father and re-conquer his ancestral real while at it; will be interesting indeed. Interesting and create a relatively freewheeling geopolitical dynamic 20 years down the road when the Sleepers awaken.

Hi again to the perceptive PeterZ,

Stohnar recognized they needed to raise the status of the western districts back in LAMA IIRC, but given the current turmoil would the rest of the republic accept raising their status and making them more representative?

We need more data before we can more reliably go off the rails again.

Will the new snippets be on a weekly basis?

PeterZ wrote:I wonder if this is a vote to make the region around Thesmar into a Province of the Republic rather than just the Military District it was.

Julia Minor wrote:1) Glad you're doing better now, RFC.

2) Requiescat in pace, Zhasyn Cahnyr.

3) If I'm reading things correctly, Cayleb (or Charis as a whole) really doesn't have an interest in setting up a private Siddarmarkian bank backed by the Silverlode mines. Slipping Owain back into Siddarmark to reinforce an official Siddarmark bank by buying up their notes at as close to par as possible and not buying notes issued by any of the wildcat banks would do a better job of strengthening the Siddarmarkian government.

A comment of Rhobair's in At the Sign of Triumph revealed that forgery is a known crime on Safehold, and we don't know how many of the carpetbaggers and wildcat bankers are passing their paper off as official. But I'm certain Stohnar and company would be willing to help sort out what's real (and thus redeemable) and what's fake (stock the privy).

4) Hmm, something's going on in Thesmar that needs an official vote from the Siddarmarkian government.

5) I'm delighted to see Koryn and Nimue together, but I really hope Koryn has other brothers or nephews. "Fully functional" or not, I'd be surprised if Nimue's PICA has a uterus-analogue, and Koryn is heir to the Earldom of Anvil Rock -- he needs to secure the line of succession.

Hi Lyonheart,

I really am interested in seeing how Northern Harchong shapes up. It appears that the part of Northern Harchong closest to the temple Lands will fall to the serfs. Chiang-wu, Tieglekamp, Stene and Maddox will be controlled by the Serfs. Chiang-wu and Maddox appear to have navigable rivers emptying into the Sea of Harchong. The cities on the shores of those estuaries look like where Charis will set up.

I do have a suspicion that Boisseau, Cheshire and all the other provinces along the Western Coast will remain loyal to the Emperor. However, I doubt those provinces will retain serfdom. I do suspect that those provinces will eventually find an accommodation with the rebels. If they don't they will go under in a storm of violence. Given that Charis is closer to Boisseau et al than Quieroz and there is already a naval station at Hill Island, Charis is well placed to broker peace.

Charis can supply whatever the rebels need to retain independence. If they succeed in carving out their new realm, the Mighty Host will evaporate and the rebel ranks will swell. If Rainbow Waters sides with Boisseau, the rebels will find themselves in a quadry. Charis can supply those Western provinces with the resources necessary to gain independence from the Emperor. If they don't want independence, they will have the resources to defend their policy changes. The combination of Rainbow Waters and Charisian assistance will give each side something they view as a legitimate path to peace.

What form of government the rebels will settle on will be interesting. I suspect that they will decide on a democratic republic. What will be interesting is who will be helping the rebels shape their new governemnt? Will their be a seijin guiding the rebels? Perhaps the Duke of Darcos and Paityr Wylsyn will accompany the ICM to provide assistance and guidance in those deliberations. Honestly, the risk of doing something like that is huge, but also has the best chance at making whatever government that forms sustainable. If charis commits less than their best effort to making whatever governemnt that forms sustainable, then the odds of the rebels going the route of Haiti approaches unity.

As for speculating on the Thesmar vote, what else could it be that requires a national vote? Anything else will be low probability events like the deaths of key political figures. My ego won't get hurt missing such low probability events, but will be if I don't think of those most likely ones.

ps. If Northern Harchong splits into two, largely pro-Charis, polities, that makes establishing colonies closer to Howard and Haven much more important. Greentree Island and the Barren Lands become places where creating naval bases and supporting colonies become much more attractive.

runsforcelery wrote:Okay, I have been away for a while. Some of you may know why, but it involves a face plant into a cement floor on the Thursday before DragonCon which resulted in a broken nose, or loose teeth, and a concussion which still hasn't cleared quite completely but is much better. About a month after the fall — that is, right at the end of September — my head suddenly cleared (literally overnight) to an enormous extent. Frankly, until it did, I hadn't really realized just how foggy and disorganized I was. Computer displays don't really help the condition, which is one reason that I think I am still having lingering aftereffects, but they really are a lot better, and my nose didn't get crooked and I didn't actually lose the teeth, although my dentist tells me that a big reason I didn't lose one of them is that I still have the wire retainer glued back of my lower teeth from my braces. Apparently, that stabilized the loose teeth until the ligaments could begin to tighten up again. Who would have thunk it?

I was thinking it was that you were just Mad at whoever the "smart alec" was..

phillies wrote:

Thendisnia wrote:

No it's just proof that the author understands or believes that how you are treated by those around you on a day by day basis establishes how you see yourself including your masculinity or femininity.

Or the gender alteration functions of the PICA also alter how the resident software from the human thinks about the topic. After all, that's what Merlin is at this point, an accumulation fo software inside a computer. The process that alters the body might also be set up to edit, quite deliberately the software of the resident person. How this works under the ten day limit is a bit obscure, but that limit as a practical matter has ceased to exist.

Please note that Merlin has repeatedly referred to the fact that many people with last-gen PICAs experimented with flipped genders. He specifically notes that Nimue did not and, as Merlin, was initially still experiencing the same arousal patterns as Merlin that he had as Nimue, hence the need to deactivate portions of the autonomous programming after the water polo match.

Merlin is now perceived as male by everyone in his life. Even those who know he once was female and genuinely realize that intellectually, still react to him as a man. Moreover, he was always strongly drawn to Nynian, and not simply because of her beauty of her gender. He knew they were kindred souls, he admired her hugely, and he had begun thinking of himself as male. In essence, all of that came together in his decision to go ahead and flip the settings and reactivate the programming he'd shut down. Nor was this the first time he did it. Remember when he first visited Mistress Anzhelyk in Zion and the response of the young lady with whom he spent the evening. He probably wouldn't/couldn't have done that immediately after becoming Merlin, but the spectrum in his head had already begun shifting.

It probably also helps that Nynian's official career left her with a certain degree of . . . elasticity where genders and sexuality and concerned, of course.

Hello RFC!

I thought you handled Merlin's changing perspective very well.

I've been surprised by these recent critiques when it was obvious from the textev where Merlin and Nynian were headed long before they consummated their relationship.

OTOH, I'm surprised how long it took Garvai to make his feelings known to Nimue, and I wonder if he got some coaching from Nahrmahn, and possibly Merlin and Nynian, but that's because he was so sensitive to her feelings, almost as if he expected or anticipated her objections.

Of course the critics are right in that he and his father deserve an heir, if that can be arranged.

I'm very glad that your health has improved, not just for your story telling talent.

All the very best wishes to you and your family.

What are you working on now?

runsforcelery wrote:

phillies wrote:

No it's just proof that the author understands or believes that how you are treated by those around you on a day by day basis establishes how you see yourself including your masculinity or femininity.

Or the gender alteration functions of the PICA also alter how the resident software from the human thinks about the topic. After all, that's what Merlin is at this point, an accumulation fo software inside a computer. The process that alters the body might also be set up to edit, quite deliberately the software of the resident person. How this works under the ten day limit is a bit obscure, but that limit as a practical matter has ceased to exist.

Please note that Merlin has repeatedly referred to the fact that many people with last-gen PICAs experimented with flipped genders. He specifically notes that Nimue did not and, as Merlin, was initially still experiencing the same arousal patterns as Merlin that he had as Nimue, hence the need to deactivate portions of the autonomous programming after the water polo match.

Merlin is now perceived as male by everyone in his life. Even those who know he once was female and genuinely realize that intellectually, still react to him as a man. Moreover, he was always strongly drawn to Nynian, and not simply because of her beauty of her gender. He knew they were kindred souls, he admired her hugely, and he had begun thinking of himself as male. In essence, all of that came together in his decision to go ahead and flip the settings and reactivate the programming he'd shut down. Nor was this the first time he did it. Remember when he first visited Mistress Anzhelyk in Zion and the response of the young lady with whom he spent the evening. He probably wouldn't/couldn't have done that immediately after becoming Merlin, but the spectrum in his head had already begun shifting.

It probably also helps that Nynian's official career left her with a certain degree of . . . elasticity where genders and sexuality and concerned, of course.[/quote]