Realpolitik

Scattered ideas to be formalized alongside the DLU, soon. (4-25-25)

The overhaul your mother warned you about. Bigger, better and more ambitious than it rightfully should be, yet it is.

It's

coming.

This is merely a collection of thoughts I return to on occasion as the mod is expanded upon. The blog found below is not specifically the substance of the mod though it does touch upon some point of inspiration. Ideas come and go and I've found the best method for retaining them is jotting them down. This is my scratch pad for concepts and systems in development. Pages dedicated to the actual contents of the mod will be created in due time. Read if you like.

I remember it all so clearly...
Like a nightmare I can't escape.
A time of celebration!
The diamond jubilee had come.

Whispers from the shore.
The birds brought with them a murmur.
Fear the sea.
It seeks thee.

Beware the...

Who givest wit to Whales, to Apes, to Owls,

And kindly speech, to fish, to flesh, to fowls,

And spirit to men in soul and body clean,

To mark and know what other creatures mean

Which hast given grace to Gregory, no Pope,

No King, no Lord, whose treasures are their hope

But sinly Priest, which like a Streamer waves

In ghostly good, despised of foolish knaves.

Which hast (I say) given grace to him to know

The course of things above and here below,

With skill so great in languages and tongues:

As never breathed from Mithridates lungs.

To whom the hunter of birds, of mice and rats:

Did speak as plain as Kate that thrunmeth hats,

By means of whom is openly bewrayed,

Such things as closely were both done and said.

To him grant Lord with healthy wealth and rest:

Long life to unload to us his learned breast.

With fame so great to overlive his grave:

As none I had erst, nor any after have.

(Im)permanence

What is canon is unchangeable. The First Civilization fell and so too did the Second Empire. Skeletons were created (in the Floodlands?) and have no replacement for doing so. Tech has been lost, given up on or restricted in such a way that it does not re-enter broader society. Technological regression is a primary pillar to how Kenshi operates. The greatest advancements can be attributed as root cause for their collapse. Creating something which cannot be effectively controlled underlies this regressive pattern. It's not a question of why is the trend leading to primitivism... this much is obvious, the foundational elements which contributed to that technological height have been swept away causing a freefall effect. Adaptation itself has warped around the inversion of expected technological progression. You may say "Why are there no boats?" The appropriate question is "Why is the Skeleton mentioning lost tech?" The concept plays in a purposeful paradoxical fashion. The history of Kenshi colors the culture and modus operandi of interactions amongst the races. Skeletons have sight beyond sight, engaging in ways incomprehensible to anyone outside of those "in the know". This knowledge was once more widely shared and the web of these relationships much clearer and easier to parse. No longer the case, for better or worse(?), that is both the question and answer.

Storylines

Scarlet Crusade
Rise of the Anzaian Clique
The Stonemason's Secret
The Society of Scholarly Nonsense
A Man, A Wife and their "Leviathan"
A Classy Cacti
Tears of Myr
Farmer Follies
Mishap at Mirage
You can't see! Try and catch me!
War by the Book
Treaty of Irdun
Deadcat Deathclock
Northern Harmony
Flotsam, forever more
An End to the World (As We Know It)
Search for the Solution
The Emergence of Sleeping Sickness
Stay Away! Stay Away!
Adventures in the Dark
Syndicate Circus
Slavery by Another Name
Something About the Bugs
Building Bridges to Nowhere
None May Enter
Long Ago, In a Temple Not Too Far From Here...
Hermit's Promise
Elitist Jerks
The Hills Howl at Night
Sermons for Vermin
I'll show her! This time for sure!
Baddest Bug Around (Is a Man!)
Breaking Bad Habits
If you build it...!
The Songs of Shore Birds
Ever been to Avarte?
Gambling Games!
Swamper Shuffle
Them Bends (I can't get no sleep)
The Best Scrap Ever!
Handkerchief Incident
Joke's On You
Sturdy Sandals (Hot Sands)
See Only Evil
Emperor for an Evening
Distant Sisters (and their squabbles)
I'm In No Mood!

Chelae

Now there's a name I haven't heard in quite some time... Did you know: was once the name shared with there very waters? Hmm, hmm, the bay of Chelae seen many a storm. The tide is cruel, the waves rough and the mist unrelenting. Something out there in the ocean sends the worst our way every now and then.

-An (Old) Imperial Coast-dweller

Future notes: Graveyard of Ships; Mercurial Cliffs; Mercy (on High); Ancient Airstrips; Lighthouse Complex; Myr (Sunken extents); Archipelago Island Hopping; Chelae Bay (and the Northeastern disconnect)

Narko

We have to win. This is not a mere obligation. Everything is at stake. Descend with care and caution. You will not find the abyss. For that is not what is... what we are faced with... our plight. The heart of darkness. The black sun beneath. You hear it too, don't you? Right down to the bone.

-An Excerpt from an Illegal Document

Okran

Who...me? Hah, pay no mind! I'm but a humble gardener... planting seeds where I may... Look around you! Green and trees forever... In this verdant sea grows the crimson flower. Beautiful...isn't she?

-A Holy Farmer

Focus

Nothing without cause and reason. The whole of the map plays a role. No truly hidden hands, deus ex machinas, and then, and then, and then...
Systematized design

N.E.W.S.
Canon Route
Compulsion Clock
Crisis Procession
Baton Caravans
Gambling Mechanics

Narrative Phases

The mod unfolds through a series of phases, stages, acts, chapters, etc. It (conveniently by design) proceeds with the potential crises along the latitudinal span. While the mod does rework the base game in many ways it still maintains the fundamental geopolitical balance of powers. This means the War in Bast is the focal point both in Vanilla Kenshi and Reapolitik. Events inherently branch from the course this war follows and the conclusion it reaches. Realpolitik ensures this conflict will seek a conclusion with or without player input - the wheels spin against the player at all times. Which deals with the DLU and crisis triggering. The Deadcat Deathclock is, as a rule, latched behind either the aftermath of the War in Bast (see the Treaty of Irdun scenario) or pronounced player affected activities throughout the north, acting primarily against parties other than the Cannibals (Unification can still occur in spite of warfare against Cannibal-kind, visit the ((future)) Cannibal Invasion notes).

Thus...

The War in Bast

At the table:

United Cities
The Holy Nation (Scarlet Crusade)
Dune Bandits
Rebel Farmers
Cannibal (Scouts, initially)
Vagrants & Unaligned

Side table:

Flotsam Ninjas
Deadcat
Cannibals (Eastern)
Cannibals (Western)
Cannibal Hunters
Tech Hunters & Machinists
Slaver Nobles
Traders Guild
Shek Kingdom (Special condition!)
Mercenary Guild

Concerned parties:

Noble Circle
Peripheral Imperials
Southern Imperials
Anti-Slavers
Reavers
Crabbers
Western Hive

It's key to understand that the moment Realpolitik's overrides kick in is when we enter a state of organically branching reality. What the mod strives to do above all else is place appropriate guardrails on the mod's ability to proceed through the state network. Due to how busy the juggler can become at times and the wide variety of results within a rich network of possibilities the simple principle emerged

PLAY BACKWARDS!

Everything can be predicted when the outcomes are predetermined, no matter how cumbersome the in-between seems the answer set at both ends is known. Which leads to a question...

How does The War in Bast conclude, since it must?

A Holy Nation Defeat
A United Cities Defeat
A "Defeat" of Both, see below
A Cannibal Victory
A Rebel "Victory" (Not to be confused with...)
A Bandit "Victory"
Inconclusive Retreat (Read as Neutral "Victory")
United Cities Total Victory
Holy Nation Total "Victory"

The Holy Nation outcome is the most conditional because it offers a good moment to bring up...

The Canon Route

The Holy Nation have a special role to play in the mod's overarching narrative. One of these points is dominated by the following fact

The Holy Nation will never fully occupy the desert.
Likewise, much of the Holy Nation's borders are either preset, subject to future loss or in a state of temporary access. This is kept in check by the procession of events and crises which occur throughout the mod's main storyline. Many things may occur in cases of Holy Nation victories - though for each expansion is an expected contraction. Let's talk about the aftermath of a United Cities Defeat and Holy Nation Total Victory scenario given this leads to...
The Treaty of Irdun

In the event the world (or player) decides to press for the HN running the table at Bast the UC will be encouraged to sue for peace. This will leads to a series of unique events throughout the desert as the Scarlet Crusade (and its ecstatic loyalists) begin to enforce the new peace upon the desert fringes. This is new ground for the Holy men and a much needed page turn to a long overstayed affair with the imperial military. The Okranite presence becomes more of a happenstance to the (perceived and real) failure of imperial defenses. Morale begins to waver in earnest and the Empire (at least the desert wing) is forced to accept its peculiar armistice status with their now nearer rival. The counterbalancing aspect of this is found in the chaos this induces to the regions neighboring Bast and the behaviors of the factions found within. In isolation a Holy Nation victory is ground gained for them and lost for the UC. Remember to consider for all the other parties at the aforementioned tables.

What of the Cannibals?
What of the factions related to or reliant upon the northern corridor being "accessible"?
What of Flotsam? Are the Western Cannibals still in check?
What of the Rebels? Are the Eastern Cannibals still in check?
What of Deadcat? Oh, that's right!

This is where a necessary guardrail is checked for. The Holy Nation just did something they haven't done in seeming decades - gained ground.

If the north is stable and ripe for proceeding with events... then it does. As like how the War in Bast is amplified to escalate until its conclusion so too are other regions and event chains activated based off reaching an unlocking (unlatching) event. This can occur through other concurrently available means (like the listed checks combining into their own "key"). However, the canon route, if followed, enforces this chain of events to occur one after another. This journey takes the player across the whole of the map... concluding where you might expect.
While there is an implied urgency to all this one of the driving factors is ensuring the "late game" (which is what the crisis chain is entirely a part of) does not unlatch and unleash too soon. Which is the ultimate point of the keyring system. All content is available but is carefully locked behind necessary barriers to maintain early and middle game experiences until a player has signaled to the world they're fully prepared to partake. The dial moves slowly. When thousands of states are in play it can feel glacial. The best panacea for fears of runaway momentum is to ADD MORE CONTENT! It is that easy, really. The difference between 3 states to turn over Bast and 33 (conclusively, in one way) is a palpable increase in time to reach that end (even if the player abstains).

N.E.W.S.

Logistics Balancer and Cardinal Controller

The NEWS network is an implementation of the concepts which led to the "development" and refinement of the DLU core.

Eight main containers are used with tagged elements to dictate for spawn behavior throughout... (in this case the Holy Nation territories).

Built in response to the constellation of factors affecting for the control of the river valley. It manages regional activity with an added layer of nuance unachievable with the standard state combinations. In essence purposed to provide a recursive reclamation effort by the HN as their interior lines are (endlessly) besieged.

North
South
East
West
Northeast
Northwest
Southeast
Southwest

Important to note. Realpolitik (tentatively "World Revisions") subdivides the Holy Nation into numerous regions to allow more considerate iteration across the regions. The overall shape and flow of the Holy Nation is largely maintained while a significant number of new dividing lines break the territories into new forms. A detailed list, map and explanation of the changes is in production.

Deeper

The Cannibal Invasion (!)
River-Valley Resolutions (1)
Emergence of Sleeping Sickness (!)
Internal Squabble Period (2)
Coastal Semantics
Shek War of Devolution (!)
Greater Gang Politicking
Settling Old Disputes (Protocols) (!)
Scramble for the South
The Fishmen Invasion(!)
From the Ashes...
The Alpha and Omega (!)

Referenced again later.

The above embodies some of the broad strokes which follow the earliest events in the mod.

The Cannibal Invasion can go numerous ways and may not succeed. Thus, the aftermath is handled by the proliferation of Sleeping Sickness throughout the Northern territories and a generalized contraction in response. The fate of the north is to be vacated by civilizing forces.

As like earlier highly critical events are locked behind the conclusion of others... yet we're presented with one of the complex dynamics halfway down the latitudinal span, the Shek.

Everyone knows the Shek are a popular faction players tend to gravitate towards and support. Much of what may actually occur in a campaign is a total disregard for the northern situation(s) and a full embrace of the local affairs to this faction. The mod does not require a player to focus upon the events taking place elsewhere - this is accounted for by tracking player location via interaction and keeping the distant conflicts moving at a gated pace.
The above topic is one of the foundational reasons for the mod's existence. The world is entirely encapsulated within the Realpolitik time-domain which is designed to meticulously iterate the world with respect to any action throughout the mapspace.
In other words we know there are SEPARATE TABLES involved in the ongoing Shek Civil War taking place at the game start distant to but running concurrently with the War in Bast. While a wholly different conflict in form it acts as one of the critical conditions affecting the course of the War in Bast. Its own conclusion can drastically alter the behaviors of the many involved factions in the northern conflict...

The Northern Plague

Why? Why is this happening to us? What have we done...

Judgement comes for the wicked...and for the innocent. IT IS WRITTEN!

Another drink, please. The silence is starting to get to me...

The emergence of sleeping sickness, the lost frontier and end of northern exploration.: Something's...wrong.; And I don't know why...?; I've been sleeping more.; More than I'd like.; And it got me wondering.; What makes a man rise with the sun?

Sleeping Sickness is a dialogue-activated, state-controlled, town & spawn area level event which follows the Cannibal Invasion, specifically due to continued minor faction presence throughout the northern sphere.

It takes advantage of two main systems to create the effect

Heavily altered AI-packages intensifying in their "effect" over the course of the event
Dialogue-induced behaviors reminiscent of fainting, narcolepsy and various delirious or confused states of being

Fully tested and shown working as of 5-1-25. Operation thereof to be woven into the eventual DLU update.

The Guild

I was born into a world at war. Never has the nation found peace. The home I was raised in is a charred ruin. The sister I loved lost to starvation. My parents... All for what?
The work we do is thankless. That is why we treat ourselves so well. Something has to quieten the clamor, at least for me. Change can be scary to the closed-minded.
Set aside your worries. When we win, and we will, such concerns will be a thing of the past. We do not intend to return to the way things were.
It's not us or them. Empire is inevitable. Its embrace cannot be denied. The heart and soul of mankind yearns for its arrival.

The nail that wouldn't be hammered down. The faction that caused the calamity and set the stage for the modern world. Both protagonist and antagonist, their agency and effect upon the world is the suppressed element absent since the fall. The Guild threatens to overturn not just the status quo. Everything set in stone in the absence of the Second has been challenged by the rise of the merchants. The major powers spin wildly along the path towards their self-destruction as the old edifice is torn apart by the eccentric sun demon spirit made manifest. All power gravitates into the driving force of focused chaos. Change...is good. Change... is necessary. It's not enough. It's never enough. Why settle? Why accept less? Not for us. Not this time. This time...we decide.

War by way of Deception

The Imperial grand strategy is intentionally obtuse and difficult to parse. By many accounts (and especially external assessment) they appear to be operating from a position of weakness, increasingly so. Through conversation with the embedded influence network does a different reality come into view...

This perceived weakness is manufactured (to some extent). The conflicts engaged with are sought or measured for their merit.

The social fabric has already been restructured to favor the slavers. They have completely integrated their systems into status quo - presenting an unstable foundation marked with purpose.

The Red Rebellion set the stage for a total reshuffling of the cards on the table. Time has proven the Guild and its sympathizers never intended to settle with puppetry of the imperial throne. To what end?

The arrival of the Hives upon the island has hurried the clock on the looming existential crisis facing the Third's core.

United they stand, divided they fall. You only need glance at a map to identify the nature of the dilemma.

As the 62nd has shown - there is no time or place to parley with the unreasonable. No better to have boneheads on your doorstep. It's all or nothing.

The imperials are not trying to take over the island, per se. They are trying to survive... even if it means at the cost of their neighbors.

Controlled pressure is the name of the game! A singular war front results in a stalemate... this much is known.

Top down. Bottom up. Sustained. Sporadic. Expected and unexpected. Flag-bearing and freelancing. Anything goes!

The river valley is the key real estate and the bread basket of the island. In order to capture the necessary resources the following factors can be identified as affecting the Holy Nation's interior lines...

Flotsam infiltration and dissidence. Known pressure from the northwest.
Cannibal prodding at the northern military front.
Quagmire of manpower and military resources into the northeast. The empire allocates as necessary here to exhaust Okranites in the traditional manner, attrition.
Hordes of starving and desperate wander the eastern badlands. Lightly "controlled", a superficial sphere of influence.
Banditry dominates the southeastern wing. No Okranite finds refuge from the hostile world if they stray from the known paths.
The south is a continuance of the southeastern mess. With the added trauma of Shek ghosts adding to any sentinel's caution.
The southwest is a wasteland of ambivalence. They know what's out there and want no part of it.
The west is a different kind of wasteland, arguably scarier and as a result fortified in an expectantly thorough fashion. Not good.
Northwest is where the light leaves us entirely. Beyond the mountains is nothing to be found for the faithful. Desolation.
The core holds steady though the cracks can be seen if one scrutinizes ever so slightly. The Okranite strength is in their centralizing nature.

The Sin of Pride

He who controls the heartland shall only know peace!

River Valley Treaty

There is a net greater chance in terms of overall available possibilities that the Holy Nation may be destroyed than it remain standing. The mod embraces this concept by creating a large set of events which whittle away at and attempts to "allow entry" of other factions into the Okranite lands. The layout of the map and factions compels action to occur throughout the central portion of the map. While it is entirely possible a player aligns with the HN and no (serious) degradation of the HN takes place at the hands of the rolling events and other factions.

Even so, the player siding with either the UC or SK (the latter being a popular choice) means such scenarios need be explored in equal measure to that of the Okranites standing strong.

Which finally circles back to the original reason Realpolitik was created - the Okran's Shield dilemma.

This is especially difficult to articulate because any location on its own has an arbitrary and usually flexible identity.

Okran's Shield is, by my estimation, one of the cornerstone locations and a defining marker of the map, its state and the controlling element for how the map around it should be handled...sensibly. While difficult to speak on, let's talk about context.

Okran's Shield is the clear central junction of the map. Logistics must pass through this point for ease of traversal to and from the river valley & desert. It doesn't require consulting pathfinding to know the Iron Valleys and Deadlands are technically impassable terrain. The Arm of Okran is a wall of rock that could be crawling with Okranites - ignoring for the mountain passes, which can be fortified.... it's a free defensive boon.

The whole of the river valley sits right down the road from this fortress. The control of it permits security to the inner north-south corridor the HN enjoys, providing rapid access from Okran's Fist to Stack & Bad Teeth. The weight of Okran's Shield is such that its existence (whilst under HN control) guarantees no interference to the central corridor. This also means it outweighs its singular form - Okran's Fist's existence is (not fully) nullified by the loss or capture of Shield. Conversely, the loss of Fist indirectly increases the value of Shield leading to an emergent principle.

The Holy Nation must hold Okran's Shield in order to maintain internal integrity. Without it the logistical assurances crumble to constant vulnerability. The outer fringes diminish in value (compare to Fist) and increasingly so as the threat matrix drops (see the abandoned Holy Mines). ;Above all else is the protection of the three main components of the Holy Nation:

Protection of the Phoenix & the Okranite populace. Blister Hill is the beating heart of the Okranite faith.
Protection of the River-Valley and specifically denying access to it. Okran's Pride is the most valuable real estate on the island.
Protection of the Central Corridor for the sake of maintaining the above two. Creating a frontier in flux - it arises out of found want, not inherent need.

The base game posits Holy Nation ini--

To the Temples

You may keep your gods and do with them whatever you please. The need to cling to your failed blanket of security is a whim we're willing to entertain.; To us shall go the providence. Make of the fate what you will. Our aims are greater than the musings of angry men in robes.; Blasphemy? Hersey? Hah! Jealousy. Woe to the vanquished and to the victor goes the spoils.; Thank the one you worship for our arrival. Better alive than torn asunder by something far more malevolent.
How did we get here?: The Phoenix is a sheltered individual.; Raised from before memories could form to be the man he is...and has become.; One of the highest asks of the player is to find a way to understand this character for that process of becoming.; A manufactured personality imposed on a person, of whom, quietly grapples with the reality they are playing the position of a puppet.; Academic Okranism has passed down to him the role he inhabits, the hows and whys of what has lead to it and shines a light upon the flawed results in can create.; The Phoenix is not a bad person per se. Okranism itself is decaying. This is embodied through the social malaise spreading throughout the heartland territories.

The question....

The question...must be asked. What's causing this? If not the Phoenix, from where does the rot originate?

What came first

The decline of the moral framework by way of succession and the march of time.
The introduction of destructive paradigms unbounded by the Okranite controls.

We're compelled to look to the factors which traction against the Okranite social fabric. The Phoenix helps us with this through his varied priorities, perspectives & reactions. What we find is a man chasing very real ghosts. The framing the Okranites elect (or by instruction) to ascribe to their varied concerns colors some of the key reasons as to why there is credence to the notion of outside imposition.

Compulsion to Commerce

Rebels Seldom Befriend Success

Partisans, guerillas, insurgents -- different types of entities which compose the locally assembled resistance to an invading force or otherwise oppressive state apparatus through an unconventional often militaristic means and methods.

Third Empire

Ideas cannot be killed. Try as we might they resurface with a persistence which bends the limits of patience. This time it's too late. Perhaps it always has been. They'll have to decide for themselves.... Whether or not they want to...
...but, a body can be broken... and the spirit will soon follow. The target is hope... It's not enough to wound it. They intend to extinguish it entirely...

-Trade Master Mori

The Second Empire didn't fall! It was reborn! Behold, the new dawn!
Realpolitik posits a centralizing concept that the successor states to the Second Empire, fragmented and bickering as they do, comprise a greater whole of what amounts to the main body of the victorious Third. Cat-Lon's reign resulted in a feudalistic federated state filling the void of governance created during the exile process. This network of factions carry on the civilizing legacy of the Second (and its brutality) and are direct responses to its fall. No other factions (including the Hives) can lay claim to his inheritance. As such they operate in a fashion of contending for hegemony over the regressive state with little ability to impose total will over the island (until recently).
No faction sees this as some reclamation process or great achievement to be pursued. Long has the horrors of the Second passed from memory. What exists now are the desperate, paltry, fruitless conflicts the major states summon up against each other. Their survival is foremost. Yet they cannot see the dreadful world around them for what it is. Their disputes only weaken the whole - that is unless one finally obtains the upper hand and uses it well.
There is >no< Third Empire. They >are< the Third Empire. The Third Empire >doesn't< exist. The many make up the whole which isn't there.
We arrive at a moment on the timeline where the Holy Nation stumbles enough to expose the potential for great change through the world map. With the existence of the Traders Guild and reformist Shek alongside the internal tensions of the HN is ample opportunity for stirring the pot.

Spread of the Desert Rose

Met her? Rather not. She's from the "..." house. Her parents... they hold that northern village...ah, you know the one. Kicked out last I heard. Ranting and raving about who knows what. Anyways, that flower you're carrying... where'd ya get it?

They're just rumors, ain't coming from me. "The seed that bleeds. Produces a red fluid when crushed. Tastes terrible." Never seen one myself...

The Lie

He knew! The deception is untrue! What more could be expected from a dog bred for war? Unaware? UNOPPOSED! A trap from the very start! THIS WAS SOUGHT! No surprises...Not anymore...

Please...stop apologizing for the things you can't control...

Let go...for our sake. This is the little we can offer you. Peace... or something reminiscent of it.

Split Nature & The Fall of Man

The eternal return... That's our fate. Look into their eyes and see it for yourself.

Find a way. We can't undo the past mistakes and our misgivings make not a difference in the world. Someone must...

The secret has always been beneath the surface...though not the one you'd expect.

No hidden treasure out there. Trust me, I'd know.

Search your soul. It's the only way to become whole...again.

Patterned across the tapestry. Littered with stains, a patchwork of frivolities and trivial pursuits. The wicked wind weakens the whole.

Decrepit, swaying listlessly, all eyes drawn downwards before its tattered visage. So shall it be unto me?

The Coming Flood

The mod culminates in an overwhelming siege of the island realms beginning quietly along the southern shoreline.

Once it begins in earnest the waves, scope and intensity will expand to encompass as much as the unready island-dwellers allow it to spiral.

Maps will be incredibly helpful to detail the full scale and progression this crisis entails.

It drags all factions it encounters into the bedlam, running over the available mapspace wiping away the old states of being.

The choices the player has made or the factions have done so for them play a pivotal role in the overall preparedness for this all-encompassing event.

Dependent on a (large set) of contributing factors the invasion's initial strength (first wave) and amount of landing points will vary from local harassment to town capture groups. The sooner these entities find success...the worse it gets.
Needless to say the event waits for the conclusion of countless others to become available. While the Cannibal Invasion has a source, many ready forces to respond and hard-written counteractions to ensure its conclusion...
The Fishmen Invasion is designed with two key differences...

Once initiated there is no (clear) means by which to halt it. The event must either be endured or meaningful solutions found. It cannot be "stopped".
It will not activate merely because of some activities in the south. It's contingent upon a set of those events resolving. That is to say it's not a natural follow-up to any given event - it is a combinatorial response to overall progress.

Much like the Cannibal Invasion it has milestone phases which can and do re-shape the future of the world. Factions can be destroyed, towns can be lost, entire races can be driven out of their "homeland".
Some key moments being...

Collapse of the Southern Empire
Destruction of the Southern Hive
Destruction of (Southern Gang)
Retreat of the Crabbers
Imperial Quarantine of the South
Penetration of the Swamplands
Shek Suicide Campaign
Swamp Gang Dissolution
Anti-Slaver Isolation
Arrival of second and third waves

Permanent Government

Long have I lived yet and still this goes on. The changing faces and hands... A constant current eroding away the very foundation.

There is nothing to be done. It had already begun long before. You don't need to believe me...

Look to the sea. Don't you... want to be free?

...

The thought never crossed your mind. Not even for a moment.

Notes from the bi-annual Harvest Planning & Preparation meeting...

My friends in the council, hear these words...

Our intervention in the economy, private affairs of the citizenry and internal affairs of our neighbors leads to uncertainty and many unintended consequences. Here are some of the consequences about which we should be concerned.

I predict the imperial citizenry will pay to rebuild Bast and the acquired territories...in addition to coastal mess. The people paid with their lives to capture these areas and of course will be expected to rebuild them.
Peace of sorts will come to the river valley but will be short lived. There will be big promises of more imperial weapons flowing into the region and beyond to further this endeavor. Imperial troops will be used to monitor the peace. In time...

Speak Without Words

That seems unlikely. Right...?

Can't know until you try.

But, try what?

...dance with death I suppose.

Not funny or helpful.

W...what if...

Ain't seen anything like it before.

Can it...

I barely understand it myself.

Yet, I can't deny the results.

A...success?

Maybe so.

How can you be sure?

The same way we got here...with a test...!

Return to Forever

Some are fated to played a greater role.
Not because you have been chosen.
For you are the last to remain.
Such weight shouldn't fall upon the shoulders of the young.
And yet we too do not choose the burdens we must endure.
I'm sorry it has to be this way.
Put a smile on your face.
I wouldn't lead you astray.
No time to waste...

It Is Written

The course laid before us is fraught with obstacles. The rocky road becomes the beaten path as the foreign treads towards the familiar. We must hold on to truth passed down to us. The gift given weighs heavy...I know. Clutch it closely and fight with the life you've been given. It may be the end of an era. I cannot deny the pain of people. A little further...
Cast down, dredging the depths in search of meaning. Lost in a mist of your making...
Hidden within! Open the gates...
Feed the ground, remake the world anew. The wheel keeps turning.

Destroy yourself.

In order to usher in the new dawn the old edifice must be wiped clean.

The path is clear to those who keep the faith. Mercy for the fallen...a river of tears to quench our worst fears.

You have to forgive them. They were only doing what they thought best.

Much like you...?

None of without flaw.

Certainly not.

A note from the Old Control Tower: ...Keep an eye on the sky....

PhasesTemp

The mod operates through the following epochs...

Preliminary Stasis

The mod will at first make little to no changes to the mapspace.

Aggregate Trigger

Once the mod has detected the stasis will be removed and narrative chains will unlock

Narrative Chain

Operates sequentially and concurrently. Dependent on player choice and iterative chance the world begins changing.
Names subject to change, the main events are somewhat set in place...

The Cannibal Invasion
River-Valley Resolutions (1)
Emergence of Sleeping Sickness (!)
Internal Squabble Period (2)
Coastal Semantics
Shek War of Devolution (!)
Greater Gang Politicking
Settling Old Disputes (Protocols) (!)
Scramble for the South
The Fishmen Invasion(!)
From the Ashes...
The Alpha and Omega (!)

Proceeds north to south, ideally. Winged and central events contribute towards...

Epilogue state

Eventually the player and world will exhaust so much of the content that the mapspace must inevitably resolve into "complete" states.
Which lands upon the thread of fate concept...
Both major factions, their key characters as well as the unique recruits play a defining role in how the final mapstate will present. After enough options have been explored and reached their conclusion or been taken off the table the mod will attempt to direct those results towards the furtherance of concurrent of upcoming sequential narratives. Since the epilogue status can be qualified and quantified by its conditions a "success" and "failure" status (in an abstract sense) can be constructed to better frame the campaign's overall progress.
The global set are compared against the full spread of world options and used as an easy-access reference for all potentials. The reference and its deviations are then loads to a faction container to numerically quantify the net state and obtain thresholds for locking and unlocking events. The register takes the address and embeds it into the dialogue network such that no matter where the player is any encounter automatically detects what the global state is, the status of ongoing events and how to handle their status with respect to the found actions.

A highly instructive example of this can be seen in the system for handling the potential assassination of Esata.
The Shek Civil War is primarily designed to take place either "rapidly" with the player's likely participation or by way of stacking probabilities played out from a distance. The driving principle being once the Shek Civil War has been triggered (which is inevitable, though preventable) Esata's life is inherently at risk until its conclusion - though in truth, this mechanic evolves after the war's conclusion. A network of hidden (or obvious) factors control for the fluctuating chance at the event resolving in one way or another. The world's broader activities are directly tied to the potentials found within this event.
Echoes of the Bast Civil War are found here though are even more weighty in their finality. The control of this region has entirely been handed to the agency separate to the direct faction actions. they are subject to, aside from player actions, the enduring potential of outside elements tampering with and causing a divergence in expected outcomes. However, these controlling factors can also be affected for and eliminated by proxy if so desired.
The interconnectivity of the world provides a narrative in motion hindered by a quagmire of arrested developments. The unwinding of these knots or forceful cutting thereof allows their consequences to flow into other regions and their impact determining the course of events found there.

The Real Monster

And what has your endless striving revealed? Ascending towards the same old inevitable realization. You did this to yourselves.

What were you hoping for? What more could you expect? The evidence of failure is everywhere the eye can see.

The course of this cannot be changed. Not for us.

No...this.

Why? How could you?

It...

...couldn't have been necessary.

We had an understanding.

How.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

CornerOrder

Briefly...

Northeast (Desert Core and Cosmopolitan Chaos)
North (Cannibals and World's End)
Northwest (Leviathans and the Blanket of Silence)
East (Myria and the Guild)

The Central Divide (Holy Nation and Skeleton Duality)

West (Desolation and the Anti-Guild)
Southwest (Bugmaster and the Graveyard of Empires)
South (Southern Core and Tide Landing)
Southeast (Cat-Lon and the Imperial Exile)

[Information Warfare]

Lies
Feints
Ruses
Displays
Demonstrations
Camouflage
Concealment
Disinformation
Insight

OPSEC
Denial and Deception: Complementary framework for disorientation. Narrative control via security, reality shaping via intentional information filtering.
Plausible deniability
Defense in depth: Hedgehog defense; See the War in Bast and the Imperial Grand Strategy
Proxy Wars (Please see the Shek Civil War and Hivemind behavioral map): Specifically, hybrid warfare, active measures, asymmetric warfare, destabilization, economic compeition, psychological operations, unconventional strategies, top-down bottom-up synergies, shadow government & bureaucratic despotism.

Scalar severity

Non-Critical Applications
Short Product Life Expectancy / Non-Critical Applications
Product Accessible to Field Repair
Application Critical
Refurbished or Reclaimed Parts
Reporting Source Alert on Items
Field Work or Repair Impossibility (i.e., Satellites, etc.)
Mission Critical
Safety Critical
Life Dependent Applications

As such

Hostile Fauna
Biological Weapons
Programmables
Uniform Code of Silence
Stopgap Frames & Proxy Limb Production
Organic Travel Restrictions
Disaster Prevention Strategies
Contrived Conflicts & Narratives
Technological Embargo
Status Quo Enforcement

Hidden Hand

Oh yes, I've longed to travel, ya know? See the world...

Besides, there's something I've been itching to do.

Care to escort me there? It's not so far...for someone like yourself...

All along the shoreline scattered shells dot the beach. Murky waters lap, the fizzle of foam, traces glisten from the sandy mat.
No way in.
No way out.

...

...what...

was that sound?

...

...why...won't you answer me?

...

...why?

Do you know why the sky cries?

Status Quo & the Third Major

Hm...?

What news do you bring?

Is it true what they say?

Has he sent us another gift?

Avalanches above...yet the calm and quiet continues...