Project:Realpolitik

Return to the main page

Return to the project index

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.

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 tapestry 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).

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 (!)

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.

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.

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