Realpolitik

Scattered ideas to be formalized alongside the DLU, soon. (4-25-25)
All forms of the DLU work internally -- its qualities and capabilities effectively creating an embedded pushdown automaton. (5-27-25)
June will be the "wiki wrap-up" month, connecting the map & wiki as intended and rolling out the first informal changelist.
Once the website reaches a point where it can host the WebFCS I'll do that database magic to handle parity.

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!
It's Bulls$%@!
Able Stranger
Dad's Bad Deal
Managed Expectations
Suspicious Business Strategies
Who asked HER?
Ghosts Around Every Corner
Ranch Runners
Canine Captivation
Can't Save em' All
Go No Further! (Not Without This!)

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!

Trouble Abroad

A Letter from the Front

The page is frayed...contents can be made out from what remains...

The sands stretch to the horizon and beyond. Everywhere we tread the heat follows hungrily.

I dare not describe the horrors I've encountered in this dispatch. The men...must be relieved of this task.

Unsound. Their minds fray as the sun's glare whittles away at their fragile sanity. We've asked too much.

I pray this reaches you with all due haste. Order is slipping, morale is wavering and our resolve reaching its limits.

Send for the Shield. Valtena must know. Pass this along...please.

INSANE! THAT DOG HAS GONE MAD!

HOLY??? HAVEN'T YOU HEARD???

Her eyes dart from point to point, racing in search of something not there.

Y-Y-YOU'RE NOT SAFE HERE!

Her body comes to a freeze

And...and...neither am I...

...

Drink from the cup. The light is right here before you. Open up to the truth...

Freedom is found in acceptance...

We were made to do more than toil...to trudge...to obey...

The Great Equalizer

The Holy Nation, if treated to the glory of victory, will be presented with the pleasure of discovering just how right they are about the outside world...and how little they know about themselves. An overextension of the worst kind - one that was never going to pan out in the Holy Nation's favor. Regardless of the militaristic success the Okranites achieve the found factors to their success will methodically dismantle their misguided attempts of lashing out at their rivals.
The feckless bickering induced by the Guild and the vulnerable Phoenix opens the gates to an unwelcome ocean of cultural-psychological pressures upon the populace. What they will find in the desert is exactly what they're looking for, so to speak. Being right isn't necessarily a good thing in all cases. So, now what?
If given the opportunity the first of many matches will be struck:

The Fort Mirage Massacre: Without going into too much detail. The Okranites are less than pleased with their so-called brothers they find mingling amongst the imperial populace. Ultimatums occur, realities set in, decisions are made and a chain of events unfolds leading to the moral corruption of the military power structure overseeing the desert garrison for the Holy Nation. Little by little Okranite behavior causes widespread disillusionment for all parties involved. The breakdown of the desert occupation is subject to displacement by the looming threat of the Cannibal Invasion, providing it an early exit route if possible. The Holy Nation has no business trying to tend to the vast desert. Nobody invited them and the troops aren't looking to stay.

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.: Partisans, professionally-minded, foreign-funded & sponsored, irregular in tactical application.; Guerillas, unconventional yet professional, aligned but operate autonomously, irregular in strategic alignment.; Insurgents, unprofessional and aware of it, strategically avoidant, tactically a mess, subject to realignment.

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...

The Deep South

It should be outlined (before it's made otherwise abundantly apparent) the mod dedicates a tremendous amount of effort to reshaping the map space as is, adapting it further to prepare for the politicking and conflicts it presents.

One rising reality is the balance of power, respective to state capacities, is greatly enhanced throughout the southern realm of the United Cities/Empire.

Without overtly changing the situation and instead using the available space to reorganize the ongoing scenarios, compound them and introduce new factors affecting the empire (a focused rebellious element, more interactions with the gangs and southern populace, established or exploratory policies on their neighbors, militaristic activities and a heightened presence of Guild & slaver operations).

The south embraces its status as the unchallenged breadbasket of the empire. Even if unwieldy, uncontrolled and dangerous to traverse across various sections of the south -- the core coalescing in the wetlands and along the south by southwestern shores create an iron hold below the swamplands proper.

The south is faced with the challenge of enduring a long, arduous and unfavorable series of events which intend to shake the empire up until and right through the main invasion event.

At first insulated from the turmoil plaguing the north... their headaches are but a mild inconvenience to the greater existential problems facing the desert wing... for now.

Chief amongst these issues is the logistical divide that can't be ignored. The Deadlands & Venge expanse are a problem. Well, they each have answers and neither are ideal. Ask any merchant about the task of trekking to and from the separated wings. You can't offer enough cats to ever match the demand for the goods. And let's not forget the skill required to complete the task...repeatedly...without losing your best in the process.

With this separation providing a found peace thanks to no tension coming from the Shek Kingdom (as of recent) and the looming threat of those purple Hivers nearby (for some reason...) the southern military stands are a massive untapped entity busily managing the whims & wills of the commercial overlords. A tenable situation given th4 practical needs and incentives borne out of them.

The south is, in effect, the empire's untapped ace up their sleeve to counterbalance the logistical nightmare they (initially) face.

Much of the empire's goals can be summarized by the following statement, which bears repeating...

The territorial enclaves and separation created by the Venge corridor is a terminal flaw in the imperial zone of control. Uncorrected, it will cause challenges plaguing the empire to spiral beyond the point of rectification. The empire must, by any means necessary, close this logistical gap and ensure food security into the future, otherwise, the power structure will be effectively unable to escape the emergency-crisis state of being.

There is an overwhelming pull for the empire to overturn the existing zones of control & spheres of influence established both by themselves and their found rivals. The HN cannot control the river valley resources. The Shek cannot be allowed to partake in warlord warfare. The Hive(s) cannot be given an inch more in the realm of commerce. An all or nothing scenario if you will. The alternative is continued decline as the decadent empire fails to solve its chronic dilemmas.

[All About the River Valley]

If it hasn't been made abundantly clear yet -- the politics of the day revolve around the control of the island's prime real estate.

The power politics dictating the flow of food to the populace is the cornerstone factor for societal stability.

Historically, we have seen time and again what happens when the people go without. No mere whittling away, though it does occur; the tendency to provoke a reaction and disruption to the previous status quo appears to be a matter of course.

The Okranite control of the river valley is paramount to their success... and a point of stress for their rivals.

The carrying capacity of the island is not unlimited. Bounded by technological barriers (often self-imposed or by those who work in obscurity) and the malaise of racial/social division...productivity is woefully out of step with the needs of the many.

This division patterns conflicts across island, causing groups to subdivide into their familiar cultural groups in hopes of survival. It's the Okranites which have set the standard in the post-Second world. Centralized, dictatorial, racially-minded, spiritually focused, communal primtivists. Something like that.

Inherently structured to create an insider/outsider, familiar/other, accepted/outcasted, filtration system to who may access and enjoy the benefits of being a part of this group.

Let's look at those who are not welcome...

United Cities
Scorchlanders
Traders Guild
"Slavers"
Shek Kingdom
Shek
Machinists
Tech Hunters
Technologists
Skeletech-users
Flotsam Ninjas
Dissidents
"Terrorists"
Faith-Violators
Western Hive
Hivers
"Dark Ones"

Needless to say, the Holy Nation's enemies are many. Some self-created, others by way of friction and finally those diametrically opposed to their existence.

CR Prime

Why does the empire have to take over the Holy Nation?

So it can be liberated from itself.

What happens to the Holy Nation is a process of becoming new.

64. (256...), (Ingrained cycles), (Programmatic rise and fall), (Sinusoidal behavioral maps)

So too will the empire be faced with its inescapable trajectory towards tyranny.

The imperial military and former nobility will turn against the merchant class. Stratification escalates in a fashion such that the conscription to slaver pipeline distorts social mobility to the point of discontent at the highest levels in the imperial military structure. The urban nobility finding themselves ever more subject to the whims and wills of the slaver-adjacent class grow increasingly frustrated by the developing situation. Their power extends to the imperial subjects, yet not overtly to the slaver, creating a rift in oversight and a layer of exceptions to the rules. Corruption by design is pleasant for those involved and a headache for those left on the sidelines.

The private armies of the slavers, powered by the war profiteers, attempt to impose the wanton abuse through their aggressive usage & leverage of the destitution laws. These standards laid down are a centralizing mechanism and main driver of what makes the slaver system function & affect for all levels of society. The filter is placed upon the social ladder to capture the populace in a constant push to sort able bodies into any fitting category. The productive capacity of the society is wholly determined by its ability to enforce what is a proven methodology. Yes, there is a way to facilitate trade & commerce, even in emergency circumstances, or rather, in light of a possibly permanent state of emergency affairs. If the state is ever at war then it may exercise powers beyond its normally excepted reach in part due to emergency grants of power to achieve express needs. The destitution laws could then be deemed an outcome of an inconclusive result to The Red Rebellion all those years ago.

The coup of the merchant class was inconclusive insofar as that it was incomplete. Their power neither extended to the whole of the empire or to the "necessary" areas of control (read: the Okranite territories). The trauma of the Red Rebellion lingers throughout the many families of note throughout the empire. They know of the fleeting nature of power and the fragile stability of the society they oversee. And it never seems to get any better...

Yet, the moral outcry becomes too great to brush aside. The cause unifies into a drumbeat.

Threatened by displacement and suppression the bureaucratic despots try to fuel external conflicts to stop the unification.

The Shek and Hiver conflicts attempt distract from a growing sentiment spreading amongst the populace. The slavery must stop. The people must be free. Haven't we achieved our goals?

The Okranites lean deeply into the anti-slavery cause, attacking the moral compass of the occupying imperial troops. Try as they might, the imperials are forced to bend around the existing social order of the river valley. The more they succumb, the more Okranism spreads as a refuge to the dispossessed.

The feedback spins to a point the religion creeps into new (unexpected) regions.

Sympathy for the Okranite plight rises to a clamorous turmoil. So few have known the persecution of the Okranites. Instead, many know only their oppression and subjugation.

The cause spirals to a point where the emperor is petitioned for intervention. Slavery is to be curtailed - the military demands an end to the extension of slavery and their use as fodder, only to be deprived once relieved. The best of them are promoted, nepotistic means or through corruption, while the low and forced to partake in the worst of abuses. Their skillset gives them little choice other than to enlist on one side or the other. Desperation versus fabricated obligation.

The Conquest of the Cat

They're not fuckin' merchants, ya hear? Oh I know. Those damned caravans come and go...skipping across the sands carrying precious commodities. Their treasure doesn't come in the form of currency... It's...control...

...they're after yer goddamn' soul.

...

What is known and unknown of the Guild can be set aside in favor of what can be found. For over a century the vested interests have found consistent success in the venture to seize the levers of power from the old edifice. The gravitational center of the (previous incarnation) of the United Cities was that of the reigning emperor. The air of ceremony and maintenance of the station are continued under the new system - with notable alterations. At minimum a managed compromising factor is imposed to temper & curtail the ambitions of the office-holder. Further, the aforementioned power transfer strips the emperor's dictations from being given stock. As we find, he and his world are reduced to that of comedy, emblematic of the deprivation of true executive authority.

A mistake would then be to believe the power lies with those who oversee Heng. Longen and Yamdu certainly do provide vessels to embody the pinnacle of the Guild's transformed imperial structure. They are, as like all the other vested interests in the system, mortal and fleeting. The goal is and has been far "deeper" than one of enabling temporary pleasures... that's an outcome which can be replicated ad nauseum. It is to ensure all policy on the ground, the flow of commerce, the conflicts which occur and the course they follow is to facilitate the furtherance of this overarching system. It doesn't stop at war profiteering because that too provides for one component mechanism of the machine.

At the core of the Guild is something innocuous at a glance.

The humble Cat.

The power of the hole-punched coin was fully realized by the Scorchlander forerunners of the Guild. Money magic. The key to victory.

Haha, ya can't be serious. Most dangerous beast there is. The damn things' got hundreds of heads and can find ya no matter how far you run.

You're crazy, fella. Hearin' me? Not a little bit. Got that swamp fever some kind of fierce.

...been skippin' on the drink? Heh.

Be glad it's between friends. Talk like that gets you forgotten about.

We clear? Keep em' sealed and it to yourself.

...and I'm serious about that.

The Bank of Heng and its vested interests succeeded in the overturning of the old order. Power was, through persistent undermining of the imperial power structure, diffused and reconstituted under the bank's founding charter. An implicit agreement to trade within the agreed upon framework laid down by the Guild. You must use the Cat. You must price goods accordingly. Debts are real - ledgers provide proof. Every transaction has a measurable value, subject to the inescapable realities of operating with a medium of exchange.

Wars are fought by soldiers, equipped by smiths, fed by farmers, enabled by logistic support, so on and so forth. All of it is financed by the capital and interests which back the venture. Channeling that effort by controlling the context of the narrative is the ultimate end of the Cat's existence. But...how?

It's not enough to follow the money. Hindsight is one thing. Foresight...trend forecasting...predictive analysis...prophecy... these are attempts at determining that which is yet to come. The Guild is comfortable enough in the layered control (destitution laws, legal slavery system, slave hunting, bounty hunting incentives, rebels in exile, domination of the media, direct oversight of commerce, etc, etc...) to express openly their modus operandi.

Longen speaks to the concerns living at the highest levels of the system's operations. What makes it all work? Well, I would put forth the system has not fully matured. Slavery is a stopgap measure to enforce the Cat's usage. Its status as the taxable medium of exchange and the resultant social filter the destitution laws impose are most greatly threatened by ideological lines which seek to dismantle this system (curiously, not as threatened by usurper efforts, i.e., the Reavers). Tinfist is an enduring vessel for the Guild to rest its anxieties upon. His existence and persistence in breaking down the rising neo-imperial structure is more devastating than the Okranite armies... The discontent among the populace is fanned by the flame of (misplaced) hope the skeleton revolutionary creates.

The Guild identified the weakpoint in this arrangement - the target audience. This is where... things get weird.

WHY DID THE WAR IN BAST OCCUR?

(The above section requires a lot of nuanced expansion upon and rewrites, nonetheless...)

Creation of a centralizing crisis
Justification for the imposition of emergency wartime powers
Martial law measures to maintain order throughout the duration of the crisis
Rigid controls on the flow of goods, managed by the Guild, to counter the logistical challenges facing the strained empire.
Slavery and destitution laws normalization process
Usage of commercial access to monitor and influence other regions/states, escalating the embrace of the Cat and, if possible, changing the regime to be accepting of (if not friendly to) the Guild's system.

The Guild, above any other faction, has a strong sense of the geopolitical lay of the island. Their distant Western rivals, both the Shek Kingdom and Western Hive, are accounted for in the strategic mix. Information gathering is a difficult task in terms logistics (access) arrangements and obtaining clearly communicated useful current data. The entanglement of the intelligence network with that of the caravans allows for an elegant solution to acquiring this desirable information. As before, the ledgers exist, and now they can be contextualized further. Merchants become spies, traders with a friendly face and trackers with deceptive intent by another name. Put another way... what is a Western Hive Prince thinking when they trade with you?

The Mind Prison

Ancient Promise

What has become of my dearest? Never to depart, ever to linger.

It has been long. Longer than we'd like, far more than we'd hoped, but that hasn't detered us.

The New Calendar

You wouldn't believe it. Nor would it make a difference by now.

That's why they do it. Time keeps on passing. People keep on forgetting.

It's behind us... and beneath us. Carried by the winds. Washed away by the tides.

If it's answers you seek...there are none -- of any use, that is.

Do you think the truth is what matters most?

And what will you do with it?

Change the world?

Look at me.

Has it made the slightest effect upon that which you see?

Don't think yourself to be unique.

We've done this many times before.

The concept of a historic reset is one of the (seeming) overarching goals and proverbial swan song of Skeleton-kind have settled upon. For an unknown length of time since the collapse of Cat-Lon's regime a code of silence was adopted in a near universal manner by the remnant Skeleton populace. Exile is not merely a choice, reasonably speaking, it approaches obligation. Skeletons admit somewhat openly their weighty internalized regret in regard to the course history has taken. This policy of subject matter avoidance, concerted effort to revise, misdirect and obfuscate a significant portion of available history is something which can be confidently deemed a collective conscious decision. The curious aspect of being a known set of liars is the confounding element of all information becoming dubious, in spite of perceived likelihood, the fundamental credibility of any communication comes into question.

The connective dots point towards a singular previous arc in history we know of as the Second Empire, Cat-Lon's regime, the reign of Skeleton-kind if you will. Cultural Groupings And Evolution Series sets forth that this period is the setting, we presume, for Kenshi 2. And while as of 6-24-25 we do not have confirmation about the one key date we are given, the fall of Catch 937 years prior to the first game's start, we can roughly assume this event is in proximity to the expected target timeline. As silly as it sounds, it confirms one potential reality about the world of Kenshi -- some statements about Cat-Lon's dominion over mankind ring true. How much any statement carries bias, falsely added context, improper framing or is a complete fabrication about this time period are subject to a (future) vetting process. A simple example might be "are the allegations against Cat-Lon's administration of any substance?". It's difficult to accept any particular framing some ~900+ years since a series of event unfolded. Every "living" participant from that era partakes in some degree of the code of silence or generating potential fabrications. This case applies to player-aligned Skeleton characters as well. The private conversations between squad members and certain NPC lorebearers implies these behaviors are racially distinct and in a kind of fourth-wall aware twist, the player cannot gain access to their own party member's in-group secrets. These exchanges limit the scope of history to this aforementioned line in the sand Armour King draws for us - 937 years ago, give or take, Skeletons culturally began to orient towards a decision to limit the other race's view into the historic record. Full scale whitewashing of the records has been underway since the collapse of the previous regime.

This isn't some half-hearted effort. Let's be very serious about this, if you will. -Nobody- amongst the humanoid races can lend a word of insight about the actual reign of Cat-Lon. Furthermore, the populace have found themselves in a grinding set of situations enforcing illiteracy across the island. The literature the populace do get is typically so tinged with a cultural group's bias, political (religious too) influences or the potential taint of Skeleton tampering creates the worst kind of arrested development. The only..."people" who can speak authoritatively about historical narrative suffer from a fundamental integrity problem. Worse yet, they have near universally agreed to not provide any useful context (including TECHNOLOGY, geez) which may assist humanity in escaping their fight for survival.

This lands at one too often asked question:

Is it incompetence or is it malice?

It's both.

Or is it?

Sigh.

The ambiguity is ever present. It treads into the the protocols instructing for Skeleton behavior, which are confused at best, conflict at times and tend to not be rigidly enforced. The beings create all kinds of oddities in a temporal sense because we do not know how is it the AI core within functions. The distinction is key - not all Skeletons are alike - AI core holders are something wholly separate from the reprogrammable CPU-only frames.

There's a beauty to this world... an order.

That's what we like to believe.

We're not wrong...

There is an order - a grand design.

We made sure of that.

It was a dream for so long and we finally made it real.

Not a better world.

A perfect one.

Manufacturing Conflict

When the scenario of an imperial takeover of the central valley occurs there are some competing variables to account for...

In brief -

Cannibal threat from the north and a stated incursion at Okran's Fist (note, pressure point).

Flotsam activities and possible success from the northwest (Moll's life being a strong controller for interaction).

Flotsam is a special case, as like with the imperial stance on the Shek. We'll establish later the connections between its leader and the empire.

To the west are the Fogmen hordes, which aggressively impose upon the defensive bulwark.

To the southwest are found the Shek, who if unchecked, will opportunistically invade the river valley through the channels they can. Not great.

To the south is a mix of Shek presence and the core of banditry for the region. The Border Zone feeds into the Swamp matrix of criminality - however, the gangs operating outside the Swamplands proper (similar to the Swamp Ninjas, ironically so) tend to also be uncooperative with & aligned against imperial operations in the region(s). The influence network of the empire is primarily dominant within the swamps - the Dust Bandits and Black Dragons opting to engage imperial agents with hostility. This will do them no favors, so to speak.

To the southeast are the fringes of the imperial trade network, albeit the main smuggling route, it is the primary open artery through which imperial agents can and do enter the broader region both from the Desert wing & from the broader south -- the Swamp roundabout being the most accessible caravan route of the southern stretch.

To the east are the lands of death. Mice scurry about, with no particular guarantee anything will come of it. More visibly can be found the lion's share of the dispossessed and destitute of the Okranite clique. Paranoia on full display...the eyes of Okran have strayed from this region in favor of keeping attention upon the desert beyond. A ripe opportunity makes itself apparent.

Finally, completing the circle is the arrested developing in Bast. The war captures the bodies of the Okranites while their minds are plagued by the distortions Flotsam is causing. Here we see the twisting of the arm to complement the demoralization campaign whispered in the ear. The Okranites are being purposefully exhausted to a point of no recourse - the collapse being swift and complete - once the imperials break down the levies holding back the tide the security guaranteed by the geographically reinforced interior lines can and will begin to work against the Okranites. Defensive vantage points flip from ensuring regional security to being the centralizing catalyst for imperial control spreading like wildfire. If Okran's Shield and Okran's Fist fall into the hands of the empire... it will mark the beginning of an overwhelming catastrophe for the Nation. If the Cannibal Invasion was not bad enough -- imperial takeover of the eastern fortresses opens the floodgates to rapid maneuver warfare across the valleys and plains. The Okranites have -one- way of fixing this. Take them back, at any cost, by any means necessary. Failing to do so opens the heartlands to a relentless campaign which will not stop until we arrive at the ultimate question regarding the fate of the Nation's residents...

What will become of the Okranite populace?

I'll skip over some otherwise necessary interplay (the Moll subject) to address the following-

Stated another way, there are two distinct political bodies partaking in the takeover of the Holy Nation.

First to enter the scene in almost all cases is the military apparatus of the empire. It falls upon the many imperial troops to carve a path forward into the riverlands, taking from the Okranites the so-desired real estate and rendering their rival state totally defunct. Thereafter it will be upon the troops to impose the new order, normalizing the new reality on the ground until the second political element steps in.

The slavers are tasked with entry into the region post invasion, surveying the situation, assessing all potential capital & commodities, to then be brought into the fold of the imperial ecosystem. This in preparation for integration of the central corridor, as like friendly relations of the distant past once facilitated, permitting the continuation of the grand strategy towards imperial reunification.

The two entities executing and managing the capture of the Okranite lands & people are not necessarily in full agreement about how this should be conducted, the merit of extending slavery and the nuances of "who benefits"?

At the table are two divergent opinions, spurred on by the voices from the Okranite camp and sympathetic military edifice --

Have we not achieved our goals? Look at all this farmland...Shouldn't the farmers be put to work...? Why do we throw them in chains...? Rebels on our periphery - new slaves perfectly capable of the labor. What with all the iron and restraint? They have no swords. They barely have life in their hearts. We took that from them. I...took that from them. And you seek to break them more? For what? Not for my sake. Where does it all go? Why are my men forced into guard duty for your enslavement campaign? We broke them. Do you intend to have them hate us until the last of them dies? I thought this war was over. You're going to have to tell me when you plan for it to end. We're tired...everyone is...of this.

There needs to be continuity. We cannot settle for half-measures...start bending & breaking rules for yours or their sake. You see it as malicious - I know it as solid policy. If we were to start making concessions, creating exceptions and giving way to every whim... what do you think would happen? Why waver now? You do have the victory we sought after - we thank you for your part in that. But what is it you're proposing? Place criminals on plots for tending to? Give the defeated back what was taken from them? Did that sword of yours speak the language of mercy to the Okranites? Take no offense to this but do find the hypocrisy as obvious as we see it. Would you prefer we send our best to assist or are you seeking the continuation of the chaos we just extinguished? We work within the constraints we are provided - following orders and procedures, just like you. If you dislike the way things are done...use the usual channels to petition for change. We cannot accept your proposal as is. Please direct further inquiries to our dispatch on the ground. She may be in Bad Teeth before you receive this - seek her for consult, please.

Why is this so important? Because, of course, the island empire coming into being is faced with the fundamental question of whether or not it serves the goal of human self-determination. Tinfist is right about one thing and one thing only. Humanity must be free - to plot is course, make the mistakes it will and reach whatever end they find in the world. The failure to connect & comply with the protocol to exile is the invalidating aspect of the argument (actions). And is ultimately the what and why of Iyo & the Librarian's infiltration into the sciences & technology sector. Skeletons have not yet fully given in to the outcome of the Second Empire. The conflict is not between the empire and the Holy Nation or any other civilized nation. It's a war of ideas. How to escape the past...without the assistance of Skeletons...accepting the wisdom of their failure...whilst not suffering from the pitfalls of seeking and uncertain ends...It's a confounding loop of misconceptions, miscommunications, competing viewpoints and concurrent efforts at various stages of success or failure, rise or decline, etc. The delicate dance becomes what is a rising power, the modern imperials, to do when presented with the extension of slavery when weighed against the driving force & need for maintaining the human spirit?

It could be said "-why does this matter-?", which is a valid critique of placing the slavery/self-determination debate so highly on the priority map. What seems self-evident at times requires acknowledgement of the contributing factors --

Light and Darkness

Give them something to believe in...something real...something they can feel...

The shadow of time casts long against the horizon.

You don't yet see it for the reflection it is.

The dance of eternity carries on.

Can you hear the creak of the wheel?

It turns...once more.

You...see the sun...you....stand upon the moon...