Exciting Times for Larpers, some of the updates for the next Empire event have come out. Here are the summaries for The Power Behind Our Moves, All in Red, Build Up My Body, Two Steps on the Water, On the Other Side and There is Thunder.

The Power Behind Our Moves – This one is mostly dealing with the fall out from the Feroz evacuation. The evacuation was stupidly successful, 200 fleets were involved and nearly 100 military units. Part of the reason it went so well was because the Grendel are Capitalist Bastards and so could be bribed pretty easily. Governor Rahab is spitting teeth. Oran has been closed to imperial ships, anyone with a fleet or MU in Feroz will get money taken off them, and any letters from the empire to Rahab are being burned straight off. Any Grendel trade opportunities in Feroz are scrapped, and Rahab is having to buy loads of slaves to keep everything going. The Grendel High Council is also angry, but not as much as Rahab. The slave repatriation deal is done and they refuse to do any more. But the empire still owes them some weirwood and if it doesn’t get handed over asap the treaty is over. 

The refugees are mostly living in Madruga and Segura. The empire will get 30 more thrones from Madruga through taxes and 20 from Segura. Anyone coming from feroz to one of these areas can get a new resource for free. Anyone with a herb garden in Segura that roleplays being nice to the refugees gets a free upgrade. There is an opportunity to make a giant super herb garden, 20 thrones and 20 wains of weirwood are needed, plus a senate building thingy. There are also some vintners looking for volunteers to have their vineyards boosted with new vines, 6 business owners need to be volunteered in a freeborn assembly judgement to get the bonuses. This will also count as a free upgrade.

There are three towns in Madruga which are heaving with people and which now have new opportunities to do stuff. One option is to rebuild the ship yards at Atalaya, per the treaty we’re not supposed to build new ship yards but that doesn’t mean we can’t make old ones bigger.  There is also an option to build a school of naval strategy in another town, they would be able to research new qualities for navies, though it would take a year to do so. The Sumaah have said that if we do this they would like to know about the research and it would be a good diplomatic present. There is also a town where a magical college could be built, once built it could be upgraded to become an even more powerful place where rituals could be codified, but to begin with it would be useful as a mana crystal source. 

ok, so for this wof the general vibe is a) pissed off grendel, b) opportunities for freeborn businesses and herb gardens to get free upgrades, and c) some building opportunities

Next up is the All in Red wind of fortune. 

All in Red – This wof is mostly about the diplomatic situation with the nation of Faraden. The trading hall in Upwold got shut down, and the people who helped get it set up would like the money back for doing so thank you very much empire. There is also a snarky comment about how if empire didn’t want anyone talking about their own religion then they should have said so earlier. 

But the big news is that there were some arsonist attacks because of the family that wanted people’s hearts sent through Ephisis Scales to them by assassins. One of the places that is burned is a major museum Tassato, this is because it has connections to one of the people the Faradens wanted killed. Another is the spire that was publishing the true liao visions. The angry family have said because of this they have taken two of the people off their list. The third one (a De Rondell) has had the bounty on his head increased, so bad luck to him. The arsonists have been caught but they are basically looking to become martyrs and are refusing to pay their fines so they might get executed. There are opportunities to rebuild the museum, maybe even better than before if people are willing to pay for it. Meanwhile because the publishers have been burned down there is going to be difficulty in getting the true liao reports out. There are a few options for what to do about this, but basically it looks like the publishers aren’t going to be able to do much for a while if ever again. 

MEANWHILE shit is hitting the fan in Faraden.

Pretty much everyone is angry with the Modnos family for doing all of this and also the Justice/Vengeance priests for egging them on. The general feeling is that they have five virtues and the other four are going along quite normally thank you very much, why does justice have to be making them look bad? There has been a coup and the previous head of government has been ousted, now there is a new Liege of the Five Winds. Part of the new political look is that they want to promote all of the different virtues they have and everyone who went super duper into justice has lost power. Generally the new powers that be like the empire and the whole assassin and arson situation is seen as a diplomatic embarrassment. Magistrate Karkovitch will be thinking about what to do about the arsonists for the next wee while so something interesting will probably happen there. 

TLDR, Arson at a museum and a printing press, Faraden’s leadership was toppled, now they promise to be less justice obsessed

Build Up My Body

Everyone is getting super into Adelmar the Lion, an ambition Exemplar.  The Academy of Arms (fight school) in Siluri wants to expand the school to take advantage of how many new pilgrims are coming. It would take a senate build slot, 25 wains of white granite, and 50 crowns. It would make a sinecure that would get liao and synod votes for the person running it. It would also mean that every season the person in charge would be able to pick a military unit that hasn’t been upgraded to get a free upgrade by basically getting a scholarship to train there.

Some artisans have reached out and want to help the Anvil Academy get cheaper magical items. Anyone who wants to can give the head of the Academy some crafting resources and the artisans will make stuff for the academy. Also if you donate more than anyone else you might get a judgement in a year to say how cool you are.

Elsewhere, there are four places that are vying to get fancy pilgrimage sites built there. However, there is a chance that if a senate commission was put through that named all four of them all of them could be done at once. A big saving on senate commissions, unfortunately they would all have to be paid for at once which is a hecking lot of resources. 15 wains of white granite, 5 wains of mithril, and 5 thrones, in fact, so 60 white granite, 20 mithril, and 20 thrones in total. Each of these sites would be schools of fighting which would spread a bunch of liao and synod votes through the ambition congregations in that area. 

TLDR, Adelmar the Lion is getting famous. The school he built wants an extension to take advantage of this. Also there are a bunch of other places that want to build similar schools. Also donate crafting resources to the academy they have a good deal at the moment.

Two Steps on the Water

Currently there are two groups of Asavaean refugees living in the empire. One batch are ex-slaves who escaped here (the Freefolk), the other are fancy types that ran away because they were on the wrong side of a civil war (the Marracossans). 

The Freefolk live in Dawn currently and are keen on integrating to a certain extent. They have been travelling around a lot, especially in the Marches lately, and love to hear all about the different exemplars and paragons and all the stories. They practise the Way a bit differently than we do, some people are getting antsy about how close it is to worshipping gods. They really, really, really like their paragons and exemplars. There is a lot of religious toing and froing about this, basically some people are saying that they should be denounced for heresy and told to shut up, while other people are saying that we should take advantage of their enthusiasm. The various assemblies need to talk about this and someone needs to put forth some judgments and mandates on what is to be done because at the moment everyone is confused and that is worse.

They will be coming to Anvil on the Saturday to talk to people and the Marches in particular in the afternoon. They are apparently really into Richilde so they are going to be doing a performance at some point of a play they have written about her. 

Meanwhile on the other side of the Empire are the Marracossans. These are the lot who used to own the Freefolk but who had to set them free when they came here. They have been living in an abandoned Freeborn town and would like to have it officially given to them so that they can practise their religion and various cultural practises without getting in trouble. As well as their own little enclave they are asking for a title to be made so that they can have a trade envoy to the empire who they will sell all their fancy foreign artisan stuff to. The nicer the senate are to them about their enclave the more stuff they will be willing to sell and presumably for cheaper as well. 

TLDR, The exile asavaeans who live in the empire are making decisions about their long term homes and religious habits. The ex-slaves are very enthusiastic but are also maybe heretics, while the posh ones want to make a little enclave where they can do their own thing and sell stuff to the empire.

On the Other Side

This is the latest updates on the Sumaaah Republic and their religious stuff. Last summit there was an attempt at having a convention to talk about the religion and what we have in common and stuff. They believe a version of the way that is very, very similar to ours. However they want to do it their own way with a lot of their own paragons and exemplars, and they think the the empire is too diplomatic with blasphemers. And they really, really don’t like Orcs. Given that the Empire has passed a lot of new stuff about orcs over the last few years this is making them uncomfortable. They have promised to think about doing the same, but they probably won’t, but the Sumaah general assembly have said that in a generation they will have an idea about what to do about orcs.

Meanwhile, they are probably going to split off from the Empire’s version of the Way at some point. It’s a bit awkward because everyone is very keen on keeping it civil but yikes. 

Oh also at some point the Sumaah got their hands on the old imperial crown that got nicked. They have finally agreed that it is a bit embarrassing to have it hanging around so they are sending it back to us on a boat.

TLDR, We have the same religion as the Sumaah, but there is probably going to be a schism soon. Everyone is trying to be nice about it, but it’s not going too well. On the plus side we might get the Imperial Crown back by the end of the year.

There is Thunder

Also in Sumaah news they want to send a big armada to go smash up the main slave trading port of the Asavaeans. Unfortunately they don’t really have the ships to do that so they are asking for our help. Since the Asavaeans are foreigners not barbarians this is illegal, we can’t go smashing up our allies. But there has been a previous senate motion put through that said people going to fight in the asavaean civil war weren’t pirates or anything so maybe the senate could do that. There is also the option of just starting a war with Asavaea.

Obviously Asavaea will be pissed if we agree to fight them. Depending on how many people go they will be more or less pissed and also they might not think we had much to do with it. They will close their ports to us and any opportunities we have with them will fall apart. However, our relationship with the Sumaah and the Common wealth will go up and the Liberty Pact will look a lot more bad ass and people will respect it more. 

The place that the Sumaah want to attack is a port called Chalonsio. It’s an island that has basically been completely given over to slave trading. There is also a big castle for the ruling family to live in, and they have a temple for one of their gods who deals with slavery. Because of the stuff going on with the Liberty pact the priests of this god have congregated on the island so any attack that is big enough will also have a chance to take out tonnes of them.

They need both military units and fleets for this and a heck of a lot of them. 

Up to 5000 points – Not a massive amount will happen. The armada will chase a few slaving ships but there will be no long term issues for the slavers. Asavaea will think that it was just the Sumaah and a few imperial pirate types, rather than thinking it was planned. The door will be left open for future anti-slavery fights.

5000 to 10000 – An upgrade on the chasing slave ships front, a few more slaves will be freed BUT there will be no long term repercussions on the slave trade AND Asavaea will be warned about people coming after them so it will be harder in the future to attack them and make a difference. 

10000 to 15000 – The armada will make it to the island and manage to damage the port enough that thousands of slaves will be freed and Asavaea will take a year to rebuild. Unfortunately, diplomatic relationships will go down the toilet and Asavaea will start putting more defensive war ships around the port so future attacks will be harder. The liberty pact will get a big reputation boost and anyone on the mission will have the chance to do a little looting while they are there.

15000 to 25000 – The armada will make it to the island and destroy the temple to the god of chains, taking the majority of the priesthood with it. The Asavaean slave trade will take years and lots of money to recover. The armada will also be able to loot herbs from the temple as well as everything else they are getting. Plus there will be valuable information about a slave trader called the Noble Lady of the Sea and at the next event there will be an opportunity to go after that fleet of raiders and destroy them.

25000+ – The armada will take over the island entirely, freeing all of the slaves and destroying the castle belonging to the ruling family. Those members of the family working for the slave trade will be executed. The port will also be destroyed on the way out and the Asavaean slave trade will be scuppered for years upon years. All the other slave trading nations in the Known World will be put on notice that the Liberty Pact means business. Every fleet and military unit will also gain loot from the castle.

The Sumaah Republic is willing to give money to those who join them on this mission, plus all the chances for looting depending on the number of points built up, this could bring in a lot of money and resources if it gets popular.

There is also the option to warn the Asavaeans about it, at the moment the only person who would be believed is the ambassador,  so it is up to them to do so. If they were to snitch then the relationship with Asavaea would be massively improved, but Sumaah would be seriously upset and the Liberty Pact could crumble if they found out they had been snitched on.

TLDR, Sumaah wants some help to go smash up the main Asavaean slave trading port. The entire Asavaean slave trade could be wiped out if enough people go, but it would need 25000+ points to do so.

And that is it. If you are not aware of the LARP game Empire by Profound Decisions I highly recommend it. Check it out at Profound Decisions’ website. If you are new and decide to go please use my referral code for money off, 8086.14984

Thanks and stay safe,

K