Creative Consult

[DrazharLn]

Just read 9.2. Another good instalment

Obviously I find Piridur's arguments entirely unconvincing and I look forward to you exploring the obvious counterpoints in the future.

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One thing that hardly ever comes up when sacrifices are required in stories is that many people are near death already. Becoming an ensi for a few years would probably be a good deal for someone near death: the pyre restores their health for a few years and in return they sacrifice themselves.

Also, the notion that a family is voluntarily sacrificing one member a decade might be very palatable to sufficiently religious people.

The ethics of the people of pyrebound are very strange, in general. They think that allowing the pyre to go out is very bad, in part by appeal to the hurt it will cause to all, but they also don't seem to have much of any notion that people have rights outside this context. Even the right to life seems fairly low on the agenda with slavery working people to death and the town militia going out to be slaughtered every year (only a few know how unnecessary this is; but all know the scale and just accept it).

I think most have a might-makes-right worldview and some dress that up unconvincingly in greater-good rhetoric, perhaps unconsciously to persuade themselves, perhaps for others.

I imagine it's pretty similar to the stories that billionaires tell themselves now about how they deserve to hoard such incredible resources or the stories that aristocrats sometimes tell/told themselves about how they do care for their poor tenants/vassals without ever critically reflecting on their own privilege or what would really benefit their people.

[Elok]

Thanks for reading, and for the feedback!  What's your impression of Piridur himself?  He's a new character and I'm curious how he comes across.

[DrazharLn]

I don't know how I feel about Piridur yet. He's pretty pragmatic, but still an entitled aristo. I don't have any strong opinions about him right now.

Last sentence of the most recent update is missing some spaces again:

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> Imbri thrust the inductor into the sand, a key ina secretlock, and with another whispered phrase the world vanished.

[Elok]

Going to copy-paste what I put up on the r/rational subreddit, this being a game-interested forum:

Idle question: would the world of Pyrebound make an interesting board game? The only modern board games I've played are Catan and one round of Castle Panic with my nephew, but I can see PB fitting into the general mold of a Catan-ish game.

You start with all players setting up new pyres at sites along a river. Turns progress in four stages, a season each for the bloom, harvest, war, and a spring "building" stage where you can decide to construct dropmills, housing, or other amenities. You have to gradually build up the land, start new hearths, allocate spirits every bloom to handmaidens, flamekeepers, and ens, and so on. Other players can be sabotaged with blackbands or moonchildren in various ways, and there are plenty of things to go wrong. Victory is defined by, I guess, achieving a certain status for your pyre first?

I could see it getting too cluttered and turning into micromanagement hell, though. It might be better done with a video game than a board, IDK. I have no means of making either, so this is purely a thought experiment in any case.

[Buster's Uncle]

That would go over very well with exactly this crowd, as a video game - it's just a matter of good design.

[Elok]

Talked w/Lori, thought things over.  Edit from the Reddit: "On reflection, there's no reason it couldn't be simple pen and paper (or electronic files, whatever). The actual layout of the pyres would be irrelevant to gameplay, as they don't compete for land and all land in PB is about equally worthless until it's improved. The resources would be population (of various classes), gold, and prestige, the latter being recalculated every bloom based on performance. First player to reach a given prestige benchmark wins.

Prestige is also valuable for other things; blackbands won't hire out to pyres below a given prestige, and some amenities like a tegnembassaga or a tinap creche are likewise unavailable for little podunk settlements. The trick would be to balance the different routes to prestige--it could be earned by amassing wealth, leading the Dominion in war against bazuu, building lots of hearths, or what-have-you. Hiring blackbands risks prestige--getting caught sabotaging other pyres is shameful, though everyone does it."

Of course, this game is basically roleplaying as the book's villains ...

[DrazharLn]

I'd say work out a design that you can prototype on paper. If it's getting fiddly enough that you want a computer to manage part of it, then it's probably just too complicated.

But if you're sure you want automation, prototyping in something like virtual tabletop could allow you to add that and gives you a market you could immediately sell or freely distribute to.

[Buster's Uncle]

Bumping so Draz will get a notification that there's been a new chapter up since Christmas.

[DrazharLn]

I subscribe to the blog with my RSS reader, so I usually read each update the day or week it comes out

Thanks for thinking of me, though 

[Buster's Uncle]

I have to remember to check, unless 'Lok announces.


-Gotta say that I, who has clamored for more agency for Ram since the story was a version in a very different world, am a bit put off/uncomfortable/something by how important he has become in this world.

[Elok]

As I see it, the trouble is that he's not all that important at present; (spoilers up to present, nothing Buncle hasn't read)

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Etana and company think of him as a bit of firewood with propaganda value.  He has no real authority because the role he's asserting is unprecedented in living memory.  He has a task but no tools to do it with.

[Buster's Uncle]

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He seems a hair's breadth shy of King of the World, maybe.

[Elok]

15.5 went up last night.  Less than a month since 15.4, so that's something.

[DrazharLn]

I read it this morning, congratulations on keeping up with the project

[Buster's Uncle]

Before I read, I wanna say it's seemed obvious since August that the ultimate solution is to something something put all the fires out to get rid of the Andre Norton world/interface...  No Kur, no problem.