A few in game questions

[Schwarzbart]

interesting, never assumed the Legate to be good in Astrology.

[Rhialto]

Just now, Schwarzbart said:

interesting, never assumed the Legate to be good in Astrology.

Well, as a student, he knew many Avila students, so that may be a reason. @Legate of Mineta, care to comment?

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

Here you go:

"Astrology is probably Orso's weakest field, but he learned the value of it when he was working as [REDACTED].  He's competent, though Kate Badcrumble on her worst day could astrologue him into the ground."

[Schwarzbart]

[REDACTED] here = Spy? Because it was made public to the player that he has worked as Spy in the past (check the video at Steam).

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

No comment.

[Metis]

Are Academagia's college uniforms the property of the relevant college specifically, or of the school itself?

[Legate of Mineta]

"Basic robes are Academy-issued, but colleges (particularly Vernin) will often supply (or sell) formal or ceremonial robes to be worn on important occasions."

[Rhialto]

1 hour ago, Legate of Mineta said:

"Basic robes are Academy-issued, but colleges (particularly Vernin) will often supply (or sell) formal or ceremonial robes to be worn on important occasions."

Would I be correct in thinking that Morvidus's robes are the cheapest? They seem, in the art, to be rather plain.

[Legate of Mineta]

"In theory, the basic robes are all more or less the same cost; Morvidus (read: Oliver Storey) just favors "working robes."  No frills, no elegant fabrics - nothing that would embarrass you while you were working with animals or tromping through the woods.

In practice, yes, they look cheaper, but they're sturdy and surprisingly easy to clean (even non-magically)."

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Does Cimone have a senate or an official titled a magister? I ask because I hope to write some non-standard Latin for Zoe (fear not - the adventure will not be a political treatise!) and those two words are nouns with non-standard form that I know. And is Zoe a Cimonian citizen['s daughter] or a metic? And when did her family move to Cimone? In my head-canon, I assume that her parents was like Hesiod's, moving from Cassetta to Cimone due to wretched poverty.

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"Cimone technically has an assembly (or ekklesia), rather than a senate - though at this point it's more like Mineta's Golden List than a senate in the modern sense.  Any family that owns a house or a farm in Cimone can send a family member to participate in the assembly - but Cimone had a history of expensive wars and mandatory military service.  Adults went to serve in battle in the north, farms and businesses went under, and great landlords started acquiring property and renting it out to the families that previously owned them.

So, basically, the assembly's down to less than seven hundred people, after a rowdy peak in the tens of thousands.

The assembly is directed by a president (or as many as three, in strange years), and the president is selected from within the assembly.  But, again, where in the old days the president was selected by the assembly, he or she is now chosen by the Count of La Nasia.

Unless it's war time, in which case the count makes two appointments and the assembly gets a third president of their own choosing.  Long story.

That said, in Mineta, people are likely to refer to the Cimonean ekklesia as a senate because that's a more familiar word and it's mostly correct.

Cimone does also have a magisterial tradition - one that dates back to the days when the jewel of the region was the Academy of Nares (for a time, a serious rival of the Academagia).  The head of the academy - the Orso, if you will - was "the Magister."  The title persists as a ceremonial position, but the old academy is now a family estate, and the patriarch or matriarch doesn't actually teach anybody.  The family (the Briundes) is insanely wealthy, though, and they've got pull.

Zoe's father was originally from Cimone, but he didn't see a future there.  He was self-educated, but brilliant, and hit the road as soon as he could to work as a kind of traveling tutor.  (This is a thing in rural parts of Elumia - people show up at fairs and market days to help people learn to read contracts, or to teach local children for a season or so.)  He married Zoe's mother somewhere along the line, and it was almost like winning the lottery; she wasn't wealthy, but she had a reasonable inheritance.  Unfortunately, she also became increasingly prone to epileptic fits and other health issues, and finally Zoe's father ended up bringing the whole family back down to Cimone, where the climate seemed to do his wife some good.

The family's problem now is that they're not home owners, and the "ancestral rent" (the low rates charged for someone living on a family's traditional plot) has recently been voided.  They're what you'd probably call lower middle class, and losing ground by the year.

Plus Zoe's dad keeps buying books they can't afford."

[Rhialto]

20 minutes ago, Legate of Mineta said:

Unfortunately, she also became increasingly prone to epileptic fits and other health issues, and finally Zoe's father ended up bringing the whole family back down to Cimone, where the climate seemed to do his wife some good.

This is fascinating - very interesting. Three questions, if you please.

1. The use of the term Ekklesia suggests to me that Cimone uses Chorian (i.e., Greek) terms for special institutions even though its language is an Elumian dialect. Is this correct? Do similar thing happen (perhaps to an even greater extent) in Casseta? This is a policy that I am familiar with on Earth and to a degree practise with Pali, Greek, Sanskrit, and Latin even though my native language is English - the prestige of the other languages elevates the ideas that are expressed.

2. Is La Nasia a free nation (in practise, within the Empire of Man)?

3. Does Zoe also have epilepsy sometimes?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"1.  Cimone's Chorean roots were to some degree preserved by the culture around the Academy of Nares - and, yes, you're right about the general flavor of some of the institutions there, where Chorian culture is still seen as rarefied. 

 

I should probably stress that "Chorian" doesn't really mean the same thing to "Renaglians" as the Hellenic traditions did to Rome.  The people of Mineta don't really have origin stories that tie into a pseudo-Aeneid; the "Chorian" peoples are seen more as early competitors to the city at the heart of the Empire of Man than as a precursor civilization.  That said, the quality of their early theater, art, and philosophical and magical explorations made an impression (and were ripped off accordingly) - and they were wealthy enough to sustain a distinct identity for a long while when Mineta was young.

 

Cassata was a different scene; the barons of Cassata are at this point a cadet house of the Caitta dynasty, and for generations they've been determined not to seem like yokels (for want of a better term).  Cassata is now slavishly "Renaglian," by which we mean Minetan - at least in relatively significant population centers.  The cliffside communities in the southeast are a whole other matter.

 

2.  La Nasia is technically a county - though it's closer in size to a duchy - and for a lot of its history it was more or less the Empire's southern wall.  (The island duchy of Ceada is south of it, granted, and has been fairly "Renaglian" for a couple of centuries, but it's... unusual.)

 

But, yes, in practice La Nasia is its own independent thing.  It's basically three regions: Cimone in the north, with fields and farms; Civita Mare in the southwest, with docks and fortresses; and Montenasia in the southeast, where the count and the descendants of the old military elites still hold court in the mountains.

 

3.  Zoe has never had a seizure.  In her mother's case, though, they started in adulthood - it's still not clear whether it's a genetic condition or the result of a disease (i.e., meningitis), stroke, or magical affliction.  It's certainly something Zoe worries about, but isn't eager to discuss."

[Rhialto]

So, Cimone and Casseta both have Chorian roots. Interesting.

Would I be correct in thinking that Mastery magic is the easiest way to cause epilepsy?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"The easiest way that doesn't require really profound knowledge of the anatomy of the brain, yes."

[Metis]

How would the authorities in Mineta respond if a group of unknown people showed up in a weird airship claiming to be on a mission from one of the New Gods, and asked to be, well, educated/brought into the fold/etc.?

[Legate of Mineta]

"They would probably be assumed to be deluded but harmless (absent evidence to the contrary).  There's a temple near the docks, St. Macario's, that tends to receive eccentic pilgrims and tries to offer guidance."

[Rhialto]

8 minutes ago, Legate of Mineta said:

"They would probably be assumed to be deluded but harmless (absent evidence to the contrary).  There's a temple near the docks, St. Macario's, that tends to receive eccentic pilgrims and tries to offer guidance."

Is it a hub of mental health reseach and treatment? And what is St. Macario the saint o?

[Legate of Mineta]

"Macario is the patron saint of refugees and fishermen.  And, no, it's not a formal hub of research or treatment - honestly, by Minetan standards it's kind of run down, on top of everything else.  It's just understood to be a good fit for priests and auspexes who specifically want to work with the nationless and the afflicted.

It does have a very deep pool of multilingual speakers, though, and more than its share of volunteer medical practitioners, so if you're looking for a Renaissance psychologist it's actually a pretty good fit - it's just likely to be a layperson friend of a local priest rather than the priest herself."

[Rhialto]

12 minutes ago, Legate of Mineta said:

"Macario is the patron saint of refugees and fishermen.  And, no, it's not a formal hub of research or treatment - honestly, by Minetan standards it's kind of run down, on top of everything else.  It's just understood to be a good fit for priests and auspexes who specifically want to work with the nationless and the afflicted.

It does have a very deep pool of multilingual speakers, though, and more than its share of volunteer medical practitioners, so if you're looking for a Renaissance psychologist it's actually a pretty good fit - it's just likely to be a layperson friend of a local priest rather than the priest herself."

My apologies - I should have clarified that I meant an informal hub. Thanks for the answer.

[Metis]

How much would the faculty object to someone researching a local legend involving a Gates-created monster? Basically trying to figure out where the myth comes from, how it changed/evolved over the years, what actual events went into shaping the legend, that sort of stuff.

[Legate of Mineta]

Metis;

"Assuming you're not talking about figuring out the magic used to bring the thing into the world, this would fall under Professor Pachait's auspices, and he'd be delighted.  Cryptozoology and the folk histories surrounding monsters are what he's all about; he'd sign off on any such research project in an instant."

[Schwarzbart]

1) At what year is it planed that player character can actual join research projects of the faculty or maybe even senior students?

2) At what year is it planed that player can or have to do a research project on their own, maybe with the help of other students of their year or below?

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

At last, I can answer one.

1) Y2

2) Y2

[Metis]

So how exactly does being a part of a research project (be it your own or someone else's) play out? Like an adventure, like a Y1 research topic, something else entirely?