"Being coerced or forced into something isn't cheating."
(The actual point of that post; the rest of it is to initiate a response.)
No. They did not. The topic of the conversation went:
Scotsbits - "What effects does it have on the story if Rowan never cheats buts his wife does?"
(Rein - At the moment none...)
Retromancer - "Is this even possible? I thought during the first choice between Andras and Jezera you have to choose one or you get killed. Maybe I'm mixing things up."
TheMagister - "It might have changed now (haven't played the prologue in aeons) but I seem to remember you can decide not to service either of them (also because SoC is built to have a completely sexless playthrough as well iirc)."
Thus, we were discussing the
initial, dire circumstances that the pair were thrust into. As an act to be
faithful and help one another, they each chose certain actions in an extraordinary situation under the demons' machinations.
As a quick out-of-game example, a group of armed thugs takes a loving couple hostage. It is evident that the thugs will kill the couple immediately and have the power to do so unless each of them complies to have sex with a thug. That shouldn't be considered cheating.
Remember, that one of the paths in the game (although, admittedly, it has yet to be developed more thoroughly) is that both Rowan and Alexia can remain
absolutely and resolutely faithful to one another and try to find ways to overthrow their demonic patrons. After all, the hero and the wife suffered
horribly including losing people that they cared for when their home was destroyed. This atrocity was specifically engineered by the demonic twins for the singular purpose of bringing Rowan into the fold.
But you're right (
@Haise01), what they do afterwards can morph into cheating if they
will themselves into it (without being coerced into it) by either giving into temptations or by deliberately seeking it by finding a different partner or other participants. As an aside, the couple at this point in the game[1] they have been under their patrons thumbs for over a year (after map exploration events). (
@T51bwinterized @Rein) I'd like to see some forward movement with player input in how the two can/are resist/resisting their demonic overlords in all honesty. [1] At least from when the version I last played back in 2017, I believe.
Yes. Yes, he is. So much so that even the Demonic Twins, despite all their powers and intelligent and strength, went out of their goddamn way to "recruit" the Hero. They know value when they see it.
Search around the NW (upper left side) of the exploration map to trigger the Orc events (initated by a random event after getting through where you are in the game). Here's my disclaimer, I haven't played through this one myself yet since I'm many version behind, but if you don't wrap these events up, then it'll eventually will lead to a game over as your military strength will not be sufficient enough. By week 60, iirc.
They are. Also, I don't think you need to worry about pacing yourself thinking that you'll skip over something by exploring around. In fact, you need to explore around to trigger many of the events due to the RNG nature of it. The RNG isn't too bad either. I read, once upon a time, that the team modified it so that if you haven't seen something in a while the chances of something triggering becomes greater over time.
I see you're a person of such class to recognize exquisite tastes. Rowan had his pick of women from around the Realms, yet he pursues after Alexia and she welcomes this. They chose one another. Despite her social class, she is simply divine--even the Twins comes around in seeing something special in her that is not readily evident on the surface. How will such influences from Rowan, the Twins, or even being at the seat of a resurrected, fledgling empire mold her essence, I wonder...
I agree! Alexia and Helayna are indeed awesome! Did you know that Hel was originally going to be a minor character but the fans of the game loved her so much that she acquired much more content than initially planned? That's damn awesome. I remember the first time they revealed her character sprite/art piece. Bloody aweome.
Regarding the army numbers, I always imagine them representing "units" and not individuals, because, like you, a handful of orcs or whatever seems a bit lowball for an EMPIRE. Right?
*Scratches head* Let's see (and I'm going off by my faulty memory here), one of the consequences of her escaping is that you'll net a few items and a couple of potions, iirc and not confusing it with another game, along with a promise of aid in bringing down the Twins later in the game (which is, of course, not yet implemented). If Alexia helps her and Helayna fails to escape, then she gets thrown into the dungeons under the care Andras and a certain creature--there are CGs for those! If Rowan helps and fails, I think he gets punished by whichever Twin he works more closely with... *Shrugs* I'm not really sure; I just can't explicitly remember what the team or other users have said about that.
Edit: Changed "bring down" to "overthrow" and corrected a typo, but more importantly, I just wanted to state that I wasn't calling out Haise. I just wanted to clarify a point. *Fistbumps* Meant it in a cool fashion. ;]