- Aug 15, 2017
- 222
- 482
From a character design standpoint, my favorite models are Cassia, Katerina, and Kaylan. Unfortunately, Katerina is still mostly an unknown, and despite some early promise, Cassia has turned into a petulant child. From a character standpoint, my favorite characters were Aelinia, Kaylan, and Valentina. Unfortunately for the princesses on the list, they have both slipped: Aelinia has turned into an alcoholic shrew, and I do not particularly enjoy Valentina being retconned into little Miss Great-at-Everything. It looks like Kaylan is my choice. Depending on how the game progresses and my overall enjoyment, I might do other playthroughs, but I suspect that none of the "major" choices will end up having much impact in the end.
If you want to create ripples, the best choice might be Isabella: She is the only character that causes you to lose faction points when you add her to the harem. Her family has been implicated by Alessia, and she and Lydia are already squabbling. Looking at the game code, selecting her as your queen annoys the most people with all three princesses annoyed by the choice.
Another option would be Estrid. While she is essentially inoffensive to all of Caudium's factions, making her your queen might be as good as declaring war on both the Gauls and Brennus.
As for the factions, it seems the Eastern faction has the most benefits; however, keeping in mind major choices might have little actual impact and the story is inconsistent, the Eastern faction also seems the most fragile. Both Lydia and Isabella have implicated the other's family in conspiracies against the crown. Alessia is suspicious. According to the codex, her father is involved with the discussions of eastern governors about seceding—something not mentioned Isabella's codex entry, she has some relationship with Felix, and she was born outside the kingdom (Roman Lauri is modern Woerden, which Caudium lost to the Gauls centuries ago, although the author may have meant Laurium, a range of hills in Attica, Laurium, a common misspelling of Lorium in Etruria, or Lauriacum, a town in Noricum). In any case, the Eastern faction has already demonstrated factionalism and backstabbing. While that might aid the MC in that a divided faction is easier to manipulate and less of a threat, it also makes it more difficult to leverage the wealth which is the faction's main selling point.
While I'm rambling, I'll throw in my two cents about Marius. I hope we get a chance to kill him. He is at the very least grossly incompetent. At worst, he's treacherous and grossly incompetent. Sending him to lead the campaign east would be a disaster. Having him accompany the MC on the campaign east would, at best, be a distraction. Leaving him at Caudium while the MC campaigns in the east will all but guarantee that the protagonist will return to a mess in the capital. Aricellus was only king for six years which far too short a time to instill dynastic loyalty, and most of any loyalty the family possesses comes from the personal popularity of the queen and the princesses. Marius is far more of a liability than an asset. The only reason he is still breathing is because the MC values the happiness of his family. Perhaps the best option is to convince Marius to "retire" somewhere remote with Sextus where his ability to influence anything is as small as possible.
The MC and Nicabar have already led successful campaigns, and neither has made a bid for the throne. Having a competent, loyal general was very rare in the past. In most instances, rewarding loyalty foremost usually precludes retaining competence. Usually, they would have been married into the royal family to ensure their continued loyalty. The fact that Aricellus hadn't already married off a daughter or two to Nicabar and/or the MC lacks verisimilitude. His line about wasting a daughter on an already loyal general is stupid. Those would be among the best candidates to whom to wed a daughter.
We also know that rumors concerning the protagonist and Valentina had already reached the king, but he had discounted them. We know that when Marius attempts to blackmail the MC, the player can reject him, and even Marius is reluctant to bring specific allegations to his father without actual proof. It is a cost-benefit analysis: what is the likelihood of getting a good outcome from an action versus the potential risks? The lower you are in social hierarchy, the greater the likelihood of bad outcomes while also having smaller rewards for good outcomes.
There are a couple of points concerning the MC's engagement to Kaylan. Firstly, Aricellus first verified it with the MC. To start, it was just a troubling rumor. Once it was confirmed, then Aricellus became angry. Secondly, it was a marriage alliance. It now made Nicabar and the MC closer to each other than either was to the king. It effectively made Caudium's entire mobile military a unified power block. It turned the entire balance of power on its head. Before that, if Nicabar had marched on Caudium, Aricellus could have called on the MC and his army to oppose him or vice versa. The governors spied on the army. The army spied on the governors. The governors competed against each other. The generals were threats to each other. And everyone owed their positions to the king. That's how a system like that worked, when it worked. Of course, much of the time it didn't work, such as two generals forming an alliance. That was an existential threat to Arcellus's position.
Finally, the accusation wouldn't be made about the MC alone. It is about the MC and one or more of Aricellus's precious daughters. Parents can be very protective of their children. I've seen videos of parents in court where their children are charged with things like arson or murder, with video evidence, where the parent still denies their children did anything wrong and lashes out against anyone who says otherwise. A paranoid ruler is as much a threat against the accuser as the accused.
