>>4812600
There are a lot of things that you’d want the queen to answer, but some are more private than others, and since there was an official meeting with the other nobles previously, you’re not sure that you’d be on the same wavelength. You expect that it was something regarding the Ihmisetians, the underground elves, since their representative is present. So, while the queen is old enough to have known the elven pantheon in person, you doubt that she would honestly share that information in the presence of everyone involved, so you decide to file that particular question for later in case that you’d manage to talk with her in private. Starting the talk about yourself or your companion without being prompted would also not sit well as the subject of the first discussion since it would imply that you are someone who cares about themselves at the cost of other people. Still, there is a need for someone to start talking to break the pause before it gets awkward.

“Would you mind filling me in on the current state of the discussion? While I can guess the main subject, I’d like to know the specifics.” you ask the people at the table.

Valentina nods and replies: “The main subject of Teryian representatives visit is the development of the situation with Ihmisetian remnant. As you probably already know, Teryia is located close to the Collapse, which is the largest access point between the surface and the Labyrinth in Ceno. Teryians have been using it to trade with the Dwarven kingdoms for almost the entirety of their written history, and it contains the shortest path between the surface and Ihmisetian settlements.

After the Ihmisetian Remnant was formed, the evacuation efforts were focused in two directions, towards the surface and towards the dwarven territories. About 60% of Ihmisetians, the core part of their leadership and most of their military forces decided to head towards Teryia, with the remaining population attempting to flee to the dwarven kingdoms, hoping to travel through their waterways and then to the surface to reunite with the “remnant core” as a form of contingency. Dwarven territories are more protected from the rest of the Labyrinth, the path from the Town to the dwarves and from the closest dwarven settlement (to the surface) is shorter and thus somewhat less risky. However, the total trek would be much longer and waterways have limited throughput, so it would result in a thin trickle of survivors. Dwarves are not eager to dedicate their entire merchant marine to haul underground elves, resulting in two loosely connected groups of Ihmisetians, one on the surface and one scattered across a good chunk of dwarven territory.

>>4812608
The Remnant Core has arrived to Teryia suffering only moderate attrition and are currently in the middle of discussing integration into Teryia proper. As they are already on the surface, the Core considers it a favorable option, while the elves stranded in dwarven kingdoms are much more desperate, considering their chances with your new city to be better than trying to make their way towards Teryia. In short, not all of the Remnant currently trusts the success of your project, Agatha.

In the current economic and technological environment, the wealth of the nation is determined by the land and people that work on it. Thus, the influx of refugees would be beneficial to Teryians. However, there is a lot of friction between the demands of Teryian government and the Remnant. Essentially, Teryians want the Remnant to be dissolved with the population integrated into their kingdom and distributed across their territory, but only as commoners. Teryian nobility is strongly against noble titles being granted to influential Ihmisetians, both in an effort to maintain the status quo and the fact that it would be unprecedented in Teryia. By currently standing law, nobility is limited to Teryians only, immigrants are excluded, as well as their descendants.

In addition, there is the issue of religious freedom. One of the current Teryian demands is the prohibition of public worship of Aino and of any missionary activities, along with the demands for the Remnant’s rulership and military leaders to embrace Teryian religion, or at least Ceno pantheon. Those that refuse would be forced to forfeit their administrative or command roles. Along with all that there are some cultural tensions and debates on the extent of the humanitarian aid that Teryia can provide. Underground elves, on the other hand, wish to maintain some form of independence, even if it is as some sort of regional self- governance. They also consider Teryian demands deal- breaking, resulting in a form of stalemate. Until the agreement is reached, Teryian government refuses to dedicate any major effort to assist the Remnant.

>>4812611
As there was little choice for the underground elves, Teryian demands were slowly being pushed through. Your arrival, Agatha, has changed that, resulting in the creation of a second option for Ihmisetians and thus the Teryian progress of slowly pushing the demands through one by one has stalled, resulting in another stalemate. Now the Remnant has some choice, even if as a whole they are not sold on either.

The other subject was, of course, your awakening, although not much progress was made during the last meeting. The majority of the Teryian and Remant Core are currently unsure what to think about you. Some of the nobility is annoyed at the lost diplomatic progress or a disruption of the status quo, some are fearful but most appear to want to wait and see. The opinions on trade seem to be split between your new city being an opportunity, tempered with a healthy dose of skepticism, and the fact that it would encroach on the near monopoly on dwarven goods which Teryia has been enjoying for a couple hundred years. This should be everything that might concern you, with the rest being mostly the discussion of specific aspects of Teryia- Ceno relations.”

As she was talking, you notice that Ihmisetian representatives tensed up and looked at you when it became obvious that you are that particular goddess that offered their people a whole new city. You think that they were hoping that you might be some other new goddess, and now they were unsure on how you’d react after finding out about the divide among their people. Teryian representatives were also judging your reactions, with the queen displaying a bit more curiosity while the other reps having the expression of veiled concern, likely watching your reaction as well.

>>4812617
You hear a voice in your head as you receive a psychic message from Val, it is not penetrative and you need to shift your attention towards it for a moment to receive it. “Welcome to the world of politics and diplomacy, the game where at least one party ends up unhappy. Sorry for this unceremonious remark, but I can’t really judge your reaction before it happens. Well, I can, but I’d prefer not to barge into your mind unannounced. If you’re angry at the current state of affairs, I’d like to ask you not to display it openly, as both sides are judging your behavior and it would likely influence their position on the matters. Also, you should probably know that while Amaria can theoretically push additional help towards the refugees thanks to the support of the commoner faction, it would not be in her interest to anger the majority of Teryian nobles. So yeah, try to be as diplomatic as possible and good luck.”

Well, this is quite the news. You’ve expected that Ihmisetians are not a monolithic entity, but this political fracture is quite a bit bigger than what you imagined, so you should probably look into attracting the Core faction to your city project. From one hand, having a prosperous city would attract the refugees, on the other hand, less refugees means that it would take longer to set up that prosperous city. A catch 22, to get more people you need to have more people. And Teryian position is hideous to your modern ethics, but looking at it through the lens of local society, it is pretty straightforward. Both sides want the most benefit for the least cost and with less risks. In any case, it would explain why they wanted to do this in Ceno capital, they probably wished for the support of the third side.

>Ask IC questions, react and talk with the characters, you know the drill

This is where we’re starting the “organic dialogue” once again, the questions and IC comments would be answered outside of the normal massive blocks of text. Once they are depleted, I will write the follow-up post which would include the smalltalk part along with Rheia praising and the wrap-up. Since I’m posting this at 1 am, this is the last post for today, and I’ll reply when I have time tomorrow and maybe during the week. Sorry once again about this long and unintentional hiatus thing

>>4812624
Suggest something along the lines of

"How about temporary citizenship records for Ihmisetians that wish to enter Teriya so they can both provide you with documented workforce and get a sense of what full integration would be like, leaving those that want to retain their current status a chance to go elsewhere. "

Welcome back Hivemind-chan! I haven't caught up on your quest but I wanted to pop in to say I enjoy it.

Nice to see you back
I'll post a question tomorrow

>>4812624
"My queen, the rumors I heard don't make you justice.
*Give her a good stare and evaluate her as we speak*
As for the situation at hand, I'm sure everyone can agree that there is no perfect solution, while the Remnants need the help and the Teryian can lend the hand it is not without a cost, be it in customs and traditions lost or in social tensions and turmoil for the forseeable future as you can imagine that even if the Remnant agree to the terms it will not be wothout dissent.
Have you heard abou the city I'm carving in the wilderness with Cenophilan support?
More importantly, have you heard where it is located?
It sits confortably close to a new dwarven stronghold that is being occupied after I cleared it of the behemoth that claimed it, and on a triple border between Ceno, Holy Kingdom and [the third country I forgot]
As my awakening have brought doubts, it undeniably has brought opportunity and change with it, I would welcome the Remnant as I can give them shelter and they keep my lands fruitful and protected, but I would also welcome, and need, skillful traders and investors in this new endeavour, like the Teryian, to extract the maximum potential of the location I established myself. Trade, exploration, industry are all things that will be needed and will have a great demand in the project I'm building, and the Teryian would be very welcome to participate.
Of course, this is an open offer as I understand your hesitation, but that is why I'm here, to let you know that change is coming, and with it, opportunity.
If it was in any way possible I would love to ahow you personally what is being created my queen."

So, I'm rusty as hell so feel free to ignore/cut anything stupid I wrote.
Again, excited to see you back, let's goooo.

>>4812624
To the priestess
"I can't imagine what your people have gone through, after the time I spent in the Labyrinths I know what kind of horror live there and I bet they only get worse the further you go down.
To make it out of there with your people must have been a colossal effort, It is a shame you still have to face more difficult decisions."

To the queen

" I commend you and your nation, your highness, for taking steps in taking care of those in need. It is not a easy thing to do as I had to see to the needa of refugees before, even if in a much smaller scale." I'm talking about the tribals we saved and shelterd from the slavers.
"I'm sure many won't mind to adapt to your demands to keep your country stable but what will happen with those that don't?"
Make sure to be upfront with the queen at first and see her reaction, we can adjust it later if she prefers things more subtle or if she welcomes a more honest debate.

Thanks for running

>>4812624
Maybe we can make an agreement with those that don't accept that proposition?

Hey it's back, nice.

Hey guys, sorry I won't manage to post today, got home way too late. I'll try to compose it tomorrow when I have the time

>>4828767
Dang it, the week was terrible. Sorry once again, looks like I'll only post on Saturday- Sunday :V

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>>4812624

You turn your head to the underground elf priestess and tell her "I can't imagine what your people have gone through, after the time I spent in the Labyrinths I know what kind of horrors live there and I bet that they only get worse the further you go down. To make it out of there with your people must have been a colossal effort, it is a shame you still have to face more difficult decisions." The priestess looked down with an expression of sadness and replied: “Thank you for your compassion, goddess Agatha”.

You then turn to the queen and say "I commend you and your nation, your highness, for taking steps in taking care of those in need. It is not an easy thing to do as I had to see to the needs of refugees before, even if in a much smaller scale. I'm sure many won't mind to adapt to your demands to keep your country stable but what will happen with those that don't?” Her eyebrows raised a little, after which she replied: “As much power as I have over my subjects, I won’t be capable of deciding the correct course of actions on my own. While many would prefer the maximally humane solution, that position is mainly represented by the Commons. Going against the vast majority of aristocracy wouldn’t be a good decision, and not just based on the issues of political support alone. Nobility owns the majority of the Teryian land and almost all of the large industries, meaning that some of them might run significant interference to the decision that they adamantly oppose. Goddess Agatha, with your powers maybe you haven’t heard of the piece of wisdom that was passed to our family once the kingdom was created. It says “no ruler can rule alone, take the throne to act and the throne acts upon you.” Kings can’t build roads and bridges alone, they can’t maintain order alone, they can’t defend their nation or even themselves alone. The power of the king is not to act, but to make others act on their behalf through “keys to power”, the most influential leaders of various factions and arms of the government. Maintaining the happiness of these keys is paramount for them working as they should and even to the stability of the throne itself. And you can’t pick only the keys that would be loyal no matter what, as they also are in the position of power, just a single tier lower, and their keys are in the position of power and so on. Once you have your city, Agatha, you will no longer have the capacity to do everything that you might wish to do for your citizens on your own, you will also have to find and sway keys to act through them.”

>>4842035
Huh, that’s interesting. This seems to be a snippet from the “keys to power” theory which was published in 2011 in “The Dictator’s Handbook”. The queen is wise indeed in the matters of holding her power and ruling her kingdom. . While you knew of this all thanks to your library in your head, it only came up to your consciousness once you’ve heard queen’s words, and it allowed you to understand her position better. “I see that the rumors I’ve heard of your wisdom didn’t make you justice, queen Amaria. If only for the sake of completeness, I would like to discuss a certain proposal that I have for the situation at hand.” The queen nods and says that it would be her pleasure, her companions follow suit with nods.

“What about using a form of temporary citizenship? This would provide Teryia with documented workforce and a sense on what full integration would be like, giving a chance of those who wish to retain their title an option to go elsewhere.”

The queen took a few seconds on how to evaluate this proposal. “This would be a compromise…”
As she makes the pause, Duke Bram quietly tells her “If I may…”, to which the queen nods and he continues: “A compromise is the word used for when a solution leaves both sides equally unhappy.”
President Logarier nods and says “I have to agree, I don’t expect that both sides of the argument would agree to that option. The position of the Commoners was to help those in need, so that they could move out as soon as possible not to alter the status quo much. More workers can mean the increase of production which would likely cause the decrease of reimbursements to the workers as their products decrease in price.”
Duke adds: “The nobility’s position is that we wish to gain more workers and thus this would provide us with more wealth, but the tensions between existing and new workers would interfere with both the morale and efficiency. In addition, Ihmisetians are people whose culture focuses on their rank in society, one might even call that a “caste” system. The lowest rank of Ihmisetians would almost without question follow the highest rank, and highest ranks would not want to stay in Teryia, for the demands that we require on the religion and their leadership positions. This means that your proposal, goddess Agatha, would result in basically all of Ihmisetian workers following their leaders towards a better opportunity. If I may, this would most benefit you, wouldn’t it?”

>>4842036
You think for a fraction of a second and say: “What if I sweeten the deal?” Everyone around the table focus their eyes on you, with all of the elves raising their eyebrows in a gesture that would mean “please carry on”. You hold a small pause and then say: “As everybody behind this table knows, I have commissioned the construction of the city from Ceno pantheon, it is expected to be finished in two years. The city is located near to the access point into the Labyrinth with an extremely close entrance to the dwarven citadel which was lost decades ago to a large monster, however I’ve managed to kill it and the reconstruction is underway. It is also on a triple border between Ceno, Holy Nation and Valistrat Empire, with the NAP already in place with the Holies. I believe that the trade potential would be very significant for the region. As my awakening have brought doubts, it undeniably has brought opportunity and change with it, I would welcome the Remnant as I can give them shelter and they keep my lands fruitful and protected, but I would also welcome, and need, skillful traders and investors in this new endeavor, like the Teryians, to extract the maximum potential of the location I established myself. Trade, exploration, industry are all things that will be needed and will have a great demand in the project I'm building, and the Teryian Kingdom would be very welcome to participate.”

The Teryian noble and commoner look at each other, and then the Duke speaks: “Your offer is generous, but we would need to see the specifics. In addition, it is likely that a delegation would be in order to regularly observe the progress of city’s construction. I will bring it up during the next meeting among the nobility.”

Val gives you another message with the hint: “He is implying things like preferential tax cuts for Teryian traders and guilds. You’ve already offered the trading itself, so this would be the way to “sweeten the deal” enough to have the chance for this to work. However, you would likely need to haggle with the keys regarding the specific values soon. And I hope you have the plans for taxation.” Which is followed by a wink transmitted through her power.

>>4842040
note that at this time in Ceno and the Kingdom, trader taxes are localized in each town and city, based on what the trader hauls into the city, and what trader hauls out of the city. This can roughly be considered import and export taxes. Traders that operate in the city are usually required by law to keep the books and give them in to the governmental institution which calculates the tax based on how much money the person received.

>Offer exclusive Teryian tax cuts for traders
>Offer exclusive “tax haven” model, cutting “corporate taxes” significantly in comparison to all nearby countries
>Offer general tax cut for Ceno traders, which would include Teryians
>Offer general “tax haven” for all industries of all countries, you need as much of that as you can get
>Offer complete tax nullification on Kingdom’s traders, which would give you one of the highest acceptance chances, but it would significantly damage your potential income
>Don’t offer anything like that
>Writein your option

__________________________________________
And that’s it for today. Barely managed to get this done. Hopefully I’ll manage to do the same tomorrow evening. In the meantime, maybe a discussion on the tax system is in order? See you soon, players!

>>4842042
>Writein your option
A tax heaven for Teryians and on a lesser degree to Ceno corporations too
But with two conditions, first, all those benefits would be extebded to our local citizens, allowing the humans and Remanant that live in our city equal footing with them, of course, our region doesn't have big investors right now but that conditions opens up the possibility of our ouw people opening their enterprisings in the future when they can, effectively givong the Teryians a head start but once some time passes and more capital reaches our leople they can also participate in the market.
The second condition is a private audience with the queen, so we can ask access to their afterlife and discuss other things.

>>4842042

>Offer general tax cut for Ceno traders, which would include Teryians

And then wait for a counter offer

>>4842042

>Offer exclusive Teryian tax cuts for traders

I'm kinda at a loss here to be honest.

I imagine the tax cuts should have a time limit and they can be justified as a reward/compensation for the efforts the Teryian have done in housing the Remnant until now

>>4842042
Does citizens pay any kind of tax usually? Or is it only trade tax?

>>4843627
Basically everyone pays taxes for many different things. Villages pay taxes to towns, who pay taxes to cities. Farmers pay taxes to landlords. Home owners pay taxes to their settlements and so on. Most need to pay several types of taxes. Note that the tax rate is higher than in first world countries because of lower productivity of the population.

>>4842042
I'm torn on what to chose really, the time limit does sound good tho

>>4843434
>>4845280
Well, that's why I have the writein option. I didn't even think of this point. I imagined that at this time "kings" could basically annull the trade deal further down the line. But it is a good idea. Any thoughts on the timespan then?

>>4845533
well, I'm not an expert on industrial development at that timeperiod but I imagine at least a few decades would be necessary for the elves to even have any benefit on this right?

>>4845707
A few decades is what I expect as well, after city's opening

After a moment of thought, you reply to the duke: “I agree, we would need to discuss the specific numbers at a later date. For now, though, I’d like to propose some guidelines to which we could add the specifics when we meet again. I plan to offer you a very significant 20–25-year tax cut both for Teryian traders and Teryian guilds who will operate in my territories, starting with the date of city’s official opening. It will be accompanied by a somewhat smaller but still significant tax cut for the people of Ceno, as a part of my gratitude for their hospitality and their pantheon’s assistance. City’s inhabitants would receive temporary lower taxation for purposes of kickstarting the industries and local businesses. Holy Nation won’t receive tax cuts, same would apply to Valistrat once they find out about the city’s existence and open the trade channels. At the end of the tax cut period, we will discuss possible prolongation of the agreement. The taxation system would need to be modified as time goes on to assist with initial growth, but for now please assume the average taxation for Ceno Polises.”

This is a pretty good plan. As your territory becomes more democratic, gains better amenities and progresses technologically, the average tax burden per person would decrease, while tax output would increase thanks to improved productivity of the citizens and advanced industries. A person living back in a cushy 21 century democracy might scoff at this, but the less advanced and democratic the society is, the bigger is the equivalent tax rate. For example, commoners in Teryia have tithes for their produce, a certain part of which is collected by the government with below market price reimbursements, after which this produce can be sold at or above market prices “abroad” ranking up equivalent tax rates that would be considered insane, just not called “taxes” directly. That’s what petty dictatorships like North Korea did in 21st century.

>>4857449
Your main job with creating and modifying your tax system is not as much of “how much” citizens have to pay, but “for what” they have to pay taxes. Cleverly juggling taxes would allow you to stimulate or penalize various industries and even behaviors of your citizens if they face societal problems such as alcoholism. Maybe eventually you could even manage to completely remove income taxes and support the population with Universal Basic Income like Canada and parts of EU of your time, but that wouldn’t happen in the near future.

“I see” replied the duke, “this is indeed a very attractive proposal. We should return to it as soon as it is discussed in detail by both chambers of the government.” The queen and commoner president nod in agreement. Val telepathically informs you that Duke Bram thinks that this might work, and you reply to her with a small smile.

The following discussion shifted away from the matters of business. By the requests of both Valentina and the queen, you ended up reciting a part of your story, adding in a bit more information about Rheia, much to her cute embarrassment. You told them how you saved her from the monster right after you woke up in this world, how you reconstructed the village, how you defended it from bandits and reestablished the contact with the rest of Ceno, how you managed to beat the “forgotten beast” that ravaged a dwarven city decades ago (preemptively anonymizing Haven for obvious reasons), how you saved tribal people from slavers, and how you took care of them until they could be healed, their new home built and until they could be shipped there. You’ve skipped some misadventures that you considered not that believable or not worth discussing in detail, such as that time you had to deal with a subspace parasite, or how you had to sneak into HN stronghold, which you mentioned in passing as just saving the people that were captured. You finished with praising Rheia’s effort and intelligence, in addition to her upcoming exams, which was the reason why you came here in the first place.

>>4857451
“How fascinating,” said the queen. “My youngest daughter, princess Kaylea, is participating in the exchange program with Elspen Capital University, and she is only a couple years older than Rheia. I wonder if they end up becoming friends, after all Elspen University doesn’t split the students by age, only by ability, and I trust that Rheia would have a chance to shine during the exams. How did they use to say back in your time, “no pressure”? …I sometimes wish that I had my patron deity back, we were similarly close to you two. Once I was born, I was offered to Bormus the Architect, and I honestly didn’t expect him to treat me as he did, almost as if I was his daughter.” She glances down at her hands and almost inaudibly sighs. Her companions try to remain stoic. She glances at you and says: “I can guess that you wanted to talk in private afterwards about the Teryia pantheon. After all, I saw them in person back then, and the accurate description is hard to come by, but it is a painful subject for me, I’m sorry. I wish you two good luck with your endeavors, and I hope we’ll talk again, maybe I’ll have more fortitude then.” Queen Amaria glances at Val, who nods in return, after which the queen excuses herself from the table and leaves, followed by two of her representatives. You’re not sure what to say.

After they leave the hearing range, Valentina speaks, using her voice this time: “The events of the fracturing and disappearance of the Teryian pantheon was a very painful process, she is one of the few Teryians that survived to this day and thus she still remembers what has happened, even though she doesn’t know why this happened. Even Ceno pantheon doesn’t have the full picture on the reasons for the fracturing. For the vast majority of the Teryians, it is mostly a vague catastrophe of the past generations, but they still consider that gods have left as a result of a sort of “treaty” between their sides, and they are still properly worshipped 200 years later. It’s not much, but I hope this would help you to search for more information on them, Agatha.” You nod in understanding; you will have to approach this subject very carefully when talking to those Teryians who have witnessed their gods in person.

Afterwards Valentina states that, as great as it was to meet up with you again, there are some other things on the schedule that have recently appeared. The Ihmisetian representatives need to head out to discuss what they’ve learned here and Val needs to micromanage about a dozen cups to mediate the discussions. You can still tell something to the priestess and the general, but it is strongly implied that afterwards it should be the time for you to leave.

>Tell something to the reps (WriteIn)
>Thank Val for the audience and proceed to collect Haven and head out into the city
>Other?

>>4857453
____________________________________
Wow, didn’t expect my thread to survive for 4 weeks, /qst/ is really going slow these days. I expect this thread to die within the next week, so the next update would come in the next thread. Still, feel free to vote, ask questions, make suggestions and discuss as usual, and thank you for participating in Synthetic Gods Quest.

I have a small idea update: a while ago I wanted to learn on how to draw on my laptop, and then use a voice changer to make videos of some sort of in- character dives into Synthetic Gods setting, similar to what Templin Institute does, but focused on SGQ. As time showed, when mixing master’s thesis, some minor issues on the psychic level (nothing serious, no worries) and 8–10-hour 5 day a week job, free time evaporates instantly. However, recently I realized that with the purchase of a VR headset (Oculus Quest 2) back at the start of the spring, I had everything besides about 100 bucks of software to have everything that’s required for vtubing. Combining it with Quest 2’s hand tracking, a decent voice changer and something like Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman creator or Character Creator 3 to crate and autorig models, it might just be possible to make the IC part of the initial concept way better, as long as it all works. It could end up as a sort of addition to the SGQ, or it might just end up being a flop or taking a year or two to perfect, time would tell, but I’d like to know what you guys think about this concept.

>>4857453

>Tell something to the reps (WriteIn)
"It was good to meet you and I invite you to visit my lands when you have the time, I wish us both luck in the times to come"

And then let's levar.

>>4857453
Sounds good, like a documentary of sorts?

>>4857453

>Thank Val for the audience and proceed to collect Haven and head out into the city

Just tell then that they can send us a mensage when they have time so we can discuss things more privately

>>4857453

>Thank Val for the audience and proceed to collect Haven and head out into the city

The thread is archived, next one tomorrow.

>>4866681
New thread is up:
>>4868612