"Pick one!
No. You can't have both because one is your out of character story design and the other is your in universe narrative. You designed the narrative. You designed the character. You said the character was designed for good government, which you seem to think is exclusively the elimination of fail son successors. Whatever events in story that shaped the character, are your design being implemented.
Your character does not have to in their fictional universe, be designed in a fictional in universe lab by dud angel political scientists for a purpose in order to count as being designed when you are discussing openly what you as an author are designing them for in the story you designed.
You are responsible for all your character and story design choices collectively."
He was freeing people from slavery by killing their slave owners as a child, bro. How do you expect a kid like that to be a statecraftsman? I was talking about the end result of his character when I proposed the idea of him in the thread. But even then, he showed signs of being a good leader by not killing his village people randomly like a dictator would. He only kill the rapists and cold-blooded murderers while sometimes exiling the really lazy bums that doesn't want to do anything for others. People that genuinely can't do much of anything like the crippled are kept, tho.
Hell, the fact that he learns on the job over decades IS the story design. That's how an OP MC can grow as a character. Without system or cultivation nonsense, the only way up is to learn statecrafts. That's one thing you can't just punch your way out of, after all.
"A (archaic period appropriate not to be mistaken for the modern concept) roman dwarven combine harvester does not guarantee a crop. Pesticides might help reduce the risk of unexpected famine. Herbicides only increase yields. Harvests, are most commonly ruined and lost on climate.
Guess what climatologists increasingly are finding evidence was going on with Italy's climate in your chosen time period?"
Y'know different worlds and their own rules, right? Since my planet is different from Earth, it has different volcanoes. Thus, eruptions happen in different times than in irl history. Besides, soil regulation was a known science in the flashback timeline, so they can put the soil through their paces more often than with historical medieval setups
.
And that's on top of using a three-tiered farming system to ensure upkeep remain high. Such as using some fields to grow wheat, another to grow barley, while a few is left fallow with specialized, high-density forage grass seeds, engineered to feed massive numbers of livestock. This keeps the harvest cycle fresh with exhausting the soil's nutrient counts while also supercharging the yield for each subsequent harvests. And yes, we genetic engineering. That's how modern gods got created.
"So bloody purge of the military... also not understanding how legionaries work... OK... also... strange ideas about how (properly) paid militaries somehow don't benefit the state..."
It's not the ENTIRE military, just the ones that loot from the countryside and threatened to upturn the empire if they don't get paid on time. Which are mostly barbarians the people that was in charge hired since they're cheaper to conscript than training native romans from scratch.
Also, you're trying to project a modern, organized military onto a collapsing, corrupt dark-age system. In my canon, relying on volatile, non-citizen mercenaries who would literally mutiny, sack their own cities, or switch sides the moment a rival empire offered a bigger pouch of coins was what destroyed Rome's stability in the first place.
Getting rid of the predatory parasites and keeping the legionaries whose loyalty lies with the actual state is what saved it to begin with. Since now, they won't constantly be barking for pay while the treasury is gaining denarii and the currency's value is healing. The money can go instead to fix infrastructure (like the road I talked about), trade with the dwarves for said farming tech, paying builders to build roadside businesses and inns in busy intersections (admittedly this is just a nice to have, but it's still a single digit entry in the GDP), etc.
"It was a joke. But it wasn't it's totally how you describe the character. The lovable "butcher of Rome" who murders those he considers bad... and he decides who is good so that he decides they get to call him a savior instead? That's a bit clunky in a suspicious way."
I mean, looking at Galan from the PoV of his people, he was simply that, AND their eternal emperor (until he left Rome because his first wife died to go to Japan out of grief and his son took over for him). It was also a title his own people gave him. He never even care about titles much at all. He's a very chill guy as long as there's no one he considers to be bad is around.
"Sometimes it's just fine and the next guys are at least OK if not as good or better. Sometimes they aren't. Generally actual major break downs are not because the Great Man died, but because of creeping systemic failures and steadily growing corruption that have very possibly been in the works for generations already."
Yeah, and somebody needs to stop the cycle and uproot the whole parasites that are gnawing at the plant. If a mortal do it, how long do you reckon he'll last before getting stabbed or poisoned? And "at least OK"? Wtf? you say that as if points in the governing skill tree gets passed down to the next generation or something. Some people are just never meant to sit on the throne, and if they are, bad things happen. And that's assuming no one tries to do something about it and cause chaos to change it.
"That and climate change. Most of Mediterranean history before at least the enlightenment is probably downstream of climate change. Yes including the Roman stuff."
Right, as if a strong empire just crumble like a twig when it's gets too chilly outside. Which is why someone competent needed to be at the helm, and Galan was simply there with all the boxes ticked. Aside from actual legit emperor experience, I guess.
"Well I mean if the Greek Pantheon did something and his family thinks it's cool and the neighbor's family thinks its cool then its moral and likeable and great. Cool."
Bro, people are still being sold as sex slaves worldwide, and the other gods trolls the mortals on a grander scale than what Galan ever did. What makes you think anyone would bat an eye at his antics? He basically just a kid vaporizing random ants as a hobby while most of his family and the neighbors are casting in Breaking Bad, Dexter, The Boys, Bates Motel, etc. They'd much sooner laugh at him wasting his time trying to make some random colonies "safe" before planning on the next catastrophes to befall the mortals.
"Uhuh. Sure. Also. The big thing he does for them is to... ignore them and unethically exploit his mind reading powers as a dating sim walk through to basically manipulatively coerce them. Great. He gets them to do all the admin for him and look after the place when he is out? Great. Changes everything."
So.. What's you problem? In a world where gods can casually just reads minds and atomize people with the snap of a finger, is this really what you're hung up on? That his power made dating easier?
And are you implying he's an absent husband after assuming he was abusive? Damn, bro, you're not even hiding your trolling at this point.
"But only tangential, you wouldn't want them to over shadow him or steal his glory am I rite?"
Sure dude, because glory can only be achieved by saving them mortals and not in raising the next generation of leaders and adventurers that can follow in Galan's footsteps. I mean, child rearing and raising a village is no big deal, right? Obviously no one celebrated his wife for those achievements, at least not in your head.
In mine, Galan always tell everyone of the great work everyone did in the village and the new yearly progress it made, like a new pier, new houses, bigger renovated houses, celebrated heroes from his village that came back from their adventuring, the growth of his children and how well his wives are handling them, etc. At least until he ran away to Japan, then his children handles it.
"Period appropriate 11/10 realistic archaic definitions only CEO and Flying ships. Wait. "Owner" of a dwarven empire... and a flying car mechanic shop? Those get equal billing. Got it. Also "owner" of an empire, what?"
What, I'm just using a term bro. I wouldn't dare call her a CEO in my legit novels, that's cringe.
Oh, owner as in her dad chose her as the inheritor of their dwarven empire, so she owns that and the company. I guess I should've said she was an empress? And no, those aren't equal, obviously. I was showing off my world building tbh.
"Yep. Chase out and kill all those lazy grandmas and period appropriate archaic roman combine harvester industrial accident cripples. They deserve nothing but exile, starvation, and I'm pretty sure the way you are going, a swift and painless execution in the town square. Very good, very likeable, the political science angels picked well.
Okay... so work harder or else your Grandma gets it in the neck. Check, definitely becoming more moral and likeable as he gets over his troubled teens in his 60s."
Right... of course he'd kill random helpless old ladies after everything I told you, sure. It's not like societies are built by people willing to do the hard labor of maintaining expanding it, right? Nah, it's made by slackers that do nothing all day but moat and leech off of their family.
"And... doesn't help the guy in any way, but DOES decide that he would have prevented the whole thing, with a LOAN. A god damn LOAN. A loan, is not a social safety net. Even if it is interest free."
An interest free loan that would prevent him from needing to commit a crime to begin with?
"Also. Solving social problems with pre-crime minority report mind reading and interest free loans instead of genuine no strings attached help, kinda two types of what might traditionally be considered at least a bit evil going on there..."
So what, give people free money?
Don't tell me you're dumb enough to think freely helping people instead of making a stable financial institution is how to keep the economy running.
"Not even doing that and just sort of gloating about how you would have instead of helping anyone... probably even less impressive on the good governance front."
Well, the context is that he was staring at the guy through a prison cell for the killing, but sure. He should've busted him out of there and matchmake the guy a new fiance.
"Did I just hallucinate a bit or is the entire discussion between two other named characters that never mention Galan, and there is a strong implication that there is a Japanese element active in Italy and despite some insane logistics issues Japan is using Rome as the least convenient bread basket region prior to modern history?"
The story takes place in edo-ish period Japan, while there's a running flashback that happens near the time Rome was about to crumble. That scene was from the prior, with Galan talking about the times he was the emperor AFTER the flashbacks ended.
"It took him 20 years, even WITH nepotism from the gods themselves, and the benefits of conquering Rome... to make a single small agrarian village... self sufficient...
20 years. Just for agrarian self sufficiency on a very small scale.
HE ISN'T GOOD AT THIS!"
20 years not just to feed themselves, but also for the village to fully sustain its growth with no divine intervention regardless of season and natural disasters, yes. And how long do you reckon a village made from bare earth should become fully sustainable to feed itself featuring a bunch of slaves and hand me down wood should take?
"Aaaaand 3 2 1 talking to you and making jokes about your silly story is no longer fun.
I'd had suspicions, but wow, not cool."
What, am I not allowed to self deprecate now? And what's wrong with an MC that shows a tough face to rally people under his cause anyway? How is that any different from any president or historical leader that ever got elected to fix a crisis? What, is he supposed to just sit quietly and let everyone starve so he doesn't hurt your feelings?
If you're going to rage-quit the conversation the second someone uses basic history, economics, and your own quotes to prove you wrong, that's on you. Have fun reading the weather reports!
