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[Vgray]

Time to share this recent(ish)ly released gem of a CYOA with bay12.

Spoiler: Optional world Summary (click to show/hide)

The discovery four centuries ago of Theurgy—magic fuelled by other people's blood—allowed the small nation of Karagon to conquer its neighboring realms and unite them under a Karagond Hegemony. The Thaumatarch, mightiest of the Theurges, now holds unchecked authority over a vast domain.

His Theurges systematically harvest the blood of helots, the Hegemony's lowest caste, using extraction machines called Harrowers. Through a secret process, they then refine it into "aetherial" blood, which can be used for Theurgy. Much of it goes to fuel the nine Great Border Wards that seal off the Karagond Hegemony from its external enemies.

Like all four provinces of the Hegemony, your home of Shayard is governed by an Archon chosen by the Thaumatarch. Archon Phrygia Leilatou comes from a particularly favored Shayardene noble family, which has stayed on top for more than two decades.

The provincial nobility is kept in check by institutions of the Hegemony, such as the Ecclesiasts (priests who judge wrongdoers and preach submission to authority), the Alastors (armed and brutal law enforcement squads), and the Kryptasts (an order of Hegemonic assassin-spies who infiltrate suspected hives of sedition).

The Hegemony's religion centers on the Karagond Canon, which spells out in great detail how people should behave. It was revealed by the Merciful Angels, who emanate from Xthonos, source of all order and purpose. Xaos, the Enemy of Xthonos, tries endlessly to consume Xthonos's orderly realm but cannot ultimately prevail. Anyone who speaks against the Hegemony or the Theurges is accused of serving Xaos—as you inevitably will be.

Prologue

No one ever asks when your rebellion began. They assume the answer is obvious.

They would be surprised to learn that it began eight years before any price was put on your head, before any priest damned you as a servant of Xaos, before your name was known to anyone outside the Shayard Rim. It began the first time you found yourself eye to eye with a man who intended your death.

He could have killed you with relatively little consequence. All the power of the Karagond Hegemony stood behind him; you were just a provincial child.

And even as a child, something in you understood. Under his unhurried, murderous stare, you grasped that in the end it would come down to yourself or the Hegemony.

Not incidentally, it was also the first time you had been confronted with:

1) The intensity of the Hegemony's violence to its lower castes.

2) The Hegemony's persecution of even the mildest of religious heresies.

3) The Hegemony's suppression of the folkways of other nations, including my own.

[Paxiecrunchle]

2) Haven't seen enough corrupt churches recently.

[NRDL]

2

[Vgray]

The little temple of Xthonos in Rim Square pervades your earliest memories: the morning glow in the apse, the goldwood arches of the nave with their impenetrable Angels, the crisp dark lines of the temple's basalt heart. Long before you could understand any of the songs or speeches, you recall standing at your mother's knee, half-concealed in her long kyrtle, and gazing curiously upwards.

The Angels frightened you the first time you understood what They were meant to be. How could something so alien represent Compassion? Each carved image was nothing but a helix covered in wings, rising to a smooth extremity whose hole evoked a gaping mouth. Though you were far too young to articulate why, just the thought of one of Them speaking Revelations brought your three-year-old self to tears.

Your father hissed at you to stop wailing before someone asked the matter. Your mother calmed you down and brought you to Ecclesiast Olynna—who twinklingly confided in you that the Angels had terrified her too, once. "You'll see Their beauty in time, child. They're in no hurry."


1) I warmed to the kindly, maternal priest and began to follow her around.

2) She was on the same side as the scary Angels? I avoided her as much as I could.

3) Even after losing my fear of Angels, all I felt toward Ecclesiast Olynna was detached curiosity.

Spoiler: Current Stats (click to show/hide)

Charisma: Not yet defined.
Combat: Not yet defined.
Intellect: Not yet defined.

  Ruthless: 50% Compassionate: 50%   
  Skeptical: 50% Devout: 50%   
  Homelander: 50% Cosmopolitan: 50%   

Anarchy: 0

[NRDL]

1

[EuchreJack]

1

+1 on 1

[Vgray]

At first it was only once a week, after the Helsday services; your smiling mother would leave you sitting quietly near Ecclesiast Olynna, listening to the townsfolk's problems and questions. As the years passed and you grew less quiet, you would run happily after Olynna on her rounds of the noble estates and follow her back to the garden of her sparsely furnished quarters. She had a remarkable ability to immerse herself in a long letter or book of theology while keeping one ear on your chatter and tossing back the occasional affable response.

At some point, you also became aware that not all Ecclesiasts behaved like hiera Olynna. It was unusual for the weekly meditations at the Naos Xthonos to be open to helots as well as the nobles and free folk of the Outer Rim. Cramming the temple's outer gallery, the helotry had no line of sight to the aristocrats' balcony, but Helsday remained the only regular occasion when they and their masters came so close and shared the same purpose.

Similarly, whenever Olynna came to bless aristocratic estates like the one where you grew up, she made a point of visiting both the high House and the helots who worked the lands. Most other Ecclesiasts confined their attentions to the free folk, while the lowly Diakon-priests tended to the religious instruction of the helot classes.

1) Olynna always reserved a special blessing for me, as the sole heir of my noble family.

2) Olynna inquired about me and my fellow helots with what seemed like genuine concern.

Spoiler: Current Stats (click to show/hide)

Charisma: Not yet defined.
Combat: Not yet defined.
Intellect: Not yet defined.

  Ruthless: 50% Compassionate: 50%   
  Skeptical: 49% Devout: 51%   
  Homelander: 50% Cosmopolitan: 50%   

[NRDL]

1

[EuchreJack]

2

[NRDL]

Honestly, I chose the noble option because I already tried the helot option in the free first chapter available online. I find that a helot caring about religious orthodoxy/heresy seems like a weird motivation, compared to the usual "upper class oppressing our poorer selves" motivation.

[birdy51]

1

[Paxiecrunchle]

2 Hope we don't all immediately die.

[Vgray]

(Right. Since we need a tie-breaker I'm going with the noble option. Partly because it would've won if not for my own laziness in getting up today.)

The slender, silver-haired Ecclesiast would crouch to your height, one hand on your shoulder, and gravely meet your gaze. "Angels keep you, most beloved child, and teach you Their wisdom and compassion as you grow into your birthright."

Once, when you were perhaps eight, your father caustically interjected: "Hiera Olynna…it's a humble enough birthright as it is. Too much compassion, and it'll be naught at all. Perhaps for once, you could pray down a measure of ruthlessness?" His tongue faltered as both Olynna and your mother turned mordant eyes on him, but he stumbled on regardless. "After a-all, the…the Angels have seen fit to grant it in abundance to, to the others you bless so often, Holiness. Our cousins the aristarchs, the Hegemonic Alastors, the Thaumatarch…"

"I pray the same prayer for them that I do for your House, kurios," the Ecclesiast said sternly. "And to contrast compassion with strength is a most profound error." She allowed the tense silence to persist for a minute before bowing and exiting to attend your House's nine helots.

At every Harrowing, Ecclesiast Olynna would open the ceremony with a solemn demeanor, reading passages from the Mourning Psalter as well as the Victory Liturgy. She would walk out into the crowd to each helot whose name was called, clasping their hands to lead them up to the sacrificial platform.

And before the implacable Hegemonic Theurges gave the helots to the machine, she would pray in a voice resonant with grief: "Angels give them strength for the terrible glory that awaits them. Angels honor their sacrifice and comfort their families. Angels, bless these humble warriors who by laying down their lives preserve us from Xaos!"

Nor did Olynna leave it to the Merciful Angels to comfort the families. After each Harrowing, she made sure that the victims' kin received additional food, cooking gear, and clothing. Her charity was particularly visible when the winter rains were approaching, with carpenters hired to bring the survivors' shacks to a state of extraordinarily good repair. The carpentry stopped just short of providing doors—helots were forbidden anything that could be barred against intruders—but the Ecclesiast saw to it that new, thick blankets were nailed up in the entryways.

Of all the ways that Rim Square's priest put the tithes of the nobility to use, this kindness to the despised helotry was the most consistent and controversial. Even as a child…

1) I wondered whether there weren't more appropriate ways to use that silver.

2) It seemed natural to me that the helots should be helped in their grief.

3) I thought it was scandalous. Why such softness toward the dirty little beasts?

[NRDL]

2

[birdy51]

2