|
Deadmeat5150 posted:Yes. And she returned our holy greeting in kind. It is now a new tradition, like it would be in KODP.
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2019 02:52
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 16:25 |
|
|
I did not make this up, by the way. (See citation 43.)
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2019 03:16
|
|
|
So did we make the good choice here?
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2019 09:05
|
|
|
 Your writing and your dedication to research make this a fantastic LP.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2019 13:21
|
|
|
I'm impressed. Wow.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2019 19:04
|
|
|
Thank you, everyone! I hope to keep posting enough interesting tidbits through the rest of the megacampaign. Fivemarks posted:What is the Imperial mod you're using again, Kangxi? I'm using several mods but you probably want this: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1840725833&searchtext=
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2019 00:38
|
|
|
Chapter 35: 1168 to 1173 - The Regency of Tsenmo Purgyal Pelmo II It took several months for you to make the return journey to Lhasa. Your charge was bursting with excitement, pointing out landmarks or towns from her time. She was wrong with the names sometimes. Many of the castles and villages she pointed out still remained. When she was taken to the interior of the Potala Palace, and shown to a great mural of herself and her wife slaying a great demonic entity, she frowned and said, "Her nose was bigger." Her arrival was treated with mixed reactions, and at first only rumors filtered out to the people. Some masters of the Dao were thrilled at the thought of meeting someone with such an exceptionally long life, while others demurred, claiming she was a fraud and false conjurer. The Sacred Hierarch was lukewarm, and you think he might have feared for his job.  For her part, she first busied herself with the history of her wife's dynasty, spending much time on the first years before sprinting through the two centuries right after. She pled ignorance of nearly all of the Restored Empire's history and asked for an audience with Empress Trinle 'the Glorious', who had been dead for some centuries.  While she did not participate in the ritual interment of the late empress Khrimalod, she at least approved of the rituals taken. She marveled at the mausoleum being built so far so far south, near the capital of the kingdom built by Yongdagmo the Butcher.  Not everything, however, needed to be explained to her. She was remorseful when she heard of the wars with the Buddhists.  Although she asked numerous questions of you - some basic, some more complicated - about the Mongols and the Third Han Dynasty. She was surprised and more than a little intimidated at seeing them in the Imperial Guard. She pressed you on the fate of the Pratihara Dynasty, but no one seems to know what has happened to them. She did not know about the Great Western Invasion or Yasovarman of the Jerusalem Raj.  In July of 1168, the regent, King Tongtsen III, died after a fall. He was fifty. You saw him wandering the halls, completely disheveled, his clothes stained and putrid, mumbling to himself about living through dreams and returning to the remote southern frontier.  You hear whispers that he was pushed, maybe by the young empress. A two hundred pound man pushed by a twelve-year-old girl off a balcony? Very funny.   You suspect it would be Trikar 'the Enchantress', vassal queen of Guge. All vinegar and bile in a silk robe.  The empire still was capable of running without determined leadership,  but it was a close-run thing. The institutional reforms of the late Khrimalod had soon collapsed.  A new band of nomads - Turks - had swept in from the north to take on Yasovarman's Raj. You had suspected that they would lose, but the thought of another kingdom invading Tibet hangs around your neck.  It was like treading in a house of rotten timbers. You expect the floor to give way at any moment, and you hesitate to put your weight on anyone plank. Soon Trikar 'the Enchantress' was set aside, and you, though noble, were too far removed from the centers of power to learn any details.  Dompu's the regent now? Who the hell is that?  The young empress seems to be spending more time around her father.  Whatever it is, she keeps quiet and doesn't answer very many questions.  The great mausoleum further south is being built on schedule.  When you get the chance to speak with the tutors, they have little to complain about. Pelmo II seems to be a quiet and studious little girl.  The current Sacred Hierarch, as if desperate to keep his own job, has carried out "purges" of heresy and "delusional thoughts", such as worship of evil beings. This disproportionately falls on people who don't have many friends, or at least one person willing to rat on them.  The remaining council members seem to be falling into disgrace more rapidly. The chief of the Imperial Guard got into a fistfight with a daughter of a vassal king, and the father was so outraged as to demand further punishment. He already had a black eye and fat lip, but he was soon forced to pay an outrageous fine and eventually resign his position.  The one called Tse, on the other hand, is quite conversational with you. A few days later, she rushes into your office with excitement and tells you that she has been asked to resume the post of Lönchen, which she claims to have held years ago.  You can barely conceal your own reaction, mostly of shock. She asks you what's wrong, craning her head towards you. "Just..." You say, trying to collect your thoughts. "Be careful, your holiness."  She furrowed her brow slightly, and you wonder if you had said something foolish or obvious. But her face returns to that neutral pleasant expression. "I will do my utmost," she said. You retire to your chamber early and read some of the Legends of the Purgyal. The stories are interesting, even if you don't know all of them are true.  Your favorites are of course the exploits of Gyalyum the Benevolent, and the retellings of her wars. By this point, you can almost recite all of the war against the false king of Guge.  Her stories of heroism and valor feel like they're from a different world, not this Tibet. Well, this Tse, maybe. But she's.... different? Remote and unknowable in her holiness.  Warriors who are strong and brave, figures out of myth. A story to lose yourself in for hours.  Every tyrant is slain, the hero, through her toils, is triumphant in the end, and her reign is an age of peace, honesty, and sanctified living.  You go to bed early, right after you finish reading at sundown. Images of battles past and heroes flicker before your mind's eye. "May thy reign, and thy holy kingdom, last unto eternity!"
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2019 03:18
|
|
|
Woo, she didnt try to go flying!
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2019 06:10
|
|
|
Who the hell is Dompu
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2019 07:10
|
|
|
That learning stat is horrible. I don’t care how good she is at plotting, she needs to get herself some books and study. Fast. Bad things happen to rulers with low scores, especially learning.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2019 07:34
|
|
|
Whatever, books are for NERDS
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2019 14:14
|
|
|
Oh boy: Paranoid, Slothful, Cruel, Arbitrary and relatively poor ability scores everywhere but intrigue. This should be interesting.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2019 16:31
|
|
|
 Wait, Caliph Gilbert? Who's his vizier, Sullivan?
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2019 22:23
|
|
|
We've had the history of this caliphate explained to us before and it still doesn't make any sense.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2019 23:24
|
|
|
Guper posted:Oh boy: Paranoid, Slothful, Cruel, Arbitrary and relatively poor ability scores everywhere but intrigue. This should be interesting. It'll work out fine, I'm sure. also: Akratic Method posted:Who the hell is Dompu
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2019 23:46
|
|
|
Chapter 36: 1173 to 1175 - Tsenmo Purgyal Pelmo II As told by the empress  You know who I am.  I am the empress of Tibet. I have the divine right to do or say anything to preserve my station and the empire.  I ask the gods for victory over my enemies. Well, if they're even listening. What have they ever done for me?  At least the face paint looks good.  When I went to bed the other night, I found something strange on my bed. It was a manuscript unlike anything I'd ever seen. The lines were so clear and even. Something about 'action' and 'systems'. After a few minutes and a lot of sounding out the words, I could read the chapter titles -- unity with deities - sacred techniques - the repetition of sacred sounds - manipulation of the elements of the body -- achieving godhood. I had to know more. I grabbed several handfuls of candles and tried desperately to read it overnight.  The words were foreign and they keep moving around. I never could read the text very well, and I couldn't ask somebody to read it to me, this was too important.  But I was determined. I knew then I had to know more.  Even the Mongolian Empire had a civil war coming, and I needed - needed - this power for myself.  I had to attend some boring ritual sacrifice a few days later. It seemed like nothing else had changed. Some of the gurus from the south were angry at the priest doing the rituals. Same soup, different day. I stepped out ahead of time, saying I had some other business to attend to. Then a southerner, a woman with fabulous skin and a hooked scar on her face, ran up to me. She looked scared out of her wits. She said a few words in deeply accented Tibetan, then drew the eight-spoked wheel I saw in the book with her fingers in the air. [OOC: Why on earth are they using 'Brahma' like this? I don't understand what they're getting at here. Wouldn't they probably use one of the fancier titles for the Buddha?]  She introduced herself. She was one of the last Pratiharas, that kingdom which had been driven off the face of the earth by my ancestors after a century of conquest. She was asking me for help? Wait, of course, yes she would. She asked me for help. What, to restore her family? Some ancestral land? No. This was something bigger, she said. It was for a faith and a tradition. Something great, about the destiny of the world and all life and the wheel of fate. Well, that got my attention.  I said 'yes', in a quiet but certain voice. She had to stop herself from screaming. I think she was almost weeping with joy. She said she would tell me about the others soon, but it was too dangerous for everyone to meet. I was soon told the rest of the story. Of a long-running sacred war, rebellions, a desperate life without any hope of refuge, of secret and special tasks and arcane rituals. She said then I was the first true emperor of Tibet since Ralpacan, and swore her loyalty. It was incredible. I'd felt nothing like that before or since.  My father, as it turns out, had tried to introduce me to this. When we met again, I think it was the happiest I'd seen him.  He told me all kinds of stories about who else was here, what I was doing. The magnificent founder of the Jerusalem Raj, Yasovarman. Then his greatest successor.  And the rebel Khan in the great Mongolian Empire -- he is one of us.  My excitement melted away into tension. I was soon informed by my ministers that the noble who ran the city of Multan was practicing evil and was imprisoned. I learned the truth, really, from my other sources. She was one of us, and it was a horrible loss.  I tried to resume the normal business of government, but I soon realized what could happen. From my life of privilege, I now had a secret that would ruin me forever if it came out. I had to judge every day whether I could tell this secret to anyone or tell anyone else the news I had heard from my new sworn allies. I tried to busy myself by having some magnificent stone statues carved.  Rotten bastards stole way too much money for themselves. Ah well. I can pay it off whenever.  I have to remind myself of my sacred lineage and what has to be done. I am not like Gyalyum the destroyer or Tse the deceiver (especially not like that disgusting fraud who lives in our court!). I know the truth from introspection. I am like the great Songtsen Gampo.  I will give to those who are unfortunate enough to be poor.  I had a rude awakening when I was informed that the woman who found me was caught and killed. They burned her to death.  Then another noble, the commander of a castle further south.  It meant I couldn't just sit back. If you want anything you have to do it yourself. They'd make a terrible example of me if I was caught. Because it would be too humiliating for them to have been so sloppy for so long.  Find anybody in your way and make an example of them.  That motivates the others.  I was glad to hear that my own sister now followed the right way.  One of the vassal kings couldn't even keep his rebels in line. People need to stop doing poo poo that I need to clean up.  A new ally of mine suggested, with a glimmer in his eye, that we sneak out of the castle in disguise (and I without my paint) and we could speak honestly.  I think he got a bit too drunk, and he had a big mouth. We got in a fight with the rest of the tavern's inhabitants. One dog-faced guy with an Amdo accent kept calling us demons, so I took a swing at him.  It got worse. We had to shove our way out of there. My hands shook and my knuckles were bloody. That was too close. Stupid stupid stupid.  I had received papers requesting the punishment of another 'practicer of delusions'. She wasn't one of us. She had to go. I did it so they can think I'm not soft. The movement has to continue.  We needed a different approach. I was approached and asked that we needed to carry out a few ceremonies in secret. I thought it was a very good idea and we did it. It would remind everybody else what we're doing. The nearest good day would be Chenrezig's birthday. I could get the good incense out, we'd light candles, and perform chants. That was when I saw her. I almost screamed with terror and fell down. No. No. It couldn't be.  It was her. The foul sorceress herself. Tse. Kangxi fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Oct 13, 2019 |
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 00:10
|
|
|
That's the problem with Buddhism. You try to get rid of it, and it just comes back in another form.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 00:24
|
|
|
 e: it's fine. everything's fine. we're all good here. situation normal Ferrovanadium fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Oct 13, 2019 |
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 00:30
|
|
|
What the gently caress
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 01:46
|
|
|
Lol
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 02:15
|
|
|
I love it
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 02:44
|
|
|
Definitely having a normal one in Tibet right now
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 02:47
|
|
|
there are no words 
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 04:30
|
|
|
She was just reincarnated, what did you expect was going to happen?
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 05:15
|
|
|
Would it be faster to get a quick rundown of the important movers and shakers in the world who are not secretly Buddhists?
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 09:15
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 09:56
|
|
|
McGavin posted:She was just reincarnated, what did you expect was going to happen? Bodhisattvas are gonna bodhisattva
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 14:09
|
|
|
whoa whoa whoa
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 16:33
|
|
|
Jossar posted:That's the problem with Buddhism. You try to get rid of it, and it just comes back in another form. Until you eliminate suffering, craving, and ending, then somebody, somewhere, will inevitably and independently rediscover the Path.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 16:44
|
|
|
Okay, how does everyone in Asia know who are the other crypto Buddhists without triggering their suspicious and zealous neighbors?
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 16:52
|
|
|
kw0134 posted:Okay, how does everyone in Asia know who are the other crypto Buddhists without triggering their suspicious and zealous neighbors? The suspicious and zealous neighbors are also secret Buddhists.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 17:44
|
|
|
That's so good I wouke suspect it was planned. But I know enough abour CK2 to know its just the kind of fuckery that happens.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 18:29
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 18:31
|
|
|
Akratic Method posted:Who the hell is Dompu  Not a clue. Some random lowborn who became regent and doesn't have any titles anymore. He has a pet hedgehog now.  kw0134 posted:Wait, Caliph Gilbert? Who's his vizier, Sullivan?  Caliph Gilbert Le Tellier is the oldest son of Philotheos Hadaatar and Euphrosine Le Tellier. With the collapse of the Umayyads north of the Pyrenees in the 1100s, several French polities in the south had Sunni rulers. The more prominent ones were able to intermarry with the ruling house of the Caliphate, and the title passed to him after the death of his uncle Caliph Meta in 1170. FrangibleCover posted:Would it be faster to get a quick rundown of the important movers and shakers in the world who are not secretly Buddhists? I already listed the most prominent ones. There are many others listed in the 'secret society' mechanic, but nearly all of them don't have anything past a count title. There are a few landed guys in the Jerusalem Raj, though. kw0134 posted:Okay, how does everyone in Asia know who are the other crypto Buddhists without triggering their suspicious and zealous neighbors? That is a result of me using the 'secret society' mechanic to find out who else is a secret Buddhist. If we have to keep it 'in-narrative', as torturous as that is becoming, consider it a fanciful story designed to keep the vainglorious young empress' attention. But it's one that isn't entirely wrong. Deadmeat5150 posted:That's so good I would suspect it was planned. But I know enough about CK2 to know its just the kind of fuckery that happens. Swear to god that wasn't planned. I was so surprised I just stopped the gameplay right after I took the screenshot and threw out the update immediately.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2019 19:12
|
|
|
Kangxi posted:He has a pet hedgehog now. Wait, wrong CK2 LP. quote:Caliph Meta 
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2019 13:32
|
|
|
Gotta wonder what a Hindu/Buddhist sultanate would look like, taking all of this in.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2019 19:39
|
|
|
quote:Caliph Meta
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2019 20:26
|
|
|
Kangxi posted:Not a clue. Some random lowborn who became regent and doesn't have any titles anymore. He has a pet hedgehog now. "welllll the whole upper class is totally untrustworthy at this point so we're just gonna go with the old greek lottery system and your name, citizen, drew the short straw. But you will receive this consolation regency hedgehog, though."
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2019 21:18
|
|
|
Someone's gonna have to link me the update with this Tse person because I have a memory like a sieve.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2019 00:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 16:25 |
|
|
Ibblebibble posted:Someone's gonna have to link me the update with this Tse person because I have a memory like a sieve. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3890740&pagenumber=2&perpage=40#post495714289 Is the first mention I'm finding
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2019 00:20
|
|