Chapter 207: An Unexpected Proposal
When players wondered why they struggled so hard in the first few years of the game, the answer always came back to the same thing.
Rules.
They are integrated into the very fabric of society.
A child must live by rules.
An adult must also live by rules; however, these rules were given a new name, laws, and while a child may only be scolded or lightly punished for breaking the rules of their household, breaking laws comes with much more serious consequences.
And the Stator Rebellion broke the sacred laws that bound the world of Dynasties Online together.
Because it was essentially a peasant rebellion with no justification.
They were not starving.
They were not desperate.
They did not have a valid reason to rebel.
They were just greedy and in a world where oaths and noble privilege are held sacred.
Such a rebellion will only ever lead to disaster.
Harrison Palmer, the Australian player, The Sword Of The Morning, and head of House Palmyrion.
....
"They would mostly be God’s Favoured, your majesty, all wishing to contribute to Nathia’s great victory, all they want are some rewards or honours for their services to the nation."
Baron Flander finished confidently, not hiding anything, as an audible gasp of shock rose from the courtiers, even the king’s eyes, which had been calm before, now widening slightly.
This was a proposal that all players, even those who opposed him, wanted passed because while the player lords or players who have joined the army can participate in the war and gain military merit, others from more commoner backgrounds would struggle to find a way to participate in such a large war and an opportunity for merit if they so wish.
As a result, in an attempt to prevent dissatisfaction and divides over this issue from fracturing the majority of the players support for the Second Prince Baron Flander wanted to find a way to allow players to take part in the war in a more independent capacity as player nobles and soldiers within the Nathian army itself were constrained by the orders of their liege lords or commanders. In contrast, these players would be less so.
To put it simply, the Nathian players wanted to use Nathia’s war against Chavaria to gain influence, wealth, and power to help bridge the massive gap between players who had gone through the Dynasty History System and those who had not.
For companies that entered the game late, the biggest obstacle right now to their expansion and future prosperity is precisely this gap between players who created characters before the game began and those who didn’t! Compared to CEOs like Lee Smith or Austyn, who were landed nobles or men of great influence, most of these latecomer business leaders were either businessmen with some wealth meticulously built up over the last few in-game years, captains of mercenary groups, or commoners and farmers with a bit of land.
Worse, due to the suppression of NPCs combined with other rival players secretly tripping them up, these newer players with extraordinary backgrounds have usually had to create new Dynasties a few times, as newer Dynasties with little to no foundation can be wiped out with one command from a noble or from an assassin’s blade.
And each new Dynasty usually needed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, worth of real-world assets to get properly started. Hence, an opportunity like war, which they can use to secure rewards and even noble titles from the royal court, is not something these powerful real-world entities are willing to give up!
In actual fact, Baron Flander did not want these powerful groups to be able to have this opportunity, as it would only create more future opponents for himself, but failing to represent them in the royal court now and push for their interests would destroy the little coalition of powerful players he had built to support a puppet ruler, so he had no choice.
What Baron Flander really wanted was for the court to reject his memorial, so he could keep his player coalition together while hampering the rise of future opponents.
Unfortunately, with the wise men and ministers still being heeded at the Nathian Royal Court, and with most of the costs of this plan borne by the players themselves as they helped deal with the formidable Chavaria, Flander doubted it would be rejected.
While Baron Flander stood in the centre of the courtroom in silence waiting for the judgment of his superiors within the game, the various high ministers and nobles of the Nathian royal court began to consider Flander’s proposal.
And they found little reason to reject the proposal.
Mainly because there were too many benefits for Nathia if it were passed, the only concern with it was that it would give the gods’ favoured that survived the war more influence and combat experience, helping to supplement one of the greatest weaknesses prevalent in the current playerbase.
It really does not look good when a bunch of Star Wars lightsaber enthusiasts can enter the top 20% of the playerbase if only combat skill mattered.
Unknown to the players, many of their early game weaknesses have already been grasped by Dynasties Online’s smart NPCs.
This included their terrible combat capabilities, most clearly demonstrated when a few thousand elite soldiers held back tens of thousands of players during the Stator Rebellion.
So, allowing the players to take part and gain combat and strategic experience during a war was something the high ministers of the court had to consider carefully, as the Gods Favoured had already rebelled once as a group, meaning that they were capable of doing so again.
But then again, what was the difference between this and a group of nobles rebelling together for their interests?
The answer to that question was that there was, in a practical sense, none.
So if even groups of educated nobles rebelling together can turn and scheme against each other....
Wouldn’t the Gods Favoured, who have already been established as selfish and interest-driven, be the same as these self-interested groups of nobles?
The answer to that was almost certainly a yes.
So the consequences of the proposal were manageable; all the Kingdom had to do was properly balance rival factions, and they would be no different from the wider Nathian nobility, who were full of such rivalries and factions.
While the benefits were a bunch of cannon fodder that they could send at the Chavarians, which they didn’t even have to feed or equip, because all the supplies for war were provided by the Gods, who favoured themselves.
If this were the case, was there any reason to reject such a profitable memorial?
The answer to that was simple.
No.
King Luther looked at his high ministers and, after receiving small nods from all of them and a reluctant one from the crown prince Kodjis Kendari, indicating that they had all reached similar conclusions, he made his decision.
"Granted!"
King Luther said, his authoritative voice filling the throne room.
"Thank you, your majesty, for your grace!"
Baron Flander bellowed, kneeling in gratitude as if he were a loyal subject, while internally cursing, as now things would get harder for him in the future.
As matters of the court settled down and Baron Flander returned to his residence within the capital of Narthonia, when suddenly a set of system announcements appeared before him.
[Kingdom of Nathia system announcement]
[Kingdom-wide quest ’Defend Against The Tyrannical Chavarians’ available]
[The Kingdom of Nathia is about to be invaded by the Chavarian Empire with the aim of capturing Nartook Fortress to make future attacks against Nathia easier. At the urging of Baron Flander Florant, and recognising the vast disparity between the military strength of the two nations, his royal majesty King Luther II of Nathia has issued the following decree.]
[Any Nathian citizen, whether they are a Gods favoured or not, can fight for their country and achieve merits on the condition that they bring their own weapons and supplies and obey the commands of the generals appointed by the royal court.]
[Those who make great contributions to the defence of the realm and defeat of the tyrannical Chavarian army will all be richly rewarded by the Nathian royal court, with the ones with the most merit having the opportunity to join the ranks of the nobility.]
[Heroes who wish to dedicate themselves to the country are to travel to Nartook Fortress and register with the royal army under the command of the great general Ranier Lantier, who has been appointed as commander-in-chief for the war against Chavaria.]
[Due to your skills, Military Strategy (Intermediate) and Politics (Adept), you can see through the strategic objectives of the Chavarian army.]
Seeing the system announcements, Baron Flander was surprised for a second before sighing while lamenting that the players finally have a way to gain power in the game.
The last three years in the game had been very frustrating for players like him who wanted to gain power and influence quickly. While the three years of peace allowed the powerful players to slowly build a small foundation of wealth and power, it did not allow them to rise high; moreover, they began to find their development within the game increasingly restricted.
Whether it was in their desire for higher noble titles, military power, or wealth in times of peace, there were no paths to advancement available for ambitious players.
The landed player nobles, while having a small territory to develop and a small private army under their control, soon found themselves constrained by their positions. The most they could do after consolidating power and developing their territories a bit was to send a small merchant caravan around to make some money, with the ones in more politically sensitive positions not daring to leave their fiefdoms lest they be taken from them due to a dastardly plot.
The more mercantile players used the three years of in-game time to develop their businesses; however, they soon found that conducting business in Dynasties Online was far more difficult than they had imagined.
Not only did they have to pay tolls to pass through nobles’ territories, but they also found that, without sufficient backing or connections, the caravan they had painstakingly assembled would be robbed and destroyed, leading to the collapse of these players’ dynasties if they ended up killed alongside them, forcing them to wait 6 in game months before they could try again.
There was one main reason for this.
Almost all trade in the world is controlled by the powerful families in each region, who arrange ’accidents’ to destroy any unprepared would-be merchant.
Finally, there are the commoner players with little ambition who, like the NPC peasants, are usually ignored by the game’s powerful and influential figures because they pose little threat to them as long as they can live peacefully within the game.
After Baron Flander logged out of the game and, when he returned to his VR lobby, he opened up a group chat filled with the leaders of major and minor businesses who had entered Dynasties Online, as well as powerful grassroots player groups.
For now, it was called ’The Grand Nathian Alliance’; however, everyone knew that, if it were not for the players being suppressed by the NPCs to an unnaturally large extent, such an alliance would have been impossible to form.
In the future, this alliance will part ways the moment conflicts of interest among the factions become irreconcilable.
They were all players and people with modern education, with even the most foolish understanding the fickleness of people in the face of interests, especially in a game where players feel like morality matters less.
While in real life people may feel constrained by the morality of the times, not daring to take actions such as not killing or betraying their fellow countrymen, in a game, people feel these things matter far less.
Especially when real-world assets and the prosperity of their families and businesses are at stake, leading to many ambitious players having a moral compass comparable to, if not worse than, that of the dictators or warlords they despise in the real world.
[The Sword Of The Morning] Did our proposal pass?
The player Sword Of The Morning immediately asked in the group chat after seeing that Flander, whose player name was Protector Florant, was active in the chat again, likely having just come out of the royal court with news on the players’ collective proposal.
This alone showed how eager the players in this group were to earn merits and promote themselves in the game, an opportunity that, up until now, had not been granted to them due to the game world entering an unusual period of peace, where no war was fought, and Sword of The Morning, as blunt as ever, was the first to ask.
[Protector Florant] It Passed.
Austyn typed on his virtual keyboard as the chat group suddenly came to life.
[Towering Tree] That’s great! We can finally legitimately gather together without arousing suspicion and have an opportunity to rise higher. Honestly, these past few years have been hard for all of us, with no opportunities for us players to exploit, especially after Stator’s foolish rebellion put all the NPCs on guard.
[Gold Makes The World Go Round] +1
[Boundless Beauty] +2
[The Trade Federation] +3
[Chessmaster43] If it passed, why didn’t we get some sort of quest or system notification?
[Heart of Darkness] @Chessmaster43 Have you forgotten old Shin? We only get quests and notifications when our character knows about things or finds opportunities, as this decree has not been issued to all the cities, towns and villages of the kingdom yet. How would we know about it?
[Chessmaster43] @Heart of Darkness That makes sense, but we will be going to war and likely used as cannonfodder by the Nathian generals, so shouldn’t we make preparations in advance?
As soon as Chessmaster43’s message came through the chat room, which had once been filled with messages, suddenly quieted down as all the player groups began to ponder their next moves, meanwhile Autstyn, the player behind Baron Flander Florant, reflected on what he knew about the many players within the group, but focusing on the ones that he viewed as threats.
The Sword Of The Morning was a skilled combat player, being an expert fighter, and if the rumours were correct, close to becoming a master. Apart from that, little was known, except that he was a Vicecount, his noble title starting higher than Austyns, and so had successfully made it through the Dynasty History System with a high evaluation; otherwise, he would not have managed to have such a strong start.
After compiling the experiences of many players who had successfully made it through the Dynasty History System, they realised that the strength of a player’s start indicated which players had more talent.
An example was the Landed Noble trait, which cost players over half their DP to acquire in the Dynasty History System.
Those who did worse held lower titles, so a landed knight could be said to have barely made it as a noble, while starting as a baron indicated a good amount of political or military talent; the exceptionally talented are the rare few who started as counts or vice counts in their respective nations.
Of course, you had to start in an empire to become a count through the Dynasty History System, but this way, Austyn could tell that The Sword Of The Morning was undoubtedly one of the most talented players in the Kingdom of Nathia.
Towering Tree and Chessmaster43, on the other hand, were latecomers to the game, either the heir or the CEO of their respective corporations, having joined Dynasties Online only after the game threatened their business interests. It was those two leading the other business interests, who didn’t get the opportunity to become landed nobles or increase their starting resources because they joined the game late, who manipulated public opinion and essentially forced Austyn to present their proposal to King Luther.
The Trade Federation, however, was rather unique as player factions go but would likely be a model that is followed by others in the future as he represents a coalition of small businesses who realised that if they wanted to strive for hegemony and interests within the game they needed to unite, otherwise they would be defeated one by one by their larger more influential rivals.
What was interesting was that, because they were a coalition of different people and businesses, they actually had the largest number of landed nobles, with 3 of their members being landed nobles, making them one of the more powerful organisations in the chat room but because the majority of its member remained commoners or small merchants within the game put his support behind Towering Tree and Chessmaster43 when they suggested that the players voluntarily join the war to accumulate merits.
[The Sword Of The Morning] I think that we should all strive for our own merits in this war, as even if we all gather together, unless we decide to suddenly join Chavaria and betray Nathia, we won’t be able to change Ranier Lantier’s deployment of forces.
[Boundless Beauty] Surely, if we all band together, we can gain some sort of influence over the battlefield; otherwise, wouldn’t Ranier Lantier be worried that we would rebel?
Seeing Boundless Beauty’s message, others began to support her point of view, as players have never liked to be controlled by NPCs, so suddenly having to willingly act as cannon fodder made them feel uncomfortable.
[The Sword Of The Morning] Ranier Lantier is one of the few grandmaster strategists in the world. Do you really think a rebellion would actually succeed, and that he won’t guard against us?
[The Sword Of The Morning] Do you think that the NPCs are dumb and have forgotten the Stator Rebellion? Even if we succeed, not only will the NPCs suppress us players further, making our lives harder, but the Chavarian Emperor will also find excuses later to eliminate us!
[The Sword Of The Morning] No ruler likes traitors. It is one thing to be forced to surrender, but actively betraying one’s lord will only make us players be seen as social pariahs. If we want to get far in this game, we must abide by the rules of feudal medieval society or find another place to live.]
[The Sword Of The Morning] You don’t have to go to war if you don’t want to. We are only given the opportunity to make merits through military exploits to increase our power and standing in the kingdom. That is it. If you look at history, successful people who came from the commoners in ancient times always had to rise by risking their lives; why should we be any different?
After the Sword of the Mornings mini lecture, the player went offline, and the chat room went silent as everyone digested his analysis.
Austyn noted the Sword of the Mornings’ name, as during this debate, he could see that he was an exceptionally talented person, not only a skilled warrior but also politically astute, being able to be so clear on the position the players currently had within Dynasties Online.
This made him a very dangerous man, and Austyn would need to be careful when dealing with him in the future.
