War for the Crown: Player's Guide

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War for the Crown: Player's Guide

Post by ManWithDoor » Fri Jun 29, 2018 9:09 pm

The characters themselves start out with little political power. They may be minor nobles, merchants, or even commoners, but their adventures, their associations, and the gratitude of a monarch will help them rise to become some of the most important figures in Taldor.

The Adventure Path begins in Oppara—Taldor’s glittering capital city—during the Grand Day of Exaltation, an annual celebration that culminates with the Grand Prince elevating an extraordinary commoner to the ranks of nobility. Oppara is a city of extremes; despite being among the wealthiest settlements in all of Avistan, it hosts the largest population of destitute and homeless residents. While they share a city, each population leads very different lives, separated by wealth and tradition more than stone walls.

In a city of over 100,000 souls, the PCs may be friends, family, schoolmates, or complete strangers. Regardless
of the heroes’ connection, the War for the Crown Adventure Path assumes each party member has some investment in Taldor and its future. They may be resource-strapped gentry trying to look out for their tenants, reformers who hope to make tomorrow better, or selfish schemers who want to climb the social ladder, but regardless of their motivation, they won’t back down once the chaos starts.

The Grand Day of Exaltation provides a motivation for characters to gather in Oppara even if they must travel from the far-flung corners of Taldor or beyond to do so. Minor nobles, ordinary citizens, and even peasants try to make the trip at least once in their lives to see the capital at its most convivial. Some citizens of Andoran, Cheliax, Galt, Isger, and Lastwall—countries Taldor still regards as wayward colonies—cross their nations’ borders to enjoy the fireworks, parades, feasts, and sporting events that fill the week leading up to Exaltation. Entertainers from across the Inner Sea region journey to Taldor to capitalize upon the cheap food and generosity the festivities encourage. Even residents of nations beyond Taldor’s former colonies have reason to visit this cosmopolitan trading hub. Tourists and opportunists can find the same appeal in the spectacle of the Exaltation, but the week is business as usual for the year-round flow of trade. Oppara’s ports see an endless succession of trading ships arriving from and departing toward Absalom, Rahadoum, Druma, Varisia, and even Taldor’s former enemy Qadira—though Keleshites may find equal parts hostility and hospitality when they disembark.

This is a week when important treaties are signed and trade deals negotiated against a background of wine, music, and raucous color. And just as Oppara attracts politicians and strangers, it attracts schemers and criminals aiming to take advantage of both.

Adding to this year’s excitement are rumors that the Taldan senate will finally vote on the matter of agnate primogeniture: Taldor’s ancient law that decrees only male heirs may inherit their families’ titles, lands, and the authority that comes with both. Its repeal would be an enormous step forward for all of Taldor’s women and people of other genders. Furthermore, it would give Taldor its first official heir since the accidental death of young Prince Carrius: the Princess Eutropia. Regardless of which side of the issue a given citizen supports, nearly every Taldan is passionate about the vote, and waiting for the results with bated breath.

Wherever your character hails from, two things bind you to your fellow adventurers: the aforementioned desire to save Taldor from itself, and a woman named Lady Martella Lotheed. Whatever brought you into the public eye—your own political ambitions, a sports victory, a protest—also earned you the attention of this young schemer looking for fresh talent for her own growing web of intrigue. In exchange for your service, she offers coin, new clothes, and invitations to one of the most prestigious social events of the year: the Exaltation Gala, held in the senate building. Anyone in Taldor needing a favor, an ear to bend, or a patron can find one during this annual event, as senators and nobles alike gather for hours of food, wine, and music, as well as for official senate business to be conducted before the Grand Prince arrives to formally exalt a citizen. No matter your feelings on the busywork the Lady Lotheed has in mind, these invitations represent rare access to high society and networking opportunities that can change the courses of lives.
Rule Number 12: "A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head."

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War for the Crown: Player's Guide

Post by ManWithDoor » Fri Jun 29, 2018 9:13 pm

Character Tips

What sort of characters work best for War for the Crown? A champion for social reform? A scheming
vizier looking to secure her own wealth and power? A dashing lothario looking to woo every pretty face in the empire? A military grunt with a sturdy sword? The answer: any of these ideas and more. While War for the Crown contains a fair amount of clandestine work and social interaction, it still has its fair share of monsters to slay and dungeons to delve. Whatever a character’s motivation is for diving into Taldan politics, there should be opportunities aplenty.

At its core, War for the Crown is a campaign for people who want to fix a broken system, not take it over for their own gain or tear it all down in bloody revolt. This difficult course means learning to blend in among those whose rule you seek to undermine, rather than upturning their world and starting from scratch. It means compromise and subterfuge and keeping up the appearance of loyalty to various despicable sorts even as you work behind the scenes to undermine them. But through all this, as your patron rises in power and prestige, so too do you, and your actions can help shape the very fabric of the nation.

Given the nature of the campaign, characters are most likely Taldan natives from middle- or upper-class families, but Lady Lotheed may well have recruited a lower-class PC who came to her attention through extraordinary circumstances. Young or inexperienced aristocrats, apprentice merchants, rising celebrities, students, reformers, guild members, journalists, and aspiring spies all have reasons to invest themselves in Oppara’s treacherous political stage. There are even rumors of various Secret Societies operating behind the scenes, all with their own agenda and vendettas to fulfill. And even public organizations, such as the Pathfinder Society, may have their own involvement as well.
Rule Number 12: "A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head."

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War for the Crown: Player's Guide

Post by ManWithDoor » Fri Jun 29, 2018 9:16 pm

Races

Taldor’s history of empire and trade is visible in its people. For centuries, Taldor conquered every land it could and traded with those it didn’t; modern Taldans, noble and common alike, represent nearly every human ethnicity. The nation also hosts a wide variety of other humanoids. Dwarves native to Taldor make their homes in Maheto and the Sky Citadel Kravenkus. The Verduran Forest supports a large population of gnomes, centered in and around Wispil. Halfling villages and farmsteads dot the Taldan countryside, while their urban counterparts work as bakers, cooks, entertainers, and servants. Part-humans, from half-elves to geniekin, also number among Taldor’s citizens. Some rare races call Taldor home as well; reclusive families of fetchlings dwell in the shadows of great cities, while gillmen can be found all along the western coasts. Skinwalkers descended from the lycanthropes of the Verduran Forest live in the rural north. Even tengus and vishkanyas have crossed Golarion to come to Taldor. Non-human visitors are also a regular occurrence, especially dwarves from the Five Kings Mountains and elves from Kyonin.

Despite this cosmopolitan veneer, Taldor remains a stubbornly old-fashioned, humanocentric empire with little regard for non-humans. Stigma toward part-humans such as half-orcs, half-elves, and geniekin is especially virulent, with some humans openly labeling such folk “mongrels” or worse. Half-elves descended from noble Taldans generally have the resources to live in comfort, but at the cost of lifelong reclusion. Halflings, gnomes, and half-orcs are considered suitable only for roles as servants. Dwarves and elves experience exceptions to this discrimination, but only because of their perceived benefits to Taldan humans—elves for their beauty and sophistication, and dwarves for their part in Taldor’s economic bounty.

The notable exception to this backwards attitude is the Taldan acceptance of aasimars. The people of Taldor believe the angel-blooded stem from their eons-long relationship with the god Aroden, and see them as physical manifestations of Taldor’s own cultural and moral enlightenment.


Religion

Worship of Aroden is still a part of Taldan daily life to some degree, but while the church still exists, its coffers are nearly empty, leaving it with little political power. The practical gods of Taldor are Abadar, Cayden Cailean, Norgorber, and Shelyn—the so-called Taldan pantheon—with sizable cults of Calistria, Iomedae, and Kurgess as well. Many staunch Taldan traditionalists still consider worship of Sarenrae taboo, but now that the faith is no longer outlawed it enjoys a growing popularity among the poor. Worship of darker gods divides sharply along class boundaries; indulgent nobles often form cults to Urgathoa to worship her aspect as the goddess of gluttony and indulgence, whereas the poor turn to Norgorber, especially his aspect as the Gray Master. The Green Faith is dominant in the Verduran Forest, and, surprisingly, the empire has imported some diabolism from Cheliax.
Rule Number 12: "A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head."

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War for the Crown: Player's Guide

Post by ManWithDoor » Fri Jun 29, 2018 9:25 pm

Campaign Traits

The War for the Crown Adventure Path guides players from being relative nobodies with an interest in Taldor’s politics to major players on the nation’s stage. The campaign begins in Oppara, glittering capital of the empire, with the assumption that each character has done something minor that nonetheless proved sufficient to earn the attention of some noble circles and led to their
recruitment by Lady Martella Lotheed. Regardless of background, every character should have a vested interest in preserving Taldor as a nation, and be willing to work alongside others to accomplish that greater goal. Each player character should select one of the following Campaign Traits (in addition to the 2 standard Traits taken at Character Creation!):

Athletic Champion: Your physique and skill brought you into the public eye, and a winning smile helps you stay there. Taldor honors its extraordinary athletes, celebrating them as cultural heroes. Whether you were a gladiator, a runner, a wrestler, or any other competitor, your most recent victory caused someone important to sit up and take notice. You may never have a political
career in front of you, but for now your name is helping to bring a little extra money in, and maybe that’s good enough. Select two of the following skills: Climb, Diplomacy, Perception, and Swim. You gain a +1 trait bonus on checks with those skills, and they are always class skills for you. In addition, you are accustomed to maneuvering through crowds; you gain a +2 trait bonus on checks to navigate through a crowd or resist being moved against your will, including spells and bull rush,
drag, and reposition combat maneuvers.

Child of Oppara: You belong to a noble family that matters in Taldor, though as the story begins you may or may not be on good terms with your relatives. Your upbringing among the city’s well-to-do gives you an upper hand when it comes to knowledge of high society, and you start the game with a modest inheritance. With Princess Eutropia’s efforts to provide for Taldor’s common citizens and overturn years of tradition, new lines are being quietly drawn in the sand, and you have found yourself embroiled in these intrigues whether you intended to be or not. With this trait, the assumption is that you belong to a minor noble family (and can make up your family name).
In this case, your family keeps a small manor in Aroden’s View or Senate’s Hill. If you want to be a member of one of Oppara’s major noble families, you must take the Noble Scion feat at 1st level.
You gain a +1 trait bonus on Appraise and Knowledge (nobility) checks, and one of these skills is always a class skill for you. The Noble Scion feat (detailed later) does not have a Charisma prerequisite for you. In addition, you start play with a noble’s outfit, a signet ring, and a
single additional nonmagical item worth no more than 200 gp.

Disgraced Noble: Your noble family used to matter, until your father took a stand against Maxillar Pythareus, the commander of Taldor’s military. True or not, the accusations Pythareus leveled against your family in return destroyed your reputation and isolated you from the society you grew up in. Now the only thing that matters to you is clawing your way back up the social ladder, either for your own quality of life or to clear your family’s name. You’ve had to practice deception as you
began working your way back into Taldan social circles; you gain a +2 trait bonus on Bluff checks to conceal your identity and a +2 bonus on Linguistics checks to spot or produce forgeries, and one of these skills is always a class skill for you. Once each day, you can choose a single humanoid you believe to have been involved in the conspiracy to destroy your family; you gain a +1 morale
bonus on attack and damage rolls against that NPC for a number of rounds equal to your character level. At 10th level, this bonus increases to +2.

Rising Star: All too often, great minds must suffer for their art, but you’re one of the lucky ones. Your skills attracted the attention of a noble patron who pays for your food, housing, and tools. As your patron introduces you to other cultural elites, you’re slowly learning to navigate the treacherous waters of high society, but you still remember the lean times when each meal was a
hard-won treasure. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Sense Motive and Survival checks, as well as checks using a single Craft or Perform skill of your choice; one of these skills is always a class skill for you. Once each day, you can invoke your patron’s reputation or name one of your own prominent works to gain a +2 circumstance bonus on a single Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate check. You begin the game with a masterwork musical instrument or tool appropriate to the Craft or Perform skill you
selected, a gift from your patron.

Senatorial Hopeful: While you belong to a noble family, hailing from the outlying prefectures means you lack the pull and wealth needed to rub shoulders with the stars of Oppara’s social scene. Your life has been quiet, isolated from the thrum of fashion and pop culture, but you see this as a source of insight and aim to help people by someday joining the senate. It’ll be a long journey, but you’ve already begun learning which hands to shake and how to listen carefully when others tell you what they want. You gain a +1 bonus on Diplomacy and Knowledge (local) checks, and both of these skills are always class skills for you. Once each week you can call on family
connections to obtain a single piece of equipment or consumable magic item (such as a potion or scroll) worth up to your character level × 25 gp. Delivery of the goods you request takes 1d4 days. At 10th level, the potential value of a magical item increases to your character level × 50 gp, and your requests can also include spellcasting services and wands.

Taldan Patriot: You love your country, its history, and its people... even though they may not love you back. Whether you’re a bureaucrat, a minor noble, or a soldier, you want your community to be the best it can be and you channel that love into a position in service to the people of Taldor. You gain a +1 bonus on all Sense Motive and Knowledge (history) checks, and these skills are always class skills for you. In addition, once per day you can recall a specific fact about a Taldan noble’s
personality —quirks such as a hobby or pet peeve— including information you would normally learn as a discovery check in social combat.

Young Reformer: Perhaps you were born at the bottom of Taldan society and you’re tired of seeing
your friends and family toil endlessly with no hope of a better life, or maybe your privileged outlook was shattered by empathy or tragedy. Either way, you know the system is broken, and you’ve dedicated your life to fixing it. But tradition rules Taldor as much as any Grand Prince, and change requires more influence than you have… so far. You’ve got a few friends and allies, and plenty of determination, but while you work toward the power you need to change the nation, you’ll have to resort to more discrete ways of righting wrongs and curbing the abuses of the upper class. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Disable Device and Knowledge (local) checks, and one of these skills is always a class skill for you. Once per day, you can call upon your co-conspirators to have “made arrangements” on your behalf, allowing you to attempt a Knowledge (local) check in place of a single Bluff, Disable Device, Intimidate, or Sleight of Hand check. The DC of this Knowledge (local) check is equal to the DC of the skill check it replaces. Whatever arrangements you make—for doors left unlocked, guards strong-armed out of your way, stolen keys left for you to find—must be reasonable to have anticipated and achieved beforehand; you could arrange to have a noble convinced you’re a very important diplomat traveling in disguise, for example, but if a fight breaks
out you could not rely on your network of contacts to feint for you in combat. You don’t have to use this ability in advance; you can announce its use as you encounter a challenge, implying you foresaw this challenge and made arrangements prior to your arrival.
Rule Number 12: "A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head."

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War for the Crown: Player's Guide

Post by ManWithDoor » Fri Jun 29, 2018 9:32 pm

Variant Feat: Noble Scion

VARIANT FEAT—NOBLE SCION
You are a member of one of the significant noble families of Oppara, whether or not you remain in good standing with your family. In many cases, these families are Imperialists loyal to the supremacy of the Primogen Crown, not to pesky ideas such as the goodof the people, and as such you either are a black sheep or your family has cut you off entirely.

Prerequisites: Charisma 13 or Child of Oppara trait, must be taken at 1st level.

Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on all Knowledge (nobility) checks, and Knowledge (nobility) is always a class skill for you. You also gain an additional benefit depending on which family you belong to.

Basri: You come from the long line of ambassadors, diplomats, and travelers that make up the Basri, and your family maintains the strongest ties to the elven nation of Kyonin of any Taldan humans. Select one of the following as a bonus starting language: Celestial, Elven, Gnome, Sylvan. You gain proficiency in one of the following weapons: longbow (including composite), longsword, rapier, or shortbow (including composite). If you gain proficiency in all martial weapons at 1st level, you can instead select elven curve blade.

Clement: Your Garundi and Mwangi ancestors served Taldor proudly during the Sixth Army of Exploration and were awarded titles for their service. Your family, which has maintained their noble titles to this day, is known for keen insights and biting observations. You can substitute
your Wisdom modifier for your Charisma modifier when attempting Diplomacy skill checks.

Corcina: Your family came to prominence during the Second Army of Exploration, and maintains a legacy as explorers and sailors. You gain a +1 bonus on Climb and Escape Artist checks, and a +2 bonus on Survival checks to navigate.

Karthis: Yours is a family of distinguished military veterans, charismatic demagogues, and xenophobic zealots. As the rest of the family becomes increasingly Imperialist, you have made no effort to remain in their good graces, but you retain the skills they taught you during a childhood of rigorous training. You can apply your Charisma modifier instead of your Dexterity modifier to Initiative checks.

Kastner: Your stalwart family defines itself by opposing your devil-worshiping Chelish cousins, a grudge that inspired some of Taldor’s greatest healers, priests, and negotiators. You gain one additional use per day of channel energy, lay on hands, or mesmerist tricks, or 3 additional rounds of bardic music per day. You gain only one of these benefits, even if you later acquire a second
class that provides one of the other class features listed.

Lotheed: Your family ranks include the greatest wizards and arcane scholars in Taldor, and schooling in some of the most comprehensive arcane libraries in the Inner Sea was your birthright. If your Intelligence is 11 or higher, you gain the following spell-like abilities: 1/day—dancing lights, prestidigitation, read magic, unseen servant. The caster level for these effects is equal to one-half
your class level.

Merosett: The cunning members of your large family, a longtime fixture in Oppara’s bureaucracy, specialize in tracking lineages and sidestepping red tape. You gain a +5 bonus on Bluff checks to send secret messages and Sense Motive checks to discern secret messages. You halve the time required to search through archives, navigate government offices, review contracts, or otherwise work with the complex bureaucracies your family has mastered for generations.

Stavian: As a close relative of the Grand Prince, yours has been a life of material comfort and indulgence, colored by constant threats and direct influence. You gain a +2 bonus on Fortitude saves against poison and on Will saves against enchantment spells of the charm and compulsion subschools.

Talbot: Your starkly conservative family are merchants and entrepreneurs first and aristocrats second, willing to forgo duty if they can instead pursue profit. They condemn would-be adventurers and readily oust them from the family ranks, leaving you an outcast. You gain a +2 bonus on one Profession skill of your choice. Once per day, you can use this Profession skill in place of a
single Knowledge skill check.

Varima: Your family immigrated to Taldor from Vudra hundreds of years ago, and thanks to noble roots, extensive trade contacts, and an unparalleled skill in negotiation, soon developed into a steadfast fixture of Oppara’s social scene. Whenever you use Diplomacy to influence a crowd or a room (but not individuals), you can roll twice and use the better result.

Vernisant: Your family is descended from the great general Arnisant, who commanded Taldan forces during the Shining Crusade... and they will never let anyone forget it! Their fierce Imperialist support and nationalist fervor has left you alienated from your relatives now, but their emphasis on scholarship left a mark nonetheless. You gain a +1 bonus on all Knowledge skills in which you
have at least 1 rank.

Vinmark: Newcomers and outsiders, your Ulfen family was exalted to nobility 19 years ago, when Stavian III promoted your family patriarch to Baron of Oppara as a reward for service in the Ulfen Guard. Established aristocrats consider your family crude, choosing to leave them on the margins of Taldan politics unless a noble thinks they could use you to curry favor with the Grand Prince, but hard-won practicality and newborn cynicism grant you insight most Taldan nobles lack. Once per day when rolling a Sense Motive check, you may roll two dice and use the better result.

Zespire: Your family runs charities and lobbies heavily for social reform, leaving them with few friends among their Opparan peers but heartfelt support from the common folk and lesser nobility. You gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy and Perform checks when dealing with common citizens and with nobles whose titles are limited to Lord, Lady, Knight, or Dame (lower nobility).

Special: This is a variant of the Noble Scion trait presented in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide. If you take this version of the feat, you cannot also take the version presented in that book.
Rule Number 12: "A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head."

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War for the Crown: Player's Guide

Post by ManWithDoor » Fri Jun 29, 2018 9:43 pm

Taldor at a Glance

The popular image of Taldor being a nation of inbred fops sipping tea as their empire burns isn’t entirely baseless, but reducing the entire nation to only that does a disservice to its citizens and influence. Much of Avistan’s culture and language stems from Taldor, and the empire influenced the history of three continents. But, overseen by rulers with more interest in luxury than the nation’s well-being, Grand Prince Stavian III being only the most recent, the nation now is a shadow of its
former self.

Taldor is a nation of long histories and deep divisions. Following Earthfall and the Age of Darkness, it was the first settlement on Avistan to rebuild itself, allying disparate city-states into an empire. This mythic task, achieved by the legendary First Emperor Taldaris, gave birth not only to a nation but also to a nationalist fervor. Taldan patriotism praised hard work and discipline; the nascent empire channeled these values by mastering cavalry and building roads from Oppara to the Arcadian Ocean unmatched by the rest of the continent’s scattered Kellid city-states. Taldor’s military might created imperial economic power; Taldans saw their conquests as bringing enlightenment to “backwards” people and inferior states, seeing the empire itself as proof they deserved the great wealth that flowed from their mighty colonies. Those days of dominion are long gone. Though Taldans still refer to them as “the colonies,” Andoran, Cheliax, Galt, Isger, and Lastwall are all independent nations, their populations and resources no longer subject to Taldan governance or Taldan use. While the nation remains a military and economic juggernaut, it has
little to show for its past glories beyond an immense but ever-diminishing treasury, an out-of-touch aristocracy, and nationalist nostalgia. Taldan culture still prizes hard work and discipline, but the common folk are the ones practicing those virtues, for little recognition or reward; the nobility, like their imperial predecessors, profess national pride for its own sake, sure that their continued
wealth shows they must be doing something right. All the while, Taldor’s once-legendary infrastructure of aqueducts, bridges, canals, and highways crumbles, leaving pockets of the population completely cut off from the nation and areas rendered uninhabitable as rural farming collapses. A corrupt, labyrinthine bureaucracy stymies those nobles who do want to improve the
system—or even just maintain their lands.

Taldan people descend from the ancient Azlanti, though not as directly as they might claim. Their
ancestors wandered slowly across the Inner Sea region following Earthfall, pushed progressively further east by orcs and aggressive Kellid tribes. Over time, as they incorporated blood and language from Kellids, Garundi, and Keleshites, Taldor’s ancestors grew into a distinct people. Most modern Taldans can trace their ancestry to at least two continents but share key features of their
culture, including confidence, stubbornness, a strong sense of camaraderie, and a love of history and art.

Intense traditionalism means Taldan culture is still steeped in sexism and racism that many other nations have spent decades gradually shedding. While any Taldan can own property or hold a title via promotion, marriage, or appointment, the law of agnate primogeniture dictates that only men can inherit, both demonstrating and perpetuating Taldor’s inequalities. While many reformers are trying to reverse these attitudes, Taldor as a whole resists change, even for the better, as a
matter of principle. The old ways forged an empire and conquered a hostile world, after all. Why shouldn’t they work now?


GEOGRAPHY

Taldor is made up of 12 prefectures and several dozen small, largely uninhabited provinces, with each prefecture divided into smaller duchies, duchies divided into counties, and counties finally divided into baronies. The nation owes much of its continued prosperity to the sheer diversity of local products it can export: the World’s Edge Mountains produce rich, deep veins of iron, gold,
silver, copper, and tin; the coastline offers a wealth of fish, shellfish, and strong winds to power local mills; the Verduran Forest produces abundant timber and a variety of valuable plants, including healing herbs, fruit, and unique spices. The abundance of volcanoes along the nation’s eastern and northern borders results in rich soil that produces a huge variety of apples, figs, grains, grapes, pears, pomegranates, rice, and olives, all of which find their way into Taldan cooking. Thanks to centuries of neglect, civil engineering marvels that were once the envy of the world now
slowly crumble, producing striking tableaus of abandonment: canals clogged with mud and reeds,
tumbledown aqueducts creating beautiful waterfalls in the middle of fields, and roads that simply end for several miles before resuming. Despite this, Taldor still boasts one of the highest standards of living in Avistan for its rural community, and even in lean years, few farmers need worry where their next meal will come from.


GOVERNMENT
Taldor is a hereditary monarchy, with a large senate that shapes imperial decrees into functional law and votes on necessary matters that don’t attract the crown’s attention. A sprawling bureaucracy manages the day-today challenges of governance. Grand Prince Stavian III sits on the throne, but is an aging, indifferent emperor, enjoying the excesses of wealth and rarely appearing in public. The nation’s 222 senators have likewise taken a light-handed approach to governance, letting much of the nation’s government run on inertia. While the imperial bureaucracy remains functional—managing crops, news, and disaster relief, as well as collecting taxes and settling
legal disputes—bureaucrats’ diligence and effort is set back by the millennia of cobbled-together offices that often leave departments underfunded, redundant, or entirely unstaffed and existing on paper only.

Much of the nation’s rule falls onto regional nobles, so quality of life varies widely depending on the local lord’s whim. While all Taldans have the legal right to move freely, in reality moving to a new domain is often too expensive to be feasible, and some nobles even hold their tenants hostage despite the law. While Taldor holds tight to its traditions, enough senators, nobles, and regular citizens have grown sick of the status quo to form the beginning of a reform movement. They call themselves Loyalists, and declare their allegiance to the history, great deeds, and people of Taldor, rather than any individual—even the emperor. While she has not officially declared herself a Loyalist, Princess Eutropia also works to reform many of Taldor’s ancient customs and broken systems, with a particular focus toward poverty and gender inequality, and many within the Loyalist movement support her efforts to repeal agnate primogeniture and allow any person to inherit family lands and titles.

In opposition to the Loyalists stand a growing movement of Imperialists, who consider the Primogen
Crown the one true authority in Taldor, with the senate and nobility existing only to carry out the emperor’s will. This disparate group shares the firm belief that Taldor’s greatness was rooted in its oldest traditions—and that embracing new ideas was what cost Taldor its imperial might. Their most extreme members insist that no middle ground can exist: either Taldor must reconquer former colonies like Galt and Andoran, or else the empire is doomed to crumble away into nothing.

While not every Taldan belongs to a faction, the increasing polarization of Taldan society is raising
tensions across the nation. Other conflicts—growing political instability in Thuvia, rumors that the Seven Houses are undermining Andoran’s government, the squashed rebellion in Cheliax, and the secession of Ravounel—serve only to intensify the turmoil. Secret societies and fraternities, a longtime staple of the Taldan aristocracy that until recently amounted to little more than private clubs, have begun maneuvering to gain power or hoard wealth now, with the expectation that
Grand Prince Stavian III’s passing will lead to a painful and protracted succession conflict.
Rule Number 12: "A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head."

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