Petros chuckled at Wolfe's question. "No, I don't have a wife, nor do I have children. That is likely to change soon, as I will be expected to have heirs and not leave the monarchy in chaos after a single generation."
"Don't they need to be at the King Rank to take over, though? How does that work?" Wolfe asked.
"The sa as it did with . When the title is passed, so is the power. Even if they were barely an adult when I chose to step down, they would move to the King Rank instantly. But if I were to die a premature death, then either my nad inheritor, through a magical contract, or whoever killed would get the power." Petros explained.
"So, it doesn't have to pass through the family." Wolfe comnted.
Thorin laughed, while Petros shook his head. "Oh, it does. We have a famous scandal in our history, King Dolph the fourth. He tried to na is second son as the inheritor, as his eldest did not want the role. The contract magic wouldn't let him, as the boy was not his blood.
It was quite the uproar when magic confird the Queen's infidelity, and her entire lineage was ordered executed."
"It sounds like your world has had quite the colourful history, despite the seemingly stable succession. I thought that mine was the one in upheaval, but the Witch Covens in my world have managed to endure even the Great War and the remaking of the continents."
Petros laughed. "I wouldn't call that stable. Rember, I'm old enough that I heard about the state of things before the Great War, and stable was not what I would call it. Entire continents picking leadership by vote with no qualifications needed? Sects with knowledge vital to the survival of the world being wiped out because they wouldn't use their powers for politics? There was never stability in your world, and that is why the Magi wanted a deal with us.
If they had a peace treaty with us, then there was no more reason for them to fear foreign invasion from our side. They would only have to worry about their ho world, and it seems that was already too much for a pacifist movent to bear."
Wolfe shrugged. "I can see their point in remaining pacifist, considering the capabilities that they had, much of which has been lost with the death of the Magi Clans, but I believe that simple nonaggression is a better policy. Allowing others to walk on you without ever fighting back goes too far.
But if you take the stance that you won't attack anyone and will only strike defensively when you are threatened, they will learn valuable lessons about civility."
Petros gave Wolfe a curious look. "Oh? How has that been working for you?"
"Well, we made the warriors of two different planets back off already, and shut down a multi continental army who refused to stop trespassing and attacking my catgirls." Wolfe replied.
Thorin almost choked when he heard that.
"What? Why did they send an army to attack your catgirls? Why do you have catgirls? Like they attacked your servant residences?" The Dwarf spluttered.
"Oh, no. They were just attacking everything that lived in the region, but the starting point for their extermination mission just happened to be next to a number of beastkin villages.
We tried politely explaining that they were trespassing, and they insisted that our territory had been designated by their governnt as a war morial, and that we were going to be exterminated for living there.
So, there was a difference of opinion on the matter, and eventually, it ca down to using force to make them see reason."
Thorin blinked slowly. "And what happened to them afterwards?"
Wolfe shrugged. "They are under the purview of the Continental Representatives now, and the two Witch Saints who represented them are currently in prison in Faerie on charges of trespassing and attacking forest guards with forbidden curses."
The Dwarf laughed. "You know what? We're going to have to tell this story later. I can tell that it will take more ti than we have. I have summoned a few of my apprentices to co et us here, and I do hope that we find ti to show them your smithy facilities, so they can see the different ways that your world does things."
"I think that the smiths of your world will be sowhat shocked at the way that we do things. As it's just the three of us here, I will remind you that most of our magic users aren't traditional human magic users as you know them. Most of them are witches, so our facilities are almost entirely female run, and at the higher ranks, there is no need for them to mine materials, they can simply create them on demand.
So, the manufacturing facilities have a number of complex arrays built into the building, which are activated to create specific parts of the device being created. There is so custom work done, but that is more ti-consuming, so much of what we do it mass-produced.
Clothing, bedding and such is normally made on demand by the Witches, so it's all customized for vendor requests, and our pricing is standardized based on how long it would take a Rank One magic user to make the item." Wolfe explained.
Petros looked intrigued. "So, you pay your workers based on their ranks as magic users, with general labourers doing nonmagical jobs get a set rate around that of what a Rank One mage would get?"
"Exactly. There are so exceptions for skills that take a long ti to master, as they deserve to get paid more for their skills, but our wage scales are quite predictable."
Petros nodded. "That is quite similar to how our military and Nobility work. They get a stipend from the governnt based on their Ranks, but for most of them, that is only a small portion of their wage, as they have their businesses and peerages."
"We have a similar system with the Guardians of regions, but we don't have an official Nobility, though many of the Guardians and the Continental Representatives are Fae or Demon Nobility or Royalty in their ho nations.
It will all make sense once you see it in action."
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