Variant Roots
Year 213
I see the transportation went smoothly. Glad to see you, Master Johann. I rotated domain holders between the two worlds. One of my newer treefolk lords, Baron Threid, and a delegation of administrators were present to greet him when I sent him over.
I could send him over unannounced, but the Valthorns have a huge operating procedure built up for fixed deploynts, so I went along with the bureaucracy. Baron Threids kind was a rarity on Mountainworld, but he was one of those willing to take a relocation package over the Branchhold. At level 50, he was relatively lower level, but that was normal for those with noble classes. Noble classes and ruler-classes levelled slower, just like those with the higher tier or upgraded classes, but they made up for it by their aura and other state-level abilities.
This act of greeting domain holders and receiving visitors was one I felt a bit iffy about. There was an elent of brown nosing that I didnt quite like, but Lumoof and my senior leaders claid that it was nothing more than a good practice of hospitality. Eventually, I settled and agreed to let the practice continue, but forbid lavish and large receiving parties.
Well, Im here for my assignnt. Hows everything? It was his first visit to Branchhold this year.
Baron Threid shook his head. We caught another four spies. Im fairly sure Branchhold is infested with spies at this point. Our spies are trying to weed out the rest, but with so many immigrants, its quite hard. So of them essentially do nothing but feed info back to their minders back in the kingdoms.
Johann laughed. Well, Im sure Aeon saw it coming, so good luck there.
Baron Threid paused at the statent. Would you be assisting the counter-espionage efforts?
Johann looked at the Treefolk Lords misaligned eyes for a mont, and shook his head. Treefolks were not what people would consider pretty. They were more tree than people, and so their body structure was unusual. No. Thats not what Im here for. Counter-espionage remains the task of Branchholds designated council. I believe Aeons intention is for the council to level, so it wouldnt be right for to interfere.
Ah. I see. I would step in if things really got out of hand, but its important to let the people make mistakes and learn from them, as long as it wasnt a lethal one.
That said, I did find my tolerance of lethality increasing over ti.
Instead, I want a briefing on the latest wars of the foreign nations.
Baron Threid nodded. Right this way.
***
There are days when I think war is inevitable. The system facilitates and encourages the act of combat.
Not just that. There are days when I thought war was good. The system is part of this worlds nature. It is how this world works, and war was how the system and people of this world ensured the survival of the fittest.
The survival of those who could gain the levels and skills needed to survive. War accelerated that process, as conflict ensured and required each and everyone to strive harder to protect what they have, and to survive.
War was coming, because the system encouraged it.
War was coming, because those who survived are better equipped to face the future.
It was a morbid, cruel assessnt of the world. Or was it , becoming numb to this constant state of war?
Despite the benefits of war, it ca at the expense of generational learning, because war encouraged destruction of infrastructure and knowledge. War was the equivalent of stepping on others to go higher, and destroying other's ladders.
There had to be a balance sowhere between the two, and I wasnt sure whether the Central Continents model was the best one, even if it worked very well so far.
I also didnt think it was right to transplant a governance model that worked for the Central Continent to Branchhold and the wider Mountainworld as a whole, because both worlds and people had different histories.
Johann sat and contemplated the briefing, my spymasters had built a basic information gathering network throughout the other kingdoms of the Mountainworld. This complented the information I gained through my trees, which also expanded outward.
The Mountainworld people fought a lot. In fact, the wars of this era seed more violent than ever.
The level 80s of the Mountainworld fought each other, and their levels ant the destruction they wrought was more extensive. Conflicts seed to arise from the smallest things, the rulers eager to shake the status quo with the military power accumulated over the decade of war.
This was partly why there was a surge in immigration to Branchhold, once it beca clear to the population of the world that no one actually attempted to invade us. Branchholds military power remained a huge unknown to the people of this world.
We should arrange a visit to the Central Continent of Treeho, and establish the sheer gap in power between our two worlds. Once they realise the kind of military power we have, it would greatly ease our efforts on Branchhold.
What was the point in that, really? Show that we have a bigger stick? Was there a point to scaring the people? Is it not the sa as what the heroes did? Their presence frightened the other nations into compliance, and gave them the right to have their own kingdoms.
Its useful to get so of the nobles to work with us. There are those who feel that they can oppose us if they combine their might.
Fear. Id prefer if we were liked, but then again, being liked never stopped them from fighting against us. If anything, Id like my spymasters to bribe, blackmail, preach and twist these other nations to get out of my way.
After all, why kill when you could convert them or bribe them? Its unnecessary bloodshed. Moneys not an object for anymore.
Over the decades and centuries, I watched the value of money fluctuate, and now I was at the point where money is kind of a secondary result of my will. After all, money was useful to convince others to mobilise and do what you want. Now though, with the resources of a continent, and my power, should I choose to wield it, was absolute, money was just an interdiary.
After all, money is just a ans of exchange, and also a way for the state to exercise its power to govern. A nation could pay its employees with food, lodging, or any other kind of benefit, in order to compel them to do what the nation requires them to do.
At the core of it, what was a nation? A nation was a ans to create an overarching structure to enable the provision of services not possible to be achieved at a smaller scale. Back ho, democratic systems generally try to ensure that the governnt has a mandate, so to speak, from the people that it is governed.
This, partly, was to ensure stability, to align the will of the people and that of the rulers.
In a world with magic and skills, how does this mandate play out?
Frankly, in a world where skills, levels and magic exist with monsters of varying strength, the value of the common man is not much.
Its more of an oligarchy of the powerful.
Too frequently, it becos a mandate of the system. Not unlike the mandate of heaven. The system bestows a select few with the power to rule, and thus they create their kingdoms. Levels create power, and that power is exercised to rule over others. Those who have power and gain power used it to oppress and to demand those beneath them to obey.
Im aware, thats essentially what I did. My overwhelming levels ensured I could execute my will and bend Treeho to the direction I want it to go.
It was a form of tyranny, even if Ive generally tried to have a light-touch. Lumoof once said the presence of level caps was to ensure that no one got too powerful, but clearly, the system wasnt expecting a creature like myself.
Occasionally I wonder whether this was all planned. Did the system know this is what I would do? Does the system have a desire? Does it have a goal?
Why? It was a question many people around the world asked. During prayers, many asked why level systems were created, and lanted how unfair it was. How so nobles had inherited skills, and so had none.
What was the purpose of it all, anyway? I noticed a rise in these types of existential questions from the inhabitants of the Central continent, which I suspect was a result of rising affluence and education levels. Was there even a purpose to it, to create a system where the system grants so much power to those who jump through its hoops? The system encourages slaughter, and encourages achievents.
This, of course, tied back to developnt. Rightly or not, Ive significantly uplifted the developnt of the Central Continent, and invested significant resources on magical research and weapons. Tools of war, to wage more dangerous wars.
This was known to all on Treeho, and has functioned as a deterrent from the other nations. Alkas crystalline bombs are well known for its incredible destruction. Their magical ripples could be detected an entire continent away.
Yet, my goal was to end the cycle, and there is a worry, just like back ho, that further research and overuse of bombs may eventually lead to so kind of magical nuclear winter. We dont know how much magic is too much magic, even if Im currently quite certain its nothing to worry about.
***
On Branchhold, the issue of a constitution was a bit harder than I initially expected. Mainly, the refugees and immigrants to Branchhold had very different expectations, norms and requirents compared to the administrators from Treeho.
Those from Treeho had lived a generation or two under my rule, and their social, cultural and administrative norms had deviated quite a bit.
Form filling was a struggle with the immigrants who didnt even know what a form was. Things like waste disposal, sanitation and food-processing all had gaps. Even on Treeho there was so gaps, especially between continents, but the other continents had learned from us by exposure. Many nobles, influenced by my spymasters, adopted so of our norms and policies. Even the Triumvirs of Aiva adopted more reginted training processes, supported by my Valthorns indirectly.
All that happened over a long period of ti, so the gap never felt so big.
But here, these people never had that exposure. The worse thing was, it further solidified my delegation's impression that the people of Branchhold were uncultured barbarians.
This was sothing I wanted to avoid, because it was a formula for resentnt, and worked against my intention to build a good, positive impression among the nobles, warrior classes and general peasantry of the world.
The gaps too big. Johann admitted in a personal conversation with . Im not sure its possible to educate them and get them to change their practices so quickly.
I wasnt sure why, but that statent made churn a little. I sensed disdain and a little bit of patronising in those words. I get that he had a point, but I wasnt too comfortable with that feeling, so I decided to clear it up. Perhaps there is no need too.
Oh? Johann was one of my soldiers, and he respected the warrior-ethos of the people. But that was about his only positive impression. There was an imdiacy to their life, the focus is on winning the next battle, not stepping back and thinking about how to win the war.
This difference in ti-horizon was probably sothing that would need a generation or two to change. The immigrants didnt understand or comprehend the security we could provide.
Why think about whats going to happen a year down the road when the demons could invade and kill everyone next month? In a way, the decade-long war was a big setback to their overall society, and frankly, he understood that we could have easily been the sa.
Yet it made day-to-day interactions frustrating. It was an experience quite like the Canari, who also seed to live their lives day-by-day.
These people lived life day-to-day, and rather than try to change them, is there a way to make a better or more productive version of this mindset?
That sounds rather strange. Johann laughed. Isnt foresight one of the better qualities of civilization? To create a structure from nothing.
It is, but I am beginning to wonder whether Ive been looking at civilization with a far too narrow perspective.
To , that just sounds like chaos.
Maybe.
The strength of planning and foresight allows the accumulation of our efforts towards a larger goal. Sothing that cannot be achieved through instant reaction and living day by day. There has to be a guiding path, or a focus.
Its the equivalent of a corporate ethos and culture, towards so kind of goal.
An organisation this large, by sheer number of actors and players would generate many contradictory forces. A noble in one part of Treeho would and could take the exact opposite direction as another noble. Its impossible to force everyone to be perfectly aligned. Its too much effort, and ans turning everyone into robots.
Ultimately, it boils down to the question of, what kind of world did I want Mountainworld to be?
Does it even matter, if its main function is to serve as a massive mana generator to complent my future mana requirent?
Why was I doing this?
***
How do the immigrants take the rule of the council? Johann asked one of the relocated administrators.
Not well. Language differences are getting better, but they are still unused to the way many things are done. Theres also no respect for the Valtrian Order, which makes it harder for the Order personnel to carry out their work. The priests are having a slightly easier ti, but its not smooth sailing either.
Johann spotted many small aggressions and conflicts as the relocated administrators and guards tried to impose their version of order onto the refugees.
Most accept it, even if they dont understand. After all, they ca as refugees to avoid the threat of war, but there clearly was so expectation gap. They expected life to be similar back to where they ca from, not this accelerated-uplift society where they had to adjust to how I wanted this city to be.
This was a result of my will being in conflict with those of the refugees, and frankly, many made the journey with incomplete information.
I could solve this problem by allowing mass migration from the Central Continent to Branchhold, but I wanted to see how receptive the local folk were before I did that.
I also had so concerns about facilitating such a large movent of people between worlds, and I wanted rules and proper process before such things were permitted. The artificial minds could be granted authority to operate the inter-world transportation, and the necessary mana budget, so that freed up one part of my ntal load.
***
There was a strange problem that erged for those who ca from the Central Continent. I didnt notice it imdiately because of the presence of my healing aura in Branchhold, but my spymaster noticed it in their field operators.
Diseases of another world.
Those with my familiars, or those close to my clone trees were spared thanks to the influence of my [healing aura], but the spies that strayed further, so without the protection of my familiars, got sick. A lot.
Most diseases were mild, but it was another aspect that I did not foresee. Stella swiftly reminded of the diseases brought by colonisers during the age of exploration.
The inverse did not occur, simply because my people were generally healthy thanks to the effect of my [healing aura], so they didnt carry that many diseases. My [Biolabs] quickly collected so of these disease samples.
Then we realised these diseases of Mountainworld were made of magic.
***
I eventually agreed to a learning visit for the refugees and the nobles. I thought about it, and realised, maybe intimidation wasnt a bad thing.
It was the whole idea of a nuclear deterrence. I had the impression that my domain holders already qualified to be my nuclear deterence. I also wanted the refugee representative to see for themselves what kind of culture and society we had back on Treeho.
Many refugees have their own defacto community leaders, which we selected for the trip. In total, about 100 refugees would take their first trip to Treeho.
Their arrival on Treeho was a quiet one. I had not fully declared their presence here, so they were shuffled like tourists on tour buses, always escorted by security personnel.
They were frankly awed, the equivalent of jungle bumpkins entering the city for the first ti.
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