User:Tinsley/Power to the Simple Duke

This is meant to be put forth in a humorous tone only. psymann and I have had interaction with a few of our characters on different islands and we stay in touch OOC. I suggested this topic to him and he encouraged me to put it out there.

With all the talk about simple knights not really having anything to do, except take orders from their generals, no wait, their marshals now, I thought that my character that is a Duke might be missing out on some of the fun. A very short history of that character is in order. He started out slowly, getting recognized due to his faithful service. He's been a Region Lord. He is married to another character. He was appointed banker. He lost his Region Lord position. He was appointed Duke. He resigned his banker position. He has RP-ed all of these different events and roles. Now that he is 'only' a Duke I have started to take the time to see what he can do.

Messages:
He can send Orders to those that are below him, but only Requests of his peers and those above him. Makes sense.

Information:
He can't edit his Duchy's bulletin, because there isn't one. Need to request that as a feature.

Politics:
He can still set his voting, but can't double stuff the ballot box. You'd think that as a Duke, he'd have a bit more influence with the election officials.

Travel:
He still has to travel the same roads as everyone else does. Sometimes they are good roads, sometimes, not so good. Need to suggest that a department of Roads, Paths and Byways be created, so as to funnel monies into that to increase the efficiency of the roads, at least within his duchy.

Actions:
Hmmm, while travelling, he can visit the local temple, but can't see the bounty board. Either it is a very long temple or a very short bounty board. Or maybe the priest is walking alongside him, talking as they go. But wait, couldn't the priest carry a copy of the bounty board, if it really is that short?

Orders:
Because he's travelling, he can't buy paraphernalia. That makes sense. Stop to shop, they say. He'll just train his men for 8 hours. Oh wait, I guess that anyone can do that. Being a Duke doesn't affect that.

Command:
He could get around to writing that region description that the previous Dukes didn't do. I've got some good l33t text to put up there. Not now, though, it probably isn't neutral enough. Declare a Holiday. What? That's new since he was Region Lord of a piddly little region. Announce Festival. What? When did that show up? Holiday, Holly day. Holy Day. That's it. He'll announce that the religious faith that he follows is having a celebration in honour of St. Charley, the Patron Saint of Crullers (my apologies to B. Kliban). No, there isn't a St. Charley. Maybe he should create one. Now wait, I've moved off of Command and onto RP. Sorry. He can make trade offers, and send out caravans, but he can't perform Market and Trading activities, because he's travelling and not in his region. That makes sense. Ah Secede. That would give him power. No more Simple Duke. - "the capital of a realm can not secede." Crumb. Maybe he can convince his ruler to move the capital to a different city, then he can secede. That will show the ruler. And he'd probably be able to get a day or two's worth of RP from it. Sweet.

Now, what else is missing? I feel that sooner than later, my character will get bored with just holding courts, trying to get the region-to-region experimental food trade working on a stable island. Maybe he could assign and re-assign his knights to different armies. No, Region Lords can do that. What should a Duke be able to do that a regular Region Lord can't...

He could be a patron of the arts, building a theatre and sponsoring performances. He could build a coliseum and have fighting beasts and gladiators. Wait, a travelling circus. That's it. It could go from region to region, raising morale wherever it went. He could import fantastic creatures from other lands or islands, charging money to the peasants to see the freaks of nature. Then, he'd have to give a cut to the local lords, but he'd demand that back in taxes to the duchy, so it would basically be all profit. Something to put more thought into.

That's good, but it will take some RP to make it 'alive' for the other players.

Maybe, with all the resources at hand, he could sponsor the sciences. Alchemy or perhaps better medical practices. Rural regions could produce more healing herbs. Or perhaps he could further the study of agriculture, thereby making his fertile lands even more productive.

Or maybe he could just engage more of his vassals in RP. No, they'd feel obliged to respond. He is their duke, after all. They should be showing their allegiance to their local lords.

Maybe he could start a spy network. No, I can't find the button for that. Maybe he hasn't been duke for a long enough period of time. Man, this stinks. Maybe I'll have him quit the realm and go off to another realm on the other side of the island. Surely, with his experience, he can become a Duke in no time. Probably wait a few weeks and then, boom, he can have all those options.

No, if he did that, he'd have to leave his lovely wife. They'd never get to see each other. Maybe he'll just trek up into a mountainous region and "fall off of a cliff." That way, he'd couldn't hurt his wife's player, because, it was an accident, you see. Forget that they've spent 7 months working on story lines and developing their characters, enriching the realm with their tales. He tripped.

Then he can start a new character and people will look at his family page and know that he comes from a line of nobles that know how to run a region or the bank or a duchy. Surely the next character can climb the ranks quicker than the first one did. As he ascends to the top of the noble heap, he can look down on the 'lesser' nobles and wonder why they've stuck around so long. I guess you can only climb up when there's someone to climb over.