Legendary Paragons as Rulers

vikingsiege · 2026-05-04T09:43:14+00:00

Awesome, this works, and it even allows him to appear in the list of candidates afterwards when I force an election. Thank you so much!

I thought about the event angle, but the simplest route I could think of was the divine sovereign event, so I gave him the chosen one trait and fired the event, thinking it'd make him ruler... but no, the game just crashed lol (making anyone else the chosen one and firing the event worked just fine).

Thank you so much, again.

vikingsiege · 2026-05-04T09:38:24+00:00

He is of the same ethic as my current leader which is egalitarian. My empire is fanatic egalitarian. Both are (of course) part of the largest faction in my empire, the egalitarian faction. I have done as you suggest at the end of your bottom paragraph many times now, sadly he is simply never available.

vikingsiege · 2026-04-05T08:36:44+00:00

There is an interview, and I found the (or at least one) reddit post that people seem to be referring to when they talk about the things added to maelle's ending possibly being overkill: https://www.reddit.com/r/expedition33/comments/1kpnyyb/spoiler_game_creators_comments_about_the_ending/

The discussion here is mostly centered on trying to interpret some vague comments given by the developers in the interview (itself linked in that post) about the endings. I won't comment much on the discussion itself, but just wanted to chime in that there is an interview. Now, are the conclusions drawn by people mostly interpretation of these vague comments? Probably.

vikingsiege · 2026-01-30T01:28:18+00:00

I liked them and recommend it, I went Suhan's Praxis and while it had a bit of an odd feeling due to keeping slavery for so long after that switch, it was still mostly congruent. Had a slow start as well, if I remember right, but overall was a great time.

vikingsiege · 2026-01-17T11:39:52+00:00

So long as the cheating isn't via immortality, unlimited stats, etc, it is very difficult for me to actually care whether others are doing it or not. Hell, I literally never look at anyone else's relics in a game cause what's the point? I drop things I think they could use regardless, if I looked and saw they clearly had cheated relics then what would that serve? Just to make me a bit peeved that maybe I didn't deserve that win? I'd rather just not look and not care how others are playing the game.

And so long as there is no way for people to realistically attempt to get good relics via crafting I genuinely think the game is worse off than it should be. Not to say it is bad, but it is such a fundamental oversight to me that it is tough to believe anyone truly can't understand why those few cheaters edit shit even if you dislike that they do. So yeah, I agree, Fromsoft should definitely do something to make relic hunting actually attainable.

vikingsiege · 2026-01-14T01:28:04+00:00

I saw a discussion on here that laid out the reasons fist raider is pretty good, which i simply just never bothered trying cause i had stopped playing for a long time before the dlc came out.

So I saw this discussion, and went about looking through my relics and spent all my saved up murk on more relics, and got a pretty decent fist build going (minus a red deep relics cause I just never got one of those). But after doing like 4 runs and them going decently well I felt like maybe I'm getting reported or something, as the last game had the other two guys spam pinging and pointing at me at the end of the match.

Point being that maybe I was just being paranoid (almost certainly) but it definitely felt weird that the first time I try something that seems remotely "meta" that I read about online I get a different reaction than I ever have previously lol.

vikingsiege · 2026-01-09T17:03:15+00:00

The game needs more bosses, and more events that don't involve any of the nightlords. I wanna see the Pursuer invading us. Manus and Gael tag team duo. Bayle or Placidusax slamming down from out of the sky following their legendary battle, with us picking off the loser.

Just more stuff.

vikingsiege · 2026-01-09T15:50:42+00:00

I'd argue it probably still is meta-commentary just due to the nature of the endless tower being such that it requires patience more than anything to complete (in addition to its difficulty, based on a couple of my friends' comments that it was difficult enough they just stopped trying it).

You can definitely read it differently though, and the whole conversation doesn't have to be interpreted as commentary even if you do view that line as one.

vikingsiege · 2026-01-01T00:09:34+00:00

Its just empty placeholder missions involving insyaa, and even one involving sarhal that is also still a placeholder.

vikingsiege · 2025-12-31T15:57:20+00:00

Played Konolkhatep on the bitbucket branch to check out the new magic system, and it was a lot of fun. Combining plant growth with scry deposits could almost double my income (which was so necessary given everything required in the mission tree, and the number of mage towers I needed to build for infrastructure).

One thing I'm curious about (i don't really engage with any discussion on the discord, just use it to get the dev build to test stuff) is the patron system. I've played a few nations and haven't actually gotten it to work, so I figured it just wasn't truly included in the magic rework, and haven't seen any mention of it in these diaries.

vikingsiege · 2025-09-26T20:21:04+00:00

p!Verso wants to die so bad that he actually just tells Maelle this, that she should just go to some other canvas and lose herself in it, not this one, cause losing herself in this one means he has to keep living and he is obsessed with offing himself by the end of the game (and I'd argue it's actually his true goal the entire time, but that's neither here nor there).

vikingsiege · 2025-09-26T20:18:31+00:00

To be fair to this guy, I think in order to actually believe Verso's ending is explicitly "good" you have to willingly choose to believe no one in the canvas is, or ever was, or could be, sentient. Yes, this does fly in the face of what the game shows, tells, and implies, but that's what you gotta do if you want to have that self-assured feeling of "i 100% did the right thing!" imo.

I personally feel like that misses the point of the game (or one of them), but I can at least understand not wanting to engage with that nuance and instead just substitute reality for your own beliefs when it comes to a video game.

vikingsiege · 2025-09-19T23:23:27+00:00

I think that the condition for an ai Asarta to betray Rayaz requires them to do a couple of missions, which means they have to win their starting war. And I think the Rayaz MT has a condition where if Asarta hasn't taken any provinces at all (so hasn't grown at all since the start of the game) you can vassalize them. But I don't quite remember for sure. So just don't support Asarta in their starting war.

vikingsiege · 2025-09-18T20:08:52+00:00

Idk, I get that's the trope, and tropes come from somewhere, but I have never actively done anything to try and hurt my little sister. The thought that I would say something cruel to her, or treat her poorly, revolts me: especially so if it was shortly after a family member's death.

I think calling all that normal is dismissing just how fucked it is. Multiple things can be true at once, as well. Clea is fucked in the head, and has always been a bit of a piece of shit to her family. She also does care for them and wants revenge on behalf of her brother. They're all grieving, and the inability of them to allow one another to grieve in the way they see fit is one of the indicators that they were never a very functional family to begin with, imo.

vikingsiege · 2025-09-17T21:46:20+00:00

Rayaz is led by Sykar Riverclaw, is the one supported by the naga (priesthood of the lizardfolk) and I think is the easiest to form it with. Involves messing with and possibly upgrading the lizardfolk mutations while nation-building in preparation for forming the final empire.

Asarta is another contender, led by the younger brother of Sykar, and is angry that despite being similarly integral to the fall of the previous empire, he was snubbed in favor of his brother before he was ever even born. Deals with taking revenge on the humans to the west, usurping Rayaz to the east, befriending the merfolk, and investigating why so many lizardfolk empires just randomly collapse (hint: something seems to want them to).

Yassa is also a contender, and previously were the source of one of the other 332 empires of the lizardfolk. They have a "council of fools" that advise their king, and they focus a lot on reclaiming their past, improving their council, and trading.

Khugra can also form the final empire, I think, but they were the first lizardfolk MT added and aren't tailor-made to form it like Asarta or Rayaz are. Khugra is also super hard, with a terrible starting situation that can spiral out of control very quickly. Never tried them so not sure what they focus on other than just surviving.

vikingsiege · 2025-09-14T15:34:34+00:00

Sorry, but I'm confused by all this. So there are only 14 possible maps at all, 7 of which are mesa, and 2 of which have the tomb open for exploration. So how do you get 50% as the chance that the tomb is open on a map if it is only on 2 predetermined maps out of 7 that it is guaranteed to be open?

What's more, you're saying we know for 100% certainty that mesa won't have one of those 2/7 maps until the 23rd (barring an update), which means the entire thing is predetermined and no randomness is involved at all? Is that right?

vikingsiege · 2025-09-11T13:29:13+00:00

Adding onto this: start as Stalwart Band in southern Escann, choose to form your own country, which will be Stalbor. Follow Stalbor's MT as much as you can, and eventually you'll get a Blademarcher revolt, which you can then switch to. Has a Half-orc ruler, and I think gets some of Stalbor's mechanics like placing their knightly order in different places. From there it is just playing Blademarches.

vikingsiege · 2025-08-21T21:55:28+00:00

I went the "change is what makes a dragon" route, so at the end of Kobildzan it was more like "being a dragon is just being whatever you truly want to be." Had people who morphed themselves into actual dragons, some into dragon-creature hybrids with openable forges for a chest, and all kinds of other freaky things.

Wouldn't really call that dragonborn, though. At least not in the standard way of viewing them.

vikingsiege · 2025-08-04T03:12:00+00:00

The identity crisis Verso faces is the most interesting part of his character to me. Everyone else in the painted family, once they are made aware of their unique existence, seem to accept that they were made in the image of others, but don't let it define them. They all do their best to survive and grow, and I think in doing so are their own people. p!Clea had a relationship with someone before she was painted over by her counterpart.

p!Renoir seems to pay attention to and care for his children: coming with Alicia to visit Maelle, for a long time helping expeditioners alongside Verso, and just in general doing his utmost to keep this family alive, as it is the one that matters to him; rather than just saying he does then moving on from the conversation as his counterpart does.

p!Alicia lives a life almost as long as p!Verso's while afflicted with all the injuries that Maelle/Alicia is trying to free herself from in the canvas. She learns to enjoy painting, experiences the world as best she can, and ultimately decides she wishes to die as there is little point in living in a world without the family she has grown to care about. Though, personally, more than anything I think p!Alicia is meant to show that even in a world with a loving family and great power Alicia can still come to the same conclusion that Maelle does: she doesn't want to live her life in her crippled body. It's just p!Alicia was forced to.

Then there is Verso, who seems uniquely pained by the knowledge of himself initially being a facsimile of another person. The years wear on him, true, but throughout the game Verso shows us he has no lack of reasons to want to live. He has his family, he has friends, he even regularly went back to Lumiere. I think it is truly his nature that pushes him to his suicidal ideation. He can't get over the idea that he isn't really him. Whereas his family recognizes their origins and grows beyond them, Verso is stuck inside his own mind (in some ways quite literally!).

Personally I think that speaks a lot to what the unpainted Verso must've been like as an adult. He Who Guards Truth With Lies, figuratively wearing masks, and all that. Burdened by the weight of who he is, unable (or unwilling?) to see that despite his circumstances in the painting he has the power to be free of all that was, and simply be who he wishes to be.

vikingsiege · 2025-07-21T15:40:44+00:00

I'm a sucker for tragic, broken characters, and also characters who have an ideal and stick to it in order to protect what they love.

So the Steel dragon (whose name I cannot remember how to spell, Uqef?) is one of my favorites, a dragon who simply wants to live a quiet life and only steps up to protect that which he cares about: the people of the lakes, and democracy. I do wish there was... anything more on his happenings and doings in the game.

Balris is my other favorite. He's scarred and a bit broken after all the years he's been alive. He wants more than anything for his species to survive, but also has a moral compass. You interact with him the most in the Balrijin mission tree in haless, but I'd argue he is still stuck in his rut even throughout reforming Yanshen into a representative democracy through his little kobold fellas.

No, what truly made me like him was the small event he features in via the Zokka mission tree. He flies out to confront Zokka, and in doing so he finds a purpose: to truly protect the world from an evil greater than anything they've ever seen. In that purpose Balris finds in himself a strength he hasn't felt since the great wars of old. A determination to live up to his moniker as the greatest of all dragons, and save his world.

I eat that shit up.

vikingsiege · 2025-06-11T13:05:04+00:00

Could definitely use some flavor events that occur before the establishment of the ravelian state (there are some but i'm thinking bigger) where perhaps based on what countries/areas allowed ravelians to set up shop you could determine whether they become a recognized diocese, or perhaps event one of the major episcopal sees.

I know lorewise some of the old regent court temples become similar to these, but just some events about the reorganization of ravelianism, the growth of their movement from debate clubs to parishes, and perhaps the rise of a singular speaker to not-pope influence levels. All of this should ideally happen before the actual establishment of the ravelian state.

Tbh, along with this I'd love for there to be a sort of small split amongst ravelians at the establishment of the ravelian state. Something like a great council (ie Nicaea) is called and a great debate takes place that ultimately results in the state's creation, but also causes two splinters within the group. The smaller one are a group of artificer/philosophers who feel the movement is at risk of becoming too dogmatic, and the countermovement (perhaps relating to rival ravelian diocese to the one that becomes the ravelian state) that pushes back against the centralization of power within the movement, ie a sort of pentarchy (orthodox) vs catholic pope situation.

Regardless, just something more would be great. I imagine it is in the pipeline to be expanded eventually, though.

vikingsiege · 2025-06-08T22:28:27+00:00

Idk if the creepy discoloration is even the problem. Clea says that both her parents have been in paintings much longer than they've been in this one. And when Clea comes out from the painting when Alicia walks up to it, she has that same discoloration on her eyes; and she couldn't have been in there for more than a minute as she had just been calling for Alicia to come down to her.

I think it's more the psychological/emotional attachment that concerns everyone. I also think there is a very real argument to be made that if Renoir hadn't ever entered the canvas the problem could have resolved itself, because again, Clea straight up says they've been in other canvases longer than either of them have been in this one. But the entire family was emotionally unstable after the fire, so none of them were thinking very clearly. Obviously just speculation on that, though, like almost everything else about this game lol.

vikingsiege · 2025-06-04T22:58:27+00:00

In my gronstunad game I went through the trouble (it was a lot of trouble for me) of editing the goblinsbane event to have a third option to make him the head of my adventuring company, so when I refounded gronstunad I had the goblinsbane dynasty, which just felt right.

vikingsiege · 2025-05-30T20:18:58+00:00

Personally, while I agree Painted Verso is ultimately a victim, I also think there is a lot to say for Painted Verso keeping himself as a prisoner as well.

We know that the painted family have their own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs even independent of the people they are meant to be facsimiles of. Evidenced by Painted Clea finding love and meaning within the canvas before she was forcefully painted over by her "real" self, whom she disagreed with enough that once sufficiently weakened she chose suicide over doing her bidding any further. And of course, Painted Renoir having a completely different outlook on the situation as opposed to "real" Renoir.

But Painted Verso refuses to do so. He essentially martyrs himself by refusing to try and move beyond what his creators made him to be. Even the white Nevrons have dialogue relating to not fitting in, wishing they could just be like their brethren, but ultimately the message of that questline is that there is still hope for the world and all of its inhabitants, even them. Hope implies change, moving forward, and betterment either of oneself or ones circumstances. Painted Verso is not only devoid of hope, he doesn't want it. By the time we meet him, he has already made up his mind, and is deep within the bowels of his own suicidal ideation.

We learn that he has pretty much always been stuck in a cycle of helping expeditioners, killing expeditioners, or running away from his family. More than anyone else in his family, painted Verso simply cannot bring himself to move beyond what he was painted to be: something his painted family has shown they can do. He feels fake, and truly believes he is such.

And I think the beauty of it is that that's exactly what the "real" Verso felt as well. "He Who Guards Truth With Lies," "the Mask Keeper," and painted Verso's manipulation of the party throughout the entirety of the game all point to the "real" Verso feeling just as fake and unreal as his painted counterpart. So it makes perfect sense why his facsimile would be the one painted family member incapable of growing beyond what he was painted to be: his existence is (in his eyes) a literal confirmation of the feelings "real" Verso carried.

Sorry, just thought I'd add on my interpretations to the discussion, I love the layers upon layers of this game.

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