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Cam is out flying. There's a decent cloud of atmosphere around the gold plane, now, millenia of demons making air around themselves for comfort and not sealing it up because why would you bother. There's a small forest, here - the effect is kind of ruined by the lamps it has to grow under, but it's still pretty.
He feels an open summons and lets it grab him -
the Connecticut Yankee summons Demon Cam
from_scratch
from_scratch
"I can make you some nifty vitamins and fancy seeds, but relying on me for a primary direct calorie source probably isn't Plan A."
connecticut_yankee
"I'd like to minimize how much we rely on miracles, but anachronistic crops sound nice and self-perpetuating."
from_scratch
"They do tend to require a lot of fertilizer to reach their full potential, since fertilizer is cheap in the future."
connecticut_yankee
"Fertilizer here is rather unpleasant but already cheap.
I'd be more worried about whether these seeds combine well with local farming practices. I doubt the word "mule" features prominently in how these crops were meant to be grown."
I'd be more worried about whether these seeds combine well with local farming practices. I doubt the word "mule" features prominently in how these crops were meant to be grown."
from_scratch
"Not especially, but I don't see any obvious pitfalls in involving mules regardless, unless the mules are participating in some very bizarre way."
connecticut_yankee
"Agriculture is one of the things I don't claim to know, so I don't have expectations about what differences matter. Just the knowledge that there's enough different to worry that something does. The mules specifically are doing only predictable mule things.
This is why I mostly do infrastructure and social reform. Much more interesting."
This is why I mostly do infrastructure and social reform. Much more interesting."
from_scratch
"The seeds should do all right even under suboptimal conditions, anyway, compared to less thoroughly domesticated varieties."
connecticut_yankee
"The funny thing is, the farmers will probably consider the seeds the greatest benefit for them out of all the recent changes, second only to inflation.
And that barely even made a difference, just seemed like it did."
And that barely even made a difference, just seemed like it did."
connecticut_yankee
"As would I, but I'd rank them below things like 'if the lord hangs me for no reason then someone will probably frown at him.' This century needed a lot of improvement."
connecticut_yankee
"How would you go about fixing it if you had to start from the ground up? If it doesn't overlap what I did too much, additional basic starting points can only help."
from_scratch
"If I'd, what, been summoned by accident by a crawling baby who couldn't possibly dismiss me or contribute to any plans until later? I'd probably start by going around without wings on for a while, eavesdropping, making sure my language skills sufficed, connecting my extremely limited knowledge of history with what was going on, doing Good Samaritan type stuff when I came across obvious opportunities. Based on what you've told me about the culture and its intense dependence on religion I might have appeared to the Pope before I did anything very large-scale. Although I am not at all sure I would get along with a Pope under ordinary circumstances, I might get along with a Pope who thought I was a divine messenger."
connecticut_yankee
"The Pope is still an option. Popes are probably harder to convince of angelhood than most people, but if you convince him you get everyone else for free at the cost of strengthening the Church's legitimacy.
He doesn't usually have much to do with Britain in particular, but is definitely the person to talk to if you want to be emperor of the known world."
Hank looks distasteful at this last part, but only because of his innate dislike of monarchs.
He doesn't usually have much to do with Britain in particular, but is definitely the person to talk to if you want to be emperor of the known world."
Hank looks distasteful at this last part, but only because of his innate dislike of monarchs.
from_scratch
"It would be marginally all right for the church to increase in legitimacy if it also increased in, like, decency, by a lot and very fast. I probably cannot encourage mass atheism on any reasonable time frame, and I'd be losing a lot of useful person-coordination power that I could co-opt instead, if I could and did."
connecticut_yankee
"That...is a surprisingly good reason.
I never had the option to work with the Church even if I could grit my teeth hard enough, since I claimed to be a magician from day one. But in your position convincing the Pope to tell the priests to tell everybody things might actually be the most effective thing to do."
I never had the option to work with the Church even if I could grit my teeth hard enough, since I claimed to be a magician from day one. But in your position convincing the Pope to tell the priests to tell everybody things might actually be the most effective thing to do."
from_scratch
"Well, for the Catholic population. If I hadn't landed near you I might not have started work anywhere near Europe. I can't get any free languages without being resummoned by people who speak them, but a combination of fancy software and what I landed with would let me set up in other places, possibly more comfortably."
connecticut_yankee
"The Catholic population is essentially all of Europe. I don't know if there are any other individuals who control continents at the moment, but if so then subverting them would be equally powerful."
from_scratch
"Yeah, I'd need to look up some history, find out how long China's been doing the emperors thing."
connecticut_yankee
"Do you know if they'd have any obvious ways to get an emperor to take orders? The angel trick is a bit culture-specific."
from_scratch
"This would also require the eavesdropping for a while thing. I think China might do a mandate of heaven thing? I'm not sure who is supposed to communicate about said mandate, though. Likely nothing as easily imitable as an angel. So I might've started in Europe after all, or I'd see what was going on in the Muslim world - I think Islam is currently pretty new, and they do angels?"
connecticut_yankee
"Islam does angels, but I don't know whether it exists yet. And international information is slow, so all I can say is that if it does it's recent. Maybe you could start it."
from_scratch
"I do not really want to start Islam. I have no idea what Mohammed looks like, for one thing."
connecticut_yankee
"If you start it, you get to pick the tenets.
Maybe you could fly around with the light, the clouds, and the angelic chorus and ask people if they've seen Mohammed lately?"
Maybe you could fly around with the light, the clouds, and the angelic chorus and ask people if they've seen Mohammed lately?"
from_scratch
"No, see, remember I don't like lying to people? I'd rather appropriate a preexisting network of falsehoods with a few well-targeted misleading appearances than start Islam. If I decide to start something I will go somewhere without a history of copious monotheism, show off some magic, and start making pronouncements without much in the way of surrounding theology."