Moirae's Mirror - July

Hey everyone and welcome back (or welcome, as the case may be!) to the Moire's Mirror. This time I'm previewing and talking about some of the stuff that happens in the part of Chapter 4 I'm already done with. 

We start off headed into the market with Pyri, Daeira, and an NPC you only briefly met at the end of the last chapter, Kokytos. He's not going to feature too much in this scene, as we'll quickly see the group split up to do their stuff, but I think he's pretty cool. 

You may notice here in our first screenshot that there are no personality variable changes yet. This is because I haven't yet added them, heh. That's usually one of the last things I do before publishing. It sort of makes me wonder if I have a need for them at all, but thinking about that has made me want to try sort of a new system for me, which I will hopefully be implementing at the end of chapter four. More on that later, probably. 

Anyway, this route involves the PC themself taking the initiative to go out and talk to people as a way of gathering information, so at parts it soft assumes they have some capability for that. There is a chance later to walk that back though, or to have an adverse reaction to a large crowd.

Here we get a little more about why this particular set of people has this particular job. Daeira, though known to the PC so far mostly as someone who knows the workings of the Underworld and is there to assist with the nuts and bolts, is in fact the closest thing the place has to a spymaster, a fact they will readily admit upon being asked. You may think this makes them not a very good spy, especially for a PC who still has Olympian leanings, but getting them to talk about their methods is very different.

Kokytos is an empath. I've tried to pick powers and skills that are fairly thematic, and someone who is the River of Lamentation probably deals a lot with human emotion. I imagine this river's function having to do with confession, and the hard questioning sometimes necessary to get people to really look inward and pull their deepest feelings out of them. So the power seemed appropriate to me! 

Also, there's just not enough men in fiction with 'soft' powers like that. Sue me. 

Double also, a fun fact that doesn't come out in this part but might later: Kokytos and Daeira are siblings!

And here we have some description of a marketplace in the Underworld. It was kind of interesting to think about how an economy might work when the number of needs is so few. This section allows me to get into some nuance, too. It's been hinted before that gods, while not strictly in *need of food, water, sleep, etc, function better when they get these things. (The PC, being half-human, does need them, though not to the degree humans do). 

Something similar is true of the dead. They can go without eating, but generally the closer they remain to human habit and practice, the better off they are, which also explains the market. It allows artisans to craft and growers to grow, and in general people to occupy themselves with work they find fulfilling and meaningful. 

But there's also a very obvious safety net at play: if money-earning work does nothing for you and you opt against it, or if you simply haven't made enough to afford a decent amount of food or something for the week, you can simply tell the merchant to charge the Keep, and it'll be taken care of by some of the administrators there at no cost. This separates work and need-satisfaction and keeps things running smoothly. 

Also, spot the typo here, heh. I've fixed it since but they're always a bit embarrassing to find.

Anyway, that's it for the mirror this time; I hope you found something in it interesting! Not sure what it'll be next month; I kind of enjoy the multiple possible formats of this segment. 

Have a great week everyone. :)