Facultree of the commons

Facultree of the commons

Year 136

The demon king was still late. This was unusual, and we hear of great battles in the Eastern Continent. Even though there is supposedly an information embargo, there are still leaks. Great, incredible battles of archers and demon-drakes. Of battles in cliff-areas where warriors could reduce some of the demon-drakes airborne superiority.

Of great skill and classes. Theres a class of [Drakeslayer-Archers] and [Drakehunters] that emerged from these battles. I would like to get my hands on some of those classes, but I suspect itll be a matter of time.

The world thanked their lucky stars that the demons are still confined in the Eastern Continent, despite being able to fly, and the rifts remained only in that continent. I wonder what's keeping them there. From the news, it certainly did not seem like the defenders were able to stop them from reaching the sea. Perhaps there are other factors.

So, we focused on consolidating power, strengthening the Aeonic priesthood across the Freshlands, deploying the young nobles on little adventures.

They were pretty average as a whole, but the little outdoor adventure contributed a few levels to their [lord] class. Its good progress for a few months outdoors, and they helped to stabilise these new territories. Id also get to get a good sense of the type of rulers and managers these nobles would become. Whether they were kind, ruthless, rational or emotional.

In the same vein, although practical experience is indeed important, I wasnt about to tolerate the low levels of the Treetiary Colleges teachers and lecturers. I had ensured all of them had training of their own, in the form of monthly doses of [dream academy]. I hoped to improve their levels by a bit, putting them in the Level 40 to Level 50 range for at least a single class. They would be teaching young ones who are around level 10 or so when they start off, but because these are noble-classes, the power of a level 10 is actually more like a level 15 to 20. This is especially pronounced with those of noble-blood. [Prince] and [Princesses], usually already have some secret hereditary skills, and their class itself is strong as its base.

In a contest of wills, its usually a matchup of the ones strongest levels and classes, not the cumulative total levels and classes.

If the trainers and tutors are too low-leveled in any one class, they wont be able to suppress or control the tutors. Ideally, I would want someone like Jura as the headmaster. His [warlord] class is a noble-equivalent and as such, nobles dont get an advantage against him.

So I focused on training the tutors and I also had taken a liking to one of the tutors. Thordrock, a bearded dwarven man whos in his late middle ages, a little plump and prosperous. He seemed every bit the old headmaster, and had the cranky, steely disposition to boot. He used to be a [merchant], then he got too weary for all the travelling his class required, so he found this task of educating the next generation interesting. As a merchant, he had been to a lot of places, and fought a lot of bandits and thieves.

Thordrock was a level 38 [mining merchant], level 18 [blacksmith] and level 20 [axe warrior]. In every sense of the word, the scattered levels meant he was close to capping out as a person, since Level 80 to Level 85 seemed to be the usual cap for normal mortals.

For now, there was no single headmaster of the entire Treetiary College, and it is run as if the entire teaching staff is a council.

Still, the problem is, once an individual hits a level cap, I cant really push his level higher with [dream academy]. Still, not entirely useless. If I could somehow trigger or force a class merger, then only the combined class would be able to stand toe to toe with the nobility-classes.

What do you think of taking the lead? I asked Thordrock one day. At that point they just returned from the students expedition from the new territories.

Of?

The entire Treetiary College?

Well, yes. Finally! Someone needs to be in charge of this messed up school! He said. First, we need some booze in the school.

Some of them are underage.

Well those underage ones have to just suck it. Thordrock laughed. Any good self respecting noble who cant handle a drinks gonna be in trouble anyway. I lost count of the number of times nobles got their drinks spiked.

Oh. That... was too-much-info.

All of these youngun need to learn how to drink, how to handle a drink, and how to handle stuff in their drink. Like me, I have [spiked drink-resistance]. At the very least, they need to have [poison-detection]!

Ah.

Thordrock laughed, then he asked again. Are you serious, Aeon?

What do you think this school should be?

Other than exporting your politics? He asked.

Yes. Tell me what do you think this school should be? I didnt want to share my ideals, of course. I had a certain vision for it, but the locals mostly saw it as a way I was going to strengthen the Freshlands.

Ultimately... unity. Thordrock said, as he rubbed his beard. Unity of the noble-class, however limited and fickle thats worth. I saw this as a step to truly build a continental trade system, but in the past 1 year Ive served as a tutor of these nobles, it is also a place for social bonds to be built among the noble class, which would foster more trade and industry.

Where do you see me in this picture?

Thordrock paused and he couldnt answer it. But I could read his mind. What am I supposed to say? Do I praise Aeon? Or do I state the truth that hes seen as a benevolent tyrant? Or...

I would appreciate the truth, Thordrock. I have no need for fickle praises. They do little for me.

I... dont know. A school founded by an immortal semi-divine being thats earmarked as a heretical existence? Just thinking about it makes me need a mug, so I rarely do think about it. But if this school wants to exist, it better damn well train some good, capable, competent nobles.

So, on top of Kastua, we soon located 4 to 5 more people of various ages whom we think have potential. They are mostly young, and are under

Still, I wanted an adult of sufficient stature to lead the school. Else its just a council of teachers that doesnt seem able to make any big decisions. Is doing something better than doing nothing?

Should we still tolerate Thordrock as a caretaker principal? I asked the artificial minds, at first. He is of the right age and has generally good skill, even if his loyalty is a pragmatic one.

Jasmine agreed. We will monitor him. The role of a caretaker principal does not require absolute loyalty. A pragmatic, cost-benefit type of personality may be appropriate.

Disagree. This is about molding the minds of the next generation of mid-tier managers. Trevor used some terminology from my memories. They should be expected to have absolute loyalty. It is expected.

I paused, and considered it. In some ways, the risk is rather nuanced, having a principal with nuanced and pragmatic loyalty may result in students picking up a similar view of loyalty. Thats a risk in the long run. But then again, even if I picked a loyal principal, that may not result in loyal future leaders. Would a principals influence be that pervasive?

Is this a false choice? After all, loyalty is a mutable thing. I could, by my own actions, transform someone who is pragmatically loyal into entirely loyal, and vice versa. The concept that loyalty is for life surely an impossible thing, unless their minds are constructed in such a way.

Are there any other candidates?

Those capable and with the right skill sets would not want a task to corral these noble children in the first place. So in a way, this wasnt exactly a coveted job. Its new. If anything, its more important that this newly set up institution does not fail.

I went back to Thordrock again. Do you have any ideas on how to improve the Treetiary College?

Thordrock paused and then answered. In truth, most nobles do not run their lands alone, and often as merchants, we deal a lot with their adjutants and secretaries. So, I believe each noble student should be allowed to sponsor a few of their adjutants. A nobles success, I dare say, is also quite dependent on capable subordinates.

That sounds like an officer school? But thats already what the Valthorns academy focus on. Combat, tactics and all. But I suppose Thordrocks point is towards the bureaucracy. Currently, in this magical world, paperwork and administration is inconsistent.

There are no consistent laws, processes or papers, and merchants have to navigate all of them, often paying little bribes and incentives along the way. Even now the entirety of the Freshland is a complicated mess of laws and regulations, because in part of laziness and my distaste for this sort of work, and also I didnt want to force the entire country to obey one single set of laws.

Each of these segments brought with them different cultural norms and I had expected to let them run their own kingdom, in the way a federation delegates certain areas to the states. In that, every noble is a minor master of his own land, and so each of them developed their own versions of the law, so all in, its a hodgepodge of different rules and regulations.

But a lot of these can be smoothed over' if the officers and staff of the nobles all communicate, essentially forming a de facto organised unified bureaucracy. Like trade can be more efficient when theres less paperwork to be filled.

There are a lot of low lying fruits to be made as a whole. Like why is the merchants warehouse located in some inaccessible area instead of somewhere convenient for the convoys? Like why are goods not sorted properly. So many mundane areas that need someone to just spend them time to clean up and organise.

Essentially, what Thordrock wanted was to make the merchants life easier, supplement the nobles with capable subordinates. Its also a good way to transition from a feudal society to a more modern society, since it maintains the nobles position as a ruling elite, and yet delegates out decision making and administration to commoners. Its also a less controversial way of opening up a wide range of education to common folk without unnecessary noble resistance, since these common folk will be tagged to their noble employers.

But then, would Thordrocks influence result in administrators that are pro-merchants instead? I decided to look at all the nobles subordinates, whether there were any good teachers. This would take a while too, on top of all the other searches that Ive been doing. The artificial minds need time to process and assess the nobles, and also the various departmental offices.

At the same time, by allowing these administrators come in, would that not create the noble-commoner dynamic that I wanted to avoid? Unless I separated them.

But pragmatically, a segregated school is worse. In fact, my initial idea of a school for commoners is essentially elitist because that also implies there is a separate school for elites.

The relationship between commoners and nobles could go either way, but in any case, Id like to see these commoner administrators graduating and eventually run my future commoners school.

Its a rare time where its good that Im a magical tree. Im seen as outside the whole noble-commoner class system. If I were human, I would most likely face greater resistance.

Lets do it.

So, the Treetiary College opened up spots for the noble-vassals to join. The pitch to the nobles were simple, they needed competent subordinates to carry out the details and the gruntwork. Studying together gave commoners insight into the noble mindset and thought processes.

I understood this felt like a caste system, but if I want to slowly supplant and dismantle the noble structures, Id have to have a bureaucracy capable of operating with noble oversight and direction.

The initial weeks were rocky, there were some incidences of harassment, and so I had insisted that no bullying was allowed, and used my artificial minds to keep watch. Students are only allowed to fight and attack each other during combat practice. If necessary I would use my own abilities to break up any fights.

The commoners came in many ages. Some were the old servants and butlers of the nobles, strangely chosen to accompany their young masters to school. At first, I thought whether I should restrict the school by age, but I decided since it was the first year, Ill let it go. I would introduce age limits in the later years.

Not everyone likes change. Some need to have it in little pieces, ease them into it. Some like to a big bang change. But from what I've observed, change needs to be slow. A big bang change tends to create a larger and more immediate resistance. Slow, gradual change is akin to boiling the frog.

By the end of the year, the nobles have mostly accepted the presence of commoners as fellow students, even though most of them still feel themselves as a superior class. Its fine.

Boil the frog. Slowly.

Spaizzer

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