Variant Roots

Variant Roots

Year 213

I see the transportation went smoothly. Glad to see you, Master Johann. I rotated domain holders between the two worlds. One of my newer treefolk lords, Baron Threid, and a delegation of administrators were present to greet him when I sent him over.

I could send him over unannounced, but the Valthorns have a huge operating procedure built up for fixed deployments, so I went along with the bureaucracy. Baron Threids kind was a rarity on Mountainworld, but he was one of those willing to take a relocation package over the Branchhold. At level 50, he was relatively lower level, but that was normal for those with noble classes. Noble classes and ruler-classes levelled slower, just like those with the higher tier or upgraded classes, but they made up for it by their aura and other state-level abilities.

This act of greeting domain holders and receiving visitors was one I felt a bit iffy about. There was an element of brown nosing that I didnt quite like, but Lumoof and my senior leaders claimed that it was nothing more than a good practice of hospitality. Eventually, I settled and agreed to let the practice continue, but forbid lavish and large receiving parties.

Well, Im here for my assignment. Hows everything? It was his first visit to Branchhold this year.

Baron Threid shook his head. We caught another four spies. Im fairly sure Branchhold is infested with spies at this point. Our spies are trying to weed out the rest, but with so many immigrants, its quite hard. Some of them essentially do nothing but feed info back to their minders back in the kingdoms.

Johann laughed. Well, Im sure Aeon saw it coming, so good luck there.

Baron Threid paused at the statement. Would you be assisting the counter-espionage efforts?

Johann looked at the Treefolk Lords misaligned eyes for a moment, and shook his head. Treefolks were not what people would consider pretty. They were more tree than people, and so their body structure was unusual. No. Thats not what Im here for. Counter-espionage remains the task of Branchholds designated council. I believe Aeons intention is for the council to level, so it wouldnt be right for me to interfere.

Ah. I see. I would step in if things really got out of hand, but its important to let the people make mistakes and learn from them, as long as it wasnt a lethal one.

That said, I did find my tolerance of lethality increasing over time.

Instead, I want a briefing on the latest wars of the foreign nations.

Baron Threid nodded. Right this way.

***

There are days when I think war is inevitable. The system facilitates and encourages the act of combat.

Not just that. There are days when I thought war was good. The system is part of this worlds nature. It is how this world works, and war was how the system and people of this world ensured the survival of the fittest.

The survival of those who could gain the levels and skills needed to survive. War accelerated that process, as conflict ensured and required each and everyone to strive harder to protect what they have, and to survive.

War was coming, because the system encouraged it.

War was coming, because those who survived are better equipped to face the future.

It was a morbid, cruel assessment of the world. Or was it me, becoming numb to this constant state of war?

Despite the benefits of war, it came at the expense of generational learning, because war encouraged destruction of infrastructure and knowledge. War was the equivalent of stepping on others to go higher, and destroying other's ladders.

There had to be a balance somewhere between the two, and I wasnt sure whether the Central Continents model was the best one, even if it worked very well so far.

I also didnt think it was right to transplant a governance model that worked for the Central Continent to Branchhold and the wider Mountainworld as a whole, because both worlds and people had different histories.

Johann sat and contemplated the briefing, my spymasters had built a basic information gathering network throughout the other kingdoms of the Mountainworld. This complemented the information I gained through my trees, which also expanded outward.

The Mountainworld people fought a lot. In fact, the wars of this era seemed more violent than ever.Fịndd new updates at novelhall.com

The level 80s of the Mountainworld fought each other, and their levels meant the destruction they wrought was more extensive. Conflicts seemed to arise from the smallest things, the rulers eager to shake the status quo with the military power accumulated over the decade of war.

This was partly why there was a surge in immigration to Branchhold, once it became clear to the population of the world that no one actually attempted to invade us. Branchholds military power remained a huge unknown to the people of this world.

We should arrange a visit to the Central Continent of Treehome, and establish the sheer gap in power between our two worlds. Once they realise the kind of military power we have, it would greatly ease our efforts on Branchhold.

What was the point in that, really? Show that we have a bigger stick? Was there a point to scaring the people? Is it not the same as what the heroes did? Their presence frightened the other nations into compliance, and gave them the right to have their own kingdoms.

Its useful to get some of the nobles to work with us. There are those who feel that they can oppose us if they combine their might.

Fear. Id prefer if we were liked, but then again, being liked never stopped them from fighting against us. If anything, Id like my spymasters to bribe, blackmail, preach and twist these other nations to get out of my way.

After all, why kill when you could convert them or bribe them? Its unnecessary bloodshed. Moneys not an object for me anymore.

Maybe.

The strength of planning and foresight allows the accumulation of our efforts towards a larger goal. Something that cannot be achieved through instant reaction and living day by day. There has to be a guiding path, or a focus.

Its the equivalent of a corporate ethos and culture, towards some kind of goal.

An organisation this large, by sheer number of actors and players would generate many contradictory forces. A noble in one part of Treehome would and could take the exact opposite direction as another noble. Its impossible to force everyone to be perfectly aligned. Its too much effort, and means turning everyone into robots.

Ultimately, it boils down to the question of, what kind of world did I want Mountainworld to be?

Does it even matter, if its main function is to serve as a massive mana generator to complement my future mana requirement?

Why was I doing this?

***

How do the immigrants take the rule of the council? Johann asked one of the relocated administrators.

Not well. Language differences are getting better, but they are still unused to the way many things are done. Theres also no respect for the Valtrian Order, which makes it harder for the Order personnel to carry out their work. The priests are having a slightly easier time, but its not smooth sailing either.

Johann spotted many small aggressions and conflicts as the relocated administrators and guards tried to impose their version of order onto the refugees.

Most accept it, even if they dont understand. After all, they came as refugees to avoid the threat of war, but there clearly was some expectation gap. They expected life to be similar back to where they came from, not this accelerated-uplift society where they had to adjust to how I wanted this city to be.

This was a result of my will being in conflict with those of the refugees, and frankly, many made the journey with incomplete information.

I could solve this problem by allowing mass migration from the Central Continent to Branchhold, but I wanted to see how receptive the local folk were before I did that.

I also had some concerns about facilitating such a large movement of people between worlds, and I wanted rules and proper process before such things were permitted. The artificial minds could be granted authority to operate the inter-world transportation, and the necessary mana budget, so that freed up one part of my mental load.

***

There was a strange problem that emerged for those who came from the Central Continent. I didnt notice it immediately because of the presence of my healing aura in Branchhold, but my spymaster noticed it in their field operators.

Diseases of another world.

Those with my familiars, or those close to my clone trees were spared thanks to the influence of my [healing aura], but the spies that strayed further, some without the protection of my familiars, got sick. A lot.

Most diseases were mild, but it was another aspect that I did not foresee. Stella swiftly reminded me of the diseases brought by colonisers during the age of exploration.

The inverse did not occur, simply because my people were generally healthy thanks to the effect of my [healing aura], so they didnt carry that many diseases. My [Biolabs] quickly collected some of these disease samples.

Then we realised these diseases of Mountainworld were made of magic.

***

I eventually agreed to a learning visit for the refugees and the nobles. I thought about it, and realised, maybe intimidation wasnt a bad thing.

It was the whole idea of a nuclear deterrence. I had the impression that my domain holders already qualified to be my nuclear deterence. I also wanted the refugee representative to see for themselves what kind of culture and society we had back on Treehome.

Many refugees have their own defacto community leaders, which we selected for the trip. In total, about 100 refugees would take their first trip to Treehome.

Their arrival on Treehome was a quiet one. I had not fully declared their presence here, so they were shuffled like tourists on tour buses, always escorted by security personnel.

They were frankly awed, the equivalent of jungle bumpkins entering the city for the first time.

Spaizzer

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