We all know what Knud Knýtling had to say about plans
I'm sure he'd be just as optimistic as me.
On that note, here is the
next chapter. Rhoth is a fast updater...!
Spiritualism and Discovery - Rhoth's 1st turn Part 4
The great temple of Nharr on Rethellia was finally consecrated and quickly proved quite unifying for the Calling of Nharr. It was a symbol of Nharr's Word and Light that would be brought to all. Nharr's tenets to Explore and Expand before bringing His Light to others would be followed.
{{OOC - I like taking Discovery traditions first. I like to have the extra chance to discover anomalies, especially nice if you have a Meticulous scientist, and the left path also brings more science from simple exploration (if not quite as good as it used to be) and encourages one to build up their base science early to take advantage of that}}
Soon after, a derelict Irassian ship was discovered. What information would await the Calling when they finally managed to enter the ship?
Alas more Irassian activity turned out to be false leads
{{OOC - it sucks to fail on a 5% chance, but I do understand why they added it. Otherwise you could just wait on all of your anomalies until you get a well-leveled scientist (which is what I always did). Now all anomalies have the potential of failure so choices can be made whether to research it now or later.
Another contact in the Baeruta system to the west, in a different spiral, gave the Calling the chance to meet the Ess'Jaggon Hegemony. Unlike the other aliens that have been discovered the Ess'Jaggons were fairly religious, and somewhat friendlier despite the obvious religious differences the two nations possessed. The Ess'Jaggons believed in enslaving their own race though, a practice not condoned by Nharr. For now the Nharrians would attempt to be friendly and send their missionaries, but the false god of the Ess'Jaggons would one day be cast down into the pit of the Forgotten and Nharr would take his place in the devotions of the Ess'Jaggon along with all the rest of the galaxy.
Meanwhile the second portion of the tenets of Nharr were being enacted as the Calling was slowly preparing the way for the first colony ship to expand the worship of Nharr to other worlds. To that end they began studying ways to quickly colonize so they would not have to waste quite as much time and resources that could be better spent elsewhere.
{{OOC - since we are playing vanilla and have no ascension perks to shoot for there is really no reason not to shoot around to take the traditions that we want, and not necessarily worry about finishing one tradition tree before starting another. The only real penalty was a higher cost of future traditions. In many of my games I often play with less habitable planets than the norm, so the Expansion tree with its reduced influence costs for colonies and frontier outposts is a favorite of mine. The starter is also great if you can grab it early on as it drastically reduces the amount of time it takes to colonize a planet, reducing the energy cost and getting that planet growing quicker.
It's been a long road to new technological discoveries so far, but the scientists of the Calling finally made a few breakthroughs. finishing the Space Combat Doctrine and Orbital Energy Conversion. Some scientists in the Calling started calling for Planetary Unification, while others were championing the idea of using Fusion Power to replace the fission reactors currently powering the spaceships. Some others even championed the use of Powered Exoskeletons to boost the natural abilities of our mineral miners. High Inquisitor Zarax decreed that all three should be given equal time for research.
{{OOC - once again there weren't really great choices for physics research. Fusion Power is good, and necessary eventually, but in the early game I prefer trying to research some of the techs that make energy production easier, or Administrative AI for the flat research speed boost, or even Deflectors as they can make a big difference in early game combat if you have them and your opponent does not. But Fusion Power was the best of what was offered.}}
The Orbital Energy Conversion would be good to reduce the energy consumption of our spaceport, but the known space surrounding Rethell was already proving to be fairly rich in energy deposits and somewhat poor in mineral deposits.
Meanwhile in the Yon system traces of valuable minerals were discovered. Alas the Yon System was not as easily accessible to the Calling as other closer systems. One thing was certain though...the Calling of Nharr must find more mineral deposits to exploit somewhere or they would quickly fall behind their neighbors and the Glory of Nharr would be lost to the galaxy.
More to come later...