How can temple regents be dangerous?

[Capricia]

As the subject says, how can temple regents be dangerous? Sure, they can attempt to negatively Agitate but then the landed regent will remove them via levies, or form alliances with others. Any opinions please? I'm particularly interested as to how the White Witch can be dangerous.

Any temple should be dangerous if messed with. These are the representatives of the gods themselves, the regent's conduit to Haelyn and the entire pantheon. Each and every one of the regents of Anuire would have been raised and trained to believe in the power of the gods and their role in Anuire (which is pretty huge considering they are ascended mortals who grant their priests spells every single day.)

Without the support of the temples, no regent can have any ceremony done, nor can new ones be crowned. No bless lands, no lt's, no nothing. Add to that the very real threat of ex communication and you should have no player who would dare to mess with them. At least not too much or without provocation.

The temples have plenty of muscle to flex if pushed. Moonstrike Keep being a fine example.

[Green Knight]

Temples have magical might, monetary resources, political influence with landed regents, often some military might, and of course the have the upper hand in terms of being instruments of the will of god

Temple domains are among the most interresting to play IMO

[AndrewTall]

It's worth noting that while guilds have less cultural protection than the temples, many of the same effects would be in place to a lesser degree.

I agree - but people tend to see the religious issue more easily. Guilds should be heavily influenced by freedom - if the 20th century taught nothing else it should have taught everyone that governments are a hygiene factor for a healthy economy, not a motivating factor. (Apologies to non-economists in the room). One of the system shortcomings is its failure to embed this sort of thing in the system - if the government or temples start to control the guilds income should drop precipitously for everyone - similarly if the guilds takeover the law as corruption becomes endemic.

Pillaging the guilds means bankrupting hundreds of people - including incidentally much of the nobility (who are the wealthy in most systems and thus ultimately those investing in or running mercantile activities) and of course the usual property damage and the like. As a result it would cause widespread resentment and rioting.

[cccpxepoj]

As the subject says, how can temple regents be dangerous? Sure, they can attempt to negatively Agitate but then the landed regent will remove them via levies, or form alliances with others. Any opinions please? I'm particularly interested as to how the White Witch can be dangerous.

White Witch is bigger threat to Rjurick then any other awny, including Gorgon.
Why, because she is attacking the one thing that makes them Rjurick, their religion.
Also she is sending her agents to spread chaos across Highlands.
Personally, i think that you are looking at the things from a wrong perspective, there is more to the Birthright domain playing then a simple RP, GB, and war cards collecting and spending.

[Pauper]

The question was: How can temple regents be dangerous?

For me it started with the song lyrics of "One night in Bangkok"...

All I wrote in my Muggdoosh file (petty version here for download, better version at www.e-stories.org/) and some BR classics.

Clerical (like favoured soul is somehow cleric by style) wield a load of power in subtle ways. Clerics in BR are often seen as charismatic, so all Charisma based actions work for a regent of faith as well.

Rulewise Cleric regent has the masses behind or against him or her and is good at blessing the province, healing and dependent on a strong military as divine magics lack what arcane offers. In the PC game it is only rudimentary, yet cleric power comes from ...hey, clerics are legal, ain't distrusted and can be trained at even the most simple shrine

That god of psychopaths in BoVD makes the first shrine from razorblades, may even be tiny...

In BR faith is power, especially as it prefers to hide or combine with military, that is most I know spontaneously...

Defender song lyrics by manowar won't hurt monotheistic ears either...their "call to arms" could be quite inspiring when read with BR in mind?

Sorry to be rude, but my mood expressed in class is thug/cancer mage: Did you read the clerical realm magic? Or think about how a regent who heals an entire battlefield unit influences a battle due more than leadership?

Bäh!

[Thelandrin]

Personally, i think that you are looking at the things from a wrong perspective, there is more to the Birthright domain playing then a simple RP, GB, and war cards collecting and spending.

As with any game, there can be more than that or it can be as simple as just that. That of course doesn't actually answer the question of what a temple can do in domain play to be more dangerous.

[cccpxepoj]

As with any game, there can be more than that or it can be as simple as just that. That of course doesn't actually answer the question of what a temple can do in domain play to be more dangerous.

What cant he, if we look from a role playing point of view. If we are looking strictly by the mechanics there is still dozen examples of how the temple regent can be the real pain in the back.
If we are talking about White Witch, i will just say that she collects regency and gold from all type of holdings except source holdings. So that leaves her with a lot of regency points to spend on powerful and useful realm spells.

[Lawgiver]

Here are a few quick ideas. Sadly most of the temples aren’t the most reputable organizations and have as much if not more cloak and dagger/blackmail than other holdings.

-Controls investiture ceremonies. The temple could influence the leaders of lesser noble families to promote thorns in the side of the current regent.

-Offer tributes under the table to fund the armies of a regent’s enemies in exchange for security as the official state religion of both realms in the event of invasion.

-Seek out/promote religious relics of power/influence.

-Raise an army under the need for protection

-Contest Holdings. Not simply opponent’s holdings, but possibly even their own in a deceptive manner. They could then blame the negative outcome on the regent’s own guards, favored lieutenants or foreign enemies forcing the regent to act/spend resources to resolve or suffer disapproval from citizens.

-Espionage – supply state secrets elsewhere. Bring in information to sell to the regent.

-Arranging/breaking up political marriages.

-Offer to teach a regent’s child. Influences future generation and is a “hostage”/“pawn preventing attack from the regent. Though this can backfire if the child is injured/killed under their care. Though an astute/prepared player can quickly weasel out of that and spin the blame elsewhere.

-Declare a holiday/festival. Requiring indirectly that the regent spend his time and financial resources on a celebration.

-Sponsor a “Great Captain/Heresy” event = likely an Agitate event.

-Frame a favored lieutenant or member of the court for a crime. If you are really gutsy try for a member of the regent’s family.

-Summon/import a monster to cause havoc.

-Espionage – long term: cause the regent to be barren and be in need of an heir. Offer to bless them to “open the womb”.

-Cause and subsequently heal a plague.

-Inquisition [,Spanish]. No on expects it. Nothing like lots of suspicion and chaos with a witch hunt.

-Create a rift to the shadow world. Offer to close it. Of course it will require an elaborate and expensive ceremony and possibly funding of an expedition to retrieve some object. i.e. milk the regent for money to deal with the situation.

[kgauck]

Keep in mind the kind of temple regent under discussion is an enemy type temple regent. Presumably most of the kinds of things a temple regent can hold out are being met by friendly temple regents. So the question here is, in the absence of those things, what can a temple regent do?

Of course in the specific example of the White Witch, the answer is build law and guild holdings, because that's what the White Witch is doing as she moves into neighboring realms.