Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

After fifteen days, Shasta returned with the refugees and the two goblins who had been taught the dwarven language.  I spent three days interviewing all the refugees with the help of Shasta as a translator.  Of the thirty-two refugees, six have decent reasons for being here as refugees under Elloetta's guidance, and the remainder are direct family members of those six.

One was a political leader named Lucian Armand who started spreading the rumors of The King and Baron's death at sea over a month before it could have happened.  As far as I could tell from the conversation I had with him, he was a pawn for Elloetta.  He had kept up some amount of connections with the elves even after the majority of Rathland's political elite had cut ties with them.  He had gotten multiple 'tips' from elves that The King and Baron had died at sea right away, and so he had acted on that information in a way that he believed would stabilize his region in Rathland.  Needless to say, what it really resulted in was civil war breaking out far in advance of any actual problems occurring for Rathland's actual leadership.

As the civil war dragged on, his region was slowly taken over, and he fled the country with his wife, mother-in-law, and five kids, two of which are adults.  The principality that is now in control of the region has a bounty out for his family, and Elloetta wants to keep them hidden.  Although Lucian wouldn't reveal the exact details of the bargain he struck with Elloetta, the basics of the situation are that Elloetta seems concerned about some information getting out if he were to end up captured back on the continent.  I'll keep that in mind when I talk to Elora about settling our debt to the dark elves.

Although Lucian may not be the best example of a political leader, given how things turned out for him, I'm sure that he still has valuable skills when it comes to managing large numbers of people.  I'll likely set him to work in city hall, though he won't have any direct power.  Much like Elora, I'd like to get some goblins to work with them and learn their skills.  Managing and deciding on longer term jobs and planning for crop income and taxes aren't easy to do year over year.  Until now our city has been small enough that we simply have a food surplus.  We've also only recently started delegating certain expansion work out via Zeb.  Ideally, Lucian will be able to fill the role of planning out certain needs like new marketplaces and workshops before we need them rather than after.

The second of the refugees of note was a harbormaster from Lucian's territory.  From what I gathered from him, he neglected to report when elven ships used the harbor he oversaw, in exchange for a kickback from the elves.  From his testimony I'm starting to form an idea as to who exactly the elves wanted to move so far away from the mainland.  He also fled with his family.  Despite the fact he's clearly willing to accept bribes, if we decide to attempt to build a full fledged harbor, it will be nice to have him around for information.

The next three refugees further reinforced that the refugees were elven collaborators.  All were individuals in Lucian's territory who collaborated with the elves in some way or another that either directly or indirectly caused the civil war to break out earlier than it would have due to information spread by the elves.  Two were merchants who traded with the elves and gave them rides on carriages across Rathland's territory.  The last of the three ran a particularly large inn that multiple elves used as a base of operations while they stayed in Rathland.

Ultimately, of these five, Lucian was the last to flee.  For the rest of them, elves came fairly early into the civil war and encouraged them to flee the country for their safety.  There were other individuals who were also warned to flee, and those that didn't heed the warning ended up dying in one way or another.  From the stories that were told, most of the incidents sound like brutal interactions with local authorities, but based on the evidence, I can't rule out that the elves themselves were just silencing participants in their conspiracy.  Though I'm not sure why they wouldn't just kill all their co-conspirators if that was the case.  I'll think on that theory and keep an eye out for any other clues that might lead me one way or another.

Before Shasta brought in the last of the refugees, I was given multiple documents related to them and she gave me a briefing on what Kao's group could figure out about them.  The person in question is currently going by the name Tiberius Lysandre, but it was clear in the documents that this wasn't their name before.  Unlike the other individuals who are here of their own free will to some degree, Tiberius was kidnapped initially before agreeing to come here.

That was somewhat unsettling information when it was revealed.  We aren't looking to become a criminal state, and even hosting the individuals we have now could be seen as an unfriendly act towards the human countries who want them back.  Kao's group was paid a hefty sum not to look into who Tiberius actually was, but I was paid no such fee, so I decided to pry.

From the conversation we had, it was clear that Tiberius was some form of magical researcher in Rathland.  Further, they seemed to be an integral part of designing the steam cannon that was featured in the ship that Rathland used to attack us.  As the conversation went on, it sounds like Rathland reverse engineered an initial steam cannon from "the demon's pirate ship" once they captured it, and then modified it to use Rathgore blood as a faster firing device.

I had assumed that the person who I saw studying our steam cannons a few years ago in the middle of the night had already studied the blood powered cannon as well, but from what Tiberius says, things don't line up for that.  I am impressed that on relatively short notice they seemed to convergently come up with the idea of using certain kinds of blood to boil liquid and create a steam powered cannon like ours.  That technology was born from necessity for us, and once we had the means to make gunpowder, it started to go obsolete in light of rifled cannons and mundane cartridges.

Tiberius wasn't too happy by news that we had forgone the magical research in favor of rifled artillery though.  He agreed to come here and hide his identity because he believed that there was insight into magical technologies that we have and he wanted to continue his research into it.  Apparently, the reason he's hiding his identity is that his actual name is well enough known that there is a decent chance it would be recognized and would cause problems for all parties involved if word got out that he was here.

Well, I've wanted to start research into magic for some time, but I've personally found myself lacking the time or jumping off point to do so.  Tiberius coming here might be a good starting point for that, although his moral compass seems a bit dubious.  More than that though, from what information Tiberius gave us, I think I've started to get a good picture of what happened in the past few years, and I think I need to have a word with Elora.

If my hunch is correct, it seems like all of the events that have happened in the past few years can probably be blamed on the elves.  While it isn't impossible that Rathland made the demon pirate ship, I'm starting to suspect that the elves may have done it as a method for goading Rathland into war with us.  I don't have any direct proof, and probably couldn't even prove it in a convincing way, but I might be able to at least use the information to get our debt removed if I use these refugees as bargaining chips.

I'm thinking Elloetta moved all these particular refugees here so that everyone related to why Rathland collapsed as a country is in one location with dubious reputation.  At this point, if word got out that all these individuals who seemingly had a hand in the collapse of Rathland were found on our island, most people would assume we were behind the whole event, rather than the elves.  We could, however, threaten to immediately ship them back to the mainland and let them testify that the elves were behind the whole thing, and that would cause political turmoil, which is probably why Elloetta left Elora to keep an eye on us.

That works two ways though, and I intend to use it.  Sure, it might upset the elves somewhat if we do so, and I am still afraid of them, but if both us and Kao were used as pawns just so Elloetta could get rid of Rathland, then I don't exactly see it as fair that we're also paying them money after having so many individuals die.  To what degree Kao is aware of the situation, I'm not sure, but I suspect that he has his own suspicions.