Out-of-Placers
A story of inconvenient changes
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OOPs now has a Russian translation which updates shortly after the English pages are posted!
Now also in French:
And Ukranian:
OOPs now has a Russian translation which updates shortly after the English pages are posted!
Now also in French:
And Ukranian:
Learning! Yay!
Wholesome crime reading.
bezt. zentenz. ever.
I like the “No Hazing” policy.
Me too, it’s good.
^_^
As much as I would never trust the trademaster I love that he builds a strong intelligent populace by fulfilling their basic needs.
Not necessary. Educating your police force may be motivated by the humanistic reasons, or it may be just because educated police makes for better policing.
Now, we’ve already seen that Viracroix is pretty big on “No starvation” policy (you could even say it goes to his head), but that does not necessary mean he would consider educating the general populace even if he was able and willing to spare the expense. Maybe he would. Maybe he wouldn’t. We don’t know.
I get the feeling he’s humanitarian as long as it’s profitable, even when the profits are intangible. The stockpile example that you mention is excellent, as it’s an intangible benefit (the trust of the people even through famine and siege) that he’s willing to pay for. This is probably similar; it builds the trust of the police/guard force in the trademaster, improves morale, and makes for a better force overall.
Note that this is not schooling. There are no teachers; the teaching here isn’t even being done through the library. It’s a small investment (extra paid time for guards) with no logistical overhead.
Kindness is wisdom, cruelty is folly. Even a complete amoral, if he’s smart and well educated, should be supporting the same kinds of initiatives a humanist would be, although probably not to the same degree, because they better contribute to his own welfare. The temptations to rob the future to pay the present, to for example to increase your wealth beyond a level at which you already have everything you need by acting at expense of the public trust, aren’t just immoral, they’re in a sense quite stupid even from a totally self-centered perspective. The genuine tangible gain doesn’t justify the risks, unless you have irrational impulses like taking pleasure in exercising power. Obviously there are many who do, but someone completely uninterested in morality, willing to do anything that was in their own interests, and who was entirely rational about their interests would probably not look all that distinct from a humanitarian in terms of public policy.
Well said. Enlightened self-interest leads to much the same place as genuine compassion. Unfortunately, most self-interested people are far from enlightened.
The other problem is that even when we get leaders who are enlightened, they leave power or die and their successors bungle everything. I call this the “Commodus Problem.”
so in a sense, it’s better to have a string of selfish but moderately competent leaders than to have one great enlightened leader followed by belligerent idiot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvskMHn0sqQ
i just remembered a video i saw some time ago about selfish motivation for making the world a better place
Trademaster to be ruthless, but not nasty. On the whole, he’s the type of man who believes in a fair deal to others, and if given what he thinks is a viable choice on how to go about things, will always go with “If things can be made better for everyone, let’s do that.” I think he would be okay with a general education system as long as it could be demonstrated to be cost effective, though at this point of technological development it’s likely not yet. But that would be about the numbers as opposed to “Lets not educate the filthy peasants, that is the right of the elite.”
technological development has always been a roller coaster going up and down because the general populace was never properly educated throughout history so had much difficulty preserving advanced development every time shit hit the fan and an advanced society collapsed or a library got burned. probably a few exceptions here and there but for the most part this was the general status quo throughout real life history for education to be accessible only to the elites.
The trademaster seems be many things, but he’s not a fool or a tyrant, foremost in his interests is the wellbeing of the city as a whole and not his own decadance. A well educated, happy populace leads to a smoother and stronger society. As long as its not actively hurting his city in any way, I think he’ll be fine with anything.
“…will be flogged”. One the few sentences in the English language that truly inspires team building and comradery than a taste of the cat-o-nine-tails, administered by ever so helpful and eager corporal.
Maybe it’s sarcasm? Or perhaps even genuine irony?
I hope not. Education — particularly when it comes to basic concepts — could use more of a those-who-make-fun-of-those-who-get-it-wrong-will-be-flogged, in general.
Aww I love this wholesomeness
I could imagine learning to read and write at an older age being pretty difficult, thankfully with proper motivation and support most learning curves are possible to get over.
So how do yinglets ring in the new year?
Bold of you assume the average yinglet can keep track of dates like that :P.
Now, [i]Vizlet[/i] probably “celebrates” having survived yet another year despite the best efforts of her enclave with an oyster bender…
Same way yinglets celebrate everything: Oysters and humping. LOTS of humping. LOTS and LOTS and LOOOOOOTS of humping.
Okay, something just hit me. The trademaster seems relatively young (explaining why some of his men seem unused to some of his edicts). Meaning he hasn’t been in power for more than a few years. Who was preceding him and how come he got to be in power so young?
Going by my experiences in Crusader Kings 2, I’d guess it involved most of his older relatives having tragic accidents involving snakes and exploding outhouses.
This counts as natural causes among nobility.
Back on page 49, the Trademaster did reference the fact that his great-grandfather needed to be, ah, “Retired” before his time. So he is no stranger to the idea of “accidentally fell from a balcony, so sad.”
There is such a thing as “Youngest inherets” instead of oldest inherets
Ultimogeniture. Notably not practiced by any ruling family ever because of its tendency to lead to massively increased infant mortality.
But on the same page, he indicate he had respect for his fater and Grand-father. So it’s less likely he actually shortened their life. Page 66, though, indicate his father might have been more prone to bend certain rule to favor other powerful people. The current Trademaster might have put him in some early retirement. Maybe even a non-deadly one.
signs seem to point to it being a family thing, pretty sure there’ve been references to at least one member of his family being trademaster before him but I could be wrong.
This is such a cute and wholesome scene.
This is a rather good feeling and inspirational comic.
this is so heartwarming. ;w; i love this guy.
Out of Placers–come for the cute and wacky Yinglets, stay for portrayal of a well-developed multi-species civilization.
Starting to see strong resemblances between Viracroix and Vetinari of Ankh Morpork, Discworld… except that Viracroix tries to seem more benevolent while Vetinari tries to be more menacing.
I wouldn’t say that myself. Back in the early pages, Kass was certain she was going to die when she heard Viracroix wanted to see her. You don’t get that sort of reputation unless you did something to deserve it.
Or have enemies spreading rumors about you.
Or have friends willing to spread those rumors about you!
It may be better to be feared than loved, but to be feared -and- loved is better still.
I get the feeling that Viracroix and Deus (from Grrl Power) would get along well. Up to the point where one of them is no longer useful, and has an “accident”.
I think you can add in Vetinari (Discworld) there as well.
They all are ruthless, but aim for progress that actually helps and works.
Goddamn, a lot of schools need to take notes on this shit.
I fully agree.
Oh, that is a tough one. Way to go Yuziv.
This is the awesomest thing! I find this to be utterly heartwarming, and delightful!
Somehow this is the one to finally make me smile. Thank you.