Post
by Infragris » Wed Jul 27, 2016 4:17 pm
It depends on who you ask. The Simulacrum is a good thirty years ago, so still in living memory, but much of the Empire has recovered: the provinces are no longer in open war with each other, most rebellions have been suppressed, the trade routes are open, and the war tax has been terminated. Most of the Legions are still quartered in the provinces, though, and there is some concern in Cyrodiil over who is supposed to pacify the hinterlands in their absence. The frequency of bandits and pirates in the provinces is an indirect effect of the Simulacrum.
Rumors about the doppelgangers are mostly confined to the lower classes. The upper and most of the middle class have recovered, and many are optimistic about a coming "golden age", comparing the Simulacrum to the troubles of the various Interregna (which were always followed by great revivals). However, the common people still feel the economical effects of the Simulacrum, and have since been hit by other crises (droughts, bad harvests, recessions). The popular protests in the Imperial City were originally against the war tax, but have been hijacked by various anti-centrist extremists who pin all their troubles on the elusive doppelgangers.
Nobody seriously believes that the Emperor himself is still a simulant: he is almost universally loved, and the difference in character between him and Tharn is quite noticeable. Similarly, there are very few who believe that the government is still under control of the simulants: the inquisition against Jagar Tharn's faithful was unprecedented, and still fresh in public memory. The Tharn Hierophants and the Dagonite cults, once one of the most important political powers in the Nibenay, have been completely erased, their strongholds burned, their statues defaced, and only a handful are still rotting in their cells beneath the Imperial Prison. Not since the days of Tiber Septim has a political bloc been erased in this way.
The concerns about the close family of the Emperor are based on an obvious question: how come none of his sons noticed that their father was replaced for ten years? The answer, it must be said, is that Uriel Septim was a cold and callous man before his imprisonment, and that he did not have a close bond with his sons. But to the people, their support for Tharn shows they were complicit, replaced, or incompetent. Similarly, many believe that Caula Voria, the Emperor's wife, and other members of the Voria Hierophants were in on Tharn's deception, and that they somehow escaped persecution (though Caula Voria has been unofficially banished to the Emperor's Summer Palace).
The current mood in Cyrodiil is not so much one of bleak pessimism as one of frantic distraction and agitation: it's five minutes to midnight for the fall of the Empire, and people are either in denial, indulging in hedonistic revelry, or plotting to seize whatever is left after the storm. But nothing has happened yet.
I feel like proofing a couple Ayleid docs and some rp plots I've used, and donating them, if they're worth anything to the project. (When I think Ayleid I think Chozo, if that sounds interesting.)
