Erfworld 119, page 107

[fendrin]

Datalaughing raises a very good point, one I'll have to think more about. Exactly what kinds of units would a pacifist in a wargame world want or need?

Banhammer was not a pacifist. If he would not have sent troops on merc missions. He is an isolationist.

What kind of units would an isolationist pop?
1) Those that help maintain the isolation (predictamancer, foolamancer).
2) Units that reinforce the culture that the isolationist is trying to maintain.

Is #2 even possible? I am doubtful. If Banhammer could do that, then he would have gotten his 'philosopher prince' instead of Jillian. That leaves #1 alone.

A place that looks like a strong and easily fortifiable position, with no foolamancer to veil it or distract intruders there for several turns. We know that a city that is destroyed may be built up again. There would be some remains of FAQ visible. Still no one went there to have a look. Or if they went they didn't find anything that would indicate a former settlement

Not really my point, I agree that by the time Faq fell there was probably already movement towards the RCC forming, distracting Stanley's neighbors from expansion to war.

What I meant is before the fall of Faq. If I were an overlord and my scouts reported an isolated, heavily defensible location, I would want to take advantage of it, either by setting up a new city (if that's possible), or by using it as a staging area/military base to hide my true forces from anyone checking out my known cities. Very useful to set up pincer maneuvers, strike unexpectedly while being observed, etc.

Only problem with this is the danger of speaking your own personal language.

Funny you should say that... I just last week started studying Theory of Communication and Philosophy of Language (just a coincidence that I'm doing those simultaneously). One fundamental idea present in both is that there is no universal 'true' language. We all speak our own personal language at all times. Understanding comes from the overlaps of personal languages.

Even the standards of English spelling and grammar that we (native speakers) were all taught in school were reverse engineered from written texts (predominantly Shakespeare, from my understanding).

But implicit that the Predictomancer could have NOT told to Saline IV of the Gobwin riot.

Precisely. IF the predictamancer served under Saline (which I highly doubt, but that's besides the point), not telling Saline about the riot would be a failure to do his/her Duty.

I wonder if Jillian did capture Wanda on one of her raids and brought her back to FAQ. Curiouser and curiouser...

Spoiler

Show

and that would explain how Wanda the Predictamancer could have betrayed Banhammer so easily. After all, captured units have notoriously low Loyalty.

While not precisely an argument against your idea, I do want to point out that it is incompatible with the notion that Wanda was Faq's predictamancer, as the predictamancer was instrumental to Jillian being popped in the first place.