Jade Taiga Renaming Ritual

The Black Spire, before it burned down, was called the Jade Spire, and belonged to the Empire.

The Immortal Sage commented thusly: It is, perhaps, a little obvious to center the Working on a Spire, but there is a symmetry to it, and a rightness. It will mean that the plan may be more obvious, however. The Chi of this country has been turned inward, away from the Empire as a whole, so it is that bond which must be reforged.

Build a Spire, or buy one with no notable history. Name it something dull and long-winded.

Building or transferring a suitable Spire is rare; happens once every few years. Building requires royal permission (Probably a favor + a respectable plan).

Regarding local architects, from Zhao Feiyan: The King's architect is Grand and Traditional. Sun Shoshana is probably her favorite young architect, but is possibly a little better for buildings with large grounds - she has a perfect eye for tying the building to the land - and not necessarily the best for a Spire alone. Guao Takai is all about the standalone buildings, but is possibly a little flashy and avant garde.

Cost of building or acquiring is likely in the 5-15 tael range.

Arrange to have three or more separate Imperial offices take residence, or open a "branch office" in the Spire. The Dragon Army, the Imperial Tax Service, the Imperial Spy Service - any number of these services have headquarters outside the Throne, though convincing them to share their address may be difficult.

Some ideas:

• A Dragon Army subcommand. Candidates are:
  • Construction -- Mushashi Nori
  • Roads -- Chang Hu
  • Rivers -- Ning Guan-pei
• An official office of the Regency Council (probably hard; see below)
• Imperial Spy Service
• Imperial Tax Service Zhao Feiyan advises against this one
• Imperial Cultural Office (acquires good stuff to adorn the capital)

Arrange to have an edict passed by the Regents, after a majority of the votes have been garnered in the Spire, rather than in the Throne. Having the Taiga Regent in residence and issuing invitations will likely be key here, though he will not count as an Imperial Office unless you somehow manage to convince the majority of the Regency Council to meet in the Spire.

Regents occasionally meet outside the Dragon's Throne, but meetings of 3 are rare and meetings of more than that are epically rare. Presumably if any Regent entertains other regents frequently, it would be the Taiga Regent.

Outwardly decorate the tower with some iconography or statuary of the Dragon, such that the populace 'naturally' begins to call it the Dragon Spire, or the Tower of the Dragon, or something like. I do not say that you cannot help the populace along with this naming, but it is important to have it appear to arise from the people of the Taiga, rather than be imposed by outsiders (even Imperial outsiders), or be an official name.

Sounds like what I need here is an architectural masterwork...

Finally - and this is the place where you should seek to have a spirit make a change in the World Above if you so wish - ground the Imperial nature of the spire into the Fox-nature of the Taiga, with a great speech given from the steps of the Spire, to mark something of sufficient note." (Charisma plus Chi, using both Oratory and Chi Mastery (and possibly other skills, if relevant.) Aspire to 20 successes.)

Well, there it is. I can certainly give a speech, though we will need "something of sufficient note" to give a speech about.

Assets

The category of things about which one might later ask "Why did you not list that among our assets?"

Friends and allies:

• Zhao Feiyan, the Pearl of the Taiga. Cai Wen considers her a solid ally.
• Li Kao will be standing right there, probably not helping overtly, but will probably see if the plan is running off the rails.
• Cai Wen's molls (not recommended to seek help from both at the same time...)
  • Bao, the Bandit Queen
  • Fen-Si, a servant at the Royal Spire

Other things:

• Black Spire Coded Notebook. Maybe it's time to figure out what's up with that and if we can use it.

Players

• The King. We actually know very little about him. His father was king at the time of the burning of the Jade Spire.
• The Regent, Zi Miro Khan. An interesting line from Cai Wen's recent info-gathering about him: The one place where his own agenda is believed to diverge from the King's is that he dislikes the Savanna more. Interpretation based on discussion with Zhao Feiyan -- Zi takes it personally if you make a deal with him and then cross him; and the recent war with the Savanna triggered that.
• The Dukes (Note that the recent emergence of a Black Duke and re-emergence of a Purple Duke has stirred things up)
  • The Water Dukes:
    • Blue: Duke Lan, who the party saved from being buried alive that time, and likes us.
    • Green: Duke Lu
  • The Fire Dukes:
    • Red: Duke Hong, who tried to bury Duke Lan alive that one time, and is not so keen on us for interfering. We also frame him for things from time to time.
    • Yellow: Duke Huang, also generally annoyed with us.
  • The Other Dukes:
    • Purple: Recently reclaimed by Chio Yasha (The Castle of Doctor Wu). Probably still building.
    • Black: Min Feng's half-brother, Song Yuanjun. We have a strange relationship with him. He's ambitious and occasionally creepy, but whenever we see him, we usually randomly help him. So we can probably get him to help us.

Action

• As of Noodling About: Working on Zhao Feiyan to get her help. Cai Wen has homework for getting her full backing. She warns that "The Spire Of Taxation" is really unlikely to go well. Takanata suggests "Allow sorties into the South" as an edict that we want from the Regency Council.

• As of the end of Book 7: Zhao Feiyan is on board; now negotiating with Regent Zi for his help.

• As of Talismancy, Regent Zi is on board, and the plan will include making the Spire a branch office of the Regency Council.
  • Both Zhao Feiyan and Zi Miro Khan have been completely briefed on the working and what it will do. The things I haven't talked about are that Spider is a demon, and that the name has changed before, because talking about that stuff never works. Please don't hold back information from either of them, regarding this working.
  • Things owed to Zi Miro Khan for his advice and assistance:
    • Full assistance (within reason) towards the set of votes that take place during your plan in the Taiga (i.e. in the step "Arrange to have an edict passed by the Regents, after a majority of the votes have been garnered in the Spire")
      • (Translation: I want you executing my vote agenda for this, but if there are specific things that you hate, we can talk about them first)
    • Reasonable assistance for two other Regency voting periods in the future.
      • (Translation: favor-sized assistance)

Note that while we will need to support Regent Zi's agenda at that Regency Council meeting in the Spire, it will almost certainly be an opportunity for us to get other things done that we want. Also, it will really annoy the Bureaucrat.

The Todo List

Some specific things needing help are in bold.

• Build or obtain a spire (Xiao Fa and Cai Wen are working on this). The name of the Spire should be dull and long-winded, e.g. “The Spire of Abundant Harmony and Citizenship Across The Empire”
• Arrange for 3 Imperial Offices to take residence
  • One will be the Regency Council
  • Need 2 more. Not the Tax Service! Ideas above. If you get leverage over an Imperial Department, this would be a great use for it.
  • Somewhere in here, the Spire is gifted/transferred to the Jade Taiga
    • Why: The politics are really hard to arrange when all of these shenanigans are occurring in a spire owned by a group of foreigners.
    • Want to arrange this in such a way that the King’s Council will agree to a joint ownership between the Taiga, the Regency Council, and the Emperor’s Holdings. The intent is to have an ownership which is not us, but which is complex enough (with local involvement) that it’s hard for the Marked to just swoop in and grab it or repurpose it.
      • The Council is composed of the King and the Dukes. Maybe there are other occasional members (like Regent Zi when he is present). Favors from any of the Dukes, or other influence with them, would come in handy helping arrange things in this Council Meeting.
• Arrange to have an edict passed at an official Regency Council meeting (with at least half the Regents present) in the Spire
  • We will need to make the Regency Chambers in the Dragon’s Throne “unsuitable for use” at an opportune time. We should not *ruin* the Chambers, just make them inconvenient. (Sewer malfunctions, leading to inauspicious odors, etc…)
  • Regent Zi (with our help) will then arrange for Regents to be lured to the Taiga; if we get enough he can start playing politics and the rest will come running to make sure they don’t get shut out. Will need some favors from Regents Exact number required is not certain -- at least 3, no more than 6, to get Regents to that meeting.
  • We'll need to fully support Regent Zi during that meeting
• Subtly help the populace figure out that the right name for the Spire is "The Spire of the Dragon"
  • Our interference in this has to be subtle. This name must appear to arise from the population.
• Arrange for a spirit to make the name change in the World Above
• Make a Great Speech (20+ successes) from the steps of the Spire, to mark something of sufficient note. Charisma plus Chi, using both Oratory and Chi Mastery (and possibly other skills, if relevant.)
  • Can't be just anything. May need a little more thought about what kind of event is appropriate... we may need to coordinate something or make something happen.