Part 1: Cleopatra Jones and the Conquest of the Tiers

Cleopatra Jones and the Conquest of the Tiers



Per goon vote Cleopatra here is going to be enforcing the evil laws of Kyros.



Cleo's stat array is a little unconventional. The game runs off what look vaguely like the Pillars of Eternity stats, but the Tyranny developers apparently thought Might increasing your spell damage was too confusing, so now ability and physical damage runs off might and spell damage runs off Qits. We are building Cleopatra to be a mage, so we dump Might and put the extra into Wits. However, we want to max Finesse because that increases accuracy on everything (and gives us more critical hits) as well as the protection we receive from armor. Most guides for the game's highest difficulty level tell you to max Finesse first, so we will do that and then stack up Wits as the game goes on. Remember, we still don't know any spells, and we won't until we either choose to pick up the Conquest sigil OR buy the ice sigil five minutes into the game. I hope you didn't learn ice magic in character creation, otherwise you're the big sucker!



For this reason, we are of course dumping all our stat points into Lore, because Lore is kind of the god skill in this game, especially for mages. Lore directly affects how much stuff you can stack into a spell, which I will explain more as we get there. A high Lore also lets you do things in dialogue. We want high Athletics, Subterfuge, and Lore, but mostly Lore because it's going to turn us into a crazy wizard powerhouse. We're only four off from the starting cap!



We are of course doing Conquest mode, because it's one of the things everyone remembers about this game's character creation. It's really cool!



The narrator for these opening segments is a character we have yet to meet, hence her referring to the Tiers as "our home".



Strength through unity is going to be a fairly major theme in this game - as well as how evil destroys itself through infighting - and it's handled in a way that makes sense rather than quantum transdimensional cats asking you if you want to ride the trolley.



So, Conquest mode! There is actually a LOT here and many of your decisions get recognized by the various characters who will react quite differently to the Fatebinder who negotiated a peace treaty and showed mercy vs the character who made everyone join the Scarlet Chorus, and we could end up with a bunch of different things.

That said, I'm going to take away most of the hard choices and turn it into Red vs Blue. If you live in America you're used to it by now. There are a few choices I will have the thread vote on.



This is a three year campaign of conquest where you either fight on the front line, administer from behind the lines, or do a mixture of the two. The developers are on record as wanting to implicate the player in the conquest, and it works very, very well.

Anyway, first vote:



We have to capture the Bastard City as it's our entrypoint to the Tiers.



We have three plans. Siding with the Disfavored gives us the Warrior's Respite ability, which halves our DPS and lets us regenerate health. Burning the city with the Scarlet Chorus has them teach us Fire Magic, which we otherwise can't get until Act 2. Fire spells do damage over time, but have the undocumented feature where people hit by them start panicking and start flailing around while on fire. It's basically a stun+dot combo, which is very, very good, and can be upgraded further later for more evil power. Lastly, we can take the Kyros option and lead a mixed force over the wall. This gives us the Concealing Shadows ability.



It's basically a get out of jail free card for a few seconds. Note that you can only get Warrior's Respite or Concealing Shadows from Conquest mode. Personally I always take the fire spells, but I can handle whatever you throw at me.

The other two choices are where we want to go. We have two options in Year 2.



The game offers us a few descriptions.

Apex: The troops of the mountain realm of Apex stood idle in the safety of their valley, biding their time as their neighbors in the Bastard Tier fell. In the second year of war, a joint force of the Disfavored and Scarlet Chorus crossed over the mountains to take control of the Tiers' central valley.

Lethean's Crossing: Deposits of iron made the settlement of Lethean's Crossing a strategic war asset. Kyros sent the Forge-bound, smith-mages of exceptional skill, to establish a flow of weaponry. Tunon the Adjudicator sent one of his Fatebinders to ensure the enforcement of Kyros' law.

We then need to pick one of three places for year three:



Stalwart: With its easily defended position and rich military tradition, the realm of Stalwart was the most formidable realm in the Tiers.

Vellum Citadel: Kyros' conquering glance fell on the Vellum Citadel - its treasures, its knowledge, its secrets.

Azure: Kyros dispatched the Archon of Stone to subjugate the nation of Azure.

Decisions Lie Before Us!

Who are we supporting - the Disfavored, the Scarlet Chorus, or Balance our rulings between the legions? Supporting one of the legions will get them picked 100% of the time in every choice except the Bastard City one.

Which ability do we want - Warrior's Respite, Fire Sigil, or Concealing Shadows?

Lethean's Crossing or Apex?

Stalwart, Vellum Citadel, or Azure?

Choose wisely! After we resolve the conquest we can actually play the game!