Empire

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==IC Prejudice==
Every year we use the winter break to look at aspects of the Empire game, with a view to trying to update things. We understand that changing things comes with a cost - people have to learn new rules or game elements and it can affect what people have roleplayed - but we want to ensure that we can continue to enjoy running Empire and people continue to enjoy playing it for years to come. Because we've all had such a long break from Empire, we've tried to use that time as an opportunity to change some really important parts of the game that either required major work or involved changes to the core setting. Hence major updates to things like the conduct process, costume and the armour rules.


The final change that we are making before the first event is to drop some elements of in-character prejudice in the setting. Altough Empire is a fantasy setting it is deliberately intended to have a more realistic feel to it, it's a game of politics and messy compromises more like Game of Thrones than the heroic ideals of Lord of the Rings. As a consequence many of the kind of conflicts that happen frequently in the real world crop up periodically in Empire. We've tried to be open about the fact that a setting that aims to play with ideas that drive realistic conflicts in the real world will produce things that can make people uncomfortable.
==Overview==
The lineaged have faced prejudice in some parts the Empire for centuries with briars particularly singled out. In Varushka there are doubts about their ability to stick to the important rules that keep everyone safe. In Navar and the Marches the briar's closeness to the Spring realm has caused many to treat them differently, often regarding them as fundamentally untrustwothy. And Highguard has always questioned the lineaged, seeing them as spiritual suspect. Even when they embraced the virtues with great passion, there was a view that they must continually resist the siren call of their blood, or risk corruption by their lineage. A few Highborn [[cambion]] and [[changeling|changelings]] even choose to saw their horns down to stumps, to demonstrate to everyone that they have renounced their heritage.


However, we've also deliberately shied away from some forms of conflict that we are not interested in including in our game, no matter how unrealistic that makes the setting. Our setting explicitly tries to exclude misogyny, homophobia and similar kinds of prejudice because those are not themes we think are worth exploring in a game like Empire. For a host of reasons we don't think explicit references to them or including them as themes in plot would add anything to the game. Conflict is an inevitable part of Empire, the game simply would not work without it, but we wanted to exclude ideas like misogyny that were felt were inseperable from their real world analogues.
Now for the first time the Synod has issued statements denouncing this unfounded prejudice, rebuking those who judge people for what they are instead of what they do, and stating openly that such practices demonstrate a lack of Pride. The statement of principle raised by Josephine of Adina's Charge and passed by the General Assembly with a greater majority is circulated to every congregation in the Empire. Three similar statements, one in the General Assembly by Friar Jack Reed, one in the Highborn Assembly by Tabris, Son of Armisael, and one in the Marcher Assembly by Mel Bleak failed to get greater majorities, but all passed by healthy margins.


One of the elements we did include in the original setting was widespread prejudice against briars. This was an explicit design choice, we wanted to create a character choice that people could take that would allow them to encounter discrimination and prejudice in the game. It's clear that some people have leaned into that element of the setting and enjoyed the roleplaying that comes from it. However after several years of running the game, it's increasingly clear that the inclusion of this prejudice makes the game less enjoyable for a significant number of players.
<div style="width: 500px; float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
{{SOP|statement=Pride inspires others, it does not demean them." People all over the Empire judge and demean briars for what they are rather than what they do. This is a massive failing of Pride and we encourage everyone to challenge any who would demean or condemn Briars based on lineage alone.|assembly=General Assembly|by=Josephine of Adina's Charge|vote=Greater Majority (1555 - 222)|when=Autumn Equinox 383YE}}


As designers we thought the distinctions between race in the real world and lineage in our fantasy setting were distinct enough that the comparisons (and there are clear comparisons) didn't matter. That was a mistake on our part. There are elements of lineage that are fundamentally different to racism in the real world, but the similiarities are still too close. That leads to situations where people sometimes adopt the language that accompany real world racism and transplant them into the setting which only heightens those similarities. Given our design decisions to exclude elements like misogyny or homophobia it is not a defence to say "that wasn't what we intended" when it is increasingly clear that it is what we ended up with.
{{SOP|statement=Recent targeting against briars and lineaged folk has seen some citizens regard them as non-humans. Since lineaged folk are able to experience true liao visions and reincarnate this is false and spreading such teachings contradicts Doctrine, technically heresy and our congregations must be reminded of this.|assembly=General Assembly|by=Friar Jack Reed|vote=Upheld (1117 - 80)|when=Autumn Equinox 383YE}}


So we've taken the decision to change the Empire setting and retire all overt prejudice against lineage. For a number of reasons, including continuity with recorded player actions, we've chosen to imeplement this change as a development that has occurred on the run up to the Winter Solstice. We are asking people to update their characterisation to reflect the changes in the setting, and we've changed the emphasis on some elements in the setting, but everything that characters did at recent events still happened. Current plots, like the one involving flowers growing from briar bark will continue, but we'll try to be clearer on the themes of those plots to reduce parallels with real world racism.
{{SOP|statement=From their earliest days Highborn children are taught that those who bear the touch of the realms are to be considered lesser and that those who carry lineage are to pitied. The virtuous build up their fellows, they do not tear them down. The virtuous inspire others to greatness, the do not demean them. This mistreatment tends to self-hatred among many of our people. Challenge yourself to consider actions you may consider second nature, or whether they can prevent others from becoming truly virtuous.|assembly=Highborn Assembly|by=Tabris, Son of Armisael|vote=Upheld (260 - 31)|when=Autumn Equinox 383YE}}


Obviously it is patently ridiculous that a society of millions of people could stop being prejudiced over night - no change like that has ever occurred on such time-scales in the real world. But we are doing this because we want to focus the game on politics, economics, war, intrigue and similar themes - the only way to change the setting is to update the wiki and ask people to change the way they play their characters going forwards. It's not practical or even desirable to play that out over a series of events, so we've taken advantage of this long period when everyone has not been playing Empire to change how they play their characters when the game resumes. Between the fact that this is an in-character evolution - and the strange mists that have taken people's memories - we hope that that will be sufficient explanation for most people to justify any changes to the way they play their characters.
{{SOP|statement=The magic of Spring is a strength to be yoked by Marchers, Landskeepers harness it in farming rituals - and Marcher briars use it every day of their lives. Ambition despises pettiness; prosperity despises waste. To leave briar strength unwanted is to give in to the false virtue of hatred which despises only for difference. The Marcher assembly calls for the nation to lift up our briar neighbours in Pride; to encourage greatness in their works. And to stop being dickheads to 'em.|assembly=Highborn Assembly|by=Mel Bleak|vote=Upheld (92 - 0)|when=Autumn Equinox 383YE}}
</div>
==A Visceral Response==
People look to the Imperial Synod for guidance and moral leadership, so when it speaks clearly in this way then it can have a deep and profound effect. Changing the views of so many people is not easy, especially in the Empire where the magic of the egregores exists to preserve long-standing cultural traditions. But even that force does not resist far-reaching changes that strike a chord with so many people at once. Adina's words are widely shared and widely discussed, alongside those of Friar Jack Reed, Tabris and Mel Bleak.


Although we've removed the explicit prejudice we have deliberately not made lineage irrelevant in the setting. It is still meant to be very important to your characterisation - and we've maintained some positive distinctions towards the lineaged. We've also remodelled the Highborn view of lineage in a way that is meant to remove the overt prejudice but replace it with a different approach that keeps lineage unique in that nation. It is important to stress that we know we haven't removed all prejudice or discrimination from the setting. Empire is a game of conflict between individuals, groups and societies - and there will always be parallels with real world prejudices and conflicts in that. Our goal here is to remove the explicit exhortation towards overt prejudice towards briars (and some other lineages) that produces language and interactions on the field that are too close to real world racism for us and some of our players.
Not everyone is willing to give up beliefs that they were raised with and there are many arguments between those who embrace the direction provided by the Synod and those who cling to traditonal views. Some say the Synod is wrong - that Pride is about embracing your past and never being ashamed of it. Some point to the example of [[Emperor Nicovar]] to show how the lineaged are a danger. For some it is simply a case that old habits die hard.


We've chosen to focus on the prejudice against the lineaged and deal with that first because it made sense to start with the thing that was simplest to improve. This change still leaves some enormous challenges that we've yet to undertake with respect to orcs and Imperial Orcs in the setting. We've removed the explicit exhortation towards prejudice that was part of the Highborn and Varushkan brief, because we don't want people to be off-brief for not being racist. But we need more time to improve the more complex elements of the game to improve them and the last thing we want to do is rush something out. We want to use this year to listen to as many people as possible who are affected by these issues and then take that onboard as we work out what changes we want to make next.  
==This is The Way==
But others go further than perhaps the Synod intended and ask why Imperial Orcs are not every bit as entitled to be judged on their actions and their accomplishments as briars? It is still only a few generations since the orcs of the Empire were granted their freedom and the Imperial Orcs were formed. In that time some of the prejudice, hostility, fear and mistrust has faded, but far from all. Highguard and Varushka in particular continued to question the worth of their fellow citizens with a few privately even suggesting that [[Emperor Ahraz]] made a terrible mistake. Most did not go that far, but you rarely had to go far in either nation to find someone who would question whether Imperial Orcs could ever be accepted in [[the Way]].


This isn't the first time we've made changes like this - we rewrote the Brass Coast background in 2019 to remove the matrilineal elements because of the clear problems they had. The Freeborn players responded overwhelmingly positively to that and took the significant changes to their backstory and roleplaying in their stride because they understood why it would make a better game. The changes we are making here affect every nation in the game, and we know they won't suit everyone, some people will have chosen to play a briar or character because they wanted to play with those themes of prejudice and discrimination, so this affects their game, but as with previous changes we believe this will continue to make Empire a better game.
In recent years two Imperial Orc preachers, Bonewall Rek and Bonewall Cole, led the General Assembly to approve amendments to the Doctrines of the Faith to include [[The_Doctrines_of_the_Faith#The_Doctrine_of_the_Howling_Abyss|The Doctrine of the Howling Abyss]] and [[The_Doctrines_of_the_Faith#The_Doctrine_of_the_Ancestors|The Doctrine of the Ancestors]]. These changes acknowledged the existence of Orcs in the Way, but the Doctrine of the Creator still speaks only of ''"Human destiny"''. Imperial Orcs can join the Assembly of the Way, but since they cannot use liao, they cannot join a Virtue assembly, no matter what Virtue they preach. Why is that?


===IC Justification===
Sadly, any discussion of changing doctrine founders on the assumption that the Sumaah will be implacably opposed. The Empire and Sumaah have a shared faith but that bond has been strained in recent times by the way the Empire has declared paragons and exemplars and changed doctrine without any consideration of the Sumaah perspective. It seems unlikel that the deeply traditional Sumash Synod could be persuaded to embrace change. Unlikely, but perhaps not impossible, they have certainly shown great interest in new doctrines.
We've chosen a handful of characterful Synod statements of principle as the in-character justification for this change. Normally we would respond to a statement in the general assembly that achieved a greater majority with a wind of fortune, some plot and some possible mandates. On this occasion we've skipped those steps and gone straight to the in-character consequences. We hope the players-characters who put those judgements forward are happy for their characters to take credit for this change in the Empire, but obviously this is an out-of-character decision that Profound Decisions have taken, it's not appropriate to criticise them for these changes in anyway. Nor is this something that could be reversed by in-character action.


===Key Changes===
==Flowers==
The introspection regarding briars is further turned on its head when it is discovered that some of the information about briars that was discovered at the recent summit and widely disseminated is in fact wrong. On the run up to the Autumn Equinox many briars began sprouting flowers from the patches of bark on their skin. No briar has ever grown flowers or leaves before, so this phenomenon caused widespread alarm. That fear intensified when it was announced that the flowers were sending tendrils deep into a person's soul and exerting some kind of malign control over them. Several Spring eternals were assumed to be behind the development, the whole affair served to increase suspicion of briars and may even have been the final straw that triggered the Synod to act.
 
Since the end of the summit the facts have emerged. Several notable physicks have attemped to repeat the investigation into the flowers and none of them have found any evidence that the roots penetrate more than a few milimetres into the skin. They go nowhere near the brain they have no way to penetrate the bone of the skull. Further, there is no evidence that they influence a briar's soul. For better or for worse, the passionate disposition of the Empire's briars is unchanged.
 
The flowers however are not entirely innocenet. It transpires that there is some malignant effect associated with them, and though the details are vague and contradictory, it seems that rather than employing briars in an attack on the Empire, the flowers actually represent some kind of threat against the Empire's briars.
 
==OOC Changes==
As a result of these game developments we have removed the lineage and species pages for all ten nations. Some content that is still relevant, such as the Freeborn belief that Cambions are excellent scriveners, or the history of the Merrow and Naga guilds in the formation of reckoners is still relevant so it has been moved to another appropriate page. But all guidance for a nation advising them on the canonical way that members of their nation view the Imperial orcs and briars has been removed.
 
This update reflects the fact that many characters across the Empire have responded to the Synod's judgements by openly questioning the views that they held until recently. How your character reacts to these changes is up to you, but at this point it represents an open question, there is no correct or best way to play the views of a member of your nation. You might cling to the traditional beliefs that your character has always had, or you may be reassassing long-held assumptions, either approach is valid for player-characters.
 
==Game Design==
This wind of fortune is exceptionally unusual in that we are deliberately not presenting any in-character levers for player-characters to contemplate in response to recent in-character developments and the words of the Synod. We've taken the decision instead to use the Synod statements as an opportunity for Profound Decisions to look at the elements of the setting that involve prejudice and discrimination with the view to making changes where we think it is appropriate. Because those changes will ultimately end up being implemented by Profound Decisions for game design reasons, we will deal with that directly by updating the game setting with an accompany in-character justification, rather than allow in-character game plots to become confused with out-of-character game changes.
 
What we plan to do is use 2022 to review the way the setting deals with these elements. After this event is over, and for the rest of the year, we will be soliciting feedback from all Empire players about their experiences with things like briar prejudice, orc prejudice, and similar and how that affects their involvement and enjoyment of Empire as a game. We're particularly interested to hear the views of BAME LRPers, but Empire features many different kinds of prejudice that are written into the setting - religious, national, lineage, species, magical ability - so we want to hear from anyone who plays or has played the game and is happy to share their experience of these issues, good or bad, with us.
 
Our goal is to collate that feedback and then over the winter at the end of this year we will form a working group to go through it in detail. That group will decide what changes are appropriate to make to the setting to make Empire the best game that we can deliver. Empire has always been promoted as a game that included challenging elements of the human experience like prejudice - and we don't want to shy away from moral conflicts. Much of the central conflcts of the game arise from the clashes between the ten nations and between the Empire and the enemies that surround it. But we do want Empire to be as accessible to as many people as possible, if we can improve it and make it accessible to more players then we want to do that.
 
Changes like this are complex and challenging, especially with a game that has been running so successfully for seven years. Hence we want to take our time, so that we can listen to people's feedback, and so that we can do the best job we can of designing and implementing any changes. We contemplated trying to take advantage of the long break to bring changes in, but in the end we felt it was more important to get as much feedback as possible first, to ensure that any changes we make were the best ones for the game.
 
We've also taken the unusual step of correcting a mistake that arose at the last event about what was going on with the briar flowers. We're genuinely unsure how that particular story got around, whether it was a reffing error, a player error, or a deliberate character lie, and normally we would not contemplate correcting something like that. We've done so on this occasion purely because the way that plot was playing out was clearly negatively impacting some player's experience of Empire and our choice was to either cut the plot or deal with the confusion. We hope that the briar plot can continue from this point without adversely affecting the game.
 
In the meantime, we've updated the setting to reflect the in-character changes that have occurred as a result of the Synod statements. These changes don't mean that all the previous bias has simply disappeared. Some characters in the world have changed their professed views, some have not. What the change does mean is that everyone is now free to choose how their character feels about the matter without any suggestion that there is a "correct" way for a member of that nation to act.
 
This isn't the first time we've made changes like this - we rewrote the Brass Coast background in 2019 to remove the matrilineal elements because of the clear problems they had. The Freeborn players responded overwhelmingly positively to that and took the changes to their backstory and roleplaying in their stride because they understood why it would make a better game. We will always try to make any changes as sympathetically as possible, but ultimately we want to provide the best game we're capable of running for years to come, even if that affects continuity in the short term.
 
It is important to stress that nobody is at fault for how they've played their character to date. We don't for a moment imagine anyone is racist in real life just because they roleplay a character who is prejudice against briars ororcs and it is wrong to suggest that. Where there have been some mistakes, is where players may have adopted or adapted the kind of language associated with real world racism to use in relation to orcs or briars when they are in-character in Empire. We have updated our conduct guidelines to make clear that phrases that echo real world racism, like "a briar in the woodpile", should not be used in the game under any circumstances.
 
Fundamentally though, this change is about giving us time to talk to players about Empire and look at what we can do to improve the game setting for everyone.
 
==Key Changes==
We've removed every single nation page discussing lineage and orcs. We've made a handful of changes to appropriate nation pages to reference the old prejudices that existed previously. We've also updated some pages to contain details of the positive ways in which people view the lineaged that were on the removed pages previously. Finally we've updated the religious beliefs page for Highguard to make clear the unique challenges that Highborn lineaged face that flows from their commitment to the Way. It's useful to read the parts of the linked pages for your nation that have been changed and the update to the language section of the conduct rules if at all possible.
We've removed every single nation page discussing lineage and orcs. We've made a handful of changes to appropriate nation pages to reference the old prejudices that existed previously. We've also updated some pages to contain details of the positive ways in which people view the lineaged that were on the removed pages previously. Finally we've updated the religious beliefs page for Highguard to make clear the unique challenges that Highborn lineaged face that flows from their commitment to the Way. It's useful to read the parts of the linked pages for your nation that have been changed and the update to the language section of the conduct rules if at all possible.


Revision as of 23:41, 6 April 2022


Overview

The lineaged have faced prejudice in some parts the Empire for centuries with briars particularly singled out. In Varushka there are doubts about their ability to stick to the important rules that keep everyone safe. In Navar and the Marches the briar's closeness to the Spring realm has caused many to treat them differently, often regarding them as fundamentally untrustwothy. And Highguard has always questioned the lineaged, seeing them as spiritual suspect. Even when they embraced the virtues with great passion, there was a view that they must continually resist the siren call of their blood, or risk corruption by their lineage. A few Highborn cambion and changelings even choose to saw their horns down to stumps, to demonstrate to everyone that they have renounced their heritage.

Now for the first time the Synod has issued statements denouncing this unfounded prejudice, rebuking those who judge people for what they are instead of what they do, and stating openly that such practices demonstrate a lack of Pride. The statement of principle raised by Josephine of Adina's Charge and passed by the General Assembly with a greater majority is circulated to every congregation in the Empire. Three similar statements, one in the General Assembly by Friar Jack Reed, one in the Highborn Assembly by Tabris, Son of Armisael, and one in the Marcher Assembly by Mel Bleak failed to get greater majorities, but all passed by healthy margins.

Pride inspires others, it does not demean them." People all over the Empire judge and demean briars for what they are rather than what they do. This is a massive failing of Pride and we encourage everyone to challenge any who would demean or condemn Briars based on lineage alone.

Josephine of Adina's Charge, Autumn Equinox 383YE, Upheld (Greater Majority (1555 - 222))


Recent targeting against briars and lineaged folk has seen some citizens regard them as non-humans. Since lineaged folk are able to experience true liao visions and reincarnate this is false and spreading such teachings contradicts Doctrine, technically heresy and our congregations must be reminded of this.

Friar Jack Reed, Autumn Equinox 383YE, Upheld (Upheld (1117 - 80))


From their earliest days Highborn children are taught that those who bear the touch of the realms are to be considered lesser and that those who carry lineage are to pitied. The virtuous build up their fellows, they do not tear them down. The virtuous inspire others to greatness, the do not demean them. This mistreatment tends to self-hatred among many of our people. Challenge yourself to consider actions you may consider second nature, or whether they can prevent others from becoming truly virtuous.

Tabris, Son of Armisael, Autumn Equinox 383YE, Upheld (Upheld (260 - 31))


The magic of Spring is a strength to be yoked by Marchers, Landskeepers harness it in farming rituals - and Marcher briars use it every day of their lives. Ambition despises pettiness; prosperity despises waste. To leave briar strength unwanted is to give in to the false virtue of hatred which despises only for difference. The Marcher assembly calls for the nation to lift up our briar neighbours in Pride; to encourage greatness in their works. And to stop being dickheads to 'em.

Mel Bleak, Autumn Equinox 383YE, Upheld (Upheld (92 - 0))

A Visceral Response

People look to the Imperial Synod for guidance and moral leadership, so when it speaks clearly in this way then it can have a deep and profound effect. Changing the views of so many people is not easy, especially in the Empire where the magic of the egregores exists to preserve long-standing cultural traditions. But even that force does not resist far-reaching changes that strike a chord with so many people at once. Adina's words are widely shared and widely discussed, alongside those of Friar Jack Reed, Tabris and Mel Bleak.

Not everyone is willing to give up beliefs that they were raised with and there are many arguments between those who embrace the direction provided by the Synod and those who cling to traditonal views. Some say the Synod is wrong - that Pride is about embracing your past and never being ashamed of it. Some point to the example of Emperor Nicovar to show how the lineaged are a danger. For some it is simply a case that old habits die hard.

This is The Way

But others go further than perhaps the Synod intended and ask why Imperial Orcs are not every bit as entitled to be judged on their actions and their accomplishments as briars? It is still only a few generations since the orcs of the Empire were granted their freedom and the Imperial Orcs were formed. In that time some of the prejudice, hostility, fear and mistrust has faded, but far from all. Highguard and Varushka in particular continued to question the worth of their fellow citizens with a few privately even suggesting that Emperor Ahraz made a terrible mistake. Most did not go that far, but you rarely had to go far in either nation to find someone who would question whether Imperial Orcs could ever be accepted in the Way.

In recent years two Imperial Orc preachers, Bonewall Rek and Bonewall Cole, led the General Assembly to approve amendments to the Doctrines of the Faith to include The Doctrine of the Howling Abyss and The Doctrine of the Ancestors. These changes acknowledged the existence of Orcs in the Way, but the Doctrine of the Creator still speaks only of "Human destiny". Imperial Orcs can join the Assembly of the Way, but since they cannot use liao, they cannot join a Virtue assembly, no matter what Virtue they preach. Why is that?

Sadly, any discussion of changing doctrine founders on the assumption that the Sumaah will be implacably opposed. The Empire and Sumaah have a shared faith but that bond has been strained in recent times by the way the Empire has declared paragons and exemplars and changed doctrine without any consideration of the Sumaah perspective. It seems unlikel that the deeply traditional Sumash Synod could be persuaded to embrace change. Unlikely, but perhaps not impossible, they have certainly shown great interest in new doctrines.

Flowers

The introspection regarding briars is further turned on its head when it is discovered that some of the information about briars that was discovered at the recent summit and widely disseminated is in fact wrong. On the run up to the Autumn Equinox many briars began sprouting flowers from the patches of bark on their skin. No briar has ever grown flowers or leaves before, so this phenomenon caused widespread alarm. That fear intensified when it was announced that the flowers were sending tendrils deep into a person's soul and exerting some kind of malign control over them. Several Spring eternals were assumed to be behind the development, the whole affair served to increase suspicion of briars and may even have been the final straw that triggered the Synod to act.

Since the end of the summit the facts have emerged. Several notable physicks have attemped to repeat the investigation into the flowers and none of them have found any evidence that the roots penetrate more than a few milimetres into the skin. They go nowhere near the brain they have no way to penetrate the bone of the skull. Further, there is no evidence that they influence a briar's soul. For better or for worse, the passionate disposition of the Empire's briars is unchanged.

The flowers however are not entirely innocenet. It transpires that there is some malignant effect associated with them, and though the details are vague and contradictory, it seems that rather than employing briars in an attack on the Empire, the flowers actually represent some kind of threat against the Empire's briars.

OOC Changes

As a result of these game developments we have removed the lineage and species pages for all ten nations. Some content that is still relevant, such as the Freeborn belief that Cambions are excellent scriveners, or the history of the Merrow and Naga guilds in the formation of reckoners is still relevant so it has been moved to another appropriate page. But all guidance for a nation advising them on the canonical way that members of their nation view the Imperial orcs and briars has been removed.

This update reflects the fact that many characters across the Empire have responded to the Synod's judgements by openly questioning the views that they held until recently. How your character reacts to these changes is up to you, but at this point it represents an open question, there is no correct or best way to play the views of a member of your nation. You might cling to the traditional beliefs that your character has always had, or you may be reassassing long-held assumptions, either approach is valid for player-characters.

Game Design

This wind of fortune is exceptionally unusual in that we are deliberately not presenting any in-character levers for player-characters to contemplate in response to recent in-character developments and the words of the Synod. We've taken the decision instead to use the Synod statements as an opportunity for Profound Decisions to look at the elements of the setting that involve prejudice and discrimination with the view to making changes where we think it is appropriate. Because those changes will ultimately end up being implemented by Profound Decisions for game design reasons, we will deal with that directly by updating the game setting with an accompany in-character justification, rather than allow in-character game plots to become confused with out-of-character game changes.

What we plan to do is use 2022 to review the way the setting deals with these elements. After this event is over, and for the rest of the year, we will be soliciting feedback from all Empire players about their experiences with things like briar prejudice, orc prejudice, and similar and how that affects their involvement and enjoyment of Empire as a game. We're particularly interested to hear the views of BAME LRPers, but Empire features many different kinds of prejudice that are written into the setting - religious, national, lineage, species, magical ability - so we want to hear from anyone who plays or has played the game and is happy to share their experience of these issues, good or bad, with us.

Our goal is to collate that feedback and then over the winter at the end of this year we will form a working group to go through it in detail. That group will decide what changes are appropriate to make to the setting to make Empire the best game that we can deliver. Empire has always been promoted as a game that included challenging elements of the human experience like prejudice - and we don't want to shy away from moral conflicts. Much of the central conflcts of the game arise from the clashes between the ten nations and between the Empire and the enemies that surround it. But we do want Empire to be as accessible to as many people as possible, if we can improve it and make it accessible to more players then we want to do that.

Changes like this are complex and challenging, especially with a game that has been running so successfully for seven years. Hence we want to take our time, so that we can listen to people's feedback, and so that we can do the best job we can of designing and implementing any changes. We contemplated trying to take advantage of the long break to bring changes in, but in the end we felt it was more important to get as much feedback as possible first, to ensure that any changes we make were the best ones for the game.

We've also taken the unusual step of correcting a mistake that arose at the last event about what was going on with the briar flowers. We're genuinely unsure how that particular story got around, whether it was a reffing error, a player error, or a deliberate character lie, and normally we would not contemplate correcting something like that. We've done so on this occasion purely because the way that plot was playing out was clearly negatively impacting some player's experience of Empire and our choice was to either cut the plot or deal with the confusion. We hope that the briar plot can continue from this point without adversely affecting the game.

In the meantime, we've updated the setting to reflect the in-character changes that have occurred as a result of the Synod statements. These changes don't mean that all the previous bias has simply disappeared. Some characters in the world have changed their professed views, some have not. What the change does mean is that everyone is now free to choose how their character feels about the matter without any suggestion that there is a "correct" way for a member of that nation to act.

This isn't the first time we've made changes like this - we rewrote the Brass Coast background in 2019 to remove the matrilineal elements because of the clear problems they had. The Freeborn players responded overwhelmingly positively to that and took the changes to their backstory and roleplaying in their stride because they understood why it would make a better game. We will always try to make any changes as sympathetically as possible, but ultimately we want to provide the best game we're capable of running for years to come, even if that affects continuity in the short term.

It is important to stress that nobody is at fault for how they've played their character to date. We don't for a moment imagine anyone is racist in real life just because they roleplay a character who is prejudice against briars ororcs and it is wrong to suggest that. Where there have been some mistakes, is where players may have adopted or adapted the kind of language associated with real world racism to use in relation to orcs or briars when they are in-character in Empire. We have updated our conduct guidelines to make clear that phrases that echo real world racism, like "a briar in the woodpile", should not be used in the game under any circumstances.

Fundamentally though, this change is about giving us time to talk to players about Empire and look at what we can do to improve the game setting for everyone.

Key Changes

We've removed every single nation page discussing lineage and orcs. We've made a handful of changes to appropriate nation pages to reference the old prejudices that existed previously. We've also updated some pages to contain details of the positive ways in which people view the lineaged that were on the removed pages previously. Finally we've updated the religious beliefs page for Highguard to make clear the unique challenges that Highborn lineaged face that flows from their commitment to the Way. It's useful to read the parts of the linked pages for your nation that have been changed and the update to the language section of the conduct rules if at all possible.

Conduct

The Brass Coast

Dawn

Highguard

Imperial Orcs

The League

The Marches

Navarr

Urizen

Varushka

Wintermark

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