These Special Events^TM are the result of a few interesting things that've happened over the last few parts. They don't replace regular faction events, and aren't evenly distributed amongst factions. Each event will state its scope, and who is eligible or required to choose an option for it.

Special Event 1: Penance

Personal event for /u/hahaheeheee.

Emperor Beng Dingghao has been instructed by the Voice of Heavaime that he must pay penance for his father's sins, or face losing Heavaime's Mandate. But the Voice of Heavaime failed to specify how exactly to pay that penance.

Pick as many options as you like.

1. These are my father's sins, so my father must pay the ultimate price! I shall ritually sacrifice my own father on the Altar of Aime on the Holiest of Holy Days!

2. As the Good Book says, "Slave labour is the way. The only way." I shall sell myself into slavery for a year and a day. [Note: This will count as investing /u/hahaheeheee for the part, making him unusable in plots and other actions that require player investment.]

3. They say that Aime loves languages, in particular some Western tongue called "French". I shall learn this "French", and see it taught in all schools throughout all of Taiwan!

4. Penance shmenance. I am the rightful Emperor of Taiwan, and it is my inalienable bloodright to hold the Mandate of Heavaime! [Note: Mutually exclusive with all other options.]

5. Heavaime shmeavaime. This Mandate is more trouble than it's worth; Aime can have it back. [Note: Mutually exclusive with all other options.]

Special Event 2: Slave Labour is the Way (The Only Way)

Personal event for /u/ThyReformer.

After being abducted by Taiwanese pirates, you have been sold to a wealthy slave-monger in Iowa City. This slave-monger seeks to resell you to one of his many clients, and make a huge profit from it. The slave-monger employs many guards who keep close eyes on his products, making direct escape risky and unlikely.

Pick one option.

1. I'd best get sold quickly, so I can get away from here and into the hands of someone easier to escape from. Time to brush up on my book learnin' so that I can be sold to work as a tutor, administrator, or some other cushy, poorly-guarded job like that.

2. I'd best get sold quickly, so I can get away from here and into the hands of someone easier to escape from. Time to hit the gym so that I can get fit enough to fight my way to freedom, and get sold to work as a common labourer who'll be easy to lose track of.

3. I'd best get sold quickly, so I can get away from here and into the hands of someone easier to escape from. Time to find a stylist so that I can get sold as a harem member or a prostitute.

4. This slave-monger is a prick for holding me here. I'll go out of my way to appear as the dumbest, weakest, ugliest, and laziest slave around, so that he'll be unable to sell me for much profit. That'll show him!

5. This slave-monger is a prick for holding me here, and being a slave sucks. I'll jump into a well or something to end my suffering, and ensure that he won't be able to sell me for any profit at all.

6. Bah, these are coward's options. I'll sneak out, guards be damned!

7. Bah, these are coward's options. I'll fight my way out, guards be damned!

8. Bah, these are coward's options, and I've gotta show this slaver who's boss. I'll rally my fellow slaves and lead a slave rebellion to freedom!

Special Event 3: Beached Whaeru

Faction event for the Sulu.

A large crowd has assembled on the beaches of Bauang, your former capital. The reason they've assembled is that a giant, rotting whale carcass has washed up on said beach. Although the stench is horrendous, and your augers have informed you that the whale is liable to explode at any moment, your bravest operations teams approached the whale, and entered through whale's porous, decaying flesh. Beyond mounds of necrotic whale-blubber, your teams have made several interesting finds within the whale's stomach.

Firstly, the partially decayed corpse of your former leader, Cahaya Bulan ‘the Quiet’, identifiable from the ragged remains of his customary robes. His corpse is mostly intact, except for his skull, which looks as if it was cracked open, as if it were an egg. There's no rotting brain tissue within the skull; it's completely empty.

Additionally, several other bodies have been found, in varying states of decay and intactness. Although many of them appear human, others have bone and tissue structures that your physicians do not recognize. Many have, according to your naturalists, some bone and tissue structures resembling those of various aquatic animals, especially on the appendages, respiratory regions, and, most startlingly, the head. Several of these bodies show signs of damage; whether by deliberate violence or mere ravages of crashing about in a whale's belly for however long, you cannot say.

The whale itself, according to your top scientists, appears to have been rotting and decaying for some time. For how long they cannot say, but the possibility that it died shortly after engulfing Cahaya Bulan, or even well before then, cannot be ruled out.

Pick one option from Section A.

1. Well, I suppose we should bury the corpse of our former leader, now that we have it.

2. Maybe our new leader should devour his predecessor's remains?

3. Remove this vile thing from my sight! Shove it back into the sea, burn it, I don't care! Just make it go away!

Pick one option from Section B.

1. Maybe the necrotic whale tissue and the remains of these sketchy bodies could be useful for our super-soldier experiments?

2. Maybe the necrotic whale tissue and the remains of these sketchy bodies would good food supplements for our citizens?

3. Maybe we should throw the whale's carcass into Krakatoa? [Note: Requires 2 to 4 naval units to transport and escort the carcass; you choose how many.]

4. This is clearly a sign of how blessed we are! Create a great shrine to the whale and its denizens on the sight, and let none but our most unholy cultists disturb it!

5. Remove this vile thing from my sight! Shove it back into the sea, burn it, I don't care! Just make it go away!

Special Event 4: Inspection from the Motherland

Faction event for the Dutch.

After hearing of your conversion to communism, your requests for blacksmiths, and now the murder of your Governor-General, the Dutch Republic Council has finally decided to send an inspection team to see what's going on in their colony.

Pick one option.

1. Shit! Hide our manifestos and forge some profit statements! Sweep everything else under a rug somewhere!

2. Motherland shmotherland. Throw the inspectors into the sea as soon as they arrive! Vive la revolution!

3. Hire some local native goons to ambush the inspectors before they reach our cities. We can't have them see how much of a fuck-up we are.

4. Welcome the inspectors, and show them everything. The motherland will soon convert to communism after seeing how much of a flawless success we are.

5. Pledge your loyalty to the Motherland before the inspectors, and plead for them to send an armada to come wipe out the communist infestation.

Special Event 5: Stigmata on the Unborn

Regional event for factions which control Tephumonist cities.

In the great Tephumonist cities of Burma, the Khmer, and beyond, your censors and midwives have noticed new, disturbing trends amongst the newer generations. Newborns are exiting their mothers' wombs with oddly geometric scar formations, with six digits on their hands instead of five, with translucent colourless hair, with mismatched eye colours, with one uni-nostril instead of two, and other strange and unexplainable deformities. While the earliest cases were sometimes blamed on abuse, as the number of cases grew, it became apparent that there's a deeper, more widespread cause. Other mutations, such as long spindly fingers, a lack of toenails and fingernails, enlarged bulbous craniums, long pointed teeth, and unusual distributions of fat and muscle mass, became evident in some members of the generation in the months and years after birth.

While these oddities are definitely creepy, those marked with them seem to otherwise generally develop normally and healthily. The first cohort of those so marked is just entering adolescence, and the younger cohorts born after them all seem to be exhibiting similar marks, in slowly increasing frequencies.

Pick one option.

1. Huh. Interesting, but nothing we really need to concern ourselves with.

2. Purge the mutants! [Note: May lead to significant unrest.]

3. These people need our help! Send in the physicians and scientists to figure out what's going on.

4. These people need our help! Send in the priests and mystics to figure out what's going on.

5. These people are destined for glory! They shall form our next caste of leaders!

6. These people are spooky and scary. Fast-track them to our boot camps, military academies, and secret police institutes!

7. These people are cursed. They will be allowed to live, but they will form a lesser caste of slaves and outcasts.

Special Event 6: Thunderstorms and Lightning (Very, Very Frightening)

Regional event for factions which control Kloist cities.

Above the great Kloist cities of the Khmer and beyond, foreboding storm clouds brew, and lightning zaps the tops of buildings and the heads of unwary travellers. The people cower and hide, and the priests pray and pray for the storms to abate. But alas, they do not. It now falls to you to figure out how to restore good weather to your lands.

Pick as many options as you'd like.

1. The Great Klo, patron of the elderly, is clearly displeased because we aren't respecting our elders enough. We must rearrange our government institutions so that the wise elders govern the impudent youngsters.

2. The Great Klo, patron of the elderly, is clearly displeased because we aren't respecting our elders enough. We must establish shrines in every household to venerate our ancestors.

3. The Great Klo, patron of the gainfully employed, is clearly displeased because our unemployment rate is too damn high. We must cut taxes to spur more private sector job growth. [Note: Mutually exclusive with Option 4.]

4. The Great Klo, patron of the gainfully employed, is clearly displeased because our unemployment rate is too damn high. We must raise taxes and employ more people in public infrastructure projects. [Note: Mutually exclusive with Option 3.]

5. The Great Klo, patron of the gainfully employed and enemy of formal education, is clearly displeased because our unemployment rate is too damn high and our youths are wastin' too much time with their book learnin'. We must kick all students out of their schools and set them to work in the mines and fields.

6. The Great Klo, the Illuminated One, is clearly displeased because we aren't illuminated enough. We must put a fireplace in every home and a torch on every wall to better illuminate ourselves.

7. The Great Klo, the Lord of the Waves, is clearly displeased because we don't have enough boats. We must build more boats.

8. The Great Klo, master of shitposts, is clearly displeased because Tom does not live in Iowa City. We must annex Iowa City and appoint /u/sup3rtom2000 as its governor. [Note: May lead to WAR.] [Note: Only available to the Khmer.]

9. The Great Klo is clearly giving us a blessing, not a curse. Rain from the storms will help our fields grow, shade from the shows will help our spies sneak around, and random lightning strikes build character. [Note: Mutually exclusive with all other options.]

Special Event 7: Beyond the Fog of War

Global event for all factions.

Your spies and diplomats have brought to you news of a ancient nation from beyond the Great Mountains, which has just recently descended into the known world to found a city near the Khmer-Taiwanese border. What else could await just beyond the borders of the known world?

Stay tuned for an upcoming post on this Super-Special^TM Global Event.