Renascent Autonomy and Relationships

In the next version of the game, renascents will have more of a mind of their own, developing romantic relationships among them and generally being less reliable as mindless drones, especially if they don't like you.

At the beginning of each game, a number of renascents will get paired into romantic relationships semi-randomly according to their own tastes, promiscuity and some other hidden values. You will be able to see whether they are in a relationship and with whom in the "Forces" menu. These relationships will generally persist between cycles. They are subject to being broken or replaced with new ones, but as a general rule over time most renascents will end up paired, constraining our own choice of romantic partners and bonds. They will try to match your own character's sexuality preferences, but they'll take anything if there is not enough of one thing on the menu.

Most renascents involved in a relationship will reject your wooing and choose to remain loyal to their partners. There are exceptions, but these are generally the exceptions that now also have the capacity to leave you as soon as an upgrade comes around, so there is that to consider as well.

These relationships will also have an effect in the renascents' performance and reliability. Most relationships will be healthy and reciprocal, but some will be toxic and abusive. You won't normally be able to find out about this unless you have a new drawback/strength allowing you to do so, but there are telltale signs you might be able to pick up like a renascent's weariness increasing without explanation when their partner is also in your homebase while those in healthy relationships, including those with you from now on, will instead see their weariness drop. 

Renascents in a relationship will also naturally try to be together. Some will ask for their lover to join your homebase, in which case you'll get a free renascent, others will choose to leave said homebase to be reunited with their lover, in which case you'll lose a renascent. You can chose to refuse, but this will damage your relationship with both renascents unless this is an abusive relationship, in which case it will only be the domineering renascent that will be mad at you for not allowing their less enthusiastic partner to come back to them.

If you manage to earn enough trust from a renascent, when hanging around them, just like when you occasionally get to decrease or increase the availability of some of their actions, you can learn whether they consider their relationship healthy and use the trust they have in you to make them break it up. You can do this regardless of whether it is in their actual best interest or you just want said renascent for yourself, as dismissing or getting their lovers killed won't automatically break the relationship but instead anger them, and is more likely to simply result in the remaining lover leaving your homebase in turn.

The aforementioned changes of a renascent's actions will now also require a small amount of trust and respect from the renascent. You'll have to try harder to bond with a renascent that is already in a relationship as well, but bonded renascents with which you start a romantic relationship will no longer try to start relationships with others.

There is now also a small chance that renascents will either run away or get trapped in a territory on their own if they are left idle for long, especially if they don't like you and all they do is argue when you stay at home. In this case you'll have to rescue them once again from whatever territory they end up in if you want to recover them, though leaving them to clean their own messes is also a perfectly viable option. In this regard, there are some conditions renascents have to meet in order to become stuck in some territories, since it always felt weird to have someone like Rhodeghass having to work as a horse groom to pay off a debt and such.

It is my hope that this will not only make renascents feel more alive, but generate more interesting stories and also make bonds and relationships with them feel more precious.

Besides it is pretty fun to get pairings like Mealessea and King Handsome the Honest.