At least he saved Numbtonge

ah, looks like ryoka will meet the big E again, or at least durene…i suppose she herself is the help?, unless she played skylines or some crusader kingdoms the answer would be as already stated, some city watch/police force, give them uniforms and make them incorruptible, maybe give them fancy hats and name them the emperors hand, or fingers, doubtless durene will feel jealous.

guarding what needs guarding. Shame more of them didn’t come to Riverfarm, but I suppose they though there was no job for them here. Hah! That’ll change. But for now, we could use your help

 wasn’t to blame, what with whoever sent that [Message], but there’s a lot of folk who’ll throw stones just as soon as look at her

Frostwing flinched, but Durene’s fingers were gently as she stroked the bird’s head. It stared at her, trembling. And Durene felt her heart hurt.

I have to disagree that Laken is “taking advantage of the system” more than any of the other Earthers. The entire premise of him becoming an Emperor in the first place has a number of massive flaws, such that he shouldn’t have gotten the class at all – and therefore basically his entire storyline is pretty well messed up. The only thing he “took advantage of” was poor initial characterization in order to fit the story, but he is very much a square peg hammered into a round hole and called good enough.

Even disregarding that, he’s not “gaming the system” any more than other Earthers. In fact, you could argue that he’s almost doing the opposite, becoming so consumed by the system/his class that he’s far deeper in its control than many others we’ve seen. He relies so heavily on his forced emperorness that he is basically bringing nothing to the table from his being from Earth. This is also heavily reflected in his level – he’s been around for quite a long while, and isn’t even level 20 yet, while many other Earthers are 30+, or even approaching level 40. Had he actually been “gaming the system”, he should be up there at the front of the pack, even if his class ended up requiring more experience to level – that is literally what “gaming the system” would accomplish.

He also achieved virtually none of what he has on his own, either. Had Ryoka not met him previously, not only would he have lacked the one thing he can claim to have accomplished – raising a team of engineers and building trebuchets, even if n the plans for such weren’t his own – but it’s quite possible Riverfarm itself would have failed catastrophically due to starvation. He has done very little on his own, and much of everything he has is a product of extreme luck rather than purposeful creation.

LOL. What a reply. An upvote just for the lulz.

Durene’s fingers were gently as she stroked the bird’s head. -> gentle

more than one of those table lashed to it. -> tables

but the screaming bird were terrifying -> birds

Genocide: The deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.

Yep, if you consider Liscor an independent city-state then Laken qualifies as [Genocidal Warlord] twice over.

How would you know? Maybe this world needs genocides. And Laken Just a tool to achieve it.