May 1625 - Day 23

The Jubilee is on! The items list shows King's gifts of 10*CT1625 (Gaming Token), 12*W1608 (official wine of the Jubilee), and QJB - Quasquibicentenary Jubilee Badge - which is also the first Decoration Martti has received.

Let's talk about them first. Decorations are the blanket term for:
- Badges
- Medals
- Titles
- Honors
- Orders (of chivalry).

Apart from Badges, all the rest tend to accrue to the same people, nobles, who compete with the number and prestige (wear order) of their Decorations. The Title field (which until now has shown simply "Martti"), can now be properly updated to "Novice Martti, QJB", so this is done right away. The Full name remains Martti, because the custom is to add the level title only when L6 Master is reached, so then he would become "Master Martti". Shortname remains the same except in exceptional circumstances, eg. when the King dies, the new one may assume the shortname "King" and the old one will revert to his personal name "rpietila" (seldom used in the game and never as shortname). Shortnames must be unique, not start with a number, and be no more than 12 characters in length.

The commercial side of the Jubilee - much awaited - turned, at least so far, to be a little below expectations. The value of King's gifts is 1.4 mil at bid, so of course it is nice (being more than the annual salary) but honestly, a little skimpy even. The ones who were invited to the Throne Room (not that Martti could even conceive such an honor), got a drink package worth 4 mil, the higher levels got more gaming tokens, the people 225 years old or more (jealousy is strong here, as Martti is 18 himself, having been born in the 1600s, instead of the 1300s as the ones spoken of) got pieces of art worth the minimum of 20 mil, etc. etc. - the King is truly taking care of his people, it's just that everyone gets according to his status. [And the King adds that he gave 225*RAF-1 tickets to all for the Jubilee already before Martti was even in the game; this gift alone was worth 4.5 mil]

Because market and health did not pose special challenges (Martti's cash balance is almost 5 mil due to low bids not hitting the same way as in the "year of trouble 1623" (when we had a war and the palace burned down)) it is time to think about the sword. Current conversion rules for new swords show that Martti's most realistic option is an Imported Powerful smallsword (K6), which normally would cost 50 IC (about 9 mil) but since Martti has never owned a sword before, a full-point discount to 20 IC (3.6 mil) is available. It is a large investment for sure, but Martti makes a resolve to start buying IC slowly at bid and will convert once he reaches the needed amount, 20 IC.