So many dialogue trees

I've been a bit busy studying calculus, which shall be my vague explanation for absence. Also, this shall perhaps be my last suggestion for a faction. Conjuring up ideas and expanding them takes a good deal of work! Anyways, on with the show! The Knights. Let's start with where they're based - a city! These fellows don't just protect a city but also govern it too. A source of tension could be that the knights have an inflexible view of what makes a good society and how life ought to be. Another source of tension can be within themselves, which would be "Honor vs practicality" - for example, there's a particularly nasty engagement that the knight can conclude slowly but honorably, or swiftly thorough practical means. The knights are too zealous to fall to corruption against their will, one and all, so any one of them can only fall if they choose it. - For example, a demon presents the corruptive lifestyle in such a way that allows a knight to keep his oaths and maintain his honor. Perhaps appealing to the knight's practicality. - All knights keep their honor after being corrupted because their order nails that into their character, so much so that honor is just part of who they are. That doesn't mean that their honor can't be twisted, however. I think this interesting: these knights are not wholly good uncorrupted, but not wholly evil corrupted either. This assumes that corruption equates to being evil, of course. Let's talk about the character of the Knight's city. The knights run a militarized society - every resident has a purpose ordained by the state. Promotions are few and the pay is just above the bare minimum needed to the tax collectors. The knights need money to import goods from other cities and townships that they themselves cannot produce on their own. When I say that the city is militarized, I mean to say that all industry is aimed at producing items that the Knights use to prosecute their meager wars. This includes weapons, armor, foodstuff, arrowheads, and rudimentary medical supplies. Also, maybe horses, if you plan to include them. On the topic of people, the rigid routines are very good at maintaining the knights as a fighting force, and not just with supply. Many young folks wish to join up, be that out of a desire more of the world, to escape routines, or simply to take the fight to the enemy. The knights send out patrols regularly whilst the other city's hide behind their walls, or at least that's what the knights talking heads say. To the citizens of the knight's city, their government is the only one taking the fight to the enemy! Of course, it's those same rigid routines that just as much lead to new knights as it does leave the populace vulnerable to corruptive forces. The knights keep their city lock up tight, but if a demon somehow got into the city and got its hooks into someone within, it'd cause a domino effect since the population have no training to resist. The inciting incident that makes the knights a priority target by the demons is that the knights are close to mounting a great offensive to secure their "Ancestral homelands", which equates to the surrounding area outside the city and securing new trade routes to other distant cities and settlements. The Knights call this their Great Crusade! I shall next write about the Knights perspective of this mustering for a great offensive, and then the demons perspective. The Knights perspective For whatever reason, be it increased demonic activity that threatens the city or the lords of the city becoming more ambitious, the Knights have seen fit to stoke fervor of the citizentry through more aggressive propaganda, which has caused more folks to sign up. The point of this is that the Knights leadership need more manpower so that they may conduct their crusade. They realize, however, that demons are insidious creatures and require agents to prevent sabotage, disruption of supply lines, and theft of material. This task falls to the player but only after passing a purity test (i.e. the player has not allied themselves with any non-human faction). - If you follow with the story point that I've wrote about "valley of the giants", with the army stationed at the great fortress recruiting from civilians, convicts, and militant groups alike, you could say that the Knights have some kind of leverage to not have their soldiers plucked out of the city and into the great fortress. This leverage could be that the knights already pay their tithe and have enough left to spare, or perhaps the knights have close ties with the church, aristocrats, or inquisition allow exemption from such taxes. The knights could provide bodyguards for high-ranking church officials, aristocrats, and inquisitors. Perhaps the Knight provide operatives for sensitive wetwork operations for any of these organizations. This idea on its own could pit the player against a knight poking his/her nose where it doesn't belong, maybe even at the behest of an inquisitor. Such a quest could be used to show the disunity within the inquisition, but this is a post for another day. The Demon's perspective Obviously, the crusade should be stopped. Frustratingly though, even the most persuasive demon lord cannot muster a force equal to this "crusade" by the time it reaches its time march to war. So, sabotage though temptation and beguilement will be the way of it. An army cannot long stand if inadequately resourced, and so the objectives here is to disrupt supply lines, corrupt logisitcs leaders, and replace knightly propaganda with demonic propaganda. For each of these tasks, the player will have the option to corrupt persuasively or forcefully. *The knights themselves cannot be forcibly corrupted, so they either need to be defeated in battle and then either killed or imprisoned, or convinced to change their path to the demonic lifestyle. One way this could be done would be persuading them that their honor would remain intact and their people would be better for it. This wouldn't be through a speech check (or your game's equivalent of one), but rather talking the Knights into it by knowing what their core values are, which is honor and their people. *As for corrupting the crusades supply, why not disrupt the source? The citizenry work to craft weapons and armor, but if they're too busy enjoying the pleasures only demons possess then nothing will get done. Once corrupted, no amount of propaganda or force can set these folks back to their tasks, try as the knights might. The same goes for the local logistics leaders, those who ensure that the crafted supplies arrive to the troops. *Though the knight's minds are akin to fortresses, the citizenry more malleable. Convincing them may be as simple as giving them a preview of the pleasure of the demonic lifestyle and having them compare it to rigid and often thankless role that they fulfill within knightly society. "Join our crusade! The work is purposeful and the rewards are few! A worthy calling indeed!" I should expand the Knight perspective a bit more, but overall, this is what wanted to write. Also, I've added a post with link to cool knight pictures. Let me know if you can't see it. What do you think?