Vai of the Doria

Alt Tag

Sometimes, when a long-running setting has over the years become confusing or boring, a reset is the best way forward. You make the reset into a fun story, of course -- you love a good crisis on infinite earths -- but in the end you bring things to a new-but-recognizable baseline, where simpler stories are ready to be told. That's all I'm doing, really, destroying the world. It deals with the Usurper, and whatever [YMRD] comes up with next will be better than this. It has to be.

Overview: Nightmare-Queen of Dis who directs her nation towards dark magical research with the goal of ending the world so [YMRD] can restart it without 0^0. She keeps that part to herself, of course -- to the world, she's simply a wartime queen delving into sinful secrets and forging wicked weapons to fight the Heavens and the Usurper who rules them. It's not even a lie, there's simply a greater truth that it conceals. Her scholarly focus is the nightmare and its use in the creation of artificial life, both of which have obvious wartime applications. But dreams are a reflection of infinite fictive possibility, and if that truth could be retained while turning the dream into life, it might be possible to create a being with an infinite death slot. Then you would simply fill the slot with the only letter that fits.

But only a fool would invest all of her hopes in a moonshot like that. Rhucuphre-from-Maeve has a plan of her own, which she has successfully progressed for centuries. Its success would also render 0^0 irrelevant. Therefore, Vai also acts as a not-quite-ally to her adoptive mother. Any significant nightmare scholarship necessarily plays into the hands of the one who would collapse the barrier between it and reality, but Vai makes no effort to hide her results from those designs. Her relationship to Pandaemonium is similar -- if properly directed, they are a tool she can use, and if her actions play into their goals, so be it. She finds their methods distasteful and their justifications flawed, but the end is worthy, and Vai cares more about ends than the means used to achieve them.

So long as it does not interfere with her primary objective, Vai continues Thaumiel's policy of alliance with other enemies of the Ecumene, committing troops and weapons to the war effort as any Queen in the Doria ought. Friendship with the Daemonhunt is likely impossible given Vai's embrace of the title Demon Lord and the Pandaemonium connections she has no doubt the Secretariat will uncover, but détente in the face of a greater threat is an achievable goal. She doubts any of this will lead to victory, but it might buy time, and that might make the difference. She doesn't think much about what happens if the other Outsiders prove her wrong. Victory is victory, and she's already prepared herself to die.

Perks, Ancestry, and Languages

Patron: [YMRD]
Gender: Female
Perks: Halfbreed [-2D][-2A], Adoption x2[-2D], Dice Fudge [YMRD], Extra Companion x3[-6D][-3A], Outer Tide (for the purposes of this rentry; I made this as a solo character, though)
Biological Parents: Dei (Lyudi - It's hard to trick an All-Glimpse user, and Dei is willing to sacrifice her current self for an advantage, so I think she finds a way to come out ahead here), Thallan (Iotated Yest' - My nicer letters were spent elsewhere, so I had to settle for something that is difficult to trigger. Plus, werewolf ranger is a classic for a reason. Good luck, dad.)

  • Thallan emerges from the Underground in Stygia. There, he meets a Demon Princess, who comes onto him like she's on a mission. He's rather pent up from his time underground, so he says yes, and from his perspective, that's the end of things. He never meets his daughter, who is put on an airship to Dis the same day that she's born.

Adoptive Parents: Shael[-2D] (Tsy - Abusive mom abandons her daughter after she's finished. Another classic.), Rhucuphre[-5D] (Ouk - The sound of ominous cackling can be heard in the distance, but it is unclear whose.)

  • They're both scholars of dreams and nightmares that are more interested in their apocalyptic scheming than their relationships or even themselves. Either one is using the other, or, more likely, they're both using each other. Shael has almost certainly read Rhucy's pandaemonium-book, and she could have sought out the author to learn her secrets. Rhucuphre might be after one of Shael's secret family magics, or she might be after me if she figures out that I'm an Outsider before Shael.
  • There is no love here, and given the curse there's probably not any lust either. Besides the mutual exploitation, they're also from races that hate each other. This is not a happy relationship, nor is this likely to be a happy childhood. But I will learn, and that is what's important to me.
  • Shael has no blood heir, and a half-Drow Demon Lord is probably the best you could possibly ask for in terms of an adopted heir. I'm expecting to learn her family magics, which is my main reason for choosing her as an adoptive mother. Noble training will also be valuable, since I intend to take over Dis.
  • Rhucuphre likely sees me as a pawn in her schemes. That's fair; I'm playing with her life too, right now. I want her to keep me hidden during childhoood, and I want to inherit her knowledge -- specifically, I want to learn how to hide my actions from 0^0. My plan runs parallel to Rhucy's, but I strongly suspect that [YMRD] can turn Rhucy's success into her own victory, so I have no objection to playing a part in Rhucy's schemes if that's the price of her knowledge and protection.

Race: Majin/Drow [+1 Mentor]
Languages: Fay, Everman[+3D], Simplified Duergar[-1D][+5A], Benewhisper[+4D]
Quieted: Late Thulean[+2D] and High Elven[+3D]
Location: Dis [+1 Mentor]

Gifts

All-Glimpse [Dei]

  • All-Glimpse is chosen for three reasons: First it's the best gift available for novel magical research. Starsight is better for rapidly learning existing spells, but it doesn't do as much when it comes to creating new spells. Inner Vision is a good safety tool, but realistically I shouldn't be casting experimentally at all -- It'd be a shame if Dis lost its Nightmare-Queen to a magical mishap. A queen cannot dedicate all her time to magical innovation, but the All-Glimpse is a powerful tool for gathering a wealth of raw information about a subject, which dedicated researchers can spend their time making sense of. And, sometimes, there really is no substitute to doing the work yourself.
  • Second, All-Glimpse is a powerful tool for leadership. Wide-range observation can keep me alert to any domestic schemes or attempts at infiltration by my enemies. There's no substitute for a traditional information network, but the All-Glimpse will catch things that spies would otherwise miss. Also, reading motivations and seeing through lies in conversation is incredibly useful diplomatically and politically.
  • Third, the wide area and precognition allow me to set in motion schemes that I do not control directly. By identifying useful people and reading ahead in their stories, I can direct them down branches that are advantageous to me using an extremely light touch, which looks to an outside observer like chance. I won't be able to hide myself or most of my actions from 0^0 as ruler of Dis, but by applying Rhucuphre's training to this all-seeing-mastermind idea, I should be able to keep my most important actions from being connected to me at all. I want 0^0 to believe the story of a Demon Queen secretly attempting to weaponize the nightmare in preparation for war against the Ecumene. The real secrets, the ones I hope will destroy the world, stay hidden: each piece of the puzzle a part of someone else's story.

Daemonhost
Royal Claim

  • Being a direct descendant of Xian gives me a claim over the demon realm Dis even if I don't earn Thaumiel's support, though I shouldn't need to play those cards. More importantly, Daemonhost conjures soldiers and researchers, and I need both. Some might question the ethics of sending magically-loyal newborns to die in battle, but that's a rounding error of evil compared to what I'm planning. And, like, there is a usurper-goddess trying to exterminate us.

Letters of the Damned - Psi (rolled off-site)

  • Psi is a highly esoteric letter, and it didn't initially seem to have much direct effect. But occasionally, when summoning new permanent Majin, I'll hear the faint sound of music in the distance, each time a unique but unmistakably holy sound. Whenever this happens, the Majin that comes out is impressive, but not in power or skill. Their letter spells, inborn knowledge, and inborn gifts show the ordinary variance expected of summoned Majin, but in temperament and spirit they embody an unusually complete meaning of their letter -- a Yat of self without ego, a Zemlya of belonging without attachment. This is not intellectual, so they don't gain any special knowledge of the God-script, though understanding their psychology and how it relates to their letter might lead to new insights on the God-script.

Autoantecedence [-5A]
Dream Passage x3 [-3A]

  • My dream passage autoantecedence improves the lucidity and "dungeon radar" parts of the gift into a complete sixth sense, which observes not just the diagetic dreamscape, but also the stuff dreams are made of non-diagetically - narrative, symbolic associations, emotions of the dreamer, and so on. When dreams are manifested physically rather than remaining within the mind of a dreamer, the sense can feel the God-script that defines that manifestation, similarly to how the All-Glimpse might read it. Compared to the All-Glimpse this is a more specialized and precise sense that's easier to use for its specific purpose, but it does not provide all the context that the All-Glimpse does, so I'll typically use both in my studies. While I primarily use this sense to study the nightmare, it theoretically has some applications in psychology and dungeoneering, which I might take advantage of.

Spirit Tap x2 [-4A][Dei]

  • Doubling up just makes sense after getting the first one from Dei. Being able to summon random temporary templates for cheap and then spirit tap them into very specific spells is powerful in a fight, and this overall grows the library of letter-spells available to me, allowing me to access letter-spells that I'm aware of without the randomness inherent to spawning (if only temporarily). And of course, the trick isn't just limited to Majin -- Undead, Empyreans, and Geniuses are already fair game, and if I produce sufficiently magical artificial life using Thaumiel's training, this gift should apply to their abilities as well. There's very little here that ties into my grand evil plan, but there's plenty of utility, and I can't misalliance away the first spirit tap either way.

Seraphic Wings[-1A]

  • I had a spare point after everything else. Flying is cool.

Ethereal Beauty[-1A]
Memory Retention [Thallan]
Wisdom[-2A]
Intelligence[-2A]
Attentiveness [Thallan]
Noble Inclination[-2A]

  • Boilerplate gift spam, all working towards the theme of being good at running a city-state in general and overseeing magical research specifically.

Spiritual Feel[-2A]
Caster Intuition [Thallan]
Agelessness

  • Other boilerplate that requires no comment

Mentors

Thaumiel[-5D]

  • No surprise here; ruling Dis and creating artificial life are both central to my plan. I expect we'll get along reasonably well -- two cute kuuderes sacrificing everything for the sake of victory together, like kuuderes do.
  • Besides all the plan A stuff, though, I have some ideas. In rough order of priority:
    • Artificial beings with nightmares embedded in them, like Darina or a more sinister version of Evdokia, should make effective Empyrean-killers. It's an obvious idea -- make it so the dream that the empyrean wakes up in is something that will destroy their spirit. Physically, I'll model these nightmare-bearers off extinct Elven races, because bullying Charlie is always morally correct. They'll be named Nightmare Elves, appropriately.
    • Intentionally-infertile one-off monsters like the Tarrasque. They're not really meant to be controlled, they're meant to be unleashed in the vicinity of your enemy to create problems.
    • Various D&D-inspired demon and devil races, like Balors and Glabrezus and such, to round out the demonic horde aesthetic. They don't all have Letters of the Damned, instead having their own appropriate racial gifts for their theme.
    • Symbiote Demons, because symbiotes are cool and useful. The basic idea is that they're intelligent independent beings capable of carrying inborn gifts as normal, and bonding with humanoids grants them the use of those gifts, with all of the normal drawbacks of having a symbiote. They should have a racial gift that they always grant, ideally a variation on Letters of the Damned that only works while bonded.
    • Siege dinosaurs, because dinosaurs are cool.
  • Encounter Things That Shouldn't Be - Hilariously, this is an encounter where All-Glimpse actually hurts me, because I can't prove that I'm an Outsider easily by revealing meta-knowledge of Thaumiel's past, since All Glimpse also provides that. My appeal will instead be something to the effect of, "I know you're looking for an heir. I'm an extremely good candidate: I can bring together Majin traditionalists with my status as a Demon Lord, Majin liberationists by continuing the policies you implemented that they and I both favor, and the Drow of Dis because I am one of those too. Can you let me out of this cage to talk? There's a nightmare monster coming up from below, and I'd really rather us not have to fight it together to prove I'm telling the truth. If I'm lying, you've killed worse than me." I think this has a good chance of succeeding -- it's coldly logical like my savior -- but if it doesn't, I'll have to fight the monster. This encounter likely happens when I'm quite young, so the only trick I can rely on is Daemonhust summon spam, but it's a good trick, and Thaumiel isn't weak by any means. We'll manage.
  • Bonus Encounter: Remember the Demon - Thaumiel is secretly conspiring with the Daemonhunt, so it's not surprising that she's invited here. My own invitation is more unlikely, but I do agree with this mission. Tun's need for total control makes it impossible to ally with him, and if he can't be an ally, it's best that he not be a player at all. Plus I can reasonably guess that some other outsiders in the Tide have chosen this encounter for its reward, so even if I were inclined to resurrect Tun, it would make too many enemies. The fight should go well -- By this time I'll have learned plenty of dark magic from Shael and Lyndis, and Daemonhunt elites should make excellent Spirit Tap targets given their experience wielding extracted letters. And, you know, there's still summon spam. The Nightmare Queen of Dis should not join the Daemonhunt, even in secret, so I'll reject the invitation even in the unlikely event that I earn one, but I hope to make some allies in the organization during this mission and reinforce the fragile truce between the Daemonhunt and Dis. If the idiom exists in the Exarchate, I will be cracking a "devil you know..." joke.
  • Death: Zelo + Zhivete - She gets at least one more big fight with the Ecumene, and she survives.

Lyndis[-4D]

  • Her mentorship is basically a continuation of what I learned from Shael, which is valuable, but I wouldn't be taking Lyn if that's all she could give me. I want her for my Dark Council. She appears to have done excellent work with the previous Demon Lord, and I see no reason not to restore her position.
  • Encounter: Legal Terms And Conditions - I'm attending this class more for the sake of networking and diplomacy than the subject itself, and the same is likely true of Lyndis. It doesn't take a genius to understand what a half-Drow Demon Lord friendly with the White Master means for the future of Dis, so it's likely that Lyndis is the one to approach me. If not, though, I have the All-Glimpse excuse for approaching her.
  • Bonus Encounter: Crown into the Gutter - Paxxia and Margaset Sarmat are my most likely assassination targets, and the Imperial sisters or Hladvig Tehom could also happen, depending on how things play out with other Outsiders. I don't expect to suffer for lack of possible targets; I firmly believe that, when it comes to hereditary monarchy, removing problems from their thrones is more important than any ethos of redemption or life. The assassination will go however it goes; my objectives are secrecy and death, in that order. I'm counting on achieving the first, at least. I likely already have some Pandaemonium connections through Rhucuphre and Shael before this encounter, but either way this event becomes important to my relationship with the organization: I'm not a member, but I can work with them.
  • Death: Iotated Lesser Yus - She's mostly an advisor, so being physically diminished isn't the end of the world, and being in two places at once can actually help her. This is also a rare and weird enough letter that I can expect it to take a long time to trigger, which is good for my purposes.

[2 empty slots spent on Uruks]

Companions

Esu[-4D]

  • I'm researching dreams, and Esu has power over them. His abilities are too useful to ignore. I hope to win his friendship by focusing on the "united front against the Ecumene" stuff and tactfully avoiding the stuff he won't approve of. The empire's "dark but not evil" shtick should smooth over some rough edges, but since I'm definitely evil and he'll be dangerously close to my worst secrets, I can't count on his loyalty. So I put a contingency plan in his death letter.
  • Encounter: Remember About Death - Maybe it's another surviving spawn of Maou's who went to Dis instead of the Empire. Maybe it's an ambassador from the Empire to Dis, or maybe it's the other way around. We run in similar enough circles that there's going to be someone in common. There's no risk of failure in this encounter, so fate will push us into finding some common ground. That's good, because we're not especially similar people.
  • Death: Iotated Az - I should be able to trigger this intentionally with a lucky Fiert spawn, with Majin necromancy, or maybe with artificial life created for the purpose. My goal is to put a sleeper agent in him that takes control only in the event of betrayal. The act of possession should count as triggering the letter, so I don't think I'm fating him to betray me by doing this, but if I am, that's the price of security. Hopefully he'll get a less raw deal in the rebooted universe.

Blazkho[-1D]

  • Leimeie - Blazkho-sensei; it's old hat at this point but this character was made before it was spammed into meaninglessness, and changing her out messes with Tide compatibility. Unlike most versions of this idea, I want him to train my subjects in Dis, not me or the party. I expect to be quite busy running a small country and doing my own magical research, so I'm not assuming that I'll have the time to learn from him.
    • Death: Shta - Mentorly death for the cause of teaching. I don't really have any thoughts for how this might go down, but she's getting old and it should end up being a death she's happy with. Since I have him primarily playing teacher, the improvement to his skills will be very welcome.
  • Tenyota - The idea is that summoned Majin occasionally have inborn gifts, and sometimes those gifts won't be particularly useful to the Majin who has them. It'll be rare, but I'll be summoning often enough to hit the odds. When it happens, Blazkho can train them in Tenyota's gift-sacrifice technique, opening up a new school of magic, which is always a useful thing to have.
    • Death: Iotated Greater Yus - One way to get around the "gifts must be yours" limitation is to simply become the person whose gifts you want to steal. I think she's clever enough to figure this out, so I think she ends up triggering this letter intentionally.
  • Mlada - Blazkho-sensei can also train a generation of Majin dark clerics to steal magic and bring it back to Dis for study. I might even sign up for that class myself, if I have the time. It's a neat trick.
    • Death: Greater Yus - She probably adopts a role as part of a con to steal some magic, and finds she likes the person she was pretending to be. That's not a bad end.
  • Dirk Yesod (Emuating Ielziaseh, Eirina, and Feodwra) - Shallow training in three rare magics, these are useful mostly as starting points. Assuming that the Nightmare Queen can afford it, Blazkho will have whatever resources he needs to deepen his understanding of these magics and train my people in them.
    • Death: Qoppa - He's already cursed, and he's already expected to die from it. I don't think this letter changes much for him.
  • I've already gone into his role, but in terms of personal relationships, I don't expect issues. Tenyota and Dirk will have instilled in him some amount of tolerance for dark magic, and I don't need him near any of my evil secrets -- he just trains my underlings; the demons are the ones doing the dark deeds. From his perspective, he's heroically preparing the armies of Midnight for the coming war against Midday. It's not even a lie, it's just not the whole truth.
  • Death: Lesser Yus - His thought stream splits, which probably ends up an intentional tactic for managing the large amount of knowledge piled onto him him. It pairs well with Ielziaseh stuff too, letting you have one stream act while the other stream stays you.
  • Encounter: Breaking and Entering (Dis to Stygia) - All-glimpse borderline solos this encounter, since I can read his mind and the Godscript of the puzzle door. The Stygian connection benefits both sides by allowing trade of goods and exchange of magical research, and it benefits Dei by giving her false princesses a path back to the the Doria. I consider her bringing back Xian/Aat a good thing, so I'm happy with this arrangement.

[YMRD][-5D][-5A]

  • Like Shael, I follow [YMRD]'s ideals. The darker parts, yes, but they're still hers. I expect a positive working relationship.
  • Her help is the only reason that I believe the Izhitsa plan can actually work. She won't just give me the answers, of course -- that's not how these things go -- but simply knowing where to look is a major boon, as is the knowledge that she does not want me to stall out. I'm a strong piece pursuing a goal she'll approve of; she should set me up for success.
  • The subtleties of statecraft fall within YMRD's domain as well, so I can expect good advice from her in that regard. That's a nice side-benefit.

[3 empty slots spent on uruks]

Uruks

A Pack of Goblins [+1A] - None of my plans require me to enter a dungeon before I'm ready to handle this, and I have Dream Passage x2, so I can just overpower the dungeon by bringing in, say, 20 loyal spawn. So I'll just do that.

A Hop, a Lean, a Hobgoblin [+1D][+1A] - 10 to 14 years old is old enough for Shael to have taught magic, so I mostly fight with that, plus the guns that the caravan should be carrying. The All-Glimpse is a big advantage here for avoiding sleep deprivation and catching the goblin raids quickly, so I should be able to avoid the worst-case with exhaustion. I'll save a few spawns for the final fight, and that should be enough.

A Score of Orcs [+1D][+2A] - This affects other encounters, which I've listed below:

  • A Pack of Goblins: Orcs probably attack after I finish the dungeon, since that's when I'm at my weakest. I expect to overpower the dungeon by breaking the 4-person rule, though, so this shouldn't be a real threat. As long as I have summons in reserve and spells in the arsenal, I should be able to handle these random orc fights, so from here on I'm only commenting strategy when the Orcs are doing something more interesting than a random attack.
  • A Hop, a Lean, a Hobgoblin - The Uruk band has some orcs in addition to the goblins. This is a straight difficulty increase that doesn't change my strategy.
  • A Band of Ogres - The most inconvenient time for Orcs to attack is while I'm busy dealing with the ogres after the prisoners have escaped, so that's what I'm assuming will happen. This is why I set up the escort, though, and I'm relying on them to do their job. If I'm around, it's even easier, since I should still have most of my temporary templates available. My plan in the ogre camp only needs a handful. Spirit tapping tricks should also still be up, since I'm only using a few on the temporary Majin earlier.
  • A Bridge, a Toll, a Troll - The troll has Orcs near it. Fortunately, I'm not relying on Daemonhost to kill the troll, so I can use my summons to cover the orcs.
  • Things that Shouldn't Be - There's no reasonable way for Orcs to show up in person here, so I assume that something they do delays Thaumiel's arrival, and I have less time to convince her before to let me out before the nightmare monster arrives. That doesn't change my plans, it just makes the failure case more likely.
  • Legal Terms and Conditions - There's no real way to make this anything other than a random orc attack that happens to occur while I'm at law school. So I guess that's what happens.
  • Remember About Death - Orc attack on the way to the funeral, I guess. Or maybe after. Or maybe during, if it's far enough from the city. No matter when it happens, it's no different than any other orc fight.
  • Breaking and Entering - The portal is to be in Dis proper, so there's really no way for Orcs hanging out in the outskirts to get involved. It'll have to be a prologue or epilogue situation again, either wearing me out for the main encounter or attacking me after while I'm still tired. Either way, I'll just need to save some resources for the fight, and this is more of a wits encounter than a combat encounter, so that shouldn't be an issue.
  • Remember the Demon / Crown into the Gutter - N/A, these are adult encounters after the Orc time-frame, and the don't necessarily take place in Dis.

A Band of Ogres [+2D][+1A] - This close to adulthood, I expect to have at least a few useful and loyal permanent spawn. I should be well into my mentorship with Thaumiel, and she'll be setting me up to take over for her, so keeping them fed shouldn't be a major concern. The exact nature of my plan depends on what sorts of allies I have, so I can't really do specifics, but the broad outline of my plan is this: Assemble a squad of my own people capable of escorting captured civilians to safety. Distract the ogres with a temporary Majin spirit tapped into a Shta confusion spell. Use Rhucuphre's stealth training to sneak into the camp under the cover of this distraction and free the prisoners. Get the prisoners to my squad, who are hiding as close to the camp as possible without revealing themselves. Squad leaves with the freed prisoners while I and perhaps a handful of other elite minions attack the Ogre camp with overwhelming violence. Ideally, they're routed and we don't need to retreat, but if the horde is too large, I'll spirit tap a temporary majin to an Ot-based escape spell, and we'll get out of there after buying the main group time.

A Bridge, a Toll, a Troll [+2D][+2A] - The plan is surprise and overwhelming violence. Shael and Lyndis will have both passed down magic by now, and at least something should be applicable to troll-killing. Failing that, there's always good ol' temporary majin + spirit tap tricks. Nothing beats those. I'm thinking a Kako-based baleful polymorph letter here, since we're fighting one big guy.

Fin

My Death: Yat + Yee[-1D]

  • My objective is to destroy the world and take 0^0 down with it. This necessarily involves my death, and it will be self-inflicted if I succeed. I add Yee as insurance against my own cowardice -- it's much easier to go through with the plan if I know that I will see the other side.

Youth: Magical Training, Profane Lore, Power Testing, Plotting

  • Power Testing is critical for getting Daemonhost online as early as possible
  • Magical Training and Profane Lore give a useful base of knowledge for use in leadership. Leadership training itself is skipped because I'm getting it from both Shael and Lyndis, and tripling down seemed less valuable than broadening my knowledge.
  • Plotting is what I'm all about, and I'll happily take some fate-backed success where I can get it.

Quest: E Nomine

  • There's elements of Fundamentum and Temperantia, but ultimately it's all for the sake of E Nomine, so that's the quest.

Bonus: World Zhivete Reactions

Manusya - I would say that Manusya is proof that the Tumen need [JNPL], but he must have been mad before he became Tumen, to weave his fate like he did. If I needed further proof that my path is correct, he would be it. Even if the 11th Seat were to cast down Usurper in a grand battle out of [SRTR]'s tales, the damage is done. He dug his own grave, but he would not have had the opportunity to do so if Providence sat on her pillar. Few stories are as absurd as his, but there are countless other men like this. The only way to set things right is to rewrite the story from the moment it all went wrong.

Sevastian - It was kind of [YMRD] to confirm that he was an Az Outsider. That was the only sane explanation for him and his goal, but we can't rule out insane explanations these days. He's no help, of course, but I can't hate him for that. Responsibility is only there if you're willing to shoulder it. And who knows, maybe he'll make it with that crazy plan of his. Weirder ideas have worked before.

The Silk Matron - I have to admit, I'm getting a little annoyed that nobody I've met is doing anything about the evil goddess that wants to kill us all. I signed up for the Outer Tide expecting heroic rivals looking to chance it all fighting the good fight, people whose hearts I understood but who I cannot bring myself to agree with in my mind. I was not expecting everyone to ignore the Big Bad in favor of personal side quests. Maybe I'm the fool -- I do know how people play Skyrim -- but I thought life or death stakes would force urgency that video games lack.

...but I'm being unfair to the Silk Matron. Her decision to refuse the call is no worse than Sevastian's, I just happened to find her after him. And the Araneans do need the help. I could perhaps criticize her lack of ambition -- most people manage to do more than just breed with their lives, even if they don't save the world -- but it's her choice, and it's already made. Just as I've made mine.

Rap God - I'm surprised we never met in childhood; we grew up in the same region. Different circles, sure, and it sounds like he spent a lot of time traveling around the world to his encounters, but still, we were fighting the same band of orcs.

His plan against 0^0 isn't bad; I had a similar idea when I learned about Kilyn in the heavens (and I'm glad someone fished her out of the ocean). I don't know that I'd gamble my life on it, but you can't fault his confidence or his commitment. He should at least wound the Usurper, which is more than I can say about anyone else I've met, and he'll probably have fun doing it.

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Pub: 17 Sep 2025 05:26 UTC

Edit: 19 Sep 2025 07:30 UTC

Views: 31