["locked" from Mir]

[masked_god]

Elloran, love, be a dear and lend me the use of thirty or so of your planets. I'd rather not have them destroyed - ah, you still use the term fall beyond, do you not? - in your time rather than mine, but there's no way of knowing how our time compares to that of the main community. Lets see...Zeta Phi S340, Tau Lamda D32, Darion 5...[He proceeds to list of the coordinates of another thirty planets, with the apparent assumption that Elloran will know what he's refrencing.]

And to cut short that tedious business of whether or not you will help me...

History there is, and No History. Sh'zali Knot. First move: Destroyer to Level 4. Second move, Pawn sacrifice. Third, exchange of Sens on Fifth Level. Fourth: Destroyer Check, Sacrifice, and Inquestor Mate in Five Moves. Don't say you wouldn't lose, you know you avoid sacrifices at every opportunity. But I won't tell my younger self your weakness if you send me the tokens promptly. Consider it my insurance.

And with that settled, the real game can start. It has been so long since I've had a worthy opponent...I should thank you all for offering me a challenge that I could never take in my own damaged universe.

[[ooc: Karakael has put up one of the more basic locks against Mir. She'll easily be able to break it if she puts her mind to it...which is half the point, as the text gives the locations of 30 minor worlds in the Inquest universe, all of them common sacrificial worlds.]

Comments

[icantbelievethis]

Oh, come on, now what?

[masked_god]

Hmm? I intend to aid in the protection of this community.

Albeit in my own way.

[icantbelievethis]

It doesn't exactly look like it!

[masked_god]

And what does it look like to you?

[icantbelievethis]

Threatening more worlds just like that Mia or whoever, the half-naked lady who's possessing the goddess of weird helmets!

[masked_god]

I intend to you those worlds as buffers to protect the community. Distracting her with less inhabited worlds and ones that have experience defending against such attacks.

This is what my people do, child. You saw what she did to that idiotic District World. Do not think she would not do the same to you.

[icantbelievethis]

Do you think it's actually gonna work? What if she does kill someone?

[masked_god]

She already has. As her power grows, she will kill more.

But in my universes there are protections against this kind of thing. Though the worlds may be destroyed the loss of life will be kept to a minimum.

[icantbelievethis]

Can't she be stopped without sacrificing anyone?

[masked_god]

Perhaps. But I would rather be prepared to sacrifice a few than let her raise several community worlds to the ground.

We can rebuild. I am not so sure your worlds could recover.

[elloran]

Kaaree!

[masked_god]

Yes, dear?

[elloran]

I wouldn't...I don't...

[A pause, while he considers the moves.]

...Ta Heng, Hokh'Ton. If there was ever proof that you are who you claim to be, that would be it.

But did you really need to reveal my weaknesses to the community at large?

[masked_god]

If this prompts you to be less obvious about your blunders, then yes, it is necessary.

[former_endboss]

[This is all terribly interesting Karakael. But you forgot one detail.

Mir isn't inclined to play the game by your rules right now. She wants to kill humans, yes. But eyes on the prize, this is no game. And you're not offering her anything worth sticking her neck out for when that damnable Knight and the FFT Divider are still in play.]

[masked_god]

[Pity. Because for all that Karakael plays at war, he's become quite good at it. There are weapons at his disposal he hasn't thought of using for eons...but Mir just might give him a reason to dust them off and turn them against her.

Of course, that is only if she over steps her bounds again. But no one ever won a war by being under prepared.]

[oceanicbreak]

Are you...you can't sacrifice them!

[masked_god]

I have no desire to. But many of my worlds were designed as sacrifices. The other worlds on this community...less so.

[oceanicbreak]

What about the people there?

[masked_god]

Standard procedure is to cyrogenically freeze people on worlds that will be destroyed and relocate them to new planets.

[oceanicbreak]

That's better, I guess. But there's still a lot of their culture and heritage that's being destroyed. And other life on those planets too.

[I somehow lost this post. Sorry!]

[masked_god]

There is no point to a war unless something is lost, correct?

Re: [I somehow lost this post. Sorry!]

[oceanicbreak]

I don't understand the point to a war at all.

[masked_god]

Really? Consider how many inventions, both good and ill, come out of warfare. How the melding of different cultures in the wake of a war create fantastic new civilizations with ideas never dreamed of by either prior one. How war strengthens bonds and ties between those who remain alive and gives them renewed incentive to strive on.

Warfare is one of the greatest tools a civilization can wield against stagnation.

[oceanicbreak]

But also consider how war obliterates civilizations and cultures, imposes one society's views on another. How it ends lives and creates enemies, even among allies--gives the survivors reason to hate.