Honestly? I don't care. I voted for what I wanted, I made an argument based on that- but I also presented the other choices in the best context I could and made specific mention that they were all equally strong choices, albeit with some possible traps. I told people I didn't want to vote for the shiniest shiny, and that the less shiny votes may still have effects that aren't represented strictly by game mechanics.
I accept full blame for reading the part about the idea that people like Kessler could exist long after Kessler has died as meaning exactly that, because it leaves a long term effect on consensus that I theorized could be like blatancy. But even without that, the idea that Hermetics who love dragons are weeping in their beds because John Kessler killed the eldest of the great wyrms is just too funny- and also because it sends a message to dragons everywhere that you do not fuck with John Kessler. He is now literally the bogeyman of Dragonkind.
ES is correct in that you might consider that a 'fame' option, but I disagree that it isn't a warranted one. The real 'fame' option would be to bring the heart back to the technocracy. Say 'here's proof that I did it'- now he can tell them, and because of him becoming a Mythic Thread, that means that they might well believe him- but all he's getting out of it is a permanent paradox reduction. He's not getting extra strength, he's not getting the ability to shrug off tank rounds.
And I accept that. I think that it was a meaningful choice to make, even if the result is mostly just fluff. Because ultimately I'm participating in this quest for the story. A good portion of that is Kessler's story, but I was completely zen about the possibility that he would die. That he's lived and become myth... that's above and beyond what I expected.
Regardless of what happens, I'm glad a some people voted for fluff even if that fluff isn't mechanically represented, or even mechanically meaningful, because I truly feel that the impact of that vote on the game universe enhances the story. Does that mean I'm attributing more to it than there is? That should be obvious. I believe in him. Even if there is no God or Buddha, there's John Kessler, stabbing the dragons who would threaten humanity in the face, forever.
I can't think of a better conclusion to his character arc than that.
Also, this theoretically means that that Kessler will be a valid candidate for any successors to the Exemplar project. Just let that sink in. They'll decant the clones to find they've all got mullets despite being grown without active follicles.
