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Last Light of a Dark Age (Warhammer 29K/Disco Elysium)

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[X] All-Or-Nothing. A massive, sweeping operation, aimed at the very center of Phalanx Hypnos. An antifragile strategy - if Morpheos is there, the whole of the Witches will fall on him - but if he is not, he must choose between having the center of his phalanx cut off from his illusions by your null fields - or face you head on.

[X] Use the Auratic Thread.

[X] Our Sister of Supreme Passion. This is an idealization of your axiom Blackstar, reframed as a position of overwhelming passion for the pain of others.

[X] The Caprices. Gods, in a human shape. Ever-passionate, ever-spiteful monsters, too-caring, too-interested, their hands on the lathe of fate, their intentions malice, evil, cruelty. The Immaculates, the Prime Souls, the Titans.
 
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Candor. This is an idealization of your axiom Washing Machine Heart, reframed as a stance of extreme commitment to truth.

I just want more truth bombs.
 
Wouldn't All Or Nothing be good with the special weapon if the guess of his location is correct, since you wouldn't really need to backtrack, and especially terrible if not since tangling is nigh-guaranteed then?
 
[X] All-Or-Nothing. A massive, sweeping operation, aimed at the very center of Phalanx Hypnos. An antifragile strategy - if Morpheos is there, the whole of the Witches will fall on him - but if he is not, he must choose between having the center of his phalanx cut off from his illusions by your null fields - or face you head on.

[X] Use the Auratic Thread.

[X] Our Sister of Supreme Passion. This is an idealization of your axiom Blackstar, reframed as a position of overwhelming passion for the pain of others.

[X] The Caprices. Gods, in a human shape. Ever-passionate, ever-spiteful monsters, too-caring, too-interested, their hands on the lathe of fate, their intentions malice, evil, cruelty. The Immaculates, the Prime Souls, the Titans.


FOOLISH FELLOW THOUGHT FORMS, how can you ever believe to defeat Koinon in attritional battle? They will replace every artillery, weapons team, hovertank, plasma musket, etc. without issue (as their industrial might is unmatched, due to their excessive arate obviously) making the exercise pointless! Not even to mention adopting the cowardly way our enemy fights has no glory! And of course the use of our trump card in such a slow way that exposes it's existence and makes counter play by the false god possible, less said about it the better! Not to overlook of course that even if the ploy worked doubtlessly, the coward "god" would just flee long before the lack number ever threaten it. Then we will be back to fighting the regrouped armies of koinon only without the the sisters and war material we lost and can't replace unlike accursed koinon.

There is only one glorious and possible way to defeat the beast. With our new found suprise advantage we strike deep and true. Any other plan gives up any hope of dealing a blow to the stolen souls of Illuminata given twisted form AND the chance to gain arate(of course).

But the cables will slow you down? The hoplites will found the cables and cut it? Too late and too slow, we will be dispelling the illusion by then or striking a blow to the "god" that thinks it can "trick" the blacksun like one of its endless hordes of stone sheep that grovel at its feet.
 
Ratato said:
If he is not there you will have to relocate, and then that runs the risk of being led on a merry go round while having the cable get more tangled the entire time?
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Of course we must expect the cowardly "god" to deny engagement if it gets the chance. In which case we will dispel the illusion at the center of the koinon army and hit them in the back! If along the way the cables gets tangled... Will just have to cut the cables ourselves.

But what if the koinon got a hold of the cable to deliver to their scientists and engineers? Would never happen as we will defeat them but even if in the unlikely scenario we are forced to pull back for a time... well everybody knew the risks.
 
Ratato said:
If we could easily do that these things are useless and should not have been used to begin with?
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Of course there is a good argument for ignoring help from the Titans that deserve death as equally as Immaculates for stealing the people's will and making them slaves( whose collective deaths will build around 2-4% of utopia by the way) but the "gods" and the Immaculates have us in a corner. Defeat is not possible yet the resources for victory is merely vapor built out Kora's forced to give their all and beyond yet.

To attempt to fight against the "gods" without something more than vapor is nessecary and this is the best we got. We have already gave our best and it wasn't... We gave enough, we need a trump card of our own and this will be it!
The downsides are meaningless as people on both sides of the frontline plot our death, to not use the cables is merely choosing the death we know as we saw the gods and hoplites dealt it beyond count. But with the cables? Something more beyond the known death is possible!

Jests aside I thought unbreakable ment as in really sturdy not as in it's literally impossible to unplug or cut but yes if they are literally impossible to unplug, cut or don't any have deliberate severing measures that work in a timely manner built in to them that would make the effort in an all out attack meaningless as koinon's god would just deny engament in way that risks literally entanglement behind enemylines
 
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Cetashwayo said:
Three Koras arguing religiously, on whether 'mancakes' is too vile a name to call their kreperie's fried skinbatter.
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For some reason none of the human-foods up until now bothered me but "skinbatter" does.
Cetashwayo said:
"I am Beatific Dolorous Harmony,"
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I want to call her Bea now. Bea Bea Bea.
T_of_A said:
You love to see "femoid" deconstructed just like how "women" was deconstructed. Words words words.
Is this commentary on IRL sexism, or just a joke about them all being mostly robots ? Who knows. I laughed anyway.
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Moid is actually a term used IRL by multiple online groups, including self-indentified "femcels" who hang around places like r/femcelgrippysockjail (they're actually pretty cool) and a rather regrettable amount of TERFs.
[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Mercy. This is an idealization of your axiom The Witch they Wanted, reframed as a protection of the weak against the strong
[X] Attrition. Slow, measured. Inflict the greatest material damage for fewest lives lost. Use your Night Witches sparingly, leveraging your immunity to illusion, target ammunition dumps, ballista batteries - tighten a vice around Phalanx Hypnos that will expose him. Then your strong reserve of Night Witches will strike, and end him.
[X] Don't use the Auratic Thread.
 
[X] Attrition. Slow, measured. Inflict the greatest material damage for fewest lives lost. Use your Night Witches sparingly, leveraging your immunity to illusion, target ammunition dumps, ballista batteries - tighten a vice around Phalanx Hypnos that will expose him. Then your strong reserve of Night Witches will strike, and end him.
[X] Use the Auratic Thread.

Peel away the prime soul's illusions and bleed it dry, Even if we should not succeed at slaying a god, we can make the mongrel dogs of Koinon remember how Beatific Dolorous Harmony made them bleed an ocean of blood, stone, and steel for every inch they made into progeny land and for every self and stranger they stapled.

[X] Our Sister of Supreme Mercy. This is an idealization of your axiom The Witch they Wanted, reframed as a protection of the weak against the strong.
I see this one as the most fitting impression of someone fighting a bloody defensive war, and feel it makes the most interesting discrepency between others seeing Harmony as fighting to defend others, while in truth Harmony fights out of a more simple desire to hurt the invader as much as she can before she dies. Perhaps once this is all over Harmony will have to grapple with the impossibility of living up to the Hero that others might come to see her as.

[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.

Take Harmony's emotional intelligence and turn it upon the World at large and the systems that have shaped the world around her, See the nature of the World and see that it is Evil, Learn to Hate and fight against the seemingly implacable forces that made of Imaculata a world in which there seems no choice but to Despair and Die.
Look upon the truths of the world that cannot be changed, and resolve to change them anyways.
 
The Rhythms roll really did result in contact with the Demiurge, or a part of it at least. How else am I supposed to interpret the use of words like "fathershard"?

I love Elegy. I expected her relationship with Harm and Sympathy would be very antagonistic when they met, but she's too broken to hate either of them. I'd like to give her a better future somehow but that's probably not in the cards. She'll probably die and it's going to feel awful. I think the best outcome is that she survives to lead the hylic cult around Harmony post-war.

Holy shit does the Conclave need to die. They actually returned Kora to slavery. I should be one of Harm's lifegoals to see them dead. I'd like to imagine that if they didn't have Sympathy as a sort of hostage, Harm would've turned traitor against them when they revealed the ROOT.

[X] Our Sister of Supreme Mercy. This is an idealization of your axiom The Witch they Wanted, reframed as a protection of the weak against the strong.
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Passion. This is an idealization of your axiom Blackstar, reframed as a position of overwhelming passion for the pain of others.

I like both of these. This could at least make them not remain the Conclave's weapons, those cruel powerful figures oppressing the weak, and maybe give them headaches (or join a bloody revolution against them when the Progeny collapses, fingers crossed). Maybe also lets them see that Strangers are oppressed and shouldn't be scorned, hopefully? And Passion is truest to Harmony's character, who feels so much that it hurts her.

[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.

My initial feeling was to vote for the Caprices, which I categorized the Dreamshape inside Harmony as, as cruel and arrogant as an Immaculate, and the Chaos Gods, literally made of emotions and frequently described as capricious. But that was probably extending the definition too much. The Dreamspace as a whole, and Chaos, and the Demiurge, are all mighty forces that helped make this world the hell it is and empowered the Immaculates and Titans and Koinon to be as cruel as they are in this environment. And I want Harmony to break from her Progeny biases, realize that Strangers suffer like she does and she should be kinder and not look down on them. The realization that killing the Caprices will see them replaced by new ones if the Colossi are not toppled (though you should still kill the Caprices when the opportunity presents itself).

I want to think more about tactics before committing to a vote there. I see people favoring to use the Thread, but I'd like to know which tactics benefit from it and which ones are hindered by it so we're all on the same page there. Also, do we have the resources for attrition warfare when Koinon has the advantage in population and industry and our side recently suffered mass Koracide? I suppose they wouldn't expect it because of that.
 
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I honestly can't choose with the other options - They're just too good, and too painful. I know that whatever we choose will have consequences, so I absolve myself of them for now. But I do want to register my vote for this:

[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.

We exist in cycles. Cycles of violence and pain and misery. We do not exist in these cycles merely by the actions of individuals - But through the systemic forces which shape them. Kora, the Primes, the Immaculates, everyone - Shaped by their circumstances, their reality, their ability. The road to hell was paved by something outside of them - They simply provided the materials.
 
Deceiver Shard: "Oi, oi, you there, hylic. Go be evil."
[] [] Harmony: "Oookay..."
Deceiver Shard: "Okay?"
Beatific Dolorous Harmony: "Okay."
D5h: "Science dammit Cold Fusion!"
The Unspeakable Oblivion Witch Queen Dolores Dei Unhallowed be her Name: "I will find you D5h, excise my hate upon Lethe, and turn you into a hat."
 
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IToadlyFrogot said:
Fair enough about Verity and Epiphany although the whole plan is still really funny considering they were so blinded by their own biases not to think "Aisha" was in anyway suspicious when telling them to crank up the autoflayer. But I guess if you get used to committing evil then you can't notice any fishy bullshit.
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Well, it never starts that way. She grants you a small boon after years of silent treatment, and then the demands escalate.

Some update alterations to make some things clearer. First, the fate of Faith:

The problem was that the other Immaculates were not. And so soon as Faith's support began to erode, so soon as the war began to turn against her, and your strategy, they pounced, arrested her, taught her a serious lesson. She is alive, of course - for her crime was believing it is permitted for an Immaculate to die, even willingly, and her lesson one of affirmation, and sisterly care. There cannot be another incident as with the original Sympathy, and original Penitence (two names you'd never thought of, and Sympathy had rarely considered as well - what the fuck happened to them?).

On what the Immaculates did with Kora:

History rewritten to suit the Immaculates' design . A greening that blots out, chokes out every culture that came before. Who were the opposing Koras in the schisomachia? What role did the other types of Koras have, in the Myriad? What about strangers? What was life like in the northwest before Kora? What did Kora really believe? Did she actually eat the things you celebrate she ate? Did she actually do the things you pray to her for doing? Are the stories about her life, that define your calendar, that define the implicit, most innate parts of worship you've maintained out of force of habit, anything but a psychically enforced truth retroactively made real? It doesn't matter if they are - because you can't trust them either way. The final endpoint of a lifeworld warped around the power, and the orbit, of a prime soul.

And now, the network she had intended to be the means of her ascension to godhood after expected victory at the Lung, the link between her and the Myriad that she had constructed in spiral reactors and roots reaching deep into the earth, can be used in another way. To defend the Progeny, and defend the legacy they've forced on Her.
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And on what Root lets them do:

This is a system more fine-tuned, more focused, than the massive blood-price of the Prime Souls. They can target individual soldiers or commanders of Koinon, raise fortifications, so long as they are above the root-network, embedded in your blood and your soil. But to do so means spending your lives like water. A defense-in-depth that requires Kora-sacrifice magnified and harnessed, again and again. And a Progeny that has been cultivated to give it, over, and over - but only this time, and only if you win. Even you cannot bear these sacrifices easily. The worms of gnosis have found their way in, and the societal objections to such a blood price the Immaculates could not erase remain.
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And on the reaction of other Koras, and the consequences for Koinon:

So you act. You fight the armies of Koinon, inflict the worst defeat they've borne since the Red Sun. Even as you feel nothing, so many others feel hope. Those who don't know the truth, those who pretend that they didn't hear Kora's voice, those who know they did, but thought her imploring, caring, protective. At least you've stemmed the tide. At least you've stopped them, and showed they can be beaten. There is panic in the cubes of Koinon, and calls for reviews of internal enemies to blame for this, for mass-arresting Koras, for burning every lavendar grove in the country to prevent their being used (something you're not sure is even a threat). In that way, the Immaculates have won too - in breaking the chain between their national Koras and nation, and turning new suspicion, to the mimics who dared to dream they belonged to commonwealth.
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On Phalanx Nemesis:

But she dodges the swipe of your mech-suit blade, and withdraws within the whirl of blades. Many of her lieutenants do not, and hold the line to their deaths. Phalanx Nemesis is devastated.
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On the Auratic Thread in the vote-options:

The danger is not them being dislodged, or removed, or sabotaged - but them being so solid, so dependable, that when they tangle you are trapped.
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And finally a further short edit to the ending line:

EVENT HORIZON: Remember the Obsidian Butterfly. There is a pure land, through the looking glass.
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Tnoz said:
I love Elegy. I expected her relationship with Harm and Sympathy would be very antagonistic when they met, but she's too broken to hate either of them. I'd like to give her a better future somehow but that's probably not in the cards. She'll probably die and it's going to feel awful. I think the best outcome is that she survives to lead the hylic cult around Harmony post-war.
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Maybe… but given her hatred of all Strangers, rather than their enemy in particular, I worry her and the rest of Harmony's Personality Cult will morph into something terrible. It is what happened to the original Kora, after all.

Even the (in my opinion) most kind option, Our Sister of Supreme Mercy, has the potential to be twisted. Who is the "weak" and who is the "strong"? Too often, "the weak" becomes "ourselves, innocent and blameless" and "the strong" becomes "anyone who dared to defy us."
 
[X] Attrition. Slow, measured. Inflict the greatest material damage for fewest lives lost. Use your Night Witches sparingly, leveraging your immunity to illusion, target ammunition dumps, ballista batteries - tighten a vice around Phalanx Hypnos that will expose him. Then your strong reserve of Night Witches will strike, and end him.
[X] Don't use the Auratic Thread.
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Passion. This is an idealization of your axiom Blackstar, reframed as a position of overwhelming passion for the pain of others.
[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.
 
LuciDreamer said:
Maybe… but given her hatred of all Strangers, rather than their enemy in particular, I worry her and the rest of Harmony's Personality Cult will morph into something terrible. It is what happened to the original Kora, after all.

Even the (in my opinion) most kind option, Our Sister of Supreme Mercy, has the potential to be twisted. Who is the "weak" and who is the "strong"? Too often, "the weak" becomes "ourselves, innocent and blameless" and "the strong" becomes "anyone who dared to defy us."
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Then I would vote for the Our Sister of Supreme Justice option that is the most clear, uncompromising, and easy to articulate. Harmony is a very principled person. Harmony also strikes me as the kind of person who recognizes that it's not someone's fault that they were placed in a position of weakness when it "it was rigged from the start," while also despises those who choose to stay weak or take the easy way out by dying.

A badass line that Harmony could potentially say to her followers would be something like this. "In times of war, all shall contribute to the war effort as within their means. Suffer no compromise in this." or "All positions within the progeny shall be subject to term limits." "Those who resist the peaceful transition of power shall be judged by the remainder of the progeny."
 
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IToadlyFrogot said:
I'm doing a lot of nervous glancing between Harmony's fascination with Titanagalbat's culture and how she found it deeper than the Progeny's universally Kora-centric culture and how in order to create nation gods Koinon flattened their own culture.
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Oh hey, look at me, didn't get it correct but y'know.

Now, to look at our present.

Cetashwayo said:
RHYTHMS: Reaches out beyond this material resting place, with its crackling holographic wallpaper, and flickering phosphoric lamp. Reaches out through the worldwide web to find another music chord, and another, and another. Reaches out to find a world of jazz.

RHYTHMS [Trivial - Success]: The click of a stiletto heel, the exhale of smoke through a shapechanger's rouge lips. The squeak of cleaning rags on glass, and tinny corporate jingles, humming on the phonolog. The sloppy mutters of a patron too tired to stay standing, but too wired to sleep. The pre-dawn chorus of an underlooked hotel.
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So we are in a hotel hopefully we remember how to pay money to the hotelier. A shapechanger huh? Heliodor was a shapechanger. Cybaris has done too well for itself for me to say if the jingles mean we're there.

Cetashwayo said:
RHYTHMS [Easy - Success]: And more, and more. The hooting of mad children, feuding over their morbid prize. The strum of drawn-taut plasteel mooring cords, tied not to aerostat flyers but the rind of two rotting wrists. Three Koras arguing religiously, on whether 'mancakes' is too vile a name to call their kreperie's fried skinbatter. A civic acapella stretching wider, wider.
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Mad children interesting, a corpse or the wrists of one, and a mancake argument of Koras, wonder what color their hair is?

Cetashwayo said:
EVENT HORIZON [Impossible - Success]: Something beautiful will happen.

EVENT HORIZON: Something beautiful must happen. Otherwise…what was this all for?
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Like the hatching of a butterfly from a cocoon perhaps?

Cetashwayo said:
RHYTHMS: A bitter echo, not the voice within the Noise that asked if you'd like to know, but an understudy, a lesser to her greater ruin, speaks. They implore you to find meaning in the music of a world that maintains its will to live, even at dream's end.

SNOWCRASH: +FEEL.+
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Lol, perfect for our hero protagonist. Wonder if there's human pizza anywhere.

Most of my thoughts on our friend The Grey boil down to "interesting" or "damn that's fucked up" so I'll save quoting it for when I can think of something more substantial.
 
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Passion. This is an idealization of your axiom Blackstar, reframed as a position of overwhelming passion for the pain of others.

[X] Our Sister of Supreme Mercy. This is an idealization of your axiom The Witch they Wanted, reframed as a protection of the weak against the strong.

[x] The Caprices. Gods, in a human shape. Ever-passionate, ever-spiteful monsters, too-caring, too-interested, their hands on the lathe of fate, their intentions malice, evil, cruelty. The Immaculates, the Prime Souls, the Titans.
 
[X] Hit-and-Run. An aggressive, manuever-centric strategy. Take full advantage of your mobility, use independent demi-company sized-units to rove beyond enemy lines. Gather captives, outright destroy straggler units, seize key objectives. Eventually, you must run into, catch Morpheos - and descend on him with the witches' swarm.
[X] Don't use the Auratic Thread.
[X] Our Sister of Supreme Mercy. This is an idealization of your axiom The Witch they Wanted, reframed as a protection of the weak against the strong.
[X] The Colossi. Gods in an inhuman shape. Alien, structural forces, indifferent, grinding, uncaring, that define time, define history, define creation, by their brutal, impersonal design. The suns, the seasons, the sea.

After long and considered thought I believe this plan has the best odds of fulfilling our core objective of seeing Koinon triumph. Glory to the liberation of Mankind, the Commonwealth and the Prime Souls!
 
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Da Boyz said:
After long and considered thought I believe this plan has the best odds of fulfilling our core objective of seeing Koinon triumph. Glory to the liberation of Mankind, the Commonwealth and the Prime Souls!
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Take this mimic into the disciplinary corp to be converted into a not-servitor. Koinon has racked up a debt that it is incapable of paying and the rest of Illuminata will see it go the way Greece did in the bygone days of ancient terra. Koinon may control vast swaths of land and have few rivals, but that just means they have more to lose. Nothing lasts forever.
Edit: The more Koinon "wins" the more Harmony learns to hate and in Warhammer hate is just as unifying and empowering force as faith.
 
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IronKnightofSilv said:
Take this mimic into the disciplinary corp to be converted into a not-servitor. Koinon has racked up a debt that is incapable of paying and the rest of Illuminata will see it go the way Greece did in the bygone days ancient terra. Koinon may control vast swaths of land and have few rivals, but that just means they have more to lose. Nothing lasts forever.
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Gotta say "Nothing lasts forever" is a weird sentence to use to regarding the Commonwealth when they just came into being via national reincarnation five minutes ago. Especially when you're playing as the decayed remnants of a once great empire who have betrayed everything they stood for in pursuit of power yet will still end up losing half their territory in the end of this war.

The future is already written, because we're in it. All we can do is decide if we carve an irreplaceable wound in the side of the most currently progressive faction and scar hopes for the future. From an OOC perspective I would much rather we fail, because for all that the consequences of failure might be personally painful for the setting its far for the better that we lose and Koinon win. Because we're the baddies, and Koinon are currently the brightest light left even if they might also be the baddies. In slaying Morpheos we would be marring that hope, serving the Immaculates to perform one more wicked deed and cripple the advancement which might happen in the future peace.

Cetashwayo said:
So you act. You fight the armies of Koinon, inflict the worst defeat they've borne since the Red Sun. Even as you feel nothing, so many others feel hope. Those who don't know the truth, those who pretend that they didn't hear Kora's voice, those who know they did, but thought her imploring, caring, protective. At least you've stemmed the tide. At least you've stopped them, and showed they can be beaten. There is panic in the cubes of Koinon, and calls for reviews of internal enemies to blame for this, for mass-arresting Koras, for burning every lavendar grove in the country to prevent their being used (something you're not sure is even a threat). In that way, the Immaculates have won too - in breaking the chain between their national Koras and nation, and turning new suspicion, to the mimics who dared to dream they belonged to commonwealth.
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I have to say I'm not entirely sure how well this edit vibes with the story so far and particularly the past couple updates though. One of the three national gods of Koinon's daughter and martyr/daughter of the nation was a Lavendar Kora, and the atrocities have been coming fast and hard against them. This combined with the fate of Gorgon, the overall ethos of the Commonwealth and the recent social contract results in it making very little sense. Bigotry seldom does admittedly, but you'd think that atm anyone who suggested a Koran Internment Camp would be immolated by Hyperion to the cheers of the crowds. It makes more sense for Koinon's atrocities at this stage to be external rather than internal reprisals.

To be blunt it tarnishes the emotional impact of Red Sun's scenes regarding the Commonwealth's blood written social contract and makes little sense. While I could totally see a focus on eliminating religious fervor in exchange for national loyalty in Koinon's future for there to be talks about mass arresting Koras when they're desperately limited on manpower and waging a war for national survival/vengeance is pretty dumb.
 
Da Boyz said:
The future is already written, because we're in it. All we can do is decide if we carve an irreplaceable wound in the side of the most currently progressive faction and scar hopes for the future. From an OOC perspective I would much rather we fail, because for all that the consequences of failure might be personally painful for the setting its far for the better that we lose and Koinon win. Because we're the baddies, and Koinon are currently the brightest light left even if they might also be the baddies. In slaying Morpheos we would be marring that hope, serving the Immaculates to perform one more wicked deed and cripple the advancement which might happen in the future peace.


I have to say I'm not entirely sure how well this edit vibes with the story so far and particularly the past couple updates though. One of the three national gods of Koinon's daughter and martyr/daughter of the nation was a Lavendar Kora, and the atrocities have been coming fast and hard against them. This combined with the fate of Gorgon, the overall ethos of the Commonwealth and the recent social contract results in it making very little sense. Bigotry seldom does admittedly, but you'd think that atm anyone who suggested a Koran Internment Camp would be immolated by Hyperion to the cheers of the crowds. It makes more sense for Koinon's atrocities at this stage to be external rather than internal reprisals.

To be blunt it tarnishes the emotional impact of Red Sun's scenes regarding the Commonwealth's blood written social contract and makes little sense. While I could totally see a focus on eliminating religious fervor in exchange for national loyalty in Koinon's future for there to be talks about mass arresting Koras when they're desperately limited on manpower and waging a war for national survival/vengeance is pretty dumb.
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I can smell the lavender Kora hair dye and the utterly atrocious food from here. Your belief that Koinon is the "hopeful," the "brightest light," that Koinon "might" be bad, and that Harmony's deeds are "wicked" is just one interpretation of what has been presented so far. Here's mine. Koinon is a country of cheaters who made pacts with the archenemy and who do not just get to be morally superior and happy after what they have done. I don't want Harmony to slay Morpheus because it will hurt Koinon or to serve the immaculate, that is merely a happy side benefit, I want Harmony to slay Morpheus because of the story such a death will tell. The defeat of The Progeny is set in stone, that much is clear, but if Harmony can slay a "god" then that will greatly increase the amount of faith in her because people inherently believe that only another god can kill a god. Not to mention that history is rife with stories of mortals slaying gods and as a result claiming their divinity. Even if that does not happen, at the very least slaying Morpheus will mean that all Koinon sacrificed to gain Koinon will have been for nothing and I find that extremely hilarious. As for how Koinon is treating the lavender koras? Its simple really. Koinon's prime souls are incredibly potent but they can not be everywhere. I also never expected Koinon to keep its promises to the hylics. So public opinion turning against them makes a lot of sense.

As for the future, I think you mean the present, which is technically the future, since we are trapped in the past. Who's to say what Harmony will do in the actual future from the present? Safe to say, that if Harmony survives then she is going to wake up one incredibly pissed-off and motivated young woman with blades on her arms and a cult of personality surrounding her. A lot can be done with that.

Edit: That nothing lasts forever statement was regarding how they will win this war but may not win a second war. After all, we have been playing WW1 in space and we all know that what was at the time referred to as "the war to end all wars" was not the last war. This is Warhammer where war is a constant. Koinon's chickens will come home to roost at some point.

Edit: I am of the opinion that while the Progeny will lose a large quantity of its territory, it still comes out better off than Titanagalbat.
 
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I think people see the rhetoric of revolution and a just defensive war and project a lot onto a state that isn't there. You chose not to interact more with Pandora so it's obscured, but even aside from that, this is a country that has been using slaves in every section of its war-machine and has not stopped doing that as the Commonwealth.

And even putting that aside, it should be expected that the monster of national awakening is also going to birth the monster of national defining, which includes, yes, attempting to draw lines as to who is and who is not part of the nation. Neither should it be a surprise that a culture which buries Koras up to their scalps and farms their hair has not always had an uncomplicated, nuanced view on Koras. They are not an uncontroversial part of the national polity, I am afraid, and these calls are just that - calls. They are signs of how, under pressure, high-minded ideals can immediately come under attack in fear and panic and bubbling bigotries rooted in centuries of conflict.

Your own pessimistic viewpoint on where it leads is your projection as to the infallible power of the Immaculates to ruin everything. You are pessimistic about the ability of Koinon and Koras to co-exist, because they have been killing Koras, and burying them, and slaughtering them, and gassing them, and dropping petriform rockets on them that they promise wasn't their fault. And it is also underlined by the fact you are, in fact, a bigot who barely grasps that Strangers in the Progeny are people deserving of rights, even as you are entirely willing to extend that to foreigners.

This is not really just because you're cruel but because it seriously damages a core portion of your worldview - that you are a victim. And you are, but the concept that there are people who are in fact victimized even more than you are, whose victimhood you have been benefiting from without even thinking about it, that you are responsible for the death of innocent strangers when you put down the Ylfame rebellion, is simply too much for you to bear. It isn't an axiom because you don't even really think about it. It's implicit.

In many ways, the story of the three warring states is the story of rise, apex, and fall. Koinon appears rising - and so its idealism is clearest, and its negative features can be obscured, written off as somehow unconnected, because its ideology seems so attractive and magnetic at the literal birth of a founding myth. Titanagalbat was at its apex - and so in its tremendous martial glory and awesome majesty and power trampled on Carnosa without, it appeared, a care in the world, and without apparent damage to its reputation or self-confidence (except, as you're finding now, it absolutely did, and is part of the moral corrosion of the country). And the Progeny, at the end of a long downslide, degenerating into destroying or warping every aspect of itself that might have, at one point, been positive, is running out of reasons for why, even in the view of its own beneficiaries, it should continue to exist.

But these narratives obscure the rot that is inherent in all Empires, that were there in the beginning and are there at the end. No state is your salvation, and no culture or people are beyond redemption, or simply 'deserve' to die.
 
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