[LP CYOA] Epic

[treave]

Basically you turn Greece into a kingdom with option A. As for the Terasphagos, I'll have an intermission update stating what we've learnt of them.

 

[ScubaV]

I'm leaning towards B. I'm not sure Athena is quite prepared for A and C just seems counterproductive. Leaving, letting Athena and the Greeks get thrashed and then coming back going "I told you so" is just going to earn resentment. If someone could come up with a good D option I'd be interested in seeing it (but probably not joining our harem as I suspect that may just slightly injure her pride).

As an aside, if down the line things get desperate, I wonder what would happen if we shunted all our hunger and corruption into Anbar-Shi and then attempted to destroy it.

 

[Esquilax]

Glad that our calm demeanor managed to make negotiations go smoothly. Hopefully it will also allow us to prevent ourselves from getting corrupted by the hellgate and feeding on Terasphagos by using Anbar-Shi. I have to disagree with the B voters here:

Although your conversation with Athena had given you confidence that you could convince her to see things your way, you had to be careful with what you said next, lest you offend her pride.

It is really a terrible offer from Athena's POV. Basically, she'll see it as "God-Emperor Ean gets all the power and control over Greece, while I do all the real work in fighting the Terasphagos. Fuck that." She won't accept it, and negotiations will break down as a result. Athena might be new to ruling and lack the guidance of the voices, but given what we know of her, I am positive that she'll pick it up quickly. Offering her Queenship gives her actual power, a degree of autonomy and shows her that we have some respect for her. And well... there's the possibility of marriage down the road. Imagine what sort of badass general that a union between Ean and Athena would spawn.

Option A provides that by showing Athena that we're willing to compromise, while at the same time making headway towards dealing with the Terasphagos threat. C is just dumb - the whole reason we came here was to fix the situation in the first place.

I'm also interested in Storyfag's D. Can you explain why you prefer it to A?

 

[Smashing Axe]

From what I understand, Ean's Anbar-Shi is like Sauron's ring, it's essentially a phylactery with utilitarian abilities and power enhancement. I don't think destroying it in any instance would be a good idea.

 

[treave]

Anbar-Shi can't be physically destroyed anymore. It is now just another aspect of yourself, we can recreate it easily. Although we "put" the hunger in the blade, it's not a physical act. Rather, in our mind we tried to associate the hunger more with the part of ourselves that we recognize as Anbar-Shi. Uh, something like that. Actually destroying the blade means mentally breaking down the barrier of self between us and it, and reabsorbing it into our psyche. Which means all that hunger comes back to roost.

 

[newcomer]

As Esquilax said, A is the only logical choice.

For the other Olympians, I suggest sending them (Maybe the Gelded Twins?) as an emissary to China

treave

For the Eye of Terror, maybe you can circle the affected region in the map? Or is it too small to be drawn on the map?

 

[ScubaV]

Well like I said, it would be a move of desperation. Perhaps Ean is almost fully corrupted and with the last vestiges of his noble mind he attempts it. It might depower him or put him in a coma, but at least he wouldn't be Emperor Palpatine. Ah, I see it wouldn't work anyway.

Another off-topic idle thought: perhaps Ean should form an all-female group of attendants. They can function as a harem/personal guard/administrators. And then for a dark twist, Ean can consume any children born of their unions to prevent him from becoming more corrupt (oh the irony). They would know of this, but are fanatical enough that it is accepted, even desired (Ean is joining the souls of his offspring with his own or somesuch excuse).

 

[Smashing Axe]

Hahaha, oh god that's awful. It might however increase our power by a more dramatic degree than feeding on regular humans, and at least we'll retain our own mind. We're pretty doomed at the moment to be a dick no matter what we do. Perhaps if we focus on increasing our mind powers we'd be able to filter what enters our mind so we can just spend all day feeding on heretics, although how we would improve our mind powers with our new knowledge limitation I don't know. Read psychology textbooks 5000 years from now or start dissecting people's brains to figure out how they work?

Speaking of which, how have we been feeding over the past five years, treave?

 

[treave]

The occasional death row convict. It's all covered up though.

I'll mark Olympus later.

 

[Storyfag]

I'm also interested in Storyfag's D. Can you explain why you prefer it to A?

Gladly.

1. By making Athena (or whatever leader the Olympians designate among themselves) our ally instead of vassal, we completely avoid injuring her (their) pride. On the other hand, A would make her equal with our mortal vassal kings - are you guys sure she'd accept it just like that?

2. By securing an alliance and making the area around the Olympus Rift exteritorial we retain the right to send troops there without trespassing through sovereign Greek lands (Olympus is some 50 kilometers from the sea, we'd be bringing the troops via that route).

I guess what I'm saying is that I want a version of A that will recognise Athena (or any other designated Olympian leader) as having higher status and far greater autonomy than Akilhotep and Nabuchasar, who are, after all, mere mortals.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Although I like it, I don't agree with your proposal Storyfag because I think it's very much in our interests to have her subservient to us. I think this because we know her to have a sense of duty and justice, if she swears fealty to us as a vassal, and not just an ally (who I'm sure can graciously leave such an arrangement once circumstances have changed), she is effectively renouncing her obligation to Zeus and the Masters and giving it over to us. It's important for this to happen as it is likely to be the only thing that would make her disobey the voices when they return. I think making her subservient is the only way to make her a reliable ally, we have seniority, power, and a respectable demeanor, I don't think she would feel slighted at the thought of serving us. So what if mortals also do the same? Although she may become a queen from this, she is already a god and unlikely to make the comparison between this service to us as over-god, and the service of our mortal followers.

Kneeling comes easy when you've done it all your life. She's conditioned to have a master from Zeus and she needs a replacement.

 

[Storyfag]

That'd be ideal, I know. I'd just like to somehow stress that she'll be a tier above Akilhotep and Nabuchasar in our chain of command to make her comfortable with the idea.

 

[ScubaV]

Ok, I'll vote A. Props for the idea Storyfag, but I think making her queen is already a big enough concession. We have the leverage in these negotiations, no need to go too far.

 

[Tigranes]

A. I understand Storyfag's concerns, but we have our own interests as well. We need her to be at most on the same level as Akilhotep & Nabuchasar, or there will be problems down the line. In our Empire, all Kings need to be equal.

 

[Baltika9]

Wall of text:

E. Why not just marry her for an alliance? Think about it: she won't be equated with mortals, she'll be an Empress instead. Hell, we can even tell her she can do whatever she wants with Greece, so long as she is our wife and Greece is part of our Empire. She can govern it however the hell she wants to, so long as she doesn't go full retard. Of course, we warn her that this is not going to be, in all likelihood, a monogamous relationship.

Oh, and Olympus and one nearby port city are strictly our territory. We should tell them what exactly happened there too.

Storyfag: Good idea, except for one detail. Setting her on top of the other Kings is a very bad idea. Godess she may be, but I see no reason to insult our two most loyal supporters like this. If it were me, and I ceded my kingdom to a someone, given him another kingdom through diplomacy, basically creating an empire, and he walked into my palace one day and told me "See this chick? She's not my wife, you don't owe her shit, she's done nothing for you, she's not your Empress, but she's better than you. Because I said so."
My response would literally be: "What the fuck, man? Fuck you, I'm outta here, gonna go find me some Marduk supporters (that reminds me, we haven't seen hide nor hair of Ibilsin and Dapimsin, the ;last two members of Marduk's clergy. Maybe it's them up north?) and overturn your kingdom. Fuck you and your little cocksleeve."
Now if she were, on the other hand, an Empress, they would be overjoyed, because 1) The Empereor is a savvy bastard that brought in another nation into the fold and 2) because he'll finally produce some heirs, thus continuing the royal line and also 3) because da-yum, her beauty is worthy of an Emperor.

Edit: always keep in mind where your power stems from.

And as for personal animosity: bros, one night with Ean and she will see the "Truth of the Emprah's Light." Ean'll fuck her brains out, is what I'm saying
By the by, treave, I hope Ean's been getting some action, don't want him going back to being completely distracted by Athena's "assets," and tell me if feeding on people with particularly strong vices, levels that specific vice (eat a murderer, become more murderous; eat a (man)whore, become a manwhore, etc...?)
Also, how evil are we exactly now? And does the fact that Ean was a goody two-shoes all his existence have any bearing on delaying his corruption? And how far are we on the Renegade scale? Are we up to the collar-grabbing point yet? (Apologies if I'm getting on our nerves, but some shit needs to be asked. Which...doesn't really make me sorry.) hanks for the map, by the way. And did Panharth's knowledge tell us of Master-Gieloth history?

Edit: Bros, listen to me here. Right now, Ean is a ticking time bomb. Of Evil.
So, while we're still a good guy, let's focus on building a stable, independently capable Empire and making it strong and resilient to withstand the test of time, breed some rugrats to take care of it, a-la Nebuchadnezzar, and also, in the meantime, gather strong enough allies (there's a ME2 reference in here somewhere, I just know it) to venture into Olympus (this means Sekhenun is getting off her diet, for a permanent vow of mutual loyalty and friendship. Good deal). Also, we need to find Shulgi, Naram (probably going to have to kill those guys) and Edem's pop.

Once we are satisfied with both, we jump in yelling "SHIN'ARI, FUCK YEAH!!!1!"

Edit 2: as to how we persuade her to marry Ean, I have a plan. Tell her that a monarch's prime duty is to protect and feed it's own people, and to give them prosperity. Ejecting our empire would be completely counter-productive to that goal, as we take away the soldiers, the food, the aid and the trade from her lands, leaving her people defnseless, starving and living in broken homes in cities of ghosts. What do we gain from this (as far as we tell her)? The Rift (prime research material), a strong future ally/nation and a smart, just and hot-ass wife (yes, flattery does indeed get you somewhere). Take it or leave it and drive your country into the ground, honey.
Your choice.

 

[Bloodshifter]

Well I must say this has been a active thread both D and E are good choices over the 3 given

But they focus on pride and forget that she is JUST so long as we can show her that we are not doing anything under handed we can more likely then not force her into a marriage (E) so long as we go with storyfag's (D) for the joint defense of territory then every one is happy we move out of greece (mostly we still have a army sitting in the eye) while settling the upstart immortals and taking their leader into owing us a favor and begin our harem.(totally not underhanded)

 

[Esquilax]

I like Storyfag's plan. But we ought to remember why we're here: to make the first step in forging trust between us and Athena/Artemis. The more they trust Ean, the more likely they are to listen to his plans for rebellion and fight against the voices should they resurface. It'll make marriage and a more permanent alliance a distinct possibility down the road. I'm still voting A for now, but I'm considering something like this:

F) We ask for no territorial concessions, no attempts at vassalization and no attempts to bring Greece into the lands of Shin'ar. Greece would remain independent and under Athena's rule - we just want to heal the wounds of the Aegean war and help with the aftermath of Olympus. Just let us help, no-strings-attached basically. She can have us on to advise, but she'll call the shots in Greece, with the exception of any actions around Olympus pertaining to Sumerian/Egyptian troops, of course.

I'm not concerned about Athena's capability at ruling - I'm confident she'll make the right decisions. ScubaV noted that we had the upper hand in the negotiation here. But I think it's precisely because of that, that if we simply opt to relinquish that advantage when we have it, that Athena will appreciate it and trust us more. I also think that a generous offer like this would be a great example to our people of the sense of responsibility and compassion for their fellow bro in trouble that we want them to follow.

Eventually we can request that Athena sends Artemis off to China to warn the immortals there of an impending Gieloth attack on their shores in five years. Fuck the twins, Artemis is a goddess of the hunt, so she's the perfect candidate to traverse the rough terrain and make it to China quickly. However, that should wait for later: asking her to do that with the offer I proposed above would make Athena rightly suspicious - she'll immediately find our offer suspect and assume that we want to get Artemis out of the way so that we can kill her and invade Greece more easily.

But we really need to send Artemis to China soon. If the Greek Immortals can't here the voices, then the Chinese ones probably don't either. Without our information network to warn them, they would be completely blind to the Gieloth assault arriving shortly. I'm not at all surprised that the Olympians haven't been hearing the voices. Zeus was an avatar, and now that he's not here anymore, the voices have gone quiet. My theory is this: to easily transmit control for their immortals, the Masters need an avatar on the ground. Based on this, I'm pretty sure that the new Masters Inc., Regional Manager of Earth Operations has not arrived.

I think the best thing we could do, once/if she jumps on board with us, is honestly tell her our plans and hopes for humanity, I think she'd have similar aspirations if she could be convinced the Masters' designs are malevolent.

More importantly, if Ean is truly doomed by his curse, at least he can use his limited time as a "good guy" to groom a successor that will protect mankind if his hunger drives him to madness. I see a lot of potential in Athena to fill Ean's role if he becomes unable to end his curse in time. The God-Empress of Mankind.

I can think of only three ways of curing Ean's hunger for now, none of which are pretty: (1) curing the Gieloth curse, since it's related to ours. As dickish as the Masters seem, from what we have seen of the Gieloth, they probably had good reason to do so. I feel silly for even bringing this up, because the possibility of reversing the curse seems almost impossible given how insanely powerful the Masters are. And even if we could do it, it causes a shitload of other problems. (2) Becoming a slave of the Masters - this time, they'll make sure we get the "right" voices this time. They'll make sure that the commands we get are almost irresistible with all the trouble we've caused them. This might not be too bad - if Shulgi was able to dominate the voices, it's certainly possible for Ean. (3) Find Vajra in the Warp, offer it to the Masters in exchange for a cure. The Masters created immortals, so they'd know how to fix them. Sadly, this is probably our best bet at the moment.

Whatever it's going to be, I'm certain the price for a cure is going to be steep.

 

[Baltika9]

I like Storyfag's plan. But we ought to remember why we're here: to make the first step in forging trust between us and Athena/Artemis. The more they trust Ean, the more likely they are to listen to his plans for rebellion and fight against the voices should they resurface. It'll make marriage and a more permanent alliance a distinct possibility down the road. I'm still voting A for now, but I'm considering something like this:

F) We ask for no territorial concessions, no attempts at vassalization and no attempts to bring Greece into the lands of Shin'ar. Greece would remain independent and under Athena's rule - we just want to heal the wounds of the Aegean war and help with the aftermath of Olympus. Just let us help, no-strings-attached basically. She can have us on to advise, but she'll call the shots in Greece, with the exception of any actions around Olympus pertaining to Sumerian/Egyptian troops, of course.

First of all, good stuff.

Hmmm... I don't think that she's naive enough not to take Ean for a ride. You know, use us to defend her nation from Olympus and get hers back on track and when she's ready (or when the Masters come back and make her) just stab us in the back. Someone named "Goddess of Wisdom" is not naive, she'll know (or think she knows, sometimes people want to believe certain things) that we're playing at an angle here anyway, so this kind of concession can shoot into "too good to be true" territory. We're owning her, completely, in debate right now, sowhy not just do this: propose to make her Empress and lay our cards on the table and cut the bullshit. Blunt truth can do wonders too and if she refuses and resorts to hostility (womyn cannot into diplomacy /Lyric Suite), well, we just kill 'em all and use the poacher excuse.
If it starts to look like we're loosing her, then we tell her to come along with us (the others can come, too) and observe. If she likes what she sees, awesome. If not, oh well, we just won a couple of years that our influence and forces spread in Greece, good luck winning sweetheart.

I'm with you on Artemis, in addition to all you said, the other Immortals will trust one of their own much, much more.

More importantly, if Ean is truly doomed by his curse, at least he can use his limited time as a "good guy" to groom a successor that will protect mankind if his hunger drives him to madness. I see a lot of potential in Athena to fill Ean's role if he becomes unable to end his curse in time. The God-Empress of Mankind.

I can think of only three ways of curing Ean's hunger for now, none of which are pretty: (1) curing the Gieloth curse, since it's related to ours. As dickish as the Masters seem, from what we have seen of the Gieloth, they probably had good reason to do so. I feel silly for even bringing this up, because the possibility of reversing the curse seems almost impossible given how insanely powerful the Masters are. And even if we could do it, it causes a shitload of other problems. (2) Becoming a slave of the Masters - this time, they'll make sure we get the "right" voices this time. They'll make sure that the commands we get are almost irresistible with all the trouble we've caused them. This might not be too bad - if Shulgi was able to dominate the voices, it's certainly possible for Ean. (3) Find Vajra in the Warp, offer it to the Masters in exchange for a cure. The Masters created immortals, so they'd know how to fix them. Sadly, this is probably our best bet at the moment.

Whatever it's going to be, I'm certain the price for a cure is going to be steep.

As for your God Empress plan: I'm not all too enthusiastic giving control to her when the voices can return at any time. Followed rather shortly by a Master. No, breed some children (like Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, etc...) from Immortal/Gieloth stock and leave them in charge, royal line and all. And when the evil starts getting to us, take our meticulously assembled team and jump into Olympus.

About the Gieloth: let's not make hasty assumptions. Yes, the ones we've seen so far have been rather large dickwads. I get that, but you forgot to factor in two things: 1) they are doing this because they, literally, must and 2) I get the feeling that Marduk went apeshit because he became too corrupted from all his devouring. We must find out what the hell is going on between the Masters and Gieloth (treave also said that they severed the portal between this dimension and the Masters', maybe because they were getting tired of being toyed with. The hunger and genocide could just be revenge for that.) I can't stress enough that Sekhenun and Ean must strike a deal of loyalty and friendship. Her dying end the Gieloth effort to find alternate travel methods to "eat fucking everything" (fucking fatasses).

 

[ScubaV]

What does F say to all the Greeks who rejected Athena and Artemis's attempts to subvert us? Plus the too good to be true stuff Baltika mentioned. I'm sticking to A.

 

[Esquilax]

The individual city-states are desperate, ScubaV. Otherworldly abominations were rampaging through Greece with impunity before we arrived, of course people are going to accept help if it means that they're safe from harm. To your average Greek, it doesn't matter whether that help comes from Athena or the God-Emperor of Shi'ar. It's not that they have any great love for Babylon, quite the contrary, they're joining us because Athena/Artemis were MIA at the time (they only showed up last year) and various city-states had no real alternatives to turn to.

Baltika9, you are overthinking this shit. Athena's position is weak, she is desperate and the only thing really holding her back from accepting a favourable deal is pride:

“Furthermore, I am sure you know that Greece does not have enough resources to defend itself from anything at the moment. Why are you in such a hurry to push us out?”

Athena manages to regain her composure with that question. “We… We can handle ourselves. The Terasphagos incursions have decreased in the past few years.”

She knows that the Greeks need help to solve the Rift situation, she's just reluctant to admit it. If Ean appeals to her sense of duty with something like "The Terasphagos pose a grave threat to both of our peoples. It is my duty to protect my people, just as it is your duty to protect yours. That is why we must put the war behind us and come together to fight this threat so we can protect both our countries and heal the wounds from the Aegean War. United we stand divided we fall blah blah blah" it will work. Athena is the type that's willing to put grudges aside and work together towards a common goal (i.e. the opposite of Ares, who I accurately judged) so if we just appealed to her nature, I feel that she'd be willing to work with us.

There is the possibility that she'll think that the offer is too good to be true, but it won't be hard to remind her that the Terasphagos threat is a serious danger to both our new Empire and to Greece. No man is an island. Vassalizing her risks stirring her pride and won't establish trust the way that a more generous offer would. We really need to work quickly here, so that we can get on track with sending an emissary to China soon.

It was something that had happened mere moments after your arrival in Greece – the Terasphagos, who had been relatively meek for four years, suddenly swarmed out from Olympus in massive numbers. Nobody knew why they did so, but for a day or so there had been thousands of Terasphagos assailing the fortifications around Olympus. Your brave soldiers managed to hold the line, and just as suddenly as they had come, the Terasphagos retreated. Of course, she knew.

treave, it seems our men are holding off the Terasphagos very well. Is this due in part to morale/faith in the Emperor?

 

[Baltika9]

The individual city-states are desperate, ScubaV. Otherworldly abominations were rampaging through Greece with impunity before we arrived, of course people are going to accept help if it means that they're safe from harm. To your average Greek, it doesn't matter whether that help comes from Athena or the God-Emperor of Shi'ar. It's not that they have any great love for Babylon, quite the contrary, they're joining us because Athena/Artemis were MIA at the time (they only showed up last year) and various city-states had no real alternatives to turn to.

Baltika9, you are overthinking this shit. Athena's position is weak, she is desperate and the only thing really holding her back from accepting a favourable deal is pride.

Vassalizing her risks stirring her pride and won't establish trust the way that a more generous offer would.

Wounding her pride? Vassalizing her? I'm offering to make her Empress, no bullshit. That's the opposite of those two things.
Besides, we know Ean's coming back into Greece. She knows it. Why tiptoe around it? Goddess of Wisdom, even without the voices, implies she can, at least somewhat, see through bullshit.

Oh, and also, the Greeks were refusing to support them.

They have promised to defend the Greeks from the Terasphagos themselves, but for now few Greeks were eager to join their cause.

Giving Greece back to her would be rather insulting. We're the Emperor now. If we want to be a good Emperor, we'd better think about the bigger-than-big picture.

Edit: And I'm not entirely sure that she would agree to leaving our men in Olympus. That both undermines her credibility in the eyes of her people ("Lulz, I know I told you I would protect you, but let the Imperium handle it. Derp") and leave an invasion force right fucking there in her borders. She would have to be completely stupid to trust a dude she just met like that. She doesn't know that Ean is pretty much Jesus-only-better right (for) now.

Edit 2: If all other arguments to marry her fail, tell her this: "Look, you really want to lose out, not that you stand a chance, to a Gieloth?" Use our newfound trolling skill tree.

Oooh, it'll be on then.

Edit 3: And am I the only one who thinks that Marduk, Zeus and Ares will return as Nurgle, Tzeench and Khorne?

 

[oscar]

I'm thinking B at the moment. We already have control of Greece, it would seem a shame to give it up (especially when people have resisted these immortals attempts at prying the Greeks away from us).

Unlike Akilhotep and Nabuchasar, Athena is an immortal which means we will likely have to deal with her potential plotting and machinations for as long as the Empire exists. I can't imagine Athena happily staying under our thumb for all eternity.

 

[Baltika9]

I'm thinking B at the moment. We already have control of Greece, it would seem a shame to give it up (especially when people have resisted these immortals attempts at prying the Greeks away from us).

Unlike Akilhotep and Nabuchasar, Athena is an immortal which means we will likely have to deal with her potential plotting and machinations for as long as the Empire exists. I can't imagine Athena happily staying under our thumb for all eternity.

But I can see her happily staying under Ean for all eternity.
Edit: speaking of which, this is how we break the subject to her: "You know what would look goo on you? Me!"

Edit:

As Emperor you grab all the collars you want, when you want.

I think the solution just presented itself.

 

[Kukulkan]

A
Annex Greece and crush the Hittites later. Our empire shall stretch from Pakistan to Britannia.

 

[Kipeci]

A.