[LP CYOA] Epic

[Kukulkan]

Our only other option to save the earth is to discover time travel and aid the Xia dynasty to prevent the tree from growing and that tear in reality from forming.

 

[Kukulkan]

treave, if we fuck up and Earth dies will the LP continue?

 

[Esquilax]

i suggest not becoming that which we are so fond of in these CYOAs; mindless beasts out of our control. shit, at this point, we ought to go buddy up with Dio, Dagrun, who knows, maybe we work something out, there's some time, in any case i'm sure terra can survive for a bit more. obviously there is no ideal option, but this vote reminds me of the one where it was decided Ean would go into the rift because 'time to do something amirite guise' and choosing A here seems exactly like that kind of reasoning. B is shitty but better than A

You're right, A is a kneejerk, "oh shit, what do I do?!" choice and I highly doubt that this will save Earth. More likely than not, Ean will simply become too much of a threat for the Masters to ignore, and then they'll nuke Earth anyways. Instead of exterminating Earth due to the presence of the sphere, they'll exterminate Earth because of Ean - in the end, we'll have saved nothing. This is actually worse than the Gieloth tree sailing off into space because at least there humanity won't be extinct - if Ean successfully devours this thing, it will pretty much guarantee the extinction of the human race.

We've seen our Successors go insane from indulging in their hunger, and we were already close to becoming on the verge of that back when the symptoms of our condition reared their ugly head around Sekhenun. It's best to hold back and perhaps work with Shulgi/Dio to resolve things.

 

[Baltika9]

Indeed, and there's another reason not to go A:

What we have here is a mere branch of the Sacred Tree back in the Concordiat. This branch is fully part of it, despite the distance. It took us some time to encourage growth in this direction.”

The Sacred Tree itself has already spread throughout the planet, though this is the only branch that has sprouted from it. My people do not see the need to retain our individuality within the Tree, but we respect all life. We do not see anything wrong in allowing other means of salvation through the tree, though regretfully one hundred thousand is the most we can handle.

Bros, once we start eating it, we may not be able to stop and just go on to devour the whole damned thing, which will definitely overload our capacity.

Also, don't you get a feeling of deja vu here? Two massive armies at Olympus, one (undoubtedly) lead by someone close to Ean's power and with Zeus being present too. It's like a grimdark remix and I think this may be our second chance. Of course, this is suicidally optimistic, but I think we actually stand a chance as-is, as devouring even a hundred-thousand souls will have terrible effects on Ean, who was avoid his hunger as much as possible.

On the other hand, we may not be able to change much of anything without a powerup and the only one I can see is right here. I'd say that after three thousand years of ascetic starvation, Ean has enough self-control and a strong enough ego to withstand this. So I'm on the fence, but flopped to B for now.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

First, Baltika9, we aren't devouring 100,000 souls. The 100,000 are the people that will board the tree in the future. They are not a part of it now, so Ean would not be devouring them - only the tree.

Would this act corrupt Ean? Yes, but I don't think it would turn him into a mindless beast. Ean has been through 3000 years of torture without feeding and he learned meditation skills that enabled him to center his hunger inside anbar-shi. Things are different now from when we battled Marduk. Ean has a far greater control of the hunger. Plus, I don't think we have a choice. The gieloth are devouring the earth right now. Yes, they've said they'd transport 100,000 humans, but they'll be enslaved/eaten once they land. This is our one chance to stop them.

edit: Also, treave said that had we picked Olympus, we never would have been able to go to Crete - leading me to believe that either we are removed from the earth or the earth is destroyed.

Esquilax I highly doubt the masters will wipe the planet because we eat the tree. They haven't done it by now and the tree (the reason they wanted to wipe the planet in the first place) is full grown. At worst they might hunt us down and try to abduct us again, but that would be a small price to pay for the continued existence of earth - not to mention the millions of lives saved.

 

[Azira]

I can't really make up my mind, so I guess I'll be one of the silent voices for now.

 

[Kukulkan]

Floppin to B

 

[Baltika9]

First, Baltika9, we aren't devouring

Our ancestors have become the Sacred Tree. They do not guide our actions directly.”

The ones that merged with it are far more numerous, I'd say, than 100,000 people, so that's even worse. We may simply not be able to handle that much power, see the feedpoints back from chapter five.
It's a risky deal and a "Birth of Slaanesh" scenario isn't at all unlikely.

Edit: also, I'm rather surprised at how much Earth became fucked up in three thousand years. Just, wow.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I saw the feedback points and while I think Ean might definitely run the risk of going a little nuts for a while (surprising that anyone objects to this considering how many forgot about Ean while playing Evil-Dick-Dio...), I think it would be a small sacrifice to save the planet and the 10s of millions of lives that will be ended once the gieloth ship launches. Besides, see my edit above. Ean is different now than he was then - he has far more mastery of the hunger.

 

[Baltika9]

Only we can't afford to have Ean lose control for even one single second. Right now we need to hustle up and deal with the Spaceballs before they pop into our reality. Then everyone is screwed, this is about more than just the Planet.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

We don't know that the "spaceballs" aren't already in our reality. They may exist elsewhere right now and be relatively harmless.

Also:

The tree was one single entity in both mind and matter.

They don't retain individuality once in the tree, as the guy said. If we devour it, we'll be devouring one entity. One extremely powerful entity, but one entity nonetheless.

 

[Baltika9]

Also:

The tree was one single entity in both mind and matter.

They don't retain individuality once in the tree, as the guy said. If we devour it, we'll be devouring one entity. One extremely powerful entity, but one entity nonetheless.

Even worse, one extremely powerful entity may very well be able to overpower Ean's control.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

True, like Marduk could have had we devoured him too soon - though that could have succeeded as well. Again though, that was then and this is 3000 years later. Ean has learned control.

 

[Esquilax]

First, Baltika9, we aren't devouring 100,000 souls. The 100,000 are the people that will board the tree in the future. They are not a part of it now, so Ean would not be devouring them - only the tree.

Would this act corrupt Ean? Yes, but I don't think it would turn him into a mindless beast. Ean has been through 3000 years of torture without feeding and he learned meditation skills that enabled him to center his hunger inside anbar-shi. Things are different now from when we battled Marduk. Ean has a far greater control of the hunger. Plus, I don't think we have a choice. The gieloth are devouring the earth right now. Yes, they've said they'd transport 100,000 humans, but they'll be enslaved/eaten once they land. This is our one chance to stop them.

edit: Also, treave said that had we picked Olympus, we never would have been able to go to Crete - leading me to believe that either we are removed from the earth or the earth is destroyed.

He has far greater control of his hunger because he hasn't given into it. If he gives into it, especially to this extent, then the circumstances become completely different. As for Olympus, we would have been stuck there, but we also may have been in a position to capitalize on the situation. As treave said, it wouldn't have been a game over situation.

Esquilax I highly doubt the masters will wipe the planet because we eat the tree. They haven't done it by now and the tree (the reason they wanted to wipe the planet in the first place) is full grown. At worst they might hunt us down and try to abduct us again, but that would be a small price to pay for the continued existence of earth - not to mention the million of lives saved.

Let me explain: if Ean ends up like Marduk (which is what devouring would have resulted him) then he won't be the same guy, making the same choices he did before. We've seen hints as to what our hunger might cause when we nearly killed Sekhenun in a fit of rage, so I was suggesting that giving into our hunger might result in him going berserk. The Masters see him as an amusing aberration at the moment, but after devouring a 3,000 year old Gieloth Tree, he would potentially become a deranged and supremely powerful devourer - a threat that they cannot ignore. If I were in their shoes, I'd vaporize Earth too.

 

[Kukulkan]

We'd become Galactus if we ate the tree, guys.

 

[Baltika9]

The Masters see him as an amusing aberration at the moment, but after devouring a 3,000 year old Gieloth Tree, he would potentially become a deranged and supremely powerful devourer - a threat that they cannot ignore.

In other words: "Oooh, look at that murderous bear in the cage! I wonder what will happen in we punch him in the face? Oh, you can't reach us because you're in the cage, you poor thing. Let's poke hi- OH FUCK, HE BROKE THE BARS. KILL IT, KILL IT WITH FIRE!"

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

He has far greater control of his hunger because he hasn't given into it. If he gives into it, especially to this extent, then the circumstances become completely different.

No, he has greater control because he centered the hunger within Anbar-Shi. Before it was at his core, threatening to devour him.

Let me explain: if Ean ends up like Marduk (which is what devouring would have resulted him) then he won't be the same guy, making the same choices he did before. We've seen hints as to what our hunger might cause when we nearly killed Sekhenun in a fit of rage, so I was suggesting that giving into our hunger might result in him going berserk. The Masters see him as an amusing aberration at the moment, but after devouring a 3,000 year old Gieloth Tree, he would potentially become a deranged and supremely powerful devourer - a threat that they cannot ignore. If I were in their shoes, I'd vaporize Earth too.

Let me explain:
1. They probably won't know we did it until later as we have no presence. They'll just know the tree up and died.
2. If we're at a power level that can truly threaten the masters, we may be able to stop any earth nuking from going on - if they nuke the planet. If we're that strong, nuking the planet might not kill us. They'd be better off sending someone to hunt us.
3. They haven't nuked it yet - and at this point, with the sphere and the tree - they should have. That leads me to believe they can't right now. Maybe because of the rift? I don't know. But with that tree fully grown, they should have done it by now.

If we don't kill this thing now, the Earth and 10s of millions of people will die. If Ean becomes Dio II to do this, that's fine by me - though there's no guarantee of that.

edit:
Sorry, I'm trying to do something else and I skimmed over this part:

As for Olympus, we would have been stuck there, but we also may have been in a position to capitalize on the situation. As treave said, it wouldn't have been a game over situation.

How exactly would we capitalize on it if the tree is sucking the life out of the planet and we can't get there. Also, not being a game over means nothing as the Earth could be destroyed and it still not be a "game over".

edit: Again. We go to Olympus and we won't be coming back to Crete - which means the tree eats the earth. The only other thing that might happen is Dio might show up and eat it instead. Not sure if that'd be the best or worst thing at this point as we could try to absorb him afterward, but the tree is a great big vegetative entity right now. It might not have much of a will. Once it's absorbed by someone else, we'd have their will to fight against too.

 

[Baltika9]

Also, devouring the whole tree may have even more serious repercussions: the whole Concordat will be pissed off and out for blood. And since Zhang knows who exactly did it, well...

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

The Concordant might be mad? Oh, gosh that'd be scary. As opposed to 10 million dying as the planet crumbles and the gieloth ruling over the enslaved remnant of humanity. Yeah, that's better.

 

[Baltika9]

Indeed, half of the known world armed with the best rifles available and augmented with Gieloth genetics swooping down for vengeance on the only people capable of opposing Zeus and President Skroob.

The Tree isn't ready yet, we still have six months. In case we do save the world, we may be able to talk them down, although they'll keep what they have gained.

Leave it be in case we fail, that way humanity will live on and we'll get an extremely interesting setup for that eventuality (communist revolution on another planet, aw yeah. Dibs on Lenin.)

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Indeed, half of the known world armed with the best rifles available and augmented with Gieloth genetics swooping down for vengeance on the only people capable of opposing Zeus and President Skroob.

Aren't you forgetting about a certain god-like, tree-devourer?

And no, we don't have six months. The tree is devouring the earth now. In 3 months more than half the earth's resources are gone, six months all of the earth's resources. Really want to live on a half-eaten husk of a planet? And again, if we go to Olympus, we're not coming back - even if we did, they already gave us their answer "the plan proceeds".

 

[Baltika9]

Indeed, half of the known world armed with the best rifles available and augmented with Gieloth genetics swooping down for vengeance on the only people capable of opposing Zeus and President Skroob.

Aren't you forgetting about a certain god-like, tree-devourer?

And no, we don't have six months. The tree is devouring the earth now. In 3 months more than half the earth's resources are gone, six months all of the earth's resources. Really want to live on a half-eaten husk of a planet? And again, if we go to Olympus, we're not coming back - even if we did, they already gave us their answer "the plan proceeds".

And if we screw something up, then at least humanity has hope. Considering our track record, that's a given.
And I have nothing against kicking these hippies off our planet, but after we secured our dimension. The Gieloth can fly away, yes. The Rift will remain, which means that at least this reality will be doomed.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Again, how do you know that? How do you know other such rifts within our dimension don't exist right now? Like black holes. Just because they are destructive and exist, doesn't mean one will destroy the universe...

 

[Baltika9]

Again, how do you know that? How do you know other such rifts within our dimension don't exist right now? Like black holes. Just because they are destructive and exist, doesn't mean one will destroy the universe...

Because it would be wishful thinking that this sphere that sent zerg expies to eat our planet and then was "lol impaling and decapitating" us for 3k years just wants in into our dimension to "look around, bros, it's cool." You're engaging in wishful thinking, I know because I've done that a lot too.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Again, how do you know that? How do you know other such rifts within our dimension don't exist right now? Like black holes. Just because they are destructive and exist, doesn't mean one will destroy the universe...

Because it would be wishful thinking that this sphere that sent zerg expies to eat our planet and then was "lol impaling and decapitating" us for 3k years just wants in into our dimension to "look around, bros, it's cool." You're engaging in wishful thinking, I know because I've done that a lot too.

*sigh* That's exactly what it was doing. It wanted to "play" with us, remember?

"Ah, curiosity. Those 'things', as you put it, are protrusions of higher beings from a realm above this one. Think of them as their fingers, poking, sensing, touching, learning. You were but a curiosity to them - granted, you are a unique aberration that interests even us - and your entry certainly made them even more curious about the world you came from." says the man nonchalantly, as he raises the cup to his lips lightly and sips the tea within. Before you can say anything else, he gives you a smile. "Do not worry, your world is still intact. After some observation, it has now been given the designation of a test world. Hopes are high, especially with the legacy you had left behind."