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Lets play a bit of a brain game shall we ?

The object of this game is to give a hypothetical situation to the character below you and have them write out how they would react or what they would do in that situation, it can be as simple or as complex as you'd like, but i'd encourage you to make an interesting detailed situation to encourage the other person to bring out their improvised creativity and writing skills, let's proceed !

" I shall present you with a dilemma of thought that you are to answer as you please, this is derived from the Logic of War section of the Imperial War Manual, The Lexica Vellum. You are a child and your father a soldier, your kingdom and another kingdom is at war, your father goes to war and dies, this causes you great pain and makes you lead a difficult and miserable life, everyone around you has convinced you that the enemy or those they label the enemy are responsible, you've lived your life around a culture that paints the people of the rival kingdom as barbaric, evil, sinister and degenerate in their beliefs, culture and practices. In the future you are grown and are the commander of an army, you've almost won the war and hundreds of enemy soldiers are your prisoners, you have absolute power and no accountability for your actions over these men, you merely know that most of them have families. What would you do in this situation? "

" This is a disturbingly familiar scenario..." The young Valra muttered while staring at a bubbling brook before him, a single, scaled finger curved before his mouth in thought. His brows rose and fell, creating scowls and a solemn look alternatively as he worked to keep his own memories isolated from events which matched his own experiences. Then again...changing the actors to what he was familiar with painted the answer within seconds.

" I have lived on two sides and have two answers but will present my view from the side of Solarium. Say I never knew the tribal life and was born and raised in the cities...I would know only the laws of perfection. Difficulty and misery are normal for those of the lower classes but my element alone grants me a high yet secretive ranking. To lose it all to these "savages" would burn my pride and fuel my hatred. How dare such imperfect creatures strip me of everything, my father most off all"

The feathers in his hair fluffed when he took a deep breath to erase the mirror in his mind. " To become a commander for the Luminaries with a sketchy history? Impossible for my kind and would be a great honor and privilege plus a testament to my skills. For the Luminaries to grant me absolute power...then I have more than earned my place"

A shudder ran through his body due to his own thoughts. He clenched his eyes tight and looked aside with a pained expression. After a few minutes he looked to the sky. " Hundreds of soldiers at my feet and no consequences...my vengeance would be great, great enough to override the law of selecting and sparing those deemed perfect. I would tear the heart out of every prisoner and feast on them one by one for them to watch until all were slain; their blood offered to Solarium in trade for dragging none back. It would not end there, I would track their families with the scents from the dead and wipe them from existence!"

His talons cut through the air in a clean arc and sorrow took over his glare and demonic presence. " Should I find these soldiers are another clan of Valra...I would know I was lied to because Valra never kill their own...even if we are not related. The prisoners would remain bound but given food. When night fell, I would free them and we would slay the army in their dreams, killing them while they slept. My title and privileges would be cast aside as I joined my new clan and prepared them for the long battle ahead, beginning with slaying the High Luminary in his dreams"

He clutched at his heart and breathed deeply for many minutes, his answer tearing his heart and soul to ribbons. Why did he answer from that viewpoint when they were the very ones who made him endure a similar scenario? Eventually he calmed and stared at the diamond moon.

" Consider this, you have a friend of 13 to 17 years of age, yet to truly experience life, and are the most kind and caring soul you have known. They have a disease which has been killing them their whole life, however, and only have half a year left to live. Every potion and spell has been tried but the disease works faster with each attempt to cure them. Somehow you learn the disease is a curse from the leaders you serve and follow faithfully because your friend's family are traitors, said to be a great threat to the kingdom or empire and they have been searching for them for years but your friend claims they are not traitors. You can cure the disease by turning on your leaders but you will be branded a traitor too and lose everything you have always known, including power, luxury and privelege. You could turn them in and potentially raise your status and power too. How will you deal with this?"

[Ooh, I like this idea! Good inspiration fuel.]

Presented with the scenario, Dael falls into silence for several long moments. One could be forgiven for thinking he would fail to respond entirely but at last his shoulders rise in a deep breath, and he speaks. "There are many unknowns there. Do I have any method of proving my friend's innocence? Is there some other method of dispelling the curse? ... But that is not the purpose of these sort of thought excercises, is it."

He pulls forth the symbol of his god, a much-loved thing cast in bronze and well polished by his hands and the hands of those who held it before him. He strokes it, then clutches it tightly.

"... If I could be assured the consequences would be mine alone to bear, if I truly loved this person - yes. I would turn against my country for them. Is that not what love and loyalty is meant to be?"

The topic seems to have left him melancholy, and he takes a moment to mull before presenting a scenario of his own. "... You are missing a puzzle piece of your own life. A part of your past gone, unanswered, a mystery you've never been able to solve. At last you are presented with a chance to fill that piece, to understand what you have lost - but you are warned that you may not like the picture that will at last be whole. That you may wish you had never left blissful ignorance.

Do you accept the new knowledge, or turn from it?"

Sitting back in his chair, arms folded, he’d stare at the floor long and hard for a good few minutes, contemplating the situation. “I mean…if it was something big…then I guess I would? My life is pretty grim by most peoples standards so I’d look at it as if to say ‘how much worse can it get?’ you know?” Looking up from the floor “If it’s something I don’t think about everyday or something that isn’t a huge impact then I guess I wouldn’t be as bothered to know…I’d say it really does depend on what that missing piece is and if it’s just the memory of that past or a complete removal of that past event.” he gave a wry smile “Take away the part where I get cursed and I’d be more than happy! but also probably still a nervous ball of anxiety, so…hmmm…” debating which one he’d rather forget “Maybe having a part of ones past removed would be a good thing…”

Shaking his head in order to stop thinking about it “Ok! If you were taken away and placed in a completely different world with the polar opposite in terms of culture, language the works. And there was not a snowballs chance in hell that you would be able to return how would you relate to that situation?”

"Hypothetical? I suppose I could offer an answer to your proposed occurrence." He closed his blackened eyes for a moment to visualize a scene yet there was little effort to dream one up for such an occasion. His eyes rapidly opened to reveal their sharp colour and narrow horizontal jet pupils. "I'll leave out the darker details this time. Let's contemplate the subject of something similar, shall we? Being sealed away for over four thousand years and released into this modern world could be considered removed and placed in a different world, everything is incommensurable." He began to slowly pace, his attention on those around him but musing on his current situation.
"Envision the opposing difference of living in a world where man has just begun to build his first city around a temple devoted to his masters. Their focus is seen clearly! It's on their gods, their crops, their livestock, and their lives. Yet, they were all slaves to their environment and their deities." His bow-shaped lips curled into a sneer as his jaw clenched. He would not elaborate further on the past, they had no need for the knowledge he wanted to keep obscure.
"Now look at this world!" He raised his hands up above his head as if to worship some unseen innate deity, but all that came from him was a deep sardonic laugh as he slowly lowered them again. "These clothes feel so strange upon my skin," bringing his hand up he tugged at the fashionable garment. "I wonder what they're made of? So different...I digress. Anyway," brushing off his comment with a gesture of his hand he sighed, resigning himself back to the subject. "This world is so immense in its technological glory there is nothing left of the ideals of those that would build for the sake of pleasing their otherworldly gods! Man has become his own god and caused chaos! Ruling from political and corporate thrones." His voice raised in his ardent speech. "I admit there is still much to experience from this world but what I've seen already does not freeze my spirit with fear, I do not tremble with eyes shut! No..no..no, the opposite, in fact, I'm finding it amusing though I do carry animosity towards man, I would like to manipulate it myself." There was a deep rumble of a chuckle within his throat. "You will hear me when the noise dies," he spoke softly, "you will fear me when I'm beside you."
"Now, I believe I've said enough. Let's offer the next person a challenge. You are a powerful individual that gives little regard for the lives of those below you. You desire to create your own country and you've been able to claim land through war at the cost of many lives, including a fair amount of your own people yet you have slaughtered or enslaved enough of the enemy to justify your dominance, mercy is overrated. Those that are left believe you to be a god and it is becoming apparent that you believe it yourself but you still have enemies. You need to build a stable government and replenish your army for future conflicts. How would you achieve that goal?"

"The mind hearkens back to the late imperial senator and renowned scholar, Arenicvs Calorvs, whose speech to the senate is recorded in the annals of history as they decided the matter of waging war, it was a tense time as the then, Emperor, Varvs III, was considered a bit of a megalomaniac despite several successful conquests at the behest of the legions, his exploits of excess and debauchery as well as his unsavory nature were well known across the Empire, a brute, whom sought to revive the barbaric practices that the Empire had used long ago to subjugate it's core territories before the Tiberican Era, but more controversially, considerations for a divine mandate which would have given the Emperor a place between the Deus himself and the Grand Ecclesiarch of the Imperial church."

Marcus paused taking a subtle puff from his smoking pipe as his glance drifted off in momentary considerations as he reached into the confines of his knowledge,

"Arenicvs spoke thusly"

" Honorable Senators, Administratii, Regnantii and Lectors. Good men and women of the Empire. We are gathered here today in this most sacred of hall whereupon the fate of our realms, the destiny of our lands, the betterment of our people and the glory of our Empire is decided. As of this day, our holdings surpass 2 billion Cernentii (Imperial unit of measurement equal to an acre) never before has a single nation held as much power over our world as we do now, it is a momentous occasion but one we should be particularly wary of, a haughty wolf is gored by the stag after all, let us look upon ourselves not as conquerors but custodians first, and should we maintain that it is the will of the deus by which we are granted this power then let us be wary that we are not corrupted by excess, that we honor our responsibilities foremost. I stand here before you, to beckon remembrance, to those pagan empires of old, whose ruins now lie buried in the wretched wastes of Ishtar, the god-kings Khemti and Amon, does our book not give us a glimpse into the fate of what happens to those whom dare to usurp divinity in the farce or false guise which is mortal power. Men will accept hunger, they will accept death, they will accept poverty but what they will not accept is Tyranny, the people's whom we are conquer look to us with hope that we should lead them better than they were lead by their predecessors, they offer us not tribute alone but trust and to that end, our Empire owes them a duty. The deus grants us the luxury to rule over this world, let us go forth honorably, let us go forth justly, let us go forth in the legacy of Tiberius. Let not our the name of our Empire be spat upon, as the Empires of old are today, let us not be forgotten. To those whom hold the power today, I ask, what shall you leave behind? do you wish to be cursed by the generations and earn their enmity for your acts, or to be loved and hailed by all peoples? what meaning shall titles hold if the acts do not follow? Love them, as the Deus has favored us, go forth faithfully and fear the wrath of the gods and to all manner of man, mer and kin ensure a just and fair rule. That is the edict that shall ensure the glory of the Empire should never fade. "

" Unfortunately, as is the fate of all good men, Arenicvs's speech invoked the fury of Varvs, yet such was his influence that the Emperor had him murdered in secrecy, not three years later, Varvs was murdered during a procession by a rebellious mob, and the entire year was spent in supressing rebellions and desperately defending newly conquered territory, the nature of power is fickle and capricious, those who hold it should be both cautious and do well to study it's nature, for power is an art not a commodity to be held. The martyr saint Arenicvs's statue beneath the Deus Justiciars statue and his writings thereof are reminders that those who hold power know not always how to maintain it, those who build Empires with fear and pride see those Empires die with them. "

" Suppose you are at sea, an impending shipwreck only moments away and there are three categories of crew but you can only rescue one group, the first are wealthy but increasingly old, they are most in need of help, they may potentially reward you but their chances of survival are slim even if you should escape with your life initially, the second are families, with women and children, desperate to be rescued, the tearing eyes of the young little ones look up to you as they desperately reach out and third group constitutes of young and sturdy individuals none of them having families but should they be rescued it ensures (evidently) the best hope of rescue. Remember in this situation you can only rescue one of the groups, not split them and rescue a few from each, but only one. Once you do escape, there is no assured chance of rescue for you will have to brave on possibly for days on a smaller boat, but you do not know, land may only be a few hours away, or months away. Which would you choose and why ?"