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66 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
66 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
## [RT, DC, HF] The Millennial King, the Ethical Lich.
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* Author: u/Prezombie *
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* URL: http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Millennial_King
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* Score: 20
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* Created: 2014-07-17T21:06:19
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### Post:
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[Link to content](http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Millennial_King)
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### Comments:
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> **u/alexanderwales** [+6] *Time flies like an arrow* (27 minutes later)
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>
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> I usually have something like this in my D&D games - really do like necropolitan societies and doing away with the strict alignment rules of D&D. If you can make undead and they don't hopelessly corrupt the soul, then you really should, since they're a source of cheap labor and it's possible to collect them in ethical ways. (In my own campaign it was the Blood Queen, a vampire of immense age who also happened to be smitten with necromantic magics. She was the least evil of the pretenders to the throne.)
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> **u/Prezombie** [+3] (18 minutes later)
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>
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> I really think a setting like this would make for an epic foundation for a fully fleshed out fantasy novel, especially if the story started out making the lich out to be an evil overlord who's enthralled a nation, and the narrator gradually makes concessions, accepts that various squicky things might not be so bad, especially with checks and balances, and eventually starts considering how to spread the new way of life with minimal fuss.
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>> **u/alexanderwales** [+6] *Time flies like an arrow* (7 hours later)
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>>
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>> Here's a pitch for you.
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>>
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>> $protagonist has been sent by The Kingdom of Light to serve as a sleeper agent. She gives us the newcomer's perspective of the Kingdom of Arran'ak, tinged with a lifetime of training about why everything necromantic is dark and evil. She inserts herself into a secretarial role for a young necromancer.
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>>
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>> Eventually she begins to come around and see that while necromancy certainly has some bad feelings associated with it, it's not strictly evil. She still goes on various missions in service of the Kingdom of Light. (The B-plot is something about a new kind of necromancy that allows communication with the dead to gain their assent to be used as corpses which would greatly swell the ranks of the undead, and allow exchange with other countries that have a wealth of skeletons in the ground.)
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>>
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>> Late in the game, $protagonist is informed that there will be a weapon of light deployed against the undead which will effectively end the Kingdom of Arran'ak - it's only after she's told the necromancer she's apprenticed to that she learns the weapon that the Kingdom of Light is going to use is indiscriminate, and will kill *everyone* in Arran'ak. From there, it's a race to stop the weapon/bomb/whatever from firing (preceded by a moment of truth for the $protagonist, I guess).
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>>> **u/Prezombie** [+5] (9 hours later)
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>>>
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>>> That's a pretty good outline, but I think that the WMD is a bit much in terms of surprise reveal, a bit cliche in the realm of "extremists discarding their own morality to destroy the enemy". Simply gradually assimilating into the culture should be enough to make $protagonist turncoat, after an appropriate amount of self-reflection.
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>>>
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>>> Once she accepts the following facts as true, she'd be operating in her own nation's best interests by opposing the "bomb plot".
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>>>
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>>> Arran'ak would collapse if all the undead were wiped. Arran'ak's ethical church would be the best possible force to oppose the unending war against necromantic crimes in her homeland. Automated labor, rather than making it possible to subjugate the peasants, has the chance of creating the first example that world has of a middle class.
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>>>
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>>> For a human element, $Protagonist could work a guard/preistess as a primary asset, develop feelings for them, and try and fail to convince them to take the final step into being an undead high member. Only they became that state earlier (maybe with a bunch of red herrings of the actual change date)
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>>> been disguised with a strong illusion, and $protagonist can't figure out when her asset's "soul" was "destroyed".
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>>> **u/endtime** [+2] (19 hours later)
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>>>
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>>> Sounds an awful lot like [The Sword of Good](http://yudkowsky.net/other/fiction/the-sword-of-good).
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>>>> **u/alexanderwales** [+2] *Time flies like an arrow* (20 hours later)
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>>>>
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>>>> I'm pretty sure it's just a little-used trope - the inversion of the trope where society looks like a utopia at first glance and is later revealed to be a crapsack world (seen in much of Philip K. Dick's work).
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>>>>
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>>>> As a side note, I've always wanted a rendition of *The Sword of Good* that was an actual full-length novel that took its world building a little more seriously.
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>>>>> **u/JackStargazer** [+1] *Primordial Apologist* (23 hours later)
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>>>>>
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>>>>> >>As a side note, I've always wanted a rendition of The Sword of Good that was an actual full-length novel that took its world building a little more seriously.
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>>>>>
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>>>>> So have I. I've considered trying to write one myself. And as an avid member of /tg/, I've heard of Good!Lich and Practical!Necromancy before.
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>>>>>
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>>>>> Maybe less [skellecopters.](http://0-media-cdn.foolz.us/ffuuka/board/tg/image/1357/44/1357444765525.jpg)
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>>>>>
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>>>>> But I might actually take a crack at this.
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---
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