scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/2oh3w8.md

## [MK] The Two Year Emperor - Ch76, The Mantle of Death

* Author: u/eaglejarl *
* URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9669819/76/The-Two-Year-Emperor
* Score: 21

* Created: 2014-12-06T17:57:30

### Post:

[Link to content](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9669819/76/The-Two-Year-Emperor)

### Comments:

> **u/JackStargazer** [+6]  *Primordial Apologist* (44 minutes later)
> 
> This is actually really good. I can see Suze growing from her experiences, and I've learned a lot more about her inner psyche from these little blurbs than I ever did in the previous series.
> 
> It'd be nice to see how Jake is reacting to all this.

>> **u/eaglejarl** [+5]  (52 minutes later)
>> 
>> Thanks.  I'm deliberately doing this non-chronologically; I wanted to show her *actions* first, and then go back and show the causes.  To me it feels like there is more punch that way, but I'd be curious to hear what you think?

>>> **u/JackStargazer** [+3]  *Primordial Apologist* (an hour later)
>>> 
>>> I generally enjoy anachronistic writing, but usually I prefer to read it when finished so I can piece together the chronology in my head. Likely when this arc is done I'll go back and read it through again to get it perfectly straight. 
>>> 
>>> I think it's good. Based on her actions you can actually intuit what some of the causes were. I'd argue that it isn't necessarily required to, for example, go into detail on her childhood, or the abuse she has suffered at the hands of nobility, because her actions immediately upon receiving (literal) god-like power were to go searching for revenge on those who wronged her and those like her. From this we can understand what she has gone through, and likely our own minds can conjure up a sufficiently horrible scene that it's isn't necessary to go into detail on it. 
>>> 
>>> We also learn of her inherent lawfulness through her actions in this chapter and the last in particular - She isn't just in this to get revenge for her own perceived injustices, though those will come, she is objecting to the general state of society and trying to solve any injustices she can find.
>>> 
>>> When she finally gets her head together and starts realizing she can effect things on a grand scale, she might start doing some truly great (and perhaps terrible, in the words of Ollivander) things. 
>>> 
>>> I feel like her ascension has had some serious alignment-based effects on her as this is going by. I would have her pegged as clear Lawful Good previous to ascension, closer to Lawful Neutral now. 
>>> 
>>> I'm curious as to exactly how much leeway she has. I mean, realistically speaking she has the power to effect grand change, but judging by Herrun's statements last chapter, anything too far outside the portfolio of Death could get her smacked down.
>>> 
>>> That still leaves the door open for her to become a sort of DeathNote!Light-esque anti-hero, engineering social change by killing off violators of her own perceived moral code. Death is her portfolio, after all. It'd be interesting to see how that relates to 'natural' or 'fated' death - she has the power to kill any mortal without trying, no save even, if she has the 'Life and Death' salient divine ability, and similarly the ability to true resurrect any mortal at will. With Mass Life And Death, she can kill or resurrect whole cities as a standard action, again, no save, though she can only resurrect willing dead people. If anything death related, even deaths she causes is her portfolio, she has a lot of leeway for a god.
>>> 
>>> She should also probably talk to Jake. If they want her to remain on their side, and keep the rest of the gods from being shitheads, they should probably arrange for her worship in the new nation they will be assembling from Flobovia/Anundja. This could also help with her alignment issues - through worship they should be able to alter the divine aspect of Death attached to her. They have a fairly large population too, and they can start reclaiming and resurrecting their undead former colleagues at will now. I can see the natural result of that, and I suspect the other Gods will too (Herrun likely already has). Suze (and likely Herrun, and peripherally Loki) will get a huge influx of worshipers from the newly recovered nation, and with Death on their side and effectively infinite levels for everyone, they will very very rarely lose any. 
>>> 
>>> This is an end-state for the rest of the gods, they won't be able to recover from that without serious and direct collusion with mortals, which seems to be a nono. 
>>> 
>>> So, I can see a Godswar in the near future, one way or another, with the founding of the new Union or whatever they call it at the flashpoint.
>>> 
>>> Either way, I'm looking forward to it.

>>>> **u/eaglejarl** [+4]  (an hour later)
>>>> 
>>>> > I would have her pegged as clear Lawful Good previous to ascension, closer to Lawful Neutral now. 
>>>> 
>>>> Actually, she started off as [Neutral Good](http://www.d20srd.org/srd/description.htm) (her experiences with the nobles pushed her away from being Lawful) but you're right that her alignment is in some serious jeopardy right now.
>>>> 
>>>> > they should probably arrange for her worship in the new nation they will be assembling from Flobovia/Anundja.
>>>> 
>>>> This would be a really good thing to do, but it's tricky in practice.  Getting someone to switch patron deities in D&D is no different than getting someone to change religions in real life.  The only reason that the Landguard were able to switch so straightforwardly is that their fanatic devotion to their mission allowed them to petition Shailos to literally remake their minds.
>>>> 
>>>> >So, I can see a Godswar in the near future, one way or another, with the founding of the new Union or whatever they call it at the flashpoint.
>>>> 
>>>> Stop reading ahead, damnit.  :>
>>>> 
>>>> Although, in fairness, this book is devoted to reconstruction and rebuilding of Anundjå and Flobovia, not to a real Godswar.

>>>>> **u/clawclawbite** [+3]  (10 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> To be fair, for a goddess of death, if she does have someone pushing good PR for her, she is "Suze, guardian of death, who saved the living from the undead scourge, and protects the world from the undead getting out of control."

>>>>>> **u/eaglejarl** [+4]  (13 hours later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I'll have her PR team contact you -- that's better than anything *they've* been coming up with.  
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> :>

>>>>> **u/JackStargazer** [+2]  *Primordial Apologist* (an hour later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> > Stop reading ahead, damnit. :>
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hey, I did say I liked anachronistic storytelling :P
>>>>> 
>>>>> >Actually, she started off as Neutral Good (her experiences with the nobles pushed her away from being Lawful) but you're right that her alignment is in some serious jeopardy right now.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Now that I think about it, that does make sense. I have a feeling Neklos was Lawful or Neutral Evil, and that the Spark of Death still has that personality shard on it.
>>>>> 
>>>>> >This would be a really good thing to do, but it's tricky in practice. Getting someone to switch patron deities in D&D is no different than getting someone to change religions in real life. The only reason that the Landguard were able to switch so straightforwardly is that their fanatic devotion to their mission allowed them to petition Shailos to literally remake their minds.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Yes, but from what I understand in D&D, Gods can get powers without specifically the one patron of a person - several sets of gods were worshiped specifically as whole pantheons. Likely you get more 'ambrosia' to use the Exalted term from direct worship, but there are obviously ancillary benefits from incidental worship. Otherwise, some of the lesser gods would probably not get enough worship to exist.

>>>>>> **u/eaglejarl** [+1]  (an hour later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> [not needing direct worship]
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Exactly true.  Still, there's a couple orders of magnitude dropoff between incidental and direct.

>>>>>>> **u/JackStargazer** [+1]  *Primordial Apologist* (2 hours later)
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Luckily Anundja has a couple of orders of magnitude more people than every other nation on the planet combined if properly reconstituted.

>>> **u/munkeegutz** [+2]  (59 minutes later)
>>> 
>>> You already know this, but I really think there's a story behind suze gaining control of her powers, and protecting herself from the other gods.  Bonus points for giving her a distasteful power, so she might not use important abilities for moral reasons and thereby weaken herself

>>>> **u/eaglejarl** [+2]  (an hour later)
>>>> 
>>>> > I really think there's a story behind suze gaining control of her powers,
>>>> 
>>>> Yep.  That's what this chapter pretty much was about.  She's managed to gain control of the super-senses thing and has been using Alter Reality somewhat unconsciously, but it's a package deal...if she wants the cool reality warping power, super senses, and invulnerability then she needs to have all the bad stuff too.  If she pushes the divine part aside to be just herself she still has enormous power as a spellcaster, but then she's vulnerable to mortal magics.

> **u/None** [+2]  (a day later)
> 
> Great chapter as always! Suze's mental instability and slipping sanity was written very well. Thankfully I know she turns out okay, but :3
> 
> Btw, that Out-of-Body-Experience description, and the difficulty of squeezing her mind back into her body, was beautiful and spot-on.

> **u/libertarian_reddit** [+1]  (2 hours later)
> 
> This was a really good chapter. It's nice to learn more about how the gods work.

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