21 KiB
[RT][HF] A Practical Guide to Evil Book 3: Villainous Interlude: Crescendo
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Author: u/Yes_This_Is_God *
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URL: https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/01/17/villainous-interlude-crescendo/
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Score: 75
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Created: 2018-01-17T05:02:48
Post:
Comments:
u/TheEngineer923 [+33] (2 hours later)
Who's also hoping Triumphant uses one of those portals to lead her army out of Hell for round two?
Haha, that would be something.
u/TideofKhatanga [+37] (4 hours later)
You thought the villain was Akua Sahelian but it was me, Triumphant!
Yes please. That would be the mother of all foreshadowing. And if Diabolist's life-defining ritual is remembered as "she tried to bring Triumphant back because she couldn't do the job herself", I'll laugh my ass off.
u/Yes_This_Is_God [+23] (7 minutes later)
Wait, did she just pull a Triumphant?
^may ^^she ^^^never ^^^^return
By that, I mean, did she just attract the romantic attention of the Dead King?
Also, I'm very glad that Ubua pulled her trump card out the moment the battle started. Spares us the trouble of having to wait 4 weeks before getting to the meat of the matter like the battles in the rest of Book 3.
u/inscrutablescooter [+1] (19 minutes later)
How exactly did Malicia know that this is what she was planning, and then decide that the legions could take it from her?
And I don't see how she would have been able to do what she did if her original plan with the angel had worked
u/Yes_This_Is_God [+11] (21 minutes later)
Malicia knew she was preparing some kind of superweapon, but not the specifics. In any case, this won't work for Malicia. It's keyed to Akua's soul.
u/inscrutablescooter [+11] (26 minutes later)
I wonder if we'll get to find out just how powerful Take is. Trying to Take a soul just might be doable... even sounds like the sort of thing that would force a transition to another Name
u/ricree [+4] (2 hours later)
My impression was that Malicia knew, or at least believed she knew exactly what Diabolist was planning. She hinted as much in the interlude, and I can't imagine she would risk so much on such a vague understanding.
Assassin is still unaccounted for. It seems plausible to me that he is already inside Liese. I still expect it to go wrong for Malicia, but having him in place would make the most sense.
u/Zayits [+7] (2 hours later)
As is Thief! At least according to Catherine. And given that Akua didn't expect either of them to scout her traps, I hope for at least one more interlude from inside the city.
u/TheEngineer923 [+16] (an hour later)
Crusade.
Opening a single portal is one thing. Being able to open a Hell Gate ANYWHERE in Creation, a Gate that leads to forces that you control that for all intents and purposes could be considered infinite in number AND ARE DEMONS?
I think Malicia misjudged herself. There's absolutely NO WAY ANY NATION THAT CALLS THEMSELVES GOOD CAN LET THIS STAND. Or any Evil aligned nation either. An enemy that can move their entire army right smack dab in the middle of your city is TOO MUCH of a threat to your interests to keep alive.
Arcadia already fused. They are mirrors of Creation. This even right here will force Procer to work with Praes to end the threat of Diabolist.
Diabolist just picked a fight with the ENTIRE Calernia. The balls on this chick..
But she fucked up. She made the one move that will force any two enemies to work together: she gave them a common enemy. Just like Triumphant...
... She has returned.
u/panchoadrenalina [+12] (an hour later)
they are devils, devils are scary but nor nearly as scary as demons. in universe demons hurt creation, devils are scary fuckers that fight to the death and grow stronger as they age but dont corrode the universe around them.
u/TheEngineer923 [+5] (2 hours later)
Having an opening to one of the Hells should logically make it easier for a Diabolist to summon Demons. Hell, she could probably sacrifice 666 devils to summon a 2nd Level demon.
u/Zayits [+7] (2 hours later)
Given that she's unleashed her supposed trump card right at the beginning of the battle, this is practically guaranteed to happen once she's cornered. Anyone wants to take bets on whether Bind will prove to be easier being affected by the demon than controlling it, and Cat would have to Fall it, irreversibly transforming her domain?
u/Zayits [+7] (2 hours later)
An enemy that can move their entire army right smack dab in the middle of your city is TOO MUCH of a threat to your interests to keep alive.
Yet Catherine had expected to get away with it. Also, nobody other than Akua knows that this is possible, yet. And she won't be opening another portal in days so there's still time to contain this.
u/TheEngineer923 [+1] (2 hours later)
As well they should.
u/ricree [+4] (2 hours later)
From Malicia's perspective, this still works if she can put Diabolist down quickly. Afterwards she can go to Procer and basically say "I've cleaned up the mess, problem safely contained. But wouldn't it be a terrible shame if some accident unleashed that again?"
It's easy to stir up a crusade against someone who has literally brought hell to earth. It is less simple to stir that crusade against a quiet threat that could open a portal to hell if you poke it hard enough.
u/TheEngineer923 [+4] (2 hours later)
She can't back off.
How could she trust Malicia to NOT use the weapon n years after the truce when the Principate is at its weakest? The entire Principate would in effect be living a sword dangling over their necks because they'll always be wondering when a portal to one the hells is going to open underneath them when they're on the toilet.
The only way Cordelia could conceivably agree to a truce is if the weapon is destroyed. But how could Malica trust that Cordelia won't simply call a Crusade the moment she destroys the portal?
No, far easier to have Warlock and Masego reverse engineer the array and use it to wipe Procer off the map.
You don't leave an enemy alive if you're a villain and you have any sense in you at all.
u/CouteauBleu [+5] We are the Empire. (5 hours later)
The thing is, if I understand this weapon correctly, there's no way they organize a crusade against it because the weapon is just too powerful.
Let's say Akua becomes empress. By the time Procer is done mobilizing, Akua will already have open a demon portal in every Procerian city, castle, and palace. There won't be any crusade because the crusaders will all be dead.
u/TheEngineer923 [+11] (5 hours later)
Precisely. That's exactly why they would Crusade. Because the Crusaders have no chance in hell of beating the Diabolist. Therefore they will. White has shown he's savvy enough to exploit such tropes.
Balance and symmetry are core themes to this story.
You have the Gods Above and the Gods Below, The Winter Fae and the Summer Fae, Heroes and Villains. The Gods Below have propped up Diabolist and gave her a power that's damn OP. If it falls in the hands of Malicia that would strengthen Evil greatly and throw the whole balancing theme out of wack. Who's to say the Gods Above won't answer that terror by elevating some religious priest in Procer with a Named like the Evangelist for example, that is capable of opening breaches into whatever domain the Angels live in?
They've already done something similar with White, giving him Recall that allows him to gain the skills and reflexes of every single hero Name before him to offset Black's experience and skill.
Procer has a good chance of succeeding (relatively speaking) if they Crusade.
u/melmonella [+1] Tremble, o ye mighty, for a new age is upon you (8 hours later)
Because the Crusaders have no chance in hell of beating the Diabolist. Therefore they will.
That only applies to heroes, not to armies of normies.
u/panchoadrenalina [+9] (8 hours later)
heroes that will flock the banner like bees to honey.
u/Schuano [+3] (11 hours later)
The Reluctant Soldier...
u/Ardvarkeating101 [+11] Father of Learning (16 minutes later)
Ah Ubua. Her wrath is great her reach is long and she will be, Triumphant.
u/panchoadrenalina [+8] (51 minutes later)
Ive always found weird that malicia grabbed the idiot ball with Ubua, she was carefully dismantling each rival but to her she gives almost free reign to do shit. is like she was tempting Fate... and that is OOC for her.
edit, also Cat's cloak is becoming an artifact O.O woosh so cool
u/haiku_fornification [+10] (3 hours later)
Ha, called it! I feel like I deserve a cookie now :D
Cat will probably end up kneeling in front of Akua but if Diabolist thinks that's the ending of her story she's got another thing coming for her. Pride comes before the fall and I don't think I've ever seen her so smug.
Will Take work on Akua's gate binding? Despite the complexity, it seems likely considering it was used to steal a resurrection from an angel.
It's interesting that Akua assumes the lesser devils disappearing into dust is Warlock's doing and doesn't even consider Hierophant, who imo is the one who actually did it. He had a lot of time to study the walls after all.
With all the talk of making Cat kneel, I think Black's iconic phrase - "We do not kneel" - will become extremely relevant. Perhaps when (and if) Cat becomes Black Knight, she will recall his words and break whatever hold Akua will have on her.
u/TideofKhatanga [+17] (4 hours later)
No cookie. Catherine jinxed it in Chapter 33 of this book when she said to Juniper that their situation wasn't so bad since no one had opened a permanent gateway to Hell.
Edit: the exchange went
“At least Procer hasn’t invaded,” I said, trying for a bright side. “And no one’s unleashed a demon in a year.”
“High Lady Tasia did, in Wolof,” the orc reminded me.
”I can’t believe I have to lower my standards lower than they already are,” I complained. “Well, nobody’s opened a permanent portal into the Hells. There. I refused to go any lower.”
“Give it time,” Juniper grinned, ivory fangs flaring.
u/haiku_fornification [+24] (6 hours later)
Cat, at the end of book four: "Well, now that the crusade has been crushed and Procer is crippled, we can take a breather. At least we don't have to worry about gnomes with flying ships of doom and xenophobic elves."
Everyone else: ಠ_ಠ
u/TheEngineer923 [+3] (14 hours later)
Everyone: "Godsdamnit Foundling..."
u/aerocarbon [+6] NERV (11 hours later)
These interludes always blow me away.
“Glory in this day, sons and daughters of Praes,” she said. “The Age of Wonders is upon you, and though it is great and terrible to behold, let Creation remember this – so are we.”
Stunning. As much as I hate her, Akua certainly knows how to give a rousing speech. The Black Knight's got nothing on her.
u/CeruleanTresses [+4] (9 hours later)
It's funny how both Cat and Akua think of themselves as the underdog opposing an entrenched power structure.
u/rabotat [+10] (12 hours later)
Well, they kind of are, since both of them want big changes to the status quo.
Also, please refer to Ubua by her proper name.
u/CeruleanTresses [+5] (13 hours later)
That's why it's funny. To Cat the culture of the Wasteland nobility represents the status quo she and Black and Malicia are all struggling against for one reason or another. Whereas Ubua is fighting the status quo imposed by Malicia on the underdog Wasteland nobility. The "ruling class," etc.
u/Iconochasm [+4] (11 hours later)
A vicious game of underdog vs also-underdog.
u/CouteauBleu [+1] We are the Empire. (2 days later)
Cat's not really the underdog in this situation. She has the full might of the government behind her. As she pointed out, even if she fails and dies, the Legion still has a lot more armies to throw at Akua.
Catherine's problem is that even if she crushes her enemies, she can still take crippling losses. Also, generally speaking, she's going against the system, not against a specific enemy.
u/CeruleanTresses [+2] (2 days later)
I was actually thinking "Cat vs the Wasteland nobility."
u/melmonella [+3] Tremble, o ye mighty, for a new age is upon you (8 hours later)
Welp, Ubua just lost the battle. Used her trump card before the other side used any of theirs, took herself off the battlefield insuring she can't affect how her enemies deal with that trump card in any effective way and still left a "practically untouchable" door to her city, meaning any Named can still go into it if needed. Diabolist, more like Drop-ball-ist, am I right or am I right?
u/The_Magus_199 [+1] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (19 hours later)
Naw, she’s the last boss of this act. This wasn’t the sort of thing that turns the tide of a battle, it’s the sort of thing that defines the battle. All she did by playing it early was spare us two extra weeks of boring meat grinder before the real battle begins, and I’m sure she’ll still have a final phase to pull out when the protagonists fight her.
u/melmonella [+1] Tremble, o ye mighty, for a new age is upon you (a day later)
That's all well and good, but I don't see why you can't use a thing that defines a battle to turn the tide in that same battle.
u/The_Magus_199 [+1] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (a day later)
Because then we have an extra five chapters or so of pointless meat grinder before we get to the real fight.
u/melmonella [+1] Tremble, o ye mighty, for a new age is upon you (a day later)
That's an not an in-universe reason though.
u/The_Magus_199 [+2] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (a day later)
I mean, narrative is a present force of nature in Creation, to be fair. :p
u/werafdsaew [+2] (an hour later)
"And now our Empress bows and scrapes to a conquered people"
What is Diabolist talking about? Who has the Empress bowed to?
u/Rice_22 [+9] (an hour later)
Callow.
u/werafdsaew [+2] (an hour later)
Maybe it's because I'm not from Praes so I don't get it, but how has the Empress bowed to Callow?
u/None [+13] (2 hours later)
Empress has been giving Callow too much freedom and not ruling over them directly enough. Basically every part of the Empress' plan to make Callow permanently part of Praes is morally offensive to Ubua.
u/panchoadrenalina [+9] (an hour later)
i think her point is that she gave in to Cat? reverting the rights of the wasteland nobles back to callow itself though Cat
u/Rice_22 [+6] (2 hours later)
Praes conquered Callow, but the Praesi under Diabolist thinks they're not oppressing them enough.
u/Nihilvin [+1] (5 hours later)
Because she wants to integrate Callow instead of being an oppressive occupier
u/Mgmtheo [+2] The Dread Empire of Praes (16 hours later)
what is with this Ubua nonsense?
u/Yes_This_Is_God [+12] (16 hours later)
Apprentice/Hierophant interlude where he tried to remember Akua's name and could only come up with Ubua.
le meme
u/Zayits [+2] (a day later)
Reposting my belated rant from the chapter's comment section:
You know, Akua has called Black Knight a patriot in this charter, and this, combined with another passage from her speech here has reminded me of another mistake nobody mentions, and the reason I never could understand the concept of patriotism.
“Twenty years ago, we were more powerful than the people of Callow,” she continued. “Twenty years ago we were better than them, for beyond all the lies and stories that is the bare truth of Creation: the powerful own the world.”
What kind of "we" are you talking about here? It's not "I and all of you", because twenty years ago you were nothing but your mother's scheme, the one she denied your father the support to his claim to the Name of Warlock for. But it's not "we, the peoples of Praes" either! Even if we ignore the fact that you didn't contribute anything to that victory, the peoples of the Praes are on the other side of those walls. You and your army represent the Praesi nobility, the small part of those peoples, the very same part that the people besieging your fortress had to subjugate first in a far more brutal civil war. Your mother probably didn't assist the Conquest in any way other than the average amount of taxes she owed to the Tower anyway, and maybe sponsoring a few promising officers to become her spies in the Legions.
This kind of demagoguery puzzles me. How can people think that slapping a "we" on other people's accomplishments somehow makes them stronger? It's a faulty way of thinking even in a universe that literally runs on this kind of magical thinking!
u/Yes_This_Is_God [+3] (a day later)
Inspirational speeches don't have to make sense. They just have to inspire.
u/Zayits [+1] (a day later)
But this is also reflected in her way of thought, and in her monologue to Fasili back then. The reason I'm posting this now is that while she always was quick to connect the achievements of the Empire and her own in her thoughts, this is the most open way she could have stated that yes, she does actually believe that. And everyone, both in story and in comment section, somehow treats it as though that the strengths of the Empire are actually her personal strengths too, and she was only mistaken in not being genre savvy enough.
Knowledge of tropes helps when we're in the story, with individual characters and the masses becoming the background, and she just put her success in her hands of a few key individuals and mages instead of, you know, actually adopting the structures that allowed the Empire to conquer Callow. True, that would go against her character, but admitting that other people exist shouldn't!
u/haiku_fornification [+2] (a day later)
While I think Akua has a warped sense of perspective you could argue that without the oppression of the High Lords the Calamities wouldn't exist. She might think that the Legions and the Calamities are a direct response to the system she's a part of, hence she feels the system itself is validated. "Iron sharpens iron", so to speak.
It's all bullshit of course but that's Diabolist for you.
u/Zayits [+2] (a day later)
The "iron sharpens iron" principle as applied by the Wastelanders is bullshit for one more reason: success isn't measured in some singular, easily quantifiable parameter, and so the competition that has the place at the top as its prize isn't anywhere near as important as the nobles make it out to be. The only thing that the overabundance of schemers fosters is prowess at taking the prize from other such schemers, not prowess at keeping it, as evidenced by average Emperors turnover rate.
I wonder, just how common is the gambit of openly letting a villain "touch the greatness" for a few seconds and immediately stabbing them? As long as the one doing the stabbing doesn't actually need the thing the villain is after, anyway.
u/CouteauBleu [+1] We are the Empire. (2 days later)
Even if we ignore the fact that you didn't contribute anything to that victory, the peoples of the Praes are on the other side of those walls. You and your army represent the Praesi nobility, the small part of those peoples, the very same part that the people besieging your fortress had to subjugate first in a far more brutal civil war. Your mother probably didn't assist the Conquest in any way other than the average amount of taxes she owed to the Tower anyway, and maybe sponsoring a few promising officers to become her spies in the Legions.
I think she doing some... creative reframing of reality, where she thinks the people of Praes are stronger when they're lead/oppressed by powerful nobles?
Yeah, I'm not sure I get what her ideology is supposed to be, or if it's even supposed to be coherent.
u/Dent7777 [+1] House Atreides (a day later)
Wait what's this Ubua business?
u/werafdsaew [+3] (a day later)
Read the Prodigy extra chapter, where the young Masego mis-remembers her name as Ubua.