Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

AngelxAlistair (Toy ship ahoy!)

2 (8.7%)

RichardxCyrielle (Yes, she's a side character. No, that does not make this any less cute.)

0 (0%)

MariaxSelinaxYurixNuriel (HAREM)

5 (21.7%)

RichardxCamille (The only couple who knew each other for longer than two months. Woo~)

1 (4.3%)

AshleyxConnyxNurielxBismuth (OPPOSING HAREM)

1 (4.3%)

LylexEveryone (An Uke and five Semes. Go figure.)

2 (8.7%)

AlistairxCatherine (Minako, eat your heart out.)

0 (0%)

MariaxSelina (The original, accept no substitutes.)

1 (4.3%)

LyleXRichard (Too much yuri, not enough yaoi.)

1 (4.3%)

IzzyxLucas (Because a normal tsundere is not enough.)

1 (4.3%)

WillxStella (*insert witty tagline here*)

2 (8.7%)

MariexEveryone (Marie, duh.)

2 (8.7%)

AshleyXRichard (Screw retcons, I want my OTP now!)

1 (4.3%)

MariaxMattxSelina (The original OT3. And who was Matt again?)

2 (8.7%)

Richard/CyriellexFourth Wall (Who didn't see this coming?)

2 (8.7%)

Total Members Voted: 23

[GreatWyrmGold]

There's also a difference between "a couple paragraphs for an event which is well in the past by now and doesn't affect anything" and "constantly using the same vague adjectives".

[Twi]

Quick, everybody, let's forget that the quality of writing in this RP is and has always been questionable and have a really neat thing instead!

[GreatWyrmGold]

Let's have something that makes more sense, too!

[Twi]

That makes less sense, though. ALso the human voice in reverse is weird as fuck. :I

[SOLDIER First]

a song in reverse? weird, but ok
some pixelated thing with aliens?
things made of other things?
space?
hyperspeed???
not very much sense

[GreatWyrmGold]

That makes less sense, though.

No, it really doesn't.

ALso the human voice in reverse is weird as fuck. :I

Indeed, though I'm pretty sure that if you transcribed it, you could repeat it. The music was odd reversed, too.
I wonder how hard it is to do.

[Empiricist]

No, I mean, we didn't have any reason to think he was on the last stage of the plan.

The "vanishes and doesn't come back" should have been a hint that something was up.
And you know what? He wasn't on his last step. He had a few left. He had time to hack the ritual together and bug out.

Come to think of it, why does he need a ritual? As in, lore-wise, has anyone come up with an actual reason for why magic uses rituals, runes and whatnot along with when it is actually required? Or is it one of those futile questions such as why the power of Wall Street is influenced by exchange rates, commodity values and interest rates?

[Twi]

a song in reverse? weird, but ok
some pixelated thing with aliens?
things made of other things?
space?
hyperspeed???
not very much sense

Symbolic as fuck, is what is. It's obviously a story about the value of companionship and teamwork.

[SOLDIER First]

they all exploded

[Twi]

That's a rainstorm's fault, not theirs.

[Atnegam]

Are we linking random YouTube things again? BECAUSE I TOTALLY HAVE THIS SONG EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN TO!!

* Atnegam knows nobody will listen to more than 30 seconds.

[Empiricist]

Seeing as there doesn't seem be any explanation for how ritual magic works, I have created the following explanation. Please excuse its inelegance, as this is what amounts to a partial adaption of lore for one of my own settings modified to fit this game. The explanation is written from the perspective of Arthur Reisa, and presumes that they had ventured into the world before the creation of the crossover ban.

Spoiler: Warning, contains misanthropy. Organic lifeforms may take offense to the content. (click to show/hide)

People, are fucking morons. Not that one may expect much from souls encaged within meatsacks, perpetually stoned by the potent chemical cocktails that drive them. Ritual magic however, may be characterized by a certain degree of dumbassery so spectacular that it possesses few, if any matches. An acme of folly on the part of the fleshpuppets if you will. Such a topic is quite a complex affair indeed, nevertheless, we have never been one to excessively employ circumlocution, hence, we shall present a shallow summary of this as follows:

For an obscure, ostensibly arbitrary reason that escapes us, an idiot somewhere in the distant past had made the assumption that, for whatever reason, the forces of the universe abide by meaningless symbols and that by childishly drawing said sigils, they could, somehow or other call upon such powers. A truly foolish notion. Alas, there were a multitude of idiots. A great multitude in fact, some of whom had raw magical strength that, regrettably, far surpassed their cognitive strength.

At this point, one must stop to admire the surprising (or perhaps for the involved quacks, fortunate) fruits of these countless, pointless endeavors. They had engineered a truly marvelous system that degrades entire systems of potent, self-sustaining magic with such hideously draining inefficiencies simply to, well, from what we understand, embellish said spells with more shininess. How tragically hilarious that this monumental waste may simply be attributed to wanting more shininess. Every roar of near tangible power and every radiant scintillation though supposedly empirical evidence of a power increase, was little more than a sign of the colossal power losses incurred.

Allow us to partake in another tangent: the associated magic is not as potent as it once was, a fact few acknowledge. It was, one of the most ancient forms of magic, developed and researched in more tumultuous times. Times where, it was prudent not to share all one knows. In this atmosphere of paranoia, the magus kept their trumpcards private, usually taking it to the grave. The apexes of entire eras appeared and vanished in secrecy.

However, that raises a question, if this power has peaked and decayed over time, then, how does it still work? Simple. The attenuated sorcery has to go somewhere. Recall our mention of their self-sustaining nature (a long forgotten art now), which had remained a common trait until shortly after the peak, this colossal quantity of spells persist, embedded in the universe albeit hardly ever interacting (not unlike the concept of weakly interacting massive particles). However, they have their sigils and whatnot imprinted upon them and, should the same type of magic be used with a close enough approximation of these parameters, they produce and funnel some energy into their duplicate.

The irony. The formerly futile practice finally bears fruit, as modern rituals use these ancient remnants to provide the power their casters cannot. Some may say this excuses the stupidity. We beg to differ: the forgotten arts, had they not been stymied, would have far exceed the power of contemporary rituals. A shame their practitioners were far too afflicted by their desire for shininess.

[Akroma]

I wonder if Sehams plan would have actually come to fruition. I mean, his group of demons can dominate and rule a small town easily enough, mostly because of the moment of suprise. But even so, conquering an entire world? Even without magic, this world will have their own heroes, and well trained armies somewhere. The humans the demons press into service are not well trained and not motivated, and against a proper army, will not be very useful. Meanwhile yes, the demons are strong, but also, they are irreplacable. For them to conquer this world, they will have to be on the battlefield, and on the battlefield, even a demon can be killed.

Also, Sehams starting budget is laughable. He has a bunch of demons, and the untrained inhabitants of a single town. That town is probably part of a bigger kingom. The news will spread, and people will soon begin taking proper counter measures - people who have the budget of a whole nation. For Seham to actually be succesful in this world, he should have been a whole lot more subtle than just invading the first town he sees. Like this, it might take thousands of years to conquer this planet - if he is able to at all. With just himself and his demons, he will not have the infrastructure and cohesion to actually run the whole world. Like rome, his territory will overstretch and break apart, and internal conflict will become uncontroleable.

The timeframe is also problematic. While he conquers the world, the world does not stand still, and he will certainly need hundreds if not thousands of years to conquer it. Nothing increases technological improvement like war. Even without magic, humans will develop specialised anti demon weaponry and armor.

And that is even *before* he has to deal with Lucifers bounty on his head. Every now and then powerful demons, alongside their demon servants will come to this world and make attempts at Sehams life, probably also decimating sehams demon servants in the process - removing the only means seham has to hope for controling this world.

But let's be super generous and assume he somehow manages over the course of a thousand years to bring this world under controle, now he has to actually return and conquer our world. As Seham is in a world without magic, his power will likely not increase to the point where he can instantly teleport several billion humans at once, he will have to do so in groups. these groups are cut off from their home world, which means they only have the supplies they are bringing along with them and what they capture. they will have to compete with humans that are not only technologicaly more advanced, but also have access to magic - alongside everything else in this world, including an entire hell full of the demons that are controling the humans. Instantly all morale will be broken. Sehams plan is doomed to fail.

He should just retire in this new world and go into hiding for an eon until the bounty is forgotten and then live there peacefully.

[Empiricist]

Not to mention that other entities may intervene. Wall Street investors won't like an invasion harming their investments for instance. Plus they'd still be up against the Legions of Hell which would invariably be more prepared seeing as they know he's coming and they can prepare in peacetime rather than wartime. Also, humanity could probably get Layar assistance using a few trade agreements.

It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him;
if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two.
If equally matched, we can offer battle;
if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy;
if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.
Hence, though an obstinate fight may be made by a small force, in the end it must be captured by the larger force.

I'd say the emphasized two points describe his situation. Not to mention this world launching a preemptive strike.

[GreatWyrmGold]

No, I mean, we didn't have any reason to think he was on the last stage of the plan.

The "vanishes and doesn't come back" should have been a hint that something was up.
And you know what? He wasn't on his last step. He had a few left. He had time to hack the ritual together and bug out.

Come to think of it, why does he need a ritual? As in, lore-wise, has anyone come up with an actual reason for why magic uses rituals, runes and whatnot along with when it is actually required? Or is it one of those futile questions such as why the power of Wall Street is influenced by exchange rates, commodity values and interest rates?

It's just the way it is, I guess.
Perhaps magic all functions on a system of equivalent exchange? More effort, more result. It also explains how Wall Street works.

-snip-

So, "everyone--including pragmatic magical creatures--uses magical rituals for no goddamn reason"? I don't buy it.

-snip-

Seham's plan:
1. Conquer a city. (Check)
2. Raise an army from that city. Possibly make some monsters for elite troops, depending on available resources. Definitely scour the area for magical people, bribing them to join his army.
3. Use army and magical powers to conquer nearby cities.
4. Goto 2 and repeat.

With just himself and his demons, he will not have the infrastructure and cohesion to actually run the whole world. Like rome, his territory will overstretch and break apart, and internal conflict will become uncontroleable.

1. Roman civilization lasted for a hell of a long time. That's not a bad model, as far as empires go.
2. He plans to build on the existing infrastructure, rather than wipe everything out.

The timeframe is also problematic. While he conquers the world, the world does not stand still, and he will certainly need hundreds if not thousands of years to conquer it. Nothing increases technological improvement like war. Even without magic, humans will develop specialised anti demon weaponry and armor.

1. Why do you think it would take so long? On one side, you have tanks and stuff. On the other, you have magic and increasing armies...not to mention magicians. And whatever military tech they pick up. And the terror that comes with being invaded by demons. Tell me, what do you think would happen if a small army of demons invaded and took over Chicago?
2. Demons aren't stuck in medieval stasis, either.

And that is even *before* he has to deal with Lucifers bounty on his head. Every now and then powerful demons, alongside their demon servants will come to this world and make attempts at Sehams life, probably also decimating sehams demon servants in the process - removing the only means seham has to hope for controling this world.

How was Seham supposed to know Lucifer would get involved?

But let's be super generous and assume he somehow manages over the course of a thousand years to bring this world under controle, now he has to actually return and conquer our world. As Seham is in a world without magic...

The world has magic, just not as much as, say, the main world we're in, and it's completely disorganized.

...his power will likely not increase to the point where he can instantly teleport several billion humans at once, he will have to do so in groups. these groups are cut off from their home world, which means they only have the supplies they are bringing along with them and what they capture. they will have to compete with humans that are not only technologicaly more advanced, but also have access to magic - alongside everything else in this world, including an entire hell full of the demons that are controling the humans. Instantly all morale will be broken. Sehams plan is doomed to fail.

...Okay, you lost me. What the fuck do you think his plan is?


Another thing you're forgetting: Demon lords are already invading. He knew that if he stayed in Hell, he would be overrun sooner or later--probably sooner. Was invading this world a bit of a gamble? Yes. Was it better than sitting in Hell, waiting to be killed? Hell yes.

Not to mention that other entities may intervene. Wall Street investors won't like an invasion harming their investments for instance. Plus they'd still be up against the Legions of Hell which would invariably be more prepared seeing as they know he's coming and they can prepare in peacetime rather than wartime. Also, humanity could probably get Layar assistance using a few trade agreements.

It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him;
if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two.
If equally matched, we can offer battle;
if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy;
if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.
Hence, though an obstinate fight may be made by a small force, in the end it must be captured by the larger force.

I'd say the emphasized two points describe his situation. Not to mention this world launching a preemptive strike.

Wall Street presumably only has significant investments in worlds with significant amounts of magical stuff. Magic is present but insignificant in this world.
The Legions of Hell were already against him, and now he has one portal instead of all his borders to protect.
Somehow, I doubt that Sun Tzu was writing for scenarios where a single soldier on one side could easily defeat dozens or hundreds on the other side.