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[Harry Baldman]

"Maybe we can have them fight each other for who gets to talk to us? We could set up an elimination bracket. But would it be to the death or not is the important question."

[Vacio]

"It'd be desirable, but seems impossible. They're riven by internal divides and seem to be vying for our favour. There is no single individual who can function as a representative to negotiate with, and they'd never nominate such a individual themselves in any case with the situation as it stands."

((Cue ravening horde of boot-lickers who try to be the one to act as the representative))

I concur with you, Markosl,  each one wishes to be in favor of us but they would ask us throw away our own ambitions. What a bunch of hypocractic monkeys, wanting us to do something they, themselves cannot do. his dark voice only loud enough for the other kings to hear.

[Demonic Spoon]

"It'd be desirable, but seems impossible. They're riven by internal divides and seem to be vying for our favour. There is no single individual who can function as a representative to negotiate with, and they'd never nominate such a individual themselves in any case with the situation as it stands."

((Cue ravening horde of boot-lickers who try to be the one to act as the representative))

I concur with you, Markosl,  each one wishes to be in favor of us but they would ask us throw away our own ambitions. What a bunch of hypocractic monkeys, wanting us to do something they, themselves cannot do. his dark voice only loud enough for the other kings to hear.

((Technically, only the empress and her flunkies are asking us to throw away our own ambitions. The rest are just trying to get in our good graces so we'll reward them))

[Vacio]

"It'd be desirable, but seems impossible. They're riven by internal divides and seem to be vying for our favour. There is no single individual who can function as a representative to negotiate with, and they'd never nominate such a individual themselves in any case with the situation as it stands."

((Cue ravening horde of boot-lickers who try to be the one to act as the representative))

I concur with you, Markosl,  each one wishes to be in favor of us but they would ask us throw away our own ambitions. What a bunch of hypocractic monkeys, wanting us to do something they, themselves cannot do. his dark voice only loud enough for the other kings to hear.

((Technically, only the empress and her flunkies are asking us to throw away our own ambitions. The rest are just trying to get in our good graces so we'll reward them))

((Those are the one's he is calling hypocractic monkeys.))

[Digital Hellhound]

Maelocht turned and faced the Empress, his carved tongue slipping out of his mouth as if tasting the air. He smiled even wider. 'Come now, little empress. You know as well as we do that our 'humoring' your whims would be just that - nothing binding, nothing real. We could end such an agreement in a heartbeat. This empty spectacle serves only one purpose! You seek to impress these people to retain your throne. My sweet, worry not about such things. Illusions of power and authority are for a mortal age. An age that is now at an end.'

He stepped closer, staring into the Empress' eyes. 'I can protect you, from my less reasonable kin. I offer you a choice that will let you keep your wealth and your place. That will make history remember you as a wise and prudent ruler, an empress who sacrificed a little pride to save her city. Forget the poisonous words of those around you, words of the petty and short-sighted. Accept my protection, step aside, and let us be done with this foolishness. Let us save your city.'

((EDIT: Empress, not queen. *cough*))

[Knight Otu]

"Hrmpf" Phor Yevell expresses at no one in particular, then motions towards one of the guards. "You there. Come closer. What is your combat training and your unit's normal task? Where is your gear from, and do you have access to better materials or craftsmen?"

[Demonic Spoon]

((Our actions are a mite schizophrenic when taken as a whole lol))

[micelus]

Analysing the situation, Tlanextli grabbed a prostrating noble and quietly asked a question. "Which of the Empress' advisors put her up to this foolish idea of making us swear servitude?"

[Harry Baldman]

Maelocht turned and faced the Empress, his carved tongue slipping out of his mouth as if tasting the air. He smiled even wider. 'Come now, little empress. You know as well as we do that our 'humoring' your whims would be just that - nothing binding, nothing real. We could end such an agreement in a heartbeat. This empty spectacle serves only one purpose! You seek to impress these people to retain your throne. My sweet, worry not about such things. Illusions of power and authority are for a mortal age. An age that is now at an end.'

He stepped closer, staring into the Empress' eyes. 'I can protect you, from my less reasonable kin. I offer you a choice that will let you keep your wealth and your place. That will make history remember you as a wise and prudent ruler, an empress who sacrificed a little pride to save her city. Forget the poisonous words of those around you, words of the petty and short-sighted. Accept my protection, step aside, and let us be done with this foolishness. Let us save your city.'

((EDIT: Empress, not queen. *cough*))

Sammacle cranes his head sharply to observe the exchange and takes a surprisingly nimble step to put him right next to Maelocht.

"For what it's worth, I'd back..." Sammacle thinks for a moment, forgetting the little guy's name, "... my colleague up on that protection thing. We could arrange something like a head of state deal for you, where you're the Empress and we act as Kings - ministers running the daily business in a coordinated, executive fashion."

He looks at the other nobles in the area with a look of utter contempt.

"You would also have the... great privilege of keeping the rest of these idiots well away from the smooth running of things, and act as the human element of the new Miragan government. You could probably order the execution of any of the ones you don't like and we'd help you out with it, too."

[Demonic Spoon]

Maelocht turned and faced the Empress, his carved tongue slipping out of his mouth as if tasting the air. He smiled even wider. 'Come now, little empress. You know as well as we do that our 'humoring' your whims would be just that - nothing binding, nothing real. We could end such an agreement in a heartbeat. This empty spectacle serves only one purpose! You seek to impress these people to retain your throne. My sweet, worry not about such things. Illusions of power and authority are for a mortal age. An age that is now at an end.'

He stepped closer, staring into the Empress' eyes. 'I can protect you, from my less reasonable kin. I offer you a choice that will let you keep your wealth and your place. That will make history remember you as a wise and prudent ruler, an empress who sacrificed a little pride to save her city. Forget the poisonous words of those around you, words of the petty and short-sighted. Accept my protection, step aside, and let us be done with this foolishness. Let us save your city.'

((EDIT: Empress, not queen. *cough*))

Sammacle cranes his head sharply to observe the exchange and takes a surprisingly nimble step to put him right next to Maelocht.

"For what it's worth, I'd back..." Sammacle thinks for a moment, forgetting the little guy's name, "... my colleague up on that protection thing. We could arrange something like a head of state deal for you, where you're the Empress and we act as Kings - ministers running the daily business in a coordinated, executive fashion."

He looks at the other nobles in the area with a look of utter contempt.

"You would also have the... great privilege of keeping the rest of these idiots well away from the smooth running of things, and act as the human element of the new Miragan government. You could probably order the execution of any of the ones you don't like and we'd help you out with it, too."

"Define the actual positions and the power everyone holds and I might be largely agreeable to such an arrangement. The 'empress' will have to be very clearly subordinate to us though."

[Digital Hellhound]

Maelocht's feature tense in irritation for a moment. His eyes flick towards the hydra in a quick glare. Impatient, meddling fools. Just as quickly, he's all smiles once more for the Empress.

[Harry Baldman]

"Define the actual positions and the power everyone holds and I might be largely agreeable to such an arrangement. The 'empress' will have to be very clearly subordinate to us though."

"It's the same thing I spoke of previously. We partition the city's business into easily-defined categories - health, education, roads, water works, defense, law enforcement, foreign relations, complaints, guilds, trade, propaganda, taxation and so forth, and each of us takes several of these categories as well as getting our own humble estates to do personal projects in. The Empress in this arrangement holds court where she used to and deals with all the local toadies of consequence so we don't have to and they don't get confused on who to bow for like they clearly did here. She'd also presumably get a say in foreign relations and all that business. She'd be the face of the government and the head of state. And she'd report anything relevant to the ministers of the appropriate spheres, or all of us at once, and advise us on the politics of the area, since as far as I know none of us bothered to learn anything about that before we came here," Sammacle patiently explains to the best of his ability.

"Does that sound fair? Anyone got complaints?" he says, looking at each of the other five Kings and then the Empress with a serious expression. "And no, that doesn't mean anyone gets to start on the fealty crap again."

[Demonic Spoon]

"We are Kings, not ministers. We rule, others serve. Why do we have to do all the actual work again instead of appointing ministers ourselves?

Why do you want to give the figurehead powers and responsibilities beyond that of a figurehead? She obviously lacks the ability for it.

Additionally, many of the things you'd like to divide up are things I'd prefer were decided communally between us six kings. Such as propaganda, taxation, defence and foreign relations; lest we constantly work at cross-purposes and achieve nothing.

Propaganda might paint our neighbours vile enemies while foreign relations were trying to make them into trading partners for example, or even the other way around with propaganda proclaiming them as friends of the state while foreign relations is declaring war. Such contradictions can only lead to unrest among the commoners. Or Defence might try to import better armaments while Taxation is raising the tariffs.

Ah... to sum up, we should decide policy as a council and appoint ministers over the relevant departments to ensure execution of that policy.

Regarding the politics of the area, I can't help but feel we can acquire much better sources of information than that... thing."

One our the heads gestures vaguely in the direction of the Empress while another just smiles innocently back at Maelocht as if to say 'who, me?'. The third focuses on the flunky we've snagged, questioning him.

"Does she have a name by the way?"

[Harry Baldman]

"Ministers still rule, and this King thing is clearly creating inflated expectations. Here's how the ministries work: we keep tabs on what the others are doing, which, let's be honest, we'll be doing anyway. I thought you wanted to get your own little piece of the city and be left to your own devices. This way you do! And if one of the others doesn't want to go in the direction you do, complain. Bitch them out. Call up the rest of us and tell us all about it! It's not a hard thing to do, just try not to act like a child," Sammacle explains frustratedly to the hydra.

"As for the Empress, she's better off doing something for us than sitting on her ass somewhere in a castle wasting all that perfectly good legitimacy. Legality's just as big here as it is down in Bloom. She - and by she I mean her and her cadre of advisors minus the one who suggested the fealty thing - has got knowledge on what we have around us. You don't. I don't. None of the others do, either, and who knows what the other assholes in this city have got up their sleeves. So why not let the Empress go head of state business, and we take care of the rest?"

"Bear in mind, of course, that if we don't make our rule legitimate, armies from all over are going to come along and take the place without repercussions, and let's face it, you can't really take down five guards, let alone an army. I mean, we can't really..."

Sammacle pauses for a moment as something occurs to him.

"... although, actually..."

He looks over at Tlanextli.

"Hey, god-man. Want to be the God-Emperor? You've got the credentials, right? Plus an angel to do all your heralding and public relations work."

[micelus]

While he had planned for this, Tlanextli had at least thought it would take a year for his religion to take off. Seeing very few downsides beyond the obvious, he could only say yes.

"Without a doubt, yes."