I determined the nature of the City of the Gods before the IR started.
Certainly, long before I was given Vecna to play - at that time, nobody was in charge of Vecna, and later Bonedagger chose to play him.
The City of the Gods functions on Automatic, to use an IRL term.
It has been on Automatic for at least 10,000 years.
The cataclysm that destroyed the civilization of superscience on Oerth, destroyed every city except this one city.
In the ensuing chaos and panic, the beings of that superscientific civilization just picked up and fled.
They failed to deactivate their machines, their computers, their defensive grids, their offensive weapons.
In all the years that have passed since that time, the City has spent it's time maintaining itself.
Machines and robots are carefully kept in good working shape.
Quantom computers (ironic, since computers as we know them IRL had not been invented when the City of the Gods supplement came out from TSR) make sure that every street is sparklessly clean, every rodent kept clear of the city, every building is spotless, and every last circult and wire is in proper working order.
These computers and robots long ago made an accessment of the primitive life forms of Oerth (what Forrester would call the fantastically powerful mages and clerics and people of the Arcane Age) and determined that they were not a threat.
This was well for the people of Oerth.
Had the City decided that these people were a threat, the City would have moved to neutralize that threat.
The City was built by a race that fought wars, and it's idea of neutralization is pretty complete.
From the City computer's point of view, if the primitive life forms are exterminated, then they are not a threat.
However, the mages and clerics of the Arcane Age left the City of the Gods alone.
They were afraid of it.
Adventurers broke into the City from time to time.
Few returned.
Fearful that this would arouse the wrath of the City, the great mages and clerics of the Arcane Age did all they could (as Anabstercorian has done) to prevent raids against the City.
Incidentally, they did not call it the City of the Gods.
What they called it, has been lost in the annals of history.
The Twin Cataclysms that destroyed the Suloise Imperium and the Baklunish Empire saw the end of the Arcane Age, and temporarily saw the end of civilization.
People living in the Dark Ages, exploring the frigid north, stumbled upon this ancient metropolis, and marvelled at it's wonders and horrors.
Only Gods could build such a place, said they.
Surely, this was the home OF the Gods, said they.
They christened it the City of the Gods, and the name has stuck since that time.
In the 2,000 years since that time, adventurers have from time to time gone to the City, and a few have even returned.
The City has repeatedly accessed the threat factor, and accessed that these primitives were no threat to it.
Now, however, Vecna is coming.
Insane beyond insane, Vecna intends to use 10th level magic to smote the City with Catastrophe.
With his magic, he has the capability of causing serious, and possibly irreparable damage, to this technological marvel left by the ancients.
Not that Vecna cares. Vecna cares for nothing and nobody.
If the City sustains serious damage, it will go on full War Alert.
It will access what is happening.
It will see that a primitive has acquired the capacity to damage it.
It will reaccess the capabilities of primitives.
With it's probes, it will realize that many primitives exist now ... and all of them could have the power that this one primitive has - the City has no way of telling who has 10th level magic and who does not, and there is no way to convey to the City this information.
As the damage continues to mount, and threatens the City's very existence, it will go into Emergency Retaliation Mode.
Ending the threat will become the priority.
All other considerations will become secondary.
Survival must be achieved, regardless of all other directives.
The City will access that all the primitives are potentially lethal to it.
The City will move to neutralize them.
It will start with the one who is attacking it.
But it will find that one is fleeing.
It will give chase.
It will find that chase futile.
It's war machines chasing that figure will happen upon a large gathering of the primitives.
Seeing the one primitive is gone, the City will revert to step 2: neutralizing the other primitives.
Since it's war machines are in the vicinity of a large and threatening gathering of the primitives, they will be neutralized first.
The others will be neutralized in the order in which the City perceives them to be a threat.
Now, Vecna is able to guess all of this, because he has been in the City, back in the ancient past, and he has quite a good understanding of the place.
He knows what it will do, how it will react, and what will happen when it does react.
He has it all planned out.
He did not threaten the United Commonwealth, or make his ridiculous demand, for no reason.
He made his ridiculous command because he knew he could back up his threat.
Forrester then bad-mouthed him.
Now, Vecna intends to make good on his threat.
Of course, it is Vecna's fault, entirely, and not Forrester's.
Vecna knew very well that Forrester would not, and could not, agree to his demands.
Vecna was eager to set off the City, and has been ever since his Legions were destroyed.
Vecna sees the whole world of Oerth as a toy, and like an immature child he desires to bang that toy around and smash it up until it is ruined.
Then, he will fix it up with his magic, and smash it up again.
If you wish to place the blame for the tolerance of an psychopathic lunatic with superpowerful magic within the IR, please blame me, for I play him, and blame Melkor, who protects him. (although I don't think Melkor would have protected him if Melkor had known he was going to pull something this crazy.)
Edena_of_Neith
