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A Hunger Games/DAD Cross-Over Idea in which Snows not evil or even all bad, he's simple doing very evil things for very good reasons
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<blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 8638263" data-attributes="member: 52734"><p>It's still pretty evil, regardless.</p><p></p><p>However, on that premise perhaps the demon was originally trapped by a paladin or other noble sacrifice of some great hero and his band of followers - let's say at least 13 (because 13 is a good, unlucky number). Before it was imprisoned, it laid a curse on the future lineages of its followers - one descendant of each of the followers would be marked by darkness and seek out a means to free the demon from its prison.</p><p></p><p>The paladin's/hero's lineage became the foundation of the monarchy that arose. After the first round of the marked appeared and nearly freed the demon before being stopped, there was the realization that the curse was real and needed to be addressed. However, enough time had passed that tracking down the lineage of the 13 proved troublesome - so the "games" were instituted.</p><p></p><p>The idea behind the games is to identify and isolate the marked and others with great potential and arm them with knowledge and skills in the hopes that the curse could be turned in on itself and perhaps a way to permanently defeat the demon could be found. A large part was the intent was to harbor and educate the marked so they wouldn't follow the twisted whispers of the demon and seek it out to free it. It worked for a while, but then at some point backfired spectacularly - one of the marked used its education and training and came within a hair's breadth of freeing the demon, slaying a batch of prominent heroes from the same "academy" who were close to unravelling a method to forever destroy the demon.</p><p></p><p>Thereafter, the academy and the games took a dark turn. The yearly tourney of the graduates was no longer a practice exercise where one could yield after first blood to stop the fight. Now, it was to the death - only one who declared themselves an enemy to the darkness would be allowed to survive. This ruthless lasted for some time, until an unseemly event occurred - one of the marked excelled, but spared their opponents, refusing to kill them. Seeing the wisdom in sparing the others, the monarchy absolved the defeated and let them live. Thereafter, one individual per "house" - 13 in all - each year were spared the fate of dying under the blade of the tourney's champion, and instead became vassals to the hero of the year for the remainder of their life. In return, the victor became responsible for the actions of their vassals. Over the years, this has had varying levels of success, but no close calls in freeing the demon. There seems to be plenty of quests for the heroes and their vassals to keep them busy, though those who look closely can see a pattern of growing evil across the land. Further complicating things, certain marked vassals have secretly collaborated and formed a cabal who seeks to free their demon master...</p><p></p><p>Under this, the monarchy can still be used. Enough time has passed that the origins of the blood games has mostly been lost and layered in a mist of ritual. Tradition keeps the games alive, there is much ceremony around the "pardon" of the 13 vassals and the blood games are tolerated as a neccessary evil - but with the hope that it will produce a hero worthy of the original paladin that entombed the demon. Most likely, there is a prophesy that the games will produce an inheritor to the original hero who will finish the job from long ago. The monarchs are, of course, aware of the prophesy and on the lookout for that hero. But, there have been false heroes - many who were marked acting falsely - in the past so they must be careful who they back to thwart the demon once and for all. Backing the wrong hero may instead release its evil from its entombment, a situation which no one wants.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stormonu, post: 8638263, member: 52734"] It's still pretty evil, regardless. However, on that premise perhaps the demon was originally trapped by a paladin or other noble sacrifice of some great hero and his band of followers - let's say at least 13 (because 13 is a good, unlucky number). Before it was imprisoned, it laid a curse on the future lineages of its followers - one descendant of each of the followers would be marked by darkness and seek out a means to free the demon from its prison. The paladin's/hero's lineage became the foundation of the monarchy that arose. After the first round of the marked appeared and nearly freed the demon before being stopped, there was the realization that the curse was real and needed to be addressed. However, enough time had passed that tracking down the lineage of the 13 proved troublesome - so the "games" were instituted. The idea behind the games is to identify and isolate the marked and others with great potential and arm them with knowledge and skills in the hopes that the curse could be turned in on itself and perhaps a way to permanently defeat the demon could be found. A large part was the intent was to harbor and educate the marked so they wouldn't follow the twisted whispers of the demon and seek it out to free it. It worked for a while, but then at some point backfired spectacularly - one of the marked used its education and training and came within a hair's breadth of freeing the demon, slaying a batch of prominent heroes from the same "academy" who were close to unravelling a method to forever destroy the demon. Thereafter, the academy and the games took a dark turn. The yearly tourney of the graduates was no longer a practice exercise where one could yield after first blood to stop the fight. Now, it was to the death - only one who declared themselves an enemy to the darkness would be allowed to survive. This ruthless lasted for some time, until an unseemly event occurred - one of the marked excelled, but spared their opponents, refusing to kill them. Seeing the wisdom in sparing the others, the monarchy absolved the defeated and let them live. Thereafter, one individual per "house" - 13 in all - each year were spared the fate of dying under the blade of the tourney's champion, and instead became vassals to the hero of the year for the remainder of their life. In return, the victor became responsible for the actions of their vassals. Over the years, this has had varying levels of success, but no close calls in freeing the demon. There seems to be plenty of quests for the heroes and their vassals to keep them busy, though those who look closely can see a pattern of growing evil across the land. Further complicating things, certain marked vassals have secretly collaborated and formed a cabal who seeks to free their demon master... Under this, the monarchy can still be used. Enough time has passed that the origins of the blood games has mostly been lost and layered in a mist of ritual. Tradition keeps the games alive, there is much ceremony around the "pardon" of the 13 vassals and the blood games are tolerated as a neccessary evil - but with the hope that it will produce a hero worthy of the original paladin that entombed the demon. Most likely, there is a prophesy that the games will produce an inheritor to the original hero who will finish the job from long ago. The monarchs are, of course, aware of the prophesy and on the lookout for that hero. But, there have been false heroes - many who were marked acting falsely - in the past so they must be careful who they back to thwart the demon once and for all. Backing the wrong hero may instead release its evil from its entombment, a situation which no one wants. [/QUOTE]
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A Hunger Games/DAD Cross-Over Idea in which Snows not evil or even all bad, he's simple doing very evil things for very good reasons
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