(IR) The 3rd IR, Turn 7 (thread 8)

[Gurdjieff]

A message is send to Iuz

"Lord, I am Angelika, of the Emerald Order. I am requesting you this one thing. No, I am actually wishing you shall answer my question with a confirmation. The Taraakians have ordered you something. Now, ordering someone is wrong, it just is. I understand your reaction. But for the sake of your people, for the sake of all of them, I am hoping you can at least send them to the Demiplane of Hope. They will not be hurt, they will return to you whenever you want. But I do not want to risk losing so many lives without trying to get them to this safehaven. Please, Lord Iuz, I speak for many. Please, send your people, so they won't have to fear for their lives. And you ofcourse are as welcome as your people. Even though we have battled eachother before, I will hold the peace between us.

Please, Lord Iuz, do not let your pride get to your people.

Kind regards,

Angelika"

 

['o Skoteinos]

Edena, I will make the choise when I go to bed. What time that is, I have no idea. Also, I am waiting for a reply from the forsaken one...which could be now or could take two hours...I need to know what he is going to do before I can make the final choise...

 

[Spoof]

Hey sure Alzem will go along with it.

 

[Tokiwong]

Iuz appears before Lady Angelika, "I do not do this out of pride. I do this out of duty for my people, for their safety. The Demiplane of Hope is a powerkeg.... and the will of the Taraakians bends me not... they order and expect us to jump. I say nay, now is the time for Oerth to choose... for us all to choose our path. My people are afraid, but they have faith in their god, me. I will see them through, and I will not bend to the will of these Taraakians... for they are arrpgant in the extreme. They will not tell us what they plan, but yet we must do? They order us to leave our lands, and no explanation. Nay, that is a fool's errand. Have them come to me and explain but I will not help nor hinder till I know what they plan."

 

[Gurdjieff]

Lord Iuz, I will consult the Taraakians on this. Can you promiss to me that if they explain theirselves, you will send your people to the plane of Hope?
Don't do it because the Taraakians order it, nor that I request it, yet because it is the best for your people.

I hope you will take this into consideration untill the Taraakians speak to you again,

Angelika


________

"Taraakians, I, Angelika, have a question for you. It is not what you are doing, nor what you are going to do. It is that you explain your actions, the reason you order people, to Lord Iuz. I don't want people to die because their leader is stubborn. If there is a way to save them, I will try to take this option. Now, will you at least talk to Lord Iuz, try to save his people? Please."


________

Vaeregoth, fearless Queen of the Hive, I contact you with great urge. You have been wronged, treated badly, and more. Even I could not change the way all my allies though about you. I have helped you protect the Diadem of Dreams. I haven't attacked you, nor have created any problems with you.
It is I who requests your help now. You, and probably only you, The Queen of Dreams, have the power to help us conquer this Darkness. You have once granted the angel Hazen, my ally, a change in reality. Now, I can understand if you do not trust him into using it. I request that you use it yourself, Queen. Use it to prevent the Darkness from winning. Help us, all people in the Demiplane of Hope, to survive. We are in great dispair, and I think you are as well, or maybe you are not, I do not know. I do know you CAN help. Queen Vaeregoth, please, help me. Help me save all people in these worlds, be it Good, be it not. Be it Lawful, be it not. Be it like me, be it like you. Help me save them Queen. I am not asking this because the Taraakians ordered me, I am not doing this because anyone asked me. I am doing this because you are my last hope.

Please Queen, help me.

Angelika, Lady of Oerth

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

THE TARAAKIAN MESSAGE TO IUZ

A taraakian messenger is sent to Iuz.

It is a taraakian girl, this time.

As with all the other taraakians, she has snow-white hair, fair skin, and a birthmark which looks like a kind of eloquent longsword on the side of her neck.
Her bird is bluish in tinge, magnificent like all the others, as large as the largest of giant eagles.

She is wearing the same kind of black and red uniform that Allendrellus was wearing - it covers her entire body except for her head and neck.
She also is carrying a sheath of red, a golden sword inside, and this item is Peacebound.

She asks for an audience with Iuz, and when she finally reaches him, this is what she communicates:

We are the taraakians.
We are what we are.
You must decide for yourself what we are.

We wish you to commit an act of faith.
We wish you to have faith in us.

We wish you to have this faith, without explanation.
We wish you to have this faith, without justification.
We wish you to have this faith, without any reason except for one:

We state now that what we are asking you to do, will ultimately in the end benefit you, your people, Chorizan, and the world you seek to build.

We offer no proof of the truth of our statement.
We offer nothing.

We ask you to accept our word on faith.
We ask you to believe in us, when we say that we are here to help you.
We ask you to believe in us, when we state we are acting in your best interest.

We also ask that you endorse, bless, our obtaining the one charge from the Diadem of Dreams.

With this charge, we will be able to alter Reality.
We will be able to produce a much larger change in Reality than Vaeregoth could, for our power is much greater than his.

We ask that you bless this gift to us.
We ask that you bless it because it will benefit you.
We ask that you bless this gift because it will benefit your people.
We ask that you take our word, in faith alone, that we intend to use the charge of the Diadem in a way that will benefit you.

There is power in belief.
There is power in faith.
There is power in acts both good and evil.
The Mists of Ravenloft have shown you this, and the Mists of the Kevellond League have also shown you this.

However, the choice must be yours.
We cannot make this choice for you, Iuz.

You must choose to accept our command to go to the Kevellond League, or refuse us.
You must choose to bless the gift to us, or refuse to bless that gift.

The choice is yours.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

7

 

[Serpenteye]

"We sacrificed much to destroy the teraakians. Our gamble would have worked, had they not recieved reinforcements. It would have worked, but we failed. So, we summoned aid, against an enemy that was beyond our power, and that enemy once again changed its objectives and dropped its extortionate demands against our nations, claiming friendship. In the past they turned from threatening the Oerth Alliance to embracing them as near-equals, for no substantial reason. It makes me wonder when they will turn next. Regardless of their claims they are deeply chaotic, at least in their foreign policies.
If they, after this crisis have been solved, for no reason whatsoever drop their demands that we be surrender our power to them... all we have done to fight them will have done horrible damage to our worlds for nothing. An incredible waste of lives and resources. And if they instead choose to attack us our current cooperation with them might cost us everything. Nothing can be predicted, all our policies are built on nothing." Naganika's semiopaque sphere carried her back and forwards in a parody of pacing, her voice and posture clearly showing her discomfort.

"It's quite possible that the arrival of the Loch Nor changed their priorities and forced them to ceace their hostilities against us. It is by far the most likely reason for their apparent change of heart. What else could have caused it? Nothing. When the Sleen and Loch Nor have been defeated the terraakians have no reason not to resume their aggression against us. No reason what so ever. They are intelligent enough to base their plans on careful deductive reasoning. One does not simply change such plans merely from talking to an Angel.
Even so, their actions so far have been far from logical, which could be intended to confuse us, but does not seem to advance their initial agenda, whatever that agenda was. For a colonizing empire they have behaved extremely foolishly and if they really intended to help us their actions have been even more counterproductive. Can you find a pattern to their actions?"

"No." The God Emperor answered distractedly, too preoccupied with the blueprints for the magical structure of several new spells to pay her much attention. "We have been over this before. Until the situation changes we have nothing more to add. Sometimes you have to accept that you have too few variables to solve a problem. Be patient, and rest assured. My actions will carry us to safety."

"You really want to believe that, don't you?"

"There is power in belief, daughter, and there is power in the belief you can inspire in others. Religion, politics, power, is all about belief, faith. I am a living example of that. If not for my belief in myself and the faith of others in me, I would still be mortal, and most likely dead.
You have to believe in yourself, and you have to believe in me, for I am the part of you that is divine. But never let your faith blur your reasoning, never let dogma block deduction. Always remember the first key to power, pragmatism."

"I suppose you're right."

"I usually am."

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

TO VENUS

Venus posted:

Taraakians, I, Angelika, have a question for you. It is not what you are doing, nor what you are going to do. It is that you explain your actions, the reason you order people, to Lord Iuz. I don't want people to die because their leader is stubborn. If there is a way to save them, I will try to take this option. Now, will you at least talk to Lord Iuz, try to save his people? Please.

Allenthrellus, having failed with Sanctus - very grieved by this, and the implications of this - hears this question from Angelika, and moves to answer.

He communicates, as usual - his race apparently cannot make any sound in the normal physical way:

- - -

We ordered you, rather than requesting, because we realized that a request would garner suspicion.
It was necessary to do something patently ridiculous, in order to pique your curiosity, and make you ask questions.

Questions, such as:

Why would we give an order that we could not enforce, to people who regard us as enemies?
Why would we do such an absurd thing?
What possible reason would we have for acting so strangely?
What agenda are we pursuing?
What are we about?

Had we requested you go to the Kevellond League, that would have been seen as a tactical move.
So we choose to act ridiculously, to force you to ask questions.

Questions that might save you.
Questions that might save your people.
Questions that might save your worlds.

We offered no explanation for our order, and we do not offer an explanation now - we will not do so, until everyone we ordered here, has come here.

You must take our order on faith.
You must accept on faith that our intentions are good.
You must accept on faith that you will benefit from following our order.

Did we not state, after the order was given, that you should trust us?
Did we not state, after the order was given, that you would not regret following our demand?

You must not come here because you are afraid.
You must not come here because you feel coerced.

You must follow our order because you want to follow it.

This most of you have done.
However, not all.

Therefore, we cannot say any more on this matter.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Note:

So far, only Anabstercorian, Venus, and Spoof have endorsed the idea of the taraakians gaining the one charge from the Diadem of Dreams.