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Message: <blockquote data-quote="humble minion" data-source="post: 9736542" data-attributes="member: 5948">Pre-Cerulean Storm, there was a nice balance-of-terror/mutually-assured-destruciton dynamic between the sorcerer-kings that I actually appreciate.All of them watched Borys become a dragon, all of them watched him run wild with agonised murderous insanity for a hundred years in the process.  Nobody wants to go through that - Kalak's aborted ritual and Nibenay's arcane researches are all about speeding the transformation through mass human sacrifice, or trying to find away of remaining sane and in control during the metamorphosis.  At the same time, nobody wants anyone else to become a dragon, because if they cause as much damage as Borys did, then it's quite possible it tips Athas across the line from 'awful and inhospitable harshness' to 'completely dead planet of sterile ruck and dust'.  When Dregoth tried, all the other Tyr Valley sorcerer-kings joined together to kill him.  And everyone reluctantly agrees that a dragon is needed because it's the only way to keep Rajaat imprisoned - Borys is NECESSARY, so what happens if another dragon arises and frenzies, and Borys is hurt or killed in trying to put it down?They're all basically staring at each other with fingers on the big red 'dragon' button. None of them can renounce it for fear of the others.  If anyone presses, there's small chance that they win big and a large chance they die, but guaranteed all of Athas loses.  The old modules tend to write the sorcerer-kings as cacklingly eeeevil Snidely Whiplashes, but I think this dynamic works better. It allows them to be, in their own minds, just a bunch of clear-eyed pragmatists Making Hard Choices (TM), a bunch of ancient immortal semi-draconic Kissingers who self-justify their fear and ambition and casual contempt for the value of life by with the claim that they are the only ones smart  enough truly see and understand the Big Picture (TM).</blockquote>

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