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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ripzerai" data-source="post: 2859588" data-attributes="member: 38324">"The Emperor Has No Clothes" is not a good way to run the Abyss. I suspect one of his minions would eventually notice that he's the only one of them that never casually gets into fights with his inferiors, that he backs down in situations where any other demon would have arrogantly shown his muscle.A horde of demons is like a wolf pack, every member constantly weighing the others, subtly testing their strength as they strive for dominance. There are many ways to do this without immediate danger to oneself.Look at human children for a good example: they constantly test authority figures, misbehaving just a little bit until they learn what the boundaries are. Demons are much the same way, showing more and more unruliness, just enough to get smacked down but not enough to be worth killing.But the Fraud King of the Abyss never smacks his greatest minions down. He can't, because he might not win. He can't order his other minions to do it for him either - they wouldn't respect him. That's not what demons do. They rule by strength, and relying on the strength of others is a sign of weakness.So they test him, more and more. Soon they start disobeying commands outright. Then, when still there is no punishment forthcoming, they start smacking him around.A hush falls over the assembled court. Everyone moves aside to watch the fight ensue, leaving the floor open to their ruler and his challenger. The monarch can't back down now. So they fight. Maybe one wins, maybe the other does. They're more or less of equal power, after all.And now, one way or another, everyone who watched knows exactly how tough their monarch is. They know the challenger's strength; it was a powerful servant in the court, and it got there by showing its dominance, constantly smacking around those around it. Everyone knows how tough the challenger was, and by comparison they know their monarch's strength.So even if the demon monarch won the challenge, he lost. The curtains fell from the Great Oz. The monarch wasn't some all-powerful godlike figure at all, but a mere mortal like themselves. They saw him bleed. They saw him pant in exhaustion toward the end of the fight. They saw how close he came to death. More challenges come. And more. Demons come from outside the realm, attracted to the scent of weakness, of opportunity. Eventually, the monarch falls. Probably sooner rather than later.</blockquote>

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