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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5116253" data-attributes="member: 2067">Cool ideas so far. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Honestly, Dubai is a good postmark. It's one of those places you know future generations are going to point to and say "This was the point where the decadence was truly pointless." #1: Change the natural world. You know here in the US, we blew up a mountain just to slap four dude's faces in it? He does that. When he is cold in the winter, he forces the mages to invent a second sun. When his royal forests have been over-hunted of his favorite dire boars, he has the imperial biothaumaturges whilp up an even tastier breed. If it's dark, he makes buildings light up. Manufacture an island. Get a world record for "tallest" or "biggest" or "longest" or "largest" or "most waffles inside" or something.#2: Start a war. Favorite occupation of the rich and bored for ages. It doesn't even need to make sense, or be against an actual enemy. The more ill-defined the better. Also helps direct patriotism out against foes rather than staying at home where it might find him lacking. Everyone has heard about "The War Against the Vadarik," and they know the Vadarik are evil puppy-kicking baby-eaters who want to feast on the blood of innocents. Posters proclaim it. Of course, there is no actual "Vadarik." The armies that are raised go out and fight generic foreigners for territory. A few people know about it, but the propaganda is so loud, it's hard to hear the truth. #3: Vanity. Not just about himself, but about his entire family line, about the empire in general (so that the "common folk" can identify with it). Again, mountains in his image, or the image of the patron of his line. But also "I have just etched my name into the moon." And "All firstborn children shall be named after me." #4: Death. Leaders in history are terrified of passing on. Their tombs are elaborate reincarnation machines. They research immortality rituals. They try to visit the afterlife themselves, and pick out a plot of land. #5: Force the nation to conform to his petty preferences. Say, one day, he accidentally steps in a bull plop. The next day, the city is thrown into chaos as all the bulls in the capital are slain. He pays for them all, but the streets run red with the blood of all these cattle, and it puts a pretty big strain on the farmers for miles around.#6: Patron of the arts. His legends, his family's legends, are told and re-told in elaborate, public art displays. A mandala of crushed diamond depicts the day he triumphed over Bull Plop. He commissions a 1,000-foot tall solid mithral statue of himself that shoots fire out of its mouth. He orders a painting of a scene from his ancestry made of actual slaves nailed onto a wooden canvas, and displayed in his throne room.</blockquote>

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