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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silverblade The Ench" data-source="post: 4990776" data-attributes="member: 19083">I know Kalak was runnng the city into the ground financially to build the ziggurat...but...maybe he wasn't, eh? why not just leave it to the DM and players, as ot what this major city/event may all be about and turn into, or not be happening at all, you know? <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=":)" />In my campaigns Kalak's been building the ziggurat for...well, a LONG time. You think slaves count decades or centuries? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />As for "democracy", look, it's hard to grasp this, but our Western idea of Democracy is not somehting that can "spring" into a culture's collective mind: it's impossible (short of magic hehe).I forget the exact wonderful quote, but one of the USA's founders put it perfeclty well, that Democracy relies on the support and action of concerned citizens who support it."Democracy by the mob" is, well, as folk note, that's even worse than a tyrant!! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Cultures are peculiar things, many people, whether we Westerners like it or not, DO indeed like tyranny..when done well. And why not? if you aren't one of the poor/outcasts, you're probably fine. Compared to the anarchy, mayhem etc you may have of failed states, it's a damn sight better. And simple, ordinry ignorant folk can graps and support the concept.Plus what's hard ot grasp is the cultural "acceptance" the inertia, the comfort of a known, working system...it's like cement and very hard to change, at least, in pre-Industrial Age type settings.This is why many folk rabidly support dictators, even when we think it's dumb to do so.So, in my games in Athas, the sorceror kings often are supported by gangs/groups etc of citizens who support them..or use uspport of the sorceror kings for excuse ot be hoodlums etc. Sort of liek the Nazi "Brown Shirts" and so on.Hey, you support the sorceror king openly, stomp "oucasts"     and harass nay-sayers, there's power in that...power is very very desirable.It's naive ot think there wouldn't be many folk, not just templars, who wouldn't desperately support their Sorceror King, even if he is a monstorus SOB...hey, he keeps them safe, they don't know he's a "Whatever the DM wnats the sorceror kings ot be, illithid, dragon-king, demon lord" or whatever.Infromers and bully boys would be common.Kalak keeps the Dragon and wasteland riaders at bay...which would you rather have? If you are an illiterate slave with almost no sense of REAL history (see the chattel slavery of the 16th to 19th centuries), do you think it's likely you could grasp what a Democracy really means to make it stable, or that many slaves in "Better" positions would rather BE slaves in "better psoitions", than...something they don't understand, fear...change..chaos...Better to be a slave with food in your belly than a starving "free" man!So have a good think about how you run "revolutions" in Athas, or similar settings. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Also, please note, Kalak does not HAVE ot be making the ziggurat for a huge life-drain to make him a dragon! It can be for whatever reason a DM wants.I do not want ot be rail roaded again with Dark Sun, grrr.So, if he isn't gonna life drain the city, that is no longer a reason for Tithian to kill him.What if Kalak knows Athas is doomed, and is preparing a planar gate way, or a tomb ot live in undeath for eternity...what of the sorceror kings are the progenitors of the illithids? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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