What Would the World Look Like if Xykon Won?

[Koo Rehtorb]

Let's say Xykon really did manage to conquer the world. What would he go on to do with it?

I say first of all he'd build a nation, or at least take over one and shape it, into a thoroughly CE society. Xykon would recruit enough of a professional army to act as personal bodyguards and enforcers to be able to enforce his dominance over this society, but beyond that he'd let the rest of the society fight and murder each other as they please. Xykon doesn't need particularly much out of the society so people would be free to build up their own little factions within it and fight to control portions, so long as they didn't threaten Xykon himself. Xykon would probably draw people from that society from time to time for an army to go fight for him and would also probably use it to fill his need for wanton destruction by going out and blowing various people up for fun from time to time.

Now I say that he wouldn't actually enslave the entire world if he had the opportunity. I say he'd probably leave a good chunk of it "free", just so he has a constant source of amusement to indulge in. Entirely subduing the world would get so boring, after all. He would use this free chunk to provide him with a steady supply of adventurers to come in and challenge him, because, after all, Xykon likes fighting and slaughtering low levels would get horribly boring after a while. If he's inclined he can wage wars on the resistors, never completely conquering them, and letting himself get pushed back just to keep a constant source of violence available.

And then maybe when he gets tired of that world he could go about invading other worlds with the resources from this one. Sky's the limit.

[Bulldog Psion]

Sort of a big deathmatch amusement park for him? I can see Xykon going for that, at least for quite a while.

[MReav]

I'd imagine "like Azure City, only with everyone".

So the humans would be enslaved by the monstrous races, the monstrous races would be enslaved by the PC races, untrained slaves would fight all the time and spear themselves accidentally, O-Chul and O-Chul-like adventurers would be subjected to repeated Clone Spells and be forced to fight their dopplegangers.

Xykon isn't really interested in ruling the world. He's more interested in satiating his depraved wants. He wouldn't mind watching society crumble as his indifference toward ruling turns everything into a giant free-for-all. Once everything's gone to hell, he'd probably go to every former stronghold of good on the world and squat there to make mockeries of them while everyone else rebuilds. Then when new strongholds of good arise, he'll abandon the old locations to screw with the new ones.

[Clericzilla]

1: He would grab a few wizards and clerics of some random evil gods and have them create an arcane or divine spells that would allow him to taste again.

If it becomes a Divine spell there are plenty of ways for Xykon to get it cast for him or to cast it himself.

As I recall Xykon liked coffee

2: Kill every goblin/hobgoblin: Why? Just in case Redcloak has a contingency plan for after Xykon kills Redcloak (I assume that Xykon has an inkling that Redcloak may eventually become a threat... Epic level Redcloak somday? scary.)

Most people don't know who Xykon is so the governments won't know who he is. The Elves and the Paladins know but it seems like the rest of the world doesn't really know who he is. So perhaps sending the goblins after the elves so that he can wipe out the winner sounds like a solid plan. The Paladins aren't really a threat so he may pick them off at his leisure.

Of course he would keep OChul around for entertainment and to try to break that paladin oath.

Oh god the fanfiction thoughts are scaring me...

[Rig]

If Xykon is even close to how genre savvy he appears to be, his take over the world gambit is a whole different ballgame. It's not his end goal methinks. If he wants fun times he has plenty of those as is, and such a position is less then conducive to challenging conflict. He's going for something but i dont have a cle as to what, and i have half a mind that his eviluzs attitude is all part of a gambit, though i do think he enjoys it.

[Anteros]

I don't think he's organized enough to really rule with an iron fist. Even Azure City was mostly Redcloack. I'd imagine that most of the world would be relatively untouched, with the areas immediately around Xykon suffering the most.

Pretty much the same as it is now.

[Clericzilla]

I don't think he's organized enough to really rule with an iron fist. Even Azure City was mostly Redcloack. I'd imagine that most of the world would be relatively untouched, with the areas immediately around Xykon suffering the most.

Pretty much the same as it is now.

I'm going to play Final Fantasy X and think of SIN as being Xykon...

Actually a smart mouth bored Lich replacing SIN would be quite awesome...

[Psyren]

For awhile, he would likely rule normally. Things would go on much as they had before, only with signs/statues of the big guy everywhere. Gobbotpia might be his seat of power, for the lulz of putzing with Redcloak/Jirix if no other reason, until such time as he got bored with it or leveled the city for some comparatively meaningless transgression.

But, just as he did in life, he would descend into depravity over time, if not outright madness. With Redcloak and Jirix dead (due to age or "accident") his last remaining connection to/identification with life would slowly fade. His contempt for all living things - which we saw a flash of in SoD, in the diner scene - would grow to eventually consume him, and his mile-wide sadistic streak would grow to encompass his every thought. He would raise up kingdoms only to crush them for slights, disappear for decades at a time only to come back and re-establish his dominance just when everyone thought he was gone for good, possibly even bring other planes under his heel. With no true challenges left to occupy his mind, he would likely set his sights on the final hurdle, divinity.

From there, what would happen next would depend on the extent to which the other gods are allowed to intervene. It would also depend on the actions of the other two wild-card factions - the IFCC, and the Snarl. But no matter which side did anything about Xykon (if anything), the material races would be caught in the middle like wheat in a thresher.

[CoffeeIncluded]

For awhile, he would likely rule normally. Things would go on much as they had before, only with signs/statues of the big guy everywhere. Gobbotpia might be his seat of power, for the lulz of putzing with Redcloak/Jirix if no other reason, until such time as he got bored with it or leveled the city for some comparatively meaningless transgression.

But, just as he did in life, he would descend into depravity over time, if not outright madness. With Redcloak and Jirix dead (due to age or "accident") his last remaining connection to/identification with life would slowly fade. His contempt for all living things - which we saw a flash of in SoD, in the diner scene - would grow to eventually consume him, and his mile-wide sadistic streak would grow to encompass his every thought. He would raise up kingdoms only to crush them for slights, disappear for decades at a time only to come back and re-establish his dominance just when everyone thought he was gone for good, possibly even bring other planes under his heel. With no true challenges left to occupy his mind, he would likely set his sights on the final hurdle, divinity.

From there, what would happen next would depend on the extent to which the other gods are allowed to intervene. It would also depend on the actions of the other two wild-card factions - the IFCC, and the Snarl. But no matter which side did anything about Xykon (if anything), the material races would be caught in the middle like wheat in a thresher.

So basically only a matter of time before he goes Kefka?

[Flame of Anor]

The problem is that, if Xykon won, he'd perform the ritual with Redcloak and unintentionally give the power of Gate-moving to the Dark One. So the question "What would the world look like if Xykon won?" is really pretty much the same as "What would the world look like if the Dark One had control of the Gates?"

[Psyren]

The problem is that, if Xykon won, he'd perform the ritual with Redcloak and unintentionally give the power of Gate-moving to the Dark One. So the question "What would the world look like if Xykon won?" is really pretty much the same as "What would the world look like if the Dark One had control of the Gates?"

Would he though? Remember, the whole reason he started this quest was

a) Boredom
b) He was dying and wanted to leave a legacy behind - being supreme ruler of the entire world, if only for a little while.


Now, (a) might still be a factor, but (b) certainly isn't, not anymore. Who's to say that, once it comes right down to it, he'll decide he's the most powerful thing in the world already and dispense with the Gates entirely? Compare his chummy relationship with Redcloak prior to Azure City, and the chilly attitude between them at Tsukiko's death; their trust for one another is clearly fraying, and Redcloak is slowly becoming powerful enough to be a threat to him.

So the chances that Xykon will just go along with the ritual and unwittingly undermine his own rule are actually growing smaller by the day.

[Carry2]

Now, (a) might still be a factor, but (b) certainly isn't, not anymore. Who's to say that, once it comes right down to it, he'll decide he's the most powerful thing in the world already and dispense with the Gates entirely? Compare his chummy relationship with Redcloak prior to Azure City, and the chilly attitude between them at Tsukiko's death; their trust for one another is clearly fraying, and Redcloak is slowly becoming powerful enough to be a threat to him.
X and RC may have been superficially chummy in some of the earlier strips, but I don't think think either has really trusted the other since at least Xykon's lichification- as the closing remarks in SOD demonstrate, their relationship was always a duel for points of leverage over the other. But I would agree that Xykon may have recently developed an inkling of genuine fear toward RC that didn't exist before. Why else conceal his collusion with Tsukiko?

As for the idea of giving up the gates-quest and just razing the planet with meteor swarms until people stop complaining- it would probably work, but it's totally anti-climactic. One of the few things Xykon still cares about is his image, so he's not going to deviate from formulaic villainous cliché if it can be helped. Or, just maybe, he's committed to his own brand of sunk-cost fallacy.

[snoopy13a]

There would be no coffee. If Xykon can't enjoy it, no one can.

Other than that, probably the same. Xykon needs his entertainment.

[Ellye]

Who's to say that, once it comes right down to it, he'll decide he's the most powerful thing in the world already and dispense with the Gates entirely?I've been thinking about this too, actually...

Xykon might realize that the supposed Plan is actually pretty much unnecessary - if he wants to rule the world, he can do so in a much more fun and entertaining way without the power of this Snarl that, so far, proved to be quite a hassle to harness.

If Xykon is wiser than he lets it look like (and I'm on the camp that believes that he is), he already knows that there's something fishy going on with the Plan. There might be a possibility that he's going along with it just to see exactly what happens, out of sheer curiosity to see what does Redcloak manages to do. But in this case, it all comes down to how overconfident he is - if he realizes that Redcloack and the ritual might be a true, real, threat to him, he might just put an end to it.