Motivations of the IFCC

[i6uuaq]

I posted this in another thread, but I can't find it now.

When the fiends tempted V, they explained that this was proof-of-concept of inter-fiend cooperation, with the long term goal of bringing down the forces of Good.

They later elaborated to Qarr that the only reason they chose V was because of the gates. In that same strip, they said that they wanted conflict, and lots of it, and that insufficient conflict had been holding the fiendish races back for millennia.

So I'm trying to understand their motivations, so as to try and guess how they might intervene in the fight for the gates. My DnD knowledge is limited to what I know from this comic, so I'm hoping to get some insight from everyone else.

I'm going to assume that what they said to Qarr is truthful, although this can be debated. Since they spoke about "the fiendish races" to Qarr, I gather that what they said to V was partially accurate - inter-fiend cooperation to bring down Good. What I don't get is how conflict advances their agenda.

Does conflict make more people evil, sending more people to their planes and giving them more energy somehow? Would making every city like Greysky be to their advantage somehow? But conflict is as likely to breed heroes as villains, so I don't see them gaining an advantage that way.

Why in the world would they need the gates to generate conflict anyway? It's so secret, most of the world doesn't know about it, so they can't use the gates as a MacGuffin to instigate conflict.

I'm also assuming they can't control the gate directly the way RedCloak is planning.

Any bright ideas?

[phobiandarkmoon]

They don't care about the gates, at least in the sense of controlling them - they specifically state that what they want is for pretty much all of the major players to eliminate each other so that no-one has control of the gates.

As far as using V's time owed to them goes, they can take over his soul whilst it is still alive (or at least, I'm assuming that's the case) - so they can intervene to throw a key fight between Xykon/the Linear Guild and the OOTS.

Conflict breeds desperate people. People who would be willing to sell their soul to get the job done. From their point of view, they can play the long (very very long) game and try and get as many converted souls as possible

[Obscure Blade]

My personal speculation:

The Snarl is a specialized godkiller. "Some have theorized that the gods were even MORE vulnerable to the Snarl than a mortal of the same level would have been." (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0274.html) The IFCC wants to unleash the Snarl so it'll do what they can't do; kill the gods - probably even evil gods - so that they can take over. They may also feel that they can handle the Snarl when the gods can't, if they think the Snarl is genuinely more dangerous to gods than to other beings. They also either think they have a method of unleashing the Snarl on top of the gods, or a plan to lure the gods to the right spot; maybe by using a controlled Vaarsuvius to hijack Redcloak's Gate-hijack spell so they not the Dark One gets control of the Gate.

And after the gods are dead; either they remake the world again, this time in their fiendish image, or they simply rule forever without interference from gods in the Outer Planes where the Snarl seems disinterested in venturing.