A Practical Guide to Evil III: A Series of Unfortunate Peace Treaties

[Rydiro]

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They already showed the biggest thing she has, which is that only the perspective of godhead prevents Cat from Silencing someone as Warden. The Drow guy is as strong as a god, but he is still a person and so under her auspices as opposed to Sve Noc who have the perspective of Gods and so aren't.

This brings up an interesting questions about Four Seasons. Is Neshamah having a human perspective a weakness to Cat's Silence?

Will Dead king be mortal after they crown him? No, he will at least be a fae equal to the queen of summer. And he may still be a god to his (living) subjects. If anything he might become more of a god than before. He alluded to the possibility of cat becoming a callowan goddess through winter powers.
Also, while he maybe won't be able to control undead, he might make his intelligent undead arch-necromancers his court. Who then control undead for him.
You know, a regiment of autumn arch-lich dutches sounds terrifying.

[The Glyphstone]

I don't think its simply being able to control undead that makes him the Dead King, or vice versa, but the scale/quantity of such. He is the Lord of the Dead, with millions of animated minions beyond anything a regular necromancer could accomplish. So even if he still had obedient and loyal necromancers to control undead on his behalf, that would still be stripping him of the overwhelming majority of his total manzombiepower.

[lord_khaine]

Also, while he maybe won't be able to control undead, he might make his intelligent undead arch-necromancers his court. Who then control undead for him.
You know, a regiment of autumn arch-lich dutches sounds terrifying.

So even if he still had obedient and loyal necromancers to control undead on his behalf

I would like to take a brief moment, to point out just how well this worked out for the two Drow goddeses

[The Glyphstone]

I would like to take a brief moment, to point out just how well this worked out for the two Drow goddeses

Yes, this is also a very good point. We already know how fractious and treacherous Summer and Winter nobility both are, there's no reason Autumn would be different. So that's another check on his power in theory, compared to having minions who can't even consider disobedience.

[Rydiro]

I fear Akua is taking the easy way out and sacrificing herself in the end.
You know, its not really a sacrifice when you never lived a life of your own before.
She went from her mothers life to cats life to deciding whether she should die. Still not really living her own decisions, just waiting for death to come for her.

[lord_khaine]

Still not really living her own decisions, just waiting for death to come for her.

Yeah just hard no. We literally just had her take a choice Cat were not ready to take herself because it risked their mission.
Cat might have decided to make her change her path. But the choices are entirely her own now.

Else. Some seriously interesting development on what initially seemed like a side plot.
The whole Drow case is now a ticking powderkeg. With basically the race on stake since someone is now planning to eat them for ascencion.

[Tvtyrant]

I honestly thought they were going to have Sve Noc be the solution to the Goblin problems, as Drow live in an agendered society and goblins live in a hyper-gendered one. Also goblins dying so much faster would generate more Night, it seemed like a pretty good bet.

Seems like instead the Drow are going to entirely collapse and lose all of their nails, becoming part of the normal humanoid groups like humans, orcs and goblins again.

[lord_khaine]

becoming part of the normal humanoid groups like humans, orcs and goblins again.

Well can you honestly say that would not be a good thing?
The main thing night seems to have done for drow society, is to give a small group of mighty a chance to be utter ***** to everyone else.

[Dragonus45]

The power will likely still be redistributed in some way. Perhaps it might become even more analogous to Light by them granting it in a more direct way on a person by person basis rather then just being an overall racial trait.

[lord_khaine]

It becomming Below's analog to light does seem quite possible.

[Rydiro]

Cat deludes herself again, that she would respect the decisions of her friends/underlings.
A few chapters after Hakram called her out for NOT doing that, like ever.

[lord_khaine]

Cat deludes herself again, that she would respect the decisions of her friends/underlings.
A few chapters after Hakram called her out for NOT doing that, like ever.

Yeah nope. Dont have any support in the story.
If anything the opposite of what we have seen. With recent examples including Cat accepting it was Hanno's choice who wields Severance.

[Tvtyrant]

Cat deludes herself again, that she would respect the decisions of her friends/underlings.
A few chapters after Hakram called her out for NOT doing that, like ever.

That was the whole point of this/last arc, that she is learning to change her approach. Praes was the zenith of her unilateral decision making, climaxing in her killing her father and almost her best friend because she none of them were communicating. She was given the choice to double down with the Warden arc and chose to give up some of her power instead, which worked instead of leading to a brutal civil war (or conflict with the dwarves.)

Just like how Cat stopped justifying genocidal actions after the Underdark, she has become capable of sharing decision making after Praes.

[Rydiro]

Just like how Cat stopped justifying genocidal actions after the Underdark, she has become capable of sharing decision making after Praes.

I remain skeptical about that. I mean, she is still gunning for eternal punishment/atonement for Akua.
She is a massive control freak. I read her talk with Hakram that she basically agrees with her past actions and if you want her respect you need to withstand her will.
Thats why cordelia carries the kill switch with her.
Sure she may be changing, but that is going to take time (which is good writing, actually).

[HolyDraconus]

When the author says they relished writing a chapter, then you know it has to be good… and man… it was

[lord_khaine]

I liked the plan.
As such it did kinda make sense as far as i understood it. It felt genuinly cunning.

Also the ending.. holy dam..
This is fairly massive.

[The Glyphstone]

It puts a nice nail through the heart of 'Cat won't ever share decision making' too; this entire plan forced her to unilaterally trust at least 3 different people to do the right thing at the right time with massive temptations to encourage otherwise, while she is bleeding out from a gaping chest wound (again). And the results were undeniably massive.

[lord_khaine]

It was some pretty big leaps of faith.
She basically had to wager her life against the temptation to become a demi-god.
Well.. i dont think it was much of a wager with Hieroprant.
For him "become a god < show people how its done" is a safe bet

[Rynjin]

This chapter also had one of Rumena's best clapbacks.

[Jurai]

The ending had me pumped as hell. The King is back, baby!!

[Forum Explorer]

I'll admit, I was expecting this to take longer. This was what? five chapters? Practically nothing for such major events.

I was also expecting at least one more Aspect of Cat's to be revealed, maybe something that amplifies other Names.

[lord_khaine]

The ending had me pumped as hell. The King is back, baby!!

King indeed. I honestly doubt there are any mortal sorcerer who can rival him at this point.
And i cant see the years without his gift having left him less dangerous now its back.

Else. Once again an amazing chapter.
Flawless ending as well. May you get what you deserve indeed.

[Rynjin]

Far from it. It was noted that his spellcasting efficiency was already exceptional and had been further refined by the lack of his own magic to having as little bleed as it is perhaps possible to have.

[3SecondCultist]

I must say, I'm really really hoping to get a Masego Interlude chapter where it's just him pitting his full returned magic and experience against Neshamah. A mano-a-mano archmage duel of the highest order, similar to some of the Warlock Interludes from earlier in the story but up to eleven.

It's not like it wouldn't be earned, or perfectly fitting. Masego is in many ways the closest thing to an apprentice to Neshamah this millennium, and he has the whole personal 'you killed my partner' angle, on top of his nature as the Hierophant against the self-styled 'god' of the King of Death.

[HolyDraconus]

I must say, I'm really really hoping to get a Masego Interlude chapter where it's just him pitting his full returned magic and experience against Neshamah. A mano-a-mano archmage duel of the highest order, similar to some of the Warlock Interludes from earlier in the story but up to eleven.

It's not like it wouldn't be earned, or perfectly fitting. Masego is in many ways the closest thing to an apprentice to Neshamah this millennium, and he has the whole personal 'you killed my partner' angle, on top of his nature as the Hierophant against the self-styled 'god' of the King of Death.

.. i think that Masego has surpassed his father, but I don't think that's enough to solo the creature that is literally the reason why some school of magic exists. Even now, he's relying on body waves to do his grunt work cause nothing warranted his direct attention. The losses he's taken hasn't been remotely personal.

I'm just hoping DK gets a better ending than how wizards of the coast did Nicol Bolas.

Better doesnt mean good, just well written.

[Tvtyrant]

.. i think that Masego has surpassed his father, but I don't think that's enough to solo the creature that is literally the reason why some school of magic exists. Even now, he's relying on body waves to do his grunt work cause nothing warranted his direct attention. The losses he's taken hasn't been remotely personal.

I'm just hoping DK gets a better ending than how wizards of the coast did Nicol Bolas.

Better doesnt mean good, just well written.

I still maintain it would have been way cooler if Nicol Bolas opened his big gate with his giant army of mummies... To New Phyrexia to wipe out the Phyrexians. Then the Gatewatch has to decide who to help against the other instead of just "Bolas fails to murder all named characters." War of the Spark was cool, but bad guy vs bad guy would have had more plot room.

[HolyDraconus]

I still maintain it would have been way cooler if Nicol Bolas opened his big gate with his giant army of mummies... To New Phyrexia to wipe out the Phyrexians. Then the Gatewatch has to decide who to help against the other instead of just "Bolas fails to murder all named characters." War of the Spark was cool, but bad guy vs bad guy would have had more plot room.

That would of been a far better answer out of the corner they wrote themselves in instead of saying “Ugin knew everything since day 1 and planned for you to be evil”. It was a weak ending. He basically stopped thinking then went on to being an idiot. THEN they didn’t have the balls to outright kill him cause they wanted to keep the super big bad for later events down the road. Like hells man, every plane threatening villain in the story gets treated like that.

Phyrexians are just chilling after corrupting mirrodin. The eldrazi went from planar monsters to the equivalent of power ranger monster of the week, and Emrakul was the only one smart enough to see where THAT is going.
Slivers…. Ugh… just ugh. They can’t keep good villains.

[Jurai]

I still maintain it would have been way cooler if Nicol Bolas opened his big gate with his giant army of mummies... To New Phyrexia to wipe out the Phyrexians. Then the Gatewatch has to decide who to help against the other instead of just "Bolas fails to murder all named characters." War of the Spark was cool, but bad guy vs bad guy would have had more plot room.

I don't think the Eternals would have stood a chance. Because Lazotep is metal, and the last time Phyrexia touched a metal it'd never seen before, Wizards gave us New Phyrexia and Infect.

[Rynjin]

There is a dedicated Magic thread, by the way.

[Tvtyrant]

Spoiler: The TIme Warp Again

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Okay so we jumped forward, straight to Keter and the siege. I feel like the author is going to get heaps of experience about pacing, they often speed up or slow down at weird times but never the same weird times. The next story is going to be smooth as silk at this rate.

So we have the setup of Vivienne and LoSS taking on Cat's old mantels and letting her reside fully in her new once the War ends, which is starting to have a "one day from retirement" feel to it. Also the Drow army is tiny now, from 50,000 down to 15,000.