MR74: The Politics of Gods

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

Unless I've gotten ninja'd by a vote, this cycle is now over.

[Amanuensis he/him]

Just now, Doc12 said:

This is so stupid. Can someone remind me what Lylo and Exlo mean? It feels like Aman, Araris, and I are agreeing that at least one of Ksauce and CD are probably Elim. Now that the vote has been pulled of BBB, Can't we pile on CD and make that count?

Lynch or lose / Execute or lose. Basically the very last chance the village has before parity

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

Stoneward was bored. Watching the priests fight amongst themselves about whether Arlun was a conspirator or not had been fun, kinda, but not really relevant to her. What was relevant to her was the complete lack of fighting amonst themselves about who would get her breath. It didn't seem like anyone wanted it.

In the end, she did decide to give it up. She kept her reasons to herself.

:-**-:

Ekkar sat in the field, watching the empty door that Arlun had been led through. His fellow priest had been bitter and silent even as the guards came. Ekkar ruminated on his choices, worrying about whether he would ever learn the truth. With each priest that they exiled from the court, the murders continued. They had no way of knowing how many accomplices Kabsal had. Even if the murders ended, would they know for sure it was because they had exiled the conspirators? What if they just stopped killing?

 

What if the murders stopped now that Arlun was gone? Would that vindicate Ekkar’s paranoia? Or would it just be coincidence? What would need to happen for Ekkar to not feel guilt about his actions this day?

 

A priest appeared in the doorway. For the briefest of moments, he imagined it to be Arlun, but it was CD. He did not greet Windrunner’s other priest as he made his way over. Just watched. CD had been among those to escort Arlun away. Why was he back?

 

“Brother Ekkar, I apologize for disturbing you, but, I had thought I heard you praying.” 

 

“I was.”

 

“Praying to Austre?”

 

Ekkar considered, then nodded. He patted the ground beside himself. CD looked at it, and then crouched down. “Brother CD, have you ever considered how the Iridescent Tones have changed over the centuries? Vo had visions of the future, and taught of how to prevent Sin. Do you think this time was one of those he saw?”

 

“ ‘I saw men who placed themselves above others,’ ” CD quoted one of the proverbs, “ ‘and I saw them cast down.’ Yes, I do think he may have seen this time.”

 

Ekkar frowned. “Not actually the one I was thinking of. ‘I heard those who sang their own glory, and I heard songs of their fall.’”

 

CD cocked his head. “You think you are being selfish?”

 

He shrugged. “Not selfish, but, too sure of myself perhaps. When I think back on Arlun, I wonder if I put too much weight on my intuition. I’ll never know for sure if I was right, but I believed so strongly that I was. The longer I think on it, the less sure I become.”

 

CD nodded slowly, but didn’t respond.

 

“Why do you think Vo saw this as a time in which people were oppressing others?”

 

CD looked at him with a frown. “Do you really not have any guess why I might think that brother Ekkar?”

 

He thought about it. The God King was certainly above others, but he had been elevated by Austre himself. The priests certainly enjoyed certain privileges that the common folk didn’t have the ability to enjoy, but that wasn’t exactly them placing themselves above them. They served them. Was it the Conspirators who were placing themselves above others?

 

“The Conspirators are arrogantly declaring themselves the Judges of the gods?”

 

CD’s eyes widened, and he barked out a laugh. “I suppose so! Not exactly what I had been talking about, but yes, I suppose we are in a manner of speaking.”

 

Ekkar’s blood went cold. We. CD had just admitted to being a Conspirator. Was it intentional? Was it a slip of the tongue? Had he done it on purpose? 

 

“But no Ekkar, that’s not exactly what I meant. It’s the second part that I was thinking of. ‘I saw them cast down.’ I’m thinking about the Returned themselves brother. Three of them have given up their breath in less than a week, that’s a record. And yet we’re ignoring them in favor of squabbling amongst ourselves. They’ve been the most important part of T’Telir since the Manywar, and most of us can’t even be bothered to advise them on important matters.”

 

“Stoneward needs advice, but instead you’re out here moping. Both of you have placed yourself above others, and both of you need casting down.” 

 

Ekkar tried to spring to his feet, but he had been seated for too long, and CD was crouched. The man sprung, one hand grabbing Ekkar’s throat before he could make a noise, and the other throwing out a scarf. “Hold Things.” The scarf grabbed one of his flailing hands and started wrapping the fingers together.

 

He scrabbled in the grass with his free hand, searching for anything to use as a weapon. His bound hand beat against CD’s head, but the assassin just grunted and squeezed tighter. “Ekkar, Hallandren has placed itself above my people for centuries. It has crushed us. We are here to finally cast it down.” He leaned in closer, his breath hot on Ekkar’s ear. “Arlun was a fool, just like you. So suspicious of his strongest allies. You all made this so much easier than it needed to be.”

 

His vision went black around the edges. He kicked out, trying to get purchase underneath to buck CD off, but the man had obviously trained in wrestling. He casually rode the motion, then jerked a knee into Ekkar’s ribs, sending a pulse of pain into his burning lungs.

 

“And don’t worry Ekkar, if you Return, I’ll make sure to guide you along a more just path.”

:-**-:

Truthwatcher felt useless. Truth be told, he always had felt useless as a god. People came to him for the truth, and he wasn't believed when he gave it to them. Or he was believed, and the receiver was destroyed for it. The Truth hurt, in a way that no falsehood ever could.

But lately, it was starting to seem like a lack of Truth was destroying the Court of the Returned. Truthwatcher wasn't sure what the Truth was, not right now. But he knew, that he could use his breath to make someone reveal their Truth. Reveal if they were hiding something.

The only question, was if he would be in time to do so. Time was short.

MR74 - C4: Glys

Cycle 4 begins!

Araris Valerian has been exiled from Hallandren on suspicion of Corruption and Murder! They were not Pahn Kahl.

Hoid Slayer has been murdered in the night!

Truthwatcher has announced that he will give up his breath this cycle!

Final Vote Count:

Araris Valerian (4): Araris Valerian, Kaladin's Spren, Hoid Slayer and Windrunner the Protecting
Big Bad Bagsworth (2): Coder Dragon, and Big Bad Bagsworth
Coder Dragon (3): Doc12, Amanuensis and Willshaper the Resolute
Iced Out Penguin (2): That One Worldhopper and Stoneward the Resourceful
Kaladin's Spren (1): Iced Out Penguin

Players in order of Seniority:

1. @Amanuensis as Kosm
2. @KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren as Lharir
3. @CoderDrag0n8 as CD
4. @BigBadBagsworth as Iggdraz the Confused
5. @IcedOutPenguin as ___________
6. @Doc12 as Evi
7. @ThatOneWorldhopper as As If

THE GODS SENIORITY HAS BEEN CHANGED

1. Truthwatcher
2. Willshaper
3. Lightweaver
4. Dustbringer
5. Skybreaker
6. Edgedancer
7. Windrunner

Edited September 12, 2025 by A Jo in the Bush

[Amanuensis he/him]

And Hoid has been demoted from lock town lol

[Doc12]

Great. Amazing. We lost 2 of our most active people because of that stupid last minute vote switch. 

[Amanuensis he/him]

Wait Hoid died lmao, I'm dumb

Kaladin

I am like 99% confident in a Coder/KSauce team right now, third can be anyone

Edited September 9, 2025 by Amanuensis

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

Sigh. Well, if we're to do anything, we need as much info as possible.

So, Jo has said that each Court must have 3 people, if I remember correctly. I'm in Truthwatcher, with 3 others.

So that leaves 3 people, all of whom must be in Willshaper. Only two courts remain.

There's no point concealing ourselves, as anyone who spares a second can figure it out. I'm going to list 'em here to make things easier.

In seniority order:

Truthwatcher: Aman, KSauce, BBB, Iced

Willshaper: Coder, Doc, TOW

4 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

Wait Hoid died lmao, I'm dumb

Kaladin 

...

Reason?

[Amanuensis he/him]

1 minute ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren said:

Reason?

18 minutes ago, A Jo in the Bush said:

MR74 - C4: Glys

...

Araris Valerian has been exiled from Hallandren on suspicion of Corruption and Murder! They were not Pahn Kahl.

...

Araris Valerian (4): Araris Valerian, Kaladin's Spren, Hoid Slayer and Windrunner the Protecting

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

9 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

 

I'm not the only one to make a mistake

I agreed with what Hoid Slayer said.

[Amanuensis he/him]

2 minutes ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren said:

I'm not the only one to make a mistake

I agreed with what Hoid Slayer said.

When the village starts eating their own, the vultures come to feast

Edited September 9, 2025 by Amanuensis

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

57 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

When the village starts eating their own, the vultures come to feast

So... I'm meant to be the vulture?

I'm out of ideas. I am honestly out of ideas.

[Amanuensis he/him]

57 minutes ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren said:

So... I'm meant to be the vulture?

I'm out of ideas. I am honestly out of ideas.

I'll give you as much a shot as anyone else to prove your village, but if it's not you, and it's not me, and it's not Coder, then you are suggesting a BBB/Penguin/Doc team?

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

6 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

I'll give you as much a shot as anyone else to prove your village, but if it's not you, and it's not me, and it's not Coder, then you are suggesting a BBB/Penguin/Doc team?

...

Now that I think about it, Penguin acting the exact same as last game might be intentional...

I don't like what BBB's doing, and Doc... I don't know about Doc, I'm feeling neutral, but it's possible.

@IcedOutPenguin, please, give us something.

Also @ThatOneWorldhopper we haven't heard from you much.

[Amanuensis he/him]

I think it's worth noting I saw both Worldhopper and Coder present for EoD, but they did not post. That puts TOW back on the table for me. Really wish Hoid just consolidated on Coder but oh well, we've all got free will and what not

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

7 hours ago, Amanuensis said:

I think it's worth noting I saw both Worldhopper and Coder present for EoD, but they did not post. That puts TOW back on the table for me. Really wish Hoid just consolidated on Coder but oh well, we've all got free will and what not

I was reading through, then I was about to place a vote, but it was rollover.

I genuinely apologize, I didn't realize my schedule would be so busy when I signed up. I'll make my vote in about 8 hours.

[IcedOutPenguin He/Him]

I think Coder is a very safe bet to exe this cycle,

It's not me, and I'm reading Aman and Doc as village, that leaves four people, three of whom I think are elims. 

I overall think Coder is the safest choice to exe this cycle

[Doc12]

"Hoid Slayer does strange things, like saving Penguin last game. " KSOS 5/9/2025

Hoid Slayer if you're reading this, add one to the list  

I was really confused/annoyed at the sudden Araris switch last couple hours before rollover. So Hoid Slayer suddenly decided to turn on Araris, and Araris, exasperated, voted for himself to prove his innocence. And then KSOHS joined in, which just seems opportunistic.

I mean, there's an argument to be made that knowing Araris would flip village makes it a dumb Elim move, unless it was to save BBB, which doesn't quite make sense either because that train was allowed to lead for a significant time and would have actually killed BBB if not for Hoid Slayer's great idea. Still. KSOHS seems perfectly happy to let either die, and maybe took the chance to get rid of one of the most vocal villagers. At this point there has to be an Elim in either KSOS and CD. So I'm interested to see what happens. 

Other thoughts

There's still a world where Aman is evil, and his reluctance to exe Araris might be part of that. But he's also voting KSOHS so let's see what happens. (Btw still happy to continue our RP if you are)

I also noticed Worldhopper active at EoD and they've always talked in the doc beginning of cycle. I gave them a tentative clear before but now I'm more suspicious of them. I also don't know who has Stoneward's Breath. I voted for myself and I thought Penguin would too but I didn't get it. 

Edited September 9, 2025 by Doc12

[Amanuensis he/him]

3 hours ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

I was reading through, then I was about to place a vote, but it was rollover.

I genuinely apologize, I didn't realize my schedule would be so busy when I signed up. I'll make my vote in about 8 hours.

All good friendo, don't stress too much, though we're probably on the last cycle unless we exe an elim (assuming we are 4v-3e right now), so if you're village we need all hands on deck to participate

2 hours ago, Doc12 said:

There's still a world where Aman is evil, and his reluctance to exe Araris might be part of that. But he's also voting KSOHS so let's see what happens. (Btw still happy to continue our RP if you are)

Yeah, honestly I feel kinda bad for planting the seed in Hoid's head =\ I only wanted him to be cautious about trusting Araris too much, not immediately go into kill mode I was honestly coming around to VillageBro!Araris during our C3 rapport. I also wish I had remembered we could extend the day by voting last minute because I would have swapped just to swap back. Probably didn't help that I was multi-screening this game and Silksong lol

Oh and I'll definitely get to RP  unfortunately sometimes I just got to be in the mood for it / it's harder to do once I start hyperfixating on solving. I was planning on having a slow reveal of Kosm's deal but the idea was that she was a dragon child pop star / music idol type deal that retired / ran away after finally aging up enough to gain their own agency. Nowadays they prefer keeping to themselves and observing / studying the world rather than being the one observed / studied by the world

Edited September 9, 2025 by Amanuensis

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

6 hours ago, Doc12 said:

I was really confused/annoyed at the sudden Araris switch last couple hours before rollover. So Hoid Slayer suddenly decided to turn on Araris, and Araris, exasperated, voted for himself to prove his innocence. And then KSOHS joined in, which just seems opportunistic.

So from my perspective, I'd voted BBB because I didn't have any other ideas. I swapped to Araris because Hoid Slayer had, to me, a better argument than the case against BBB. Right now I don't have much, except that Penguin is... acting exactly the same as he did last time. Previously I'd stated that this was why I'd thought he was village, but now I think that he might be an elim that is intentionally doing this so people don't suspect him.

8 hours ago, IcedOutPenguin said:

I think Coder is a very safe bet to exe this cycle,

It's not me, and I'm reading Aman and Doc as village, that leaves four people, three of whom I think are elims. 

I overall think Coder is the safest choice to exe this cycle

Penguin, why is Coder the safest choice?

VC:

KSauce (4): Aman, Doc, Truthwatcher, Willshaper

Coder (1): Penguin

Penguin (1): KSauce

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

8 hours ago, IcedOutPenguin said:

I think Coder is a very safe bet to exe this cycle,

It's not me, and I'm reading Aman and Doc as village, that leaves four people, three of whom I think are elims. 

I overall think Coder is the safest choice to exe this cycle

Penguin has been very abrupt this game, and his lack of explanation seems suspicious to me.

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

17 hours ago, Amanuensis said:

I think it's worth noting I saw both Worldhopper and Coder present for EoD, but they did not post. That puts TOW back on the table for me. Really wish Hoid just consolidated on Coder but oh well, we've all got free will and what not

The reason I didn't post is because I remembered the last time I posted last minute, it didn't go well for me, I was being driven to an event and only had so much time to process and reply, and I didn't think there was much I could add to the conversation.

9 hours ago, IcedOutPenguin said:

I think Coder is a very safe bet to exe this cycle,

It's not me, and I'm reading Aman and Doc as village, that leaves four people, three of whom I think are elims. 

I overall think Coder is the safest choice to exe this cycle

May I ask why, Penguin?

[IcedOutPenguin He/Him]

22 minutes ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

The reason I didn't post is because I remembered the last time I posted last minute, it didn't go well for me, I was being driven to an event and only had so much time to process and reply, and I didn't think there was much I could add to the conversation.

May I ask why, Penguin?

1 hour ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Penguin has been very abrupt this game, and his lack of explanation seems suspicious to me.

I explained reasonably well in my post

 

[Doc12]

Oh great 3 votes on Penguin. Very nice. Very coordinated. Something we didn't reckon on is the Returned voting with the senior priests. If the elims are all senior priests we're dead.

[IcedOutPenguin He/Him]

1 minute ago, Doc12 said:

Oh great 3 votes on Penguin. Very nice. Very coordinated. Something we didn't reckon on is the Returned voting with the senior priests. If the elims are all senior priests we're dead.

They aren't, I think I've found them [the elims]. They show up, KSauce contributes a single point, then ask me why, then Coder and TOW do the same thing, contributing nothing. This sounds like a determined attack against me by the Elims. If this were Clue, now would be the time I make an accusation, Coder, KSauce, and TOW.

But to not get exed, Coder KSauce

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

1 hour ago, IcedOutPenguin said:

I explained reasonably well in my post

I was mostly talking about earlier, when you gave pretty much one or two word answers with no reason why. Also, in that same cycle, you switched from hard pushing me to suddenly voting KSOHS.