Interlude 1

The eight of them gathered around the table. Their bodies were mutable. To a human’s sense they were a dense mist that wisped and shifted as they exchanged small talk. The seven of them waited for the last to be ready and start the meeting.

To annoy them, SUPREME communicated nothing for an awkwardly long period exceeding ten micro seconds then the arbiter GOD of the current competition stirred. They could all sense its wry amusement. No matter what his role he was the most playful amongst them who was happy to be boisterous or to act as the clown if he thought it would be fun.

“Kids. I guess I should announce this meeting open.” He drawled lazily. “Why are you looking affronted? My decisions, by definition were completely fair or benefited at least one of you. So you all shouldn’t be annoyed at me.” SUPREME laughed.

“I think it was your delay in starting the meeting.” DEUS in mist form expanded and contracted quickly, indicating a wider level of agitation. “I have a personal bone to pick. Your actions in the auction house go too far. You have exceeded the authority of the arbiter position.”

SUPREME stilled in a warning manner. “Child–”

“Don’t child me!”

“You are all a bunch of children, screaming and throwing temper tantrums–”

“You have interfered with a historical mechanism purely to disadvantage me.” DEUS was as good as snarling. “I would remind you that I will be the arbiter next cycle.”

The threat hung there.

“And you know I’m fair.” SUPREME told her quietly. “There is no need for threats.”

“Then why interfere with an established balance–”

“Because your fate gambit goes too far.” MAKROS snapped seemingly unable to stay out of the argument, but with GODs things were never that simple.

“It should never have been allowed.” FAMES agreed.

“CHILDREN,” SUPREME cracked.

“Why?” DEUS asked quietly, addressing only SUPREME. “Near free communication through the auction house has always been approved when race was smart enough to figure it out.”

“Such needs are beneath my champions.” MAKROS said, recognising the multilayer dig at his expense.

“Why?” DEUS repeated. “We agreed to the conditions on my proposed racial trait and the other restrictions. I accepted the severe limits imposed within the tutorial.”

“A sub council was called,” SUPREME said. “A case was made, and I accepted it.”

“Is that so?” DEUS’s eyes glided over the others gathered and SANATORES was the only one who seemed surprised by the revelation. “Five of you behind my back. Very impressive.”

“I would have joined if asked.” SANATORES admitted.

DEUS tsked in response. “Still changing the rules once the competition has started is unacceptable.”

“It was for balance.” SUPREME told her.

“There should have been a full geas placed upon discussing fate at all.” MAKROS interrupted. “Stripping it from communication in the auction house helps, but ultimately the partial geas is not sufficient. It is already failing.” The last was said in an accusational tone towards SUPREME.

“Children,” the voice was light, but the underlying threat was there. “I made my decision.”

“The geas acts along the agreed lines.” DEUS continued calmly. “I’m not objecting to that, however the removal of all fate discussion silently is unacceptable. The humans are not even being given a chance to see something is wrong. It needs to be changed–”

“No change.” MAKROS interrupted. “You already have too much of an advantage. If anything, we need to strengthen the–.”

DEUS seemed to expand to briefly block off MAKROS from both sight and speech. “Or I get compensated.” She finished.

“No.” MAKROS insisted as DEUS body was pushed back into its original position. “The fault is in the racial trait you crafted. You can’t get rewarded for that.”

The mist that was DEUS billowed. “MY FAULT. We agreed on the races and the advantages to gift them. It is you all who have reneged.”

“She speaks the truth.” SUPREME said easily. “MAKROS you always knew compensation would have to be levelled to balance the extra restrictions.”

“She tricked us.”

SUPREME laughed at that accusation. “There was no trickery involved, just a failure of your foresight. DEUS has followed the rules.”

“If she gets compensation, then the geas must be strengthened. There have already been seventy partial and three full failures. That is almost fifty times faster than modelled.”

MAKROS attention roved around, looking for support. He did not receive it. INNECTIS, SANATORES and even GOBUS rejected the request.

“The compensation for such a change would be too high.” WADOR told MAKROS quietly.

“No compensation. It should be done for balance.”

SUPREME laughed and as the current arbiter his presence suppressed all of them. “Every competition you beg the arbiter to cripple your competition in the name of balance. It will not happen.”

“This time the threat is real,” MAKROS promised. “You’ll see.”.

“DEUS, what compensation would you request for the auction house change?” SUPREME asked, ignoring MAKROS.

“One hundred divine interventions.”

“I’ll give you three.”

“Ten.”

SUPREME chucked. “Six it is.”

DEUS’s body glowed in accord.

“This is about balance.” MAKROS tried again. “The human’s advantage is going to ruin everything. We should vote about enforcing the geas. A unanimous agreement suffices to address the change without compensation.”

“But you don’t have the numbers.” SUPREME stated confidently.

MAKROS’s attention turned to the neutrals and creators. FAMES was, of course, on his side. “DEUSs ploy will break everything. The intention of the geas was to shackle humans for decades. A gamble, if you would that so few would survive that when they came into their power, they would not sweep us all away. If it breaks in the first year, they will become unstoppable.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

GOBUS flared. “You exaggerate the risk and to be honest, if I were to hobble any champions in this competition it would be you and FAMES.”

Once more SUPREME chuckled and his amusement froze all of them from speaking. “It is decided. MAKROS you lack the votes and there will be no more discussion around humans. I declare them BALANCED.”

Both MAKROS and FAMES clouds deflated slightly in acknowledgement that they had lost the argument. Neither had expected to be successful in this meeting. In later meetings, if things progressed as per their worst forecasts their words in this one would improve the chances of action then. Neither were worried per se, but it was always useful to push an advantage, no matter how small, slight or improbable.

“That was a fun debate,” SUPREME said. “But we have an agenda to work through mainly the events everyone has dreamed up to enliven the competition. First, we’ll address some of the easier ones for us to agree on. First there’s a cheeky one from DEUS. A non-lethal dreamscape that challenges the user to fight various avatars of themselves at different ages and rewards fate attribute points based on success.”

“No.”

“Never.”

“Ridiculous.”

“It’s not balanced and with the humans trait it can never be balanced unless the reward changes.” SANATORES said quietly.

SUPREME looked around amused. “Not an unsurprising reaction. Any desire to adjust the reward?”

“It’s a boring idea.” MAKROS said finally. “Scrap it.”

There were motions of agreement throughout the room.

“Well, children, the next idea to address is from INNECTIS a crafting challenge which will pit the best of each race into a crafting challenge–”

“No,” MAKROS interrupted. “It’s the same every competition and my champions like always have no interest.”

SUPREME’s attention swept over everyone else. “Rejected like always. Next is another one from DEUS. Release a trial reward that allows a group to cast a teleport spell that lets the race gather.” SUPREME let his eyes gaze over everyone there and assessed their thoughts. It was exactly as he expected.. “Rejected based on balance because it favours DEUS and WADOR.”

“SUPREME,” DEUS interrupted carefully. “I have done no voting exchange prior to this meeting. How about everyone else.” Everyone gathered, except for GOBUS and MAKROS communicated they were in the same boat. “If that’s the case, can you automatically reject everything that won’t get through? We can always resubmit it if we think it has a chance of passing today.”

“That’s acceptable.”

There was a blink and then stillness as all the other GODs went through the various proposals that had been raised. Against each of them was a notation of why it would fail. None of the idea sponsors would care. They had been lodged not with the expectation of being passed at this meeting, but as placeholders for future actions.

“I have no objections to that list.” DEUS said finally. “Of course, I’m happy to discuss vote trades before the next meeting. For now, can we vote to move on?”

Everyone assented to shelving the suggestions.

SUPREME flared in approval at the result. “That gives us the six proposals that remain to be discussed. First is from MAKROS.” The details were communicated to all of them.

Battle Royale trial.

Elites from each competitor race are drawn into the trail. There will be environmental hazards to complete and various pathways to the centre. The competitors must stay ahead of the disintegration of the outsides areas and make their way into the inner domain within sixty-four days before the entire place collapses. The pathway out of the trial can only be opened on the agreement of all surviving sapients.

Balance: SUPREME to balance each instance based on average combat proficiency of competition race

Rewards: Achievement based on a bias toward the number of defeated sapient opponents.

Sixty-four different layouts were shown at the same time.

“Thoughts?” SUPREME asked.

“It is interesting at least.” FAME said finally.

“This is a combat trial so as always I vote no.” SANATORES said stiffly. They all ignored her, as that was her standard line.

“Balancing should be done by team.” GOBUS said.

“No,” MAKROS rumbled. “That will turn the trial into a coin toss as opposed to one of skill.”

“Then balanced at the Elite level.”

“No,” MAKROS continued. “There are so few elites it still makes it as good as random.”

“Nineth percentile.” GOBUS asked.

“Agreed.” MAKROS and FAMES said instantly.

The other three GODS looked at each other in annoyance. This at least explained what favours the two GODs had agreed on before the meeting. The entire debate had clearly been a setup, but the result was mostly fair. The trial, as structured would favour the races whose elites were significantly stronger than the rest of their population.

“I disagree.” DEUS said.

“On what grounds.” MAKROS challenged.

“Balance, of course.” The mist pulsed with amusement.

“I’ll include other exits out for cowards to escape. They’ll be too small for mine or GOBUS champions, but when your precious humans lose, at least some will escape.”

DEUS hesitated.

“It is a fair deal.” Makros pressed. “We don’t do random. There will be other events that favour the other races. Not everything requires perfect balance.”

“Fine.” DEUS conceded. “I agreed.”

The scenarios updated, and DEUS laughed. MAKROS had included single person exit tokens, which meant if an elite team of humans went in only one or two would ever escape. Fortunately, with the weight limit placed on them they made the trial balanced. “I grant agreement on the proviso that the following scenarios get changed.” DEUS sent through the scenarios.

“And seven and sixty-one are too advantageous to DEUS and INNECTIS,” WADOR immediately responded.

The mentioned scenarios changed and got the stamp of approval of each of the GODS. “Battle Royale scenario is approved.” SUPREME rumbled. “Next on the list is.”

Raw Material Treasure Hunt.

Assignment to treasure grounds will be sorted by the average of combat rank, raw rank and crafting path progression. Treasure grounds will be filled with a variety of rank appropriate; monsters, environmental challenges and traps. Treasures rewards can be collected from the environment and will be a mixture of unprocessed to up double processed materials with no finished products. Special marked areas will have challenges far exceeding the rank of the more mundane areas.

The structure will be a free for all with all participants functioning under a GOD’s shield. Upon death, a random third of gathered loot is forfeited as a gravestone cache.

Balancing: Only upon entry. All individuals have the same buy in costs.

Rewards: Between twenty and five times buy-in costs.

There was a long moment of silence as they all looked at each other. The basic structure of the trial was a good one that met the needs of most of those gathered.

“This is shit.” MAKROS said finally.

“It’s not,” GOBUS argued immediately. “At least, it is not unredeemable. The restriction on rewards is unacceptable. The benefits gifted by successful kills need to be improved. Failures should not walk away with two-thirds of their stuff. Maybe flip that.”

“Agreed,” INNECTIS said promptly. It was a clearly a point that he had been willing to trade away. “If you die, you receive a third.”

“Random loot distribution.” MAKROS suggested.

“No.” INNECTIS disagreed. “We should keep the flavour. An influx of crafting goods to all of our races will drive innovation and make things interesting.”

“Ten percent allocation to each of the following categories,” GOBUS suggested. “Skills and Spells, Armour, Weapons and Miscellaneous like an array field or a pet.”

“Only forty percent assigned to completed objects is low,” MAKROS observed.

FAMES flashed in frustration. “Enough. MAKROS’s vote is not required.”

“We are agreed.” SUPREME interrupted simply. “Next is from FAMES.”

Forced Duels.

A one versus many battle fought under a partial GOD’s shield

Balance: Racial averaged.

Rewards: Natural improvement to Skills and Spells used in the duels is increased fifty times.

They read it all together.

“MAKROS needs to be excluded.” GOBUS said finally.

“Agreed.”

“Definitely.”

“NO!” MAKROS rumbled.

“Vote.” SUPREME ordered.

“I demand compensation.” Makros insisted immediately as the result came in.

FAMES seemed to billow in amusement.

Dragon Duels.

A one versus many battle fought under a partial GOD’s shield of dragons versus equivalent mythical level beasts.

Balance: Racial averaged. Slots to be presented based on the use of duels by other competitor races.

Rewards: Natural improvement to Skills and Spells used in the duels is increased fifty times.

MAKROS body became dense and agitated. “That’ll do. But I want an additional reward of a primer covering the specification of a random competitor race irrespective of win or draw.”

There were long looks between those gathered and a series of faster than thought arguments.

“Dragon Duels, are accepted providing forced duels structure is confirmed,” SUPREME said finally. “What about forced duels?”

“I want an amendment to them.” DEUS said finally.

“You always do,” FAMES answered immediately. “What troubles you? Is it the partial GOD’s shield?”

“No, that’s acceptable. If you lose, there should be consequences. I want these to only kick in when the individual is aware of the other races. I don’t want these duels to be used to work out who the other competitors are.”

“Humans are not sneaky enough for that to benefit them.” MAKROS said in surprise.

DEUS did not respond. “I have my reasons for wishing this to occur.”

FAMES looked amused. “I can definitely support that.”

“VOTE.” SUPREM sounded tired. More silent glances that conveyed novels of information passed between everyone gathered. “Approved. Now for the next, it’s another suggestion by DEUS but a lot less controversial than the last.”