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Moia's greatest fear.

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Half Centaur
Jun Member 2010

Half Centaur

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I imagine that Lucien was manifested out of Moia's memories and fears, not unlike Kami but in a more twisted way.

Thankfully it seems the Pseudo-Luecien isn't gonna stick around as a puppet for Xau-Tak.

Hopefully we'll see more of the riders though. "We call it being a hero"
"That's interesting, we call it utter stupidity"

05-Nov-2018 14:01:23

Uncle Pob

Uncle Pob

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If nothing else, Xau-Tak is suddenly less threatening than he was before.

Prior to this event, we saw his taunts but didn't understand them. "Do you really think you can save them?" sounded especially ominous because Xau-Tak was taunting us, centuries before we were even born: ie. he has access to future knowledge we do not.

So it's always seemed that Xau-Tak is trying to push us into a situation where he *knows* we will fail because we already did fail from his point of view.

But "Do you really think you can save Moia?" undermined that, because we did save Moia, with ease. Xau-Tak now starts to appear as a cartoon moustache-twirling villain who's overconfidence usually causes them to announce their next evil scheme in advance...

But I think *that* is the plan.

We would never truly rush blindly into such ominous situations on the word of Xau-Tak, not unless we felt we had no choice, because we expect a trap. The recent bit of success will have tipped the balance a little, and the WG will feel more confident than ever that the other situation "Do you really think you can save them?" is just another scheme of similar scale which can similarly be thwarted with ease - so we're more inclined to blunder on in than we were before, and possibly get caught in a trap.

So I think the event was nothing more than breadcrumbs laid down to cause us to pick up the trail that leads us down a road of Xau-Tak's choosing, ultimately towards a trap.

05-Nov-2018 20:51:56 - Last edited on 05-Nov-2018 20:53:41 by Uncle Pob

Haukur

Haukur

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Uncle Pob, what if Xau is counting on us to become over confident and not see him as a main threat. It is almost like a page out of the Art of War. Appear weaker than you actualy are.

I honestly think we are the proverbial mouse in a game of cat and mouse. Don't ever think the reason I am peaceful is because I do not know how to be violent.
Ekki hugsa alltaf að ég sé friðsælt vegna þess að ég veit ekki hvernig á að vera ofbeldi.

06-Nov-2018 04:16:33

Cthris
Dec Member 2023

Cthris

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Haukur said :
Uncle Pob, what if Xau is counting on us to become over confident and not see him as a main threat. It is almost like a page out of the Art of War. Appear weaker than you actualy are.

The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, never says to appear weaker than you are (Pretty sure Machiavelli's doesn't either). The Art of War says:

"Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable;
when using our forces, we must seem inactive;
when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away;
when far away, we must must make him believe we are near"

But it doesn't say to make your enemy believe you are weaker than you are. Probably because the best defence is a good reputation. One cannot help but feel demoralized when one believes one is going against an invincible enemy; one might not even fight at all in such a case. You never want to encourage your enemy to attack you when they might otherwise not. Any attack upon you uses up resources, better to not use resources when you need not. If your enemy is going to attack you, regardless of your mind games, then sure, encourage him to attack your weak points--as the Art of War suggests--but one must do this with care so as not to seem weak, but simply momentarily reckless. If you broadcast that you are weak this may even invite others to attack you.

Xau-Tak's whole schtick is to undermine the faith you have in yourself, to cause you to doubt yourself--"Do you really think you can save them"--why would he try an undo all that work, all that psychological warfare, just to trick us into attacking him?

Maybe we actually had our first victory here--it seems more plausible than to think he was applying such base reverse psychology. Seemed more like an experiment to me--a flex of a muscle long since used. Like someone pawing around in dark unfamiliar environment for something to grab onto--moia just happened to be too slippery.

06-Nov-2018 05:22:28 - Last edited on 06-Nov-2018 05:26:42 by Cthris

Haukur

Haukur

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Cthris this is from The Art of War

Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak Don't ever think the reason I am peaceful is because I do not know how to be violent.
Ekki hugsa alltaf að ég sé friðsælt vegna þess að ég veit ekki hvernig á að vera ofbeldi.

06-Nov-2018 07:46:06

Cthris
Dec Member 2023

Cthris

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Haukur said :
Cthris this is from The Art of War

Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak

Do you have a page number/chapter? I know its a "quote" commonly passed around, displayed with white letters with a scenic background, but I'm 90% pretty sure it is a misattributed quote. I've read the Art of War and didn't see it in there. I even ran a search engine on the text to find "appear weak" and nothing came up. Looking around online I found that other people were questioning whether it was a real quote. So yeah, if you could provide actual evidence that it's in the text I would appreciate that a lot :)

06-Nov-2018 13:05:43 - Last edited on 06-Nov-2018 13:08:48 by Cthris

Tlamovec

Tlamovec

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I don't think that Xau use human psychology (unless in strictly physical meaning), it has it's own. Zaros was considered ambigous lord of fate and magic impossible to be understood yet he use known concept of logic and knows pretty much about human behaviour and motives. Elder gods are weirder, but there was still a possibility to talk with them to some degree without being instantly obliterated (even though there is always that option too).

But do we know if Xau knows or cares about a meaning of even our most basic emotions, much less speech or morals? Elder gods operate inside a concept of the universe since they made it, but does Xau?

I like the quote about a ''stretching out after a time without exercise'', because it might have been suddenly awoken in (or pulled/summoned into) new elder god's universe with entirely different workings and might be confused as stranger, testing it in the first place. On us.

Which begs for a question - if gods didn't make us like organic/soul things, who needed to promote our evolution from matter to get experimental results?

10-Nov-2018 10:09:26 - Last edited on 10-Nov-2018 10:16:54 by Tlamovec

Big Storms

Big Storms

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It is futile to even try decipher the Lovecraftian based entity that is Xau-Tak. While we might deduce it is a (enormous) threat based on its actions, Lovecraftian entities are known for their knowledge and nature to extent past the coping capabilities of mere mortals.

In other words, trying to understand Xau-Tak will only end with you going insane: either ending up in an Asylum like the one that Sliske visited, howling songs unstoppably like the werewolf did, or slowly morphing into a monstrous version of yourself like what happened to the Horrors and The Ambassador.
I legitimately wonder nowadays to what extent Sliske himself has been affected by this
and by extension, the player after Sliske's endgame, Pieces of Hate, the Elite Dungeons and finally, meddling with the black shard. I mean, I feel it creeping up sometimes and
It iS AbsoLUTeLy FiNE to GiVE YOURself in TO tHe EneViTable.



Anyways, trying to understand Xau-Tak might actually be the worst thing to do; best is to stay clear of it and destroy anything remotely related to it (I mean you did destroy the black shard immediately instead of using it?... Right? RIGHT??) "One should not mindlessly follow gods or the godless:
follow
your
own
path
"
~Big Storms

14-Nov-2018 13:39:00 - Last edited on 14-Nov-2018 13:40:19 by Big Storms

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