231. Wild Cultreevations

231. Wild Cultreevations

Year 234

The kingdoms ramped up their counter for the guilds financial strength. Religion. As they were quickly reminded, zealots and fanatics are not easily tempted by money, and the Hawa, Gaya, Aiva and Neira faiths all have fairly deep pockets of their own. Worse, some zealots took their money and went to the other side anyway.

Secretly, the triumvirs were quite concerned about the conflict, and through our private channels, they relayed their feedback. Our line of thinking remained, this is a private affair undertaken by the new corporates of the Central Continent, accordingly, we will not interfere, and we will not protect them. If the Aivan faith wishes to retaliate, they are free to do so.

If I didnt intervene in conflicts between kingdoms of the Central Continent, it certainly didnt make sense for me to intervene in conflicts between a kingdom and a kingdom of another continent.

I reiterated my commitment to the overarching framework of non-interference, to the disagreement of quite a significant portion of my ruling class. As long as the rules of engagements were obeyed, I would uphold my part.

Royals rise and fall over time. Was corporatised royalty any different? If they have imperialist ambitions, they are free to test it, and see whether they succeed or fail. If they fail, they die. It comes as a package with their position.

The rise of higher level zealots, in the range of level 50s among the defending nations and templars, spurred the counterattack against the merchant kings, their superior equipment, financial wealth and higher level employees.

The defenders had some success, but the merchants wealth seemed limitless to the defenders.

The guild territories expanded some more.

Based on my artificial minds data collection, of the fifty or so guild-groups that set out on their imperialist ambitions, all managed to conquer at least one city on another continent. About half managed to fully take over an entire kingdom or nation, but all of them encountered fierce resistance, guerilla warfare and rebellion throughout the past few years. They deployed mercenaries liberally to crush the resistance, to varying degrees of success.

Of the half of the guilds that conquered entire kingdoms, about a third managed to suppress the resistance, mostly at great cost that the financial returns from the lower labor costs and resources collected barely compensated for the sums expended to wage the war. But of the third that managed to control the resistance, half of them should be able to make a profit within another two to three years, as the costs of managing the resistance began to dwindle, and the population adjusted to the new regime.

A few luckier guilds actually generated a profit already, but all of them faced the prospect of more prolonged wars, as the temples ramped up on their propaganda against these capitalist entities.

My spies soon discovered that a few of the guilds seriously debated pulling out of their vassal kingdoms.

For some, the profits from their vassal kingdoms were impressive. Some managed to get hold of large gem or gold mines that meant they were able to recoup the cost of maintaining their far larger defensive force, especially when these gems and precious minerals were sold back on the Central Continent, where prices and demand was naturally higher and more sophisticated.

But fanatics were one of the factors they were not able to fully mitigate. The guilds rulers, became the target of the religious propaganda from the temples, and this led to fanatics, and covert assassinations.

Even if the guilds still had the advantage, this was frightening to the guilds, because of how ruthless they were.

The guilds needed a counter, and so, some of the guilds began to form alliances to attempt to develop counters.

But ultimately, they realized loyalty, a problem they always had, could only be resolved with fanatics of their own. They could hire mercenaries, and soon realized mercenaries would change sides if the other side offered more.

Fanatics were different.

Inspiring loyalty to the point of death wasnt something guilds excelled at. Theyve always known that, but its not as if they lacked references. There were some kings among them, those who got the title through their conquest of the kingdoms on the Central Continent, and they leveraged their position to create-

A Royal Cult. Lumoof rubbed his head when the spies gave the briefing. Back on Earth, kings used to wrap their position with pseudo-divine references, as if they were anointed by some god or descendants of some legendary hero, to enhance their position in society.

Yes, Patreearch. Were very concerned that these cults, whose existence entirely serves to reinforce the throne of these merchant kings, may threaten our faith.

The gospel of prosperity, with a merchant king at the top. A cult of money.

An act of desperation, simply because I refused to support their outbound conquests, while the defenders had the support of the defending faiths.

Lumoof paused for a moment, and thought. We are no stranger to cults. We were a cult, once. I suggest we leave them be.

But were different, Patreearch! Surely you see the difference!

Eh. From my vantage point, it is just system levels that differentiate a cult and a religion. Lumoof answered. If they can ascend to the level of a religion, that is a good thing.

But well be displaced?

Are we that inferior as a faith? Lumoof challenged. That we cannot tolerate cults? Aeon is not a god that cannot deal with challengers! If anything, we will emerge stronger from their attempts to usurp our position. These pretenders are but polishing stones in our path for ever more greatness. If they are strong, we will crush them, and emerge ever stronger

The spies nodded, and indeed, if I wanted choice, I had to allow it. But let them know this. If they try to attack us, we will crush them. If they leave us alone, obey the rules of engagement and leave innocents alone, we will do so too.

It was only fair to let these nascent little cults have their chance. In the way of nature, if I couldnt compete, I surely dont deserve my position at the apex of this world, and how do I even claim legitimacy to push outwards to other worlds?

When you break it down, every cult is just a form of association between a group of people, with stronger bonds, with a set of shared beliefs. A fanclub could easily be a cult. A group that madly chased after money was a money cult.

The issues with a cult was not the cult itself, which could easily be benign. It is often the negative activities undertaken by the cult, in the sense that they had their own set of laws, and acted beyond the scope of what they could.

There was a separate discussion among my clergy.

My patreearchs and matreearchs had their own set of views.

But who is innocent? A child brainwashed from young by a cult is innocent, but because he embodies the beliefs of said cult, he doesnt know it.

Lets think of this in extremes. What if there is a cult that seeks to destroy us? Is Aeon going to tolerate that?

No. Lumoof said after I expressed my feelings through him. We will crush those that go past the boundaries that we set. We were more than willing to coexist with the other temples, but it was their attacks, their crusades that forced our hand. Likewise, well set certain terms. Terms to ensure reasonable conduct.

I do feel this still cuts too closely to our faith. Matreearch Hoyia was also present. All religious cults weve seen have been fairly hostile to our rules.

There was a smaller team that came earlier to deploy the listening devices, and we noticed it was still untouched.

Data collection was a really long affair, and even when we knew what we were looking for, the somehow low frequency of transmissions meant that Stellas endeavor was pretty much looking for aliens with super large radio dishes.

Theres a lot of waiting, and theres a lot of nothing.

Meanwhile, the druids harvested and collected the plants of the borealworld. These were unique species to the world, not found on any of the three worlds we were at, but not entirely alien. There are similar plants.

They are surprisingly tolerant of ice, and I wondered whether Aria and Aispeng would love this iceworld. It seemed like the perfect place for them to make use of their talents.

Once we could reclaim it from the demon mother of this world.

I decided to bring the idea to Aria and Aispeng, whether they would be keen on moving to this world.

Im immobile. Aria and Aispeng said. Id be relying on the summoned creatures and the ice monsters to fight for me.

Thats like me. I responded. All the combat could help your levels.

Hmmm...

It wont be immediate. Were still working on creating the larger rift gates, and thats taking a lot more time than expected-

Why do you need a large rift gate?

Youre big?

Aria chuckled. It seems you forget that I can shrink. Im an ice-crystal with a soul. All these are just excess appendages that I can shed and regenerate.

Huh. I paused and considered the implication. She technically could be deployed anywhere, though icy environments are most advantageous to her. Just like how Zhaanpu would probably excel in a desert, sandy environment.

Again, let me think about this, I should be able to provide an answer within a few years. Aria said.

They had specialized skills that worked in such environments. As for myself, I consider myself mostly a generalist, but I excel in forested or grassy environments that are more temperate or tropical in nature. This is partly because my beetles perform best in these environments. In colder and sandier environments they needed specific adaptations, which took up some space for other types of skills.

Domain holders like Edna, Roon and so on had tremendous advantages in combat. They are mobile. They can hit really hard.

But thats also part of the problem. They do not excel in building safe spaces for lower leveled folks to live.

Lavaworld relied massively on my trees presence to suppress the demons, and act as a safe anchor for my forces to retreat to.

For domain holders, its not an issue. But it is a critical one for those in the level 100s to 149s, and these are the group of people I really want to get to the next level.

We needed forward bases, backed by domain holders.

Youre suggesting that we become an invasion force? Zhaanpu sat and stewed on the question.

Yes. I responded. Let me be clear, this is an idea that we are considering, given our limitations. Ive stretched myself as far as I could, and we have clones on a few worlds, and one active demonworld. But realistically, if we want to strike back at the demons, we need more.

Zhaanpus golden eyes sat and mulled the question. It's certainly an interesting proposal. If we succeed, we essentially have the entire world to ourselves, and many of my servants would gain levels. But given my size, that would be-

Its something we can solve. The demon kings can move their large bodies through space. We should be able to do it too.

Zhaanpu stretched, and cracked his mummified fingers. There are some lingering concerns, especially how it affects my pact with the old gods. I would have to revisit the terms and study them.

I agreed. There is no urgency. Not yet, anyway. It is an idea Im floating with other immortals.

it is something that needs much more deliberation. I must contemplate this suggestion a little longer.

***

Lilies mulled the idea, though I sensed it was fairly lukewarm. If there was another lake or parasite-type world, Lilies, as a being that could spread roots across the entire lake could be a candidate. Any swampy environment would do.

That said, the chances were low. Theyve never left, and they survived so well in their current state. Why would they change?

But in any case, they didnt reject me outright. Just like both Aria and Zhaanpu, they needed time. Relocating to another world, a demon world just to wage a war wasnt a simple decision. It was a commitment.

I remembered I didnt like moving. I hated it. My fellow domain holders would agree that moving sucks. Our presence was all about permanence. We existed, and the world warped around us.

If they rejected the offer, that was fine. We are already developing countermeasures and bases that do not depend on my presence.

Id probably consider Reefy as well, if theres some waterworld out there. I believe there should be some waterworld, though Im not too sure whether Reefy would even let me move him. Reefys very, very touchy about his core.

That said, Reefys probably too low leveled to reach that stage. The Valthorns worked on smaller, more compact and self-sustaining bases. Little independent outposts on these demon worlds.

Well find a way.

Spaizzer

So, did you know that there's SEVEN patreon exclusive interludes on my patreon? The seven interludes are all little slices of life around the main story, two chapters on the lizardfolks and certain places in Treehome, one on the fallen hero Astra and what happened to him (if you ever wondered what he did), the hero's journal, a little holiday by Edna/Stella. So, if you always want more tree content, do have a look at my patreon. it'll help me pay my bills and deal with inflation.