The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (114 page)

Just as surprisingly, eighth place was won by First Expeditionary Zoobweeb, (roughly translated), of the Kag.  The venerable fish and his people’s somewhat spiritual concept of warfare as an art form had been very popular under his leadership, and many of the ancient martial arts of the other races from the age of religion were revived during his leadership.  With him as their commander, Kellaran had waged a horrific war with the demons while largely maintaining a strangely detached serenity.

Seventh place went to Zarkog.  There was little cheering as he appeared on the stage to accept his presentation, and he seemed uncharacteristically subdued.

“Zarkog, you began this tournament as a mortal, and finished it as one of us; a god of the old style.  There is no doubt that you were the single most capable mortal on Kellaran, and now that you are a god, you are among the most capable beings of any kind.  But you did not win, because as capable as you are, there were teams with more members who were collectively more capable than you.

“The fact that you did so well while making every command decision yourself is amazing, but it is many times more amazing when it is considered that your leadership produced the worst morale among both our civilians and our military of any team in the tournament.  No one doubted your brilliance or the quality of your military and administrative decisions, but no one liked you except some of the Sylvan and dragons who served under you when you were Lord of Serminak.  And even among them, as among everyone else, the most popular pastime during your tenure was complaining about you in humorous terms.

“You were one of the teams that were most aggressive, attacking immediately as soon as you had the authority to command it.  You were one of only two teams who were successful with that strategy, though you initially over-extended in hopes of a quick victory, and had to revert to a purely defensive strategy for a time until your forces had recovered somewhat.”

When Pakdag had finished his commentary of Zarkog’s performance he indicated that the gigantic dragon should speak, though Zarkog had no team members to acknowledge.

Though he now had the speed of thought of a god, he still seemed to take a moment to choose his words carefully.  Curiously, he had changed his voice to a simple and pleasant baritone.  “I thought that I could command everything myself, but I found that it was beyond even me.  No single mortal has the mental capacity to grasp every aspect of a war involving many billions of fighters with sufficient detail in real time.  After two years of warfare I was forced to face that fact; that I was failing, and that in order to succeed without giving up sole command, I would need to increase my capabilities considerably.  I used my authority to procure the Readings of those who achieved divinity on the day Prince Mark ascended, and the Reading of Hilsith gave me what I needed.  I became a god, and I quickly discovered many things.

“In order to be cruel it is necessary to avoid empathy, and to avoid any real awareness of what those who are suffering are experiencing.  I was cruel for most of my life, and even swearing to justice on Falgaroth’s stone did not erase the core of cruelty in me.

“But when I became a god, while still commanding our world in warfare with the demons, I could no longer ignore the suffering of others that the demons were causing us.  I was simply far too
aware
of it, as I had become so intimately aware of everything, it seemed.  To be a god and to consider even cursorily any mortals who are suffering, is to be intimately aware of what it feels like to them.  Even if one cares nothing about them, a god cannot ignore how horribly they are feeling, and I couldn’t avoid knowing how desperately I wished to avoid feeling such suffering myself.  And then, for the first time, it became truly important to me to try to avoid having anyone suffer so, particularly those who were my responsibility.

“I realized that I was failing in many ways, and I publicly apologized for my arrogance, and began asking many others to contribute to command decisions.

“I now know that their help was based only on the Readings taken of them before the tournament, and not on their active participation as the members of the other teams participated, and that their advice was therefore most likely a bit less astute for it.  But while I was in the scenario that was not apparent.  There is no doubt in my mind that I would have failed to defeat the demons without their contributions, which were crucial.

“I am very different now.  I’m just as glad that I didn’t win the tournament, as I now have no desire to rule.  No parent should enslave their children, and no god should rule over mortals.  We should always offer leadership, and never take command.  We must lead by example, and mortals must always have the freedom to refuse our advice.  That should be obvious to everyone, or so it now seems to me.

“My congratulations to my fellow finalists.  I offer my wholehearted effort to our alliance, and my sincere loyalty to whoever is chosen to lead us against the demons.”

With that he vanished.  The audience, surprised by the change in him, gave him a warm round of applause.

“In sixth place; the team of Emperor Osbald of Thon!” Pakdag announced.

Osbald’s team was the second largest, and the second most diverse.  None-the-less, his leadership had been characterized by the human traits of adaptability and a quickness of action and decision-making that seemed almost sudden to many other races.  His steady and determined leadership had produced good morale, and his administration was fanatically supported by the human population, who were the single most numerous race on Kellaran.

Then came an announcement that seemed to excite the crowd a bit more than the others had;  “In fifth place, the team of The Governors of Hiliani!”

“Oh well.  Fifth isn’t too bad, I guess.” Fire smiled as they accepted quick congratulatory hugs from their parents.

“You’re still young children, and among the most qualified to lead the world!” Kragorram laughed as he hugged his son.  “Fifth is a lot better than not too bad!”

“Yah, we did beat a lot of really good teams.” Six mused with a smile.

“Let’s go get our glory.” Val said with satisfaction, and Translocated them to the stage.

“I must say,” Pakdag grinned, “Though you proposed this tournament, and you have displayed incredible abilities in the recent training exercises, most of us still didn’t expect such an impressive performance from such young people as yourselves.

“Your leadership was unshakably positive and optimistic, you endeared yourselves to the people of every race to a surprising degree, and you inspired them.  Unsurprisingly, the youth of Kellaran were your strongest supporters.

“Your command was characterized by very quick and inventive thinking, wise delegation of duties, and one of the most aggressive military strategies of any team.

“You attacked almost immediately with gods and Strike Wizards.  You correctly evaluated the enemy’s strength within a few hours, and knew that a quick and sudden victory was not in the offering.  By carefully and gradually deploying, you fought a tenacious and continuous battle with the demons almost all the way to Kellaran.  Doing so denied your people as much time to develop their capabilities as they had under some of the more patient teams, but that was balanced because you fought an effective war of attrition, and by the time the demons were close enough to attack Kellaran, there were fewer of them than in any other team’s scenario.  Another fact is worth noting; until the demons reached the inner worlds and you attacked them with the warships of Kellaran and the Triax, not one single life was lost among our alliance.”

He went on to outline their war in greater detail as the Revealing above displayed it, then concluded their presentation.

“Know that the placing of the final teams was largely decided by how many of our people were killed, how much of Kellaran’s surface and oceans were destroyed, and how much destruction of The Triax’s major vessels occurred.

“All of the top five teams, including yours, had very similar results.  All of you lost less than one in two thousand persons in achieving victory.  The differences in the second through fifth placed teams’ results were so slight that they might justifiably be attributed to random chance.

“You came very, very close to achieving outright victory in this tournament.  The teams who placed ahead of you include many members of long-lived races with many millennia of experience, and you have almost matched them.

“You should take great pride in your achievement, for it is incredible in the estimation of any thinking being.”

“Thank you.” Six said for his team, and they were given an enthusiastic ovation by everyone there as they bowed first to Pakdag, and then to the gathering.

Fourth place was won by the team led by Prince Jaromer of Thon and composed of the elite of the elven race, along with select members from other races.  Third place was taken by a team led by Tithian and others of the Senate of The People of Morning, and included the elite of the other Xervian races from The Grand Council of Xervia, and a few from other races.  Second place went to the team of Somonik and some of The Ninety-Nine, with a few members from every other race.

Despite their diversity, each of those teams was dominated by the character of their leader, and of their leader’s race.  All three enjoyed strong support and good morale.  All three of their races were well-known to be devastating in warfare, which helped their popularity.  The elves and the unicorns were also globally popular and trusted due to their consistent records of just behavior and non-intervention with other races.  While dragons weren’t nearly as well-liked as those two races, Somonik’s personal appeal as a great leader with a record of many millions of years of just behavior, self-sacrifice, and wise decision-making overcame his team’s lesser overall popularity.

The close similarity in those three teams’ results were unsurprising once it was realized that they had played with very similar tactics and strategies.  All three had been among the most conservative and least aggressive teams, patiently building their capabilities and biding their time until the most opportune moments to strike.  In point of fact, they had all used the same strategy that The Kellaran-Triax Alliance actually planned to use against the demons in reality.  The differences in their command styles and abilities, and the differences in peoples’ response to them, were not great enough to make a significant difference to the outcome.

“Now, regarding the winning team; I do believe that a bit of suspense is in order.” Pakdag finally said with an uncharacteristically mischievous little chuckle as the great Revealing began diagramming and showing highlights of the best performance.

“The victory was convincing, comprehensive, and decisive.  Almost every criteria by which such a competition may be judged was swept by the winning team.

“As I’ve said; compared to all the rest of the teams, the best five were distinct in having much lower totals of friendly casualties and damage.  But even among the best five, the winning team stands out by having allowed only three-fifths of the casualties suffered under the second place team, which was led by Somonik. 

“The morale and spirit of our militaries and civilian populations were significantly better under the winning team than under any other leadership.

“The effectiveness of all our fighters and the productivity of our civilians were better under the victorious team than under any other.

“Your tournament champion’s performance allowed the least damage to our infrastructure and homes, and more was built during the performance than was destroyed, so we ended with more than we began with.

“Similarly, our champion allowed the least damage to the wilderness and waters of Kellaran, and more natural life was planted and sown by us in previously devastated or desert area than was destroyed by the demons over the same time.  Some of what the demons did destroy was already fully reclaimed even before they were defeated.  By this process of constant reclamation, our champion was prepared to deal with a lengthy demon-war on Kellaran while reducing the chance that the life of our world would be killed off around us by the demons before we finished fighting them.  Our victory in the winning scenario was swift enough that this precaution was unnecessary, but the point is still worth noting.

“That was one of the more common and surprising downfalls among the teams who suffered defeat, by the way; they allowed so much of the life of Kellaran to be killed off and poisoned while they were fighting the demons that our world became unsurvivable.  More of our mortal populations then died from poisoning or thirst or starvation than were killed by the demons.

“But during the finest of today’s performances our population actually grew, for more were born than were killed.

“The tournament-winning strategy was both cautious and aggressive, and involved waiting until the demons showed the first signs of readying to attack us.  Every possible moment was used to improve our forces before we acted, trusting that we were always improving our military capabilities more quickly than the demons were, and therefore every moment of delay before attacking them improved the probability that we would be victorious.  That was the cautious part.

“When our champion’s observers finally reported the first signs of the demons’ engagement preparations, the enemy were only some three million kilometers from Kellaran.  That is only twice as far as Elbin, our furthest moon.  At that point we were led against the demons in an all-out attack of absolute dedication and commitment.  All of our gods, all of the gods of The Triax, all of our vessels, all of The Triax vessels, all of our mortals, all of our power.  All were deployed against the demons in a simultaneous attack that was both the largest single deployment executed in the tournament, and one of most well-coordinated.  Nothing was held in reserve, absolutely nothing.  And that is aggressive indeed.  The demons were destroyed to the last within a month, three-quarters of them on the first day of hostilities, and only a meager portion of them ever made it to Kellaran.