Part 7: Cleopatra Jones and the Limitations of the Fatebinders

Cleopatra Jones and the Limitations of the Fatebinders

Last time on Tyranny, the goons overwhelmingly voted to let the rebels escape on the entirely defensible grounds of "Fuck the Archons". Now, while we shouldn't let the Archons breed in case their stupidity is genetic, the rebels' lives belong to Kyros. Today's going to be a shorter update because we have more decisions to make!



: Kyros ultimately brings order - why resist unity and prosperity?

We as players can recognize that Kyros' forces are a collection of fuckups deliberately kept weak because Kyros cannot inspire loyalty and has nothing to offer other than power over others. The Fatebinder, on the other hand, is either fully indoctrinated into the wonderful world of Kyros or really, really good at lying.



This is still the Bronze Age. The rebels are fighting for their homeland and thus in the right here, but they're not 100% good people. We've already covered how the only prisoners Eb was interested in were the presumably noble-born commanders, but these guys are a monarchy and the game never really covers how much power the Queen of Apex actually had. Peace as a cowardly dream for those with simplistic notions of the world is just as dangerous an ideology as "your life belongs to Kyros."



We're kind of getting our ass kicked.

: This insurrection is doomed to failure. Why throw away your lives?



This is somewhat true. In reality as soon as Cleo came into contact with the rebel forces the rebels crumpled. A hypothetically competent Kyrosian army could put down this rebellion fairly trivially and spread the propaganda that the rebels want war while Kyros wants peace. Unfortunately we are stuck with Ashe and Nerat.

: My goal is to gain your surrender without bloodshed.

: That is a commendable notion, but a tragically simple one at that. If any here could stomach life in the Chorus, or submission to a Disfavored work camp, that person already surrendered years back. The folks standing before you are the ones serious about our freedom.

If you needed confirmation the Archons fucking up the occupation directly caused this rebellion, here you go. The villagers don't have any great loyalty to the rebellion, they're just pleading for their lives at this point.



: Run. All of you, or you'll have to deal with my allies when they arrive in force.



: We've beaten their warriors and shamed the Captain aside her ancestral river. Never heard of winning graciously?

As much shit as I give Barik, he does have a point that letting an enemy commander go will screw us over in the long run.





: Yes, I mean it. Run before it's too late.



Alright, they're gone.



Oh goddammit you stupid incompetent asshole.

: Well done, Fatebinder. You bring honor to the Court with your valor. Antio slowly nods as he looks out across the village.



So the Scarlet Chorus is full of mind readers and I suspect lying is going to go worse for us.

: I let her go, told her to send warning to her friends that I'll be coming.



Bitter Quip concludes this is a smooth psyops operation and we're demoralizing the enemy.



What do you mean "we", Cleo had to bail out both of you stupid assholes.



You do realize this kind of shit is what started the rebellion in the first place?



This really shows what we're up against here. The IGN review of this game bitches about how the Fatebinder is supposed to be a powerful evil commander but has so few options. That's the point. The thread has been discussing how evil is structural and here we see that despite our merciful intentions our options are limited to razing the village or enslaving the villagers. When no one from the regime is watching we can do innovative things like letting the rebels go to build trust and get a future favor from a rebel commander, but now that these two assholes are here are forced into counterproductive violence that will make the locals more likely to rise against us.

Decisions Lie Before Us!

What are we doing to this village?