Part 69: Governor Boris and the Broken Captain
Governor Boris and the Broken CaptainLast time on Tyranny, we went to Lethian's Crossing for some powerups before meeting our Scarlet Chorus contact, who turned out to be a freaky Mengele dude that Sirin kept telling us not to trust. Today we're going to prove her right.

Sure, Sirin might have legitimate concerns, especially as she's worked with Nerat for so long, but our trustworthy friends in the Chorus love us! And if you can't trust the dude who decorates his camp with impaled corpses, who can you trust?

This obviously traumatized Disfavored prisoner? Nah.

Last time we were here we just tried to get information about the Dauntless. Today will be different.




Yeah, I'm not making portraits for these two idiots. The Sky Blade has a point, honestly, We'll come back to it in a bit.





Goddammit Barik! Stop shitting everything up with your idiot racism! Go back in the corner!












Literally no one in this game uses a halberd. The halberd was invented in the 14th century. This is the bronze age.

But...Kyros is omnipotent! She would never fuck her own armies over li - who am I kidding.


What Mattias doesn't know is that Nerat has no intention of ending the Edict.



There's a BIG flaw in Mattias' logic here. Can you spot it?



We go take him up on this immediately.


Irentis is the smartest guy in the room.

Sirin is being snarky, but Irentis is making the point she was making a few minutes ago.

Here's the problem with Mattias' logic - the rebels don't have the leverage to force Kyros to do anything. There is no guarantee they'll survive in the Scarlet Chorus, the Chorus is explicitly made of disposable troops led by an Archon Kyros already tried to kill once. The first thing we learn meeting Jagged Remedy is that he's an untrustworthy asshole. Nerat is especially untrustworthy, and he and Remedy explicitly are not going to give Mattias what he wants by breaking the Edict. Oh well!



At first glance Irentis seems like an insane fanatic, but Kyros has proved to the inhabitants of the Blade Grave like nowhere else that loyalty to the Overlord does not guarantee survival. Remember, we warned them about the Edict and they watched as Kyros primarily nuked her own followers. Yes, the status quo of the Tiers was absolutely terrible, but these guys gain absolutely nothing from surrendering to Kyros and lose everything.

It's not hard to see where Mattias is coming from either - Stalwart is suffering from the quintessential problem small states face against large colonizing empires, which is that the latter can draw more resources from outside the battlefield and throw them against the locals.


At this moment, Kyros has won. Remember, Kyros nuked the land - but Mattias has internalized Herodin's perceived betrayal so much that he's willing to sell out his homeland to the invaders, much like Lenin getting German help during World War I.
You also don't need the Chorus for this! Cleopatra proved it in the last run, the strength was in Stalwart all along.

Smartest guy in the room.


Considering that you're about to beg Nerat for patronage, I don't think you have a leg to stand on.



If only we had the option to have them swear to Tunon through us, but we only get that on the rebel route.




This is what Nerat wants the player character for. The Fatebinder is uniquely situated to provide a humanizing face for what, in reality, are a bunch of monsters who enjoy impaling people on sticks. If the Disfavored path is about disillusionment with the benign face of fascism, the Chorus path is a tale of the folly of thinking you can use evil means to achieve anything other than evil ends.





That makes these guys seem far more valuable than either Ashe or Nerat are willing to give them credit for.

That would allow peasants to kill Archons with enough refinement.




Shut up, Barik.









What do you think they plan to do with you? We opened with negotiating a surrender!



I...you realize what you said, right? You just gave Nerat permission to kill or torture you as he sees fit. Boris might not do that, but Nerat is a being who rose to fame for his skill at torturing people.



This means literally nothing, as we're about to reconscript them all anyway!


I accidentally click on Irentis on the way out.




He's not wrong with this argument either!



I missed that part about the "my studies", but wow, he really is just Dr. Mengele, isn't he?





Translation: Nerat loves this kind of shit, and if word got out that Jagged Remedy wasn't honoring it Remedy's ass would be on a spike.

The first option is if we want to indoctrinate them into the cruelty of the Chorus, a la the Spartan agoge.


I am suddenly really glad we iced this asshole in the Anarchy path.


Again, we are the velvet glove hiding a band of assholes that enjoy impaling people on spikes. Not all the Chorus members are like this, but much of the leadership is.



Irentis, understandably, is not going to stand for this.

The obvious question is, what happens when the Fatebinder's gone?







I mean, he's not wrong! Mattias just deluded himself that the Chorus would help him end the Edict, and we didn't correct him.




Again, Irentis isn't wrong! Mattias sold them all down the river to Nerat, and Irentis is completely correct when he points out the new Chorus members can expect only brutal treatment and probably death. That's the point of the institution.

Sirin realizes this as well.

It's Tyranny combat. They all die.




At least we can grab Dauntless.



You already submitted to Nerat back at camp, buddy.


Translation: forced to do war crimes to build loyalty via transgression.




What did you expect?

Mattias, having heard what he wanted to hear (while Sirin thinks we should not trust Remedy at all, and she's right), happily continues betraying his homeland for his own made up bullshit. What a hero!
TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
: Why are you here?
: I'm here delivering terms of surrender from the Scarlet Chorus.
: What? Why would we surrender to those wackos? They'll just put us on spikes?
: No, it's cool. Everything sucks and all my friends keep dying.
: Psst! Fatebinder! I gotta be a racist!
: Normally, we would never surrender, but I think it's time to surrender. I gotta live, and the Chorus can maybe end the Edict.
: Hey, if you let me into the camp, we can discuss you joining the Chorus.
: Sure, come on in! Hey, Irentis, wanna join the Chorus?
: Dude, WHAT THE FUCK????
: Lol do you guys just compare dicks all day?
: We're just gonna get killed out here!
: I'm sorry, I didn't realize that somehow joining Kyros, the tyrant who summoned a magical storm to kill his own men, was going to help us survive!
: The Chorus can help us kill the Regent!
: Fuck off!
: It is very sad. We keep taking horrific casualties and I do not know how we can achieve our goals. Perhaps if we joined a howling mob known for taking heavy losses, we would live longer. All we have going for us are the ability to fight on par with the Disfavored, and the explosives we recently invented that if we refined we could use to blow up mages and Archons. This sucks! Aside from those things, we're totally fucked! Anyway, I'm gonna swear allegiance to the Chorus now, so they can kill the Regent. I swear allegiance to the Voices of Nerat and I am his to throw in the dumpster as he sees fit. Can you get our prisoners released as a show of good faith?
: Sure. Hey, Remedy, release the prisoners, they swore to Nerat.
: Aww, man! I was going to build a combination of human centipede and Dickbutt! Fiiine, as Nerat will be mad if I don't.
: Cool. Everyone, we're in the Chorus now! Wooo!
: Dude, WHAT THE FUCK???? No! They're gonna kill us all. Everyone who doesn't want to die a slave, to me!
:
: Mr. Remedy, will you help me break the Edict?
: Go fuck yourself lol.
So we should take a good long think about what we're doing here. Nerat obviously plans for us to be the (false) face of a "kinder, gentler" Scarlet Chorus as seen in our recruiting of Mattias. Nerat also discards people he has no further need for by impaling them on spikes. As the Dictator's Handbook says, purge early and often!
There is no way this ends well.