Defeat The Godmodder

[Moniker]

OOC: Alright, the update's coming tomorrow, so until then, here's the next chapter of The Truth. I saw two votes for both Truth about Players and Truth about Godmodders, so a random.org roll says... Truth about Godmodders it is!

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Chapter 2: The Truth about Godmodders

Let's not waffle about. This is a chapter to get right to the point.

Godmodders were created as an act of pure cruelty by one of the forces governing Reality, Satan themselves. Imbued with his power, they gained the ability to use a large variety of incredibly annoying techniques, blocking or ignoring any attacks directed against them. First appearing in the copper ages, standard weaponry was (and arguably still is) utterly inadequate to fight them with. Players eventually arose as a "solution", but this chapter isn't about them.

The reason why Satan created the Godmodders was of course to cause more death and chaos. These monsters, which have existed for so long, serve no other purpose than to make the ordinary people - ordinary people like you and me - suffer. Though initially imbued with demonic power, that power changed over time, as it was passed down through the Protege system (more on this in a moment). Eventually, the power the Godmodders possessed was only linked to Hell, but was itself utterly unrecognizable from its original incarnation. For example, the very first Godmodder could only summon demonic entities, did you know that? And their only method of gaining HP was to kill a Player, send them to Hell, and hope Satan granted them a bit of extra power.

The greatest advancement made by the Godmodders was when, in an effort to gain full independence from Hell, Satan, and their various mechanisms, the sixteenth Godmodder created the Soul Orb. The Soul Orb was a way to capture the souls of dead Players without sending them to Hell. However, the soul would only be vulnerable for a brief moment upon death, and while the godmodder could capture the soul in that instant, they could not immediately subdue it enough to begin extracting power from it. So in order to begin power extraction, the godmodder needed to subdue the soul a second time. This was the sacrifice the Godmodders made - eternally fight every Player twice, sometimes even both a group within and without the orb at the same time - but in exchange, receive independence. Most Godmodders found the sacrifice to be worth it, and the power ceiling of Godmodders was raised to many times what it had been compared to relying on Satan.

The Godmodders' personality will often be unique at the beginning of any Godmodder's reign, but slowly become corrupted as time goes by. Some Godmodders started off with legitimately good intentions. One even decided to use their abilities to kill the main Godmodder, then kill themselves before they took a protege (discussed in a moment). However, that of course did not pan out. Good intentions never do. Power corrupts, and the incredible power of Godmodders corrupts incredibly. Godmodders always inevitably sink deeper and deeper into villainy, losing more and more of their humanity, as time goes on. This is partially attributable to the power Godmodders possess enabling them to stop caring, and partially attributable to power granted from Satan - however much it may change - always corrupting.

Even as Players defeat Godmodders, new ones appear. If we're lucky, we get a break of 20 years or so, but there's always new ones. This is due to the Protege system. Every Godmodder feels an itch to share their power with someone, whether they want to admit it or not. The longer they reign, the stronger this itch grows, until it ultimately becomes irresistible. Godmodders, when they are no longer capable of resisting, will seek out somebody to train, and eventually to imbue with their own godmodding powers. Then, eventually, either at the hands of Players or their own protege, the old Godmodder will die, and the "new" Godmodder becomes the "main" Godmodder, until they gain a protege of their own, and round and round the cycle goes...

The only conceivable way to really and properly stop the Godmodders is to end the Protege system, and kill off the current Godmodder's protege and then the Godmodder themselves, or kill off a Godmodder before they even take a protege. However, due to some infernal (or divine?) influence, this seems to be impossible. In my research, I have encountered no less than seventeen different opportunities the Players possessed to end the line of Godmodders forever, but - often for silly, inane reasons - the opportunity evaporated or was not taken, and so the protege was able to become the main Godmodder, and continue propagating the cycle of suffering.

Like it or not, the Godmodders seem to be here to stay, forever. Nothing can be done to stop them permanently. They will prevent humanity, or any other race, from truly advancing, forever.

Though the power level of individual Godmodders has varied by a vast margin, there is a general upward trend of Godmodder power level. This brings us to the current Godmodder, whose secret name I shall reveal to you now: Verraad. He has been alive for approximately 318 years, and spent most of that time attempting to expand control over the numerous Planes - but even with all that time, he only owns a mere ~10% of Reality. He has almost become a force on par with God or Satan, and as I pen this chapter, he currently stands as the greatest single threat to Reality itself - but of course, more on this in the last chapter.

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Do you have a particular preference for the next chapter?

The Truth: Table of Contents

1: The Truth about Players
3: The Truth about Entities
5: The Truth about Arbiters
6: The Truth about the Architects, God, and Satan
7: The Truth about Reality
8: The Truth about Verraad (Author's note: Read this chapter last!)

 

[Moniker]

Chapter 1: The Truth About Players

Players are just as bad as Godmodders.

Players were originally created by God, as a counterpart and counter to Godmodders (more on them in the next chapter). It may be inaccurate to say that Players were created, so much as that Player powers were created. However, for the purposes of brevity, we shall say that God created Players. The Players' powers are a direct reflection of God's power, and so are, supposedly, "good". But can they really be called good?

The Players, supposedly, have an opposite powerset to Godmodders. However, in practice, their powers are remarkably similar - each of them can do as they please, and command incredible might. Few goals are out of reach to Players, as all they have to do is will what they desire to occur. A Player could easily destroy a Plane singlehandedly, so long as they did not run out of creative solutions to the problems they faced.

The Players do have one major restriction that could prevent the above scenario from occurring. They lose their powers if they spend too long away from the Godmodder. This restriction was likely (I do not know for certain) added by God to prevent precisely what I describe from playing out. But even within their key confines of "needing to be near the Godmodder", their is still plenty of potential for mayhem.

Players fight their battle by using various attacks. And these attacks need to be consistently novel, otherwise the Curse of Repetitiveness (try as I might, I have yet to discern all of the mysteries relating to that curse) will inhibit their potential for success. Let's look at an example of one possible attack:

"I call upon the aid of the entire universe of Energons. These Energons are being of pure energy. I then throw every Energon into a laser pulse cannon to charge it up, and fire the beam at the godmodder."

Attacks like these are used all the time. Now... let me ask you the critical question:

Did the Energons here always exist? Or did the attack create the Energons in a state of having always existed?

I have long searched for the answer, and found none. Players will describe entire backstories, outline entire worlds, make new people and characters, and they will all be totally real and have always existed, but also will... not be real, in a sense. This has Reality in a sort of state where there are numerous unresolved plotlines, unresolved universes, unresolved characters, began by Players (whether due to the deaths of the Players in question - or the Players simply forgot), that have their own histories and should still exist, but just... don't... move. I have observed many of these Player-created things, and after a while, they get... stuck. Frozen. Many are hidden in the dark forgotten corners of Reality, like memories of an imaginary friend you forgot about long ago.

And, of course. There are at least 12 universes of eternal suffering, which use the pure pain of billions of being to power some weapon or another, kicking around. Most likely more.

Player powers are bestowed by God himself. Because of that, Players have the power to create. But they lack God's omnipotence and (alleged) benevolence, and so often lack the ability to (or decide not to) resolve.

There are so very many traces and things left behind. The war between Players and Godmodder has gone on for thousands of years, and to clean up everything left in its wake would be a truly impossible undertaking.

For more talk on the implications of autonomous things created by Players, please see "The Truth about Entities". But, back to the greater argument - to really see the issue here, we must also consider the demographics of Players. ANYBODY can be a Player. However, becoming a Player almost invariably means losing your life, and you probably won't see your loved ones again. Such a high-risk profession generally drives away most upstanding people. You're also likely to be broadcasted to the world on TV, and there have been plenty of nervous breakdowns for a very large audience to enjoy. This leaves the remaining willing Players as a mix of adrenaline junkies, power trippers, and whoever else is desperate enough to sacrifice their lives for a chance at glory. Most Players are not what you'd call "good people".

As Players fight the Godmodder, appearing to be "normal people" "just like you and me", most people are inclined to root for Players, and see this fight as the "heroic" Players versus the "villainous" Godmodder. I, however, see it differently. I see it as a battle between the uncaring and the actively malevolent, two superpowered forces, with everything and everyone else "normal" caught between them.

There will always be more Players. It is unlikely that Godmodders will every fully and truly suppress Reality without destroying it entirely. However, the chain of succession of Godmodders is not guaranteed - again, more on this in the next chapter.

But if Players ever do prevail, and find a way to keep their powers without need for a Godmodder - we will surely find ourselves just as, if not more, oppressed by them than we ever were by the Godmodders.

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Remaining Chapters:

3: The Truth about Entities
5: The Truth about Arbiters
6: The Truth about the Architects, God, and Satan
7: The Truth about Reality
8: The Truth about Verraad (Author's note: Read this chapter last!)

 

[Moniker]

Chapter 3: The Truth about Entities

"Entities" is a very broad term. "entities", of course, refer to a lot of things, but this chapter discusses capital-E "Entities" - the constructs made by Players. And constructs are what they are. Player powers originate from God's powers, which gives the Players the power to create life. But often, the life they create is twisted or incomplete, and usually it ends up dead before too long.

These entities can have any number of traits. Players can and do imbue them with personality, desires, fears, hatred... whatever they please. Sometimes Entities will possess full human-equivalent intelligence (attempts to make above-human intelligence often have odd results), sometimes they will really be mindless drones - or actual robots. Whatever the case, Entities generally can't exist apart from their Players. If their Player disappears or goes idle, the Entity will often continue performing the rote tasks it once did, and gradually lose whatever personality it was at one point projected upon by their Player. Unless, that is, another Player takes the Entity under their wing - in which case, the Entity will then change personality gradually to match the desires of their new Player!

Now, there are exceptions to this. Sometimes, rarely, Entities will cross a sort of boundary, and gain sentience. This generally results in them attempting to gain independence from their old Player master (occasionally this involves bloodshed), and gaining the capability to truly act under their own initiative as their own being, even in the absence of any Player at all.

Now, there are two main factors that play into an entity gaining sentience. They are:

1: The time the Entity has been alive (Longer is better)
2: The relative strength of the Entity (Stronger is better)

If an Entity achieves a great amount of both these factors, then their chance of gaining sentience rises exponentially. Even then it's not guaranteed - attempts on the part of the creating Player to force an Entity to become sentient ironically seem to reduce the chance of this occurring. Meanwhile, many Entities who fulfill both of these conditions but fail to gain Sentience reach a midpoint - they grow more set in their ways and more capable of achieving their original directives, but do not gain the ability to truly adapt to new situations or rise beyond them.

The most interesting result is when an Entity becomes a Player themselves. Sadly (or maybe thankfully), this has only occurred a handful of times throughout the history of the Player/Godmodder war, and so the potential for self-propagating Player armies remains unlikely to be seized. The most recent example of this is the Peacekeepers, who are absolutely fascinating - their leader, Quinn, has managed to gain sentience and become a full Player, and many of his subordinates believe that they have gained sentience (though they have not really done so) and Quinn has essentially become their new "master" Player. What becomes of them remain to be seen, and may never be seen when Verraad obliterates Reality.

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Remaining Chapters:

5: The Truth about Arbiters
6: The Truth about the Architects, God, and Satan
7: The Truth about Reality
8: The Truth about Verraad (Author's note: Read this chapter last!)

 

[Moniker]

Chapter 5: The Truth about Arbiters

Before the Architects passed away (Chapter 6), they realized they would need some manner of successor. After all, what other way could the massive number of incredibly powerful forces in Reality be kept in check, to ensure none grew to critical mass? So, before they died for good, the Architects appointed 5 people to a specific task: The Arbiters. They were Farrah, Moniker, and three others.

Their job was simple. Great battles, wars, activities of all the stronger forces in Reality, would be watched over by them. For example, the Godmodder vs. Player war generally always had two Arbiters assigned to watch over it, at least at the start. They were to no group gained power potent enough to threaten all Reality, and that no one singular entity gained a monopoly on all power. They did not have absolute power, certainly - but enough to make them a formidable check on anyone who did wish to gain absolute power.

The specific power of the Arbiters was variable. The Architects installed a lever on the Administrative Terminal meant to control the Arbiter's power - it went from 0 to 100%, and they set it to 20% initially. At 100%, the Arbiters would have power almost equivalent to the fully alive Architects. At 0%, the Arbiters would be able to do absolutely nothing but observe, and not give any nudges in any either side's favor. In addition, the life energy that keeps the Arbiters alive is drawn using their power - if the lever were set to 0% for too long, then the Arbiters would slowly run out of this energy and eventually would perish.

In addition, the Arbiters were also given a limited number of emergency overrides, for if they made a mistake and things reached a point from which there may have been no recovery. The Architects knew there needed to be some way to make adjustments after they were gone, in the event of an emergency. The lever and emergency overrides were their answer.

Once the Architects had perished, the Arbiters were all initially eager to fulfill their duties. As time went by, their styles of governance over their wars became more unique and pronounced. Moniker adopted a policy of interfering as little as possible, Farrah tried to do good where they could (with varying results) and the other three, more and more, simply did as they pleased, uncaring of the consequences.

Eventually, their differences came to a head. The three villainous Arbiters conspired behind the backs of Moniker and Farrah, eventually forming their own council. They used majority vote to override Moniker and Farrah in all collective decisions, and ultimately, declared their goals to all Reality: They believed themselves to be Reality's best and only masters! They wanted to increase Arbiter Power to 100%, and oust Moniker and Farrah. They named themselves the "New Architects" - a willing defamation of the former memory of the Architects!

And so a long and bloody war began - the Arbiter War. Many armies from all parts of Reality rose up against the New Architects, and set out to overthrow them! The battles were intense - often, they were not fought between two armies, but rather, between one army and simple objectives, made nearly impossible by the New Architects' abuse of their own influence. Moniker and Farrah attempted to push circumstances towards their own side, while the New Architects attempted to destroy Moniker and Farrah's allies in any way they could. In a moment, millions would die, and in the next moment, millions would be saved. Regardless, the ultimate death toll numbered in the tens of millions.

The war was three on two. After everything, the situation seemed to be in favor of the New Architects. But then, a miracle happened - for one of the very few times in all Reality (and of those times, this was the most major), the Godmodders and Players managed to set aside their differences for entire days to wage war against a common foe. They came to the support of Moniker and Farrah, broke into the Arbiter plane, and finally brought the New Architects to their knees. They were slain without mercy, and, as a final punishment - had their very names scrubbed from history. This seems to have been entirely successful, as not even I have found their true names.

In the aftermath, Moniker and Farrah agreed to a reduction in Arbiter power to 5%, and a reduction in their number of Emergency Overrides. Now there were only two Arbiters, and they spent most of their time on the Godmodder/Player war. Moniker continued his non-interference policy, but Farrah grew more zealous. She very ardently took the side of the Players, and made it her mission to eliminate Godmodders and finally allow the Players to win. Some were concerned, but - the Godmodders were the "evil" ones, after all. So nobody really did anything about it. Until, of course, the current fighting Godmodder had had enough, broke into the Arbiter plane once again, and butchered Farrah - her power at only 5%, she couldn't last long enough for the Players to arrive and assist, even with Moniker's help.

The Arbiter power was changed again, to 10%, where it stayed. Moniker, now alone, was resigned to spend the rest of Eternity overseeing the Godmodder/Player war.

Of course, the Arbiter War and Farrah's death is in the past. It is no longer directly relevant to the current ongoing war. However, it is still useful to consider it as a demonstration, and as context. As a demonstration, it clearly displays how these grand, ruling forces can be twisted oh-so-easily into obscenely destructive harbingers of doom. If the New Architects had won, we would all likely live much darker lives than we already do. And as context, it explains Moniker's failure, as he allowed himself to continue to grow more and more apathetic.

Moniker has failed at his job. In his lack of oversight, a certain someone has been allowed to grow far beyond any power level the Architects ever intended, threatening Reality directly. But, of course... maybe it's not all bad. (See Chapters 7 and 8.)

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Remaining Chapters:

6: The Truth about the Architects, God, and Satan
7: The Truth about Reality
8: The Truth about Verraad (Author's note: Read this chapter last!)

(OOC: There's only a handful of chapters left now, so no more need to vote. You'll read the last chapters in order.

 

[Moniker]

Chapter 6: The Truth about the Architects, God, and Satan

In the beginning... there was nothing. And then, there was the Planes. That's what we were told.

I believe that in the beginning... there was something. What exactly, I don't know. And I'm not sure anybody else does, either. Whatever it was, we can only see its aftermath - The Reality we have today, with its odd interlocking systems of afterlives and greater forces vying for control. We don't know how it came to be, only that it is here.

As far as great ruling forces go, there are three "tiers" of gods. First you have the minor gods. They each govern some minor aspect of Reality, number in the many thousands, and hold some amount of power. Above them are the major gods, each part of some type of pantheon - the Roman gods, the Greek gods, the Egyptian gods, etc. And above them still, the Deities, or Capital-G type Gods. There are two, maybe three, included in this category: Satan and God himself. Satan is less powerful than God, but a direct fight would at least leave Him significantly wounded. And Satan possesses other ways of dissuading potential attacks.

Alongside them is Evacucorp, which is an interesting case. All my studies into them have revealed that, if anything, the bureaucracy itself is the God-equivalent. The chain of command, managers, managers-of-managers, and assistants-to-managers-of-managers, appears to continue upwards forever. Presumably Reality has only a finite amount of space to store their corner offices in, so my current hypothesis is that the chain of command is a giant circle. However, there is no need to waste any more time discussing them. To conclude: The three powerful forces each control three afterlives, and after a brief life, each soul is shuffled into its designated category. Eternal reward, eternal drudgery, or eternal punishment.

The question of why this system of life and afterlife exists... I have not been able to find the answer. I suspect there is none.

But, onto something else. The Architects. For the purposes of saving on ink expenses, I will decline to write their names in the honorary magenta ink for the rest of this chapter. The Architects most likely did not create this universe. I believe that to be a reasonable assumption, as the First Architect did not come to be until after Reality had already started.

The Architects were somewhat secretive with their identities. They had several names, but I have been unable to find the exact number of them - they were almost never all in one place. The First Architect was unique - it was her job to appoint and lead the other Architects. Where she got her powers is a complete mystery, an enigma lost to time. She may well be the only one who ever knew. Perhaps it was whatever greater force created Reality, if any. But that is only idle speculation.

In any case, she used her powers to appoint several sentient beings as Architects, bestowing upon them incredible powers, significantly greater than those possessed by God and Satan. The Architects chosen came from many species within Reality (the overall group was still primarily human) and many walks of life, but all of them were strong people of character, with a wealth of life experience, and were generally not chosen until they had neared the end of their ordinary lifespan. All were given a choice between a natural death or abandoning what was left of their life to do something greater.

The Architects generally took a policy of non-interference, opting not to establish some dystopian utopia but rather to maintain the systems governing Reality, as well as create new ones. Its possible they created Evacucorp, but - I only have shreds of evidence to go on, and I can't make that claim with complete confidence. They definitely did create the system of major and minor gods, acting underneath Satan and God proper. The Architects are the reason behind almost every aspect of Reality functioning in the way that it does. For a time, all was well.

However, eventually, new Architects had stopped being promoted. The First Architect was quite happy with the current group, and saw no reason to bring in new voices. Over time, after thousands of years of peaceful rule (granted, an extremely passive rule), the Architects saw only one thing amongst their ranks: Stagnation. They saw the vast number of systems they had appended to Reality, and knew that to add anything more would simply restrict the natural growth each of the species within the Planes sought. So they came to a decision. They would die.

They knew that they were currently sane. They knew this because they could see that they were declining. They knew their power was absolute, and that in an eternity of existence, it was only a matter of time before one of them, or all of them, grew too evil, or too foolish, or too controlling, and then the average denizens of Reality wouldn't have a chance. The Architects had no critical soul weakness. To appoint new Architects and allow old ones to die off would only be to kick the inevitable problem down the road.

And so for the next several hundred years they planned and created. They upgraded the Administrative Terminal within the Administrative Plane, and added functions that ordinary denizens of Reality could potentially use in the event of a true emergency. They appointed Arbiters, essentially much weaker versions of themselves, who could still provide a portion of their guidance and balance. They scattered the Set of Seven, keys that could be gathered if society ever needed to use that power again. They tried to set things up as well as possible for when they eventually passed.

When they did go, it was a little like a grandfather passing away after a tearful goodbye, and a little like a suicide. There were no blazes of glory, but rather, they simply chose to lift their own powers that kept their youth intact and prevented aging. From there, a natural death followed at a decent pace.

Once they were gone, a lack of oversight caused the other forces within Reality to get a little antsy. It was not too long after that when the first Godmodder and first Player appeared.

The Architects were one of the few greater powers to approach legitimate benevolence. There is a part of me that is sad to have never lived in a time while they were alive. There is another part of me that cannot help but agree with their conclusion. If they had decided to live, they would have become corrupt, and we may well be on a path to a Reality even worse than the one we live in now. For thousands of years now, they have been dead. And perhaps its time for everything else to go with them.

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Remaining chapters:

7: The Truth about Reality
8: The Truth about Verraad (Author's note: Read this chapter last!)

 

[Moniker]

Chapter 7: The Truth about Reality

From the beginning to the end, Reality has always been under the thumb of forces almost too powerful to comprehend. Various classes of gods, and their various afterlife systems, organizations and cycles - if they aren't actively against you, they are, at best, uncaring. Even our defenders, the Players, have little reason to save our world other than whatever sense of justice they may or may not possess. And of all the powerful forces out there - they're arguably one of the best!

Even beyond the things mentioned in this book, there is more still. The Corporation enslaves its workers, squeezing resources out of Plane after Plane in a cycle as endless as it is pointless. One of its rare competitors, the Bank of Actions, seeks to enslave powerful beings into crippling debt for equally absurd reasons. The full implications of even one of the beings mentioned in these chapters could fill countless books of philosophy and speculation. For example, I call upon the Players once again: Should they so choose, if they deem it necessary to fight the Godmodder, they could erase one person from existence, along with all evidence they had ever existed, including the memories other people had of them. Maybe this has already happened. Maybe you, reader, had a former friend, or a brother, or a partner who was erased in this manner already. There would be no way to know. And this is only one example of the terrifying possibilities of all that we are up against.

In the face of this, we see a truth - THE Truth:

Our actions don't matter. Everything is either guided by or undone by forces with little (if any) oversight, and no concern for us. I wrote this book to illustrate this Truth. Humans, and all the various sentient species of the many Planes - all of them are held captive, with all of Reality's physical power in the hands of only a select few.

However, despite this - despite the ironclad absoluteness of our collective plight - there is one hope.

Please read the next chapter.

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Next: The Truth about Verraad

 

[Moniker]

The Truth: Final Chapter: The Truth about Verraad

Several hundred years ago, the previous Godmodder - Arielle - was slain. Shortly after, a new Godmodder appeared to take her place: Verraad. While the exact circumstances surrounding his ascension (descension?) are shrouded even to me, I do know this much.

Godmodder lifespans generally average several years each. Some of the longest-lived godmodders of the past reached 50 years. Meanwhile, on the shorter end, some Godmodders had only lasted several months - or several minutes, in one case. Verraad was different. He proved exceptionally resistant to the Players' efforts to kill him, and significantly more dangerous than the numerous Godmodders that came before.

One reason for this was Verraad's unique approach. Many Godmodders began with some grand ideal, particularly if they were a former Player. Often, they would begin by making peace with their former Player group and promising to do better. Then, when the Players were no longer around, the Godmodders would inevitably get into a fight again as Godmodderhood warped them and their ideals into monsters. Other Godmodders were driven by an extremely specific goal; Often revenge. Inevitably, things would get out of hand, and the new Godmodder would become a shadow of their former selves and need to be put down by Players. Verraad, again, was different. He had a goal loftier than any of the others. He desired to reshape Reality itself into something different, something new. To do this, immediately from the start, he set out to conquer Reality.

His initial strategy was to start in some of the less populated Planes and conquer them with overwhelming force, thus gaining a solid power base he could use when Players inevitably came calling. This worked at first, but fell apart eventually as word of his existence spread fast. Nonetheless, this is likely how Verraad avoided getting crushed early on; he only had to deal with small groups of Players at the start, and he was able to get significant entity production/control going quickly.

From there, he gradually moved to bigger and bigger targets. But, eternally, he had one major thorn in his side; the Players. More and more came, and the majority seemed to be coming from one place: Earth. Verraad began to focus more and more on Earth, invading it with various armies from the Planes he controlled, in hopes of subjugating Earth and thus stymieing the eternal tide of Players eager to sacrifice themselves for his destruction. Even as he gained more power, and approached the 300-HP mark previously unheard of for any Godmodder, Earth proved itself impossible to completely conquer. As one of the most technologically advanced Planes (if lacking in magic), and one of the most populous, Earth proved resistant to complete subjugation. Any time Verraad got close, more Players would appear to stop him, and while Verraad certainly slaughtered millions upon millions, he never was able to finish the job.

As the years flew by, Verraad switched tactics. He left Earth to begin attempting to conquer more Planes, hoping that with more support, he could one day return to Earth. Of course, the Players simply followed him, and the people of Earth would not forgive or forget the destruction the Godmodder had wrought. Nonetheless, he proved somewhat successful in bringing some Planes under control. But before long, he experienced the problem that all of history's great conquerors inevitably faced; the bigger the empire, the easier it is to lose pieces of it - particularly in the exceedingly power-centralized dictatorships Verraad established. Always being busy fighting Players, and using his spare time to conquer more, the Godmodder was utterly unable to tend to civil matters, and control the majority of his empire. Whether due to Players going on sidequests, rebellions, or simple slow collapse and replacement, the Godmodder was only ever able to conquer 40% of Reality (the populated Planes) at his height. From there, his empire fluctuated between 25% and 40%, never going higher. There was simply too much to be conquered the regular way.

After a few hundred years of pain, suffering, death, and seemingly endless bloodshed, Verraad was beginning to realize that if things continued, he would never conquer Reality. There would always be more Players - there was only one him.

And so he devised a new plan. What if - instead of conquering Reality slowly and painfully - he simply deleted all that was there, and began again? To make... "Reality 2"?

This was the insight that resulted in him switching focus to acquiring the Legendary weapons. He returned to Earth, and began waiting for the perfect Player group. One competent enough to do his legwork, yet gullible enough to be tricked into gathering the weapons unwittingly. The Players would pursue him wherever he went, and if he collected the Legendary weapons directly, ever more of Reality's controlling forces would appear to try and stop him - but to have Players collect the weapons for him? That would be much easier...

And once he had the Legendary Weapons, he could initiate the Evacuation Directive. When the 5 resulting Tribulations were complete, Reality would be entirely in one place. Once there, Reality could be destroyed easily, in one fell swoop. The suffering and subjugation would end. The massive system of things left behind, overpowering controlling forces, and hopelessness would be dismantled in an instant.

We can't know what will replace it. We can never know. But we can be sure of one thing: It will be far, far better than the hopeless Reality that is today.

And that is why I stand with Verraad. In exchange for my help and assistance with a very specific task, he allowed me to use his name in this book. There is no longer any point in secrecy. His plan will succeed, and a new, better Reality will replace this one. Some of you may disagree, but this Reality can't be saved. This is the only way. The Godmodder must NOT be stopped. That... is The Truth.

Thank you for reading.

(To the Players - I'll be seeing you shortly.)

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This concludes The Truth.

 

[Moniker]

As you open the book, you feel as though this knowledge is even more forbidden and secret than all the rest. The tone is somehow different from the other Truth chapters. Did the Writer even write this? You should ask him.

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The Truth about JOEbob

Once upon a time, a long long time ago... there was nothing.

And then... there was rational debate.

And thus the great and terrible force known as JOEbob came into being. JOEbob is something like a person, and a little more like a force of nature. During most periods of time within Reality, there would be one JOEbob in existence. If that JOEbob were to die, then a new one would surely come into being - like reincarnation. JOEbobs were known for accomplishing many things, both great and terrible - but mostly, boring.

Now, this cycle of incarnations continued for some time, and JOEbob increasingly became a headache for those in charge. While each incarnation of JOEbob did not retain memories of the previous, they appeared to be growing more powerful, more aggravating, more unreasonably reasonable, with each subsequent appearance. One JOEbob had at this time just finished a very long and brutal rule as Godmodder. His rule was long, but not because he was great at killing Players - rather, it was because nobody wanted to be a Player and fight him. To be a Player and challenge the JOEmodder's reign meant that you would have to pick through JOEbob's essay-length actions. And he would relentlessly debate anyone who contradicted him, often putting up 10, no, 20 counterpoints to everyone who contradicted him on anything! If someone out there was found to disagree with him, they would find their mail filled with letters containing stacks upon stacks of papers listing reasons why they were wrong, their Discord PMs would always number in the thousands, the size of their unread messages in their e-mail inboxes would septuple...! And each of these messages had to be responded to (and those responses would be responded to themselves), otherwise, that would be like admitting that you were wrong, and revealing yourself as an unreasonable person - and THAT would be like letting the JOEbob win!

Soldiers drafted to be Players would rather be executed for treason. Students to the Player academies worldwide had an almost 100% dropout rate when learning just how fearsome JOEbob was, and new students stopped signing up. For a while, it seemed JOEbob's reign would go uncontested. Then, one day, in order to dodge an attack from an automatic entity, JOEbob used logic and reason to temporarily convince himself he was dead. He did it so well that he became permanently dead, and so JOEbob's reign as Godmodder was over. That was a mistake, and not one JOEbob would make again.

Now, over the next few years (the expected interim time period between JOEbob incarnations) many of the people in power on Earth agreed that steps should be taken to prevent this from ever happening again. Many laws and regulations were put in place restricting JOEbobs. JOEbobs were not allowed to have jobs, be in public schools, or to eat food. To violate these ordinances would grant the government authority to immediately throw the offending JOEbob in jail. But it was not enough, for the world had yet to even scratch the surface of the true horror of JOEbob.

One fateful day, a mother delivered a baby in the hospital. However, an expected occasion quickly turned sour when the doctor recognized the child... muttering "no... no..." he opened his doctor training manual to the right page. The provided pictures confirmed it: The horribly horribly ugly features of the baby's face could only be JOEbob's! The doctor pulled out the machine gun next to his medical implements, stored for just this purpose, and turned it on JOEbob. But then, the baby opened its mouth-

I really must say, there is really no reason to resort to violence here. Logically, you have no reason to be scared of me, as I am just a child. From that perspective, the only correct option for you to take is to set the gun down, so we can consider this reasonably-

Realizing that this world would soon no longer be worth living in, the doctor turned the machine gun on himself, with the mother following shortly afterwards. As the baby JOEbob crawled out the hospital doors, the rest of the hospital staff cowering in a corner in fear, he turned his little baby eyes to the beautiful day outside, the innocent pedestrians unaware of his plans... and some small glimmer of memory from the JOEbobs before told him, with absolute certainty, that he must make this world his.

And so he began. First, he walked into a nearby restaurant, and used logic and reason to convince the owner to hand over the restaurant to him. The owner agreed just to make JOEbob stop talking. From there, he couldn't be stopped. He approached local low-level government bureaucrats and convinced them to make priority appointments with those higher up the chain. Shortly after, the bureaucrats quit their jobs and entered into therapy to recover from the pain of being in the same room as JOEbob. Once in the meetings, JOEbob sat there and filibustered them for hours, days at a time, physically blocking the exit to the office, as the officials tried to shrink into a corner and become invisible, to little avail. More than one burst into tears and cried for their mother.

Through this method, JOEbob consolidated more and more power. Any time someone stood up in opposition, JOEbob would pay them a person visit to present to them a logical and reasonable argument why he should not be opposed. The former opposer would be dragged away screaming in a straitjacket hours later. The larger news organizations presented a more significant problem of public opinion, but this was easily overcome as well. JOEbob created JOEbob Media Industries(tm) which employed the interesting tactic of writing JOEbob's debate points on every available surface, everywhere. Newspapers spouting anti-JOEbob opinions would have JOEbob's opaque counterarguments scribbled all over them, as well as the stand from which the newspaper could be purchased from, and every wall of every building in the city in which that newspaper was printed.

By the age of 7, JOEbob had finally overthrown the government of the small european country in which he had been born, and from there he began his work on the rest of Earth. Foreign diplomats often committed suicide if the leaders ordered them to attempt to debate with JOEbob on the matter of whether or not he should rule over their country - to listen to JOEbob speak was a fate far worse. When there were no foreign diplomats left and JOEbob paid a surprise visit to the leader's personal chambers to have a reasonable discussion on country ownership, they did not stand a chance. The leaders abdicated and fled, giving JOEbob the country - and any rebellions could of course be talked down in the same way. Democratic or totalitarian, no country could stand against him.

In a historic moment, viewers on live TV watched as the head of government in Greenland, the last free nation on Earth, began negotiations with JOEbob. At the middle of the debate, the head of government pulled out a gun and attempted to shoot JOEbob. JOEbob managed to argue the bullet into curving away from him, and seeing this, the head of government blew out his own brains before JOEbob could launch into his next 37 hours of pre-prepared talking points. And so, the entirety of Earth was brought under JOEbob's rule.

Now 14, JOEbob began making significant changes. Every profession except for Lawyer was abolished. Currency was abolished as well - you were expected to rationally debate shopkeepers into giving you goods for free. Introverts died by the millions. As the situation rapidly descended into a hellscape, and JOEbob Media Industried(tm) spread the message that the current state of affairs was not just good, it was far better than any before it, the surviving intellectuals and underground leaders realized that if nothing was done, then the chance to do something would slip away forever.

And so a grand plan was hatched. 100 of the world's very best philosophers, christian apologists, scientists, Buddhist monks, and intellectuals would be gathered to face off with JOEbob one last time in the ultimate debate. It would be a final stand for all that was good in the world - that is to say, just about everything EXCEPT rational debate. If they could win a debate against JOEbob, as nobody in the history of Reality had ever done before, then perhaps there was hope things could be brought back to normal!

The group assembled. They trained for months, listening to JOEbob's arguments and speeches, discussing various strategies they could use. For once, there was some hope. Perhaps, perhaps, they could win...!

And so, having prepared well, they gathered before JOEbob on one fateful morning, and challenged him to a debate on the state of the world. They claimed that if they won, then JOEbob must allow them to take over as a group of world leaders, where they could then turn things back to the way they were! JOEbob, descending from the heavens on a floating podium, formally accepted, and then immediately launched into a tirade, hardly giving the 100 a chance to speak! They quickly recovered, and began their counterarguments!

For 14 days, the debate continued. For most of it, the debate team was on the defensive, spending far too much time countering JOEbob's arguments to get in much of their own. Each sentence, no, each word that JOEbob spoke created 50 new points that each needed to be addressed individually, and each one was wrong, nonsensical, such a weak argument that a child could refute it, and yet there were so many of them - ! The debate team dropped like flies. On the dawn of the fifteenth day, only 8 remained, the rest having either fled, lost their sanity, or leapt off a nearby cliff to their deaths.

The remaining 8 were beleaguered. When there were more debate members, they could operate in large teams, with each team taking breaks as needed for sleep, restroom, and food. JOEbob himself needed none of those things. If he ever got hungry or thirsty, he would simply take a moment to use logic and reason to convince himself he was well-fed. With only a handful remaining, each looking to be on the verge of collapse, it seemed as though it would be impossible to prevail.

And then, in a moment of great heroism that would go down in history, one of the debaters dragged themselves to the front, pulled out a megaphone, and simply began yelling.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

JOEbob's argument was interrupted. He attempted to begin again, but the debater simply continued.

Now good sir, as we were discussing regarding the food situation. While the death of introverts may appear sad, since you did not say that it was sad, and only used the ambiguous term "monstrous", it can only be concluded that you meant you yourself were monstrous-

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

-And frankly, I'm astonished you'd take such a callous position to their deaths. Furthermore, the obvious correct response is not to re-institute currency, but rather-

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

-to replace all forms of education, from preschool to high school, with education on rational debate only-

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

It was no use. Nothing JOEbob said could be heard.

The screaming continued for hours and hours, until the man perished of heat exhaustion. And for a brief moment, JOEbob was silent, stunned - and so it was that day, for the first time in all known and unknown history, that JOEbob was defeated in a debate.

JOEbob immediately became crippled with self-doubt. So much self-doubt that his heart doubted its own ability to pump blood, and no amount of half-hearted rational debate could convince it again. That day, the JOEbob perished of a heart attack.

From then on, things went back to normal, and even improved. Those in charge had learned many valuable lessons, and in many democratic countries, presidental debates were replaced with screaming competitions in honor of the heroic debater. Most people couldn't tell the difference. But more importantly, many internationally and inter-plane backed agencies were established, lended blank-check budgets and entire Planes with which to operate from, staffed with thousands of highly intelligent people, and all dedicated to one purpose: Making sure JOEbob accomplished as little as possible. Although there were many, many, many years in between that incarnation of JOEbob and the current incarnation (the Player you're fighting with now!), those agencies still exist, and are more powerful than ever. They will eternally strive to make JOEbob's life harder, and identify and track down new JOEbob incarnations as fast as they pop up.

And now you know the Truth.

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OOC: This is, of course, a massive joke. But it also now canon, and the explanation for the conspiracy against JOEbob with the anti-JOEbob agencies.