Chapter 197
Part 27
Pakdag went on to discuss and disy their showing in more detail, then announced the next cing.
“In tenth ce; the team led by Empress Emeroth of Verzaclon!” Pakdag dered.
Hisments to her were; “As was the case with thest team, your performancergely defined the
best of your race to the rest of us. Though your team was notposed of giants exclusively, and
yours was not the only team with giants among their leaders, we consider your performance to
exemplify the epitome of Shiganzhu leadership. You also prove the worth of meritocracy, and of
deciding leadership by tournament, which you have faced on numerous asions. As you said at the
first Assembly of The Just Alliance, there are others who have ced higher, but you have proved that
you could lead us to victory, and do it well.”
Much to the surprise of almost everyone there, the ninth ce was taken by a team led by Most
Respected Grandfather, of the Southernmost.
“Yours is a race that is still almostpletely unknown to the rest of Keran,” Pakdag told the great,
sleek, many-tentacled mollusk. “It is therefore somewhat surprising that they would follow you as
fervently as they did during your test. But yours was by far the most transparent leadership in the
tournament; you became known for making calm, well-reasoned decisions, and for exining to
everyone at every opportunity exactly what was going on in the war, in every way. You exined every
decision to the public, and they all felt that they understood what was going on with the war, and what
was being asked of them, and why, at every stage of the conflict. This led to good morale and
exceptional confidence in your leadership.”
Just as surprisingly, eighth ce was won by First Expeditionary Zoobweeb, (roughly tranted), of the
Kag. The venerable fish and his people’s somewhat spiritual concept of warfare as an art form had
been very popr 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 theirmander, Keran had
waged a horrific war with the demons whilergely maintaining a strangely detached serenity.
Seventh ce went to Zarkog. There was little cheering as he appeared on the stage to ept his
presentation, and he seemed uncharacteristically subdued.
“Zarkog, you began this tournament as a mortal, and finished it as one of us; a god, and of the new
style. There is no doubt that you were the single most capable mortal on Keran, 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 everymand 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
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among everyone else, the most popr pastime during your tenure wasining about you in
humorous terms.
“You were one of the teams that were most aggressive, attacking immediately as soon as you had the
authority tomand it. You were one of only two teams who were sessful 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 hismentary 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
couldmand 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
seed without giving up solemand, 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 Povon 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 stillmanding 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 be 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, particrly 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 tomand 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 d that I didn’t win the tournament, as I now have no desire to
rule. No parent should enve their children, and no god should rule over mortals. We should always
offer leadership, and never takemand. 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 congrattions 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
apuse.
“In sixth ce; the team of Emperor Osbald of Thon!” Pakdag announced.
"Osbald’s team was the secondrgest, and the second most diverse. None-the-less, his leadership
was characterized by the human traits of adaptability and a quickness of action and decision-making
that seems almost sudden to many other races. His steady and determined leadership produced good
morale, and his administration was fanatically supported by the human poption, who are the single
most numerous race on Keran."
Then came an announcement that seemed to excite the crowd a bit more than the others had; “In fifth
ce, the team of The Governors of Hiliani!”
“Oh well. Fifth isn’t too bad, I guess.” Fire smiled as they epted quick congrattory hugs from their
parents.
“You’re still young children, and among the most qualified to lead the world!” Kragorramughed 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 disyed
incredible abilities in the recent training exercises, most of us still didn’t expect such an impressive
performance from such young people as yourselves.