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To be doomed and to know it


Ogaden

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For those alliances who have been in the unique position of having the Sword of Damocles above their heads, it is an interesting experience. Knowing your doom is sealed and the barbarians are at the gates, the fix is in, your goose is cooked, and the question becomes not if or how your doom will be realized, but when.

I have had an especially personal connection with the Sword of Damocles upon the great world of Bob. The Sword of Damocles is a good old friend of mine who has hovered over my head since I arrived on this world, and decided to join NPO right as everyone on earth had decided they should be destroyed.

After I left for RIA, from there the Sword swung around quite a bit, from the BiPolar war, briefly swung away from us only to point straight at us after we pissed off everyone on Bob in the wake of PB/NpO. Above our heads, for the next two years, the Sword would remain, to occasionally drop down and rend our flesh. It became almost a character of our being, a constant of the world was that we would get rolled, we would fight like madmen and bleed everywhere, but that sword wasn't going anywhere.

Then all of a sudden, it was gone. It was like someone had snuck in at night and stolen it, and I suppose in a way that is what happened. After years of guerrilla war with not so much peace treaties as ceasefires, things had shifted. The Sword of Damocles hovered over the heads of others.

I know though, that the Sword of Damocles will return one day, it always does. Be you not arrogant in your manner nor secure in your fortress of treaties, for no man is immune to the whims of fate.

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It makes you think on what is truly important. Your own head or staying with your family as you meet slaughter? Of course, I am one of those martyrs who find honor before infrastructure to be not only my battleplan, but even my own execution. Even when not in war, I worry not over fate. I say what needs to be said, I've always refused to cower in fear or bite my tongue. Planet Bob is more interesting that way. Is it not?

As for when... Well that depends on a lot of factors. Some just know it from the beginning and fight on anyway. Some are complete and total optomists and never believe the end is coming until the second the sword connects with the back of their necks. Some simply can not calculate the odds.

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Lady Dakota you are so right, the denial can be staggering. It's a great wheat-from-the-chaff event though that's for sure, you really get the measure of a player when the folks who have been after you finally show up at your door.

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you learn far more about your alliance after losing a war than winning one, you also get to learn who your real friends are, admittedly sometimes they end up on the other side, but there is still always the option to apply political pressure on your own coalition members to treat your allies special, even if it might cause some back clash, ie VE and GOD, or NPO and NG last war, we all have choices to make and the power that comes with them.

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With the possible exception of Polar (twice), who has ever had the sword above them and was able to get it off?

I always thought "if everyone is gunning for me I'd just hit them all immediately and get it over with". It seems pointless to just wait for it to drop. I guess TOP kind of done that, but they actually thought theh could win, that doesn't count.

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It can be fun knowing that the hammer is coming for you. Can't win all the time.

you can however bring it down on someone else with enough warning and effort.

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Except when in the MHA, I have always had that SoD hovering above my neck as well. After some time you tend to forget about it, though.

I am afraid that now I am too old to care anymore about it.

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Yeah I have had a similar experience more than once and it was glorious....halcyon days man.

There is something special about charging into battle where you aren't sure if it'll be the last thing your alliance ever does

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The major caveat here is apathy. CN's best days have past, at least in my view. Hence it takes effort to remain connected in a meaningful way, as the pool of players with actual influence into politics/war gets smaller and smaller. There was a time when a nation could participate in an alliance, gain position and influence said alliance into meaningful action that affected world politics. We are now In as situation where many nations simply collect taxes because they have had the nations for 2000+ days and don't want to just let it delete. So the context of "doomed" isn't horrific in that sense, for players like myself who are otherwise not engaged and don't have a vested interest its a nice circumstance to be in. The nation has to die at some point, and it would be a !@#$%* way to go forgetting to log in after a month. I much rather be in the position to fight to the death, then die and go away.

This war at least has given me that opportunity, whether that comes to fruition or not is still in question but we will see.

Also @wally: Cheers mate

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