The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 197

Part 27

Pakdag went on to discuss and display their showing in more detail, then announced the next placing.

"In tenth place; the team led by Empress Emeroth of Verzaclon!" Pakdag declared.

His comments to her were; "As was the case with the last team, your performance largely defined the best of your race to the rest of us. Though your team was not composed 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 occasions. As you said at the first Assembly of The Just Alliance, there are others who have placed 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 place was taken by a team led by Most Respected Grandfather, of the Southernmost.

"Yours is a race that is still almost completely unknown to the rest of Kellaran," 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 explaining to everyone at every opportunity exactly what was going on in the war, in every way. You explained 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 place was won by First Expeditionary Zoobweeb, (roughly translated), of the Kag. The venerable fish and his people's somewhat spiritual concept of warfare as an art form had been very popular 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 their commander, Kellaran had waged a horrific war with the demons while largely maintaining a strangely detached serenity.

Seventh place went to Zarkog. There was little cheering as he appeared on the stage to accept 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 Kellaran, 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 every command 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 among everyone else, the most popular pastime during your tenure was complaining about you in humorous terms. "You were one of the teams that were most aggressive, attacking immediately as soon as you had the authority to command it. You were one of only two teams who were successful 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 his commentary 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 could command 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 succeed without giving up sole command, 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 still commanding 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 become 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, particularly

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 to command decisions.

"I now know that their help was

based only on the Readings taken of

them before the tournament, and

эт

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 glad that I didn't win the tournament, as I now have no desire to rule. No parent should enslave their children, and no god should rule over mortals. We should always offer leadership, and never take command. 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 congratulations 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 applause.

"In sixth place; the team of Emperor Osbald of Thon!" Pakdag announced.

"Osbald's team was the second

largest, and the second most

diverse. None-the-less, his

leadership was characterized by the

human traits of adaptability and 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 population, who are the single most numerous race on Kellaran."

Then came an announcement that seemed to excite the crowd a bit more than the others had; "In fifth place, the team of The Governors of Hiliani!"

"Oh well. Fifth isn't too bad, I guess." Fire smiled as they accepted quick congratulatory hugs from their parents.

"You're still young children, and among the most qualified to lead the world!" Kragorram laughed 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 displayed incredible abilities in the recent training exercises, most of us still didn't expect such an impressive performance from such young people as yourselves.

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