Probably because only the MC and Lat are the right conditions necessary, as in, having the Other Yous for whatever reason. I’m starting to get a headache from the insane conspiracy thinking I’ve been doing for a minute now so I’m taking a break.
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Actually, and I can’t believe this only occurred to me now, another question for the pile. We had to sift through the Library of Congress and found one measly passage in one measly book. We can therefore assume that this knowledge is rare to the point of esoterism.
So.
How the FUCK did Vambrace get a hold of it?
And how come we’re not running down this lead, I say, totally not aiming at a concert date with Aki (after I get Nova to make me some sound dampeners to put the volume at an acceptable level).
(or maybe I’m just overthinking this and it was supposed to be a throwaway thing?)
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Vambrace does seem to have an inordinate amount of interest in Crete. They have a whole music album inspired by Crete’s history (I wonder if you know what the band is a reference to). Some of the songs include ‘Wrestling with Giants’ about WW2, ‘Masters of the Storm’ regarding an ill-fated invasion by the Ottoman Empire, ‘Rise of the Dragons’ about the Siege of Chandax, and, obviously, ‘Death of the Sun’, which is the one Aki sings in Chapter 3.
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Is their frontman a historian nutjob like Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden? If so, I got my eyes on him like a hawk
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They’re meant more as a stand-in to Sabaton than Iron Maiden. Note that vambrace is also a part of a knight’s armor, just like a sabaton.
That said, there is some Iron Maiden to them too, yeah. Considerably younger band than them, though.
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I don’t, and my Google-fu is failing me. Unless it’s a reference to Cretan archers? I mean, I know what a vambrace IS, but I’m not seeing how it refers specifically and significantly to Crete, Minoans, or Mycenae.
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It doesn’t. Sabaton is a metal band, whose music library consists entirely of historical figures and battles and such. They’re named after a piece of a knight’s armor.
Vambrace is a reference to them.
The Minoans aren’t mentioned much, except on the fact that the Bull is Crete’s national animal (there’s actually a fun thing there. At some point, someone is going to mention that the last two eagles to fuck with Crete got gored on the bull’s horns. They don’t think this one will have better luck).
They do have a bit of an effect on some things I did for fun though, which are kind of lore tidbits but not that relevant yet:
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Digging the wiki articles, want to know more about the Venetian-Cretan War of 1451. Also how Crete was involved/not involved in the Crusades.
Quick question: is there a trend of powereds increasing/decreasing in strength from generation to generation? Or do they stay at relative parity?
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The Venetian-Cretan War happened as a result of the Wars in Lombardy. Due to Venice being a bit too focused on the happenings in the Italian Peninsula, Crete ended up supplanting a significant portion of Venetian trade. The Venetians tried to restore their lost surplus (+ get reparations), and once the Cretans refused, they declared war.
Of course, storms and typhoons are a bitch, and a significant portion of the sent fleet got destroyed. The Venetians sued for peace before the losses were too disastrous.
The weakening of their armed forces was part of what led to the Peace of Lodi.
Crete was a majority Arab/Muslim country during the times of the Crusades. Remember that Crete was an Emirate, and the population obviously reflected that.
The Crusades were theoretically a cause of worry then, but as Crete showed absolutely no interest in waging war or conquest, they were left relatively alone.
They were somewhat invaded once, though. During the Third Crusade, a significant contingent of German Crusaders actually went to Sicily and planned to sail to Jerusalem.
Before that, though, they thought to raid Crete, since it was naturally a juicy target.
It failed, obviously. They got smashed and captured. Crete didn’t want to mess with the HRE though, so they accepted the very first ransom offer they got.
Crete’s population only had a big shift during the Sack of Constantinople a decade later and the eventual conquest. A lot of merchants that made their money in Byzantium took many escaping Romans to Crete during the Sack, and Seeker appeared during the Conquest two centuries later. He helped the civilians evacuate the city, and many of them took residency in Crete.
The latter actually are part of the reason behind the Cretan School.
It all depends on mentality and the unsettled nature of the times, to be honest.
Powers are very much a lottery (which the King and Queen won, alongside… another figure), but nothing stops someone from becoming strong as well, as long as the cricumstances are there. You can probably assume that WW1 and WW2 were places perfect for growing powereds (Germany had at least two powered generals during WW2, for example). China also had very strong powereds during the Warring States and Three Kingdoms era, for example.
Since the modern era tries to shy away at least a little from the whole “constant wars and battles”, you could reasonably assume powered people aren’t that high level.
Of course, if things ever got worse, and powered people got more involved, you’d naturally see power levels begin to skyrocket.
That’s not a hint. 
It’s part of why Forlorn, Seeker, and (out of universe) Ignis are such big things. Forlorn and Seeker are on what’s close to the pinnacle, and though you can blame that on their previous experiences, it is still eyebrow-raising.
Ignis also has the same thing, except to a higher level. She’s what you can absolutely call a prodigy.
Unlike Forlorn and Seeker, she hasn’t been using her powers for at least a decade. She only really got into the business when she turned 20 and left home, and even then, her foes are nowhere near the scale the other two have had to grapple with.
And she’s somehow already on par with Forlorn and Seeker.
That’s normally once-in-a-century levels of growth.
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Despicable war-profiteering heir with a high ceiling, billions of dollars, and millions of deaths tied to her name.
Must be nice.
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It’d be too on the nose to ask how Forlorn and Seeker stack against the Monarchs.
At the expense of once again revealing my Versus Battles tendencies, I think that a combo of Forlorn and Seeker could pull off the obliteration of the Byzantine army like the Monarchs did. That said, we don’t know the specifics of the Monarchs’ powersets nor the advantages of experience. I’d give edge to the Monarchs in 2v2 but with Ignis and, say, a fourth fighter, the Monarchs probably don’t win. I guess I don’t see them as being so far ahead of the League’s heavy hitters I suppose.
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They’d get murdered.
The Blitz Queen and Broken King have taken out powered people before.
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Plus they took out like 80k that was an army on their own. Pretty sure Ignis probably could do that with her abilites and Forlorn if he ever went full Homelander with the laser eyes. I’d have to think the Big 3 would get easily wiped out too
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Forlorn staggers the Broken King with his hardest hit
“Good one boy, I’m going to enjoy this.”
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Well, so has the MC. Not all powereds are empowered equally.
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I think I’ve given a tier list of how the known powered more or less compare before. I think it was near the first hundred? (sidenote, did you guys note we broke the thousand posts barrier? :D). If it wasn’t a tier list, it was the BK/BQ’s stats.
It’s going to take a bit longer, but you’ll have an in-game representation of how the League compares to the BK eventually.
It’s going to be a bit unexpected, but not quite in the way you’d think.
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Congrats brother on breakin’ the 1k mark. Let’s close your thread down by hitting 10k.
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I just want to say that, besides the great game, you do absolutely stellar and involved world-building. If you took time to describe in detail what these people eat* (please don’t do that), people’d be calling you the Tolkien of super-heroes. Except female characters do stuff.
*and maybe throw in a new language or two
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On the contrary I must request a detailed accounting of what the hell kind of Wheaties the Big Three are eating in the morning, I gotta get me some of that.
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Nova will be happy to hear that you don’t want the rainbow puke that Aki eats for her breakfast
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