"Okay, first off, does everyone here actually want to join the sect?" Greg asked, looking around. "Tiff, you're already stuck, and I assume B- Be… Beverly?" He turned to look questioningly at Beatrice.
"Beatrice." Victoria provided, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Beatrice, got it." Greg nodded. "Right, well, I assume she's on board as well, so the main holdouts are you three." Greg gestured to Albert, Melissa, and Horace.
"I think before we make any decisions as to our involvement in the sect, we need to know what this connection actually is." Melissa interjected. "What would we be signing ourselves up for if we actually accepted it?"
Greg paused. "Fair enough." He turned to Chris. "You wanna explain?" Chris let out a sigh, and three cards appeared in front of the three of them, and then a fourth in front of Beatrice a moment later as Chris remembered she didn't know the details either. Greg blinked. "You made cards?"
Chris nodded. "We have to explain this stuff a lot, and I don't like repeating myself. Plus, the card is more comprehensive. Our explanations always end up focusing on certain points to the detriment of others."
"Can I see it?" Greg asked.
Chris frowned at him. "You already know it."
"Yeah, but I want to see how you put it." Greg replied.
Chris raised an eyebrow, before shrugging. "Fine."
"Me too?" Andrew added.
"Sure." Chris nodded, and two more cards appeared. He gave Thomas a look as well, but Thomas just gestured to where Victoria was reading over Beatrice's shoulder.
"Let's see… Immortal, influence, moving, mental connection, sharing memories and experience, mutation… you know, I haven't actually seen you mutate anything yet." Greg commented.
Chris shrugged. "There hasn't really been a need to. There isn't much benefit to it compared to cultivation, so instead of wasting a day on mutating, it's better to just let them cultivate."
"Fair enough… but I still want to see it." Greg replied.
"What's mutation?" Tiffany asked curiously.
"Basically it gives you an alternate, optimized form that is physically better than your previous one." Chris explained, before turning to Greg. "See what I mean? We leave things out."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Greg waved, dismissively, focusing on Tiffany. "You want to try mutating?"
Tiffany hesitated. "Is it permanent?"
"You can switch back and forth." Chris replied.
"And it just makes you better?" Tiffany asked.
"Yes. Sometimes the appearance of it can be a bit monstrous, but ultimately you'll be more optimized to do whatever it is you want to do." Chris nodded.
Tiffany considered it for a moment, before nodding back. "Okay, I'll give it a shot. Worst case scenario, I just have a new form I'll never use, right?"
"Pretty much." Chris agreed.
"Hold on, let me…" Greg sent some smoke at Tiffany and connected it to her, so he could actually see what was happening. "Okay, go for it."
Chris raised an eyebrow at him, before shrugging and waving his hand at Tiffany, starting the- "Huh." Chris frowned, waving his hand at her again. "That's weird…"
"Is there a problem?" Greg asked.
"I can't seem to start the mutation process." Chris explained. "I guess it's something I can only do in my World… I wonder if it's related to that weird ability energy." He fell into thought, muttering to himself.
"Huh?" Greg cocked his head, confused.
"When I was figuring out how to actually add a power system to my world, I noticed my world in my World already had a power system, though I haven't figured out what it does yet." Chris replied. "Whatever gave me it could have also provided my world with the ability to mutate… which would mean mutation isn't something innate to my world, but an ability I gained."
"Well, that sucks." Greg frowned.
"Eh, it's fine." Chris shrugged. "As I said, it isn't all that useful outside of my World. Physical strength isn't all that big a deal in most Worlds power systems."
"I suppose." Greg sighed. "Still disappointing though. I kinda wanted to see how it worked."
"I can still show it to you in my World." Chris shrugged.
Greg paused. "True."
Chris turned to the others. "So, the mutation part is wrong, but the rest is true. What do you think?"
"This influence… you say you can direct our attention? How does that work?" Melissa asked.
"We honestly aren't exactly sure." Chris frowned. "We know it isn't any sort of direct control, but Quinn and Allison can't seem to decide whether it's an insidious, subtle influence or if I just sort of bring things to your attention."
"Quinn and Allison?" Melissa raised an eyebrow.
"They're two women connected to my world. They disagree about what my influence does and they argue about it a lot." Chris explained.
"I see…" Melissa muttered. "Well, given our current situation, I suppose you already have us and all our people in the palm of your hand. A little bit of influence will hardly change that." Albert grunted in agreement. "However, I suppose the real question would be whether you actually want us to be a part of your sect… the two of us have already reached the end of our potential." She sighed, shaking her head. "I don't think you should waste your time and effort on us."
"Potential?" Chris frowned. "Is that an issue for us?" He turned to Victoria.
Victoria cocked her head. "I'm not sure… Runes are more mental, so their influence wouldn't be erased by dying. But I'm not sure what actually determines what Runes you get, whether it's your mentality or something else… so it's definitely something to check out."
"Well, either way, I don't think it's a condition for whether or not you can join the sect. Just because you aren't powerful doesn't mean you can't be useful." Chris replied, turning back to Melissa.
"Yeah, we aren't exactly 'administrative' types." Greg sighed. "No patience for it. We'd almost definitely get caught up in our own thing and lose track of everything."
Melissa paused. "I see… Well, we can certainly help with that."
"Cool. Horace?" Greg turned, raising an eyebrow at him.
Horace shook his head. "I- I'm not entirely sure what's going on here but… I already have a sect I belong to. I can't commit to joining another, no matter how… interesting it might be."
"Well, I can respect that." Greg nodded. "We'll drop you off somewhere and let you get back to… whatever it is you were doing, I guess?"
"I- believe I need to contact my own sect." Horace sighed. "They need to know that an Empire is set to arise again on Emarta."
"I mean, we're almost definitely going to stop them." Chris commented. "It may take a while, but we're kinda inevitable."
"Uh… I- was talking about you guys." Horace coughed.
Chris blinked. "Ah… well, that's fair." He waved his hand, sending Horace away. "Okay, now… what else do we have to talk about?"
"Actually, Horace brought up a very good point. What is the end goal of this sect? To simply stop the Hidden Blades? To bring stability to the entire region? Are we actually going to try to create our own Empire?" Andrew asked.
"World domination?" Greg offered. "Or at least, worldwide enforcement of our standards of basic morality. Like, there's no way we're going to sit back and let people be assholes, so the end result of all this is always going to be some kind of organization that keeps people in line."
"And what would these standards be?" Melissa asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't kill people for no reason, don't treat people like shit, don't make it impossible for people to live, stuff like that. You know, asshole shit." Greg replied. "Probably gonna have to stop people from hunting Spirit Beasts at least. I mean, if they're intelligent, you can't treat them like some sort of resource to farm."
"Also, no more of this 'we get to sleep with our servants and they don't get a say in it' shit." Victoria added. "People deserve to be treated like people, no matter their position."
"That isn't-" Albert began, before letting out a groan. "I can't have this argument again."
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"Look, if you want to sleep with someone, the least you can do is make sure they actually want to sleep with you. Can we at least agree on that?" Victoria frowned.
Albert paused. "Yes, I believe I can agree to that."
"Freaking finally." Victoria muttered.
"These aren't exactly solid tenants for your disciples to live by." Melissa frowned.
"I've mentioned how we aren't good at administration, right?" Greg chuckled.
Melissa's expression twisted. "I see. Chris, could you provide me with some paper and writing utensils?"
"Sure." Chris nodded and a notebook and a pen and pencil appeared in front of her. "The black one is permanent, the yellow can be erased."
Melissa blinked, taking the notebook and pencil. "How convenient… oh! Albert, look! Maurice would simply love these helpful little lines!" She showed him the notebook excitedly, before pausing as she remembered where she was and flushed. "Ahem." She took up the notebook and pencil, getting poised to write. "Now, what would you all say the key tenet of the sect should be? The aspect that all disciples should live by?"
They all paused to consider that for a moment. "Own the consequences of your actions." Chris proposed. "It's okay if you fuck up. In fact, you're going to fuck up, and when you do, you need to accept the consequences."
Greg cocked his head thoughtfully. "I like it. I mean, the first step in fixing your mistakes is always admitting that you made the mistake in the first place."
"Shouldn't we try for something a little more… noble?" Andrew replied. "You know, something like 'strive for greatness'. Something to inspire the people who join our sect."
"No, I think Chris and Greg have a point." Thomas muttered. "The people who join our sect are going to be inspired enough. We're literally handing them power. Our focus shouldn't be on inspiring them to reach for more, but to be responsible with the power they have."
"You say, as the least responsible member of our group." Andrew muttered.
"Which only highlights the importance of it!" Thomas retorted.
"Though, we should probably add something along the lines of 'think before you act' as well." Greg commented.
"Whenever possible, think before you act." Chris added. "Sometimes you don't have time to think."
"True." Greg nodded.
"So we have 'own the consequences of your actions' and 'think before you act whenever possible'." Melissa tapped the notebook thoughtfully. "Anything else?"
Andrew sighed. "Since we're laying out moral values, how about something less restrictive and more prescriptive? Like, something to guide them forward, not just to focus on their mistakes."
"See a need, fill a need?" Greg offered tentatively. "Pretty much, don't ignore things that obviously need something to be done about them."
Andrew nodded slowly. "That could work."
"But you have to be careful with that one too." Victoria interjected. "Sometimes the solution causes more problems than the problem itself." She grumbled.
"That's why we have 'think before you act'." Chris pointed out. "The tenets don't exist in isolation. You need to use all of them."
Victoria paused. "Fair enough."
"Do we need any more?" Greg asked. "Do what you can, try not to make mistakes, but when you do, own up to them." He paused and shrugged. "That seems to cover everything to me."
"Yeah, I got nothing else." Chris nodded.
"I still think we should have some kind of noble prerogative." Andrew grumbled.
"Eh, getting too high minded tends to lead to problems." Thomas shook his head. "We don't need some glorious purpose, we just need a solid foundation."
"Andrew does have a point." Melissa interjected. "None of these exactly give your disciples any sort of direction. Any sort of idea what your sect is meant to actually do."
"Well you see, that's because we don't want to actually do anything. Or rather, we want to be free to do everything. Why lock ourselves into doing one thing when we're capable of doing all things?" Greg chuckled.
"So you want to take these people, give them power and a basic moral foundation, then simply release them upon the world?" Melissa raised an eyebrow skeptically.
Greg cocked his head. "Why do I get the feeling you think that isn't a good idea?"
Melissa sighed. "A sect's strength is derived from its unity of purpose. The fact that all its members are working together in concert based on some unifying ideal. The Champions of Battle are champions of battle. The Hidden Blades are hidden blades. Wisdom's Curse seeks to bear the curse of wisdom. This is their core identity that brings them together. Without that, you aren't really a sect, you're simply a loose collection of individuals who happen to know each other."
Chris frowned. "But as Greg said, we don't want to limit ourselves. We don't want to be a sect exclusively for battlefreaks, or wisemen, or sneaky people, or any other archetype. We want to be a sect for anyone. Everyone. All of us working together not because we're all alike, but because we all want to make the world a better place."
"You know what we could do though." Thomas muttered. "We could have subsects. We all work under the core tenets, but we let people with similar interests and ideals gather together into subgroups that can work together. A subsect for our warriors, a subsect for our geniuses, a subsect for our craftsmen… maybe not a subsect for the sneaky people."
"Hey! There's nothing innately wrong with being sneaky!" Tiffany protested.
"They would still need to abide by the core principles." Chris nodded. "If they can find a way to use their sneakiness to help people, why shouldn't we support them?"
Thomas frowned slightly, before sighing. "Okay, fair. But it could work, right? I mean, it isn't like we won't have enough members to make it work. Most sects need to rely on natural Awakenings or risky and expensive potions, but with the system, everyone is just a few tasks away from being a Cultivator. We can have as many disciples as we need."
Melissa frowned. "I suppose that could work. Though you may want some established subsects for people to join first. Like a warrior subsect and a craftsmen subsect."
"Oh! I can lead the espionage subsect!" Tiffany clapped.
"Ah, crap, we need a system to appoint administrators, don't we?" Thomas groaned, before shooting Tiffany a look. "And no, you don't just get to be the leader."
Tiffany clicked her tongue and crossed her arms. "Damn."
"We could do some combination of merit based and election." Chris muttered. "A set of benchmarks that need to be accomplished before you can be in the running, and then your peers vote on who would best fit the position."
"Wait, do you mean you need to hit the benchmarks to vote too?" Andrew asked with a frown.
Chris cocked his head. "Maybe… yes for now, I think. Obviously, at this point, the first person to hit the benchmarks gets it, so it's kind of a moot point."
"True." Andrew nodded. "So then how do we determine these benchmarks?"
"Well, they'll have to be different for each subsect, so we'll need to see what qualities are necessary to be a successful administrator in each one." Chris replied. "Well, besides the qualities necessary to actually be an administrator… Those are rather universal. We should probably require them to have a Rune related to administration at a certain level."
"A Rune isn't necessary to be a good administrator." Melissa pointed out.
"I may be able to quantify their administrative skill using the system…" Victoria muttered. "Let's put a pin in that for now."
Melissa nodded. "Okay, then I believe there is one last decision to make. What is the name of this sect going to be?"
"The Immortal Sect." Chris answered immediately.
"Wow, you had that one ready, didn't you?" Greg raised an eyebrow at him.
"It's the only name that fits. The benefit of joining the sect is that it makes you immortal. Immortal Sect." Chris elaborated.
Greg shrugged. "Fair enough. I don't have any problems with it."
"We are all immortal…" Andrew agreed. "I could see it."
Victoria and Thomas's expressions twisted. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable being in a sect that shares a name with them." Victoria spat.
Chris blinked. "Ah, right… how about the Eternal Sect then?"
"Eternals Sect?" Greg offered, before frowning. "Actually, no, that sounds dumb… yeah, I'm okay with Eternal Sect too."
"Yeah, it fits okay, I guess." Andrew shrugged.
Victoria nodded, breathing out a relieved sigh. "Yeah, okay, I can do that." She paused. "Is this going to just be a here thing, or are we going to try and do this everywhere?"
"Huh… that's a good question." Greg muttered.
Chris cocked his head. "I don't see any reason not to use it everywhere…"
"But other Worlds don't really have sects." Andrew frowned.
"So?" Chris shrugged. "We could just as easily call it a guild, or a corporation, or whatever. The point isn't the name, it's about the structure of it and those core tenets, and we can take that wherever we go."
"Plus, this way, we don't have to ask if people want to be connected to Chris's world, we can just ask if they want to be an Eternal." Greg nodded as he considered the idea.
"But we'd still have to explain what that means." Victoria pointed out.
"I'll make pamphlets." Chris waved dismissively.
"Is that what we are now? Eternals?" Andrew raised an eyebrow.
"Why not?" Victoria shrugged. "'Immortals' is already taken, and we need to call ourselves something right?"
"'Avatars of the building blocks of creation' is a bit wordy…" Chris agreed.
"I dunno… if we're talking about ourselves, I kinda like the idea of something more related to our spread, rather than our resilience. Like Infinites, but cooler." Greg commented. "Oh, how about Inevitables!"
"What about Inexorables?" Chris offered. "Slightly more accurate."
"Also good." Greg nodded.
"Guys… those are both incredibly evil sounding." Andrew frowned.
Greg paused, before letting out a sigh. "Damn it. Why do all the cool names sound evil?"
"Honestly, I think Eternals is good enough." Victoria interjected. "Plus, you know, not evil sounding."
Greg shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. Plus, the point of it is that it won't just be us."
"Then from now on, we'll be the Eternals." Chris nodded, already in the process of informing his subordinates that they were now the Eternal Tribe, and that his world was now the Eternal World.