Felix didn't make it all the way back to Atalus before the screen he had been expected appeared before him.
World Council
You have been invited to the second, Trenus World Council. The meeting will take place in 5 minutes. You have chosen your representatives. You have 5 minutes to prepare yourself, once you are ready, simply initiate the teleport. If you do not initiate the teleport in the next 5 minutes, the teleportation will be initiated for you.
Representatives (5/5):
Felix Kade
Noah
Benjamin
Will
Alan
World Council
You represent two separate factions on Trenus, as such you may choose which faction you wish to represent. You will be able to vote on behalf of both factions, but you may only appear under the guise of a single faction.
Which faction will you represent:
Atalus
Stormbringer
Felix quickly checked on Nova, who had fallen asleep in the folds of his robes then initiated the teleport.
Atalus. Teleport.
Felix was again, the first one to arrive in what appeared to be the exact same room as last time. He took the nearest chair and waited for Noah, Benjamin, Will and Alan to appear and take their seats then a few more minutes for a screen to appear.
World Council
Welcome to the second Trenus World Council meeting. There are 29 people in attendance including the owners and representatives of the 9 different factions on the planet thus far.
For the duration of the meeting, you may choose to open or close the panel that seals your rooms by placing your palm on the wall next to it.
Agenda:
[Added by Lav'Gur] World Leader Election Vote (1 hour)
Restricted Settlement Period Vote (1 hour)
World Event Selection Vote (1 hour)
World Council
This vote is for whether or not the council system should be replaced in favor of having a single world leader. This vote was proposed by Lav'Gur and the members of the council will have 1 hour to discuss at which point the vote will take place.
The format of this vote will be an election with the required number of votes to elect an individual set at 40. You may nominate anyone you wish over the next hour and you may vote for individuals that have not been nominated as well as vote to keep the council in place.
There are currently no nominations.
Felix read through the message and frowned as he read through the agenda. He looked up at Noah who just shrugged in response. Felix stood and opened Atalus' panel then looked around to see the panels for Coastwatch, Snowvale, Trelas and Orselle already open. Shortly after Felix opened his, Sprouts and The Lodge opened their panels as well leaving Lav'Gur and the Stormbringer as the only closed panels. Everyone waited and stared at Lav'Gur's panel for a awkward minutes until it finally opened.
At the last meeting, Noah had met the leader of Lav'Gur and had said good things about him. Felix on the other hand had only really seen him from across the room as he was rather exhausted from talking to people by that point. When Lav'Gur's panel opened up, the man standing inside was definitely not Ashok. The man was tall and rather slim, though it was hard to tell as he wore many layers of ostentatious silk robes with shoulder length black hair with a short, neatly trimmed beard. While the man stood out, Felix didn't think much of his appearance, frankly he could care less how people decide to dress. He did however frown with disgust just a little bit as he looked behind the man and noticed the two individuals he had brought with him. Behind him at the table were two women wearing a grand total of a few square inches worth of clothing and a collar each.
Felix did his best not to judge but the sight made him just a little sick to his stomach. He knew it was just a physical reaction created by his brain and soul, he felt that, but he also couldn't stop it.
[E - Common] Human (Lvl 83)
After a few seconds of silence, the man walked into the middle of the room, surrounded by all of the rooms around him and addressed the rest of the council.
"Hello, my name is Silas and it is a pleasure to meet all of you." He said as he turned around the room before continuing, "I suspect you are all waiting to hear about the vote I added to the agenda so let me get right to it. How many nations on earth were led by a council?"
He waited a few moments for dramatic effect then continued, "While it might sound like a good idea in theory, it has a lot of issues. It takes much longer for many decisions to be made, which might not sound like a problem until you consider what would happen if the planet were attacked? What if there was an uprising of monsters? An invasion from another planet? Fast decisions become essential to our survival." As Silas spoke, he spun around making sure to make eye contact with everyone, read the room and adjust accordingly. Felix had to admit he was rather talented at public speaking and was rather persuasive. He might have even been swayed to consider what Silas was saying had his earrings not been screaming at him the entire time.
Lying. Deceit. Persuade. Convince. Rule. Pity. Disgust.
Silas continued, "Don't be fooled into thinking we are safe here. Do you really think we were the only planet with sentient life in the entirety of our universe? What are the odds of that? If we were, wouldn't it be the integration of earth, not the entire universe?" He paused once again, "Then there's The System and the World Event. It seems this one will not occur on the planet, but what about the next? What if the only options are invasions, what do we do then?"
Deceit. Envy. Conviction. Conquer. Rule.
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"All I'm asking, is that we consider instating a leader, someone who can make the necessary decisions and lead the human race. I want us to survive as long as possible and hopefully thrive in this new environment, and honestly? I just don't see that happening with a council as it is."
Lying.
"Where's Ashok?" Felix heard Noah call out from behind him.
"Ah, Ashok…" Silas responded, "Unfortunately, Ashok met his untimely demise while out trying to gain levels in preparation for the World Event. As his second in command, I have taken over as the ruler and done my best to pick up the pieces."
Partial Truth. Lying.
"If you're the second in command, why didn't Ashok bring you to the previous Council Meeting?" Felix heard Noah call out from beside him.
"He left me behind because he didn't know what would happen at the meeting and he wanted someone there to keep the city running and… just incase he didn't make it back."
Lie.
"I see." Noah said.
"Feel free to discuss with each-other and with me in my room. We would be happy to have any conversation you wish and consider this an open invitation to anyone." With that, Silas nodded to the rest of the council and walked back to his room, his lavish robes trailing behind him as he walked.
Felix immediately closed the panel to their room and quickly turned to Noah, "Look I know he might have seemed convincing but he was lying and looking down on us the entire time."
"How'd you figure that one out?" he responded.
"I have a magic item that helps in conversations. It whispers their intent into my ear basically."
"Felix, that was sarcasm. You needed a magical item to get that? I'm pretty sure everyone in the room could tell he just wants us to elect him so he can rule." Noah looked back to Benjamin, Will and Alan who all nodded in agreement.
"Oh… Ok, good." Felix opened the panel, only slightly embarrassed.
As soon as he did so, Jack, Martin and Amani walked over to his room followed by the old man from Coastwatch shortly afterwards. Felix was happy to see they had all leveled with Amani having evolved. She was slightly taller and seemed more slender and elegant, her hair reminding Felix of a shampoo commercial and her ears just slightly pointed. Overall, she wasn't much different than he remembered though.
[D - Rare] Desert Elf (Lvl 114)
Jack and Martin were both on the cusp of D grade and actually the same level.
[E - Common] Human (Lvl 98)
[E - Common] Human (Lvl 98)
Felix hadn't spoken to the leader of Coastwatch last time but he recognized him all the same as he walked up to the room. An old man with an explosion of white hair atop his head wearing nothing but pants and an open vest. Noah greeted him as Han.
[D - Uncommon] Atlantean (Lvl 106)
Oh cool.
The man immediately spoke to the rest of the group, "Y'all aren't actually gonna vote for this guy, are ye?"
Everyone looked around at each-other and shook their heads, "Oh thank the sea. Alright, we keep the council, ye?"
"Sounds good to me." Felix said and the others nodded.
"He did make some good points, maybe we should think about having someone to take charge if something happens." Jack said.
"We can worry about that if the situation arises, as it is though, I'm happy keeping things exactly as they are." Amani responded and Felix noticed that her voice was similar and recognizable to before, but now it carried with it a pleasant melody.
Jack nodded, "Alright, fair enough… So you think this guy killed Ashok?"
Everyone looked at each-other, clearly nervous to accuse anyone of something they couldn't prove. Felix broke the silence, "If I had to bet on it, yeah."
The group went silent, everyone slightly awkward with the mention of Ashok's death. It wasn't like any of them knew him very well, but some of them had met him. There was also the unspoken implication that the same could happen to any of them at any point. Finally, Han spoke up and broke the silence, changing topics, "So which world event is everyone leanin?"
Martin was the first to speak up, "The Ancient Sanctum is my preference, but I don't think that one will be very popular. We'll probably vote just to secure whatever everyone else wants. It's not like any of them are bad options."
"I personally, would like the Sanctum as well, but I think my city would much prefer Vault Raiding. So, I'll be voting for the latter." Amani chimed in.
"Vault Raiding does sound rather…" Jack said.
"Sexy?" Han finished.
"Well, yeah… Sounds like that's the most likely then. Have any of you spoken to Sprouts or The Lodge?" Jack asked.
Everyone looked at each-other but it appeared as though no one had. They decided to walk over to the two rooms and meet their leaders, hopefully making friends. The leader of The Lodge was a woman named Jackie with long brown hair in a ponytail and yellow eyes with slit pupils that looked like they belonged on a cat or a snake. She wore brown leathers and a long cloak. The most striking part about her though, to Felix, was the subtle confidence she carried.
[D - Special] Apex Hunter (Lvl 124)
That doesn't sound like a race.
The story of her integration was rather similar to Felix's in that she ran through and completed all of the dungeons followed by taking on multiple world bosses completely solo. She even attempted the final boss, but had to run away. She didn't have time at that point to amass an army to take it out as each individual world boss had taken her over a day of fighting. She hadn't bothered with the whole city thing, instead leaving it to an advisor but they had managed to quickly rise to the level of Major City. Once they had, no one in her tutorial bothered contesting them and everyone was mostly at peace.
The leader of Sprouts was a massive man standing at least twice the height of a normal human with proportionally broad shoulders and thick limbs. He had light brown hair covering his arms and face and wore simple clothes. His name was Otto.
[D - Uncommon] Demi-Giant (Lvl 108)
Otto was the only pacifist on the council and led a city of essentially farmers. His tutorial was rather boring but safe. He had started as a farmer and joined a town which was located in the middle of large flat fertile plains. They had many farmers and quickly became a farming town. People migrated from all over the tutorial simply because they had food. At some point the previous leader appointed Otto as the new leader because they decided leading a town wasn't for them. Their town quickly became a Major City as their population consisted of just about everyone in the tutorial and were extremely wealthy. HIs race actually made farming a lot easier, apparently troll was even better, but Otto didn't want to stray too far from being a human. With Demi-Giant he looked exactly the same as he had, according to him, just bigger.
They were both really nice people, Jackie a little reserved but otherwise friendly. Otto and Noah had agreed to trade if they ever managed to connect their cities and Jackie seemed open to the idea as well. Otto was most interested in the Natural Treasure Hunt but he understood that it was unlikely to get picked and didn't seem to mind. Jackie wanted the Vault Raiding above all. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .