It had been a while since Duke Richard Grande Headington and his traveling den of inequity had left the Kingdom of Grellek, and now the overly opulent oversized carriage containing the corpulent Duke had gotten within 80 meters from the main gate on the easternmost edge of Arkhan’s domain. The duke, along with his retinue had expected that this unknown nation would be at least smart enough to notice the grand caravan heading towards it and that the doors would be flung open to welcome them.
They were mistaken.
The doors refused to open, no matter how close they got. As the piggy duke got more and more agitated, waiting longer and longer, he finally ordered his men to approach the gate and demand that they be allowed to pass. As the knight captain approached the gatehouse, he became aware that the wooden ‘gate’ was in fact just a thin façade that covered a much sturdier metal one. He wondered just how much stone and metal went into making this massive wall and how it could have been built so quickly and so close to the Kingdom’s borders without anyone knowing. What surprised him the most was that the caravan was in the Uncharted Lands, a place that was so chaotic that taking even a single step inside could be life-threatening, and yet these same Uncharted Lands were now static and unchanging. It was as if the Almighty God, Lugus, was sick of the chaotic mess and forced it to stop.
The next few minutes were spent yelling in the hope of getting some response, but nobody answered. Visibly upset by this, the knight-captain turned to walk away, but didn’t. His eyes landed on a small box with a blinking red light that was embedded into the wall. He walked over to the box and saw a button labeled, ‘Press to speak’. Hoping to get a response this way, he pressed the button and a voice was heard coming from the box.
“Finally… Please state the nature of your visit.” (???)
The knight-captain was perplexed, he had never heard of a magic tool such as this. He didn’t keep the voice waiting and spoke.
"I am knight-captain Robert Reginald Lowe. On behalf of Duke Richard Grande Headington of the Kingdom of Grellek, I ask that you open these gates and allow us to enter. We are on a diplomatic mission and seek to create new bonds between our nations.” (K.C. Robert)
There was a pause before the voice spoke again.
“We have but one question before we allow you passage. Know that your answer will determine how we will proceed with diplomacy and/or conflict.” (???)
Robert was taken aback but understood that sometimes a nation must know something about another in order for it to begin relations in the first place.
“Very well. Ask your question.”
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“Our Leader is human. What advice would you offer him regarding Sapient Machines, Beastmen, Dwarves and Elves and why?”
“Simple. Enslave or kill any non-human you find. They are sub-human beings who are an affront to the will of the Almighty God Lugus. Their pagan beliefs coupled with the fact they are not human means they are utterly undeserving of life outside eternal slavery. Your leader is a human, right? It should be obvious to him, as a member of the Master Race, that these sub-human pieces of garbage deserve whatever end we Humans decide for them. Also, any machine with ‘Human level intelligence’ is an affront to the supremacy of Humanity and the fact that the only true beings with souls are living, organic Humans! A machine that can think, feel and act like a human should be melted down into slag and remade as a weapon to strike down any other of its blasphemous kind!”
There was a long pause on the other side, long enough to make Knight-Captain Robert question whether the beings on the other side had left.
“Are those the beliefs of all humans in Grellek, or just a handful?” (???)
These questions were irritating.
“It is not just the belief of a handful! It is the writ of the only true God! All humans who have not succumbed to sin and evil follow the word of the Almighty! The way you talk makes it sound like you do not believe in the Almighty! Are you a blasphemer?!”
Robert was now worked up into the typical frenzy that most Humans with any position of power or those who yearned for power would get into. In the Human Lands, the more overly zealous in your faith you were, the more likely that you would prosper and that you would be seen in a positive light.
“We worship the True God. Don’t worry about us. Our Almighty God gives us strength; He was the one who created us from nothing, after all. It is by His will we exist, and it is by His will we serve Him forever and always.” (???)
A jovial grin swept the face of Robert.
“Good! Now, let us pass, fellow servants of Almighty Lugus!”
The massive gates opened. Rather than opening like doors, the gate slowly slid open, retreating into the walls. As the gate opened, Robert was astounded at the realization that each half of the sliding door was over a yard thick and behind the first gate was another one just like it that was also slowly opening.
“Enter at your own discretion. Know that we have heard your answers and that the appropriate actions will be taken.” (???)
The voice bid him farewell before the box made a click-like noise and the red light turned off.
As the opulent caravan made its way through the gatehouse and out the other side, Mobile Suit Golems from both the Zeon and Federation factions watched with utter contempt as the gaudy ivory and gold carriage rolled off into the distance.
Throughout the whole of Arkhan’s forces, the opinion of the Human Lands had dropped beyond zero and was now entering the negatives.
…
Meanwhile, in one of the Floating Cities, several named Mobile Suit Golems were working together to finish their book entitled ‘The Holy Arcadian Bible, 2nd Edition’, much to Arkhan’s quiet disapproval. He had not stopped the first edition from being released due to his idealism that all people should be allowed to believe in whomever or whatever they wish so long as their beliefs didn’t end up hurting other Sapients. However, now he was beginning to regret his actions as a ‘Cult of Arkhan’ was spreading through the floating cities. To make matters more vexing it was not just spreading among the MSGs, but through the Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Beastmen who had emigrated to his nation. Unknown to all in Arcadia and elsewhere, the believers of the ‘Cult of Arkhan’ seemed to be becoming something… New…