A cloaked figure stood in a majestic courthouse. The building was made of the richest metals, gemstones, and minerals. Entire galaxies full of inhabited worlds would be impoverished by just a piece of the architecture therein. In front of them stood a mirror, reflecting their cloak and shadows. Its face and general body shape were hidden by the cloak's enchantments.
High windows with stained glass murals partially hid the stars and galaxies looming outside. The Defendant felt small. They had no freedom. They knew not of what crimes they were accused of. They knew only that they could not escape the judgment of those who stood above and around them.
Behind the Defendant, a crowd of influential figures across several realities stood to watch. They couldn't distinguish anything about them.
The courthouse was in a place beyond time and space, deep inside the Conceptual Dimension. It was nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Supported by the reality-bending power of those who called it home. The Ten Cosmic Judges. Creatures of unfathomable power, rulers of the ultimate multiversal courthouse. Gods, heroes, demons, and monsters alike were brought here, and sentenced. Today it would be no different.
The Defendant looked at them, trying to gauge any reaction. Their expressions and even their faces were inscrutable. They were more concepts of a higher order than actual people. Their wisdom was immemorial, their motives unfathomable, their senses able to pierce and see all of the multiverse. But each of them was a figure of majesty.
Today, if the concept of a day could be valid in that courthouse, they convened here to decide the fate of the Defendant. There was no prosecutor to raise charges against, no attorney to speak on their behalf. That was not how the Cosmic Judges operated. Whenever they spoke, reality shifted to comply.
They stared at the Defendant from their seats. It was as if the pressure of ten black holes bore upon the Defendant. The mirror shifted. It grew teeth. Its surface changed to accommodate the mood of the Cosmic Judges. Thriving worlds and places inhospitable to life flashed on the mirror's surface.
The Judges spoke, though the Defendant could not comprehend. They gave their verdict and the mirror obeyed. The glass bent in the middle, the metallic frame forming jaws. As the Multiverse took heed of their ruling, the glass shifted one final time.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
And then it ate the Defendant, casting them wherever the Judges deemed necessary.
Who was this Defender (name, gender, species, age, etc)? What was their crime, if any? Were they innocent? Where did the Judges send them?
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Ten Judges. Their rulings reign absolute upon the multiverse. Today they convene to pass judgment upon one fantasy world. Each will provide their opinion and evidence, and the world will shift according to their will.
There are only three rules:
1. They must be fast and precise in their commentary.
2. They cannot overrule or criticize a Judge that gave an opinion before/above them.
3. They cannot violate the ruling body (community)'s guidelines.
That aside, anything goes.
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This is an interactive, comment-driven story. The first ten commenters will provide their input, and the next chapter will happen in a way that incorporates most of the feedback of these ten commenters.
Here are the commenting rules:
- RESPECT YOUR FELLOW COMMENTERS.
- All submissions in the comment section are considered donations to the author. The commenter relinquishes any claim of intellectual property on the comment text. Therefore, any mention in the comments of any copyrighted material that's not owned by either the author or the commenter must be ignored. Any mention of copyrighted material owned by the commenter constitutes an irrevocable license to use it in this fiction and this fiction alone.
- Only comments posted 10 minutes (+- 1 minute) after the chapter is uploaded will be counted. Comments posted in the first ten minutes will be ignored. The author's computer clock denotes this time. This is to allow commenters (Judges) to fully read the chapter.
- Chapters will be short. I'll use Firefox reader mode to estimate the reading time.
- At the end of each chapter, there may be some questions that can be considered or thoroughly ignored by the judges.
- Whatever the first ten valid comments say about the direction of the story, will happen in the next chapter. This will be done to the best of my ability.
- Story directions can be, but are not limited to: Character actions. Scenery and worldbuilding. Plot points. New elements. New characters.
- No automated text generation tools will be used by me (i.e. ChatGPT or other LLM AI).
- Respect the Royal Road community guidelines and the Community Magazine rules.
- Replies to the first ten valid comments will NOT be considered. Top-level comments among the first ten that are not a Judge ruling (i.e. telling what should happen next chapter) will be ignored.
- The author will star the ten valid comments. Mistakes by the author are non-disputable (i.e. if I mark the wrong comment, that's fate).
- Commenters (Judges) should not edit their comments. I will monitor the first 20 minutes after posting a chapter to see if they are edited.
- Chapters will be posted every other day, at exactly 23:00 GMT. Yes, that's a 24h clock time.
- Tags will be added as the story progresses.