If the Awakening happened, what would be your..., ideal ratio of Awakened to mundane? Options

[Birdy]

[Deamon_Knight]

Mages gotta sleep too. And since there is strong proof for Ego growing so much faster than Power or Wisdom, most mages with such delusions of grandure will get cacked while they still only talk a good fight. Or eaten by a Dragon. I hear they like mages with an attitude!

[emo samurai]

Any time there is a congregation of magic-hating idiots, a dragon will eat it. Look at Aden. :D

[hyzmarca]

Fuck becomming an evil overloard and imposing my will on the peasents, my first act if I awakened would be to contact the James Randi Educational Foundation.

http://www.randi.org/research/index.html

[emo samurai]

Dude, a million dollars is nothing compared to unopposed dominion.

[FanGirl]

Unopposed my ass!

Emo, you are my friend and I like you, but I couldn't willingly lend my support to anyone who tries to set up an absolute despotism - no matter how benevolent it might be. I'm sorry. :(

[emo samurai]

Define "absolute despotism." What if I were to seize control of the government, allow for universal human rights, cut taxes, and trim down the government bureaucracy because no dumbass bureaucrat would dare oppose me or delay me, since I could read his stupid mind? What if you, the end consumer of the government, were to experience LESS tyranny? Shorter lines at the DMV, if you even have to go to a DMV at all? Money diverted from expensive art projects towards rebuilding ruined parts of the city?

It's kind of like Caesar becoming dictator; he was going to make it so that upper class people were accountable for crimes against lower class people, and he canceled a quarter of all debts, but he was going to be a dictator and therefore less "democratic" than an oligarchy. There was a more "fair" system in place in which power was shared between the upper crust of society, but they were incredibly oppressive. Caesar, on the other hand, was beloved by the middle and lower class for his reforms, and they were mega-super-pissed that he was killed by the dumbass senators.

As unopposed ruler of the world, I would end all wars with great form spirits and devote massive aid to poor countries in Africa and execute all the dumbasses who made this impossible before I took over. I would also dissolve the diamond and gold cartels, destroying much of the inefficient virtual-assets crap that funds child armies and useless financial institutions devoted to counting and limiting the flow of said diamonds and gold.

How's that for evil?

[mfb]

boldy seizing the reigns of power is a great way to foment revolution against yourself. a despot is a great big target for anyone who's disenfranchised by your takeover. what you want to do is what Howling Coyote did--get the ball rolling, and then disappear. do it under mysterious circumstances if at all possible (though assassination will do in a pinch). that way, you're a martyr, a cause that lots of people will blindly follow. then, you assume a new identity (or several) and take a seat as the power behind the throne. ideally, you don't want a figurehead at all--a weak chief executive office, at most, that goes through the election process every few years. that way, those opposed to the rule you've set up can't focus on any one target long enough to create a strong resistance to the system as a whole.

[SL James]

Worked for Ehran, too.

[emo samurai]

I'll be a better despot than Ehran.

Maybe I'll just intimidate Senators and the President in private with spirits and stuff, threatening them with assassination if they piss me off. They couldn't trace anything back to me, and there's nothing they could do to stop me.

[mfb]

they... couldn't... do you understand, at all, how SR magic works?

[emo samurai]

I meant if I was the only mage in the world, not if there were, like, a bajillion of them.

And I'd still just use Flexible Signature.

[mfb]

ah. in that case, have a blast.

[emo samurai]

Oh, yes.

[Birdy]

[torzzzzz]

I seem to note that you are all talking about mass devastation if magical power was awakened, at the risk of being called fluffy, is it possible that most would be quite restrained?

I know I would because until I knew how wide spread the magic this was, I would be dam carful about how I used it as I have no intention of being draged of by the government to have experiments carried out on me!


torz x

[emo samurai]

You see, I'm assuming that I have quickened Nutrition, Oxygenate, and Fasting spells and I'm astrall projecting from an underground earth bubble so nobody can find me. I would be a shadow ruler, and if I went out in public, I'd have spirit guardians surrounding me.

And like Caesar, I would probably be beloved by the disenfranchised; the only people that I would disenfranchise would be the dumbass bureaucrats.

You are all assuming that I would be stupid and careless; instead, I would astrally manifest at all the "ruling the world" meetings, and would rarely be present in the meat without invisibility or physical mask.

[Deamon_Knight]

Why Citizen, the Emo has your best interests at heart!

Isn't it high time you read Platos Republic Kiddo?

[emo samurai]

Dude, I don't care about ideal forms; it's the dumbass nationalistic politicians that do that, "spirit of the people" and all that shit. Pretty much the only policies I'd have are "Don't kill people for anything but self-defense; I'll handle the international deterrance, since you will just fuck it up and start a war and waste money on weapons you will never use" and "Don't waste the people's money; take your salary, go home, and shut up."

Oh, and I'd help enforce UN resolutions with force, since they are very famously unable to mobilize it. Most of those resolutions are pretty good; "don't start wars, don't embezzle money that's supposed to be used for food," they just don't have any backing because individual countries are too fucking stupid.

[PBTHHHHT]

[stevebugge]

[Critias]

I couldn't care less about the "one world government" BS, if that one government wasn't full of crap the way the UN is. Their gun policies show just how little they believe in the people they're supposed to look after. There are reasons some people paint little blue helmets on their targets, down at the range I go to.

[emo samurai]

What gun policies?

And anyone who makes my government full of crap will get buried by an earth elemental; count on it. :D

You see, if there's a badass mage watching out for everybody who doesn't care more about one country than any other one, then nobody can get pissed off that I'm policing the world for the sake of economic self-interest or nationalism.

[PBTHHHHT]

Great so it'll be a totalitarian government that will bring death and destruction upon those who disagrees with the party line (which is checked via mind probes). Oh joy.

[emo samurai]

No, just the people who overspend the budget for the sake of getting a bigger budget next year. I will run a tight fucking ship.

And it won't be a full burial; they will still be able to eat, breathe, and, unfortunately, talk.