>>5552632>17You are right: the crowd is mostly receptive, listening intently rather than interrupting to criticize or contradict you.
“Everything in this world is OURS, the rightful possession of the Dragon Kings, their priests, their heirs, their race!”
There are scattered ululations of agreement.
“That includes the land… The things made from its bounty… They things which grow upon it and crawl beneath it… That which swims in the see or sprouts from the soil!”
>17More murmurs of agreement, and hisses of aggrieved pride and material deprivation.
“That includes the things the True Gods made for us, and the perversions and uncouth addendum by the false gods of light!” you declare, striding forward and spreading your arms and wings. “Their weapons, OURS to kill with! Their temples, OURS to reconsecrate! Their very CHIDLREN, their precious WORSHIPERS? They are OURS to corrupt, subjugate, and rule over! The New Age of Darkness shall consume EVERYTHING, and ALL shall dwell in the great hoard of our wealth—every parcel of land, every last treasure, every sword and shield, every child born to any race that WE allow to live—at OUR leaders’ whims, at OUR leaders’ sufferance, condition on THEIR understanding of the new world…”
>20“OUR world!” you bellow. “OUR Age! Our Faith, Our Dragon Kings, Our Serpent priesthood, and OUR DARK GODS!”
That does it. The crowd is screaming for blood and glory now, practically slavering for war. Your dragon’s greed, your kingly pride, your divine inspiration… You have shared it with them, awoken their spirits much as the Red Dragon King awoke those of the large hatchlings who flank you to either side. You bask in it, genuinely warmed to see it. They do not necessarily understand love, not as you do… But in this uniting cause, to conquer and subjugate the surface, you have begun the inklings of your vision of a community of faith servants of your Empire of Love, with you and Bloodrise at its centre.
You sense that even the clan leaders are with you, though they stand reserved. If the Serpent Priests feel they ought to silence you… They make no move and speak no word to do so, not here. Those most suited to diagnose your heresy and doctrinal deviance are keen to the mood of the room, and to the damage they would do by winding back their plans for the conflict to come, or the ascendancy of the Red Dragonborn… Or making any other move against you… When so much their fellowship now sees you and your actions as commandments from those Below and Beyond, and the path forward to their own fortunes.
You leave the stage, unarrested and unaccosted by any authority, trailed by ten Dragonborn, three great beasts, an elemental, your servants… And, at your side, the Novice.
