ID: 229

Outcome: Narrow Victory

Open After Story: Yes

Manual Prompt: Yes

Text:

Sirshana was a prince raised in the filth of back alleys, and you were the courtier who survived the Sultan's Game. What drove you both to seize this realm wasn't homeland restoration, but to create a jungle where only the strongest survive.



Yes, the realm you built where Sirshana as king, you as high lord, was a jungle. The jungle not in trees, but in spirit. Here, soldiers earned rank through mortal combat. Officials clawed their way up over the bodies of rivals. Merchants poisoned competitors' goods with the crown's blessing. Murder became just another trade, revenge a sacred right.



You answered violence with greater violence, and Sirshana were the mightiest predator of all. Every week, hundreds fought to the death in your arenas. The survivors would kneel before you, receiving appointments to fill the endless vacancies in your armies and enforcer squads where vacancies you deliberately created by constantly driving your kingdom to war, to conflict, to bloodshed. The jungle demanded its "apes" tear at each other's throats. The arena became the capital's beating heart. Even children were brought by their parents to witness the slaughter. Let the moralists wail while you and Sirshana reveled in the carnage.



But even the rulers atop the jungle's canopy must face challenges from the beasts below. When the arena's champion, having slain thirty-four men, knelt before Sirshana and begged for the honor to fight his king.



The crowd roared like a raging sea. You almost moved to stop him, but then caught yourself. Even if Sirshana refused, the jungle would hunt you both down. This was the law you had made. The world you had built.



He accepted the challenge.The gladiator's steel found his heart, then you leapt into the pit and cut the gladiator down.



The crowd screamed in ecstasy. Your ears rang. Your pulse hammered like war drums. Your vision blurred. Your thoughts shattered into pieces.



Sirshana's body lay at your feet, yet you could only wonder: should you regret the kingdom you had made together?

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