ID: 257

Outcome: Narrow Victory

Open After Story: Yes

Manual Prompt: Yes

Text:

The Sultan fell before you.



You raised your sword high, and the crowd roared in frenzy. You were a dragonslayer, a blade who had conquered the Sultan with justice! Never before had the empire known such glory, that a mortal could ascend to such heights!



Soon, the great dragon's head was mounted upon your throne. The empire's finest goldsmiths had forged reliefs of your deed, set into the arms of the seat and it gazed upon the court. Some weak-hearted courtiers, upon first laying eyes on the skull, trembled so badly their knees gave way!



And you, the greatest hero the world has ever known, sat upon that throne. In your hand was a sword tempered in dragonfire, upon your shoulders a cloak of its scales, and at your side stood your Vizier, Adila. Your claim was so unquestionable, your preparations for the throne so thorough, that the transition of power was as smooth as a hot knife through butter.



You had once doubted whether Adila could bear the weight of the Vizier, but actually that was last thing you need to worry about. At once, she set forth sweeping reforms: equal voice for women in council, changes to the imperial succession so that daughters need not wed to claim their birthright, and a new meritocracy for the armies and royal guard: strength alone would decide, not sex, not blood, not race.



Yet when you presented them to the court, not a single voice rose in opposition. The nobles stared, drunk with awe, at the dragon's head, at the scales upon your shoulders... Such a creature had truly existed, and our Sultan had slain it! A man of such greatness was leading us, what could possibly fail? Freeing women? Letting daughters inherit? Breaking the nobles' grip on command? Compared to slaying a dragon, these were but child's play!



And so, swiftly and surely, you and Adila remade the realm. Ancient traditions were deftly replaced, new laws granted greater freedom. Smiles multiplied, markets flourished, fewer children went hungry.



To this day, your statues stand in every corner of the land. People still pray to you, begging for the courage to face their trials. They kneel in reverence, and when they rise again, their eyes burn with newfound strength.

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