Apocalypse Reborn: Unique Victory Conditions 2

Apocalypse Reborn: Unique Victory Conditions 2

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Commissioned by Chaosbrain

Word count: 2000

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Fate is Fortune, Fortune is Fate:

Merchants of the Marsh

Prerequisites:

• Have 100,000 gold per turn

-Construct the World Wonder: The Oathkeeper

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The grand tower shines over the entirety of the world.

Some call it a miracle composed by mortals. Machine and magic working in perfect harmony in order to affect both the physical and the metaphysical.

In truth, it is nothing more than the ultimate debt collector.

The masses are indolent now. Their lives are buoyed by handouts from the elites for which they toil. They live in tenements little better than hovels but are grateful for their meager lives and temporary luxuries. Their minds are inundated by the urge to spend what little they earn and fall farther and farther into debt.

A debt that will be collected no matter what.

Some herald the Oathkeeper as the ultimate form of assurance. Those who owe you must repay you. If you give something, then something else must be given in return. A simple and powerful concept is empowered until it is unbreakable.

An unbreakable spell used by the Merchants of the Marsh, along with their immense capital, to enslave the continent. They used the crisis to their advantage. They used greed and desire. They used the skills they cultivated over countless centuries to own the debts of others.

And, once they were owed, the Oathkeeper moved.

Those who rebelled became no more than thralls.

Those who never partook only watched as vast swathes of society fell because of greed and desire.

Those who did not succumb were ostracized and marginalized.

Now, with the continent enserfed, the rest of the world is next.

The Merchants of the Marsh need only to sell them enough of their new assets until their Oathkeeper steps in.

Then, we will all be bound to their whims, as they look to the stars to further extend the length of their maws to feed their endless hunger.

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The Eightfold Spears:

Default Conquest victory

Prerequisites:

• Have all Citadels under your control.

• Do not defeat any crisis.

• Do not use any superweapons that cause the Global Catastrophe effect more than once.

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The Citadels were raised decades ago and heralded the end of an age. The age of the Academy and Warlords was over.

The age of the Citadel began.

It was a bloody and terrible age. Countless mortal lives were spent as the nations that arose fought against one another. Those who came before struggled in vain to retain their power and were felled by the might of the new. Terrible magics and ancient technology were both used to bring war to more terrible heights.

Then, they came from beyond the continent.

There was no rallying cry.

No sudden move to unity.

Only the sophistication of violence, the tightening of timetables, and the expenditure of more troops.

Now, the result is the death and destruction of all others save ourselves.

The monsters are at our door, but they do not know what they face.

The spears of the Ancients are now ours.

We stand as the few and the proud from the most terrible of arenas, and we hold at our disposal the greatest weapons ever conceived.

The world is ours.

Ready to be seized by a flood of flensing, living blades.

They simply do not know it yet.

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A Dream No Longer:

Default Diplomatic Victory

Prerequisites:

• Have all Citadels under your control or control of allied nations.

• Do not defeat any crisis.

• 6 or more factions must continue to exist.

• Total combined casualties must be less than 500,000.

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Many could not believe the words that came forth.

The Citadels had arisen, the Academy had fallen, and grudges, both new and old, came to light.

We thought that the new age would be one of conflict and destruction, even as the protections of the Ancients broke down, and their foes came forth to destroy us all.
But our fears did not come to pass.

Where the sword would be wielded, instead there was the pen.

Where battles would be waged, there were instead townships with neighbors from separate nations.

Where there would be chokepoints, there were instead roads built between nations to facilitate trade.

Then, when the enemies of the Ancients arrived, what remained gave way.

Armies were massed to fight beside one another. Resources were husbanded and shared with all. Factories were pulled into the most defensive positions and great cities were constructed under the protection of all.

Then, there was the sharing of rings, and the Citadels rose to pierce the very sky, as our leaders swore to use their new strength against the enemies of the realm.

And so they now do.

The world is changed, and great and terrible monsters threaten us from all directions, but I knew a singular truth: so long as we fight together with all our newfound strength… we shall not be defeated.

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A New Age of Wonders:

Default Monumental Victory

Prerequisites:

- No citadel must fall to a crisis.

• Do not defeat any crisis.

• Have 10 Wonders.

• Have 2500 influence per turn.

• Have +100 Happiness Per Turn.

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They called us mad.

When the world demanded that we create armies, when the world demanded we wage war, we looked to emulate the ancients.

Our scientists decoded their secrets.

Our engineers worked hand in hand to create the materials.

Our architects drafted the blueprints.

Then, we as a people devoted ourselves to the revitalization of the old. None who joined our nation would want for food and shelter as was the case in times long forgotten. None who joined our nation needed to fear anything because of their mortal form. All would only be judged by the content of their character.

The world beyond our reach burned with the flames of war.

The foes of the ancients came.

Trials and tribulations came forth to overcome us.

But they all knew that we could not be overcome. More and more people flocked to our banner. Our stalwart soldiers held the line. Our foes became our allies, and our nations united. We grew, and we found fortune thanks to our success. Our leaders spoke, and all listened, and soon enough the truth became evident.

We held the future in our grasp, and we were willing to share it with the others so that we may all prosper.

Now, they come and bend the knee after years of terrible fighting.

Our hope is that the Ancients' foes can see the light… But if they do not, they shall be found wanting.

For we are the inheritors of their great legacy, and we will succeed them if we must.

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Succession:

Descendants of the Ancients: Monumental Victory

Prerequisites:

- No citadel must fall to a crisis.

• Have all Citadels under your control or that of allies.

-Defeat At Least One Crisis

• Have 7 Wonders.

• Have 2500 influence per turn.

• Have +100 Happiness Per Turn.

• Do not use any superweapons that cause the Global Catastrophe effect more than once.

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Many aspired to achieve as the ancients did in the belief that they were the pinnacle of civilization.

But would the pinnacle be brought low?

Would the greatest nation rise, fall, and leave their descendants surrounded by foes?

No.

The Ancients have been long lauded, but the fact remains that they fell. They may have brought low their foes and left behind an inheritance, but they still faltered and failed.

Was it hubris that brought them low?

Was it a force beyond the stars that gave strength to those who wished to seize the entire planet?

Was it merely the eruption of resentment and frenzy of dissidents that destroyed the Ancients?

Whatever caused the end, we know one thing as truth: we must be better.

We stand on the shoulders of a dead giant. A carcass held up by metal supports carefully integrated during its dying moments. Around us are crippled predators that see the carcass as their only method to reach their former strength. We are prey held aloft by a dead giant.

Many of us wish to become the giant anew.

But the correct path is to let the corpse fall, to use everything left behind, and to slay the beasts while forging our own path forward.

We must take.

We must seize all that we can.

We must slay the beasts that killed our ancestors.

Then, we must learn from their mistakes, learn, and become more.

The Ancients would not wish to see us become like them and fall as they did.

They would wish for us to be better.

Now, as we have felled the first beast, it is time to take the sword to others.

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Ascension (Unavailable):

Descendants of the Ancients: Monumental Victory (Divinity DLC)

Prerequisites:

- No citadel must fall to a crisis.

• Have all Citadels under your control or that of allies.

-Defeat At Least Four Crises

• Have ??? Wonders.

• Have all 3 Divine Engines at Max Level.

• Retain a mortal leader.

-Complete the ??? Divine Wonder.

-???

-???

• Do not use any superweapons that cause the Global Catastrophe effect more than once.

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The greed of the ancients was vast and shameless.

Their downfall was writ in stone the moment they trespassed upon the realm of divinity.

The entirety of the cosmos watched with bated breath. They watched as reality itself began to be shackled. While many bowed their heads in supplication to the greatest known empire’s ascension to beyond the physical plane, some plotted.

They knew only destruction awaited them if their plan succeeded. A war across the stars would rage and destroy all that is… and perhaps even all that was and will be. The destruction of a single project based off a single world would become the spark that would set the galaxy alight.

But it is better to die fighting than to die under the yoke of tyrants that control reality itself.

So, they acted.

So, they gave strength to those with depraved intentions, seeded the seas with malign forces long thought eradicated from existence, and corrupted even the greatest guardians of the planet. Finally, they found traitors and gave them power.

Then, as the first trinity was composed and before they could come alive, they set the galaxy aflame.

Such is the story of the Ancients. An unspeakably vast and powerful empire that ruled as hegemon over the galaxy. Discontent with their mastery over the material realm, they sought to become more. They sought to become gods over reality itself, and so their few foes banded together to destroy their final project, and they prepared for the war across the heavens that would erupt thereafter.

Now, the cosmos thinks us dead.

Now, not a single force from the greater empire has come to help us.

Now, we have in our hands a fourth of the divine pantheon that they wished to construct.

The world is ours. The last of the cataclysms are being scoured from the world. The Throne is complete, and thousands of years of consolidation of the gathering of energy, the complete system, will suffice for the missing nine divine engines.

Our enemies think us dead.

Those whom we called kinsmen are nowhere to be found.

We are sure that some still watch us now.

But they all now merely watch the end.

The time of judgment has come.

The work of the Ancients and our own is now finished.

Thousands of years of suffering now end, and the age of reclamation begins!