[archaeolept]

But what is it to win, anyways, my friends?

Is not the greatest win living on in the memory of your kith and kin, and the peoples of a later age? And who better lives on in memory than those heroes whose great deeds excite the young and comfort the old? Those magnificent heroes whose thrilling battles against incomparable odds races the heart and causes the hands to grip the page in the telling of them? Glorious champions fighting for the noblest cause, and for the very personification of beauty and wisdom.

who wishes to read about old diko-diko the bakemono shaman, and his codification of the 17 laws of propriety, along w/ the 27 fully ordained precepts and 13 supernumenary clauses? Also noted for his ability to preserve his writings in a layer of his continuously dripping mucous. Or bt'sht the illithid whose ability to control undersea vermin and have them perform pre-scripted pantomines won him the Order of TlshPPbob 5 years running?

Of course you don't! You want to thrill to Lugal'dimmerankia's burning shield against the endless waves of the really rather flammable dead. Or Asmodel's legendarily obese Angelic form standing fast against the burning lava legions, even when blinded by his own fury. Or Igalima's Hulk-like brawn, braving even the horrors from beyond. These are the stories to startle the mind and entrance the heart! And what better foes in the retelling than the hordes of the dead, or the crafty burninating ones, whose every delight is another's pain? And what better friend than the doughty mystic smiths of Ulm, or the resolute astrologers, or the daring raiders of Eriu?

Of course, religious orthodoxies may attempt to ban these stories, but every shoolchild, after a day of rote repetition, will be reading these adventures under the covers anyways. I ask you, Mr. Pretenders, to tear down this wall of Dominion! Let your people go! Let them enjoy these tales of wonder!

As such, Pythium humbly accepts the likely universal acclamation.

thank you all.