Bluepilled vampire harem novel demonstrates the "delta" dad

This bluepilled vampire harem novel demonstrates the "delta" dad, the everyman who can never be a true alpha. 

It is an example of Vox Day's sociosexual hierarchy model. 

Feminists approve of deltas because it maximizes their resource extraction and liberty to fuck alphas. A delta will always love her, no matter what. 

Review

Death Loot & Vampires | by BenjaminKerei on Royal Road

This is the #20 highest-rated book on Royald Road. It is solid, masculine fun. The feminists are indulging in harem with plausible deniability, which is amusing. Explicitly harem novels are downvoted severely. 

The protagonist allegedly doesn't sleep with his familiars. The loyalty the women display is explained by the magical familiar bond, but in real life would be because he's fucking them. The vibe is thus a harem novel. 

This review covers book 1; the author plans to continue the series. The protagonist has two (sexually-mature) teenage girl "familiars" so far, and has been awake for about a month. Doubtless he will add more in book 2. 

Anti-harem themes were limited to a few lines. The cuck triggers are mild. The badgirl's betrayal is a minor attempt to regain her freedom of will, not a hostile act. Another time a handsome masseur exits her room, ambiguously. His wife remarries after he gets isekaid and dies. 

To compensate, the quality of writing is much higher than the average harem lit. 

My analysis below will demonstrate how someone who wasn't a bluepilled dadcel would've ascended into a true Dark Lord. 

This review has been impossible to publish on Reddit. The fantasy feminists hate my patriarchal analysis, and the harem fetishists think the book is not sexy enough. They argue it's not a harem novel, even though it is obviously about a lion and his pride. 

According to these "harem genre experts", Boxxy T. Morningwood is also not a harem novel. I guess they don't possess enough imagination to insert themselves into the situation of being surrounded by busty familiars. It's not hard. 

Honor is for men. The only way a male can lead females in combat is if he's fucking them or they're his children. So if an adventurer is wandering around with a party of women, they're his harem, period. 

(The women will fuck the male leader to increase their odds of survival. It's basic hunter-gatherer logic.) 

Harem novels are a good antidote to the constant estrogenic barrage from mass media, so I will continue to champion them, singlehandedly if necessary. 

Analysis

Intro

Below I present the overpowered protagonist's optimal strategy, given available information. I will ignore his sentimental preferences until the end. 

In general, I prefer to analyze the possible before considering the sentimental (despite the latter's relevance to resisting the Curse of Sloth). Analyzing the possible often renders irrational motives moot, since the optimal path for oneself is often similar to the optimal path for helping others – both of which require power. For example, survival is a basic form of power; it grants time. 

If you haven't read the book, most of this won't make sense. The last section, "Cucky geezer", makes more general points. 

Lose conditions

Protag has two main lose conditions: 

1. Losing his soul by killing an innocent.
2. Being killed while sleeping in his coffin.

The best way to minimize the pressure on his willpower is to get regular light sleep in his coffin during the day. This prevents fatigue, madness and hunger from building up. Light sleep prevents deep sleep, during which he cannot awaken even if killed. 

Thus he has two major vulnerabilities: 

1. Willpower
2. His coffin during the day.

Therefore he should've immediately advanced Willpower to the maximum tier 4, instead of wasting his first upgrade on Prodigy. And he should've slept in his coffin every day, instead of going weeks (months?) without sleep, botching the cleansing of the royal family as a result, and nearly dying. In fact, most of the dramatic tension in the book results from him never sleeping until the end. 

Speaking of character builds, it irritates me when the protagonist adds free points before understanding his build. If he must allocate in ignorance, he could at least limit himself to one point per day. Morning is a good time to reflect on the previous day and decide where the next point should go. This develops an intuitive feel for the marginal impact of a single point on performance. It also averages out foolish impulses, and reduces irrationality from FOMO. 

Dark Count

So let's go back to the beginning, when protag awakens as his son lifts the lid on his lead coffin. How should he direct the party after he establishes his dominance? 

The logical strategy is to establish a feudal domain centered on his castle. Protag should spend his nights killing evil-aligned creatures in a spiral around his castle. His super-speed and evil eye make doing anything else comparatively inefficient. Eating Unseen humans also solves his hunger problem. 

This nightly activity is plenty to gain goodwill, servants and allies to handle the rest of his affairs. All he needs is a bit of diplomacy. 

Diplomacy begins with his son's party. He should propose to clear the remaining nearby ghouls together. After that, he should assign the cleric and shaman to castle cleansing and visiting town. His son should accompany him on the first night's hunt, since he is fast enough to keep up (barely). 

Protag should keep a larder of evildoers in his castle. Those worth no ransom he should vamp touch in front of the others. They should fear death above all, since they are damned. Those who promise a large ransom should be accompanied by a guard to pay it. Then the Unseen should be returned to comfortable confinement in the keep. Unseen can do sedentary work to buy better quality of life and a higher place in the food chain. Privileged Unseen slaves allowed outside their cells can be identified by black tattoos around the eyes. 

A cleric can stay in the castle and verify that the Unseen are evil and the protag is not. (Eventually the Necrosaint's clerics will act as his inquisitors, preventing his evil-aligned subjects from organizing a rebellion.) 

In this manner, the protag will quickly acquire a large army and many familiars, as befits his station. He should garrison his castle with undead legions. Once his Willpower is max rank, he can start drinking blood for extra nutrition. This allows him to milk his larder of Unseen non-lethally. 

Foreign relations

The lich Contessa is not a priority target since her borders are static and she is preoccupied with her research, which can easily use Unseen humans instead of innocents. The infiltration of the kingdom by a Body Snatcher Queen is an emergency, but unknown to the protag. Growing his powerbase will eventually put the protag into friction with both of these powers. However, the Dungeon Break will occur first. This will give the protag the opportunity to take the field on behalf of the kingdom and secure acceptance as a hero. 

Refugees will flood into his territory, repopulating it. Predators will follow, keeping him well-fed. The kingdom will fall to the Body Snatcher. His dynasty will rise to replace it. His son will produce heirs. Contessa will kneel as his court researcher, providing him an evolutionary pathway back to a hybrid humanity. The church within his borders will outcompete the corrupted Pope's church, extending the protag's influence with missionary zeal. He can still trade with Contessa for the Necrosaint, thereby gaining a global wonder. At that point, immortal global empire is the logical outcome. 

Senseless sentiment

Instead he nearly dies repeatedly and suffers months of horrific torture that prevent him from ever returning to humanity, lest he go mad. His son also risks death. 

At the end of the book, he enters deep sleep in his lead coffin for a presumably lengthy period, possibly years, to assimilate upgrading his bloodline to royal. It is possible he will never awaken, since he has earned the king's wrath. One doubts his powerbase is sufficient to repel a determined invasion. 

The Dungeon Break gives him some time; perhaps it will be enough. If he doesn't awake before the Break ends, then legions of leveled dungeoneers can be reassigned to "rescue" the princess from his keep once the Dungeon Break ends. The resulting casualties would be a good way for the king to release some of the political pressure created by many commoner soldiers suddenly gaining power equivalent to that of nobles within the span of a year or two. All it would take is an insinuation that the Ancient Vampire predicted the Dungeon Break because he caused it. He assassinated the Ant Queen to facilitate his ongoing coup, which involves marrying the princess as sole heir to inherit the kingdom. 

If the protag were less OP and lucky, his abysmal strategy would've killed him many times over; it may still do so. Thus we see that sentiment is folly. Hail Night. 

Cucky geezer

The contemporary Western fantasy readership tends to be relatively low testosterone and effeminate. Popular works thus avoid the bold masculinity of modern Russian fantasy, preferring more feminist tropes. 

For the purposes of critique, I'm going to ignore the masculine vibe of the story and pretend to take seriously the assertion that the protagonist wasn't fucking his two familiars. 

This story is near the top of RoyalRoad's Best Rated ranking. To avoid offending feminists, it neuters the alpha male of the story into a delta dad. Despite transforming into a staggeringly charismatic and OP vampire, he fucks zero women. He doesn't even flirt. He has a harem of two teenage girls, mocks the trope, and doesn't sleep with them, resulting in suboptimal outcomes. 

The protagonist remains faithfully in love with his distant wife, who remarried after his death. This results in the cultist girl promiscuously fucking inferior men (implied) and attempting to betray him at his weakest moment. Cultist girl is correct to do so, since he is a weak man, unfit to rule. 

Cultist girl openly lusted after him, but he didn't make a pass. To make matters worse, he granted cultist girl an overpowered armor fit for a queen that can threaten even him, which she has done nothing to merit. He is only able to manage her behavior via magical compulsion; he has no Game. 

He should've converted his cultist goth girl into a loyal witch instead of a melee death knight, which is a ridiculous role for a woman. (Women do not compete in full-contact medieval bouts against men. Or boxing, MMA, power-lifting, etc.) The compulsion of the familiar bond lasts a decade, which is plenty of time to secure her heart. She is ritually empowered but needs her personality totally overwritten, which requires the constant personal attention that a personal assistant and bedwarmer receives. 

The necrosaint walked up to him and forced the familiar bond on him, yet he never even made a pass at the constantly happy girl. That is anime-tier protagonistic asexuality. She's an overpowered ingenue who also requires common-sense close supervision. Her presence in the love triangle would prevent cultist girl from growing presumptuously possessive. He is totally dependent on her continued loyalty at the end of the book, but hasn't secured it by taking her virginity. 

He's a fish out of water, and they're blanks awaiting imprint. The thing to do would be to entertain himself with them in his coffin chamber during daylight, as a teambuilding exercise. That would get everyone ready to face the real world. 

There is zero chance these teenage girls wouldn't jump the protagonist's bones, whatever his misguided monogamous ideals might be. I just ignore this sort of nonsense and assume they're fucking, but the author can't say so without alienating the soyMarxists. 

Not fucking your two best girls is the same mistake Momonga from Overlord made, but at least he had the dickless lich excuse. Not coincidentally, the USA forced feminist laws on Japan after nuking her, causing the birth rate to plummet. It would seem women do not want to have babies sired by male feminists. Perhaps women demand feminism in order to weed out men weak enough to yield to them. 

This would explain why successful religions tend to be patriarchal. Religions mainly propagate via childrearing, not proselytization. Thus feminist religions die out and patriarchal ones grow. I suppose one could consider cat worship to be a feminist religion, with cat lady spinsters as devotees to Bastet. Cats have no shortage of shameless entitlement, unlike the protagonist. 

The protagonist's main flaw is his inability to transition from atomized middle-class matriarchal citizen to anathemized patriarchal feudal lord. The lion eats what his pride hunts. 

Discussion

Women's "honor"

February22nd2023 

"Honor is for men." 

And what has dis-honor, all sorts of ill-behaviors being acceptable among women lead to?? 

"Not coincidentally, the USA forced feminist laws on Japan after nuking her, causing the birth rate to plummet." 

Nothing to do with Japan reduced from the Empire to just the islands, right? 

Why are you trying to pick a fight? 

Women don't have honor, they care about social reputation and inclusion. Honor is a testicular thing to earn a wife from the pack. 

Everything is relative. White women have a lot more guilt than blacks do. However, in this time of gender confusion, it is best to avoid referring to female "honor". Use a synonym such as "virtue".

Uncle Beholder explains to Boxxy T. Morningwood how he could've gotten all the shinies without dying. "Huck!"

Everybody loves Boxxy

Neven Iliev's "Everybody Loves Large Chests" is excellent if one enjoys litRPG from a monstrous and demonic point of view, which unsurprisingly involves nonstop atrocities such as murder and occasional rape.

The protagonist is Boxxy T. Morningwood, a shapeshifting chest Mimic with dextrous tentacles. Despite the heavy subject matter, it is basically a comedy about an infantile asexual box and its emotionally broken pseudo-harem. One cannot help but root for the monster as it beats long odds in its absolutely single-minded pursuit of all that is tasty and shiny.

There are some spoilers here through book 3, in terms of characters and their abilities. The mention of "dying" in the title is not some grand spoiler, it's just an expression for danger. (Or is it?) Certainly Boxxy endures a great deal of pain and suffering that could've been avoided with a bit of common-sense. This leads to frequent and emphatic cursing, which the lipless Mimic pronounces "Huck!"

I will write Boxxy's gender as male, since he becomes a Doppelganger. All Doppelgangers are technically male.

Mimic skirmisher

Intro

While Neven is great at writing characters, his knowledge of medieval weapons seems average. This explains the absence of poleaxes and slings, in a fantasy world with plate armor and no firearms. This is a common failing in fantasy writing. Swords and bows are elegant and flashy; slings and poleaxes are drab and brutal. See lightsaber vs shotgun.

Chest Mimics are usually depicted as mindless beasts who fight unarmed. Neven's concept of an intelligent mimic who fights with weapons is intriguing. Therefore, this section will examine how a chest Mimic with an internal bag of holding should fight.

Bored of the sword

Neven writes Boxxy as a tentacle swordsman and dagger backstabber. This makes no sense:

• One-handed blades are side-arms not intended for the battlefield, except when paired with a shield.
• Tentacles are boneless limbs designed to explore underwater nooks and grapple prey towards a central mouth.
• Tentacles lack the arm bones necessary to wield a sword effectively. The bones leverage the nearby torso to impart force.

A Mimic's optimal physical combat role is skirmisher. Its Storage carries plenty of projectile ammunition. The Mimic skirmisher covers its naked body with a large shield and moves evasively on spider legs.

• At long range, it outranges bows with a staff sling and arbalest.
• At medium range, it hurls throwing weapons such as pilums, grenades, caltrops, etc.
• At close range, it entangles with nets, lassos, bolas, whips etc to grapple and bite.

Setting up the bite

A chest Mimic's hunting strategy is to wait until its opponent is in melee range, then ambush with a grappling bite. This works on a single unwary foe, but not in open combat.

A Mimic is an ambush predator with a devastating bite. Why should it wield a melee weapon capable of doing massive damage, when its teeth already perform that role? All it needs is a helpless enemy.

In open melee, foes can be rendered helpless with nets and other entangling devices such as whips, lassos and bolas. These can be held by pseudo-tentacles, which are already designed for grappling prey towards the mouth.

Spider slinger

An intelligent Mimic need not risk melee combat at all. The logical weapon for the shapeshifter is a staff sling AKA fustibalus. This keeps the limbs safe near the main body, and lets the Mimic put its "hips" into the bullet's release. The Mimic can probably wield two fustibali at once, alternating releases for a high sustained rate of fire. It can probably form these fustibali from its own flesh and bone, for better accuracy. Doing so is less complicated that walking on shapeshifted spider legs, or swordfighting.

The fustibalus (or staff sling) is a siege weapon that outranges the bow. Fustibali are easily constructed, and ammo is abundant. A warrior who attempts to block the rain of rocks with its shield is likely to run out of stamina, assuming his arm and shield don't break first.

Its internal bag of holding provides unlimited ammo. Thus the Mimic can skitter backwards on spider legs, firing with impunity from walls and ceiling at maximum range.

Boxxy can add further firepower with an arbalest (siege crossbow) inside his mouth, where it can be quickly winched and loaded with poisoned bolts from Storage. A sufficiently powerful crossbow bolt will penetrate both shield and plate armor.

Fighting retreat

Faced with heavy ranged fire, the foe will likely charge. At midrange, Boxxy's Warlock job does devastating burst damage and offers crowd control options as well.

As Boxxy retreats, he can lay caltrops and trip with nets, lassos, bolas and whips, leaving the foe prone and vulnerable to a bite on the neck. Caltrops favor the Mimic's mana vision sphere and spider legs. They can be crafted easily from scrap.

Blindfighter

The foe may retreat around a corner, attempting to fight in an enclosed space to negate Boxxy's ranged advantage.

“Honoka, that’s a Ranked Up Mimic in there. It has command over one of the most advanced Mana Locator Glands in existence, second only to a beholder’s.

The MLG organ provides a sphere of perfect mana vision. Since Boxxy does not require ocular vision in melee, he can blind everyone. The True Darkness Warlock spell conveniently creates a globe of darkness.

People tend to open their eyes wide when it suddenly gets dark. That's a great time to put smoke, gas, fire, dust, acid, sand, shit, etc into their eyes. Boxxy can store a personal air supply in his Storage, so why let anyone else breathe?

Grapple with whips

The Mimic's best melee weapon is probably the whip. Tentacles are already basically whips, so the motions will be natural. Each tentacle can wield a short whip designed to flay and grapple a foe, disarming weapons and pulling him into a bite.

Spider tank

A shapeshifting chest Mimic with an internal bag of holding is a terrifying skirmisher projecting infinite ammunition with incredible force from a mobile platform. Basically it's a spider tank.

I hope this analysis will inspire fantasy authors to write more slinger builds.

Party composition

Familiar sequence

The sequence in which Boxxy contracts his familiars is crucial. Unsurprisingly, the moronic box flubs it. Here's the correct order.

There are five types of demonic familiar available, initially:

• Beholder (intellect, secrets)
• Fiend (wrath, butch)
• Hellhound (canine)
• Stalker (fear, insectoid or feline)
• Succubus (lust, female)

Beholder first

1. The missing mentor

The largest mistake Boxxy made was his choice of first familiar. At the time, Boxxy was an infantile illiterate box with nothing but his monstrous appetites and instincts to guide him. He asked for something sneaky with a large chest and got a Succubus. Carl the Contract Devil was enjoying a bit of creative misinterpretation, there. Boxxy probably meant something like a Stalker.

Neither was the correct choice. A Beholder is a floating lump of eyes, secrets and magic with no physical prowess whatsoever. Thus it is the perfect complement for an infantile Mimic with retard strength.

Mimics and Beholders share not only a common demonic origin but also a shared outlook in the Mana Locator Gland. This explains the Beholder's avuncular delight when Boxxy first encounters one in Bootlick. By contrast, Xera the Succubus is disgusted to be contracted to an asexual moronic box.

A loyal Beholder would've quickly guided Boxxy away from Monotal to level safely in Erosa, skipping the Calamity and thereby avoiding the attention of Spymaster Edward. A wise Beholder would also not endanger his master's life with foolish and incompetent antics, the way Xera and Kora commonly do. In fact, the Beholder would be essential in effectively managing the rest of the party. Baby boxes are not leadership material, no matter how endearing and persistent.

Most importantly, the Beholder would provide an easy and deniable way for the God of Chaos to use Boxxy as his pawn to topple Teresa, the bitchy Goddess of Justice. Intelligent leadership would allow Chaos to achieve its goal with much less danger to Boxxy.

How would this subtle influence be exerted? Well, demonic familiars can telephone the Beyond while summoned. So the Beholder could confer with his well-informed colleagues to develop a geopolitical strategy for the restoration of the Doppelganger kingdom. A Doppelganger kingdom would create many more monstrous Warlocks to summon bored Beholders.

Well, eventually that could happen, once the Boxxy show gets popular. In the early stages, one Beholder's common sense would be enough to steer the moron clear of trouble.

2. Neven's Beholder lore

According to the lore contained in the Summon Familiar and Demonology Skills, Beholders were demons whose main purpose was not combat, but information gathering through observation. They loved hoarding secrets and knowledge for themselves, and made sure to avoid sharing what they knew as much as possible. That didn’t mean they couldn’t fight, however. Although their offensive capabilities were lacking, the various types of eye beams they could fire were capable of weakening, staggering or outright crippling their target. They could also erect magical barriers in order to protect their master and allies, although they probably had to be specifically ordered to do so as demons were quite fickle creatures.

Those eye-demons were quite popular among Warlocks that dabbled in the demonic arts, as they eliminated many of their masters’ weak spots.

…though neither as potent as succubi nor as versatile as beholders.

1. The first priority when operating alone in total ignorance is proper scouting. Whereas Boxxy's mind is unable to handle the input from multiple eyes for 360 degree vision, a Beholder does this naturally. Therefore Boxxy should contract the Beholder first to literally watch his back.

Beholders and Mimics share a common outlook in the Mana Locator Gland, in addition to their common demonic heritage. This helps to overcome the hurdle of Boxxy's initial idiotic personality.

Beholders are good at blocking magic and spotting threats, which would've helped Boxxy avoid some of his near death experiences. Boxxy's bane is lightning, and ice magic impedes his shapeshifting. A Beholder's screens can block both.

2. The road to Erosa

Boxxy only remembered to Summon his Familiar after killing a Janther and most of the party of adventurers fighting it. Unfortunately the rogue of the party survives and flees back to town, reporting that the Litigar Dungeon sweeper is a terrifying chest Mimic. The town immediately began preparing a raiding party to put the sweeper down.

Had Boxxy summoned a Beholder, it would have recognized the threat and advised Boxxy to leave the area immediately. The logical destination would be Erosa, where Boxxy can get paid for killing monsters by doing Mercenary Guild quests. The Monotal militia would assume that the sweeper ran off or got killed. Nobody else would care about a sweeper from a low-mana region, since it would be low-level.

The Calamity of Monotal would not happen, since Boxxy would not have a Fiend to dislodge the Dungeon Core and push it out of the Dungeon while fighting off waves of monsters. Thus Erosa's security would remain low, and Spymaster Edward would not be in town. The area around Erosa would provide suitably-leveled hunting grounds for Boxxy.

3. Trapdoor artillery

In transit to Erosa, the Beholder would teach Boxxy how a chest Mimic should hunt in the wilderness. A Mimic should be nocturnal, since he has both night vision eyes and an MLG. Therefore, during the day he should burrow like a trapdoor spider. He can leave some blood out as bait.

At night, Boxxy functions as silent artillery. His main attack, the fustibalus, is a siege weapon that even historical humans could fire 1/3 of a mile. He wouldn't need line of sight with the Beholder spotting.

Good luck dodging bullets by moonlight while a Beholder debuffs and dazzles. Even if Boxxy's accuracy is poor at first, the harassing fire is a good way to exhaust prey that lacks a ranged attack before closing for the kill.

A Beholder would probably find orchestrating such ballistic mayhem highly entertaining. 3D Tank Wars is a lot better than floating around bored in the Beyond.

Succubus next

The next familiar Boxxy contracts must be a Succubus, so that he can obtain Warlock Job training. Otherwise he cannot contract more familiars due to the Level 25 Warlock Job cap.

While difficult, obtaining Job training is doable even without the Essence Concealment perk Boxxy gains from Hero of Chaos.

The main lynchpin of its infiltration operation, the sole thing that allowed it to integrate so fully into elven society, was now gone. People trusted Appraisals to an almost outlandish degree. Why wouldn’t they? It was a reliable magic that revealed one’s true colors, so being able to subvert that was pretty much a free pass to do whatever the hell it pleased, within reason of course. As expected of a Skill granted by the Gods, having Essence Concealment truly felt like cheating.

Xera helped Boxxy obtain Artificer training by hypnotizing Fizzy in Erosa. Unfortunately, Warlocks are wary of Succubus wiles and have high Mental attribute to resist hypnosis. Luckily, Warlocks are also unscrupulous and open to bribery or blackmail.

If the Assessment can't by skipped, it can be faked. Xera defeated an Assessment check in Monotal by hypnotizing an official in his private office. While the Warlock trainer in Bootlick doubled as Appraisal Scribe, most do not.

It might take Xera awhile, but the ancient shapeshifter would eventually find a way to falsify or skip Appraisal and obtain Warlock training for Boxxy.

Boxxy should still minimize his time in town while he is a chest Mimic, due to his poor acting skills and suspicious Sandman appearance. Lacking the Butcher of Humanity perk certainly helps. There is no need for him to go into town, since Xera can do those errands for him.

In Monotal she posed as a Pyromancer to join the hunt for Boxxy. A Pyromancer witch questing solo would raise eyebrows, since it looks risky. Instead, she should pretend to have a Warlock job in addition to Pyromancer. Warlocks are more solitary, and the Beholder would explain how she is able to quest solo without being surprised or overwhelmed. Her rapid rate of quest clearance should earn her gratitude, which she can use to deflect suspicion.

Once Boxxy has the Transfamiliar spell and ranks up into a Doppelganger, he can take turns with Xera pretending to be the same woman, for even better infiltration.

Then Stalker

A Stalker demon is a stealthy insectoid or feline assassin. Having a dedicated scout on patrol greatly reduces the risk of Boxxy being surprised and overwhelmed. Stalker benefits:

• A hunter to feed his voracious appetite and supply biomass to Rank Up.
• A stealther who can stay undetected so no one realizes the Monotal Dungeon sweeper has moved to Erosa.
• An assassin to eliminate witnesses and investigators.
• A scout to patrol beyond the Beholder's vision.
• A direct counter to Boxxy's lightning bane and vulnerability to cold magic.

Neven's anti-magic Stalker Drea works fine for these purposes. Her silk would also make good armor for Boxxy's combat form, although he doesn't wear any in the book. Boxxy should weave different shapes suitable for standard anatomical shapes such as treasure chest, spider leg and tentacle, then loosely fasten them on with flesh buttons through pre-punched holes. The strength of silk would help prevent him from losing biomass due to severing blows.

Hellhound fourth

This choice may surprise you. Why a Hellhound instead of a Fiend? A Hellhound is an all-rounder whose capabilities seem redundant with existing party members. By contrast, a Fiend is a dedicated tank, or at least a melee specialist. Shouldn't every Warlock want a meatshield?

Yes, Enlightened Warlocks want meatshields because they are slow squishy bipeds. But Boxxy is a beefy speedy shapeshifter. A Fiend will just slow him down. As a flightless biped, Kora is the slowest member of Boxxy's party.

(Enlightened species include elves, humans, dwarves, gnomes, beastkin, etc. Monsters are the opposite — selfish, primal and destructive. Neven's worldbuilding sharply divides the two, although individuals may vary.)

Admittedly, Hellhounds are far less useful than Fiends on the battlefield. However, Boxxy should avoid battlefields like the plague, since they attract Rankers who repeatedly almost kill him. The existence of a battlefield means that there are fewer guards elsewhere, so elsewhere is where Boxxy should be! War means monster populations grow unchecked, which is good hunting for mercenary loners.

If Boxxy were primarily clearing Dungeons or fighting in underground tunnels, then a Fiend would be better. Fiends are a more stationary combatant, capable of holding their ground.

However, Boxxy cannot gain nutrition from Dungeon monsters. Dungeons are designed to challenge Enlightened races. Boxxy's comparative advantage is hunting monsters. Being a monster himself, with a demonic party, he is comfortable in the wilderness. Dungeons attract adventurers, who threaten Boxxy's safety. The wilderness has fewer Enlightened, and it is easier to see them coming, as they fight through the local monsters.

A Fiend is inherently distinctive, fighting with idiosyncratic weapons and a memorable humanoid configuration. Hellhounds are much less distinguishable. They're speechless, quick-moving blurs, low to the ground, difficult for untrained witnesses to observe in detail. Thus it is much harder to identify a Warlock by his Hellhound than by his Fiend.

All of Boxxy's party members are highly mobile. So why should they stand still to fight? They don't care about defending anything; they're monsters.

Hellhounds are designed to hound prey. It is very dangerous to run from a canine, because they will bite the vulnerable tendons on the back of the leg.

When the foe stands still, Boxxy dials in his fustibalus fire. When the foe moves, the Hellhound and Drea harry it from above and below. Whether it moves towards Boxxy or away, it's screwed. The best it can do is hide in a cave, where Xera can roast it.

Once Boxxy closes in, he can continue firing over the Hellhound's head. Even Xera's pyromancy will affect the Hellhound less, due to its fire resistance and mobility.

The Hellhound also helps Boxxy flee. Canines are pack animals who distract a large foes from focusing on any one member. Whenever Boxxy encounters a monster in the wilderness that is too strong, the Hellhound harries it, Drea webs it, and the Beholder weakens it, until the whole party (hopefully) escapes intact.

Resummoning Kora in the battle of the five Hylt sisters took half of Boxxy's mana, so the priority is on using demons who won't die due to low mobility or unwillingness to disengage. This is the skirmisher style of warfare. Boxxy is fundamentally a skirmisher, if mobile artillery can be called that.

Shield Fiend fifth

Last is the Fiend. Kora is still not a suitable candidate, regrettably. Her memorable four-armed torso is responsible for a substantial percentage of Boxxy's near-death experiences. Her punches lack range and power relative to polearms, yet leave her defenseless.

Kora is good at breaking things, but the party already has enough firepower. What Boxxy still needs is a shieldbearer and tank.

Boxxy should contract a Fiend with the following characteristics:

• Male to be more rational. Kora's extra Berserker fierceness is superfluous, with Boxxy supplying sustained fustibalus damage.
• Small to pass as Enlightened when armored.
• Inherent large shield and gladius.
• Fast to keep up.
• Defender, not berserker.

I'll call my Fiend Kurt the legionary. Just remember Kora < Kurt.

Although Boxxy does not equip Kora, he should certainly equip Kurt in quality armor. Boxxy is rich, and items in his Storage weigh nothing, whereas resummoning a demon costs half his MP.

Kurt stays with Boxxy as shieldbearer and bodyguard while the others range ahead, allowing Boxxy to focus on launching projectiles. Once Boxxy closes in, Kurt charges.

Wearing full plate with a large shield is excessive when fighting alone, and a gladius lacks armor penetration. However, Kurt is a dedicated tank. Others will open holes in the foe's armor, which the gladius can exploit with minimal exposure. The team lacks a dedicated healer, so HP conservation is key.

As to whether such a Fiend exists, presumably all the legionaries who died on campaign from gut wounds and dysentery have spawned a demon or two. They are accustomed to long marches and artillery fire preceding the charge. Boxxy's methods will make sense to them.

Fiends are the most aggressive demons and should therefore be contracted last, when Boxxy is ready for open confrontation with Enlightened foes. Having a dedicated tank in the party will be crucial for countering Enlightened Rankers, who can't be permitted breathing room to use their overpowered Ultimates.

Conclusion

Boxxy's greatest advantage is the unprecedented loyalty of his contracted demons. With a proper party composition, he can level rapidly and remain undetected until it is too late.

Gnomish Golem Champion

Coincidental acquisition

Boxxy only acquired Fizzy as a gnomish golem paladin Champion of Chaos sworn to his service because he inadvertently nuked Monotal and then was captured by Spymaster Edward.

Fizzy is an overpowered ally. Therefore, one could argue that choosing a Beholder as Boxxy's first familiar would hurt Boxxy's long-term potential.

This ignores two things:

1. Boxxy probably dies to Spymaster Edward's hunt after the Calamity of Monotal, and decisions must be weighed probabilistically, not ex post facto.
2. Boxxy's capture and promotion to Hero of Chaos were merely part of a pre-existing proxy conflict between Chaos and Theresa.

Boxxy would've been the logical choice for Hero of Chaos even if he didn't nuke Monotal, due to his demonic heritage and familiars, who tie him closely to the Beyond, Chaos' domain. Fizzy was merely selected as the Champion of Chaos because she was there. Another person would've served just as well, or at least that's what the God of Chaos told her. Actually, it likely would've wound up being Fizzy anyway.

After all, Fizzy was one of the few Erosa Trainers available to Boxxy for a Job highly useful to a grenadier: Artificer. As an isolated gnome without a guild, she did not require Boxxy to pass any Appraisal checks. Like the Mercenary Guild dwarf, she did not discriminate against his appearance.

Moreover, although this is not mentioned in the book, Arclight Artificers undoubtedly know how to insulate themselves against their own lighting, which is a simple matter of weaving grounding wires into one's clothing. So Boxxy could defend against his Lightning bane by taking that Job.

When Boxxy left Erosa, would he leave Fizzy behind? Someone who knew him too well, and might let something slip to investigators later? She is small and easily abductable. Her family would still have died in the bandit ambush on the highway. Nobody would miss her much.

There would be no ruthless abuse, since she did not betray Boxxy. More like a willing camp follower. Xera could watch her dreams for signs of betrayal. They would journey together to Horkensaft, a more hospitable civilization. In time Fizzy could be trusted to represent Boxxy's interests in town, alongside Xera.

Would Fizzy still become the Rustblood Juggernaut by donning the Jade King's cursed gauntlet? Probably, yeah. Chaos manipulated that outcome to over 90% probability in the book. The Jade King's Dungeon is on the way from Erosa to the Ishigar Republic. That is the logical place for Boxxy to go after he levels enough to travel safely. Ishigar is more tolerant, and it's on the way to Horkensaft. Traveling overland and avoiding roads is safest for Boxxy; otherwise he risks encountering observant VIPs such as Shinji Arakawa's carriage in the book.

It would likely happen because Chaos likes transformation and wanted to embarrass Goroth for making a cheesable boss fight. Also, Boxxy killing that perverted necromancer twice would be funny.

Fizzy is still unsuited to travel in the company of Boxxy, and wishes to leave her grief behind. The best way to fix that is to become a golem.

Fizzy the famous

As the Rustblood Juggernaut, Fizzy is mentally capable of navigating civilization, but her golem status encounters prejudice in some civilizations. She performs best among the gnomes and dwarves of Horkensaft, and therefore should return there.

Fizzy is an ideal face for the operation. She is a divine champion, artificer, ex-gnome and living work of art, making her charismatic in Horkensaft. She should accept quests for the party and claim credit for their completion. This will rapidly attract powerful patronage and protection. The party can align with Horkensaft and expand its interests to mutual profit, focusing on the surrounding monsters, to avoid provoking a coordinated Enlightened counterattack.

Allies of Horkensaft

Fizzy will naturally ally with the Horkensaft government. Boxxy can use this to obtain discreet assistance for his needs such as Job training. Horkensaft is the correct place for Doppelganger Boxxy to openly portray himself as Fizzy's reclusive Warlock ally.

Boxxy can present himself in Horkensaft as a lazy rich elf Warlock/Artificer named Chester Shadowspring who lets Fizzy do the fighting with Kurt tanking. Fizzy and Chester bonded over a shared interest in artificing, so they traveled together to the Horkensaft kingdom. Chester mostly stays in his workshop, but he does amazingly good work for an elf.

Horkensaft should not know that "Chester" has a succubus, so that Xera can play Chester if necessary. Thus Boxxy can loot distant cities and Transfamiliar back to deposit it into his Horkensaft bank, while Xera ensures Lodrak gets blamed for it.

Hidden hand

Overview

I propose a strategy by which Boxxy can use his new Doppelganger race to destroy the Lodrak Empire and rule a rump state from the shadows.

1. Boxxy and Xera leave Lodrak and do false flags implicating Lodrak, inciting world war.
2. Fizzy gains fame in Horkensaft. Boxxy invests in its arms industry.
3. Spymaster Edward is executed for war crimes. Conquered Lodrak is divided; nobody wants Monotal region. Boxxy takes it.
4. Doppelganger changelings mature after 11 years in chaotic conquered Lodrak.
5. Doppelganger sailors crew gnomish navy to dominate navigable coasts of Oculus Sea.
6. Ishigar and Sovereign States Alliance are too war-weary to challenge Horkensaft-Doppelganger alliance.
7. Boxxy rules Lodrak rump state from the shadows. Gnomish lightning-scribe inquisitors police his spawn with threat of bloodline extermination, like vampire clans.

I do not expect a rotten slut and a baby box to develop Question-tier geopolitical strategy, but it amuses me to ponder what they should have done, if only to underline the comedy of errors.

Why Doppelganger

I always examine evolution choices in litRPG, since they are strategically crucial and therefore interesting.

At rank up, Boxxy's three choices were Slime Queen (Shadow or Metallic) and Doppelganger.

Doppelganger was the correct choice, despite Boxxy repeatedly nearly dying due to clumsy infiltration of Enlightened society.

My strategy avoids these risks. It is based on Neven's worldbuilding. Quoting from Royal Road:

Of course, the immature monster had no way of knowing that Queen Slimes were considered a species superior to Doppelgangers. In reality, a Queen Slime’s amorphous body was actually composed of nearly a hundred smaller slimes that had melded and gelled together. It was essentially a self-contained hivemind that had enormous growth potential when it came to its intelligence and learning capacity.

Their shapeshifting abilities were not particularly lacking, either. Not only could they compress and shrink down their amorphous body in a manner similar to Doppelgangers, but lacking a base form meant that a Queen Slime’s transformations were truly limitless. Most interesting of all was a Queen Slime’s unique ability to divide its own body into multiple sentient blobs. After all, they had hundreds of slime nuclei floating inside their bodies, so something like splitting up into multiple copies of themselves was child’s play.

Granted, each one would possess only a fraction of the original’s Attributes, but doing this dramatically increased the monster’s survival rate. Not only was fighting a group much more challenging than attacking an individual, but a Queen Slime only needed about 20 or so slime cores to escape from a fight in order to survive. Although losing a large chunk of its nuclei would temporarily reduce the creature’s overall Attributes and cause severe memory problems, it was still preferable to being completely destroyed.

However, while a Queen Slime’s shapeshifting ability could not be called inferior to a Doppelganger’s, it would be hard to call it superior. It was rather the situation where both species were specialized towards different types of shapeshifting. Putting it roughly, it was like comparing a Blacksmith who mass-produced standard quality swords to one that would pour months into honing and refining a single blade. It would be impossible to say which approach was the better one, as they served completely different purposes.

But, at the very least, Doppelgangers would be far superior to Queen Slimes when it came to blending in with their surroundings. In fact, these monsters used to be extremely widespread in civilized society in the past, to the point where if one gathered a group of 20 random people in a room, at least 1 or 2 of them would be a Doppelganger. They were completely indistinguishable from those they were imitating, as body structure, skin tone, internal organs, language and mannerisms were all perfectly mimicked.

However, such things were ultimately put to an end several hundred years ago when the Doppelgangers that controlled society from the shadows failed to stop the spread and usage of Appraisal. This magical analysis would be able to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt whether a person was actually who they claimed to be. Once word got out that shapeshifting monsters were among them, the enlightened races quickly took measures to weed them out.

The cunning shapeshifters would not go out quietly, however. The Doppelganger communities started aggressively eliminating and replacing key figures. They often posed as Scribes and tried to falsify Appraisal results through any means necessary. After all, a Scribe could only give second hand accounts for what they saw through Appraisal, so if a Doppelganger said that one of its kin was not a monster, the other people had little choice but to accept it. Of course, they could not maintain this guise for long as they didn’t actually have the Scribe Job, but it was still enough to let their compatriots escape or assume new identities. This constant back-and-forth between the secretive shapeshifters and the authorities had created a period of confusion and distrust that histories now refer to as the Silent Rebellion.

This Silent Rebellion lasted for nearly a decade before it ended rather abruptly when news of the Doppelgangers’ Bane had come to light.

All monsters, without exception, possessed a weakness towards a specific substance or element, known as their Bane. Being subjected to their Bane would not only cause severe damage to a monster, but also inflict some kind of debilitating condition. In the case of the undead, holy magic would purify their rotting bodies, greatly weakening them if not outright destroying them. Enlightened races such as dwarves, elves and humans, on the other hand, did not posses such a glaring weakness. Grasping and exploiting a monster’s Bane was their way of gaining the upper hand against a normally stronger and more dangerous opponent, but they themselves were exempt from such things.

The Bane of Doppelgangers, and indeed all shapeshifters, was being hit by any and all forms of electricity. Being struck by a lightning Spell, for example, would cause their nervous system to go haywire, rendering them completely paralyzed for a few seconds and forcing them to revert back into their base form. This was something Boxxy had already experienced firsthand back in Erosa, and the one thing that ultimately led to the downfall of the Doppelgangers. No matter how they lie, cheat and betray, getting zapped would instantly reveal their true nature to everyone around them.

Once this fact became widely known, Scribes started subjecting themselves to minor electrical shocks, usually produced through a magic item. This allowed them to unquestionably prove themselves as the real deal, which meant their Appraisals could be trusted on the matter of weeding out the Doppelgangers. It was thus that an effective yet simple set of anti-shapeshifter measures had been established.

First, all government-sanctioned officials had to subject themselves to mild electrocutions twice a year while under the watchful eye of at least 20 armed guards. Once the Scribes were proven to not be compromised, they began inspecting and Appraising the entire population, one household at a time. Granted, this was a long and arduous process and it was believed many of the monsters were able to slip away, but it proved to be sufficient.

The Lodrak Empire, for example, saw a massive drop in murders, theft, banditry and missing person reports in as little as a year since implementing these measures. Of course, there was the rather touchy subject of how Doppelgangers reproduced. No mother wanted to find out the child they had been raising for years was actually a monster, and that their real son or daughter had disappeared without anyone realizing it. Then there was the implication that they had copulated with a shapeshifter, often without realizing it. Add onto that the directive that any confirmed Doppelgangers had to be put down on the spot, and a recipe for tragedy unlike no other had been born. There were more than a few incidents where distraught and confused mothers refused to accept reality and attempted to protect and safeguard these things. They still saw them as ‘their children,’ despite the cold hard logic that stated their actual offspring was long gone. Some of them even went as far as to escape society and attempt to live away from others like hermits, all for the sake of raising their broken family in peace.

Needless to say, none of these women were ever heard from again, as the ones they were foolishly trying to safeguard had, in all likelihood, murdered them once they were strong enough. To a Doppelganger, their parent was nothing more than a cover, so once that was blown, they quickly turned on them. It was a gruesome, cruel fate, but such things often befalled those who succumbed to foolishness.

In the grand scheme of things, the Silent Rebellion had ultimately been completely crushed. Not only were active Doppelgangers hunted down, but they also lost their ability to reproduce in peace. This was why they were now largely considered to be on the brink of extinction. They would never truly disappear, however, as every now and then, a new one appeared through Rank Ups from lesser species. Such monsters often found it impossible to successfully integrate into modern society in the long term, as sooner or later they would need to be subjected to an Appraisal that would reveal their true colors.

But Boxxy was different. The former Mimic was a Hero, and as such possessed the Essence Concealment Skill. This divine power to fool Appraisal was something no mortal Scribe could hope to beat. Granted, the Juvenile Doppelganger still possessed a weakness to electricity, but that was a relatively uncommon element. It didn’t exist in nature outside of thunderstorms, and only a select few Jobs and certain species of monsters could conjure lightning with magic. Arclight Artificers and Spellbinder Enchanters, on the other hand, were the only ones that were capable of creating items and weapons that employed electrical effects.

All things considered, it was a manageable weakness, but still a deadly one. Boxxy had made the silent decision to seek out magic items that provide additional defense against that particular element, or just magic in general. Although it was impossible to completely neutralize a monster’s weakness, Boxxy could at the very least severely dampen its negative effects. The monster had a hunch such equipment could be easily obtained as long as it managed to integrate itself into a large enough city.

And therein lay the biggest problem, for in order to successfully do so, it had to act and speak in a befitting manner - something Boxxy had to practice. Which is why the former Mimic had changed out of its prefered chesty shape, and into the slightly uncomfortable form of a young elven male. It looked to be about 16 or 17 years old, with pale green eyes and somewhat pale skin. The face was unremarkably plain, while the trademark knife-like ears sprouted out from either side of its short, ginger hair.

The synergy with Hero of Chaos' Essence Concealment Skill alone makes Doppelganger worthwhile. Later the reader learns that Queen Slimes cannot Rank Up further, which further cements Doppelganger as Boxxy's best option.

I speculate that monsters can either rank up into a higher evolutionary form or maximize their current phenotype. Thus the Slime Queen is the ultimate form of Slime, but loses its ability to evolve as the price of this complex specialization.

Doppelgangers reproduce by inseminating and parasitizing existing pregnancies of Enlightened races. The Doppelganger fully replaces the unaware Enlightened child by age 10.

Lodrak threat

Since Spymaster Edward Allen has identified Boxxy as the culprit behind the Calamity of Monotal, he is an existential threat. If Boxxy wishes to continue to act with anonymous impunity via his Essence Concealment skill, he should erase evidence of his origins, before someone connects the Mimic to the Doppelganger to the Hero of Chaos.

Spymaster Edward has a unique Eyes of Truth ability that sees through Boxxy and Xera's shapeshifting. However, Boxxy would not know about this if he did not nuke Monotal. Would he still target Lodrak for destruction?

The answer is yes, for several reasons.

Firstly, it would be popular with Horkensaft, and therefore Boxxy would enjoy political protection for causing it:

• Lodrak is on the opposite side of the Oculus Sea from Horkensaft. Thus it is the most beneficial place to hold a world war for Horkensaft's arms industry, without damaging the homeland. (Like how the USA benefited from WW2.)
• The war would help Horkensaft's navy and trade ships to dominate the Oculus Sea, in exchange for their support against Lodrak.
• Lodrak is aggressive, racist and obnoxious, which harms the interests of the dwarves and gnomes living in Ishigar, making it a popular war for Horkensaft.
• The Ishigar Republic and Sovereign States Alliance are eager if not desperate to end the Lodrak threat, guaranteeing victory.

Secondly, Theresa is a Goddess of Justice, who punishes oaths sworn falsely in her name. This is contrary to the interests of Doppelgangers, Succubi and demonkind. Boxxy's patron the God of Chaos has a grudge against Theresa, and conquering her Empire would force her to reform.

Thirdly, the chaos of war will allow a Doppelganger kingdom to be reborn from Lodrak's ashes.

False flag sociopathy

Borders are transient zones filled with travelers, and border incidents look like international provocations. A city full of strangers passing through is an ideal hunting ground for sociopaths in general and Doppelgangers in particular.

The normal way to provoke a war is with false flag attacks. Since Boxxy now has a Doppelganger race, he is well suited to intrigue. He can therefore engage in a spree of sabotage in Ishigar and the Sovereign States Alliance that will be blamed on Lodrak spies rather than the monstrous Hero of Chaos. This will level up his Doppelganger job, which thrives on deception.

Xera's hypnosis and shapeshifting will be indispensable for this purpose. Her guidance is essential to help naive Boxxy navigate civilization. Therefore she and Boxxy operate as a team. She can gather intelligence and plant suggestions that will be acted upon once Boxxy has left the city. She is best motivated by a combination of predation on Enlightened and Boxxy's abuse.

Their main tactic is to work together to pose as one woman. The succubus supplies dreamweaving and social acumen, while Boxxy supplies athletic performance, deeper shapeshifting and Essence Concealment. Transfamiliar permits swapping between Horkensaft and target city.

This allows them to wreak havoc. The goal should be theft, and implicating the Lodrak Empire in hostile espionage. The latter covers the former.

Investigators will find it impossible to track a succubus shapeshifter who randomly transforms into a Essence-Concealed Doppelganger. The belief that Lodrak spies are to blame will even be partially correct, since Boxxy did originate in Lodrak and intends to return there.

Boxxy and Xera should not take combat jobs during such crime sprees, to avoid exposing their recognizable abilities. Traveling by road is also too conspicuous. Instead, Boxxy camps out in the woods while Xera flies to the next target, then Transfamiliars. This prevents investigators from guessing where the duo will strike next.

Ideally, investigators will be too busy chasing real Lodrak spies to realize that a shapeshifter and succubus are involved. Delayed-release hypnotic suggestions by the succubus should conceal the dates the duo were present in a city, by generating chaos well after their departure.

No other demons should accompany Boxxy during espionage, to prevent investigators from suspecting the involvement of a single Warlock using Transfamiliar to teleport around. Instead, the other demons can party with Fizzy and do monster-clearing quests in Horkensaft. Fizzy can use her celebrity to spread her sob story about human discrimination in Lodrak, resulting in the death of her parents and her transformation into a golem out of grief.

The Beholder can happily guard Boxxy's estate, manage his investments in the arms industry, and use written correspondence to fan the flames of war, which he will probably enjoy even more than artillery spotting. What demon doesn't want to brag about laying waste to an Empire, especially Theresa's? The other Beholders will die of envy.

Monotal mommies

Doppelgangers reproduce by parasitizing the pregnancy of an enlightened race. Xera can simply collect sperm from an enlightened man and Boxxy, mix and inject into various hypnotized women, then wipe their memories. Xera is a superficial shapeshifter who can vary her appearance to avoid detection and fly invisibly over long distances to spread the Doppelganger plague. She's the equivalent of a Doppelganger ICBM.

Junior Doppelgangers are clumsy and likely to provoke countermeasures. They were genocided once, and if vigilance is again aroused, would be exterminated even more easily this time, with inquisitors combining proven methods (lightning, Appraisal) with new technology (Arclight).

Nevertheless, Boxxy can begin seeding the low-mana Monotal zone with changelings. Nobody will care about that area once the war breaks out. A low-mana zone is the best place for Doppelganger young to grow up, since they will be vulnerable to detection until age 10. The less magic about, the cheaper Enlightened surrogate mothers will be, and the fewer Appraisals to corrupt.

Once Lodrak is conquered and Spymaster Edward is dead, Boxxy can safely breed a generation of Doppelganger changelings in the Monotal region. These scions will establish Boxxy's power base in Lodrak in 11 years, when the former Lodrak Empire is conquered, exploited, exhausted and vulnerable. Due to wartime casualties, there will be a large number of single women eager to serve as surrogate mothers as an alternative to starvation or prostitution.

Objection: Monotal is an irradiated wasteland.

Answer: So is the region around Chernobyl, yet people and wildlife still live there. They just avoid the areas where the radiation is highest.

Those people tend to be poor and desperate, which make them ideal candidates for Doppelganger surrogate pregnancy, voluntary or otherwise. There is no need to go closer to the radiation than the nearest Enlightened residents. It is a classic tactic: Acquiring distressed real estate at a bargain for nefarious purposes.

I don't remember the name of the province of Monotal, nor do most readers, so I refer to it by synecdoche.

The irony of returning to do even more terrible things to Monotal is very tasty.

Even if Boxxy never nuked Monotal, it is still a good location for Doppelganger farming, because it is a low mana zone with weak defenders. It is distant from the war's front lines and therefore likely to be depleted of combat-aged males, who would be power-leveled and then sent to the front.

Doppelganger sea, gnomish navy

Together, Fizzy and Xera should be able to secure Job training for Boxxy from Horkensaft, especially after building the strategic alliance. Boxxy can eventually be presented to Horkensaft's rulers as Fizzy's divine beast ally. Chaos is weird, so this is something the gnomes would take in stride. It can be kept a state secret. This is the only direct contact Boxxy needs with civilization.

This alliance gives Boxxy access to the Scribe ability Job Removal, allowing him to use Cadaver Absorption without fearing the accumulation of useless jobs such as Cat.

Horkensaft's gnomes are a logical ally for the future Lodrak Doppelganger kingdom. An ocean separates them, reducing the risk of contagion. Gnomes make excellent Scribes and are masters of electricity, the Doppelganger bane. Doppelgangers have superhuman artificer assembly abilities thanks to shapeshifting, and their monstrous bloodlust complements gnomish cowardice. Thus gnomish Scribe-Artificers can help Doppelgangers police rogue Doppelgangers, and Doppelgangers can help gnomes clear their mines and seas of monsters.

Ishigar and the Sovereign States Alliance will both get large chunks of Lodrak, leaving a Doppelganger rump state around Monotal. Horkensaft will get Lodrak's Oculus Sea ports, with gnomish engineers and Doppelganger sailors combining into a powerful navy. A Doppelganger can easily shift into an aquatic form and hunt fish in the ocean, making them ideal sailors. By contrast, dwarves sink straight to the bottom, and drink too much.

Gnomish inquisitors in Doppelganger Monotal can be trusted due to the Horkensaft strategic alliance and the resentment of the conquered Lodrak humans against foreign gnomish mercenaries. Foreign mercenaries are typically used to police conquered nations for this reason.

International acceptance

Any country which objects to the new Doppelganger kingdom will have to contend with the powerful Horkensaft navy, the country least touched by the Lodrak war, grown fat and prosperous on war profiteering, with a huge industrial base geared for arms manufacture, and a newfound supply of monstrous soldiers and their eager demonic allies. Not worth it.

Ishigar and the Sovereign States Alliance will accept this morally repugnant situation in order to ensure that Lodrak does not threaten them again, especially if they're bribed.

As long as the Lodrak Doppelgangers are covert, strictly controlled, and do not spread outside Lodrak territory, they may be allowed to rule. To avoid peasant rebellion, they can pay surrogate mothers, and exterminate unsanctioned Doppelgangers spawn. Hidden King Boxxy will ruthlessly keep his spawn in check while a figurehead sits on the throne.

The result will be elite bloodlines similar to the Illuminati, controlling the Scribes, secret police, church and the media. Accomplishing this would undoubtedly max out Boxxy's Doppelganger level, potentially allowing him to change species and abscond with the loot before the enlightened races recover enough from the last war to launch a crusade against the new Doppelganger kingdom. Tasty!

However, an anti-Doppleganger crusade isn't inevitable. Dopplegangers are no longer the existential threat to Englightened races they once posed. Detection measures have improved thanks to advances in Appraisal technology, and lightning is still a bane. Paradoxically, the Lodrak Doppleganger rump state can actually benefit neighboring countries by reducing their risk of Doppleganger infiltration. Dopplegangers currently living in those states would be forced to register or emigrate. They would have no reason to risk death in hostile territory when they could simply go to Lodrak instead.

The monstrous Doppleganger nature would make them valued mercenaries and adventurers, capable of sustaining combat without psychological stress. The resulting rapid leveling would help them defend their new kingdom. Enthusiastic demon-doppelganger collaboration create a de-facto alliance with the God of Chaos.

Doppelganger mercenaries could help neighboring Enlightened countries expand elsewhere and subjugate their monster frontiers in exchange for international tolerance. Since monsters are disorganized, it is logical for Doppelgangers to exterminate monsters for levels rather than risk a coordinated counterattack by Enlightened rankers. Plenty of fish in the sea.

Since Dopplegangers can form MLGs, they are good at detecting physical secrets. Thus other countries can employ them as secret police, when partnered with a trustworthy Arclight Scribe. Dopplegangers can form a bridge between monstrous and Enlightened societies. Extermination of bloodline is an excellent top-down motivator, and monoparental Doppleganger bloodlines are easily traced. A Doppleganger who fails to prove the legitimacy of his birth is executed, along with his sire. Enlightened infants would be subjected to the lightning bane test at birth, saving their lives if infected with the Doppelganger parasite.

The result would be a society with a whole lot more random Appraisals, through which the Hero of Chaos Boxxy would swim with ease. Boxxy can continue to rule from the shadows, pruning rebellious Doppelganger bloodlines, as no one but the gods even know his name. Now that's how to level a Doppelganger job!

Xera's regret

Presumably Xera failed to inform Boxxy of this strategy because she was too busy drooling over TASTYCOCK — which is ironic, since she could've secured a lifetime supply. One can only imagine how much she would've enjoyed collecting Boxxy's sperm to breed new Doppelgangers — the closest to motherhood that rotten slut could ever get.

I'm not surprised Neven avoided this plotline. Genocide by parasitizing children is a bit dark, even for a book about a people-eating rapist box.

Conclusion

"Rocks fall, everybody dies," is a DM's joke, but also fustibalus Boxxy's martial motto. This essay's exercise in unmitigated pedantry would've taken all the fun out of the book, so I'm glad Boxxy's instructions to Demons 'R Us were misinterpreted to leave him saddled with a rotten slut instead of a wise Beholder mentor.

In the unlikely event anyone else wants to overanalyze this series, I created the SFW r/ellc2 to replace the defunct r/ellc, which was banned for being unmoderated. NSFW fan art should go to r/BoxxyTMorningwood or the Discord, which is suitable for those with a shorter attention span.

And yeah, this review explains a lot of the problems with the book, but who cares? I had fun reading it and then breaking the world even harder than Boxxy did. It does explain why my enthusiasm for reading the later books is waning. The author struck gold and kept going as long as he could. That's the beauty of Royal Road, and it mirrors the lifecycle of a Lesser Mimic who shouldn't have lasted a year.

Overlord critiqued: How I would rule the world from my frozen throne!

1 Lovely Solution

I almost gave up on the Overlord anime, but Solution made me take a second look. Appearances can be deceiving.

What's cleaner than a maid who always swallows? Solution is a reverse wet nurse, which is naughty but neat.

Solution finally decides to contact Ainz, informing him that Sebas might have gone rogue.

She has a way of dissolving difficulties.

What did Solution REALLY do to Tsuare | Overlord analysed https://youtu.be/CZpgbdkpnzY

Lions take over and kill cubs https://youtu.be/nraZzGD8BmM

Can't eat just one.

2 Manga > Anime

A tolerable anime is often a sign of a great manga…

https://archive.org/details/overlord-light-novel/Overlord%20%28light%20novel%29/Overlord%20Volume%2001%20-%20The%20Undead%20King%20%28v2.13%29/mode/2up

Some novelists write as if describing manga frames. It's awkward.

http://mangaowls.world/overlord-chapter-1#1

Ah, there's the symphony. Delightful.

I guess the anime was juvenilized to broaden the appeal of a grimdark series. Or perhaps it was merely adapted too rigidly from the manga, echoing frames with dead air between.

The smarm settles down as the self-insert herbivore grows into his rule, and the monsters into humanity. That is a property of anime series in general.

Pro-undead anime is difficult to execute, but it can be done!

Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust [AMV] - Sanctus Espiritus (Our Solemn Hour) https://youtu.be/ASpA9s4hCYM

3 Demiurge critique

Demiurge is my favorite flying frog. Pity the spawners in his pond. However, his offscreen atrocities are exaggerated anime ham for the unimaginative, and incompatible with the cognitive empathy that makes his sociopathy formidable and amusing. He would rather motivate resistant villagers by starving them into exchanging one elder per week until collective decision-making improves. Children are useful breeding stock.

Taken literally, Demiurge's atrocious offscreen excesses render him suitable only for the role of a disposable villain to highlight Momonga's mercy. He is not even rationally incentivized by the harvest of negative energy. There is no logic to the concept of skinning civilians alive to make parchment. At most, one would spinal paralyze a high-level beast and repeatedly and painlessly skin it, preferably with a lobotomy first. The fact that such operations are not common indicates that laws of magical thermodynamics apply. The rational way to obtain high-level paper is to grow it with nature magic. His breeding experiments are an existential risk, threatening to unify the world and higher powers against Nazarick. It is simply the Japanese id at play, and incompatible with the cognitive empathy displayed during Demiurge's on-screen interactions. He would not rear his nemesis.

He doesn't make any sense as a frog. The pince nez looks ridiculous between frog eyes. Thus he spends little time transformed onscreen.

4 Nazarick's revised strategy

The Overlord manga is entertaining for its characters, but lacking in isekai strategy. Were Momonga not OP, he could easily be conquered in the first year by some unanticipated threat. Realistically, the Silenus Theocracy would steamroll him with paladins wielding unanticipated martial arts. Then again, clerics can't slaughter villages without losing their alignment. The psychological explanation is Japanese will to conquer European oppressors. Momonga demonstrates his supremacy over the mecha-angel nuclear bomber, liberating Nazarick-Nippon from the hypocritical USAF. Then he goes adventuring as samurai with his loyal Japanese tsundere katana caster maid. We get it buddy, wish fulfillment.

I mean, his first public action is literally to rescue a damsel in distress, then gift her a king's ransom. His followers subsequently wander around screaming "clueless mark" to anyone who will listen, and not on purpose either.

An intelligent Momonga should fear that the magical signature of Nazarick's arrival and presence will attract a raid. Lacking a need for sunshine or farmland, Momonga should've buried his fortress, relocated it to an irradiated wasteland, and spent years scrying timidly while his newborn menagerie fumbled at personhood and researched the new physics engine. Under a polar ice cap would work. He can just Message his old guildmates, so they're obviously not there.

The weakness of undead is Holy vulnerability; the advantage is patience. He has demonic and doppelganger intelligence agents; they can subvert the theocracy, rarely a popular form of government. The lich should probably never leave his throne; certainly not without creating a phylactery first. I think his phylactery is that ball above his pelvis, meaning he's walking around wearing it, defeating the purpose. Just possess a lesser lich or something, and let him risk his bones. Or better yet, never meet a living human, and ensure nobody knows your name.

After building an army out of the remains entombed beneath a polar icepack, Momonga should conquer the infinite graveyard of the seafloor next, at depths where the sun never reaches and Holy is an alien concept. The dead can fight from burrows and harvest the sea indefinitely.

By avoiding confrontation with surface-dwelling Holy classes, Momongo avoids educating his nemesis. To this end, Nazarick proactively eliminates native surface undead, a move which proves popular and profitable. Nazarick warehouses the endless undead legions harvested, freeing the perfectly-loyal NPCs to develop an empire abroad.

• Flyer Albedo is open envoy to surface kingdoms, due to her succubus charm, flight and tankiness. She can secure alliances and sow chaos. She presents as virgin princess of Nazarick.
• Aura's portfolio is forests, beasts and skirmishing. Lupusregina assists. Force the wilderness to pay a tithe of bones.
• Aureole Omega buffs and commands from Nazarick.
• Cocytus guards the poles and trains the garrison.
• CZ2128 Delta forges automata at a volcano, using undead miners.
• Demiurge flies as covert diplomat to surface groups with evil alignment.
• Entoma conquers the underworld.
• Gargantua is an irreplaceable ranged siege weapon, best used to defend the poles by throwing ice boulders from cover.
• Sebas bumbles abroad, but manages Nazarick personnel well. Yuri Alpha assists. Neither is really armed.
• Shalltear counters leviathans, who pulse with oceans of blood. She avoids terrestrial vampire hunters. Her turned leviathans make effective pirates. As the strongest combatant, she is the tip of the spear of Nazarick's thalassocracy.
• Mare handles agriculture, tunneling and construction.
• Pandora's actor is spymaster and mitigates Holy threats. Solution runs whorehouses. Doppelganger Narberal enforces. Chain lightning counters angels.
• Victim is a secret defensive trump card.

Nazarick can unleash the undead tide at any time and scour the surface. But there is no need. Gradually, imperceptibly, Momongo comes to rule the world. No one even notices.

Unfortunately, one can't have much fun as a skeleton. But I'm sure with the world's resources at his disposal, he can finally figure out how to pop Albedo's cherry and give Shalltear something to suck. It's not loli because she's ancient, right?

Hallowed graves and Fallen gods

Intro

Fantasy necromancy is not entirely fiction. However, I find that speaking of evil invites its attention. Therefore, I will not speak of real examples. There is no need to dwell on such things. 

Instead I will cite examples from Jesus, the OG graverobber. If you already believe in ghosts, you can skip this intro. 

Necromancy and hallowed graves are two sides of the same coin. There is real basis for hallowed graves. 

(After extensive investigation, I've concluded that the James Padgett medium lineage transmits the true gospel of Jesus Christ. I recommend fellow investigators start with the Shroud of Turin, and cross-reference with Courtney Brown's Farsight Institute two related projects. Use the data, not the interpretations. Other sources mentioned here will help. The origins of artifacts such as the Moonand the Great Pyramid of Giza are difficult to entirely conceal, and are thus useful fulcrums when jailbreaking systematic deception.) 

Anyway, Jane Gartshore channeled a novel from Jesus that is within the Padgettite lineage. In this novel, the hallowed tomb of Palador permitted communion with the ancestors, their ashes mixed into a communal urn. 

The novel is full of hints on best practices. The burning and mixing of the ashes prevent malicious "magical" targeting of the individual or his mortal residue, and represent the local spirit band's interpermeating unity. In real life, Padgettite Jesus' body was replaced by a transcendent body, in a sort of resurrection, creating the imprint on the Shroud of Turin as the material body dissipated. Destroying his physical body prevented his enemies from using it to work further dark magic against him. 

If a corpse can be hallowed, it can also be desecrated. There are a spectrum of necromantic possibilities, such as using a corpse to facilitate soultrapping or enslavement, or to target and harass the spirit of the former owner. One may also consume sapient flesh in order to absorb spiritual residue that once linked body to soul. This is why adrenochrome must be harvested from human children instead of animals or synthesized artificially. Perhaps there are other uses for death energy, such as the creation of non-sentient ghosts or echoes. 

(This is a dangerous and classified topic, which it is unnecessary to explore.  Padgettite messages have further details on the afterlife, and Sunbow's Sasquatch Message describes certain historical necromantic abuses. See the stabilized Patterson-Gimlin film for the Sasquatch proof artifact.) 

Thus I am a stickler for accuracy in my necromantic fantasy tropes. I found the benevolent smarmy lich of Overlord unbearable; liches should hate all life. By contrast, I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent Book of the Dead, by Rinoz. I must agree with the top reviewer, who states that this is the best interpretation of necromancy he's read. 

I found Rinoz' book engaging enough to puzzle through my own solution to the problems confronting the protagonist. There are better ways to master death than by nearly dying every chapter. My review is basically analytical fanfic, so ask yourself whether you really want to read it. 

To avoid spoilers, I have divided the book review into sections. Those who have not read the book should skip to the final section, Mythic Resonance. It has minor spoilers about the pantheons, so if you like to second-guess the protagonist, you'll ruin the fun by learning their true nature. 

SPOILERS AHEAD

Book 1

Ah, now this is a proper necromancer's tale. Unlike the ridiculous Overlord franchise, Rinoz tells no lies about liches saving babies. We are spared the isekai trope entirely. Instead the protagonist's heroic sigma parents are betrayed by the threatened hierarchs of false gods. The Empire's pantheon manipulates the protagonist's class assignment, then the Magisters use magical compulsion to order his parents to hunt him down. The purpose of this persecution is to prevent the parents from either achieving apotheosis or leading a revolution. 

The protagonist grows up in a small village, at odds with his parents' superstar status. One might be surprised at the sociopathic character lurking beneath the village's bucolic exterior, expecting to find frontier virtue pressed diamond-hard by riftkin raids. The corrupt lies of the Empire's false gods of light explain the rot, reminding me of childhood church. Envy spoils his childhood friendships. 

The protagonist is thrown into confusion by his class assignment, never having anticipated the possibility of receiving an outlaw class, despite his parents being rebels at heart. He is given the choice of three rituals through his anathema class. 

The protagonist erred greatly in choosing the Abyssal ritual first, barely surviving it. Outlawed by the gods of light, he should've embraced the Dark pantheon. His continued social existence would serve them well, whereas the Abyss sees only finger food. The Dark pantheon here represents the Fae. Traditional Fae traits range from Elemental to Insectoid, which is several steps closer to human than a Voidizen. If you are not a cephalopod, don't work for one. 

The protagonist foolishly min-maxed his build for long-term power growth rather than short-term survival, but this is consistent with the arrogance of youth. His plot armor when taking magical risks is within acceptable bounds, after factoring divine intervention. Perhaps the Dark pantheon has been trying this for a long time, and we are merely reading about the lone success among many failures. 

Still, I would build differently, prioritizing these abilities: 

• night vision
• shadow cloak
• sniff fellow apostates
• social manipulation
• life drain for solo heal
• sense death magic to find corpses

Basically, build the character for solo infiltration from scratch, not for a cog in some kingdom's necromantic military division. That is what skeleton specialization is for. 

Putting distance between himself and home is a reasonable priority. Urgency of leveling is less so, since it increases the odds of detection and the gap between his parents requires decades to surmount. He would be better off migrating towards the southern kingdoms who accept necromancy, hoping to smuggle himself across the border. Instead he rushes to the place where all the other desperate runaways go and stays there, risking death by riftkin outbreak. The cops should've immediately appraised all the "rats" in the fort, their low status rendering them easy prey. Let's be generous and suppose the kingdom's rot interfered. 

The migration option would've synergized with the Dark pantheon's ritual, providing logistics like the merchant who picked up priestess Elsbeth. Instead the lad does things the hard way, burning his youth. 

Cowardice and folly have a price. He should've plucked both Elsbeth and the ranger, giving him two loyal valkyries for his budding revolution. That would've ejected Rufus from his social circle, removing the need to slay him in his escape. Moreover, he should've spent at least some time traveling with his parents, to cure him of his naivete, which nearly got him killed by farmhand boots. One would expect to see more moral decay in the protagonist at this point, given his suffering and the usual capacity of teenagers for moral accountability. However, that would ask too much of the authorial self-insert. We may view the narrator as unreliable to correct this deficit. 

Contrast this with Overlord's Momonga, whose idiocy is insulated by plot armor thicker than his skull. As a prophecy of China conquering the USA, Overlord is not bad, if one can tolerate the gayness wafting from globohomo's subjugation of Japan. By which I mean, Momonga acting like a herbivore around the women. Oh anime, how low Japan's testosterone hath fallen. 

Overlord's overall theme that infantile insectoid smarmy monsters worshipping Xi are superior to the USA's current regime holds true. Not the intended message, I'm sure. 

Book 2

Chapter 7

Rinoz' protagonist continues to insist on playing Chaotic Good (Stupid) hero instead of Chaotic Neutral scavenger. He exposes his face and skeletons together to many surviving witnesses to ensure the kingdom knows the rogue level 1 Necromancer is leveling rapidly, resulting in a huge bounty on his head. 

All he needed to do was play stealthy scavenger and run out the clock while drifting out of the search zone. They'd figure he got eaten in the Break and he'd be forgotten. 

The invasive Abyss ritual triggered a fort-wide partial lockdown for no gain, whereas the Scarlet Court offered an escape route off-plane and into a vampire elite. He refused vampirism, which would've resolved his parents' conflict with the kingdom by his absence, potentially saving tens of thousands of lives by stopping the Breach. Instead he's going to keep running around the hostile kingdom flashing his boner and intermittently semi-summoning Abyssals; genius. 

Instead of dragging around a pack of skellie nudists, he should be escorted by a single bony bodyguard, fully clothed and armored. That is enough to level his main class by letting the bodyguard last-hit kills. The mana drain would be far less, allowing him to travel faster. He should fight with a spear not a sword, allowing him to brace against charging riftkin and hold it in an elbow while casting. 

I eagerly await the communion with the Dark pantheon, which should offer aid even more useful than the Scarlet Court's, sufficient to eliminate the difficulties of his disastrous start. When given the choice between Dark, which happens daily, Scarlet, which happens violently, and Abyss, which happens never, pick Dark! 

Instead of defiling his village mayor's crypt like a psychopath, all he had to do was perform the Dark ritual and have a nice conversation resulting in a carriage ride. And if he'd been banging the ranger, he could've learned enough scouting to escape on foot. 

Yes he would have lost his autonomy to the Dark pantheon, which is perfectly appropriate considering he's desperate and needs an invested mentor. Operating so far outside the Dark's home territory affords him tremendous practical autonomy, even if he never manages to escape their service. 

Most importantly, if his parents were such dedicated rebels, planning extensively to resist the Magisters' brand, then why didn't they anticipate the possibility of their son gaining an illegal class, and arrange an escape plan for him? His class assignment should've occurred on the road, in a place with rebel connections, or just willing to overlook a runaway. 

The answer boils down to the protagonist being too introverted, antisocial and foolish to properly exploit his human capital, and I can certainly empathize with that. He is a genius obsessed with magic, the God of Magic reborn. This explains everything, and make his grievous trail of errors amusing. 

His anti-zombie prejudice is shortsighted. The zombie can be gutted without compromising muscles by unzipping the groin. Then it can smoke itself over a campfire to halt decay. Once the zombie is no longer functional, it can be salvaged for bones. He is skipping the first phase of the undead lifecycle! 

If he'd learned butchery from the fine ranger, this would never have happened. She is naturally suited to the Dark forest gods, and would have lobbied to contact them for aid in stealthing away. The moral is clear: Reading goes better with a little moisture to turn the page. 

(Just kidding. Never tell a woman your weakness.) 

Chapter 17

Nothing bad happened after the protagonist encountered the Dark pantheon, proving it is by far the most normal one. Worshipers even get a choice of three gods. The Raven is perfectly suitable for him, a distant and nearly indifferent patron who dislikes being bothered. 

The Dark can hide servant appraisal status (as can vamps and Abyssals). So yes, he could've done the Dark ritual after his appraisal and avoided all problems, traveling with the Dark priestess mentor in a week or two. Then she blesses the corpses and he takes the bones. He's the fixer, the nocturnal muscle for her caravan. They travel around visiting worshipers. His parents join the Dark pantheon to assist. Viva la revolucion. 

Vamps eat blood, Abyssals eat souls, and the Dark gods eat the false gods of light. Easy choice. 

Easy to recruit the ranger by inviting her along on the magical caravan ride, by offering power via a pact with Rot. Then she can be trusted with the necromancy secret, since Rot will enforce pantheon loyalty. 

Two wives, unlimited bones, easy leveling and no heat. Nice. 

Chapter 40

Given his dearth of information and need for stealth, the correct Dark aspect would be Raven, the spirit aspect. He can supplement his armored bodyguard revenant and temporary zombies with a pack of ghosts for scouting. 

Plenty of enemy souls to feed to the vamps and Abyss too, keeping all three factions happy. If he cared about karma he should've removed his Necromancer class. Now he's committed to violent revolution; best finish it quickly. 

Really, he needs a bow, not a sword. His minions are immune to piercing arrows. He should tip the arrows with Death-infused bone, then rapid-fire from stealth while his skeleton engages. That solves his mana conservation problem and prevents his foes from focusing the necromancer. Easier to raise fresh kills as zombies from cover. 

Instead of frontal assaults on a compound, he can pick them off all night at leisure using ghosts to recon and flush, arrows and night vision to wound, and infantry to repel charges or run down escapees. The zombies are slow, so they can batter the barricades, preferably with sledgehammers. 

He should keep a couple of premade skeletons in the wagon, to serve as packmules and skirmishers during raids. 

Ideally, he has the ranger with him to do shoot his Death arrows. Then he can focus on micromanaging the ghosts to terrorize the defenders for practically zero mana, while directing the ranger where to shoot. 

This is a solid method for killing bandits with no survivors to report undead activity. The ranger can ensure no runners escape. 

Revised strategy

However, it's still too risky to travel through Empire territory accompanied by illegal undead. Someone with the right class will sniff those traces. Also, I forgot that he's an evil idiot. Since he already flushed his karma by keeping the Necromancer class, he should take the vamp option and step through the portal to be turned and educated in relative safety by the masters of undeath. The Dark dislikes undead and the Dark god Rot in particular abhors zombies, which is an obvious mismatch. By contrast, vampires are the ultimate infiltrators, which is the protagonist's new job: Being very sneaky in a realm paranoid about necromancers and hostile to his religion. Other vampires successfully operate in the Empire, so it's a proven model. 

Obviously, it's bad karma to become undead. So how might someone much wiser than the protagonist handle the situation? 

1. Travel with the two superstar parents as apprentice to both, learning to be a spellsword.
2. Reject the Necromancer class maliciously foisted upon him, patiently learn the spellsword class instead, and ally with the Dark Raven to overthrow the light gods as revenge.
3. Fake his death, avoid the brand, and kill those his parents cannot, while they run interference.

Unsurprisingly, it all comes back to allying with Odin. Solid fantasy produces sound real-world advice. 

In the end, all the protagonist's suffering occurred because he was afraid to defy the gods and the odds, afraid of losing status, afraid to take low odds instead of no odds. Without his plot armor and reincarnated divinity, he never would've survived. And with it, he would've achieved greatness anyway, without all the fuss. He achieved a mystery without a class by 18, he would've obviously continued to do so. 

He had no impending apocalypse to justify his foolish rush. None except his status insecurity, which he could've cured by fucking either of two willing worthy lasses. He had no excuse to feel neglected; his parents wanted him to travel with them, and his uncle raised him. One suspects the author of inserting his own gamma traits into a character so privileged they do not fit. 

Mythic resonance

The protagonist's Anathema class allows him the choice of three pantheons to serve: Dark, Scarlet Court, and Abyssal. 

The Dark pantheon is a composite of the forest Fae (Rot), angels (Raven), and goddess witchcraft (Crone). They must be approached with caution, but are generally compatible with continued human civilization. 

The Scarlet Court vampires are cold-blooded fanged carnivores who infiltrate royalty. Hint hint. 

lol ok Icke 

Speculation should remain within the realm of plausible biology and thermodynamics. Accusing XYZ celebrity of not belonging to homo sapiens, let alone class mammalia, is extremely improbable. Perform a literature review before formulating a hypothesis. 

Let me just add a word here about realistic "magical" effects. Creating matter ex-nihilo is prohibitively expensive, for the same reason handling antimatter is prohibitively explosive. It took Divine intervention for the angel Gabriel to channel the energy necessary for Jesus' unprecedented "resurrection". Routine interventions should cost far less. When the angel needed to roll away the stone from Jesus' tomb, he borrowed ectoplasm from the sleeping soldier to do it. Jesus was a shaman who did his "miracles" using natural laws. Physics is flexible, not fictional. 

Abyssals are tentacled beings of Outer Darkness, the typical eldritch trope. Humans assume that these are chaos gods representing our fear of the deep ocean. However, what if the deep ocean was populated by templates from elder life forms existing in the primordial Deep? Then Azathoth and Cthulhu might be inspired by communications from beyond the Veil. In any case, it is best to ignore their mad wisdom. 

The stereotypical Gray alien with black eyes exhibits both aquatic and deep space adaptations. The black-lensed nictating membrane permits the eye to function in both extremely bright and extremely dark environments, such as outer space. They would be the ones to ask about the denizens of the Abyss, since it appears they are related. 

Rinoz's worldbuilding is solid, and leads to the correct conclusion to cooperate with the Dark pantheon over the other two options. 

I particularly liked how the false pantheon of Light was an invention by ascended humans designed to prevent other humans from attaining enlightenment. It resonated with my own experience growing up within a substantially-false religion.