Regarding Sanctions (Shortly after the Glatisant fight of the Rise Era)

[youandyoualone]

Although I know that clean-up from the battle with the Glatisant and the message gleaned from its remains is likely of the utmost importance as of now--as well as the matter of the unintelligible Familiars and Spirit Companions--I do have some news that I hope will aid in improving the lot of the Adversaries of the earliest era.

Before her vocabulary became limited to a single word, the vixen who attached herself to me instructed me on how I might use Oracular knowledge to glean further knowledge on Sanctions. What I have learned is this:

These Sanctions use the power of existing bonds between people, either the ones doing the Sanctioning or those bonded with the person Sanctioned. As these bonds are real in the Realm of Dreams, they can prevent action just as well as rope or shackles might--although 'tis only acts with intention they can prevent, not accidental acts, for it is the dream of action that they prevent.

They can be entered into willingly and with consent, but unless that consent was explicitly and deliberately part of that Sanction, rescinding consent would not break the Sanction.

After learning this, I wished to know more of how one would break the Sanctions and Fidelite, who was then still in possession of her full vocabulary, advised me to build a Dreamcatcher and have it gather energy in the Questing Country of the earliest era for roughly a week. Fortunately, I was already there after the bridge broke.

Shortly before the battle started, my Dreamcatcher was deemed sufficiently filled by my still-coherent Familiar, and now that the fighting has concluded, I have had time to look within to see what might break the Sanctions. That information was granted to me in a series of three visions:

The first, of bitter and acrimonious arguments between Champions and Oracles, leading to the severing of a bond group, also severing all Sanctions they created.

The second, of a cabal of Adversaries furtively meeting, banding together, forming a fresh bond--overwriting the Sanction with the energy of their alliance.

And the third and most intriguing, of a heavy, metal-hafted mace, light wavering around its head like one reads in reports of desert mirages.

Comments

[otomechapilot]

Shacklebreaker.

No. No, Shacklebreaker didn’t look like that, unless it’s a metaphor for it.

(Hey, Sara? Context would be nice.)

[youandyoualone]

Shacklebreaker? Is that the name of the mace?

[Why wouldn't a mace have a name? It's a bit of an affectation to name your weapon, but that doesn't stop people.]

[otomechapilot]

There's an Infiltrator from the past. Allura. She's the Champion of Liberty I think, a rebel in the biggest Diabolin weapons factory, trying to sabotage as much as she can and free the elf slaves there.

She has a gun called Shacklebreaker that presumably Breaks Shackles in both the Dream and the Wake.

What if she made it part of her mission to save the Adversaries who were Sanctioned if they helped her fight the Diabolin?

[triggerhappytraitor]

...So two people could form a new bond to overwrite the old, and then choose to directly afterwards, in order to free the person from an unwanted one.

[youandyoualone]

Somewhat like that, yes. I would not be surprised if some of the Adversaries of the past have already tried that tactic.

..as I just now notice that spellcheck ate a word up there. ><

[triggerhappytraitor]

As long as they could find someone they trusted enough to form that temporary bond.

Having already been betrayed once by a bond, trusting another would be difficult.

[crouching_sin]

I vote for the third option. I hate the idea of those things.

Though the first two are amusing in their own way.

[youandyoualone]

We would have to find the lighted mace first, but it is appealing.

[crouching_sin]

It may be symbolic of some sort of power... or it might not. I'll keep my eyes open for it.

[truerevelation]

I... Ngh, I'd heard of this Sanction stuff before, but you're- you're saying that it's-

[He barely throws up a 'let's not wake Rose up' filter before-]

What on Ea- dammit, in all'f the Known Worlds are they thinking?

[fridgeninja]

It's something we know they've stopped using before the Double Valence - long enough ago that they'd forgotten about it.

And we're going to be the reason why.

[truerevelation]

[Sorry, Souji. Kanji wasn't looking for an actual answer. His only responses are psychic noises that make as much sense as the average Spirit Animal at present before he mutes the link.]

[youandyoualone]

I suspect they are thinking that Adversaries are a threat that must be contained. Which is very much a mistake.

[truerevelation]

A threat? A mistake? Hell no! They ain't - they ain't got a right, no-one has!

Using something like - a bond between people, it - it ain't a tool, it ain't a weapon! No-one should be forced into it! No-one should have to - to make one at gunpoint! You don't ... impose it... if there's one there, it'll grow on its own! It ain't just a card you draw, it's ... it's... shit!

We ain't a problem to be solved! Someone thinkin' that they can make comradeship and friendship into chains you can throw on someone is!

Protection II

[tookashirototheknee]

Hey. Breathe, Kanji.

If you need to punch something, I can whip up something. This dreamstuff is amazing.

[claudiometer]

...Random thought that I'm not sure we're going to have time to try, but.

There are a handful of words in English that are their own opposites. 'Sanction' is one of them. Depending on how you use it, it's either blocking something someone wants to do because you don't approve... or granting them a special exception to the usual rules.

I wonder if you could use the framework of these Sanctions to give someone their power back.

[youandyoualone]

[Thank you. Despite being British on a Jaunt, his own English is not quite up to task yet. (But then, it doesn't exist as a language on his world.)]

Interesting. I suspect it is theoretically possible, if one is clever.

[crouching_sin]

Now there's an idea. Since this place runs on concepts anyway...

im so glad i added that etymology site to my search bar

[theflyingone]

This is a dream land. If you believe in it hard enough, it comes to pass. I should add that the Latin it comes from simply means passing a decree, one way or the other.

[awondrousplace]

... oh, brilliant, darling!

That would certainly be a way to throw their words back in their faces, wouldn't it?

[fridgeninja]

If light's wavering around the mace, it's probably a gravity-based weapon.

That far in the past... it's probably a Diabolin weapon. I'm not sure if the Hecatites had that level of technology yet. I know the Gorgons and humans won't.

[youandyoualone]

Is it? How interesting.

The Diabolin... they are the slaving race that does not dream, correct?

[theflyingone]

Are you sure it isn't heat-based?

[ he knows mirages and he knows hot metal, but what the hell are gravity weapons... ]

[theflyingone]

In light of this new information, is there any way we can prevent future Sanctions? Um, not future as in the cosmic travel future, but just... after the Travelers leave. I would like to prevent the Sanctioners from the chance to do it again, or eliminate the means of doing so.

[youandyoualone]

As would I.

[There is a brief pause.]

I have attempted to divine how to stop future Sanctions in the same fashion I did for breaking Sanctions. This time the visions granted to me were of three individuals. I recognized the third as the Oracle 'Sempai' of the earliest era. The first seemed an elfly version of Artemisia Groves and the second mayhap a mineral version of Kenzaki.