#askaquarianalliance

[loominggaia]

LOOMING GAIA MUSINGS: SOVEREIGN + ZAREENITE POLLUTION

The Zareenites liberated their red elf slaves around the year 4300. The slaves were replaced with robots, which dramatically increased the empire's energy usage and pollution output.

600 years later, Sovereign and Mr. Ocean were born off the eastern coast of Noalen. By then, Zareen's pollution was really getting out of control and starting to affect foreign waters.

200 years after that, Sovereign was an accomplished curative mage. He healed sick Aquarians for free, simply to better his community. But the number of patients was increasing every year, they were coming from lands further away, and their ailments were getting stranger and more severe. Based on their similar symptoms, Sovereign began to suspect that these Aquarians were being poisoned by something.

Sovereign traced the cases on a map and noticed they followed specific ocean currents. These currents all passed by Zareen's shores, which by that time were notoriously dirty with pollution. Could the currents really carry this pollution so far from its source? According to all these Aquarians with strange cancers and chemical poisonings, apparently so.

Anyway, the Red Elf Liberation Movement was the major catalyst to the Aquarian Alliance's uprising. These events are directly connected, even though they happened centuries apart. The RELM actually gave birth to two Great Kingdoms: The Empire of Damijana and the Aquarian Alliance, which today are ironically at war with eachother over the pollution...Pollution that stemmed from the RELM in the first place, because Zareenite corporations would rather pollute Gaia with millions of fuel-guzzling robots than even think about paying real flesh-and-blood workers.

I just thought it was too interesting not to mention!

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[loominggaia]

In sight of my recent 6-year-old human question: How old is each species (Roughly/on average) when they're about as mature as a, IDK, 16 year old human? Also, what do you think would happen when Sovereign dies? Which of his countless kids (Not counting the rejects he banished) will become the new ruler of the AA Water Bois?

Question 1: As I said before, this is hard to measure, so take these numbers with a grain of salt:

Human: 16

Dworf: 16

Roshava: 16

Troll: 13

Ogre: 13

Elf: 20

Goblin: 20

Gnome: 35

Sirene: 20

Cecaelia: 45

Satyr: 13

Faun: 15

Minotaur: 13

Centaur: 16

Gorgon: 16

Question 2: Sovereign has hundreds of offspring, but has chosen a small handful of his most capable children to be his heirs, lackeys, and goons.

First in line for heir is his chadly son, Champion of Aquaria (nickname "Champ"). There will be more info about him and his family in an upcoming concept, but I can say a few things about him here.

Champ is the strongest, smartest, and most handsome of all Sovereign's offspring, which is why he was chosen to lead the Aquarian Alliance after his father's death. The pressure has been on this guy since his birth to be perfect in every way, as Sovereign holds him to an impossible standard. On the outside, Champ seems like a cool and confident guy. But on the inside, he's a hair away from a nervous breakdown at any given moment. His public persona is very different from the person he is in private.

In public, he projects a dignified and collected presence, as if he's ready to take on anything with the utmost professionalism. But as soon as he comes home and closes the door behind him, he's on the floor having a big, fat panic attack and crying for his mommy.

Champ is trying to stick it out and be the perfect scyllo his crazy father wants him to be, but is is certainly not easy. Sovereign is very hard on him, but also spoils him and parades him around with pride. Because truly, Champ does exceed expectations in almost everything he does...but it's not just luck, it's because he works his fucking ass off 24/7 to be the best. This dude grinds like a belt sander, day in, day out.

Champ's intense daily grind is not exactly sustainable though. There will probably come a day when he comes unglued and falls apart, mentally or physically--or both. And I'm willing to bet it will be at the worst possible moment too...

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[loominggaia]

Wars in Looming gaia history?

I think realistically there have been thousands upon thousands of wars in Gaia's history, both big and small, so I'll narrow it down and talk about some of the most notable ones. I'll try to keep each entry here short, but if you want more information on any of them just let me know and I can make a separate post.

Gold River War: Yerim-Mor Kingdom was once the richest of the Great Kingdoms. One day a massive earthquake struck the land, bringing great devastation all across this kingdom. The earthquake also exposed a ton of gold in the Sunglow River, the lifeblood of Yerim-Mor. This river was renamed "Gold River" as Matuzu Kingdom moved in to take it all for itself, kicking the Yerim-Mor people down while they were still reeling from the disaster.

Matuzu really took advantage of the situation, using it as an opportunity to occupy chunks of Yerim-Mor's territory and steal its resources. This event was known as the "Gold River War". Yerim-Mor tried to defend itself, but it was no match, as other entities such as the Divine of Hate moved in to take advantage as well. It went from being the richest kingdom to the very poorest. The effects of this war are still very apparent today.

The Ogre Wars: This was a series of many battles fought between the ancient Evangelites and the native ogre tribes of Noalen. The Evangelites had successfully conquered or assimilated all the other peoples of this land, but they were struggling with the ogres, who just seemed to be too powerful. Long story short, Evangeline was not successful. They sunk a lot of lives and resources into trying to conquer these ogres, and in the end, the ogrish tribes still stand today in the middle of Evangelite territory as independent little nations. The Evangelites just leave them alone, and in return, the ogres keep to themselves too.

Because they have not been conquered, these ogrish tribes are not bound by Evangelite law. They have their own laws within their walls. This means that escaped Evangelite slaves, refugees, and defecting soldiers often seek these tribes as temporary safe havens while they make the journey to other kingdoms. As you can imagine, this really irritates the Evangelite government, but there isn't much they can do about it while they're stuck in this ongoing war with Folkvar. Which brings me to my next war...

The Evangeline-Folkvar War: You can read more about this one in the main Evangeline and Folkvar articles, but basically Evangeline's slavery laws led to a civil war, in which many citizens and slaves defected from the kingdom and founded their own kingdom, called Folkvar. Folkvar Kingdom has been at war with Evangeline since its conception, as its people continue to fight for their own freedom from Evangeline even today.

Sovereign's Bloodwave: This wasn't exactly a war in itself, but it was the event that incited the war between Zareen Empire and the Aquarian Alliance. Sovereign pleaded with Zareen Empire to stop polluting the sea and his his people for long enough, and he decided it was time to take drastic measures to be heard. So, he sent battalions to capture thousands of children from Zareen's coastal territories. These children were violently executed in the sea and their corpses were carried by a great magical wave, directed towards the city of Driza.

The wave devastated the city with a flood that left a grisly mess when the waters receded. The streets were choked with sewage, trash, and the severed body parts of innocent Zareenite children from all over the empire. The aftermath of this led to disease spread, and the epidemics caused even more death and destruction for several years afterwards, not to mention the emotional toll on all who witnessed such a horror...which was the entire megapopulated city of Driza.

Sovereign's message was heard loud and clear, but the response was not what he hoped. Instead of meeting his demands, the Zareenites doubled down on their pollutive ways and officially declared war upon his nation.

The Battle of Driza: Poor Driza can't catch a break, can it? That's because this city is a major industry hub for Zareen Empire, and that makes it a big target for enemy attacks. It produces much of the empire's energy with a massive dirty fuel plant, and the waste from this plant is dumped right into the sea. Sovereign once sent a few thousand dorikori (brainwashed mermaid soldiers) on a suicide mission to bomb this plant and take down Zareen's power grid, in preparation for an even bigger attack. This battle was a major plot point in the story "Chains of Melody".

(((SPOILERS: the attack failed because a spy from the Oceanic Resistance tipped off the Zareenite military ahead of time, giving them ample time to intercept it. The result? Thousands of dorikori lie dead for no reason. Smooth move there, Sovereign...)

The Matuzu-Etios War: There is more info about this in the main Etios and Matuzu articles. The short of it is, Matuzu Kingdom once had a ruthless fae regime who decided that all gaians were inferior species who should be enslaved. The kingdom's gaians were like "fuck that" and put up a much bigger fight than the regime expected. Matuzan gaians organized a mass exodus to the southern, more undeveloped part of the kingdom and colonized it for themselves. They formed their own kingdom called Etios Nation, a place where gaians dominate and fae are not allowed. Matuzu has been trying to reclaim this land from Etios ever since, but has not been successful...mostly because Matuzu can't mind its own business and has like 2-3 other wars going on at any given time. They really shot themselves in the foot with this one, as the two kingdoms are still at war even today and there is no sign of peace anywhere near the horizon.

There are definitely more, but that's all I can think of at the moment. I might add some more later.

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[loominggaia]

Now I want to know what sovereign's offspring look like...

Okay, the meme is hyperbolizing a bit, so let me explain what's really going on...

Sovereign is kind of like the Genghis Khan of the sea, or at least he's trying to be. The dude has so many kids by so many different mothers, they're actually quite diverse both in appearance and personality.

The thing is, a lot of his "wives" didn't breed with him willingly. They were noblewomen he kidnapped after destroying/assimilating their tribes. Mr. Roach's wife, Lobster Red, was one of them for example.

A female cecaelia's body does not respond well to stress. If they get upset enough, their reproduction cycle can get screwy or just shut down completely until they feel better. This is one of the reasons they're often kept in quiet, safe nurseries their whole lives, where they remain ignorant to the troubles outside.

Well, as you can imagine, being kidnapped by a warlord is pretty damn stressful. Some of Sovereign's wives flocked to him willingly, infatuated with his power, but many of them wanted nothing to do with his crazy ass. The rebel wives laid a lot of defective eggs due to stress, and some of them even sabotaged their eggs in protest.

Either way, this resulted in a boom of deformed, mentally impaired, or otherwise "imperfect" offspring. Sovereign made a promise to his parents long ago that he would never kill another Tekeetian, so he instead banishes these offspring to the wilderness. He's ashamed of their conditions because he thinks it makes him look "defective" in some way. (He vocally blames their conditions on "Zareenite pollution". Which isn't likely, considering his royal nurseries are nowhere near Zareenite waters, but whatever dude...)

Long story short, there are entire colonies of quirky cecaelia lurking in the wild seas who all share Sovereign as an ancestor. They tend to stick together and take care of eachother, for they are shunned everywhere else. Sovereign will not allow them back in his territory, and considering he basically dominates the whole ocean at this point, there aren't many places for his rejected kin to go. Some of them have ventured up to Terria to live on land, others have gone deeper to the abyssal depths of the sea, and a few just survive in uncolonized waters where Sovereign's influence hasn't reached yet.

As for Sovereign's "perfect" offspring--the physically and mentally fit--he likes to appoint them to high positions in his government. They become military generals, politicians, advisors, ambassadors, and so on. It's nepotism to an extreme. This is how he's managed to gain so much power in such a relatively short amount of time: essentially breeding his own civilization and using it to steamroll the smaller civs around him.

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Lore Masterpost

[loominggaia]

OK so like why are the leaders of towns called kings or queens

Good question! There are many different cities/towns/holds within each Great Kingdom, and each of these places has a leader. Sometimes these leaders are called kings/queens, but they may have other titles like chief/chieftess, mayor, baron, etc.

Let's use Uekoro as an example. This is a city in Matuzu Kingdom. The leader of Uekoro is called a King/Queen, but Matuzu Kingdom itself is also ruled by a King/Queen. This is why rulers of the kingdom have the title "High King/High Queen", to emphasize that they are above other kings and queens in their own kingdom. (Example: King Jelani of Uekoro vs. High King Yazid of Matuzu Kingdom.)

So why do they both have this royal title? This is because Uekoro was once considered its own kingdom. This was during ancient times before Matuzu Kingdom had gotten big enough to absorb it into its jurisdiction.

This is actually the case with a lot of the world's territories. Most of them used to be their own little kingdoms until they got conquered/bought out/assimilated into bigger ones. Another example is a small Aquarian kingdom called Ekkos, which was ruled by Roach. He ruled as its king until Sovereign slayed him and claimed Ekkos as an Alliance territory, so it is no longer an independent kingdom. It is now just a city functioning under the Alliance's larger jurisdiction.

Uekoro may not be considered a kingdom anymore, but that history is still there, and the "King/Queen" title of its rulers has stuck over the years. Lots of other "cities" have similar histories.

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Lore Masterpost

[loominggaia]

Are there terrians who support Soverain?

Shockingly, yes there are are!

Their reasons for supporting him aren't all the same though. Some Zareenites support him because they agree with his worldview, that Terrian species are too dysfunctional to govern themselves. They look at the polluted, overpopulated society around them and realize it's doomed to fail. They believe cecaelia are a superior species with superior intelligence, and only they are capable of governing Terrian society properly. In short, these people think of Sovereign as their savior, a hero who will swoop down and rescue them from their depressing lives under capitalism.

Then there are his Mogdiri supporters who like the fact that he fucks with Zareen Empire so hard. Mogdir Kingdom and Zareen Empire have been enemies for a long time, so it's a case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". The Mogdir government would never openly support Sovereign, but you can bet the common Mogdiri people cheer him on quite a bit.

There are other smaller, random groups who support him for various reasons too. These people tend to be ignorant as to what Sovereign is really doing, and often misinterpret his motives. I will say that his Terrian supporters are a small minority overall. Most Terrians see him as a violent, unhinged terrorist.

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Lore Masterpost

[loominggaia]

What made Soverain hate the sirenes? Commoners I understand but you would think he'd see sirenes as allys against the commoners? Just a thought.

Sovereign doesn't exactly "hate" the sirenes. It's more like he has a superiority complex over them (and all other species).

He believes that cecaelia are objectively superior to all other peoples because of their long lifespans and potential for great magical power. While cecaelia do have many strengths, the truth is, they have a hell of a lot of weaknesses too. All peoples have their own strengths and weaknesses, so it's impossible to say who is really the most powerful.

Sovereign has blinded himself to nuance because it doesn't support his bigoted, black-and-white worldview. He lives a sheltered existence where he's surrounded by yes-men who only tell him what he wants to hear. His views are never challenged, so he just spirals deeper and deeper into them, and they have become more extreme the longer they've gone unchecked.

Basically Sovereign believes that cecaelia are (or should be) the "dominant" species on Gaia, because only they are intelligent and powerful enough to shape the world into the utopia it should be. Other species just aren't fit for the task, in his eyes.

In order to make this dream a reality, Sovereign must weaken the other species' populations. He wants to shake off their influence on the world so he can start over, put cecaelias in charge, and become supreme leader of a new, more functional world.

He claims he isn't doing this out of any kind of malice, but out of love, because he believes other species are just stupid monkeys who aren't capable of governing themselves. By ruling over them, he thinks he can guide them to a better life (and in his mind, enslavement and oppression might just be "healthy" for some of them...yeah he's fucked in the head, don't try to make sense of it because it doesn't really make sense. It's just bigoted nonsense-thinking.)

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Lore Masterpost

[loominggaia]

i dont know how i missed the whole "sirenes are second class citizens in aquaria" thing. on that note, would you mind expanding on how sirenes live within the aquarian alliance? aside from being the common footsoldiers and such

This is one of those "open secrets" in the Aquarian Alliance. On paper, all species have equal rights, even Terrian species. But in practice...yeah, not so much.

It's pretty clear that cecaelia have the most power and wealth in this nation. Sirenes make up the vast majority of the Alliance's population, yet they tend to hold lower places in society.

This is all by design. Sovereign is a cecaelian-supremacist who wishes the whole world resembled his native ethnostate of Tekee. That time and culture are long gone, but he is not ready to let it go. He sees the sirenes as useful tools to accomplish his goals, so he's willing to meet them half-way on things here and there.

But if Sovereign does achieve world domination, you can bet he'll betray the sirenes fast and probably enslave them. Most likely, all other species will be made into slave classes to serve cecaelia. In Sovereign's mind, that's the ideal world. He sees cecaelia as victims, not as aggressors, and believes that his species deserves to rule over others because only they are intelligent and capable enough to do so.

So, in this culture, you have a leader who believes his species is objectively superior to all others. As you can imagine, he only appoints other cecaelia to important roles in his government. Those cecaelia appoint other cecaelia under them, and so on, which leaves sirenes and other species to work in the ditches with no power or influence over anything. It's basically species-based nepotism.

How exactly sirenes live under Alliance rule is dictated by their culture. The Alliance's territory encompasses almost the entire sea, so you have thousands of different cultures operating under its rule. They are forced to serve the Sovereign, but they still cling to their own beliefs and ways of life in any way they can. They're allowed to do pretty much whatever they want, as long as it doesn't conflict with Sovereign's goals. He lets them practice their religions, celebrate their holidays, eat their traditional cuisine, and so on. But in return, they must pay taxes to his regime, obey his nation's laws, and show up to fight if they're drafted.

Some of these territories have higher numbers of sirenes than others. Some have no cecaelia in them at all, so you'll find areas where sirenes have more opportunities to rise into more powerful positions like government leaders and military captains.

Sovereign's regime is slowly trying to phase that out by moving cecaelian populations around like chess pieces, forcing them into strategic locations to take power away from sirenes. It's very insidious and no one is happy with it. The native sirenes hate it because it strips them of their culture and robs them of opportunities, and the cecaelian immigrants hate it because they're being forced to move somewhere they don't necessarily want to be.

Naturally this creates a lot of conflict between sirenes and cecaelia, which is exactly what Sovereign wants. If they're busy fighting with eachother, then they're too distracted to point fingers at him.

There's a lot of strategic, artificial conflict in the Aquarian Alliance. It can really suck to be a sirene here or it can be okay, depending on your location. Personally, if I was a sirene, I would much rather live in a place like Matuzu Kingdom, Mogdir Kingdom, or even the Seelie and Unseelie Courts.

Hell, even life Lamai Nation would be preferable to an Alliance territory imo. There is still some level of systemic oppression against sirenes there, but at least the Lamaish government doesn't gaslight its citizens about it like the Alliance does.

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Lore Masterpost

[loominggaia]

Since modern lindisits want to respect natural and the aquatic alliance wants to protect natural to why do lindisits hate them

Well, the biggest reason Modern Lindists don't respect the Aquarian Alliance is because the Alliance is a predominantly fae nation. This is a culture where Aquarians are revered, and Terrians--such as humans--are spit upon. Modern Lindists believe that fae are evil creatures who are only fit to be slaves.

They may share some of the same goals, but at the end of the day, Modern Lindists and Alliance citizens have very incompatible cultures. They disagree on so many fundamental things (slavery, magic use, women's rights, etc.) that shared values about the environment just aren't enough to make up for it.

Lindists aren't the only ones who hate the Alliance though. Even many Alliance citizens hate their own nation, because they are not citizens by choice. Sovereign assimilated many Aquarian tribes by force--their only choices were to join his cause or die. They are largely viewed as a "terrorist nation" because of the constant attacks they launch on other Great Kingdoms. The Alliance even attacks its own settlements that try to secede.

Truly, there are a million reasons for Lindists (and everyone else) to hate the Alliance.

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Lore Masterpost

[loominggaia]

What happens if Sovereign suddenly declares himself as 'Suzerain'? You know, superior than just 'Sovereign' title to distinguish himself from other rulers and show enough 'suzerainty'.

I'm not familiar with this term. I had to look it up and unfortunately I still don't really understand it. I'll just say that even though Sovereign's name is his title, this title doesn't necessarily mean what it means in other lands.

Sovereign proudly declares that his nation, the Aquarian Alliance, is not bound by the World Council. It's a sovereign nation in that it answers to no one...except for him, of course. He's basically a dictator.

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[loominggaia]

Different anon but I also have a hot take. Sovereign did nothing wrong. It's Zareen's own fault they get attacked because they won't stop polluting. IIRC you said Sovereign tried negotiation first and they ignored him, so fuck them actually. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Daaaamn, now that's a spicy one!

From a cold and impersonal standpoint, I would say...yeah, that's about right. But when you look at the situation from an individual perspective--say, the perspective of the average Zareenite citizen--Sovereign's actions become a lot more deplorable.

Think of it like this: The average Zareenite has no say about the pollution being dumped into the sea. Their government officials are responsible for changing that situation. Yet it's not these rich politicians who suffer the consequences for it, it's the average citizen. Whenever Sovereign launches an attack, innocent civilians are killed, maimed, and enslaved--including children, who have no say in anything at all.

It's a very complicated situation, and while I do get where Sovereign is coming from with these desperate attacks (the pollution is killing his people too, after all), I can't personally condone them or say he's in the right. I think there are more effective ways for him to address the issue without dragging innocent civilians into it. That's just *my* opinion though, everyone's entitled to their own!

If you guys have any more LG hot takes, I'd love to hear them. I'll offer my own rebuttal if I can, but sometimes you guys genuinely stump me or change my perspective. This is great stuff to think about!

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Lore Masterpost

[loominggaia]

I wonder how the Aquarian alliance Terrian allies manage to live their lives, given the aquatic nature of the kingdom. Do they get help by the native sirenes and cecaelia, or are they forced to find a solution to their own problems?

The Aquarian Alliance has a surprising amount of settlements on land. Not very far inland, but along various coasts. One of these was shown in the story "Chains of Melody". They've also colonized a lot of small islands.

Sirenes naturally build their homes on shore because their young can't breathe underwater. A lot of these sirene colonies are under the Alliance's jurisdiction. It wouldn't be too hard for Terrians to live under its jurisdiction either, they'd just have to live close to the beach, on a boat, or even in a globeholder under the sea.

The Alliance will accept any Terrians who agree to support them. But this is risky for the Terrian, because swearing loyalty to the Alliance automatically slaps a "terrorist" label on you worldwide. If you ally with the Alliance, they're your ONLY ally. You just became an enemy of all other Great Kingdoms.

[loominggaia]

What about The Sovereign? He seems like the most evil to me but I want to hear your take. (He's one of my favorite characters, don't judge me... ;_; I love all the mermaid/mermen characters.)

Haha you’re definitely not Sovereign’s only fan! No judgments here, I like him too, even if I don’t necessarily approve of his actions. I think he’s an interesting character to write.

Sovereign is reeeaally tricky to place on the Most Evil Scale(tm) because his actions are obviously deplorable, but his motivations are easy to understand and his intentions might be in the right place.

Mr. Ocean repeatedly defends Sovereign throughout the series, claiming he was once a good person who never hurt anyone. He was a famed cleric who healed the sick and injured on his own time, at no expense, just because he loved his fellow Aquarians. However, Mr. Ocean’s opinion of him is a little questionable considering:

A) Ocean is profoundly mentally ill, easily influenced, and somewhat delusional.

B) He was held medically hostage by Sovereign for centuries, in which he developed a form of Stockholm Syndrome. He spoke well of his brother even as he was being experimented on and tortured by him.

Even after he escaped Sovereign’s influence and admitted some of his faults, Mr. Ocean continues to insist that he was a good person once and that his intentions are still in the right place, he’s just become “blinded by love” for his people. The Sovereign claims he wants to protect Aquaria from the Terrian’s pollution, he’s spent centuries trying to play nice with them, and now the Terrians have “forced” him to be cruel by not changing their ways.

This is, for the most part, true. BUT...In another story, Roach gives his perspective and says that Sovereign is not protecting Aquarians at all--in fact, he’s rampaging all over Aquaria and forcing them to join his campaign against the Terrians, otherwise he enslaves or kills them. Roach is a bit of a bastard in his own right, but I think his grasp on reality is more trustworthy than Mr. Ocean’s.

At the end of the day, Sovereign’s motives are murky at best. Maybe he is just blinded by his goals, unable to see the destruction he’s causing to the people he set out to protect. Maybe he’s gone legitimately insane. The only thing we can confirm are the facts, which are:

1) He was once a great healer who selflessly helped millions of Aquarians.

2) He performed questionable medical experiments on his own brother, though both he and Mr. Ocean claim this was for Mr. Ocean’s benefit and Sovereign was trying to “help” him with his mental illness. Again, Sovereign’s true motives are really murky here because at the time, he benefited from Ocean being sick, as it allowed Sovereign to take his throne. Maybe his heart was in the right place, maybe it wasn’t.

3) Sovereign’s campaign is ultimately for a good cause, to save his people from Terrian pollution. But he’s causing misery for both Terrians and Aquarians to achieve this, reasoning that it’s all “for the greater good”. Is it really? Maybe, considering Mr. Ocean tried to take a more peaceful approach with the Terrians for years and was largely ignored, so...

Sorry for the essay here, but Sovereign is one of those characters that can’t be explored in a single paragraph. There’s a lot to him, which is why I think he has his fans despite what a fucker he can be. I honestly have no idea where I’d place him in the evil scale. On actions alone, probably just behind Mankind’s Disgrace. But his motivations hold him back from the top 3, because he might just be a good person blinded by emotion or inhibited by mental instability.