#predathos rolling over like ‘oh hey is there a draft’

[britcision]

I’m also gonna throw out another concept:

Scale

How much do you wish to harm the bacteria on your countertop when you wipe it down? How much ill will do you hold for a dust mite?

I would actually agree that Predathos probably does not hold any ill will or hatred for mortals; it probably doesn’t think about them any more than you or I think about the microorganisms that are crushed and killed with every step you take across the grass

Predathos eating the gods is not going to be a neat, clean event, completely detached from the prime material plane

Even with the divine gate, even with no direct contact, the presence of the gods makes itself felt

The last time gods fought on Exandria, it was called the Calamity and nearly destroyed the entire world - and they were fighting each other

All of the gods, fighting against an entirely different power, is not going to be a walk in the park, nor good for the fabric of reality

And even in the best case scenario, Ludinus’s favourite, where Predathos just slorps all the gods like a vacuum cleaner and wanders off without a ripple…

Healing magic never works again

Cleric and paladin spells, all gone

(Some warlocks are also gonna have to go shopping for new patrons but hey they’ll probably find something)

All the big ol’ monsters like Uk’otoa, held in place by the gods, are off to have a lovely time and who’s going to stop them? Ludinus? Predathos? Does Predathos care about eating anything smaller than a god or not? How small will it get?

Would Predathos even notice destroying Exandria while it devours the gods?

Like it or not, like them or not, the gods are the apex predators of the Exandrian ecosystem. And we here on Earth actually have a lot of experience with what happens when you remove an apex predator, because we keep doing it. And it has never even once gone well

But hey, wizard hubris, Ludinus is an archmage. He’ll probably be fine… until he gets sick, or needs a Greater Restoration. There’ll totally be someone around to make potions for him though! I bet they were super duper available during the Calamity 🥰

I've been thinking about Ludinus's conviction that Predathos doesn't want to eat mortals, and bears them no ill will, and doesn't want to harm them. And I think... there's a strong possibility that this is true, but that what Predathos might consider 'not harming mortals' might not necessarily be what we'd consider 'not harming mortals.'

Would Predathos consider it 'harm' if all mortals somehow were absorbed into the interconnected consciousness of the Ruidusborn, for instance? If all individuality became lost, absorbed into some kind of hive mind? To Predathos, that might seem like a better state of being, a gift. Or it might not consider it anything, just the natural impact of its presence.

Does Predathos consider what happened in Molaesmyr - the warping of all the creatures there, the enduring blight upon the land, the horrifying transformations - to be harm? Or is that what seems normal and natural to it?

Ludinus is telling on himself by comparing Predathos to a shark, a creature of Exandria that works by rules he knows. But Predathos does not work by those rules. Predathos's nature is still unknown, perhaps unknowable, and the fact that just a failed attempt at connection in Molaesmyr did all of that does not fill me with confidence.