The Mech Touch

Ves did not act according to people's expectations.

What Ves had done was to impose himself onto the gathered churches in a brazen and unacceptable manner.

He not only wanted to be in complete charge of the coalition in the initial years of its existence, but he also sought to dictate how power would be shared after there was room for greater power sharing.

The representatives had made many good arguments why the share of voting rights in the coalition should be based on membership size, degree of involvement, wealth, age, state support, military might, societal contributions and more.

Perhaps the only subject they could agree upon was that no single criteria should determine the ranking of different faiths. It was too unfair to use measurements such as membership size and the amount of mechs they have under their command as the sole determinants of their ranking.

Faiths that scored weak in one area tended to be strong in other areas. Should their value to the coalition be discounted just because they never optimized their organizations to score well in an arbitrary factor that never held any importance in the past?

This was why the dispute gradually started to shift towards a compromise solution. It was clear that no one could gain total satisfaction without attracting the complete ire of other opposing faiths. The logical solution would be to find a middle ground where the amount of voting rights would be determined by a formula that incorporated every important variable and assigned certain weight values to them to denote their relative importance.

This was why the pugnacious representative of the Seekers of the Promised Land turned to Ves. The conversation proceeded in a direction that put a lot more emphasis on membership and population than he liked.

This was bad news for the SPL because its strong emphasis on bloodlines, heritage and a whole host of historical reasons caused it to maintain a small and tight-knit community of highly religious and militant worshipers.

Though its size simply couldn't match up to behemoths like the Diocese of New Rome and the Neo-Crescent Faith, one of the greatest advantages of the SPL was that it had always maintained a high degree of unity and cohesion throughout millennia. The members of the SPL and its predecessor organizations had proven its strength as a major force in the religious community many times that it was unthinkable to rank them far below the traditional big boys.

As such, the SPL clearly wanted to skew the discussion back in his favor by having the organizer and moderator of the discussion bring the topic back into balance.

What Ves should have done was to give smaller faiths such as the SPL a bone by agreeing to put more weight on other criteria such as placing a greater value on first-raters or taking their current military assets into account.

He did not do so. He plainly stated that population size should be the sole variable used to determine voting rights in the coalition.

While this attempted declaration came as a pleasant surprise to the other old faiths, their representatives actually adopted cautious and waiting expressions.

Even they did not expect for Ves to blatantly decide this important in their favor. While they most definitely wanted to have a greater say in the decision-making of the coalition, they were keenly aware that getting too much would only drive away the smaller faiths, thereby inflicting massive massive damage to a cooperative that aimed to represent all of the faiths of red humanity!

The representative of the SPL was completely justified in his indignation towards the mech designer that sought to dictate his decisions to faiths that were far older and wealthier than himself!

"Professor Larkinson, with all due respect. Your premature verdict does not accurately reflect the traditional power balance of our religious community. Basing our voting rights on membership size alone without any regard for class, wealth, influence and so on will cause the churches that are most active in third and second-rate states to overtake ones that are rooted in first-rate states. If that happens, then the coalition of faiths will turn into an interest organization that disproportionately seeks to satisfy the selfish desires of the weakest and least productive members of our society. Such undeserving welfare will not benefit our society as much as investing in our best and brightest."

Seeing that his earlier emotional outburst fall on flat ears, the representative of the SPL switched tracks and made a rational plea instead. He controlled her wording and put forth a number of logical and convincing arguments.

Unfortunately for the SPL, Ves remained unreceptive to this latest plea.

"You have raised good points, but my logic is stronger." He confidently retorted as he swept his gaze around the round metal table. "First, if this coalition is to be made, then my word is law. I do not have to justify my decisions to you. You just have to trust me that I will act in the best interest of the collective. If you are unwilling to do so, then you are welcome to shut off the connection and work out how to survive these turbulent times by yourself."

Despite these unwelcome words, none of the representatives that previously voiced their objections left the virtual meeting. They would receive a lot of blame from their respective organizations for not even bothering to hear Ves out completely. Feelings and emotions had no place in high-level decision-making.

Ves smirked as he knew he continued to maintain the upper hand. It had been risky for him to talk tough, but the backing he accrued so far barely allowed him to get away with it. He wouldn't have dared to contradict an old faith like the SPL so openly without the backing of the PMG.

"There are strong reasons why membership matters above all." He said. "You see, far too many of you are making a fundamental mistake about how to judge your power in the current times. We have entered the Age of Dawn. Many of the old rules and conventions that each of you have taken for granted during the Age of Mechs have either become invalid or require major updates. Factors such as money, mech forces, territory and so on are criteria used to judge the strength of secular organizations. Yes, they were also used to judge your own status and position in human society, but that was back in a time where the extraordinary and the supernatural were suppressed to a large extent."

That explanation caused a lot of representatives to look contemplative.

Ves smiled and continued his lecture. "We no longer live in that time anymore. We live in an age of wonder and miracles. Many feats previously thought impossible have suddenly become replicable by anyone with enough power and knowledge at their grasp. Many rules and assumptions need to be reevaluated in light of the changes produced by the change in environment. One of them is how to appraise the strength and relevance of a religious organization. Another one is how to judge the fundamental value of a human individual."

"These are two completely different questions, professor."

"They are not." Ves rejected this assertion. "They are very much related, which is why I have formed my earlier decision. Do you not see? Each of you are high-placed members of different faiths who preach and guide the beliefs of many different followers. Have you never witnessed that their prayers are no longer as insubstantial and inconsequential as before? Their beliefs have tangible value in this new era!"

Not all of the representatives understood the significance of what he just said. Only a minority of them expressed clear understanding of what he referenced.

That did not necessarily mean that their entire churches were ignorant of this important variable, but the secrets might not have been passed down to their spokespersons.

Ves needed to give them all a tangible demonstration of what he was talking about.

"Churches, temples and other religious organizations should not be judged by their balance sheets and the amount of soldiers under their employ anymore. That is only relevant to secular organizations. We play by a different set of rules. Population, or more precisely the earnest faith produced by a large mass of people has become our most important currency. Faith is what sustains our gods. Faith anchors our gods to our current reality. Faith is what promotes their growth and evolution. The more people in your church, the more prayers you are directing to your god or gods. Over time, an enormous discrepancy will take place. When gods ascend to their new thrones in this galactic neighborhood, they gain the capacity to wield so much power that none of your traditions, mechs or starships can stop them from cutting you down to size and marginalizing your faith."

These were bold claims. The minority who understood the value of faith could see how it worked, but most of the representatives still found Ves' explanation to be vague and without substance.

He intended to remedy that last issue.

"Don't believe me? Then pay close attention, because I shall expose you to the splendor of the gods that have grown with the help of the faith of the masses! Blinky!"

"Mrow!"

A purple companion spirit dove out of his head and floated above the center of the large metal table!

Ves had specifically adjusted the programming of this virtual venue to display the Star Cat as accurately as possible.

"Vulcan!"

Vulcan began to descend upon Blinky and asserted his form over the companion spirit!

A stocky and bearded dwarf-like figure wearing traditional blacksmith garb appeared in front of all of the representatives.

The external incarnation had fed off the spiritual feedback of quite a few craftsmen and dwarves over the years. This allowed him to exude a heavy presence through his glow that partially radiated through the remote connections!

With the help of his godly presence, it became quite hard for the representatives to deny Vulcan's divine trappings.

"Superior Mother!"

The representative of the Temple of Hexism, who happened to be a familiar sight to Ves, burst out in fanaticism as the imperious and matronly visage of the Superior Mother imposed herself on Blinky's form!

If people still found reason to question Vulcan's divinity, they found it much harder to do the same towards the Superior Mother!

The external incarnation of Cynthia Larkinson not only channeled the aura of a genuine True God, but also possessed exquisite control over her own transcendent power.

She was expertly able to work with the limitations of this virtual venue and convey as much of her god-like might through the flawed remote communication channels!

Ves smirked when he called over a third god.

"Gaia!"

This time, it was the turn of the representative of the Gaia Coven to look as if she had entered paradise. Her eyes practically rolled over as the manifestation of a radiant and divine tree hijacked Blinky's spiritual form!

Unlike the Superior Mother, Gaia possessed a lot of might, courtesy of the large amount of devoted Terran worshipers.

However, Gaia had no relations to old and powerful cultivators who had accumulated a lot of knowledge and practiced many abilities to perfection, so her control over her aura was much less refined.

This made an even greater impact as her raw power struck the spirits of all of the representatives like a crashing shuttle!

Though Gaia's quality of energy was still very much deficient, she clearly had no issue with the quantity that she had at her command! Just the raw power at her disposal was probably enough for her to independently form a manifestation in the material realm and actively fight to tilt the balance of numerous crucial battles of the Red Tide Offensive!

"This… is your true source of power." Ves declared as he tried his best to maintain Gaia's presence. "No mortal source of strength can match the relevance of the power of your god. A faith that tries to gain more power by playing secular power plays has no place in our coalition of faiths. In this club, the only basis of power is the strength of your god, and the only currency worth counting is the faith produced by your flock. Now, does any of you disagree with my verdict?"

"..."

"Thought so." Ves smirked.

He knew at this point, he had fully cemented his control over the coalition of faiths.

Though he did not know what it would morph into after a few years, for now, he would be assured that it would form his most solid and obedient backing in the Red Collective!

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