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Praes is not, in the grand scheme, IMPORTANT in the slightest. The rest of Calernia (which is only one continent in a world where the battle between Good and Evil has been OVERWHELMINGLY decided in favor of Good everywhere else) views it as pretty much a joke.
I have not seen any sort of evidence towards that. Its closer to a constant thorn in everyone's side thats utterly unpredictable. Sometimes demons, somethings invisible tigers.
But yes, when they are in the tiger-phase then they do seem to be ignored in favor of the more constant threats.
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Before the current Crusade there wasn't a concerted effort to stamp out Praes from any of the Good powers because they were too busy with mortal wars and the larger, more terrifying conflicts with forces like The Dead King and the Chain of Hunger. The only reason Praes won for as long as it did was, in short, that Black manipulated the ancient story of Callow being invaded for its resources...and then KEPT GOING instead of pulling out like Praes has always done before, choosing instead to corrupt/reform Callow into a new nation.
Even that was not considered a big deal; nobody on Calernia gave enough of a **** about fantasy Poland to try and take it back, so the Calamities were able to slaughter or turn nascent Heroes before they became a threat. Catherine in particular was a candidate for Hero status before Black got to her.
It was only when Akua started mimicking the old Villains and slaughtered 100, 000 people in a single night that the rest of Calernia woke up like they'd been slapped in the face; it was only then they realized that Praes was a true threat again and should be dealt with (and as a bonus, Procer gets to conquer and rape Callow again; win-win).
Well there were not really anyone close enough to care. Procer were busy with a succesion war as i recalled. And i dont recall that many other nations who are directly good. A fair bit of the others seemed neutral.
And even after Akura turned a entire town undead its still mainly Procer who are busy with the crusading. The rest of Calernia seems mainly content to take small strikes of oppotunity on either side.
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In short the time that Evil won in this scenario is beyond abnormal. Not just for Calernia, but the cosmos as a whole. The general state of affairs is "Villain first stage succeeds, stopped last minute by plucky Heroes who coincidentally have abilities tailored to overcome all challenges set before them", which the Calamities subvert by using heroic tactics and story-fu to skew battles in their favor.
The only reason for why the general state of affairs is like that, is that Villain first stage last as long as they are winning. Last minutte is then when they lose at last. If you keep rolling the dice then eventually you will lose.
And we have seen that if the first team of plucky heroes fail, then a slightly more experience team is given the chance.
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EVEN THEN, a tiny mistake is enough to end a powerful Villain; Captain was baited into a trap and killed with little fanfare for her importance because of that. The universe is inherently stacked against Evil in any conflict, because stories that end in "and the Villain is defeated, everyone lives happily ever after" are the most common, and even Pyrrhic victories are still villainous defeats in the grand scheme.
And of course a tiny mistake is enough to get you killed when your suddenly fighting someone your own level for a change.
But it was not that small of a mistake. Black underestimated his opponent, and grew predictable in the way he used Captain.
He knew that there were something off about the caravans. But failed to realise someone more skilled at twisting stories might be around.
I disagree on that the universe is inherently stacked againt Evil in any given conflict. The only thing Good is guaranteed is to win "in the end".
And when Evil insist on continuing to play until they lose, then there will come an end sooner or later.
But as we saw in the fight between the Tyrant and the White knight, then its actually pretty much back and forth when both sides play by the rules.