Is this the IFCC's game plan?

[Andrew Markham]

So 998 gives us a new, crucial piece of info: the fate of souls if the gods unmake the world. If the IFCC knew this, sounds like this is their game plan: keep the mortals involved with the Snarl fighting each other so no one can stabilize the rifts and increase the odds the Gates get destroyed, world gets unmade- either now or later- and there's a massive influx of souls. Well some of those souls are going to be evil, and I just bet they have a way to snatch others for devil/demon/daemonic kind. And when the world gets remade...well, there's no reason they should give the souls back, now is there?

Seem plausible?

[Darth Paul]

I can't say that this sounds like a viable plan long-term, though.

On the plus side: Immediate, massive influx of souls.

On the minus side: No telling how long the Gods will spend hiding out on their own planes before building another new world. No telling how long before the new world is populated. No telling how many of the souls on the new world will be any category of Evil. No new souls coming in for an indeterminate amount of time.

I dunno, it just seems to me that they would be giving up bigger long-term gains (all the Evil people that die every single day, a process that comes to an end if no more are born until the creation of a new world) in return for a single payoff. It's like asking a lottery winner if he wants a one-time payout or a structured payment... the smart ones will take payments over time, since they add up to more. I tend to think the IFCC are very smart.

[multilis]

What is missing from this game plan is Miko. The Chosen One isn't duped by fake hero vampire dwarves like OOTS, IIFC obviously needs an evil opposite to counter her. So clearly they are trying to work with Hel, and seduce her into an unholy foursome so she gives birth to the anti-Miko triplets. Being demon gods these triplets will grow quickly and last chapter of this story will be the battle between Miko+OOTS and the anti-Mikos.

This ending of course was foreshadowed as early as http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0018.html

[factotum]

The main kicker that argues against this, IMHO, is that the quickest method for the IFCC to destroy the last Gate is to get the Order to the gate as quickly as possible. Xykon has a vested interest in keeping the gates intact, so he's not going to destroy it; and every gate that has been destroyed so far (apart from Lirian's 20-odd years ago) has been destroyed by the Order.

In addition, how does a massive influx of Evil souls--which would be balanced by a massive influx of souls on the Good side, I would add--help the IFCC in any way? As far as we can tell reincarnation is not a thing in the OotS universe (apart from possibly the Druid spell!), so once a soul goes to its afterlife plane, it stays there forever. I'm not seeing how that helps the IFCC achieve either their short-term aim of uniting all the Evil outsiders under one banner, or their long-term aim of destroying the Good gods.

[orrion]

So 998 gives us a new, crucial piece of info: the fate of souls if the gods unmake the world. If the IFCC knew this, sounds like this is their game plan: keep the mortals involved with the Snarl fighting each other so no one can stabilize the rifts and increase the odds the Gates get destroyed, world gets unmade- either now or later- and there's a massive influx of souls. Well some of those souls are going to be evil, and I just bet they have a way to snatch others for devil/demon/daemonic kind. And when the world gets remade...well, there's no reason they should give the souls back, now is there?

Seem plausible?

Nobody would be giving the souls back. The gods say this would suck for their followers because they would all die. That means they can't bring the souls back to life later or something similar.

The fiends' endgame is to destroy the non-Evil planes. The destruction of the world doesn't necessarily help them with that, or with their goal of fiend cooperation. I highly doubt, for example, that they could estimate the number of souls they would be getting control of or that the quality of the souls would be greater than those the rest of the afterlife received.

[zimmerwald1915]

Xykon has a vested interest in keeping the gates intact, so he's not going to destroy it; and every gate that has been destroyed so far (apart from Lirian's 20-odd years ago) has been destroyed by the Order.

How dare you besmirch the character of a paladin and samurai by associating me with those evildoers! *slash* *slash* *slash*

[Darth Paul]

How dare you besmirch the character of a paladin and samurai by associating me with those evildoers! *slash* *slash* *slash*

Well spotted, although I think you left out a couple of slashes.

[thereaper]

Yeah. There's gotta be at least three more lesbian Miko pairings out there.