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Inquest...infinity resources and weak...but why?


Josiah.2967

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Can someone explain why the Inquest have infinite resources? How they have their hands in everything, everywhere. Why they are insignificant in the grand scheme of things? Why we just let them continue to irritate and cause problems? Why they are not hindered by setbacks? Why they can not be disbanded or are out of reach?

The Inquest just feel like the GW2 never ending cockroach.

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Like any corporation, the Inquest's strength is in its numbers. They don't care if one Asura or one lab gets burnt out or blown up because they have hundreds more and plenty lining up to join them, reputation notwithstanding. Like evil corporations in particular, their resources come from anonymity and espionage. Behind-the-scenes, and backroom deals, on top of petty theft and extortion of resource providers due to their sheer market share (again, strength in numbers). Ever work for a company like Wal-Mart? it's kinda like that.

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@"Josiah.2967" said:Can someone explain why the Inquest have infinite resources?They don't. They just have a lot because they get backing from Flax and other aspects of asuran civilization.

How they have their hands in everything, everywhere.Asura gates allow them far passage with ease. They merely need to send an expeditionary team with the materials for a gate and they can instantly establish a new base anywhere.

Why they are insignificant in the grand scheme of things?They're not always insignificant, but the grand scheme of the game is to focus on the Elder Dragons. As such, everything not related to the Elder Dragons is more or less insignificant.

Why we just let them continue to irritate and cause problems?Because High Councilor Flax of the Arcane Council basically allows them to do whatever they want; to make things "worse", they have a member on the council as well. This means they can very easily manipulate asuran politics, which is why they have a blatantly open base in Rata Sum despite citizens not liking them.

Because of this political backing, legal actions cannot be taken against them, and since they've embedded within the political structure of Rata Sum, you cannot fully annihilate them (should someone finally deign to try) without warring on the greater nation of the asura citystate.

Why they are not hindered by setbacks?They are, but they don't seem to be because they're not the focus of a plot.

Why they can not be disbanded or are out of reach?We've never even struck at their leadership besides one time (Kudu in the Cruicible of Eternity dungeon). We don't even know who their leadership is for that matter. So long as their leadership remain, and they retain political power in Rata Sum, they won't be annihilated.

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I think part of it is that we keep finding them further and further away from Rata Sum in part because of their setbacks. When it became clear that for all the official sanction they have there's a limit to what they'll be able to get away with in asura territory, they moved their riskier and more amoral research into the wildlands of Tyria. As those labs get found and taken out, they keep moving further afield.

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After crucible of Eternity, Zojja takes some damning information back to Rata Sum. It's always been the case of "The farther from Rata Sum you go, the more 'evil' the inquest gets." In Rata Sum and directly outside it's petty theft and mischief, further away it's openly experimenting on people and kidnapping.

edit: Another aspect is, generally the implication we are given is each inquest base is independant from others and only really communicates with the home "office" of Rata Sum.

So sure, we trashed the crucible of eternity, but that base drew it's own resources, so the base in Orr was unaffected. I'd even say the inquest other base/two bases in mount maelstrom drew upon their own resource gathering and command structure.

Rata Primus is the largest base we've seen, but even in that case I recall implications that labs within the complex itself were totally isolated from each other in terms of communication.

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@Kalavier.1097 said:Rata Primus is the largest base we've seen, but even in that case I recall implications that labs within the complex itself were totally isolated from each other in terms of communication.

I think that was more due to the Awakened invasion hindering communications, rather than the Inquest's own structure.

But in large, yeah, most labs are independent depending on the branch. The Crucible of Eternity's destruction no doubt did cause a hindrance for other Elder Dragon studying labs under Kudu's domain, but it would have been short term as Kudu would have gotten replaced (eventually, it would seem, by Overseer Kuda).

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In all honesty, I think its more because "core" world hasn't truthfully updated with the current events. Similar is with Norn and Charr whose respective "countries" almost seem to be stuck back in time.

At this point in story, support from specific Asuran politicians can't be used as an excuse as to why everybody else doesn't touch inquest. They have done so much damage to so much cultures and individuals and there is so much evidence and witnesses against them. Help from Rata Sum no longer can factor in as being detrimental. It's far more likely that Anet simply decided to deal with them later in some different manner.They are at this point much more than just some rogue asuran krew and almost any race has some reason to treat them as an international crime syndicate (which they are).

This is why i personally hope that wherever story goes, we deal with inquest first as they are becoming Team Rocket of this franchise.

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@"kasoki.5180" said:In all honesty, I think its more because "core" world hasn't truthfully updated with the current events. Similar is with Norn and Charr whose respective "countries" almost seem to be stuck back in time.

At this point in story, support from specific Asuran politicians can't be used as an excuse as to why everybody else doesn't touch inquest. They have done so much damage to so much cultures and individuals and there is so much evidence and witnesses against them. Help from Rata Sum no longer can factor in as being detrimental. It's far more likely that Anet simply decided to deal with them later in some different manner.They are at this point much more than just some rogue asuran krew and almost any race has some reason to treat them as an international crime syndicate (which they are).

This is why i personally hope that wherever story goes, we deal with inquest first as they are becoming Team Rocket of this franchise.

Couple factors.

A: Generally the smaller inquest labs are well-disguised, or placed in smart locations (Like at the bottom of a lake). Typically inquest operations publically seen aren't completely into the "Wipe them all out" stage as well, and the large ones that are we openly see aggressive action taken against them, like Crucible of Eternity being forcefully taken over by the pact, and the one Orr base also attacked and taken by the order of whispers.

B: Truth is, pretty much everybody DOES take action against the inquest, when they find them. But it's not as simple as just marching an army in, as destroying one base does little to actually hurt inquest actions elsewhere. And compared to other local threats, the inquest labs are on the lower end of the threat list.

C: Arcane council/Rata Sum support does actively mean a fair amount in terms of politics. Because the inquest are deeply rooted within Rata Sum's politics and social spaces, "wiping out the inquest" means destroying their hold on Rata Sum and immediate surrounding areas. I think the Arcane Council would object (and possible pull gate/waypoint support) if suddenly Kryta marched up demanding they be allowed to neutralize the inquest base inside Rata Sum.

Further Inquest involvement would probably be as it's always been, We deal with the local threat of inquest, but globally it's just a singular base being removed. I'm hoping inquest involvement is lower with the loss of Rata Primus, but we'll see.

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@"kasoki.5180" said:At this point in story, support from specific Asuran politicians can't be used as an excuse as to why everybody else doesn't touch inquest. They have done so much damage to so much cultures and individuals and there is so much evidence and witnesses against them. Help from Rata Sum no longer can factor in as being detrimental. It's far more likely that Anet simply decided to deal with them later in some different manner.They are at this point much more than just some rogue asuran krew and almost any race has some reason to treat them as an international crime syndicate (which they are).

And what "damage to so much cultures and individuals" have there been at this point?

In Ascalon, they hold a singular base hidden away that studies the Branded and kidnaps intruders; in the Crystal Desert, similarly one small base hidden away that has kidnapped the homeless refugees. They don't even have a base in Kryta, and their involvement in the Shiverpeaks was solely dealing with the dredge (thus barely influencing the norn who are too individualistic to march against Inquest as a whole0.

They do kidnap individuals, but in large, the only ones who can provide testimony are adventurers, and usually the bases which kidnapped folks get blown up by said adventurers. They've held three large bases so far, two are now destroyed (Rata Primus and Crucible of Eternity) while the third is indeed under protection from Rata Sum laws and territory (the Inquest Complex in Metrica Province; formerly a Statics complex).

To the charr, Kryta, Lion's Arch, norn, or even the Pact and the Orders, the Inquest tend to either not get involved, or so minor of an annoyance compared to other things that "the protection of Rata Sum" is indeed irrelevant - but only because those groups barely care and can easily wipe out the tiny bases the Inquest are situated at. Which is no doubt a big reason why they don't bother striking at the core of Inquest politics in Rata Sum territories.

Not to mention that the Arcane Council have a lot of sway over trade due to their monopoly of asura gates and waypoint networks, so the races can't really march up to Rata Sum and demand the Inquest as a whole pay for their crimes just because some small group of Inquest over in the boons decided to kidnap some villagers. Flax has too much leverage, and he supports the Inquest when the Inquest are leading in fields.

TL;DR Those who care enough do tend to wipe out Inquest activities, but this hardly affects their large scale operations and formal action cannot easily be taken to wipe out the Inquest because the Arcane Council backs the Inquest and holds monopoly over major trade transportation that all five other Central Tyrian major states utilize.

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@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:And what "damage to so much cultures and individuals" have there been at this point?

I am not sure how to answer this question. There is abundance of heart quests related to inquest throughout the game. On top of that there are two Inquest related dungeons and living story chapters which all show cruel and viscious treatment of others at the hand of inquest. They have collaborated with Scarlet and have been selling technology to Separatists. Saying "what damage has inquest done at this point" must be peak cynicism.

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:In Ascalon, they hold a singular base hidden away that studies the Branded and kidnaps intruders; in the Crystal Desert, similarly one small base hidden away that has kidnapped the homeless refugees. They don't even have a base in Kryta, and their involvement in the Shiverpeaks was solely dealing with the dredge (thus barely influencing the norn who are too individualistic to march against Inquest as a whole0.

I am not sure how to their bases factor in about anything here. I am not trying to say that they have bases all over the world. I am trying to say that what they have done so far would in any real scenario make them enemies of any sane government.

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:They do kidnap individuals, but in large, the only ones who can provide testimony are adventurers, and usually the bases which kidnapped folks get blown up by said adventurers. They've held three large bases so far, two are now destroyed (Rata Primus and Crucible of Eternity) while the third is indeed under protection from Rata Sum laws and territory (the Inquest Complex in Metrica Province; formerly a Statics complex).

Again, not sure how does this counter my point. Yes testemonies are made by adventurers (but also by their survivors and former inquest members). How does that change anything? Also how does the fact their bases get blown up change anything?

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:To the charr, Kryta, Lion's Arch, norn, or even the Pact and the Orders, the Inquest tend to either not get involved, or so minor of an annoyance compared to other things that "the protection of Rata Sum" is indeed irrelevant - but only because those groups barely care and can easily wipe out the tiny bases the Inquest are situated at. Which is no doubt a big reason why they don't bother striking at the core of Inquest politics in Rata Sum territories.

And all of the kidnapped citizens are what? Random apatrids? People who are victims of their weaponry or experiments are subjects of these very same nations you have mentioned (or organizations). Most governments react when their citizens are endangered not when you directly assault the government itself. Saying that the organization that kidnaps your citizens and combatants is "unimportant" makes the Anet treatment of Inquest just silly (which it is)

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:Not to mention that the Arcane Council have a lot of sway over trade due to their monopoly of asura gates and waypoint networks, so the races can't really march up to Rata Sum and demand the Inquest as a whole pay for their crimes just because some small group of Inquest over in the boons decided to kidnap some villagers. Flax has too much leverage, and he supports the Inquest when the Inquest are leading in fields.

Actually they can. The same way IRL rest of the world very often demands things from OPEC countries, or even invades them.

Also, reducing Inquest activities to "kidnapping some villagers" seems a bit dishonest. And its definitely far from "some small group of Inquest".

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The thing about all the hearts (which should be considered finished by now), is those groups get dealt with, violently. Inquest are basically a "Arrest or kill on sight" for most of the world, outside the areas where they are directly under the protection of Rata Sum's peacekeepers.

So basically when the inquest really get out of hand, the local area forces/adventurers (or sometimes the Pact/order groups) tend to smack them down, hard. And the inquest are smart enough to keep all their bases disjointed so the home office at Rata Sum can throw up a "Oh wow, really? Well they broke the rules and it's great you stopped them!" or other political BS to cause the Arcane Council to have to officially back them, instead of the other side. It's also noted several times the Arcane Council truly tolerates the inquest because the inquest handle a LOT of the dirty/unpleasant tasks in Rata Sum that keep the city functional, so if they got banned, things would go haywire in the floating cube.

Also, threatening Rata sum is a bad idea as they can literally choose to shut down your Asura Gate. They could cripple general travel between major cities and trade locations overnight if they truly wanted to.

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I am trying to stay out of the conversation while I learn. I just wanted to comment on one thing:

"And what "damage to so much cultures and individuals" have there been at this point?"

I am a relatively new player. I finished all the story in 4 months. I did LV2 out of order, it was the last one I completed. Doing all the stories together in a short time really put how "evil" Inquest is. Living Season 2 when they were kidnapping Sylvari, torturing them, and sacrificing them to power their golems to try to kill the people trying to save the Sylvari drew the line. Portals are not worth this. This is a heinous organization. This kind of actions is what divides it from things like Walmart.

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@"kasoki.5180" said:I am not sure how to answer this question. There is abundance of heart quests related to inquest throughout the game. On top of that there are two Inquest related dungeons and living story chapters which all show cruel and viscious treatment of others at the hand of inquest. They have collaborated with Scarlet and have been selling technology to Separatists. Saying "what damage has inquest done at this point" must be peak cynicism.

Excluding Metrica, the majority of these hearts and events you talk about are in desolate locations. Brisban, Maelstrom, Dry Top, Draconis Mons, and Malchor's Leap are all outside the purview of the nations of Tyria. Sandswept Isles has been highly isolationist up until the Inquest's involvement there was obliterated. That just leaves their labs in Desert Highlands, Sorrow's Embrace, and Blazeridge Steppes as being involved with the nations of Tyria and Elona.

The Inquest are not idiots, so while they may kidnap weary travelers and villagers, they likely stage these kidnappings to be seen as monster attacks or ghostings (disappearing without a trace). And they always avoid the Powers That Be in the nation. During S4E2, it's outright stated that the only Elonians they kidnapped were refugees.

I am not sure how to their bases factor in about anything here. I am not trying to say that they have bases all over the world. I am trying to say that what they have done so far would in any real scenario make them enemies of any sane government.

Not really. Ultimately, all evidence against the Inquest boils down to "he said she said" in the courts of law. On top of that, the vast majority of their labs that got raided were outside any nation's territory, meaning there'd be a huge argument of who's legal jurisdiction these crimes would fall under even if they could be proven. And on top of that, the Krytan, charr, sylvari, Elonian, and what little there is of a norn nation have had minimal impact from the Inquest. A handful of villagers disappearing could be attributed to any number of things, leaving only survivors as actual proof for the Inquest's involvement in their doings, and there aren't many survivors.

And on top of all of that, the Inquest functions under a strict "each lab does their own thing" rule, which means the Inquest at large is very much not at fault by most legal transactions.

Again, not sure how does this counter my point. Yes testemonies are made by adventurers (but also by their survivors and former inquest members). How does that change anything? Also how does the fact their bases get blown up change anything?

Little evidence or proof of their crimes. Voiced views aren't very reliable, especially the adventurers' who's actions could very easily be twisted into "they trespassed on and vandalized personal properity" making them the criminals. As said above, there are very few survivors, and as for former Inquest members: there generally aren't any because the Inquest don't like the prospect of members leaving (read: they get killed off).

And all of the kidnapped citizens are what? Random apatrids? People who are victims of their weaponry or experiments are subjects of these very same nations you have mentioned (or organizations). Most governments react when their citizens are endangered not when you directly assault the government itself. Saying that the organization that kidnaps your citizens and combatants is "unimportant" makes the Anet treatment of Inquest just silly (which it is)

Most kidnapped victims appear to be travelers, refugees, and people from small, largely isolated villages. And as said above, the Inquest aren't idiots. They won't be leaving signs saying "The Inquest took your friend, mwauahahaha -twirls mustache if asuras had one-". They'd make it seem like a native monster attack, or remove all trace of conflict entirely.

In a world like Tyria, the amount of deaths that occur to monster attacks is no doubt astronomical. If there are multiple reports than the government would send troops to remove the monsters, but one or two happening here, and another two or three happening there, would no doubt result in no response. I think you're vastly overstating how many people the Inquest actually kidnap.

Actually they can. The same way IRL rest of the world very often demands things from OPEC countries, or even invades them.Rata Sum is in a position similar to the US in terms of trade, where they can put a serious amount of pressure on terrifs that the other races will not want, but because of how common place asura gates and waypoints are now, they become dependent upon the systems which Rata Sum control. Not to mention that Rata Sum itself is in the sky, accessible only via asura gate, so the only way an army can assault it is an airship fleet which, so far, only the Pact has as far as we know. One cannot even starve Rata Sum via siege, because they have asura gates they could link up to any number of hundreds of places.

Barring an attack from Elder Dragon minions akin to what Blightghast led on Claw Island, or an Elder Dragon itself, with the level of technology the nations have, Rata Sum is very well suited for being assaulted.

Also, reducing Inquest activities to "kidnapping some villagers" seems a bit dishonest. And its definitely far from "some small group of Inquest".From the view of the governments, that's what their activities would lead to.

The governments at large won't care if the Inquest are studying the Elder Dragons or are experimenting on local wildlife. They'd care if their people were, but what proof do they actually have of it? How many survivors are actually there?

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@"Josiah.2967" said:I am trying to stay out of the conversation while I learn. I just wanted to comment on one thing:

"And what "damage to so much cultures and individuals" have there been at this point?"

I am a relatively new player. I finished all the story in 4 months. I did LV2 out of order, it was the last one I completed. Doing all the stories together in a short time really put how "evil" Inquest is. Living Season 2 when they were kidnapping Sylvari, torturing them, and sacrificing them to power their golems to try to kill the people trying to save the Sylvari drew the line. Portals are not worth this. This is a heinous organization. This kind of actions is what divides it from things like Walmart.

You're talking about Caithe's flashback. Those weren't Inquest, but were members of the College of Statics. At this point of time, the sylvari still numbered less than a hundred members, and had next to no involvement with other species (only other involvement being Riannoc with his squire Waine); this flashback was literally the asura's second encounter with sylvari. The initial involvement had them kidnapping and experimenting on Malomedies, who they returned when they realized he was a sapient being, but not all asura agreed with this act and believed that the sylvari, still a brand new discovery, were faking sapience.

This is one of the "dark history" moments for the asura, and the leader of the Statics krewe in this flashback, Vorpp, was someone we had been working alongside repeatedly during Season 1, and until his removal with the reconstruction of LA, players could even confront Vorpp with knowledge of the flashback to which he said:

What? I imagine your friend Caithe told you, hm? Well, that was a long time ago. The world was a different place back then.

Though the Inquest, on occasion, do go that far, we have the issue of "disconnected labs who go 'rogue'" and "the ones who did this got killed"; we have the issue of "the only testimonies are that of trespassers, vandalizers, and murderers (aka the adventurers)". And to top it off, assaulting Rata Sum would be putting even more innocents at risk than the Inquest do, and wouldn't be very effective without a full air force, and even then, still won't end the Inquest due to how widespread and independent their labs are.

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the "mad scientist" is a common role on asuras, also histories with a bit of cartoonish dark humour, just like "the pink and the brain" style,.

Inquest Technician: Let me out! This hurts! I don't want to die here!Elite Inquest Operative: Stop whining. I need these results, and in case you haven't noticed, we're running out of time.Elite Inquest Operative: Yes, the experiment will probably kill you. But it will also advance the Inquest's march toward total world domination.Elite Inquest Operative: Subject 6 is nearly ready. Now pipe down and take your medicine. Some of us intend to survive this fiasco.Elite Inquest Operative: Wait! you can't slime me to death. I'm your creator! Aaaah!Dessa Observation Mode: Look out! That so-called Subject 6 is loose.Dessa Observation Mode: It seems to be of the ooze family, but radically mutated. Even more caustic, corrosive, and calamitous than usual.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Thaumanova_Reactor_Fractal

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I think they had a major draw back with losing the base in Sandswept Isles Rata Primus was their version of Rata Novus. I can't really remember how the legal status of the Inquest was in Rata Sum but I think they were branded as criminals. They are not done because of the political arm like mentioned in the city council of Rata Sum.

With removing them they would go the same fate as the white mantel

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@Lord of the Fire.6870 said:I can't really remember how the legal status of the Inquest was in Rata Sum but I think they were branded as criminals.Criminals would imply they are breaking some kind of Asuran law and would have to be arrested or otherwise handled by the legal system.

Its much simpler to just say their krewe is annoying and thus its ok for them to be killed on sight.

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@Dawdler.8521 said:

@Lord of the Fire.6870 said:I can't really remember how the legal status of the Inquest was in Rata Sum but I think they were branded as criminals.Criminals would imply they are breaking some kind of Asuran law and would have to be arrested or otherwise handled by the legal system.

Its much simpler to just say their krewe is annoying and thus its ok for them to be killed on sight.

My memories are really foggy I think I read somewhere that the way the Inquest is was the way all Asuran were originally but through the change of their society forced them out . So in a way Inquest are also rebels. Okay when I think about it the same can be said of all the other evil fractions.

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@Lord of the Fire.6870 said:I can't really remember how the legal status of the Inquest was in Rata Sum but I think they were branded as criminals. They are not done because of the political arm like mentioned in the city council of Rata Sum.

They have a recruiting station in the bottom layer of Rata Sum and an open member on the council. Not exactly criminal status.

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@Lord of the Fire.6870 said:I think they had a major draw back with losing the base in Sandswept Isles Rata Primus was their version of Rata Novus. I can't really remember how the legal status of the Inquest was in Rata Sum but I think they were branded as criminals. They are not done because of the political arm like mentioned in the city council of Rata Sum.

With removing them they would go the same fate as the white mantel

They are legally a perfectly fine mega-krewe that does a lot of work that the Arcane Council/other krewes really don't want to do, thus giving them general acceptance.

However, most Asura krewes know the Inquest will try to steal anything they truly want to get. Outside of the city itself nobody really cares if you fight off the inquest. Further away from the city you go, the less accepted they are.

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The Inquest gets results. Yes, some (if not most) times it is the results from other krewes that they steal from, but they are also not hindered by moral restrictions, which means they can build upon the innocent research, and come up with something very effective (and very horrible) from that. A good krewe is trying to come up with a medicine, they will likely invent a dozen potent poisons and diseases on the way. The Inquest has no problem visiting with an assault force, taking the research for their own, improving the poisons and diseases, and use the krewe as test subjects (or convert them to work for the Inquest if they can, through bribery or blackmail or threatening life.) To the people on the top, only the results matter as long as they can maintain a level of deniability, and the Inquest is careful to do just that. The bottom line is everything.

All the while the common populace doesn't know just how bad it can get. In the face of the Rata Sum public they just deny everything while promising amazing opportunities to impressionable progenies in Metrica. Heck, they even did the positive caring propaganda with the sub-krewes doing the dirtiest most immoral research in Rata Primus. Even if people in Rata Sum know, most would say it is a necessary evil, and just don't care as long as this evil is not inflicted on them personally. Nobody cares about the sentient and semi-sentient lives sacrificed in the development of DERV golems, but we sure like having them around in all their black-and-red glory.

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