Ok, so where should I begin?
I still fail to understand why any faction would ever bring anything less than their entire army. I mean, it's not like you'll lose any soldiers, they're all immortal.
Arbitrary administrative reasons is the most correct answer. It's pretty much like how nearly every tactical game or RPG ever made only allows you use an arbitrarily chosen number of units in every battle. It's just to make things manageable from an OOC POV.
ICwise, the explanation
@The 42nd Gecko gave is the one we usually go for. The Nexus is technically infinite in size, there's always more battles to be fought so it's logical that not everyone is fighting on the same battle field at once. Plus, there's always those that are dead/injured, or simply taking a time for whatever reason.
@The 42nd Gecko
I suppose that makes some degree of sense. These leaders sure are lax about this war. Then again, considering the circumstances, I'm not sure anyone really has any chance of winning ever, so hey. Guess it's irrelevant.
They aren't lax at all. It's just that War has become commonplace for these people. And, winning is far less important than not being annihilated. Pretty much like say... Warhammer's verse. The war isn't going to go anywhere any time soon (or ever) because no one can or will compromise on peace. They fight for a living and live for fighting. This really should be the RP's atmosphere based on the OP's description.
Asking for peace or for a side to win the war is unrealistic. Even if the PCs compromised with it, almost no one else in the setting would. The unnamed NPCs live based on what I described above and the leaders do their job of trying to keep their people alive and keeping up the fight.
In other words, in the Nexus you fight to avoid a fate worse than death, not to win.
@thewizardguy I mean, it's been established that if the armies ever get uppity and close to winning, they just wipe them out and start over.
Winning is not and never has been the goal. Thus, all kinds of bad leadership is completely excused, because, well, why would they even want to lead well?
Actually this is a fallacy. Outside of the delusions of an overgrown lizard who thinks she's the Nexus' living reset button, this has never been confirmed by anyone.
You shouldn't take the NPCs' words by their face value as well, because they have their reasons to not spill all of the truth, or outright lie. Nevertheless, there are various hints spread through the story that anyone can use to reconstruct the truth. And no, Titanica isn't meant to 'reset' the Nexus if any faction gets too strong.
Likewise, based on what I said above, the likelihood of the Nexus' armies amassing is nearly 0. As I said, even if it's the PC's goals, no one else wants, or sees a reason to stop fighting. Unless someone start playing the politician this won't change in the least.
Peace is of no interest to anyone and, why would it be when all of your way of living, history and economy are dependent on warfare?
@The 42nd Gecko
Based on what I've seen the only faction with any reason to do anything is Grafdakka's little 'thing'. Not sure if it can really be called a faction, but at least they have some idea of what they're doing.
No, they aren't the only ones but I guess I explained this above as well. It's just that the players are really, really misunderstanding the tone and backstory of the setting.
@KoL It doesn't help that all the main characters just give one or two cryptic hints per battle while the playerbase attritions. If it weren't for Banana* and Lmpkio's* prolific rosters, we'd probably have more GM characters than player characters at this point.
*Thanks, btw, otherwise heaven would literally be just Omega, who hasn't been doing anything but pocket sand. :P
I explained this above as well.
There's no fixed or 'right' way to look at the plot. It's up to anyone's interpretation regardless of the NPCs' actual motivations. Nevertheless, there's a lot of hints about the greater scheme of things in the IC already. That said, let me tell you a thing, none of this has anything to do with the actual plot of the RP. The overarching plot is written in the OP, pretty much everything else are sidestories to liven the setting.
