"What do you think of my empire Azeri? "

"It is no empire, merely a collection of monsters."

"I see, you have yet to realize your place in the universe. But that is now irrelevant, because after we crush the Federation, your church is next."

I spent some time talking to Azeri, she has yet to blossom like the flower I know she could be. It will be done in time, but for now, I have to play a game of politics. 

"Your Majesty, the time for the first Court of Night is upon us, shall I guide you?"

An AI alerts me

"Very well, let us go."

I emerge from my throne room and walk down the grand halls of the Crimson Palace, where everything is red and black, and accented with gold. Here, opulence and hedonism are on full display, entire rooms full of wealth, while others are full of players and NPCs engaging in orgies. I remember leaning about the great roman empire and the greeks, and decided to implement some of their more...sensual policies, to display my power of course. Not to mention the coliseum where players go to settle disputes, make bets, or just have fun. At this point, most of the NPCs know of the player immortality, however, due to our information gag, most of the universe doesn't know, only the higher ups know of the nature of players. Not sure what they think of it, but i do wonder how theyre dealing with it.

I enter the meeting, and 30 players are sitting at the table. They stand and bow to me.

"You may be seated."

They sit down and i too sit down at the head. 

"well, lords and ladies, this is the first Court of Night meeting, for your acts of loyalty towards the Grand Empire of Sanguinarium in the one month since its inception, I have granted you all ranks of peerage according to your merits. Only one of you have been granted the rank of Blood Knight, for that is a role that requires me to know you more personally, and only one of you have done that. Distortionist, for your acts of loyalty to both Sanguinarium and me personally, I grant you the rank of Blood Knight, you have a rank equivalent to a duke, and of course, a Machiavellian Class heavy flag ship and a fleet of 25 Tyrant Class heavy battle ships and 40 Viscera class battleships. You will also be granted a fief equal to a duchy when we conquer the Federation."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

"As for the rest of you, your peerage is as follows"

I then proceeded to spend an hour granting them various titles, fleets, and other rewards. After the meeting, I went back to the throne room and then called Distortionist to the room.

"Your Majesty called?"

"indeed I did, now let me slip OOC for a second. Do you know why I created the Blood Knights?"

"No not really"

"Im lonely, i desire friends, I get tired hanging around NPCs everyday, while they are extremely lifelike, at the end of the day theyre a computer program designed to help the players. I want human friendship, and I also want rivalry. As you see, among the player base, I am undeniably the most powerful, and no one will stand up to me, and with NPCs, in time I will conquer them with ease as well. Do you see the problem?"

"yeah i do, it seems pretty rough being at the top. I can see that you will fix the friendship problem here soon, but what about the rivalry?"

"That, is where you come in, if you want to of course. I was hoping you would make a second character, and use it to make an army that can stand against me. I plan on having the second Blood Knight do one as well, since I know a good group you can take advantage of."

"And that would be?"

"They call themselves 'The Thrakka Tribe', theyre a group of pvpers pretending to be an ork warband, I was hoping you can infiltrate, and manipulate them into letting you become a leader, and gather the ork players and NPCs around the universe to become one army against me. The second Blood Knight I wish for him to unite the human races against me using the church. With that, we will have a three way war that will never end, causing the pvpers to be happy to be killing each other, craftsmen happy to building things for the pvpers, and pve-ers happy by killing monsters for the craftsmen. with this, everyone is happy, the economy is fill with life, and most importantly, no one is bored. What do you think?"

"I think that is a lot to ask, but I willingly became a Blood Knight to serve as a Vampire, not an ork, however, if you grant me proper rewards, I will be more than happy to oblige."

"Wouldn't the rewards from becoming an ork warboss be immeasurable? all you need to do is transfer the loot between characters."

"That's true, but I'm talking about more political power in the Court of Night, as you can see from my name, I am a distortionist, i rather like messing with people. You are too powerful for that, So I will never harm you, however, those other fools in the Court...."

"Very well, it shall be granted. with all that being said, do you have someone you recommend as the second Blood Knight?"

"I do, her name is Dusk, shall I bring her here?"

"No, not yet, she must prove herself more. Tell me, why do you recommend her? surely you are not thinking with your lower head?"

"hahaha, of course not, however, she is a very skilled leader and manipulator just like me, however, her combat strength isnt as high as mine. Although I think that may be because she may be better at a ranged build than us close ranged fighters."

"I see. Well, the human races do tend to fight with more ranged weapons, so hopefully she'll fit right in. Speaking of the human races, due to the sheer size of their playerbases, odds are we'll have to unite from time to time to push them back, not kill them of course, but cornering them."

"Of course, not many people would pick monster races like us in the first place, we're an abnormality, you most of all."

"Yes, I suppose that is true. Also, on second thought, bring Dusk here, I won't tell her the plan, I will simply tell her that her aspects of becoming a Blood Knight are high, and that she should strive to achieve more accomplishments."

"sure, let me PM her....alright shes on the way"

"Thank you, now I will slip back in character"

about a minute later a woman in stereotypical vampire seductress garb entered the throne room, kneeling.

"You called for me, Your Majesty?"

"I did. Dusk, Blood Knight Distortionist here tells me you a suitable candidate for the rank of Blood Knight, however, while you have sufficient achievements, I know practically nothing about you other than that you and Distortionist are cut from the same cloth, so please, enlighten me to who you are, so that I may judge if you are worthy of the rank of Blood Knight, and the heavy burden the second Blood Knight will have to carry, along with their rewards."

"What would you wish to know of me Your Majesty?"

"Who you are. In order to ascertain whether you are what I need, you will accompany me to several raiding battles in the Federation. You can learn a lot from someone from how they lead their men under duress."

"Very well Your Majesty, will you board my Tyrant Class?"

"Of course not, I am royalty, you will be commanding in my personal ship, the Oppressor"

Dusk seems to gawk at that, but quickly regains her composure.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

"Let us leave, the Oppressor will join your fleet, and you will command from there. Follow me."

"Yes, Your Majesty"

We leave the Crimson Palace and head to the Royal Docks, where the Oppressor is. We enter and head to the bridge, all the way Dusk is admiring the ship, as she should. My fleet is fully outiftted with luxury items, while the ships i gave the players have only the essentials to make it livable. We launch from the planet  and into formation with Dusk's fleet. With her court rank being Countess, the number of ships she has is 35, 10 Tyrant Class, and 25 Viscera Class. Seems just like yesterday I was attacked with this exact fleet. 

"I will simply be obersving, all actions are yours and yours alone. However, should the battle go poorly, I will be taking over."

"Yes, Your Majesty, Plot a course to star system Grarl. Your Majesty, there is a medium sized military outpost there that I believe is perfect for this fleet size."

"very well"

We enter hypserspace, and when we emerge a space station is seen orbiting a large asteroid. A sound is heard we are getting hailed.

"Halt, this is a military outpost of the Federation of Free Peoples, leave immediately or we will open fire"

"I am Dusk, of the Grand Empire of Sanguinarium, we have come to liberate you of your supplies, blood, and lives, prepare for combat!"

"I am the Emperor of the Grand Empire of Sanguinarium, Lord of the Dark and Master of Blood. May the best man win."

The person hailiing us goes pale at my name, and closes the video relay. Several ships can be seen emerging from the station

"All fighters engage enemy hangars, dont give them a chance to deploy their ships, Battleships, attack the shield generators and defense points from afar!"

So she's bold, attacking the enemies hangars so they cant deploy ships, forcing them to use the stations defense cannons, which while powerful, their range isnt the greatest, while destroying said cannons from afar, truly cunning.

"Countess, fighters are going down at a rate faster than calculated!"

"Whats the cause?"

"It seems several battleships have managed to undock and their fighter complements have engaged ours."

"Then use the EMRC to destroy said battlehips"

"Yes Milady"

The Oppressor shakes as the EMRC fires, two large explosions can be seen. 

"Has the battle saturation gone down low enough to deploy drop ships?"

"Yes Milady, shall we send them in?"

"Yes, go ahead"

Several dropships emerge, and board the station. Very quickly a notification pops up as the station is hailing us again

"Please stop, we surrender"

I speak before Dusk can

"Mercy is for the weak, given by the weak. This is the inviolable rule of nature, only the strong survive, grow strong, or die."

I end the video relay and watch as our flag, a sanguine ankh, quickl;y replaces the flag of the federation. I turn to Dusk

"you have won a small victory, pushing the Federation back slightly, however, that was not the goal. The goal was to ascertain your commanding skills, and you have passed. You are now the Second Blood Knight, granted the rank of duchess, your fleet can now command 65 ships, and you will have a fief the size of a duchy when we conquer the Federation. Now, I will bestow you with that secret mission. but first, a history lesson. I formed the Blood Knights to accomplish two things, to finally have a circle of friends, and to form rivals. The friend part is easy, but the rival? You and Distortionist are the spear heads of that operation. Distortionist is gathering the Orks to form a massive warband, anf You, will gather the church and the human races, with this, three factions of players will be in constant war, keeping each other in check, and everyone will have a fun time. Talk to Distortionist if you have any questions. You will be rewarded extremely well for the completion of this."

"Yes, Your Majesty, All Hail Erebus!"