Mage Manual
Chapter 469 - 387 Dominion Faction_2

Chapter 469: Chapter 387 Dominion Faction_2

Royal power is not eternal; only interests persist.

But the Belladett family succeeded in halting the wheels of history, becoming the only power in the Gospel that went against the grain—they invented a miracle that could dominate intelligent beings.

The reason the Dominion Faction only enslaved beasts and not intelligent beings—even those who are demeaned as the "piss and shit" of intelligent creatures like Beastmen, ogres, and Goblins—is that intelligent beings possess civilization, can communicate, and thus means they can accumulate knowledge and enhance their wisdom.

Wisdom is not a static attribute. For example, a Beastman who has graduated from university is undoubtedly more intelligent than a human who grew up in the jungle with wild beasts. As long as one continually acquires new knowledge, forms their own worldviews, and learns to think, their wisdom will gradually grow.

And the natural enemy of the Dominion Faction, is wisdom.

So-called domination is "presuming one’s own will to be the will of many," allowing one’s commands to become the fate of the enslaved, making one’s will the only one for the enslaved creatures.

Why are beasts easy to dominate? Because they lack intelligence. Even if they resist, they do not know why they resist, how to resist, or what to do after resisting, and the process of domination is essentially telling them, "Follow me, and you will have enough to eat and drink and stay warm." The beasts think that isn’t too bad, so they become enslaved.

Intelligent beings, however, think and crave more. They question, "Can’t I just eat without working?," "I don’t want to go," "Is it possible that you are my slave instead?"... One or two can be managed, but when the numbers reach into the thousands, the difficulty of a mage’s domination increases a thousandfold, becoming absolutely uncontrollable.

A Domination Mage who can enslave an army of ten thousand beasts can at most, only dominate ten intelligent beings, and almost no beasts rebel, but intelligent beings are likely to backstab the mage due to dissatisfaction.

So how many intelligent beings did the Belladett family dominate?

According to statistics, in 1687, the permanent population of Mongfera was 7.958 million people—obviously, there were more than that because, unlike Vatican Mura, the Belladett family’s industries spread throughout the Gospel, their total number of dominated people is probably over ten million.

The Belladett family was able to accomplish such a terrifying feat because they combined the Dominion Faction with the Ritual Faction, leveraging the power of the Void Realm.

The Belladett family was not seeking 100% control over other creatures, and Yvalin was not so vast as to dominate the souls of ten million people. Instead, they used the Contract of mutual benefit to a certain degree—I can give you sufficient benefits, but you must share a portion of your cognitive ability with me.

It was said to be a very peculiar feeling, the dominated did not feel as if someone else was living in their brain—Belladett did not have the time to probe the tumultuous thoughts of any ordinary person. In fact, according to surveys, Mongferans all considered it a "profitable deal," "taking advantage of themselves," "Belladett suffering a loss."

So, did the Belladett family really suffer a loss?

Statistics show that Mongfera ranks first in the Gospel in average working hours per capita, last in aging, first in consumption levels, with the entire population in debt.

"Advanced entertainment consumption," "high-intensity work," "marriage and childbearing," these nearly incompatible terms are, however, common characteristics of every Mongferan. Besides getting married and having children, they can work at high intensity every day, spending or even overextending their loan limits as soon as they take a day off, then returning to their high-intensity jobs.

Once they reach fifty years of age and their bodily functions decline significantly, Mongferans suddenly come up with ideas like "reliving adventurous dreams," "bravely facing life’s challenges," "the Gospel is so big, I want to see it," voluntarily vacating their posts, and after spending all their money, they go to places like the bottom of the Abyss, treacherous mountains, or Life Forbidden Zones to lay down their lives. Thus, the population of Mongfera has always been very healthy, with streets full of young and vibrant people, not a single elderly person in sight, always full of life and vigor.

Incidentally, the city with the highest level of aging is Vatican Mura.

Every Mongferan feels that they are very normal, living a life that is extremely happy and fulfilling, and this is precisely the terrifying aspect of the Belladett consortium.

Through rituals, the Belladett family turned the cognitive abilities of ten million people into their own psychic computing power, and then subtly influenced every dominated individual along the lines of their thoughts—in simpler terms, Belladett was using the thinking resources given by Mongferans to dominate the Mongferans, which is why even as a Two-winged Mage, Yvalin could easily control the minds of ten million people.

The Belladett family did not attempt to forcefully dominate the populace with commands like "work for me until you die," "give me all your money," or "commit suicide to let the younger ones take over if efficiency drops," which would meet with resistance. Instead, they subtly manipulated people on the level of thought with sweetly packaged ideas such as "pursue dreams," "treat yourself," "you’ll be old if you don’t take risks now," changing Mongferans into the producers and consumers they needed.

The fact that the Belladett consortium has been able to stand firm in Mongfera for so many years, even completely occupying Mongfera’s era of urban renewal benefits, proves that they have successfully transformed the Dominion Faction into a new version adapted to civilized society.

And the medium for the Belladett family to dominate the people was money, or more specifically, loans.

They provided the whole society with interest-free loans that could be borrowed at any time and repaid over years, but the collateral was the cognitive power shared by the borrower; the more borrowed, the larger the share.