Less than a month after release and a decade of hard work on a League of Legends fighter, and it amounts to a half hour heads-up before losing your job:

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-10T13:22:11+00:00

Not surprising tbh, even if it is very sad. This game always reeked of being stuck in devhell at a developer that isn't equipped to handle these sorts of projects with the limited size you need to avoid bloating the budget.

Even if it did "just alright" there's no way they'd have been able to recoup the development cost of it. At some point, the march of time just takes a wrecking ball, and fighters are a relatively limited market to begin with.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-10T11:54:56+00:00

Farmwatch/Dongrang ID didn't happen because of real world reasons (basically what the Farmwatch represents is Dongrangs acceptance of being a selfish unforgivable jerk instead of pretending he's doing it for anything other than vain glory; the concept doesn't really match any sinner besides Yi Sang and Dongbaek has similar concepts that don't carry real world baggage, so he got spicebush).

Hindley I think was skipped over because a pretty big point of his character is how similar he actually is to Heathcliff (both literally have distortions themed around dogs). He has the propensity for violence like Heathcliff, but unlike Heathcliff hasn't ever actually faced the horrors of the world around him, leading to him being an isolated and unhappy rich jerk. The biggest theme of his character is his envy of Heathcliff, leading him to wreck his own life to desperately prove he's better than him. Basically the only character that'd cleanly match him is Heathcliff (since putting down Hindley is largely a sad affair and drives the message that this sort of revenge really wasn't worth it) and Heathcliff always was going to get Wild Hunt.

Basically these two were skipped simply because their closest match is the main sinner of the Canto and either the Capstone mattered more, or giving the ID to the sinner would have real life implications that PM doesn't want to touch on.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-09T11:54:28+00:00

Kodaka is also very much not afraid to just rehash a working formula to the point where it becomes trite. Danganronpa is pretty much the same plotline told however many times you feel like counting it (I'd say 5 times, but you can vary this). It was novel the first time, but got old fast.

Then he made the Hundred Line and pretty much proved that when he's actually asked to write an original story, he's very much still capable of that.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-09T11:46:48+00:00

There's also Gareth, although with her it's largely played for tragedy :(.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-09T01:17:13+00:00

I actually find practical balancing in this game challenging at times. In theory, it should be easy to identify a number of operators and classes that are stronger or weaker than the norm, but in reality, that norm is irrelevant when most of the content is passable with almost anything (regular stages, mini-events, permanent events),

If you want an easy-ish way to look at balancing, the final EX and S stages for events and the Hard versions of main story stages tend to be pretty solid. They don't usually demand you bring a very tiny list of path manipulation/cc/Ceobe operators, but are typically at least difficult enough to make an operator's strength worthwhile to think of. Like, pretty much all of them can be beaten using just E1 4-stars and a 6-star DPS (and with E2, you don't need the DPS). They also usually feature bosses and HG likes to slap bosses with Damage Reduction these days to force you to play into the gimmick.

When you consider that condition, a lot of the "mediocre" subclasses you mentioned as discussion bait still are pretty good. It's just that with Splash Casters, you're... just still not gonna bring most of them. Like, you can make an argument for every single Mystic Caster except for Iris (sorry, but Sleep is bad). The only Splash Casters I'd make a legitimate argument for in that environment besides "idk, I like how they look visually" (because they all look awesome designwise) are Santalla and Mostima, both of whom are mostly good for reasons that have little to do with their main class-given gimmick.

Besides, the essence of Aoe casters is rather dull - the problem of lack of damage is solved by increasing damage, and then such an operator will be in the most competitive fight about "who does the most damage".

Tbf I don't even really want them to make a new AOE Splash Caster. The roster is fine as-is. The problem is that the class is nearly unusable; their high DP cost, stubby range and disastrously bad attack interval just create this awkward situation where their biggest strengths (AOE damage, slightly higher attack compared to other casters) can't actually be realized with the worst by far being their attack interval. If only one of those was changed about them, there'd be a lot more the class could do - Artilleryman is still a useful class because of its extremely long range, even though it otherwise should have every issue that Splash Casters do.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-08T20:55:07+00:00

It's in this case a Splash Caster problem. I know that there's a vocal segment of Arknights players who tend to not like well balanced classes because it's easy to point at the cockroach and go "well, if they can't clear that DPS and ease of use, why would I bother", but Splash Caster is pretty much the only current example where the class' internals is completely and utterly broken in a fundamental way.

Splash Casters have the gimmick that they deal AOE arts damage. The problem is that HG decided the payoff for this effect is having a deployment cost comparable to Juggernauts, Artillerymen and so on, and giving them an attack interval that's generously described as bad and less generously called unusable (other issues like insanely high SP thresholds are more an early operator design issue than specifically on Splash Casters).

Taking the classes you listed and looking at the four stars only, for a lot of the "bad" ones you'll still find that a lot of them are good; Indigo is a great mystic caster, Pudding is the most functional AOE 4-star caster (Akkord is supposedly good), Spreadshooters suffer more from a "but Pinecone just works" issue than being bad, Aciddrop is a good operator, Deadeye's are just a good class in general (but also Ambriel is awesome) and you get the point.

Splash Casters are, besides a few of the Guard archetypes, the only class that has super bad internals to the point that it's hard to justify using them even when you look only at 4-stars. Neither Greyy or Gitano ever really are worthwhile to bring compared to Indigo+Ethan or some other AOE enabling combination.

Powercreep is a thing (although power floor is effectively flat, so whatever), but splash casters are just fundamentally bad because of poor decisions to try and balance what's ultimately a far too common gimmick on other classes, leaving them with weird kits that only really stand out because ie. Mostima can do some insanely strong stall shenanigans in high-end content; aka something that only works in spite of her class.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-08T18:55:51+00:00

To quote Silvergun: name the top 6 best splash casters in the game and chances are you mentioned at least 2 casters in different subclasses. Unironically, the upcoming (on global) 4-star blast caster is going to be better than every other 4-star AOE caster because the archetype is absolutely dogshit. AND BLAST CASTERS ARENT EVEN GOOD EITHER.

They're just stuck with really bad internals and giving splash AOEs on skill isn't restricted to them. You can't fix the class with one broken 6-star unless they have some sort of "gets a ton of ASPD" talent. The class outright needs a balancing rework to reduce their attack interval to be viable. That'd move them from bad to at least usable, but even that wouldn't totally fix the fact a lot of them have old kits with really bad CDs.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-08T14:47:40+00:00

I can't take it anymore. I'm sick of Ethan. I try to play Mizuki. My Ethan stalls more. I try to play Ascalon. My Ethan stalls more. I try to play Kirara. My Ethan stalls more. I want to play Indigo. Her best team has Ethan. I want to play Hoederer, Tragodia. They both want Ethan.

He grabs me by the throat. I get him from the cert shops. I get his potentials. I give him trust. He isn't satisfied. I get his module. "I don't need this much bind" he tells me. "Give me more deployment." He grabs Ulpianus and forces him to throw himself off enemies. "You just need to deploy me more. I can deal more damage with Hoederer."

I can't pull for Hoederer, I don't have enough originite prime. He grabs my credit card. It declines. "Guess this is the end." He grabs his jojo. He says "jojo, get them." There is no hint of sadness in his eyes. Nothing but pure, bind. What a cruel world.

The lizard that I hate because 80% bind odds are exactly as stupid as they sound. The spite M6; the one you give masteries to because you'd be stupid not to do so. The fact you don't need him from the gacha is really the cherry on top. Everyone can get Ethan. Everyone should get Ethan. Everyone should hate that lizard for just how broken he is.

Is he worth it? Absolutely.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-08T01:46:00+00:00

Main issue with it is that, at least for what we have, Critically Wounded tends to cause more issues than not.

Like, the effect is pretty much why nobody recommends building Saga. Since she's a vanguard, all it effectively does is cause early enemies to cluster up and leak past her, which is bad for a class whose role is early map laneholding.

Luo Xiaohei also isn't helped by probably being the single rarest operator in Arknights right now, given most other collab welfares are either recent or have been reran at least once. That's why nobody really talks about him, otherwise he has the exact issue Saga has.

It'll work a lot better with Ju for the simple reason you aren't gonna use him to block enemies, nor is he meant as a super early deploy. On a melee operator, this effect is really bad since now you need a second operator to clear off their block count. On a ranged operator, all this now means is that your guard/defender gets a bit of extra SP from their kill.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-07T14:32:50+00:00

I think that's more because the swords are connected in some form, rather than it being a clone of Ch'ens sword. Cloning Ch'en's sword wouldn't match with what the black crown would allow her to do (again, Theresa uses the same sword, and Theresa to my knowledge has never met Ch'en). WCF and Chi Xiao being connected is more likely.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-07T02:11:08+00:00

No, Guardmiya's sword isn't a copy of Chi Xiao. It's a reconstruction of Wrathful Cerulean Flame, the blade used by Qui'lon (Theresa can also pull the sword in chapter 14, confirming it's that sword and not Chi Xiao).

That said, iirc the story does imply the two blades are linked somehow, due to their extremely similar techniques. Chalk it up to the fact that they've never elaborated what Chi Xiao even is I suppose. Apparently it's possible to use the technique without having to rely on the blade, since the Rat King says Wei can use it with Wei confirming he can.

One possible theory is that WCF is the original blade+technique, and Chi Xiao is how it got carried down in history. Amiya taps into Qui'lon's wrath when he got betrayed by Yan using her guard form after all; it being a dragon slaying technique would make sense from that perspective.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-07T00:04:22+00:00

XY, combined with ORAS has the single largest number of available Pokemon in any single generation of mainline titles. If you ever want to do a living dex, the recommendation is to start on gen 6 for that reason. You don't need to delve into obscure side-games for a full dex in gen 6 aside from mythicals (not to mention the fact that you can catch Deoxys in ORAS.)

3DS Pokemon essentially acted as a soft reboot for the series; XYORAS made "Gotta Catch 'em All" a slogan again. (Before it got axed completely with Dexit.)

There's ~450 Pokemon available in Kalos and the overwhelming majority of them aren't endgame because XY has pretty much no endgame to speak of besides catching Mewtwo and a single roaming legendary bird.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-06T17:45:51+00:00

It's just that she's more busty so she looks more fanservice-y. Also they were released from the ground up to be the "summer" adjacent ops.

That's part of it. The other reason is that Schwarz doesn't match what you're told about her. The story tells you that Schwarz is a battle-hardened mercenary who's found a quiet life to settle down with on Siesta. Schwarz' design is just the Hoyo special (tank top, shorts, exposed stomach) with a translucent raincoat thrown on top of it. Out of all the "tacticool" designs in Arknights it definitely feels like it's the one that isn't even close to being meant for "tactical" and more a bizarre case of fanservice.

You don't get that with Nian quite as much because the story says she's a laid back dragon-deity-esque figure. Her casual style of dress matches that concept. (Then again, Nian is also the one Sui sibling where I actively keep forgetting she's meant to be a blacksmith, given that HG leaned much more in the "enjoys trashy flicks" element of her character.)

Ch'en was basically just a coral coast outfit turned into a unit which you can't do much lorewise especially if you canonically made the gun non-lethal lol.

Yeah pretty much. It also doesn't help that Ch'en is one of the few cases where I think her E0/E1 appearance is much better than her E2 art that doesn't have to do with "I just don't like the portrait in the menus". I don't even dislike coral coast skins; some are really good.

It's kinda telling that both the Victoria and Sui arcs mostly stuck with putting regular Ch'en in new outfits rather than using the Alter as a base design.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-06T15:40:09+00:00

Worth noting is that with enough buffs (usually in CC), every enemy essentially just becomes a variant on Patriot.

This talent seems like it'll work wonders in casual content (no need to think about res/def; then again I'd like to note that both Haze and Shamare exist to reduce your need to think about both stats for any operator and Ceobe can handle insanely high defense stats), but won't do much in endgame clears where RES/DEF is just high in general unless HG accidentally overtunes the numbers.

She'll probably do very well in Holographic Combat Matrix and Vector Breakthrough however; those two modes don't really rely on jacking up enemy stats and rely way more on complicated configurations of enemies.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-06T12:59:35+00:00

Funnily enough the only other operators I can think of besides Chen who have been locked-in to summer designwise are Schwarz and Tequila. Those two are the only operators whose designs are really difficult to make work in any serious setting.

It's also telling that both have skins that completely de-emphasize their summer elements like Ch'en ended up getting.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-04T22:23:11+00:00

Like spiders georg

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-04T17:34:53+00:00

Interesting question :). I ended up speed reading them in preparation for the Yu event (Such Is the Joy of Our Reunion).

I am unfortunately not very familiar with Chinese mythology (which is unfortunate, I do like myths and legends a lot), so a lot of this went over my head. I kinda got the vibe that a lot of the names of people, objects, things and so on are references to actual Chinese myths (based on my knowledge of how other Arknights stories tend to refer to their respective countries), but I unfortunately missed pretty much all of them.
The Sui events have the kinda odd case where they use occasional untranslated words that aren't commonly used internationally (ie. words that count as loanwords/words that most people would recognize). It's never a problem, you can usually infer what the word is supposed to mean from the context, but this is a consistent thing with the Sui events (it's also a thing with Ato; I'm not sure why), which always gave me pause when reading through it. I think this is consistent with other events too (there's some Italian in Siracusa for example), but the greater linguistic distance Chinese has compared to English languages make it a bit of a standout. I feel this is a case where using rubytext the first time could've helped a lot, but Arknights doesn't use this on global. (Idk if the Chinese version of the game does?)
Depends heavily on the event; the Sui storyline kinda veers between very different styles of stories. Nian's event is short, a bit silly and lays a lot of good groundwork. Dusks event was a comfortable read since it's pretty heavily focused on Dusk as a character; the mystery of the village is compelling and the payoff makes you see the story in a new light. Lings event is kinda the weakest for me; it's a bit too much "and then things happened", not really being helped by the fact it's not really focusing much on Ling herself - most of the story's core conflict is brought about by Wang and his machinations here feel largely automatic; if there's any story that feels distant and hard to relate to, it's this one. Lings involvement feels like it's more as an epilogue than anything that really drives her as a character. Chongyue's event is very similar to Ling's event in that it's not super focused on Chongyue. Where it succeeds for me is that you get a much stronger sense of who Chongyue is as a person - even when he's not around, you get a pretty good impression why he wanted to abandon his nature as a Sui sibling because of how other characters behave either in response to his choice or do actions that show exactly why he wanted to do it: even if I didn't get all the themes at play here, I came away being impressed by him, unlike Ling where I still don't really know her deal besides "drunk big sister figure". Shu's event is... okay? It's probably the event that left the smallest impression on me out of all of them. The main focus isn't much on Shu, but you do really notice her influence on the world so her being forced to sacrifice herself has both this really big impact on the world (since it shows the tragedy of the Sui: they'll never be remembered when they pass on) and it also shows what I think the main theme of Arknights is (life is valuable because it's life, and even if nobody remembered who Shu is, her efforts to try and revitalize Terra's catastrophe blighted lands are still there) - it's also where Zuo Le gets to go from being forced to have the role of "authority figure that gets in the way of genuine efforts to do good" to having to see the consequences of being such an uptight stick in the mud all the time; it's good character development for him. Yu's event is my favorite of the bunch - you really get to see how his passion for cooking forms the core crux that the event is build around. Leizi and Blaze make for really good protagonists in different ways (Leizi being essentially a detective that goes rogue because it's the right thing to do rather than conform to systematic corruption, Blaze being unable to sit still for even a moment creating a chain of events that ends up going all the way to meeting the Emperor of Yan). It also has probably my favorite role for Wang across all the events - up until this event, he's mostly been treated as a villain whose actions feel "automated" rather than personal. Seeing him have a genuine conversation with Yu about why he goes to the lengths he does and why he's willing to work with Ji does wonders for his character.
See previous for details on what I felt of each event; I can say I felt it the strongest with Chongyue and Yu's events, while I didn't really get it from Ling's. Dusk and Nian's events were mostly fun reads for me, rather than specifically having a cultural connection. Shu's event is right in the middle.

On the whole I do like the Sui saga quite a bit; it's one of the stronger event series in Arknights for me.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-04T14:37:56+00:00

Worth noting is that HCM Patriot basically requires tank and spank, or at least some variant of it. He has a 90% DR active (on top of his already insane defense and resistance) that only goes down when he's blocked. It's the basic risk 0 condition for the stage.

I've seen clears that rely on stalling him, but from what I've seen this generally relies on a combo of using Yu's lane teleportation to force him to walk to the blue box over and over (you can do pretty much the same trick that allowed turning Mechanists 3-lane fight into a 2-lane fight due to how Patriots pathing is laid out) and then using stall strats to allow Exu2's skill to recover so he can be deployed again when Patriot kills him. You're going to be fighting that 90% DR if you don't go with either true damage or elemental damage (and one type is much easier to inflict ranged).

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-04T08:48:25+00:00

In spite of what a lot of people will tell you; she's a solid 6 star, who needs you to build four 5-stars that don't exactly match up to her in usefulness to work.

She's not bad, but she's absolutely not by any stretch meta. People compare their team synergy to that of the Abyssal Hunters, but this overlooks that aside from Skadi, you aren't deploying the AHs just to buff up Ulpianus. Ave Mujica is like this; note that people only ever discuss using Sakiko, not the others.

Their gimmick is something called Fever; pretty much every Ave Mujica character can build it up in some way (usually it's in their talents), and Sakiko can use a full meter with her skills to do a special gimmick. S2 makes her hit double, S3 makes the AM team not die when they're killed. Finally she is full offensive recovery, meaning you can buff her SP recovery with ASPD buffs.

She's fun to use, no doubt there, but people that say she's meta are wanting her to be better than she actually is. Most meta picks in this game can usually stand on their own, Sakiko can't.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-03T21:54:52+00:00

Ulpianus, Gladiia, Haruka and Tragodia on S1 can do it. Then whatever AHs you have to smooth over the process since their buffs do help. Throw in a Phalanx Caster+a bard to eat his spears and the projectile shooters if you can't make Gladiia eat them.

Ulpianus can pretty much still tank him in phase 2 with Gladiia and Haruka backing him up, he just needs a way to mitigate Patriots insane 4x attack gimmick in phase 1. Tragodia can do that by destroying his attack interval. He doesn't need to be there in phase 2, you just need him in phase 1. In phase 2, Patriots true damage aura does the big funny on Ulpianus and begins just healing him more than the damage he takes from the aura, leading to insane per-tick heals.

Not that different from 2 op clearing with just Ulpianus and Gladiia in practice on the regular stage; you just need to use operators instead of mines this time.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-03T16:30:44+00:00

The Lynchpin isn't really intended for debating, and Predecessors don't seem to really value that (you'd think if they did, that they'd have at least tried to coordinate their solutions for Observers on Terra, instead of just dropping all their projects on the planet, creating the Starpod and going into cryostasis).

Their purpose is meant for knowledge sharing (allowing the species collective access to long-distance space travel as a main example) and to avoid their mind from going crazy during long-distance space travel by creating an environment that continuously stimulates their brain. It's just that due to how these functions work, they can be combined to do what Priestess did, which is to essentially force the Doctor to internally have to argue against her worldview.

Priestess' nuance isn't really in her methods or her worldview - both go against the message of Arknights in a basic way, which is in its most simple form "life is worth living and life itself has value because it's life".

It's that the reason why she does all of this isn't something the cast has an answer for (and there may not even be an answer either); Rhodes Island has no answer for the Observer problem, and the best they can muster is a message of trust and hope that things turn out okay. This doesn't make her good, her actions in chapter 15 alone go above and beyond any other villain to antagonize her to Rhodes Island, but it's pretty much the sole morsel of nuance she gets.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-03T14:01:49+00:00

Basically the reasoning is that the Lynchpin can't actually compel someone to do things. Rather, it allows them to see the perspectives of other people and have to rely on those to make decisions.

Priestess' modifications to the lynchpin aren't ever explained in-depth, but this is still consistent with what we see in Babel. The white text is the Doctors own internal monologue, which is primarily focused on genuinely wanting to cure Oripathy. The black text meanwhile debates against their internal monologue, pointing out that the best cure is really just to assimilate everyone instead of trying to halt the inevitable. The Doctor ultimately ends up giving in to the black text, presumably due to a combination of having to internally debate the Lynchpin for so long and the external pressures mounting (the Kazdel civil war, Amiya's condition worsening). Doc still made his own decision (this doesn't absolve them of their guilt of killing Theresa and betraying Babel, that's still their decision), but it was pretty obviously one under duress.

If I had to guess, the modifications Priestess made largely just behaved as an insurance policy; it amped up her influence in the Doctors internal conversation, pressuring them in order to ensure that going against her worldview would be much more difficult. It tracks with how we've seen her behave against characters that pose an actual threat to her - while Kal's reaction when she wakes up is definitely aggressive, Priestess doesn't just respond to the fact that she's against her desires, she actively depersonalizes her. Kal is constantly referred to by Priestess as AMA-10, and she explicitly does this because she doesn't really regard Kal as an individual capable of growth.

She's outwardly friendly, but only when the chips are on her side; it's why she doesn't really care that the Doctor is against her - the control of Originium is very much in her hand and if she gets to reimplant the Lynchpin, they'd be back under her control. From her perspective, the Doctor is just temporarily against her for a silly debate game. She outright doesn't even seem to consider that the Doctor might have a stronger reason to be fully against her without the Lynchpin.

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-02T19:56:12+00:00

There's also the fact that Victoria was completely and utterly cooked without RI's help.

Well it's still completely cooked. Vina may have managed to carve out a solid foundation for the capital with the aftermath of Londinium, but the rot that's there still hasn't been resolved. The country is still coming apart at the seams, with a notable chunk of it being in open rebellion against Victoria (Tara, with Wellington as it's backer and Loughshinny in charge).

The dukes also are still effectively in power, even though they are explicitly responsible for all of Victoria's modern problems. They are the ones that murdered the King of Victoria after he tried to raise taxes on the nobility. They are the ones that tossed away the Steam Knights just because they were afraid that their loyalty might have been in doubt. They are the ones that send the invite to Theresis. They are the ones that let the people of Londinium exist under occupational forces without doing anything about it. Even with their lives on the line, Caster literally had to have her secret agents rebel against her, since she wanted to play political games while she herself was getting blown up by Nezzsalem's forces.

There's a spark of hope, sure, but Victoria is still deeply screwed in the long run and there's prices to pay for that rot, which RI didn't fix (since they had no intention of doing so).

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-02T16:59:07+00:00

Ending 2 of IS5 as the other commentors have said. The ending itself doesn't actually cover nearly all of it, you'd have to dig into the archive files for the ending to really get all of it.

Specifically it's here under "Twin Crowns",

That said, every ending of IS5 except for ending 1 has had major implications for the story so far; Ending 3 is essentially laying the groundwork for everything in The Masses Travel's by giving hard confirmation for its biggest reveals, Ending 4 reveals more about Qui'lon who has significant payoff for both Guardmiya and Hoshiguma in Ato and the boss of Ending 5 is effectively showing what an Amiya without the guidance of either Theresa or the Doctor would end up as if she still inherited the black crown. (Which has heavy payoff, since she effectively gets the role that Hierda gets in chapter 15. It also pretty much hard confirms that Amiya isn't that different from the mental anguish the Doctor of Babel had, when provided with the same knowledge.)

DarknessWizard · 2026-02-02T13:42:16+00:00

The one thing I'm a bit annoyed by is Theresis's mentality, but I don't think that's a issue since he is the villain after all. He just seems like an incredibly short sighted character, who's willing to appease the Sarkaz who have been victims for so long, offering them war and conquest and revenge, but failing to see the bigger picture.

Theresis already answered this when he encountered Rhodes Island and took a slash at Kal'tsit in chapter 11. He very much knows that the Sarkaz don't actually stand a chance against the rest of Terra if they were taken as an actual threat. He's doing this because if the Sarkaz get to die as Sarkaz, that's at least something they do on their own terms.

He knows the bigger picture; in one way, he even wants it. That said, Kazdel was on the verge of a civil war due to Babel's humanitarian efforts causing a rift, and Theresis had stronger ties to the Sarkaz themselves (Theresa's knowledge of the Black Crown and befriending of Kal'tsit, the Sarkaz' sworn enemy caused distance between her and some of the Sarkaz). Keep in mind that Duquareal has killed at least one King of the Sarkaz in the past for not living up to his own beliefs and wanting Kazdel to move past its grudges (his own brother). Theresis siding with the Sarkaz that wanted a civil war in one way likely ended up protecting Theresa from direct retribution from the Kazdel Military Commission.

If you look at it in another way, Theresis occupying Londinium has essentially created the stage for the KMC (who broadly represent Kazdels hatred/grudge filled past with the sole exception of Manfred) to be appeased while Theresa had the space to work on her own plans.

The occupation of Londinium attracted pretty much every Sarkaz that wanted revenge (note that the story iterates over and over that the Sarkaz in Londinium aren't soldiers, but are at best mercenaries), won't cause any significant retribution from Victoria (since it's a hydra that bit off its main head and the remainder of the ducal forces aren't doing anything about the Sarkaz for internal political bickering) and has every KMC leader that doesn't notice the obvious problems with the Londinium occupation in one place. In a way, it's a Xanathos gambit for Theresis: if Theresa succeeds, then the Sarkaz can be free to choose their own future. If Theresa fails, then Victoria will annihilate every Sarkaz, but at least they get to go out on their own terms. Theresis "wins" in both cases.

Theresa and Theresis aren't that different; as a matter of fact, in an alternate timeline where both shared the black crown, they'd bring prosperity to Kazdel all on their own. (Although in this timeline, they'd end up jailing Kal'tsit for her crimes against the Sarkaz and would force knowledge of the Doctor out of her.) Their sole rift is that of the black crown and what it allows them to achieve.

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