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Anonymous

Why and how did you decide to try doing such an ambitious work of two parallel trilogies? Hats off to you, structurally it must have been difficult, how did you figure it out? 

Will Wight

Brute force, I figured it out by brute force. Doing two parallel trilogies, I always really liked that idea. Oh actually wait I'm going to back up. (...) Structurally it's difficult for Elder Empire, yes it was very difficult. I figured it out kind of one step at a time. It was hard to, hard to do. Something that was just, I had to do it, I had a great time doing it, I don't recommend it. (...dialogue lost to lag...) The flashback storylines were major storylines. (...more lost...) I then had to get the flashback storylines to work complimentary with the main storylines. 

Questioner

Goku vs Elders and Emperor. If Goku loses, then Beerus comes in

Will Wight

Based on what we've seen from Dragon Ball Super recently, even the creators of the show have no idea what power levels mean. We have Super Saiyan Trunks fighting evenly with Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta, which makes NO sense. Plus Goku gets pricked by a poison needle during his fight with alt-universe Freeza, which seems to violate canon in like three different ways.

This effectively means that recent events have suggested that Goku isn't really THAT strong.

Anyway, disregarding recent events that retcon Goku's strength and using our own reasonable standard of his power level...

1.) Goku vs. the Emperor and the Elders

Let's assume, first of all, that Goku doesn't just blow up the planet and cause everyone to lose.

...although, now that I'm thinking about it, that would be the worst thing he could do. Without the existence of Intent-wielding humans, the Elders would be free of their confines, and they would escape into their true forms. At which point they would unmake Goku at a conceptual level. The Emperor would still die, but his team would win the battle.

However, assuming Goku doesn't destroy the planet, he would tear apart the Emperor and about half the Great Elders. Any of them that work physically: Nakothi, Othaghor, Kthanikahr. He'd blow up their minions, fly in, and tear them to pieces.

But against the more metaphysical Great Elders--Urg'naut, Tharlos, Ach'magut--I suspect he'd have his mind devoured or his soul ripped out or something. As far as I can tell, he has no ability to resist powers like that.

And I can't imagine Kelarac wouldn't be able to outwit Goku.

2.) Beerus vs. Elder Empire

It depends on how Beerus' powers as the God of Destruction work in a universe that isn't his own.

If he can still unmake entities the way that he unmade Zamasu, then he would certainly win. The Great Elders actually can't be unmade this way, so they would re-form in the void and attack some other, random world, but that's not enough to invalidate Beerus' victory.

However, if he's relying on sheer strength and not his authority as the Destroyer, then he has the same result as Goku. He might be able to resist one or two of the metaphysical Elders, because presumably gods have some kind of spiritual/mental fortitude, but all of them working together could probably defeat him.

Whis, on the other hand, likely just wins. I can't see the Elders beating him physically or metaphysically.

Questioner

Woah. I thought you would say Goku would lose immediately.

How about Naruto. Him vs Emperor.

And vs physical Elders, not metaphysical.

Use Sage of Six Paths Naruto

Will Wight

I've seen nothing in the series to suggest that Naruto could ever compete on Goku's level, so I'd think Naruto loses to everybody.

Now, that's assuming he walks in and tries to fight Nakothi (or whoever) on his own. As part of a team, like for instance one of the Emperor's teams that actually went against the Great Elders, I think he'd be a huge asset. And a big threat to the Elders.

Naruto vs. the Emperor would be the closest fight. Naruto's powers are more physically threatening than the Emperor's, since he can use blasts of destruction and the Emperor can't. However, the Emperor's powers of Intent can also counter a lot of what Naruto's capable of doing--the Emperor would have superior elemental control to Naruto, for instance, and he could likely make Naruto's clothes shrivel up and start strangling him. He effectively controls the whole world around him.

So the incompatibility of powers makes this a little bit of an awkward matchup, but I'd PROBABLY give it slightly to Naruto. 51-49. The Emperor is smarter and older and wiser, but Naruto has many crazy powers in one body.

Questioner

So do they all have split cores? Or do their paths just work well together?

Will Wight

They have a mechanism for allowing their Paths to work together.

Questioner

Which of your characters could survive the best in almost every kind of story setting?

Will Wight

He's well-educated enough to adapt to a more modern world, skilled in enough basic skills to adapt to a more primitive world, and he has his Reader skills. Assuming they work in his setting, they'd be useful under pretty much any circumstances.

Plus, he's resourceful enough to make a living in legitimate business or in a life of crime, as circumstances require.

Family of raccoons laying siege to the city of carthage in order to prevent hannibal from crossing the alps in the dead of winter, catching roman forces completely by surprise and allowing him to march his armies through italy unchallenged

Here's something I've been wondering: you mentioned that creating a path around guns would be pointless, but then how are sword paths even remotely viable? It seems like the best paths would focus on long-range capabilities, and have techniques or an iron body that greatly enhance speed, allowing them to stay out of range. It doesn't matter how good a sword is if it can't land a hit.Also, how are armies organized in times of war? Are soldiers required to change to a standard path for uniformity among the ranks, arranged into divisions of people with similar skill-sets, or thrown onto the field with no regard for paths? Are officers determined by merit or cultivation level? Are more powerful sacred artists fielded first or last, as using them early could allow more control of the battlefield, but they don't want to risk the shame of being seen defeated. Do coups often follow wars? As the conflict would likely create powerful sacred artists to challenge the ruling power.

Will Wight

It depends on what you mean by "best" Paths. Best Path for what? Best Path for killing a sword artist, sure.However, the real answer is that in this world, a sword isn't a short-range weapon.The nature of sacred arts in this world means there aren't armies as we know them. It's pointless to mass together a bunch of people when one enemy who's advanced enough could kill all of them unopposed.War-level combat is a lot more about matching experts with experts. This is a world where it's even viable for wars to be settled by duels; if their Underlord beats your Underlord, and you don't have anyone else as strong or stronger, you might as well surrender.There are squads and divisions divided by specialty function and ability, which we'll get into. Also, Carthage must be destroyed.

Family of attack badgers (raccoons busy attacking carthage for mollusk blood to make purple dye, a priceless commodity of the ancient world, and a symbol of wealth and power in the roman empire)

That seems strange, as all previous examples of conflict (heavens glory, jai clan) show the leaders more than willing to throw weak fodder at their enemies, because if they go and fight themselves, they risk losing face, or appearing weak (pride/appearance of strength being a pillar of the culture here) Wouldn't kings and lords want to avoid this as much as possible? Sending low-rank fodder to fight their low-rank fodder (enemy kings won't want to risk themselves needlessly either, after all) seems like a preferable alternative, especially since if your fodder survives, they will likely become stronger from the fighting.

Will Wight

An Underlord loses face when he HAS to go deal with a group of Golds, because he's lowering himself to their level.If the enemy doesn't have an Underlord of their own, he doesn't have to deal with them at all. The threat of him doing so is enough.If they keep defying him, then he would lose more respect and reputation by allowing them to continue hurting his interests unopposed than he would taking care of them himself.So basically, if you're not roughly equal to the enemy in strength, you don't fight.If you ARE roughly equal in strength, as you say, fights are usually carried out by the lower ranks. It's not normally duels between the upper-level people, I was just using that as an illustration of where the real power is. It's a viable strategy, but it's not common.

And furthermore Carthage must be destroyed.