The mighty never truly fall…or so they tell themselves while polishing their crowns atop increasingly precarious thrones.
Over the eons, the mighty get mightier through a simple principle: compound interest on power.
A small advantage becomes a larger advantage, which becomes dominance, which becomes the kind of authority that reshapes reality to ensure continued authority.
The rich get richer because wealth attracts wealth like gravity attracts mass. The powerful become more powerful because power is the ultimate tool for acquiring more power.
It's a self-reinforcing cycle that would continue forever, if not for one tiny problem: hubris makes even rulers stupid.
History…cosmic and otherwise, is littered with the formerly mighty who made that one critical error.
The tyrant who dismissed the peasant uprising as "insignificant." The corporation that ignored the startup in the garage.
The empire that decided to invade a glacial empire in winter.
