Unaging world conqueror

[WaterAndWindSpirit]

Hello everyone!

Unaging:

You never grow old naturally and
cannot be aged unnaturally. Your age
is fixed at any point you choose and
will never change. You never have to
make aging rolls

So after looking at too much Law and The Multiverse, I wondered if interesting adventures can be build from the premise of there being a wanna be world conqueror with Unaging in the world whose world domination plan is to conquer the Earth by accumulating wealth and simply buying it out one tract of land at a time until he owns the entire Earth.

Thanks!

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit

So after looking at too much Law and The Multiverse, I wondered if interesting adventures can be build from the premise of there being a wanna be world conqueror with Unaging in the world whose world domination plan is to conquer the Earth by accumulating wealth and simply buying it out one tract of land at a time until he owns the entire Earth.

Can interesting adventures be built from "somebody wants to buy something"? Mostly not if it's actually on the market in their vicinity.

Incidentally while this is a tolerably good plan in a multi-world polity, buying the planet has got some serious failure points in a setting where there is only the one. A minor one that applies even in the multi-world setting is that as you own more and more of it and aren't selling, the supply drops and the law of supply and demand drives the price of the remainder up. The major one though is that property ownership is a legal fiction. If you buy (and restrict the use of) enough of anything to seriously inconvenience the other inhabitants of the polity that enforces ownership rights, they will *change the law*, by revolution if necessary, and take them away from you.

[spacemonkey]

Originally Posted by malloyd

If you buy (and restrict the use of) enough of anything to seriously inconvenience the other inhabitants of the polity that enforces ownership rights, they will *change the law*, by revolution if necessary, and take them away from you.

Or the proper laws already exist. Good luck paying property tax on half a continent.

[Whyte]

Originally Posted by spacemonkey

Or the proper laws already exist. Good luck paying property tax on half a continent.

Well I would assume that you would make a hefty penny from rental for the land-use etc.

Generally, though, like malloyd said, plutocracy tends to lead to a revolution eventually. Also, if this guy is the only one with Unaging in this setting, at least for most of the human history, he would have been quickly targeted as a demon or a witch. It is also worth pointing out that a lot of people throughout history died from disease or violently (something this rich bloke might attract onto himself), not from 'old age', neither of which is countered by Unaging. Combine it at least with Immunity to Disease and you will have a much better chance of making it.

That being said, the trope of a rich guy buying the land of hard-working farmers whether they want to sell or not is well known in Westerns in particular. He might make an interesting villain or a patron in a more grey/black morality campaign. Not that he would need to be Unaging in order to do that. In particular, in a scifi game, a shadowy off-world Mister Moneybags trying to sabotage this young colony world in order to make it fail and to buy the claim from the bankrupt colony consortium with pennies on the dollar, might make a nice premise for an overarching plotline, linking various little 'incidents' together.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit

Hello everyone!

Unaging:

You never grow old naturally and
cannot be aged unnaturally. Your age
is fixed at any point you choose and
will never change. You never have to
make aging rolls

So after looking at too much Law and The Multiverse, I wondered if interesting adventures can be build from the premise of there being a wanna be world conqueror with Unaging in the world whose world domination plan is to conquer the Earth by accumulating wealth and simply buying it out one tract of land at a time until he owns the entire Earth.

Thanks!

"Messrs. Scrooge McDuck and Flintheart Glomgold, you have a call at the courtesy desk..."

In practice, dude is going to run into the problem of ever-changing social rules. For ex, back in the Medieval Period in Europe, he'd probably have worked by buying/bribing fiefdoms out of the local sovereigns. Which would work...until suddenly being a feudal lord is no longer meaningful.

Later, he might buy land in Russia, only for the Bolsheviks to collectivize it. He might own big stretches of eastern France...to see it conquered by Germany in the 1870s. He might own a lot of land in Florida or Colorado...but suddenly the Feds slap environmental regs on him that effectively mean he doesn't control his land anymore.

And so on into the future. In 2120, he accumulates a lot of land in England, but because of the Catholic Resurgence, Parliament votes to transfer most of it to the Church in compensation for Henry VIII. In 2230, just as he buys the last tracts of Africa, the war between the Pan-Antarctic Republic and European League forces him to abandon it all as Africa turns into a nuclear battlezone. In 3001, he finally owns the whole planet...just in time for the Emperor to decide to make Earth part of the Crown Demesne, dispossessing him.

For an immortal, mortals affairs, at least things like property rights and governments and regimes, flicker by like a film on fast forward. Even your money may suddenly become worthless because of political or religious or other changes that turn your trillions of rupees into waste paper.

[Flyndaran]

Unless he's known to be immortal, he can't own anything over centuries. His corporation/family/cabal/etc. owns things. Hostile takeovers will happen occasionally knocking him back to square one plus maybe enemies wanting to keep him silent and out of the way.
If he's known, then that will add boat tons of enemies, worshipers, the just curious, and everyone bogging him down with life hassles making plain business impossible, in my opinion.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

In practice, dude is going to run into the problem of ever-changing social rules. For ex, back in the Medieval Period in Europe, he'd probably have worked by buying/bribing fiefdoms out of the local sovereigns. Which would work...until suddenly being a feudal lord is no longer meaningful.

Not to mention that land laws in the Medieval period (at least in Sweden) banned selling land to non-family members unless all family members had said no. Isn't there something in Leviticus about land reverting to the original owner after a certain number of years?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Anders

Not to mention that land laws in the Medieval period (at least in Sweden) banned selling land to non-family members unless all family members had said no. Isn't there something in Leviticus about land reverting to the original owner after a certain number of years?

In Leviticus every 50 years all land reverted to the original family. All at once, regardless of if it was sold 49 years ago or last winter. In practice it seems to have been a hit or miss thing -- sometimes it happened, sometimes it didn't. There are also some interesting exceptions, such as land within city walls. In any case, the system was made to avoid entities slowly buying up land. One of the most interesting property law schemes on the books.

I think the "slowly buy everything up" scheme is kind of like guerrilla warfare: you can get pretty far with it, but eventually you'll have to go public. Societies tend to notice when someone owns more things than the ruling authorities. Its a great way to start, but a poor way to finish. You've got to hire your own armies, overthrow kings, and set up your own rule. Which is doable, but not while acting as a mere merchant.

[mr beer]

Tough to own the Earth that way. The problem is that ultimately sovereign nations have fiat control over laws and therefore land ownership. Consequently at some point in order to ensure you really own the land and will continue to do so, you need to become a sovereign nation yourself. At which point you're no more or less powerful than any other country and by observing the world around us and paying attention to history, you'll note that no nation has ever owned the Earth.

[Flyndaran]

During revolutions, riots, and disasters, the money lenders' homes were always the first to suffer "tragedy".