Opprobrium
It was a black mark on the soul of the sport.
Two years ago, the movement to end the inequality in Gordonopian football was met with violence, assault, terror. At first it seemed isolated; a few merciless reactionaries. For a time the fear was greater. Conspiracy. Foreign support. Escalation. War? As those concerns faded, the void was filled by a revelation just as dark. Foreign support had not been the only lifeblood of the bloodshed. The very man who could have made the movement's goals come true with a word was quite possibly the one fighting most viciously against it.
That someone so high in the hierarchy of Gordonopian sport could orchestrate, or even cover up, such an act would have been unthinkable before it actually occurred. In the Empire, the upper echelons of the sporting world were populated by those who had tested their mettle for years. Won their accolades on the pitch, the course, or the front office. Proved their total devotion to the pseudo religious 'game'. Their opinions on what was best could certainly differ; that was simply reality playing out. Enforcing their opinions through raw violence though- no, that could never happen.
How was it that Daniel Marcus became the shame of a nation? What set him on the path from former player and devoted manager to closeted fanatic? Why in God's name did he allow the deaths of tens of innocents, the attempted murder of more, and the maiming of hundreds?
The answer, of course, is not a simple one. It is a tale of history. A tale of experiences. A tale of instability. It is the story of a man driven off the edge by little more than a potential for change; restraint lost, morality shattered.
To divine the future path of football in Gordonopia, though, the answer must be revealed. It is rare that one man break the very foundation of a sport, but in the Empire Daniel Marcus did just that. In order to rebuild, that crack must be made clear.
The opporobrium must be laid bare.
