Who lost Tripura?

The cities of Tripura are no more. They were destroyed at a moment by the wrath of Shiva our greatest benefactor. Gone along with the construction is the pond of eternity which has been observed in Swarga -- suggesting that the Devas stole it after the destruction of the three cities.

Assigning blame at this point is not instructive or helpful, considering the various factions have already engaged in conflict for eternity. If we can work back the thread of responsibility, it might be effective to avoid similar situations going forward, and stay ahead of the Devas' various tricks and schemes.

It has been suggested that the destruction was unavoidable, that the holy quarternity unfairly favors the devas, and no matter what course of action is concluded upon and if we were to apply those proactively, the Devas would scheme and tilt the favor of the quarternity in their favor to foil it, one way or the other. It's suggested that they are willing to break the fundamental cosmic metaphysical laws in order to gain an upper hand over us. That may be true, but resigning ourselves to the fact is rather fatalistic and not constructive here. Additionally, despite the fact the universal die is so overwhelmingly tilted in their favor, no matter how pious or virtuous or kind or honest or fair we act, our existence is not only tolerated generally but we are allowed to thrive. That suggests we are at least given a fighting chance, and this will be an exploration in optimizing our gains within the 'fighting chance' that we have been given.

First, that the Gods have access to the pond of immortality is a big threat to our future conquests. Still, they have had access to similar resources in the past and we have successfully made advances and conquered their domains on several occasions. Our existing strategy to target the greatest sources of their rejuvenation on our initial assault seems to be the best approach against their newfound weapons. While we must not underestimate our enemies, that they have been blessed with invulnerable tools and still fallen to us on many many occasions speaks to their incompetence and the value of our existing tactics for military assault on their capital.

Second, that our greatest ally, benefactor, and provider was used to cause our destruction should be of the highest concern, and be in consideration in the future. The reason Tripurantak (the destroyer of the three cities, as they are calling him now, which we will follow) was obliged to attack us can be attributed to the deviance from proper dharma and order. Piousness decreased, virtuosity disappeared and the rule of law order and fairness went completely out of the window. So much so that even Indra's domain were fairer than those under us. The pond of agelessness an immortality has been suggested as the cause -- the elderly who refused to go away with their age began extending their influence and wealth across the domains and only hoarding and increasing whatever they had gained in their natural lifetimes. As time went on, those that were on the older side became a larger and larger portion of the population, and their rejection of any sort of change, vitality, and growth caused rigidness with our social policies. Considering the fair just and citizen-centric policies we have adapted, they were successful in using our greatest strength of equality against us, by creating an asymmetry of power between the older and the wealthy that are less open to new policies, and those that are less fortunate.

Finally, our greatest vulnerability appears to have been the boon of immortality that was granted to our entire race. While over several millennia it allowed us to thrive and grow and extend our territories, it created a societal devolution in our values and the principles we hold dear, those that make us superior versus the devas. Since we had never before been granted a set of circumstances that approached immortality so closely, this was not an anticipated effect. We are in the process of drafting regulations and guiding principles to organize our societies if and when we have access to immortality again.

An alternative is to not seek immortality for all individuals, valuing the immortality of our beliefs and system, or societies and people over it, since this experience suggests that all else remaining constant, those two are in conflict.