>>1505
>cont
In the midgame (2-25 years since dream) the jig is up. There's no easy means of communication between disciples of the same god, let alone others, so it's only a matter of time before some Lokt disciple uses War Form or Stronghold in some way that's extremely obvious and then a disciple of Ersu, Quet, Ur, or similar announces to the world how things are. Someone with incentive to keep things covered up, like a Lokt or Optus disciple, might be able to shoot out enough misinformation during this period to prevent people from having a clear idea what's going on, but the idea that there is a god's war on will be out there. Nations and corporations catch on to the shape of things in the midgame, and start trying to get as many disciples as they can on their side. Naive followers of Ur, Amilia, and Ersu might sign on willingly, and Lux and Quet can reasonably buddy up with an existing nationstate and advance their agenda. The Long Man is inherently opposed to all nations and corporations in the long run, and Optus and Lokt will want to be running these things eventually, something which existing rulers and plutocrats will take issue with. Short-sighted Lokt and Optus disciples might end up signing on anyway, however, without realizing that once they've gotten as much power/wealth as the existing system is willing to give them they will still be under an agenda to get more. Alternatively, clever and patient Lokt/Optus disciples might try to use their powers to pick a nation/corporation as victor with the agreement that the disciple will inherit everything like 200 years down the line. The mortal rulers of the nation/corporation won't have to care that far down the line and the Lokt/Optus disciple will get what he wants eventually. XM disciples will probably have started to pick up on XM's agenda through subconscious pattern recognition of what makes their powers weaker and stronger by now, but since we don't know what XM's agenda actually is, it's hard to say what difference that will make.
In this stage, alliances are going to emerge. Depending on how the earlygame went, Lokt and Ur will have seen a meteoric rise through the ranks of society. Ur disciples can all win indefinitely, but with Lokt disciples in the end there can be only one. Even a Lokt disciple who's willing to lose his powers after amassing a certain amount of power and just stopping there (and let's be honest, that's #1 a perfectly good deal since you're still immortal and #2 going to happen anyway if you take over the world and run out of lands to conquer) is still going to run the risk of being mistaken for an assassin biding his time while lusting after the throne. But once Ur alliances begins to form, Lokt disciples are going to need to get in on that.
The specific shape of the midgame thus ultimately depends on two things. Firstly, do the Ur disciples put their differences aside and form a single Ur alliance, or do they split along national/philosophical lines and create American, Russian, and Chinese alliances with Ur disciples in each of them? And second, are Ur disciples willing to work with Lokt disciples? If a Lokt disciple rules the world but does so in such a way to defend the innocent, punish the guilty, and protect people from evil, then both that Lokt disciple and every Ur disciple have won, so there's no reason for them to be opposed.
While Ur and Lokt are the only disciples with powers that let them quietly seize control of a national government, they are by no means the only ones with an interest in who wins. Ersu is a shoe-in for an ally of Ur, but probably can't be friends with Lokt, so Ur disciples will probably have to pick to side with one or teh other. Amlia can reasonably side with either an Ur or Lokt disciple, and Lux can definitely side with an Ur or Lokt disciple. In fact, Lux's only incompatible agendas are Quet and the Long Man, so he could also side with Optus. That said, Optus is unlikely to be a major player in the first place. While Optus disciples who end up in the middle or lower ranks of society are a non-threat since they just want to get to the top rung and can absolutely be allies of that top rung while on their way up, they don't have any particularly good means for reaching that top rung except Lost Change, which is dependent upon their having an annual income to increment, which the top rung can revoke at-will. An Optus disciple would have to either already be on the top rung, unlikely due to our maximum 999 dreamers and world demographics, or else trick their way into the top rung using mundane powers, something which a disciple of any god could do.