The consequences of opposing the regime are dire, and one gets the sense that all of those advantage will, to use a current vernacular, progressively enshittify. In their enforcement of norms they commit what we would consider atrocities; in their aspirations to grandeur and dominance they take ridiculously outsized risks which affect their entire domain—thousands of civilizations. Bets that _seem_ asymmetric, until they go wrong.
Naturally, there is an underground opposition. Naturally, there are overtures to them with the attractiveness of incentives coupled with the direness of consequences of refusal to leave many with impossible choices. We find that some of our heroes keep fighting, however clandestinely. We find that others of our heroes take a pragmatic approach, and opt to live for tomorrow's fight, even if that means swallowing their pride. Some don't even get that chance. Most are making the best of a situation that's bad and is repulsive to their every fiber.
Everyone is presented with a smorgasbord of hills to die on, and choice of unobjectionable and even pleasant alternative valleys in which to settle—but _everyone_ has to turn a blind eye to something, even if it is their own pride and the feeling of a taint they can't scrub off.
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