Dear reader! Whether you are new here, archive-reading and whatnot, or you are already someone who has been with us for quite a while, I would like to say a few words that I believe are best kept close to mind.
-This is an MLP quest. And more importantly, none of us are gratuitously cruel. So good things will happen on this quest, and I hope that enough good things have already happened to prove that.
-This is also a horror quest, so bad things will happen. Bad things might happen to good characters if you are not able to protect them, and you most certainly will not be able to intervene if you lack the tools to do so.
-And finally, this is a quest in which you jostle with powers greater than yourself, with all that it entails.
Please, do keep those things in mind as you go forward. But ultimately, this is also a quest in which it is hoped we all have fun! So if any of the above points is not exactly your cup of tea, or somehow make the experience as a whole "not worth it", then this quest might not be for you. Which is fine! Individual tastes are a thing, so don't think any more about it if you don't want to read anymore. And regardless, I hope you have a lovely day!
Readers should take their own mental health into consideration when voting and not subject themselves to triggering narrative elements like rape or constant mental torture of a friend just for the Greatest Good of a world that doesn't exist.
If those are fine for you or Regrettable is even more triggering, then GREAT! More power to you. But you aren't a bad or selfish person for picking the option that keeps the characters you've emotionally connected with safe. [REDACTED for spoiler warning]
This is a high intensity quest that doesn't hold back when it comes to horror and negative consequences. Take care of yourself.
Well, if it's a last ditch "fuck you" effort against the Worms, we'd probably be providing him some help. Everyone joins in to help destroy the world to deny the Worms their prize, that's the power of friendship!
It's a little interesting, at least once/twice bad things have happened because we chose the nice route rather than the ruthless route. I was going to try and say something amusing but I just reached the part where Soft Sweeps becomes our DAUGHTER and joking about it makes me feel bad.
It's a little interesting, at least once/twice bad things have happened because we chose the nice route rather than the ruthless route. I was going to try and say something amusing but I just reached the part where Soft Sweeps becomes our DAUGHTER and joking about it makes me feel bad.
Caught up a day or two ago. Favorite things that I might steal for an rpg if I ever got around to running one again: the whole windigo urn thing, the description of the ruined church, and the Daughter of Axes. Funny to imagine what her cult might be like.
In which it's all Discord's fault, and Celestia knows it.
You imagine that most of your little ponies, or at least those prone to a late-night stroll in their garden, would enjoy themselves as they did so. Without much difficulty, you can picture an Earth Pony wandering her well-tended fields, feeling the leaves around her rest in the cool of the night. You can picture a Unicorn in sprawling Manehatten sitting on their balcony, surrounded by the few houseplants he carefully raised to provide a brilliant flash of green against the city's more prominent brown and grey. His tea may be long grown cold, the book he was absently paging through long since put aside, but he remains outside, enjoying his garden and the few stars visible even amid your realm's great metropolis.
Of course, it is far from unusual that you take on the difficult so that your subjects may enjoy themselves in peace, in Harmony, not even aware of what you did. Indeed, one might think that role is your purpose, from the day you were borne into this world.
But one would be wrong. That was part of the bargain (there was no bargain), a note in the contract (and certainly no contract). But not the main clause. After all, what would be the point of a detailed agreement when the force dominant in the world was anathema to "detailed agreements" in the first place?
So your sister and you were borne into this world by Harmony. And though the terms of that not-agreement meant you had to grow and you had to learn, all the while you knew there was a task at hoof. Still, just thinking back on those days so long ago brings a smile to your face, sees your aurora mane glow brighter; the memories are still joyful even if they've grown blurry with the years (though if you tried, you could remember it all, crystal-clear). Still, all good things come to an end, and when the time came, you did what you had to do.
Your foe was left a chunk of well-carved rock, an appropriately static rendition. The world was left... well, a mess would be putting it charitably. An arduous task had been completed, but it was clear your work was yet undone. With hoof and horn, you put things back in shape, up to and including the sun and moon in the skies above. It wasn't perfect, but you -- you, and your sister -- did the best you could.
Until it all went wrong.
You pause then, your hoofs stilling for a moment. You missed your sister so much, then. You miss your sister so much, now. You love her so much, after all. She's your other half.
It's that reminder that tightens your brow and reaffirms your resolve. You quicken your pace.
You're still not sure he had anything to do with that nightmare, let alone the Nightmare. You'd never put it past him, having one last surprise up his sleeve or one last trick to play. A little more fun, all the more enjoyable because you thought it was finally over. But Luna had been reticent in those days, and you had checked and checked again the stone-wards held, and certainly you couldn't ask her when she was back. But you were never sure, through that lonely millennium, and you're still not sure now.
"Was it you?"
The statue before you does not answer, and your words disappear into the night. They don't carry far -- you didn't yell, you didn't rage, you didn't let more than a fraction of your loss bleed through. This is not a place to not be orderly, and even if the sculpture garden is isolated, it wouldn't do to disturb all your sweet little ponies who are resting after their long day rebuilding.
Well, Celestia, that is the plan. Let's see if it can be maintained. Because you have to ask --
"Was this you?"
You've gone over that night again and again in your memory. Well, you've gone over those short few months you had her back again and again, and they always end there. It came out of nowhere, and he could be like that, conjuring lightning (or a rain of sardines, or a torrent of blood) out of a clear blue sky. Whatever she saw when she looked at you, whatever inspired that mélange of horror and fear you had never seen before and never want to see again, it hadn't been you -- and he could do that too, warping your vision until you were convinced night was day, trash was treasure, your beloved sister was some monstrous abomination.
Even as you stand here, you can tell the stone remains whole. The seals have not faltered. But was his face always turned like that, his smirk so prominent?
"Are you having fun?"
The past few days have definitely been his kind of scene, in Canterlot and across Equestria. You have not been paying all that much attention, truly, but it's impossible for you not to know. The hastily-sprung up volunteer camps, filled with well-meaning ponies eager to help, but all their best efforts squandered amidst the disorganization. Here in the capital, the nobles have been playing some stupid game, the loudest instruments offering discordant notes, and it's just so unhelpful, and so small-minded, it makes you want to --
No. Not now, and especially not here.
A part of you is frustrated, with the world and all its imperfections. A part of you is tired, sapped from constant teleports and scrying spells and fruitless searches. A part of you feels the touch of chaos, and that is anathema.
But only a part. One you rely upon, one your little ponies know and love, but still just a small part of you.
And the rest of you? It resonates with just one chord, a feeling strong enough to drown it the rest.
You miss your Sister. And you know there is nothing, in this world or any other, that would prevent you from working your will on the hunk of stone in front of you.
It takes but a moment. You let the veil drop a hair, your mantle an inch more purchase on this world.
The clearing is lit up in aurora-light, the other sculptures lit in otherworldly shades, and casting even more bizarre shadows on the encircling trees. But your attention remains fixed on just the one ahead of you.
You stamp your hoof, and the wind rushes outwards, the forest swaying away. You deformed the golden shoes you wear, but that's not important. What's important is the spell forming on your mind.
Your horn begins to glow, ensheathed in a light more real than a candle, or a torch, or even the sun you know so well. You're not changing your prior work. You're just moving it, or perhaps moving the world around it.
There's a moment, one moment, where you light the garden brighter than day. A moment when you can feel your School's more sensitive unicorns toss and turn in their sleep. But the part of you concerned about that is not the part working this spell.
And then it's over. The statue is gone. He might still be enjoying all this mess, but he won't get to watch.
Soon, you'll find your sister, and harmony will return to Equestria. Again. But he'll be stuck there, with nothing to see and nothing to watch, nothing to taunt and nothing to sneer at, forevermore.
Was doing some more thinking on Discord and the missing statue, and it came to me as a scene. I think it agrees with the (lack of ) information we got in the one Velvet scene, and I do definitely feel like amidst the chaos of what happened to Luna, and the aftermath, it would be almost surprising if Celestia hadn't suspected the Sisters' ancient enemy.
Writing-wise, man, I am all the more impressed by how Bird writes Celestia, especially those moments she lets slip her radiance. I'm not sure I achieved the right level of weight or significance (and it was a little told-not-shown) but it was a fun excercise all the same.
Pretty much in line with how Discord should have been treated. Leaving him in the garden was peak gross negligence. Another instance of the show writers not really concerned about crafting a sensible world.
Pretty much in line with how Discord should have been treated. Leaving him in the garden was peak gross negligence. Another instance of the show writers not really concerned about crafting a sensible world.
To be fair, given how he was apparently entirely trapped for 1000 years, I don't think one could reasonably guess that some kids arguing near him would have been enough on its own to free him.
Yeah, the actual fuck up there was forgetting to keep regularly checking that the seal held. Because if it was even close to a reasonable state of repair it wouldn't have even noticed
Yeah, the actual fuck up there was forgetting to keep regularly checking that the seal held. Because if it was even close to a reasonable state of repair it wouldn't have even noticed
By lore it was perfectly safe until the elements moved to the Mane 6 from Celestia and Luna. It only started degrading because the seal was made by Celestia and Luna, and they where no longer empowering it by being attuned to the elements.
Mm. I will admit that for all that, when somebody writes a very great entity—things and people who are so definitively more than the world around them—it is extremely interesting to see their weight pressing on the world from heightened states of emotion or thought… it is even more interesting when they don't:
Like, yeah, Angry!Celestia and panicked Cadence, and so on? Very cool. Very neat. But the real power, the real scary characters are those who are just as noticeable when they're perfectly calm. Who can be sitting, or walking, or just… just existing, without any important thought or momentous occasion. And yet, they still press.
So, @spiderhellian while you didn't quite portray Celestia as calm, the fact that I could still recognize her as the same not-quite-a-pony as her appearances in the quest canon while certainly being more calm makes me think you did just fine on the weight of presence.
By lore it was perfectly safe until the elements moved to the Mane 6 from Celestia and Luna. It only started degrading because the seal was made by Celestia and Luna, and they where no longer empowering it by being attuned to the elements.
That still leaves the narrative issue that Celestia left a ticking time bomb on her property and didn't took any initiative. (The only reason it happened is because, to quote Pitch Meeting, so the story can happen. Regardless of how it makes the characters look)
After a week or two of on-and-off writing, thinking, and CS runthroughs, I wrote this.
=== Words You Should Know: Paths to Ascension and the Legacies that Precede Them
In Cultist Simulator, there are many starts and many ends. Every story starts with a Legacy, called so as in the base game each run starts with or shortly before the discovery of the notes of the previous aspiring immortal. This has changed with the introduction of the DLCs, which introduce new starts that are not catalyzed by the remnants of a previous run, but the name persists nonetheless. Every story ends, be it in defeat or victory, but only the most worthy victories shall be detailed here.
Legacies:
The Aspirant: A random worker in a hospital, porting bodies to the morgue, who happens across occult notes that inspire a greater calling. The Aspirant is the 'normal' start, you are provided with no more than you need and no additional mechanics.
The Bright Young Thing: Born to a life of wealth and luxury, one upturned by death of their father and discovery of his obsession with arcane notes leads to a new path. This is a soft start, giving you a buffer of starting resources, extra Health, and a free book with the only disadvantages being that you do not know where the bookstore is (a very quick fix) and a potential early Dread build up (a less quick, but no less easy, fix). The extra Health implies this is the Legacy for the Grail Ascension (Health is used to acquire the Temptation required for Grail)
The Physician: A professional doctor who, like the others, finds notes hinting to the true nature of the world. While the Bright Young Thing is may seem like 'easy mode' with its generous beginnings, Physician is the actual 'easy' Legacy. You start with extra Reason and, far more importantly, a job; not just any job, a permanent one that does not require additional resources. You cannot lose this job and it provides a modest payout for only an average time commitment.
The Detective: A detective seconded to the Suppression Bureau, it is your job to find and take down those pesky cultists. Not that that can stop you from cracking open a sealed case file and starting your own 'odd habit.' Detective is the hardest of the base Legacies. Every case involves tracking down and theoretically arresting individuals pulled from your pool of possible Followers, who are given the position of Rival. If you are too good at your job, you may be left without any Followers if you start trying to gather them too late. On the other hand, if you start a Lantern or Secret Histories cult, you can theoretically have an entire roster of Exalted followers, the highest level they can reach (normally you are limited to 2 or 3, or in the case of Secret Histories, none). Doing investigations risks accumulating Despair, which can easily accumulate to a fatal level. It is possible to get fired, rather easy in fact if you are not constantly keeping an eye on the timer, and lose your chance at recruiting the most powerful cult possible. If you are too slow, your Rival will achieve victory, leaving you behind. On top of their job, the Detective starts with extra Reason and Health.
The Dancer: The first of the DLC Legacies, the Dancer starts as a chorus dancer at a high-class theatre. They eventually meet Sulochana Amavasya, unblinking owner of the mysterious Ecdysis Club, who offers them both a job and the opportunity to pursue Change. As with all the DLC Legacies, it fast-tracks you towards a specific victory, Heart or Moth in this case: however, unlike the others, it does not necessarily lock you in to them.
The Medium?: A former stage medium who was a bit too successful one night and got possessed on stage, ruining their reputation and career. In their search for answers, they meet Miss Naenia, an inanimate portrait that also happens to be a Name of the Elegiast. This kicks off their path towards the Winter ascension
The Priest: You are a priest of an unspecified Christian faith (it has a Bishop somewhere in the structure, but that is all the information you get) who has been assigned to a small and somewhat odd parish. You wind up discovering some interesting apocryphal texts that are the beginning of your path to the Knock ascension. Fun fact: While the rest of the Principles are not strongly affiliated with any traditional faith, Christianity is linked to Knock, probably because Jesus was a devotee of the Mother of Ants (he may or may not have been a Long/Name, the book that discusses this also provides the instructions for how to create a zombie).
The Exile: The Reckoners are a cult of the Colonel and the organized crime of the occulted world in Cultist Simulator. They deal heavily in the years trade, which is the trading of years of life, as kept track by the Cindered Tally and watched over by the Madrugad. You are the first and only person stupid/brazen enough to steal from the Reckoners as part of your plan to be the first and only person stupid/brazen enough to retire from the Reckoners. You must travel the world, constantly trying to stay at least one step ahead of your Foe. You form unbreakable friendships, visit incredible locations, and change the fate of entire countries in the process.
You also have a much more defined backstory: you are a Child of Earth, which is a descendant of a Long/Name/Hour of Flint or Wheel. Your mother was a member of a Lionsmith Cult dedicated to one of his enemies (Lionsmith be like that) and died giving birth, leaving you to taken by your father, strongly implied to be the Foe chasing you. You are on the path to ascension of either Edge or, if you are spectacularly lucky and skilled, the Secret Histories.
Apostle: A special Legacy only available after a victory by Lantern, Grail, or Forge. You are a former follower of the previous character, the one who successfully ascended, and you now seek to elevate your former(?) master from Long to Name. This process requires a special keys to special Doors within the Mansus; these keys are held by the Ligeians, a group of female Alukites who will very kindly assist you in your endeavor for only a small favor. Not everyone is happy with this decision and an enemy Long seeks to prevent you from succeeding. Usually, the Long is of the same aspect of your master, but occasionally you will instead face a Winter Long. If you successfully defeat your Immortal Enemy, they will leave a letter of congratulations and give you the option to break away from your master and pursue your own (normal) ascension; except for the Winter Long, who believes that there are already enough Names and Longs and instead leaves you with no means of Ascension should you take his options.
Ascensions:
Lantern: You desire enlightenment, knowledge, and understanding. Obviously, this requires that you be touched by the Watchman and consume the conscious minds of the living as your insides turn to light until you are sufficiently infused with Glory that you may pass through the Tricuspid Gate and into the Glory, where you serve as a Long in the service of the Door-In-the-Eye.
Lantern Apostle: You have made a horrible mistake, you hate yourself, you enjoy the feeling of pain and frustration, or you actually enjoy esoteric riddles and puzzles that leave you with very little actual instruction. You need to sacrifice the minds of hundreds in order for you and the necessary Witnesses to pass into the Glory and provide the necessary power for your master to ascend further. At least the Alukite, Frau Schlüssel, both has a nice puppy (who is a very good doggo despite its lack of relevance) and finds your task interesting enough to help you for free. You enemy is Diarist, an intangible foe who will attack your Dreams, constantly, and has the favor of the Lantern spirits (Hints and Maids-In-The-Mirror). I am most definitely not at all biased against this Legacy in any manner.
Grail: You seek sensation, any sensation, taking pleasure even in pain (so, a Cenobite). Once you have gotten the Red Grail's attention, you must consume the flesh of others, living or dead, in order to become so full of life that you can give birth to yourself in order to pass through the Tricuspid Gate and become a Long in the service of the Red Grail.
Grail Apostle: You are sickly, afflicted with some wasting and incurable disease. However, this disease can be fought with transfusions of the holy blood of your master. Without the transfusions, you will waste away with each season. To honor your savior, you seek to elevate them further. To do this, you must arrange a feast so resplendent for your master that they may be born again as a Name. The Ligeian for this ascension is the incredibly delightful, kind, and beautiful Marinette, who I am most definitely not utterly terrified of on a conceptual and practical level and only asks for a very reasonable small snack of seven living followers in exchange for agreeing to help you. The enemy Long is Lady Tryphon (originally Saint Tryphon before ascending to Longhood), who engages in subtle intrigues to hassle you, and, upon defeat, falls in love with you.
Fun fact: St. Tryphon the Long is a woman; St. Tryphon, both historically and as described in the in-game text Rose of Nuriel, was a man. This implies makes St. Tryphon the only trans-character in the game, either by choice, by the Red Grail's desire, or she is gender-fluid and, Grail being Grail and Mansus being Mansus, her physical body thus follows. Alternatively, St. Tryphon was always a woman but disguised herself as a man due to the whole "misogyny inherent to ancient society." This may be evidenced by the fact that the Sisterhood of the Knot reveres Tryphon, but they may revere Tryphon in her Long form or Tryphon's gender doesn't matter for the purpose of worship by the Sisterhood. Interesting nonetheless.
Forge: You seek power, the kind only an Hour can grant. This requires that you acquire the attention of the Forge of Days and then constantly spend money on new things to burn for both scarification and warmth as you become ectothermic. Finally, you immolate yourself in order to pass through the Tricuspid Gate and become a Long in the service of the Forge of Days.
Forge Apostle: As befitting of the easiest base game ascension (because money is so much easier to acquire than prisoners and/or corpses), elevating your Long to Namehood is pretty straightforward. You just need to engage in a bit of alchemy, create a fusion reactor, and setting off a nuclear detonation. The only problem is that the Ligeian required, the cheerful and motherly Echidna, demands not only an Exalted follower (not too much an issue as long as you are not a Winter or Knock cult) and her favor only lasts 10 minutes (a rather serious issue if you are not completely prepared to kick off the final ritual). The enemy Long is Captain Wellend, a follower of the Lionsmith who prefers the good old direct attack. When defeated, he leaves a letter that contains the great secret of betrayal; that which Darius used to get the Lionsmith to defy the Colonial and begin the Corrivality. Unfortunately, using the secret will not cause you to ascend to the position of an Hour in opposition to your former master and instead just put you on track for a normal Forge ascension.
Heart/Moth: You seek to change and change you shall. Through the medium of dance, you shed your skin to become something else. The skin you shed becomes something else, an animal familiar of sorts who you must send on certain expeditions. At the end, you reach your imago and may emerge anew. If you follow Heart, you become something new; if you follow Moth, you become something old; if you are too indecisive/balanced, you attract the attention of the Mensicate and become a reflection within the House of the Moon. No one shall raise you to a Name, for you are not a Long.
Winter: You are dedicated to the memory of the dead and must paint the memory of fallen Hours. The first step towards this is to ingest the spores of the Crowned Growth in order to become a Space Marine, able to absorb memories from the dead through consumption of their flesh (disclaimer: no other aspects, powers, abilities, training, equipment, or anything else that makes a Space Marine a Space Marine are included). Most of the memories can be used to make money by pretending to be a medium (or at least pretending that you are using more societally polite methods to contact the dead) or given to your Mentor and sole confidant, Miss Naenia (a completely inanimate portrait and Name of the Elegiast). By seeking out exotic meals; such as mummified flesh, ancient bones, the ashes of a Name, your own arm, etc.; you obtain the necessary memories to honor the memory of the dead Hours with your canvas. Once the painting is complete, you allow yourself to fall into Nowhere, but the Elegiast always keeps his promises and you are raised as a Long. No one shall raise you to a Name, for your end is guaranteed and you have already achieved your ambitions.
Knock: Knock is odd in that you do not actually ascend. Instead, you must scar yourself in specific ways (one for each Principle other than Knock and SH) in so that you might open. And when you open, you become a Way through which your followers may ascend. But though you may die in this History, in the Fifth you shall join the Hooded Princes, the immortal serpentine children of the Mother of Ants. No one shall raise you to a name, for there is nothing left of you in this History.
Edge: Edge's victories are many. You can retire, which requires either sufficiently hiding yourself from the universe that you are forgotten or by drawing out and killing the leader of the Reckoners. How your retirement goes depends on your actions, location, and artifacts, but it can range from a life of luxury to the peace of a small cottage to the decision to join the Suppression Bureau. If you are more ambitious, you may court the attention of an Hour of Edge (the Colonel, the Lionsmith, or even the Wolf) and, during your great final battle, have your foe vouch before that Hour that you are a worthy rival so that you both may ascend as Names in a new Corrivality with the Hour as your patron.
Secret Histories: The Exile's journey has one other possible ending. By collecting seven Pentiments, something that may have been something else in another History, you may offer them to a seafaring Legeian, Madame Matutine, who lets you through the Summit Gate. In the House of the Moon, the Wheel still turns and, when it makes its return, you shall be one of its Names.
Fun Fact: This ending reveals that Teresa may be a relative of the Exile, either descended from the same bloodline or possibly even their sister depending on who exactly the Exile's father is.
So I was wondering besides just being good at violence what sorts of more esoteric stuff can be done with Edge-lore. We saw Comet Foot trap Shining Armor in a duel. And it can presumably divide stuff real well, even esoteric stuff. But can't cut portals through space because that would be Knock.
Asking because of my own desire to steal it for an RPG game as the Magical Technique of the Angel of Bullets.
So I was wondering besides just being good at violence what sorts of more esoteric stuff can be done with Edge-lore. We saw Comet Foot trap Shining Armor in a duel. And it can presumably divide stuff real well, even esoteric stuff. But can't cut portals through space because that would be Knock.
Asking because of my own desire to steal it for an RPG game as the Magical Technique of the Angel of Bullets.
So, Edge is the lore with probably the least nuance. It's Pain, Violence, Betrayal, and martial Cunning. However, you could use it to:
Sense the pain of nearby creatures,
Enrage a foe into recklessness,
Compel the betrayal of a subordinate,
Determine the weakness of a body, building, organization, or ideology.
We've also seen Edge be used for social combat, sort of. Whenever Velvet tries to talk to Comet she pretty much constantly has to fight not to become aggressive or have fun in combative debate, and Comet can make his words almost literally cutting. Probably not the best usage, but it can be done.
So I was wondering besides just being good at violence what sorts of more esoteric stuff can be done with Edge-lore. We saw Comet Foot trap Shining Armor in a duel. And it can presumably divide stuff real well, even esoteric stuff. But can't cut portals through space because that would be Knock.
Asking because of my own desire to steal it for an RPG game as the Magical Technique of the Angel of Bullets.
Edge unfortunately feels like the most grounded and least esoteric Principle to me. Though there ARE a fair bit of other ideas than violence Edge seems to be associated with:
Cunning, and presumably any form of conflict between intelligent sides (as opposed to Forge being an animate party imposing its will on an inanimate target).
Betrayal. Usually people (both us CS fans and the adepts and lore-writers of CS in-universe) think of the Lionsmith, but the The Account of Kanishk at the Spider's Door and The Rose of Waznei are two books about OTHER betrayals that also give Edge lore.
Pain, and the arguably "painful" emotions. Anger is the most frequent one, and Dread is also an Edge influence.
Inevitability/certainty. "Cannot be denied" being a frequently-mentioned trait of the Colonel, and you also become "relentless, cannot be denied" when you use Edge lore to level Scholarship to the last level. The highest level of Edge influence is also A Resolution, with the description "Who can avert the finality of battle?".
You can basically form a trifecta: Strength/Betrayal is Lionsmith-aligned, Cunning/Inevitability is Colonel-aligned, and Pain/Destruction is Wolf-aligned.
So I was wondering besides just being good at violence what sorts of more esoteric stuff can be done with Edge-lore. We saw Comet Foot trap Shining Armor in a duel. And it can presumably divide stuff real well, even esoteric stuff. But can't cut portals through space because that would be Knock.
Asking because of my own desire to steal it for an RPG game as the Magical Technique of the Angel of Bullets.
If you are willing to go into more Hour specific interpretations of Edge (maybe as specializations?), then you can possibly include a couple more ideas for high end stuff. Maybe as a capstones (just to be clear, not exactly canonical, but canon inspired).
Colonel associated:
Be immune to any weapon that has already scarred you. ("Each scar is a weapon")
Learn more about the enemy after said enemy has hurt you. ("Each torment is a lesson")
Lionsmith associated (all of these are literally part Lionsmith's nature, through, of course, it can be argued they reflect parts of Him that are not Edge):
Heal seamlessly, without any scar.
Be stronger (either than your opponent or in a sense of endless growth)
Wolf-Divided isn't exactly a good source of inspiration, but general theme of endless suffering is his stick, maybe you can get some ideas.
More generally, high end Edge can be associated with themes of conquest (general Edge), might (Lionsmith), cunning (Colonel) and agony (Wolf). Really esoteric, but cosmology dependant stuff that falls under the Edge is the fact that Corrivalry is the engine of the world. When rivers carve into the land, it is Edge. When waves erode away the cliffs, it is Edge. Slightly more liberally, Edge can be seen in the constant turning of seasons as one defeats another.
Finally, the general conflict of new and old also squarely falls under the Edge, be it human or not.
Presumably, another way of using high end Edge technique is literally cause Spring come earlier (through maybe only locally) by defeating and conquering the land from Winter; to redirect a river by allying yourself with it against the land; maybe even to cause dawn to occur earlier (again, maybe only locally) by defeating the night and/or overdriving the engine of the world.
The Wolf-Divided is more about spreading/ending its suffering. And by "ending its suffering," I mean destroying everything. If you inflict grievous torture on a someone, the Wolf will approve; if you cause someone to fall into the deepest despair, the Wolf will approve; if you grant someone a quick and sudden death, the Wolf will approve; if you cause a city to collapse into violent anarchy, the Wolf will approve. Both World Wars were caused/overseen by the Corrivality of the Wolf in the Histories in which that becomes a thing, not out for any mortal ideology but rather the deaths of millions.
The Wolf-Divided is where the Principles of Edge and Winter intersect in the most primal manner. Its endless suffering is its motivation rather than its primary domain.
If you are willing to go into more Hour specific interpretations of Edge (maybe as specializations?), then you can possibly include a couple more ideas for high end stuff. Maybe as a capstones (just to be clear, not exactly canonical, but canon inspired).
Colonel associated:
Be immune to any weapon that has already scarred you. ("Each scar is a weapon")
Learn more about the enemy after said enemy has hurt you. ("Each torment is a lesson")
Lionsmith associated (all of these are literally part Lionsmith's nature, through, of course, it can be argued they reflect parts of Him that are not Edge):
Heal seamlessly, without any scar.
Be stronger (either than your opponent or in a sense of endless growth)
Wolf-Divided isn't exactly a good source of inspiration, but general theme of endless suffering is his stick, maybe you can get some ideas.
More generally, high end Edge can be associated with themes of conquest (general Edge), might (Lionsmith), cunning (Colonel) and agony (Wolf). Really esoteric, but cosmology dependant stuff that falls under the Edge is the fact that Corrivalry is the engine of the world. When rivers carve into the land, it is Edge. When waves erode away the cliffs, it is Edge. Slightly more liberally, Edge can be seen in the constant turning of seasons as one defeats another.
Finally, the general conflict of new and old also squarely falls under the Edge, be it human or not.
Presumably, another way of using high end Edge technique is literally cause Spring come earlier (through maybe only locally) by defeating and conquering the land from Winter; to redirect a river by allying yourself with it against the land; maybe even to cause dawn to occur earlier (again, maybe only locally) by defeating the night and/or overdriving the engine of the world.
Thank you this is useful, I especially like the connection to rivers. As an angel the user would definitely skew towards the Lionsmith's interpretation accepting only the most distibguished of scars. Whenever I get around to actually using the character I will probably try and find a place for the more rough and tumble sides of Edge.
Edit: One of the powersets available to Angels is known as Adept which doesn't have a rules write up that I understand very well. It includes lots of magic power, flight, and magical girl shenanigans.
Y'know, I was wondering...Could the Daughter-of-Axes' Uninterested trait imply that she actually gets summoned to the Wake for FOUR months at a time, but she spends the fourth month going off to search for the Frangiclave on her own? After all it is stated that "the chance to look for the right key" is the reason she is willing to be summoned, and unless I missed it there's no sign of any expectation of us to actually work towards that or give her time off for a personal expedition.
If true that would also imply that she is willing to immediately be summoned back, of course, though it does sound like a Knock Name to better handle whatever logistics there is for summoned creatures to spend more time in the Wake. Would ALSO mean that the one-month window where a rival can possibly summon her and we can't due to cooldown doesn't actually exist.
Edit: nevermind, ran into Bird post clarifying that DoA gets offscreen downtime implicitly unless we give her extremely taxing/time-consuming orders Though I guess that doesn't necessarily preclude her staying a fourth month to do more solo-searching. Guess we'll find out once we see how she "leaves" at the end of the summoning contract period.
