Remove ads

[Exalted] Ain’t No Devil

Reader mode
[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?
 
[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?

It's always fun seeing different interpretations of Lilunu.
 
[X] Ask about one of your 'patrons', the Yozi. Who the hell is
—[X] Elloge? What's the 'sphere of speech' and the hell's that got to do with a guy like you?
 
ZerbanDaGreat said:
You arrive in your secret vault, your pride and joy buried under stone and soil and every magical material you could get your hands on. The wonders that ended the Primordial War but can be beheld by none but you, for only you are fit to wield their power. You spread your hands wide and settle your weight against the railing, looking out at row upon row of colossal golden spears stretching out before you - forward, left, right, scores more illuminated as each new set of overhead lights switches on. Each of them stands tall as your palace's highest towers, as broad as any of its walls, so colossal in their majesty that it beggars belief to even call them weapons to be wielded. But oh you have seen the might and majesty of the power that roils within them, the incredible waves of heat and light they unleash when roused. Here they have languished in the dark, sealed away such that if one were to fail only your palace would suffer rather than all the Blessed Isle. Your craftsmanship would never fail, of course, but it was a simple concession to make to set the others' minds at ease. But now they will serve as a stepping stone to something far greater. You reach out as if to touch the closest one, to press your hand to the orichalcum shell containing such immeasurable power, just to feel its warmth run cold as the shell breaks and you-
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

oh there we go

halphas is just hardcore huffing that strangelove shit

full on fetish for armageddon because you 100% get the sense that he half-resents something so perfect and so beautiful having to sit in these underground silos, never used and sealed away, just to keep the others at ease.

...man, that's both pretty -hah- on point and hella concerning, the guy called the Deliberative's Sword is chafing at the bit to use his nukes and is planning on using them as the step-stone to something even worse. he got to deploy them once and he got a taste for it.

ZerbanDaGreat said:
"Do you like it?"

You drop your gaze. There's a woman standing in the hall with you, but even you can tell she's not just 'a woman'. The complete soundlessness of her entrance aside, there's this aura around her that draws the eye immediately. Tiny distortions and imperfections in the air, like a bleary-eyed haze localised in space, the world hitching and stumbling and catching itself again and again. Her long auburn hair is tied up in a long braid that curls behind her head from temple to temple, what might have reached her waist now only falling to her shoulders, her eyes such a brilliantly bright green that they put even yours to shame, and framed in delicately-shaped green shadows to emphasise that fact. Her skin is pale and smooth as alabaster, her full lips such a dark green as to seem black every other time you look with a strange, almost metallic sheen. She's dressed like an adventurous Threshold noblewoman, trousers and boots and a jacket done up with brass buttons over a dress-shirt, all in shades of black and charcoal trimmed in bronze with an emerald half-cape draped over her right shoulder. Her gloves are fine things, like elegant skintight gauntlets of chitin that catch the light with an iridescent sheen. She's taller than you, and not just because of the heels on her boots.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
ZerbanDaGreat said:
"It's yours," she repeats, lips quirking up into a slight smile. "The Conventicle Malfeasant provides lodgings for all currently active Green Sun Princes appropriate to their status. As the difficulties with your awakening seem to have been resolved, servants and other staff have been sent for."

You blink, and hold out a hand. "Wait- wait I don't want servants."

<Kid when someone gives you a mansion and servants you say thank you>

The woman pauses, half-turned away. She glances back at you down the line of her shoulder, her expression curious and a touch bemused. "Demons," she clarifies. "Not enslaved humans. Those are a rare thing in Hell, and those that take them hoard them jealously. And if that still does not comfort you, know that the demons chosen for your retinue will be overjoyed to hold such prestigious positions."

"I... guess that helps, yeah," you say haltingly. "I'm just used to doing stuff myself, is all."

She chuckles softly. "You are Exalted now, Slayer. Your concerns are greater than dusting the mantlepiece and seeing to laundry now." She turns away and beckons. "Walk with me. We have much to see and more to discuss."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I mean I know the bar is set at Rock Fucking Bottom, and it's honestly less a bar and more, like, a magma shunt considering it's lodged somewhere in the Earth's core. But I really do like Zerban's interpretation of Lilunu and our first impression of her. An incredible amount of deeply unstable power that's doing a very, very good job of staying poised and seemingly human. Unperturbed bordering on unflappable and eminently at home in this environment even if she's playing her cards pretty close to the chest. And the subtle contrast between her inherently patchwork nature (showing up in the air and the cityscape) and her degree of unspoken confidence and self control, along with her kinda vaguely military-esque uniform. Also the way that she seems mildly amused with the whole "demon armed combat monster in a Cu Chulainn from Fate bodysuit" deal we've got going on. She 100% comes across like she's done this before and it's all very...professional? Professional yeah.

[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?

Ffffuuuuuuckit sure. I'm really, really curious about our patrons (Malfeas makes sense, we've 100% got some Murder Your Face In DNA and he's down with that, Isidoros too since we've got a pretty straightforward predisposition to wreck shit and there's no way he didn't love whatever glimpses of the arena fight he got, but the Ebon Dragon? Elloge? That's literally not like us at all, and TEDdy's 3CD's taking a direct interest is Concerning) but I also like the idea of Mr. What Is A Social Stat Can You Eat It kinda clinging to the conversation like a piece of floating driftwood after a hurricane. And being awkward as fuck about it.

Also a. Lilunu's absolutely dealt with worse I'm sure and b. I think it's pretty clear that Zerban's just having a lot of fun writing her anyway.
 
[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?
 
[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?

Pretty great Lilunu
 
TenfoldShields said:
but I also like the idea of Mr. What Is A Social Stat Can You Eat It kinda clinging to the conversation like a piece of floating driftwood after a hurricane. And being awkward as fuck about it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'm honestly having a feeling that Jiro is somewhere between a nooby Testolagh and a nooby Naan from Kerisgame, because What Is a Social Stat is an amazing descriptor for him. And like the other spoke of that particular imaginary trifecta.

This is somewhat of a challenge presented to me tho because I want to make him a gruff salesman type with Cenobite theming and he's about as eloquent as a block of wood.
 
[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?
 
[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?

Torn between this and Malfeas but since everyone is voting this way.
 
[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?
 
So...anyone else look to the chrysalis remains and think "that'd make nice craft mats"?

[X] Ask about one of your 'patrons', the Yozi. Who the hell is
-[X] Isidoros? How do you 'twist the skies' exactly, can he control air like the Tamura?

I personally like Elloge a lot, but I think for US here Isidoros is The Thing.
 
I think that Haphas might have been a project head of the Sword of Creation? Eh.

[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?
 
[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?

Demon {B}oi seems real freaked out by her and she's clearly ultra important. I wanna know more about her.
 
I like the idea of asking Lilunu since she's the "person" we're actually talking to and dealing with. But she just said that we have an audience with our patron and I think we should get some idea of who or what we're going to be dealing with.

[X] Ask about one of your 'patrons', the Yozi. Who the hell is
—[X] Malfeas? What does she mean by 'the demon city'?

We're supposed to treat his authority as absolute. So who is he even?
 
[X] Ask about one of your 'patrons', the Yozi. Who the hell is
—[X] Malfeas? What does she mean by 'the demon city'?
If we are going to spend time around here we really do need to learn about being respectful.
Learning about Mr "beat the shit out of you for not kneeling fast enough'" will hopefully get it thought our characters skull.
 
Gamerlord said:
Hahahahahaha. Oh we're going to go Heretical so fast, aren't we?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Not necessarily tbh, Jiro is basically Mr. Problems With Authority but on the other hand he pretty much wears his damage on his sleeve and his levers are pretty thoroughly telegraphed. Anyone who put more effort than Literally None into getting to know him would twinge to stuff pretty quickly, and for all that the guy's got walls (and walls, and walls, and walls) he also is, like, half-starved and desperate for the things he's been denied all his life. Any mortal manipulator could crack him with enough time, much less demons who practiced this shit when the Deliberative was a thing and have only had millennia more to refine it. And the Althing as a whole is, like-

I mean when you recruitment drive mandates "must have experienced catastrophic failure due to their own recent cowardice, vice, and general fuckassery" just to be a contender, you end up grafting alien superweapons/tainted hero souls onto a very specific set of, uh, personality types. And if the demons weren't already really great at the whole tempting thing, they'd have had to learn on the job really hella quick.

Jiro isn't an idiot but he's also going up against creatures who have a. had a lot of recent practice to polish up b. have in general been doing this for longer than the Realm's existed and c. are entirely willing to give him most of what he wants if it keeps him happy. It's the hooks in there that concern me imo, 'cause Hell's absolutely willing to play "yes but" games. And sure, yeah, Malfeas and Isidoros are upfront about what they want, Malfeas can't exactly hide the fact that he's a seething sadomasochistic flayed hell-city and Isidoros is, by his nature, defined and Super Fucking Obvious about his desires (ymmv in terms of individual 3CD's but it's a useful generalization). It's Elloge and the Ebon Dragon that worry me.

Like, sure the Ebon Dragon loves dead things, but "I think he's just kinda conceptually cool" is a slim peg to hang a lot of expectations on and Infernals are a rare as fuck resource. And it's already implied that there's a lot of brokering and horse-trading going on behind the scenes, so it's not like demand is low or 3CD's can just casually pick and choose who they want for coked out demon-kickball teams. And I just have absolutely no idea about Elloge: she's one of the few Primordials who was fetich-killed and like Adrian came back really, really Off. Her whole deal is being a creature of wounds, of fragile, exposed innards and pumping blood and binding it all up in fantasy and fiction. A sort of obsessive, over-invested voyeur. But even that's leaning hard on the fanon so who knows?
 
[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?
 
Still don't have much time for in-depth comments but I gotta say,
ZerbanDaGreat said:
You're wearing some kind of... you don't know how to describe it really. It's like a single massive piece of tanned, black-dyed leather stretched over you from the jawline down without any visible stitches or seams, perfectly tailored such that you couldn't even notice its presence by touch alone. Slight reflections of light play across the contours as you twist and turn this way and that to inspect it - it goes all the way down, feet enclosed akin to light shoes, and the left sleeve flows into an attached glove. Only your right arm is left exposed, the suit cut back all the way to the shoulder. A splash of colour in the darkness.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
No judgement Zerban, but... Did you put this guy in a fantasy latex bodysuit?
ZerbanDaGreat said:
By the time the demon starts hurrying you out again you feel as refreshed as a trip to a bathhouse, but then again perhaps his standards of cleanliness are higher than your usual 'upend bucket of water over head' routine.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
demon daddy is gonna force us to self-care properly.

[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?

Lillun in general is an interesting figure. Everybody rejects the canon version, so you get a lot of personal variations on the character (personally I have a soft spot for Xefas' Coryphee of Hope), and I'm curious where Zerban goes with it.
 
Last edited:
[X] Ask about one of your 'patrons', the Yozi. Who the hell is
—[X] Isidoros? How do you 'twist the skies' exactly, can he control air like the Tamura?
 
[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?
 
ZerbanDaGreat said:
When you took the name Halphas it was an oath, a solemn promise that you would not return until those you left behind had no more to fear. And now... well, you suppose it's possible they died during the war. In the chaos and tumult of the world's upheaval, there was no dearth of opportunities for the little people to slip through the cracks.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

A neat little part of this passage, or at least how I read it, is that Halphas genuinely doesn't care. Like, he doesn't even seem to have considered what happened to the people he left behind until this moment - or at least for a very long time, to the point he's forgotten whatever thought he put towards it.

Also, the etymology of Halphas:

Malthus (also Halphas, Malthas, or Malthous) is an Earl of Hell, commanding 26 legions of demons, who is said to have a rough voice when speaking. He is often depicted in the shape of a stork. Malthus builds towers and fills them with ammunition and weapons, an armorer of sorts. He is a prince of Hell. He is also said to send his legions into battle, or to places designated by higher commanding demons.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Rather appropriate.

ZerbanDaGreat said:
It's made of brass - primarily, at least. Made without welding points or rivets, tool-marks or seams of any kind. Just a single smooth piece all but flowing from your shoulder, tendrils of brass sunk into the flesh all around to anchor the living metal. The range of movement is perfect, polished metal stretching and twisting like flesh, fuck it even feels natural! You stretch it out at arm's (hah) length, turning it this way and that. There seems to be some kind of glowing green jade core, shining through the metal in places akin to angular veins, but at your palm and fingers the brass cuts away almost like carapace to expose the 'flesh' beneath. You watch the light wax and wane, flickering rhythmically like a heartbeat, and slowly curl your emerald talons into a fist just to see if you still can. There's a dull pressure on your palm, but it's no worse than digging your nails in.

<Y'like it?> the demon asks. <Better'n new, as promised. Stopped by my old haunts for materials 'fore I left to find you just in case. Finest brass you'll find in all'a Hell. I call it the Hand of Malfeas for now, but I guess you can figure out your own name if y'want.>
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Voices in our head and a severed arm replaced with something that would generally be regarded as horrifying. I feel nostalgic all of a sudden. Though Jiro is taking this all very well.

ZerbanDaGreat said:
You're wearing some kind of... you don't know how to describe it really. It's like a single massive piece of tanned, black-dyed leather stretched over you from the jawline down without any visible stitches or seams, perfectly tailored such that you couldn't even notice its presence by touch alone. Slight reflections of light play across the contours as you twist and turn this way and that to inspect it - it goes all the way down, feet enclosed akin to light shoes, and the left sleeve flows into an attached glove. Only your right arm is left exposed, the suit cut back all the way to the shoulder. A splash of colour in the darkness.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Oh, my. That's very nice.

ZerbanDaGreat said:
You drop your gaze. There's a woman standing in the hall with you, but even you can tell she's not just 'a woman'. The complete soundlessness of her entrance aside, there's this aura around her that draws the eye immediately. Tiny distortions and imperfections in the air, like a bleary-eyed haze localised in space, the world hitching and stumbling and catching itself again and again. Her long auburn hair is tied up in a long braid that curls behind her head from temple to temple, what might have reached her waist now only falling to her shoulders, her eyes such a brilliantly bright green that they put even yours to shame, and framed in delicately-shaped green shadows to emphasise that fact. Her skin is pale and smooth as alabaster, her full lips such a dark green as to seem black every other time you look with a strange, almost metallic sheen. She's dressed like an adventurous Threshold noblewoman, trousers and boots and a jacket done up with brass buttons over a dress-shirt, all in shades of black and charcoal trimmed in bronze with an emerald half-cape draped over her right shoulder. Her gloves are fine things, like elegant skintight gauntlets of chitin that catch the light with an iridescent sheen. She's taller than you, and not just because of the heels on her boots.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

ZerbanDaGreat said:
<That's Lilunu,> the demon hisses in your ear as you jog to catch up with her. <Be respectful!>
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I like this Lilunu. She's got style.

ZerbanDaGreat said:
"I... guess that helps, yeah," you say haltingly. "I'm just used to doing stuff myself, is all."

She chuckles softly. "You are Exalted now, Slayer. Your concerns are greater than dusting the mantlepiece and seeing to laundry now." She turns away and beckons. "Walk with me. We have much to see and more to discuss."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

"Ma'am, I feel like you are maybe overstating the amount of property I had to take care of."

ZerbanDaGreat said:
It's a chaotic thing, patchwork somehow, ten different styles from ten different architects all struggling for prominence while an eleventh tries to smooth out the fucking mess he has to work with. In places it doesn't seem like it should be able to support its own weight, it should be sagging and crumbling and falling to pieces, and yet it stands firm all the same. The cramped press of buildings clustered around its base seems almost an afterthought.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Isn't that a neat little summary of the Reclamation in general. I wonder who the eleventh - the one who had to smooth it out is, metaphorically speaking.

Lessee - Malfeas, SWHILN, Adorjan, Cecelyne, Ebon Dragon. Those five are the base. Then Isidoros and Szoreny are a given - IIRC, they're lovers, so if Isidoros is involved, Sozreny probably is as well. That's seven. Then there's Elloge, possibly Oramus.... Oh, yeah, Kimbery. That's ten in total. If I had to guess, Lilunu would be the eleventh, the one who has to try and unify them, as well as the one at least notionally in charge of the castle as the origin of the GSPs.

ZerbanDaGreat said:
"Representatives of four of the Yozi have chosen to sponsor your Exaltation," Lilunu explains, still striding down the path at exactly the pace she set. You jog to catch up with her again. "The Ebon Dragon, Shadow Of All Things. Isidoros, the Black Boar That Twists The Skies. Elloge, the Sphere of Speech. And the Demon City himself, Malfeas. Should their interests conflict you are to treat Malfeas' authority absolute, as you are of the Slayer Caste he has greater claim than the others. Accordingly your Malfean patron has scheduled a private audience with you before your full briefing. The private districts are divided by caste, and you are not permitted to trespass in other districts or a fellow Infernal's domain without explicit invitation. The Green Sun Princes are often dispatched to Creation or elsewhere, but should you wish to socialise there are many common facilities in the palace district for you to share. Do you have any questions?"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


Malfeas makes sense - Jiro is upfront and spiteful. So does Isidoros - his exact thematics will vary, but he's usually presented as being very direct and singleminded (well, all the Yozis are in a way). Ebon Dragon is probably more than the evuuuuul of 2E - canonically he loves the dead, the dying and the doomed, as well as chafing at the cinventions and expectations of him. Most GSP probably qualified/qualify as doomed, and as not fitting, but Jiro as someone intimately related to death probably qualifies more than most.

Elloge - well, that'll be homebrew. If you lean in on the fiction angle, Jiro is a morality tale in both ways - "don't rebel against your betters" because they'll fucking cripple you after fucking you over and "don't abuse your power over others" because now the person you've fucked over has a bunch of rad shit and a grudge. Jiro is going to end up both a vengeance and a ghost story.

The thing with the caste divided districts is interesting, and makes me wonder about the reasons behind it. Like, in canon there are only 50GSPs total, which would make five districts with ten people in each one.

[ ] Ask about one of your 'patrons', the Yozi. Who the hell is
—[ ] The Ebon Dragon? Is he some kind of lost sixth Elemental Dragon?
—[ ] Isidoros? How do you 'twist the skies' exactly, can he control air like the Tamura?
—[ ] Elloge? What's the 'sphere of speech' and the hell's that got to do with a guy like you?
—[ ] Malfeas? What does she mean by 'the demon city'?
[ ] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?
[ ] Ask about the weird dream you had. You had a different name, a different past, and you lived so long ago you don't know how to put it into years. Where'd that come from?
[ ] Ask when you can get back to White Tower and start busting some heads. It's been two weeks already, and you don't want to leave it long enough the Tamura go and forget about you.

Logically, given that we're going to be talking to our Malfean patron (possibly Ligier, but no guarantee) we should ask about Malfeas. That's what I might call the "professional mercernary" angle - whose our boss, what he's gonna be like, is he gonna stiff us on the pay?

The White Tower option is the "fuck youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu scalefuckers" option.

But Lilunu is too cool not to find out more about, and I kinda like the idea that Jiro is awkwardly trying to make conversation. Especially because she's probably one of the few people he's met who isn't immediately put off by the whole, uh, "from your mother's womb untimely ripped" thing, or whatever Jiro's actual deal is.

[X] Ask about her. She's the first face you've seen since you got here and she's a human(ish?) one at that. What's her story? Why's the demon so touchy about her?
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top