How many Remittances we need to bring Imperia along?
Do it Rihaku, let the river of salt flow.
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A Simple Transaction I
- Thread starter Rihaku
- Start date
- Original
Do it Rihaku, let the river of salt flow.
Birdsie
Sharp Talons Cleave The Worthy
- Location
- Poland
Ex-a-ctly.
If we survive, can you imagine? It will be insanity manifest. An endless cycle of vengeance, with chunks of baked, steaming bodyparts and gore raining down around us as we fire pencil-thin annihilation beams from our fingertips, proclaiming the devastation of entire countries in a hand's single elevation. With peerless grace, with endless puissance, we will destroy any army, any force that stands in our way...
If we survive, yes. But the more challenging a game, the higher its amusement. Let's just not get too cocky to start with.
Rihaku
The Internet
As which type of Cursebearer?
Fanwork#1239 Words
Omake: "A Cursed Legend"
No two worlds were the same. He'd experienced it quite viscerally during his first summoning, foreign laws of reality breaking all preconceived notions of common sense that he'd been taught in his life on Earth. But it was only after the Hero had started on his journey of Vengeance and visited multiple other worlds that he realized the difference so intimately.
Some worlds were just that. Places people lived, space only made significant by that which it contained. Sometimes they had magic of some kind, and other times they didn't, but in essence they were just constructs of materium and energy, motivated by relatively constant rules and regulations.
Some were... more. They didn't often possess intelligence as sapients were wont to define it, they were too massive and unwieldy for that, lacking the complex organization to sustain such intellect. But that didn't stop them from noticing the Hero in the first brief moments on arrival, as he adjusted to his new circumstances and tried to hide as much of himself as he could.
They noticed and reacted.
There was a hunger engraved deeply in his being, a craving to fill an emptiness that would never be sated, only appeased for a time. Such was the price he had paid for that impossible spark of potential, and he had made his peace with it, learned to live with this Curse, so to speak. Even learned to reign it in and focus its eternal Hunger tightly so that it wouldn't disrupt his actions unduly.
Nonetheless, it existed and made its intentions known constantly. That it would eat and eat and eat until there was nothing left was never in question. His was a naturally parasitic existence, only constrained by the rules the Hero imposed on himself. Let loose, his instincts would suck this locality dry within a decade, then starve him too for good measure if he didn't move on.
And when an organism realized it was infected with a deadly parasite, would it care that this parasite lay dormant? In the face of a natural predator holding its massive bloody teeth around its neck, would the world just give up and submit helplessly? Infected with a fatal disease that only showed mild symptoms for the moment, would one simply hope for the best?
The answer was obvious.
Already the Hero could feel the hostility emanating from every stone, every blade of grass and every air molecule. The weather was quite pleasant, with strokes of white clouds painted over a clear blue sky so common for worlds that hadn't experienced the industrial revolution and all its vagaries.
It was high noon, and the sun glared down at him like he was a particularly smelly bug intruding on its territory.
The world's malice was diminishing at a noticeable pace as he reduced his presence and leashed the Hunger, but that was a temporary state of affairs. As soon as his iron self-control faltered or he needed to draw on his power in significant amounts, his Parousia would flare and he'd be announcing himself to the world.
Likely the world wasn't capable of attacking him directly, but even indirect means had proven quite troublesome in the past, so it was better to put that off.
How inconvenient.
Within a thousand and one years, unify the nations of this planet and destroy all Ancient Monuments in the surrounding solar system utterly.
It was the typical fare as far as Geas was concerned: go kill that person/monster, conquer that place, find that thingamajig and do something with it for unknown purposes - which usually also involved killing and torching, in no particular order. Straight and to the point, with no room for squabbling as to what constituted successful completion.
Though there was sometimes room for interpretation of the tasks, like in this case where the Hero was free to accomplish them as he desired. Whether he became their God-Emperor or an Unstoppable Tyrant they unified against, the Curse didn't care. Results were what mattered, all that was desired of him, and there would be no punishment from the Curse as long as the task was done, no matter the means employed.
Yet as the Accursed's stand-in some things were implied.
Completely destroying the solar system and thus technically fulfilling all the requirements would not make his patron happy. And making the Accursed unhappy was not conductive to a rewarding and successful life, or any kind of life at all, as some of the more reckless Cursebearers learned.
Luckily he wasn't alone in this.
With an exhalation of air and flexing of his will a form condensed from the nether of possibilities, a subordinate and dear friend that had been with him since the very beginning. Or maybe she was simply created whole-cloth, separating from his Fantasia again after he had joined her colors to his own palette previously. The Hero didn't bother about the particularities, as Accretia cared little for such mundane things as what was physically viable or even possible.
Much as he still disliked the term Tyrant, he understood the concept all too well and made use of it adroitly. He'd fought one in his formative years, and myths told all too eagerly of dragon-slayers becoming the dragons they sought to defeat. He'd taken on the role in the course of his journey sometimes, reluctantly at first, then resigned to the inevitable.
Most importantly, he was Cursed to embody one. That had meaning. It had weight.
What the Hero-Tyrant took as his would be with him forever, clutched close to his obsessed heart with all the force a legend backed by a Major Curse could provide. He was a nation unto himself, a man and a world made as one, his conquests as much a part of him as his arms and armor. They lived and loved and dreamed within his inner domain, shielded from the world without by the bulwark of his body.
That mad heart didn't let go easily though. Only a handful of his companions could be manifested at once, and each such act was represented a significant exertion he could not perform too often - not of magical power or spirit, but of something more ephemeral, something that let him go against that intrinsic nature occasionally.
"Are you still brooding, or can we get going?" Gisena, his oldest and most trusted companion, asked impatiently. "The world won't conquer itself, after all."
"I wasn't brooding," the Hero protested hotly. He was just... contemplating the nature of his existence. "Why do you think we'll conquer the world anyway? I've transmitted the task to you, maybe I could simply persuade them to do the rational thing and join up."
"Sure you weren't," she arched a violet brow. "And I don't know, but there was that one time we were told to kill the Lucid Spear. Or that one time we needed to drop the Star Tear into the Waters of Forgiveness. Or even that one time we had to take over the Duchy of Amerlain. One would think that none of those problems have 'world conquest' as an answer, but here we are. Don't worry," she winked salaciously, "I'm sure you'll seize these lands as easily as you did the maiden hearts of your-"
"I do not," he shouted, breaking out in cold sweat, dread instilled by the memory of his returned wife's smile when she met his companions, "have a ha-"
AN: Not sure how the Geas would actually interact with a body that was also an inhabited world, since letting us carry companions was supposed to be a Mitigation, so this seems like cheating. Tried to circumvent it, but eh, still not certain how such a power would unfold in the actual story.
Also! As Zang Kong-senpai taught us, the moral conundrum that comes from the conflict between selfishness and selflessness is quite easy to resolve! You can't be selfish if whole worlds depend on your existence! So if you eat a few, that's just mathematics at work or something. I'll admit I slept in when it came to that part of the lecture.
Omake: "A Cursed Legend"
No two worlds were the same. He'd experienced it quite viscerally during his first summoning, foreign laws of reality breaking all preconceived notions of common sense that he'd been taught in his life on Earth. But it was only after the Hero had started on his journey of Vengeance and visited multiple other worlds that he realized the difference so intimately.
Some worlds were just that. Places people lived, space only made significant by that which it contained. Sometimes they had magic of some kind, and other times they didn't, but in essence they were just constructs of materium and energy, motivated by relatively constant rules and regulations.
Some were... more. They didn't often possess intelligence as sapients were wont to define it, they were too massive and unwieldy for that, lacking the complex organization to sustain such intellect. But that didn't stop them from noticing the Hero in the first brief moments on arrival, as he adjusted to his new circumstances and tried to hide as much of himself as he could.
They noticed and reacted.
There was a hunger engraved deeply in his being, a craving to fill an emptiness that would never be sated, only appeased for a time. Such was the price he had paid for that impossible spark of potential, and he had made his peace with it, learned to live with this Curse, so to speak. Even learned to reign it in and focus its eternal Hunger tightly so that it wouldn't disrupt his actions unduly.
Nonetheless, it existed and made its intentions known constantly. That it would eat and eat and eat until there was nothing left was never in question. His was a naturally parasitic existence, only constrained by the rules the Hero imposed on himself. Let loose, his instincts would suck this locality dry within a decade, then starve him too for good measure if he didn't move on.
And when an organism realized it was infected with a deadly parasite, would it care that this parasite lay dormant? In the face of a natural predator holding its massive bloody teeth around its neck, would the world just give up and submit helplessly? Infected with a fatal disease that only showed mild symptoms for the moment, would one simply hope for the best?
The answer was obvious.
Already the Hero could feel the hostility emanating from every stone, every blade of grass and every air molecule. The weather was quite pleasant, with strokes of white clouds painted over a clear blue sky so common for worlds that hadn't experienced the industrial revolution and all its vagaries.
It was high noon, and the sun glared down at him like he was a particularly smelly bug intruding on its territory.
The world's malice was diminishing at a noticeable pace as he reduced his presence and leashed the Hunger, but that was a temporary state of affairs. As soon as his iron self-control faltered or he needed to draw on his power in significant amounts, his Parousia would flare and he'd be announcing himself to the world.
Likely the world wasn't capable of attacking him directly, but even indirect means had proven quite troublesome in the past, so it was better to put that off.
How inconvenient.
Within a thousand and one years, unify the nations of this planet and destroy all Ancient Monuments in the surrounding solar system utterly.
It was the typical fare as far as Geas was concerned: go kill that person/monster, conquer that place, find that thingamajig and do something with it for unknown purposes - which usually also involved killing and torching, in no particular order. Straight and to the point, with no room for squabbling as to what constituted successful completion.
Though there was sometimes room for interpretation of the tasks, like in this case where the Hero was free to accomplish them as he desired. Whether he became their God-Emperor or an Unstoppable Tyrant they unified against, the Curse didn't care. Results were what mattered, all that was desired of him, and there would be no punishment from the Curse as long as the task was done, no matter the means employed.
Yet as the Accursed's stand-in some things were implied.
Completely destroying the solar system and thus technically fulfilling all the requirements would not make his patron happy. And making the Accursed unhappy was not conductive to a rewarding and successful life, or any kind of life at all, as some of the more reckless Cursebearers learned.
Luckily he wasn't alone in this.
With an exhalation of air and flexing of his will a form condensed from the nether of possibilities, a subordinate and dear friend that had been with him since the very beginning. Or maybe she was simply created whole-cloth, separating from his Fantasia again after he had joined her colors to his own palette previously. The Hero didn't bother about the particularities, as Accretia cared little for such mundane things as what was physically viable or even possible.
Much as he still disliked the term Tyrant, he understood the concept all too well and made use of it adroitly. He'd fought one in his formative years, and myths told all too eagerly of dragon-slayers becoming the dragons they sought to defeat. He'd taken on the role in the course of his journey sometimes, reluctantly at first, then resigned to the inevitable.
Most importantly, he was Cursed to embody one. That had meaning. It had weight.
What the Hero-Tyrant took as his would be with him forever, clutched close to his obsessed heart with all the force a legend backed by a Major Curse could provide. He was a nation unto himself, a man and a world made as one, his conquests as much a part of him as his arms and armor. They lived and loved and dreamed within his inner domain, shielded from the world without by the bulwark of his body.
That mad heart didn't let go easily though. Only a handful of his companions could be manifested at once, and each such act was represented a significant exertion he could not perform too often - not of magical power or spirit, but of something more ephemeral, something that let him go against that intrinsic nature occasionally.
"Are you still brooding, or can we get going?" Gisena, his oldest and most trusted companion, asked impatiently. "The world won't conquer itself, after all."
"I wasn't brooding," the Hero protested hotly. He was just... contemplating the nature of his existence. "Why do you think we'll conquer the world anyway? I've transmitted the task to you, maybe I could simply persuade them to do the rational thing and join up."
"Sure you weren't," she arched a violet brow. "And I don't know, but there was that one time we were told to kill the Lucid Spear. Or that one time we needed to drop the Star Tear into the Waters of Forgiveness. Or even that one time we had to take over the Duchy of Amerlain. One would think that none of those problems have 'world conquest' as an answer, but here we are. Don't worry," she winked salaciously, "I'm sure you'll seize these lands as easily as you did the maiden hearts of your-"
"I do not," he shouted, breaking out in cold sweat, dread instilled by the memory of his returned wife's smile when she met his companions, "have a ha-"
AN: Not sure how the Geas would actually interact with a body that was also an inhabited world, since letting us carry companions was supposed to be a Mitigation, so this seems like cheating. Tried to circumvent it, but eh, still not certain how such a power would unfold in the actual story.
Also! As Zang Kong-senpai taught us, the moral conundrum that comes from the conflict between selfishness and selflessness is quite easy to resolve! You can't be selfish if whole worlds depend on your existence! So if you eat a few, that's just mathematics at work or something. I'll admit I slept in when it came to that part of the lecture.
Either? But if I had to choose, as Progression Cursie.
What's the use of endless progression in an endlessly level-scaling world of geas-quests and even worse scaling apocryphals? Seems like a great way to loose a universe eating horror when we finally fail to stop whatever it is at some point in the octillion years...
The tyrant is dead. Vengeance on nameless manipulators feels hollow to me.
[X] The Forsaken Mask
The tyrant is dead. Vengeance on nameless manipulators feels hollow to me.
[X] The Forsaken Mask
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
Do we have any idea when the vote is going to close? I'd like to stick to Balance, but it's looking like time to tactical vote on Forsaken Mask.
[X] Vendetta
-[X]Remittance: The King's
[X] Battle Mastery
Time to scurry back to the king's (Hopefully) benevolent autocracy after indulging in the dream of a fair and balanced world. I'll probably be voting to just boost BM if King wins, to streamline the systems we have to juggle.
Well, it's an endless progression upward sure. But if you're diligent you can get and stay ahead of the curve, this came up in regards to Indenture last quest. Apocryphal will require more in order to do the same but should still be possible.
[X] Balance
We're back, will it be a miraculous turnaround!?
-[X]Remittance: The King's
[X] Battle Mastery
Time to scurry back to the king's (Hopefully) benevolent autocracy after indulging in the dream of a fair and balanced world. I'll probably be voting to just boost BM if King wins, to streamline the systems we have to juggle.
Well, it's an endless progression upward sure. But if you're diligent you can get and stay ahead of the curve, this came up in regards to Indenture last quest. Apocryphal will require more in order to do the same but should still be possible.
[X] Balance
We're back, will it be a miraculous turnaround!?
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OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
Reaction Post, 1331 words when I plugged the reaction material into Libreoffice Writer, put the Omake Power to Dread+Keep.
For whatever reason I'm getting Nietszche+Dies Irae+Eternal Recurrence Vibes right now.
Using Dies Irae for the metaphor here, the Bad Guy takes the Throne, kills the Mercurius Figure, attains Aztiluth.
Brutal. Shades of Baenlixnaire here.
Metamagic Feat: Burn Lifeforce for power, Stealing peoples Noble Phantasms, or whatever the higher reaches of Seal Magic do. Moloch demanded sacrifices for victory, and the hero found he was better at it than the tyrant. Makes sense if the hero was approaching Baenlixnaire levels of hate I guess. Battle Mastery's burning lifeforce for power makes me question how the hero practiced it enough to be better at it than the tyrant. Transcendent prodigy shenanigans or something?
I'm getting more shades of Baenlixnaire and the Doomed Diagram Liches. In the meantime though, the hero cast himself into the ranks of the Mauveshirts to win.
Ouch. I've seen this trope once before in more detail in Cpl_Facehugger's Luv and Hate quest(ACU in the Muv-Luv Alternative verse for the unfamiliar), and it wasn't any easier for Colonel Steele after Black Sun.
In the end he was left to face Moloch, with not but the power of a Mauve Shirt at his back.
Presumably that was the words of the Nobles talking about justice. If they knew not their caste, would they be born into this world voluntarily? Would it pass the test of a Veil of Ignorance?
Game theory and Causality, Perverse Incentives, Externalities, Institutional Inertia, Corruption, they are mighty enemies indeed.
"Make a Contract with me and become a Magical Cursebearer?" /sarcasm
The Sky above all skies, the virtue that exceeds absolute virtue, the Ultimate Leviathan, the annhilator of Destinies, the bearer of the magic system with supreme reliability and meta protection and unparalleled attack power, the Accursed has come to lighten up our feet.
As a figment of what he once was himself, drowned in Moloch's analogue to Grail mud, I'm sure the hero can sympathize.
That mix of sympathy, whatever hate is left, the Brand of the Wretched, powerlust, desire to escape, in his mind there was no other option, I'm sure the Accursed ensures no external forces like fate or destiny compel his decision in the moment at least, making the decision at that point genuninely the hero's.
Enough power to open a hole in the curtain. To the back of this particular stage. The Sky beyond the Sky, the throne, the Crown of Crowns, whatever your preferred metaphor for this is. Yet to claim it, one must condemn themselves to an existence similar to that of the Doomslayer for what is close enough to Eternity for mortal perception. Read the Slayer's Testament from Doom 2016 if you haven't. Whether or not it's the Hidden Masters or some other group we run into afterward, such a fate is a very real possibility.
Unless you take the Praxis that can grow with us. The Genre Savvy route. Find other targets, people you can help without consigning yourself to the lot of the Doomslayer. Resurrect your family maybe. Right now we can still go home. If the protagonists of Spec Ops the Line were the kind of people to take this route, the disasters of Dubai would never have happened. Playing devils advocate though, Vengeance and Spite played an important role in early legal systems, as the specter that incentizes people to coordinate with each other and cooperate. But on the third hand, Vengeance taken to extremes feeds Moloch's fires. From a Vengeance standpoint though, unlikely doesn't mean impossible depending on build, route, other shenanigans, etc.
Power to reach behind the curtain in your spare moments from the basically eternal war from Geas of Indenture and Apocryphal Curse. The less genre savvy but possibly more interesting depending on your preferences route. Staking your life on your wits and min-maxing skills beyond a shadow of a doubt.
---
Exceptionally Molochian. Part one of the Slayer's Testament syndrome I was talking about earlier. Why would you pick this if you aren't taking Vengeance? Mitigation of this seems like a necessary prerequisite to begin actually laying the groundwork for vengeance.
Render the world unto Moloch. Become Global Warming. Give all of creation a legitimate basis to hunt you down and kill you. Apparently has mitigation options though. If the hero did not wish to give himself over to villainy entire for vengeance, mitigation of this becomes a moral obligation if taken.
Not much to say here. We all know the deal here. Going to need mitigation here to juggle vengeance and indenture if Balance wins I imagine.
JRPG Protagonist syndrome as has already been said. Rewards self-sufficiency for better or worse. Has a few immune people. We may be establishing ourselves as immune on a meta level if we drop any lesser remittances for Accursed Favor.
Nasty if you aren't a Leviathan with power beyond question. Nasty in a case where you need PR or are on a particularly civilized world. Less crippling if you're an overpowered freer of a War-Ravaged world from the dictates of Moloch.
A Driver of Plots, we must wander and grow to find ways to mitigate it lest we become a lovecraftian abomination in truth. Almost reminds me of the jokes I saw comparing the Sun and Eldritch abominations.
The Second part of Slayer Syndrome. Hard Mode. We maybe could consider taking this with Freedom on it's own and nothing else, preserving our mobility, full power, and range of psychological function and getting the full power of a combat cursebearer. It's mitigatable too, and having only one curse to focus on means we'd eventually be able to get some measure of peace back.
---
Lot's of permutations, the option for optimum ability to shape whatever superpower you get with lesser remittances if you're so inclined, along with Bad End Insurance. Worth consideration for Vengeance routes.
This one is another good option for Vengeance routes and I kind of wonder where Chromatic Aberration fits on the Regalia+King's Scepter scale still.
This is maximum genre savvy, the complete the mission and go home route in Spec Ops the Line, the Forsaken Mask route. Has potential for semi-comfy hulk quest until we need to go on especially long trips for Plenary Brand mitigation.
The Lorebox I'm optimizing for maximum immediate exposure to(Combat Cursebearer Praxis Skill boost +5 or more lesser remittances to possibly put to upgrades depending on participation bonuses). 33-66% chance of bad end if taken with Vendetta. Progression may be able to reach higher levels but you can't reach those levels if you're dead. It's the source of a lot of salt, the mystery we've been waiting 3 years for an answer to.
---
Unfortunately I don't remember the plot events of the first Simple Transaction very well. Still worthy of some curiosity to see how she got into this situation and she can help us with early curse mitigation. Especially Important for Vengeance Routes with Decimator's Affliction. Also Affliction of Slumber, Plenary Brand, etc. It'll be painful having to choose whether or not to bring her along with only 2 remittances. Balance and Dread+Dreaming don't have those limitations.
A magic anti-depressant for Dread+Dreaming if we were so inclined. Benefits for both freedom and vengeance routes, considering Combat Cursebearers don't get the ludicrous progression of progression type cursebearers to go with their ability to tank over 100 Tsar Bombas. An amount of energy so ludicrous my brain starts to shut down and laugh at the ridiculousness.
Establish ourself as Resistant/immune to the Accursed's Brand of the Champion maybe, with whatever benefit's that's worth.
For whatever reason I'm getting Nietszche+Dies Irae+Eternal Recurrence Vibes right now.
Using Dies Irae for the metaphor here, the Bad Guy takes the Throne, kills the Mercurius Figure, attains Aztiluth.
Brutal. Shades of Baenlixnaire here.
Metamagic Feat: Burn Lifeforce for power, Stealing peoples Noble Phantasms, or whatever the higher reaches of Seal Magic do. Moloch demanded sacrifices for victory, and the hero found he was better at it than the tyrant. Makes sense if the hero was approaching Baenlixnaire levels of hate I guess. Battle Mastery's burning lifeforce for power makes me question how the hero practiced it enough to be better at it than the tyrant. Transcendent prodigy shenanigans or something?
I'm getting more shades of Baenlixnaire and the Doomed Diagram Liches. In the meantime though, the hero cast himself into the ranks of the Mauveshirts to win.
Ouch. I've seen this trope once before in more detail in Cpl_Facehugger's Luv and Hate quest(ACU in the Muv-Luv Alternative verse for the unfamiliar), and it wasn't any easier for Colonel Steele after Black Sun.
In the end he was left to face Moloch, with not but the power of a Mauve Shirt at his back.
Presumably that was the words of the Nobles talking about justice. If they knew not their caste, would they be born into this world voluntarily? Would it pass the test of a Veil of Ignorance?
Game theory and Causality, Perverse Incentives, Externalities, Institutional Inertia, Corruption, they are mighty enemies indeed.
"Make a Contract with me and become a Magical Cursebearer?" /sarcasm
The Sky above all skies, the virtue that exceeds absolute virtue, the Ultimate Leviathan, the annhilator of Destinies, the bearer of the magic system with supreme reliability and meta protection and unparalleled attack power, the Accursed has come to lighten up our feet.
As a figment of what he once was himself, drowned in Moloch's analogue to Grail mud, I'm sure the hero can sympathize.
That mix of sympathy, whatever hate is left, the Brand of the Wretched, powerlust, desire to escape, in his mind there was no other option, I'm sure the Accursed ensures no external forces like fate or destiny compel his decision in the moment at least, making the decision at that point genuninely the hero's.
Enough power to open a hole in the curtain. To the back of this particular stage. The Sky beyond the Sky, the throne, the Crown of Crowns, whatever your preferred metaphor for this is. Yet to claim it, one must condemn themselves to an existence similar to that of the Doomslayer for what is close enough to Eternity for mortal perception. Read the Slayer's Testament from Doom 2016 if you haven't. Whether or not it's the Hidden Masters or some other group we run into afterward, such a fate is a very real possibility.
Unless you take the Praxis that can grow with us. The Genre Savvy route. Find other targets, people you can help without consigning yourself to the lot of the Doomslayer. Resurrect your family maybe. Right now we can still go home. If the protagonists of Spec Ops the Line were the kind of people to take this route, the disasters of Dubai would never have happened. Playing devils advocate though, Vengeance and Spite played an important role in early legal systems, as the specter that incentizes people to coordinate with each other and cooperate. But on the third hand, Vengeance taken to extremes feeds Moloch's fires. From a Vengeance standpoint though, unlikely doesn't mean impossible depending on build, route, other shenanigans, etc.
Power to reach behind the curtain in your spare moments from the basically eternal war from Geas of Indenture and Apocryphal Curse. The less genre savvy but possibly more interesting depending on your preferences route. Staking your life on your wits and min-maxing skills beyond a shadow of a doubt.
---
Exceptionally Molochian. Part one of the Slayer's Testament syndrome I was talking about earlier. Why would you pick this if you aren't taking Vengeance? Mitigation of this seems like a necessary prerequisite to begin actually laying the groundwork for vengeance.
Render the world unto Moloch. Become Global Warming. Give all of creation a legitimate basis to hunt you down and kill you. Apparently has mitigation options though. If the hero did not wish to give himself over to villainy entire for vengeance, mitigation of this becomes a moral obligation if taken.
Not much to say here. We all know the deal here. Going to need mitigation here to juggle vengeance and indenture if Balance wins I imagine.
JRPG Protagonist syndrome as has already been said. Rewards self-sufficiency for better or worse. Has a few immune people. We may be establishing ourselves as immune on a meta level if we drop any lesser remittances for Accursed Favor.
Nasty if you aren't a Leviathan with power beyond question. Nasty in a case where you need PR or are on a particularly civilized world. Less crippling if you're an overpowered freer of a War-Ravaged world from the dictates of Moloch.
What needs to be said about this has already been said. It has strong synergy with Plenary Brand and Freedom Route, it makes "You won't like me when I'm angry" into a credible threat that way because everyone knows you're the Hulk. If you don't like the possibility of going Yandere it's a precommitment mechanism because switching to Geas of Lunacy broadcasts that we're a Yandere and people should target the one we're devoted to.
A Driver of Plots, we must wander and grow to find ways to mitigate it lest we become a lovecraftian abomination in truth. Almost reminds me of the jokes I saw comparing the Sun and Eldritch abominations.
The Second part of Slayer Syndrome. Hard Mode. We maybe could consider taking this with Freedom on it's own and nothing else, preserving our mobility, full power, and range of psychological function and getting the full power of a combat cursebearer. It's mitigatable too, and having only one curse to focus on means we'd eventually be able to get some measure of peace back.
---
Lot's of permutations, the option for optimum ability to shape whatever superpower you get with lesser remittances if you're so inclined, along with Bad End Insurance. Worth consideration for Vengeance routes.
This one is another good option for Vengeance routes and I kind of wonder where Chromatic Aberration fits on the Regalia+King's Scepter scale still.
This is maximum genre savvy, the complete the mission and go home route in Spec Ops the Line, the Forsaken Mask route. Has potential for semi-comfy hulk quest until we need to go on especially long trips for Plenary Brand mitigation.
The Lorebox I'm optimizing for maximum immediate exposure to(Combat Cursebearer Praxis Skill boost +5 or more lesser remittances to possibly put to upgrades depending on participation bonuses). 33-66% chance of bad end if taken with Vendetta. Progression may be able to reach higher levels but you can't reach those levels if you're dead. It's the source of a lot of salt, the mystery we've been waiting 3 years for an answer to.
---
Unfortunately I don't remember the plot events of the first Simple Transaction very well. Still worthy of some curiosity to see how she got into this situation and she can help us with early curse mitigation. Especially Important for Vengeance Routes with Decimator's Affliction. Also Affliction of Slumber, Plenary Brand, etc. It'll be painful having to choose whether or not to bring her along with only 2 remittances. Balance and Dread+Dreaming don't have those limitations.
A magic anti-depressant for Dread+Dreaming if we were so inclined. Benefits for both freedom and vengeance routes, considering Combat Cursebearers don't get the ludicrous progression of progression type cursebearers to go with their ability to tank over 100 Tsar Bombas. An amount of energy so ludicrous my brain starts to shut down and laugh at the ridiculousness.
Establish ourself as Resistant/immune to the Accursed's Brand of the Champion maybe, with whatever benefit's that's worth.
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OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
Adding recent Omakes onto the Power ranking from my earlier post and rechecking people's votes(As in get the totals for each author in my original list, read from my previous Omake Power post to the end of the thread, update necessary totals, add new authors and replug them into the equation). I can't be bothered to do another manual tally right now, don't know if I can be bothered to do one at all.
Vendetta: 19066
1794(Orm Embar Total)+5292(Unelemental)+1194(Sickul)+2284(Runeblue360) = 10564 from Scepter
1054(Crimson Moon)+689(Salty)+2177(KidfromPallet)+1463(BrainInAJar)+1873(Birdsie)+1246(Cerillian) = 8502 from Sword
Balance : 695(ImperatorV) = 695
Forsaken Mask: 2494(Maragas)+537(Enohthree) = 3031
Dread and Dreaming: 2125(ConjuredBlade)
Accretion: 1794(Orm Embar)+5292(Unelemental)+1463(BrainInAJar)+1194(Sickul)+2284(Runeblue360)+537(Enohthree)
= 12564
Seven Seals: 1054(Crimson Moon)+689(Salty)+2177(KidFromPallet)+2125(ConjuredBlade)+1873(Birdsie)+1246(Cerillian) = 9164
Battle Mastery: 695(ImperatorV)+2494(Maragas) = 3189
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Vendetta: 19066
1794(Orm Embar Total)+5292(Unelemental)+1194(Sickul)+2284(Runeblue360) = 10564 from Scepter
1054(Crimson Moon)+689(Salty)+2177(KidfromPallet)+1463(BrainInAJar)+1873(Birdsie)+1246(Cerillian) = 8502 from Sword
Balance : 695(ImperatorV) = 695
Forsaken Mask: 2494(Maragas)+537(Enohthree) = 3031
Dread and Dreaming: 2125(ConjuredBlade)
Accretion: 1794(Orm Embar)+5292(Unelemental)+1463(BrainInAJar)+1194(Sickul)+2284(Runeblue360)+537(Enohthree)
= 12564
Seven Seals: 1054(Crimson Moon)+689(Salty)+2177(KidFromPallet)+2125(ConjuredBlade)+1873(Birdsie)+1246(Cerillian) = 9164
Battle Mastery: 695(ImperatorV)+2494(Maragas) = 3189
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Also, a few arguments for my picks, as I seem to have mostly criticized other options.
The first, of course, is Vendetta. Having weighed all the choices, I found that it is closest to my heart. Not that I find the idea of giving up on Vengeance truly abhorrent - it can be admirable even. Having a functioning survival instinct and knowing your limitations, pursuing happiness and carving out your own fate, I would say that none of those things are wrong. The Hero could rebuild a life free of his past, revive his family and try to remember that it is like to feel like a normal human being.
But he knows. As eating the Fruit of Knowledge barred Adam and Eve from paradise, some things just cannot be unlearned. He knows that somewhere out there, there are people that had used and abused him, torn away all he ever loved for the sake of their inscrutable plans. Maybe they are evil people. Maybe they are good people. Maybe they are neither and morality simply didn't play any role in this.
All he can be sure of is that friends bled and died for this. His wife died for this. And these people... got away with it. He wouldn't even have known about them were it not for the Accursed. It was the perfect crime, so to speak, made imperfect only by the intervention of a Deus Ex Machina. The story had played out and the dolls swept away from the stage, only his own choice deciding if he can forget this ever happened, or cut the strings together with their fingers, aspiring to become something more than a plaything for the higher forces.
For while we can be reasonably assured these particular hidden masters won't reach us in our new home, even the Accursed cannot guarantee we will never again be subjected to the machinations of some other overwhelming power, limited as he is by the infinitude of his Curses. One could even say nothing at all can guarantee this, yet there is one thing the Accursed can provide.
Growth. Growth without limit, without bounds, guaranteed to exceed whoever tries to cage and use us - assuming they aren't another Progression Cursebearer of course. He won't give us the fish, but he can lead us to the river and give us the tools. The Accursed doesn't want this for the Hero, since there is no turning back once he embark on this road - and it will be far more onerous and painful than anything we can imagine. But it will also show us wonders and higher vistas, expand our horizons as we never could by making peace with our place in the world, so it's not all doom and gloom.
And one day he'll be back to ask those uncomfortable questions, with the power to extract the answers he needs. It will hardly be an end to his journey, more like an extended beginning, but it'll provide him with a form of closure, proof that in this uncaring universe there is an answer to every evil, consequences for every action perpetrated against his family. That their sacrifices meant something.
In that context, I don't really mind Balance winning either. But a determinator protagonist that we don't have to poke and prod constantly would be nice after the last few quests.
(I don't think I need to explain Scepter vs Sword again)
As for Accretia, my reasons are far more prosaic. Battle Mastery is neat and Seven Seals are a close second, but there is something about Accretia that calls to my senses.
A sword isn't just a +5 blade of sharpness with this magic. It is an armament of legend, its swing as unstoppable as the rising of the sun. A shield can be made of papier-mache for all we care. There is nothing in the world that can pierce that thin protection. A crystal can shine the light of very literal hope, a pen sentencing one's fate as surely as any Doom would.
The hero's powers won't just be something he has, they'll be something he is, an expression of his deeds.
And in more practical terms, we're all but guaranteed to do awesome things or die with the Apocryphal Curse. Might as well drink from that well of power, right?
The first, of course, is Vendetta. Having weighed all the choices, I found that it is closest to my heart. Not that I find the idea of giving up on Vengeance truly abhorrent - it can be admirable even. Having a functioning survival instinct and knowing your limitations, pursuing happiness and carving out your own fate, I would say that none of those things are wrong. The Hero could rebuild a life free of his past, revive his family and try to remember that it is like to feel like a normal human being.
But he knows. As eating the Fruit of Knowledge barred Adam and Eve from paradise, some things just cannot be unlearned. He knows that somewhere out there, there are people that had used and abused him, torn away all he ever loved for the sake of their inscrutable plans. Maybe they are evil people. Maybe they are good people. Maybe they are neither and morality simply didn't play any role in this.
All he can be sure of is that friends bled and died for this. His wife died for this. And these people... got away with it. He wouldn't even have known about them were it not for the Accursed. It was the perfect crime, so to speak, made imperfect only by the intervention of a Deus Ex Machina. The story had played out and the dolls swept away from the stage, only his own choice deciding if he can forget this ever happened, or cut the strings together with their fingers, aspiring to become something more than a plaything for the higher forces.
For while we can be reasonably assured these particular hidden masters won't reach us in our new home, even the Accursed cannot guarantee we will never again be subjected to the machinations of some other overwhelming power, limited as he is by the infinitude of his Curses. One could even say nothing at all can guarantee this, yet there is one thing the Accursed can provide.
Growth. Growth without limit, without bounds, guaranteed to exceed whoever tries to cage and use us - assuming they aren't another Progression Cursebearer of course. He won't give us the fish, but he can lead us to the river and give us the tools. The Accursed doesn't want this for the Hero, since there is no turning back once he embark on this road - and it will be far more onerous and painful than anything we can imagine. But it will also show us wonders and higher vistas, expand our horizons as we never could by making peace with our place in the world, so it's not all doom and gloom.
And one day he'll be back to ask those uncomfortable questions, with the power to extract the answers he needs. It will hardly be an end to his journey, more like an extended beginning, but it'll provide him with a form of closure, proof that in this uncaring universe there is an answer to every evil, consequences for every action perpetrated against his family. That their sacrifices meant something.
In that context, I don't really mind Balance winning either. But a determinator protagonist that we don't have to poke and prod constantly would be nice after the last few quests.
(I don't think I need to explain Scepter vs Sword again)
As for Accretia, my reasons are far more prosaic. Battle Mastery is neat and Seven Seals are a close second, but there is something about Accretia that calls to my senses.
A sword isn't just a +5 blade of sharpness with this magic. It is an armament of legend, its swing as unstoppable as the rising of the sun. A shield can be made of papier-mache for all we care. There is nothing in the world that can pierce that thin protection. A crystal can shine the light of very literal hope, a pen sentencing one's fate as surely as any Doom would.
The hero's powers won't just be something he has, they'll be something he is, an expression of his deeds.
And in more practical terms, we're all but guaranteed to do awesome things or die with the Apocryphal Curse. Might as well drink from that well of power, right?
Rihaku
The Internet
As an experiment, for this votes I will allow approval voting for up to two options without dilution.
I wonder what the true preference ranking looks like. This should also make the vote counters' job somewhat easier. The vote will probably close late tonight EST so that we can vote on Lesser Remittances and get started with the story.
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I'm surprised Accretion is so popular given the lack of control you would have. Its passive benefits are broad but building any sort of reliable special effect takes time, experience and notable feats, something that may be less practical to accomplish than simply training / studying or fighting enemies (with a Hunger build). Plus, with both Battle Mastery and Seals you can direct that progress the direction you desire, instead of being forced to simply accept the powers that unfurl. As a Cursebearer you don't lack for other options to establish conceptual primacy in the mid to long term either.
Battle Mastery may have a (very high) eventual hardcap, but it contains plenty of modifiers that improve your scaling multiplicatively as well as efficient, no-frills access to effects such as healing, teleportation, completely expendable but still tactically relevant summons, and resistance to a broad array of damage types and status effects.
Seals are a highly versatile power that is unique to yourself and with an extremely high potential for mundane and metaphysical alchemy. It probably wouldn't even be a bad idea to focus on Seals / Soul Evocation alone for the start of your Cursebearer career. Direct conceptual manipulation as unrestricted as high-level Sealing is usually reserved for higher tiers.
Note that the 100 Tsar Bombas / second is only an example of an attack that could be safely ignored by almost any Combat-type. Combat types focused on battle power would required focused attacks at least three orders of magnitude greater to be threatened, and could withstand attacks some orders of magnitude greater. They're continent busters, so you really need petaton level attacks to challenge them.
You wouldn't be able to. Unless you manually travel there and convince her to join you and pay the Geas mitigation to allow that, etc.
Perhaps they might argue that stripped of their essential characteristics they would not consider such a being to be themselves. An answer that certainly elides the question of consciousness.
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That vague statistic is for Vendetta + Sword though, not Vendetta + King. A choice that gives you enough power to survive in the short term in order to train and get better, as it is explicitly said in the blurb.
Which is a perfectly valid option for those who don't wish to be too daring or find Freedom to be [insert reason why you don't like it here] - indeed, I encourage those who like Vendetta but are scared of Sword to take it.
Second, there's no such thing as a failure if you play perfectly - that is why it's called 'perfectly'. Vendetta + Sword might give less leeway for sub-optimal choices but it doesn't eliminate the possibility of doing alright, just like the other options do not assure a 100% rate of survival, unlike many seem to be believing implictly.
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
Since 2 Option approval voting without Dilution is greenlit, I'm adding Balance as my Second choice since I've realized how powerful some lesser remittances can be for among other things, Curse Mitigation. I realized we may be going on 3 lesser remittances by default, switching to Forsaken Mask as my Second
[X]Forsaken Mask
[X] Dread but Dreaming
-[X] Keep the Plenary Brand
[X]Seven Seals
[X]Forsaken Mask
[X] Dread but Dreaming
-[X] Keep the Plenary Brand
[X]Seven Seals
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Maragas
Nothing to see here.
- Location
- Tree House
First, people are voting for Vendetta with Sword more than Specter so I addressed that.
Second, yes there is, especially when RNG is involved and odds stacked against you. Rihaku, our GM, gave us 60% chance of dying if we go with the Vendetta + Sword. This is literally worse than a coin flip. It's not something you can brush off.
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
[X] The Forsaken Mask
[X] Balance
[X] Battle Mastery
Double voting makes my life easier.
[X] Balance
[X] Battle Mastery
Double voting makes my life easier.
[X] Vendetta
-[X] Remittance: The Sword
[X] Dread but Dreaming
-[X] Keep the Plenary Brand
[X] Seven Seals
This is a Quest. It means that we players pick actions with consequences. Depending on the combination of these choices, we can achieve different results, ranging from terrible to excellent. Given the difficulty of Vendetta + Sword, we are given less leeway in our choices, meaning that we must think harder before picking a choice in order to maximize its effect.
But that's our choices that dictate life and death, not an arbitrary roll in which there is literally nothing we can do. Let's not pretend the two are similar situations.
-[X] Remittance: The Sword
[X] Dread but Dreaming
-[X] Keep the Plenary Brand
[X] Seven Seals
No, it isn't a flip coin. This isn't a tabletop game where we are asked to roll a die to pass a set diffficulty in order to accomplish a single action.
This is a Quest. It means that we players pick actions with consequences. Depending on the combination of these choices, we can achieve different results, ranging from terrible to excellent. Given the difficulty of Vendetta + Sword, we are given less leeway in our choices, meaning that we must think harder before picking a choice in order to maximize its effect.
But that's our choices that dictate life and death, not an arbitrary roll in which there is literally nothing we can do. Let's not pretend the two are similar situations.
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- Location
- Poland
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Vendetta
-[X] Remittance: The Sword
[X] Dread but Dreaming
-[X] Keep the Plenary Brand
[X] Battle Mastery
-[X] Remittance: The Sword
[X] Dread but Dreaming
-[X] Keep the Plenary Brand
[X] Battle Mastery