Actually, getting Silver makes Ruling Ring a viable option again. The main problem with Ruling Ring is the danger of the contest of primacy. What better way to defend against it than a power EFB?

In this case, we will be facing it with 1 power EFB, 1 mixed EFB, 1 potential EFB, and 1 Special Advancement.

At the same time, with its lower cost, we will get the Special Advancement sooner.
 
That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that picking Silver is much safer in terms of clearing the temple because of the party wide buffs to our ability to handle combat, social situations, and even our cognition that will get better as time goes on.
.. and I say that Blood is safer because 0.7 Rank holistically improves everything we do while better Blood Casting means better party buffs, enemy debuffs, healing, blood sense etc.

Ok?
 
Crimson Flare gives equivalent of Rank 7 Debuffs to enemies and buffs to the allies and ourselves.
Of course that only counts if they have Blood.
It's very powerful. Rank 7 debuffs when your enemies are Rank 5 are spectacularly potent. It grants only modestly less combat power than Once and Future in exchange for substantially more utility. Possibly even more overall power than One and Future, given the +.7 Rank it also currently grants.
 
Ah yes, forgot about this thing. I knew there was something I wanted to say.

Being "synergistic" is a worthless quality; similar to how being "original" or "innovative" doesn't have any intrinsic value in of itself. Synergy is valuable because it usually implies increased value due to previous choices; however, what we pick is no synergy but value.

If option that lacks synergy offers more value then it's just better option.

As an aside, can we let this "we have Agi build" meme die already.

In which case we will die so it doesn't matter either way, does it? Either pick has death as it's failure state, so unless you want to claim that Silver is "safer" in terms of clearing the temple(which it absolutely is not), then "but we could not clear the temple" has approximately zero weight.
Synergy is incredibly important in builds because it means an far higher rate of growth for everything involved in that synergy. Our main source strenght is our speed and sword-cutting strenght, and it increases value of future agi picks because they would be double their value, and that improve agi would be synergetic with our build because it would increase offensive(allows us to attack faster) defensive(faster reaction time and speed) and utility(faster travel) powers, on top of doubling the +all stats bonus.

And then, it would also highly benefit from other future options, like Vigor Incarnate. And fierce quickiening, which is also something that became a core-part of our build.

We have agi build is not a meme, it's a fact, it's our main source of protection, it has allowed us to win countless facts, is it the only facet of our build? Of course not, but it's something that we have heavily invested in and gained a lot of benefits of, and increasing it further serves only to our benefit.

That's why the most synergetic build is usually stronger, and Rihaku, while not directly stating that Silver is the most powerful option, has heavily implied it. Silver, in both options that aren't Gondar, is safer. Because it would improve our social stats, improving our odds of sucess in social action, and give us more immediate power in case of a fight. And even against Gondar, it's only not safer due to the fact that we are unsure if we can obtain it before we face him, because if we face him after taking it, we could counter whatever esoteric effect he first throws against us, and have agility vastly superior to his.
 
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Hrmmmm

going to strategic vote Selune/Silver, as Selune is currently in the lead and Silver goes well with her. I'm not opposed to Flare, so if either Gondar or the Marshall gain more traction I may switch.

[X] Evening Sky: Silver of Evening - 25 Arete (1 pick)
[X] Selune vi Tries [Cost: 4 Arete]
 
.. and I say that Blood is safer because 0.7 Rank holistically improves everything we do while better Blood Casting means better party buffs, enemy debuffs, healing, blood sense etc.

Ok?

I was just clarifying my position since you seemed confused. I don't think actually compares as well to going from 30 to 60 agility on us alone, which calling it a meme aside, is actually good for our build due to cut through ability to cut through just about anything, and I don't think it does nearly as much for us in the social department as goint to 14 charisma or a similar benefit to Gisena which can be extremely relevant for the approach we're taking. These benefits are only going to get better as we go on due to better magnitude advancement and getting stat increases from other places.

That said, I think Flare is still a strong option and I can see why people feel it's better at the moment. I won't be unhappy no matter which wins.
 
He'll be aiming for our knees, won't he? /resigned
If we had Inksky, the mantle could expand to cover such tempting targets! Alas...

Looks like Gondar and None are lost causes according to the tally, swapping to Avecarn and Silver. I might go back to the first since we've got a full quiver of countermeasures for him, but Avecarn's character has grown on me. Also, the index has been updated. Again.

[X] High Marshall Avecarn
[X] Evening Sky: Silver of Evening


Diplomacy tactics for Avecarn:

Stick to the facts, because the facts are beneficial to us: every Templar we've fought so far has attacked first and asked questions later. The Librarian tried to oneshot us from invisibility, the Correspondent's team of Outriders opened fire on us in the middle of a hamlet. Even Vanreir opened with a Thrust. The first we heard of mercenary work was from Gondar's apprentice after we'd won and he was at our mercy, but he'd have said anything to convince us to spare him. Hardly a compelling pitch, are we supposed to believe he'd forgive being dismembered?

Ask questions, open a dialogue. Is that shoot-first policy set in stone, going back to the High Marshal's days in the Outriders? Or have things degenerated from when he was in active duty? Hunger's respect for Vanreir is genuine, so we should capitalize on it. The First Blade's actions revealed the first glimmer of real honor in the Temple's society, a sharp contrast to the more mercenary moonbrains. We're not a slave to the Call, not like the others are, the Temple civilization just doesn't appear as a palatable alternative from the outside.

Hunger was able to retreat and go on vacation a training trip, something I suspect many might be incapable of. But neither should we be too eager to defect, he might detect Hunger's principled objections to a civilization built on suffering and unsustainable exploitation. Let him give the excuses, trot out the talking points that he no doubt knows by heart after his seven-decade career. If they sound stale now that he's been admitted to the Inner Ring, so much the better.

Hunger and Avecarn are both veterans, both passionate about their hobbies, and both have been hard done by. That they're on opposite sides shouldn't preclude peaceful discourse. We don't want to fight him, he doesn't want to fight an unknown enemy. There's a chance he might lose and not come back to his grandkids, after all! Play up the ambiguity of our rapidly-rising power level, mention that we did mercenary work for the Elixir Sovereignty to help them with encroaching Rotspawn, and let him present the offer as a palatable alternative to a one-man war on civilization. If he recruits us to replace Vanreir, the odds are lower that the Council'll call on him to deal with the next R-type.
 
Arete. Arete is good. Gib more arete.

Subtle and Quick
Wizards!

And now our entire party is made of people capable of untold destruction, mischief, and all sorts of troublesome hijinks. Nevermind the fact that at very least Letrizia is actually quick to anger, lol. If you fuse her with Hunger like its a DBZ episode, you'll probably even get a classic subtle yet vengeful tower-dwelling magic caster.
Letrizia was indeed capable of wielding an Imaginary Element. Her control and manifestation of 'Sharpbright' allowed her to manipulate a specialized form of Pressure, effectively increasing her Astral Rank. Direct control allowed her to focus the effects of Rank upon the world, creating avenues of influence unavailable to average practitioners. Though it had little immediate application, it was a power with nearly limitless potential.
Well hello, little miss Fairbright.

I wonder if Surgecrafting was one of the Fairbright magical systems; descriptions of ow her power bleached the space around her and choirs of astral supporting her make me think that she might actually had something like Sharpbright in her repertoire. Considering how synergetic is a raw pressure boost with basically everything, I could see it being one of the core aspects of her magic-system synergy exploiting build.

He was happy for her; it aligned perfectly with her research interests and disposition, even if the combat applications would remain modest for the immediate future.
Not if we boost her with Crimson flare! Stacking high rank with rank-increasing effects sounds rather strong to me, and the fact that aspects of Sharpbright allow Letrizia to exercise greater control over her pressure is not negligible.

"This is so cool," Letrizia squealed, showing Hunger the slight distortion that passed through the air when she concentrated her Pressure on a nearby tree. It swayed slightly, creaking in the sudden breeze. A peach fell from its branches to land upon the grass.
"Don't be wasteful," he admonished her, opening his window to grab a peach. "Here, eat."
"You have it," she said cheerfully, "I gotta stay focused on this!"
"Turning down food." He shook his head sadly, biting into the peach. It was delicious. "You've changed, Letrizia. Leaning magic has changed you. I always feared this would happen."
Considering how uberfocused on food she was before, this isn't even substance-less teasing, this is an accurate observation. Who knows what sort of further changes Sharpbright is going to produce? Maybe she'll even win a social combat round with Hunger one day. Not Gisena though. Gisena will probably outclass her in that field forever.

"Hmph! The esoteric arts come through mastery of the self, after all." Playfully she turned up her nose.
"So, how powerful is your Pressure now? ...Care for a spar?"
"N-no!" Letrizia stopped, looking a him exasperatedly. "You know how that would turn out! My Pressure's not even as powerful as yours. Even if it were, your strength and speed are way superhuman. That wouldn't be an interesting fight at all!" 

I wonder if uber-high pressure innately allows something like Reality Effects from Cultivation to occur... A degree of causality warping is a basic feature which is going to manifest in incredibly personalized ways as one's rank grows. IIRC, Armaments rely on something like that at high ranks?
"Too bad," he threw away the peach core. "What about your lunchtime friends? Know any High Elementalists that would be interested in training with your bodyguard?"

So we are running with that silly name. I must say, "Surgecraft" was really just better. Oh well. At least we are getting some use out of them.

Notably, these kids are allowed some non-trivial amount of freedom, it appears. Even though they are supposed to be a secret, here they are, training with a man employed by a hostile nation, allied to the nobility of the Empire. Revealing their capabilities, sharing their secrets... Well, maybe Hunger slaying that many rotspawns in the last few days helped a bit with making positive impressions?

"Maybe if you handicapped yourself," she tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Yeah, I can think of one or two. But I thought you didn't get much from training, and only got stronger from fights with real stakes?"
This feels like a comment to the thread, honestly. We kind of forgot about this for awhile, before getting picks from... Getting Letrizia in the shower. We should engage with people socially more often. It is less prone to devastating bodily injury as a consequence.

...Infiltration seems to be, if anything, more likely to fuck us up than simply cutting through to the inner temple somehow, so maybe I am wrong on this.

"True," he replied, "But it doesn't have to be life or death. Wagering time or even large sums of money can work, though it's much less efficient. Why don't you go round up some interested parties while I awaken my Element this morning? Arrange some duels for tomorrow. I won't actively use my other magics and I'll limit my speed and strength. I'll kill some Rotspawn this afternoon for cash to pay out."
I wonder if Hunger not really caring about money is one of the factors that makes it less efficient. Accretion is that kind of a system that cares about though and intent.

In other news, Hunger has to sandbag really badly to not roll over any reasonable opposition with an effortless gesture. He got pretty strong for a voyaging realm adventurer! I do fear that after the temple we'll face slowly decaying enemy availability... But for now, we get to enjoy being actually powerful, I guess. These moments of slaying rotspawns like wheat are to be treasured, since most of the time our battles are more akin to desperate struggle where we are eternally on the edge of doom than anything else.
"You think you can beat experienced High Elementalists after only one day of fighting, without using your other powers?" Letrizia smiled. "Rather cocky, aren't we? Okay, I'll do it. But only because you've been such a good bodyguard lately."

I wonder how the kids are going to react to being beaten so easily.

Well, Hunger's rep after cutting down a Primerotspawn is probably pretty stellar, so we should be able to avoid massive surges of salt element. Still likely not all that pleasant to the arrogant youths who called themself "High Elementalists" and probably think themself to be incredibly hot shit.

...I almost wished there was a Surgecrafted with an EFB element, just so we could actually see what it looks like. IIRC, Talace actually gave a pretty good attempt to portray a 25 arete Sharpbright evolution which was pretty cool, but it is still not quite like seeing one from the man himself.

"G-go awaken your Element already! Then we can be wizards together."
I hope that Letrizia being a wizard does not results in problems with Human Sphere. She seems to be not particularly worried, but from what we gathered, magic can introduce some complications into your relationship with people in the human sphere. With most of the magic-people being outsiders and mercenaries, there is a potential for some social impact as local public scrambles to consider what house Artiez getting an actual magical bloodline means.

One gotta wonder why Human Sphere is not ruled by mages already. They did not exactly came into being yesterday, it was repeatedly implied that Human Sphere as a whole is pretty old.

"If you insist."
Patting her lightly on the head, he walked into the master bathroom, pulling the Evening Sky into the form of a towel. Turning on the faucets, he made the proper adjustments to his blood, settling in for a long wait...
Gisena dropped by at around the third hour.
Evening towel. Trivial expressions of power like this are rather amusing. I wonder how many more shapes we can force the Evening to take; and how many more were potentially available if we had Inksky. Alas.
"Oh, you're not pruney at all. A privilege of the destined hero, perhaps?"
"Of a sort." The Forebear's Blade granted him supernatural endurance, which apparently applied even to circumstances as mundane as this.
Great powers, used for little things. Perfect. Moments like these are rarely explored properly in fiction; generally massive power is all about explosions and stuff, not making your tea with pyrokinesis or exploring small comforts of superhuman durability and regeneration.
"Looks like your Element is percolating nicely. Should be done in about twenty more hours."
"Perfect. More time to think."

"Aw, you're no fun! You're actually done now, want to go fight some Rotbeasts?"
Well, Hunger is rather skilled at "brooding productively." Also at sleeping and slacking off - surprisingly so for his workaholic attitude. I guess that Progression enables him to excel even in fields normally antithetical to his existence!

If only sleeping actually granted us enough xp to compete with actively grinding... Alas, we have yet to see a single +might from our Sleeping-focused ability!

"Who do you think you're fooling? I can see the Element in my blood just fine. Go play with your toys."
"Yes sir!" Gisena winked. "Though, if you miss me too badly, come and find me in the library!"
At around the fifth hour he finally emerged, his body fully saturated by the magic of the waters. It was the work of a moment to dry off and dress.
I wonder if EFB would've been using the ring to condense magic somehow. Mix the waters with blood, do the magic, achieve some sort of a qualitative transformation, something like that.

Gisena having an inexhaustible interest in living has been repeatedly remarked upon but does not stop being true with repetition.
He headed down to the generously-stocked hotel library where Gisena was immersed in various technical manuals. She waved happily at him.
"We should buy some of these books and keep them in Verschlengorge! Such excellent reference texts."
"You mean to say you can't read and memorize them all in one day? Apologies, I thought you were a genius."
"But I love these books!" She clutched one to her chest. "I just want to protect and save them."

Gisena is as much of a nerd as Letrizia is. It appears to me that Hunger going deep into SORD is not so much a goal-oriented decision, as a defensive mechanism that means to protect him from all these people around him doing things like reading books and having fun with science.

"We all have to make sacrifices," he said grimly. "They would distract you from completing your meditations to become a High Sorceress. That could be life or death in the Temple."
"Aw, you're so thoughtful." Gisena smiled brightly. "Well, if you're so concerned for my well-being, I suppose I can give these up. Kind of like getting Letrizia to eat her veggies!"
I kind of think that Letrizia wouldn't really mind eating veggies. Or eating in general, as long as it is actually edible. Although recent meals could have spoiled her a bit... King Fish gave actual Hunger-relevant buffs and Kaguya's food was pretty first-class despite not being magical.

I wonder if Letrz actually gets to eat well. Versch's combat rations are apparently perfectly acceptable, but she has been eating them for awfully young age; you get tired of samey food real quick. Hopefully, house Artiez actually feeds her well when given the opportunity to.

"Disgusting. I'd much prefer-"
"Eating fish? Maybe one that you caught yourself? Well, mentally speaking Letrizia's still a growing girl. It's necessary for her self-discipline!"
"Is that so? Well. If a genius said it, it must be true."
"Now you're learning!"
Gisena knows Hunger too well. Now if she could beat some sense into him using that knowledge, that would be rather perfect, yes.

Leaving her to her work, he quickly arrived at the border and engaged the Rotspawn. As with Letrizia, it had taken a few hours for his Element to come in. At first it was tentative, unformed, a bright purposeless warmth bubbling up in his chest. He sensed that it was some kind of augmenting effect, colorless but welcoming, like the radiant glow of a hearthfire or the sun veiled by clouds.
I wish we actually had time to deal with the Rotbeast. Being a hero sounded like a pretty good thing... Alas, such things are just not to be. I wonder if Hunger being that sour about the life of a hero is at least partially a consequence of that choice.

He called forth a surge of it, bathing himself in that nameless translucence. Swiftly he felt his mind sharpen and body grow stronger, the powers of his self and soul tuned like a violin-string towards a more perfect expression. It was a powerful and comprehensive enchantment, hopeful and clean...
I wonder if Eldendross acts accordingly to the individual definition of perfection, or it actually moves those whom it affects closer to it's own thems of redemption and rebirth; if used on someone depraved and degenerate, would it make them into their own idea of perfection, or?..

For a moment he paused in consternation, having expected something bleaker, a power more in line with his other abilities. What did it mean that his personal Element had manifested in a form like this?
Hopes and dreams about a better future? The fact that Hunger does not actually live for slaughter and accumulation of power? That becoming a Progression-type curse bearer might have been motivated in no small part by duty and obligation, rather than personal sort of vengeance?

A bunch of possible implications. One could even say that maybe going progression was a mistake for Hunger, made from a minute emotional weakness.

...Eh, that is probably too much of a stretch.

No point getting distracted in battle. He would ask the girls their opinions later. Though he felt his Element was capable of much more, for now he focused on its core augmenting function, deciding to master that aspect before splitting his focus. Compounding its power with his blood enhancements and the superhuman force of the Forebear's Blade would be the surest path to further growth.
Well, true, although getting a Physical Grace was presented as a path to greater growth. I kind of regret we didn't go for it now. The chances were really good, too... Oh well.

A small contingent of guards followed him into the mist, apparently intent on spectating in case he slew another Primary. With the Forebear's technique, his new Element, and his second arm returned to him, the strength of his blows was simply incomparable to before. Rotspawn fell like wheat before the scythe. Even the obdurate mist of the deep swamp began to recede before him, deprived of the populace upon which it seemingly relied.
The fact that they even decided to actually fight here instead of simply retreating is surprising. But Rihaku did drop the fact that Rotbeast itself might be stationary, so I suppose they don't have too much of a choice here; fight or die is the only destiny here.

He took a break to experiment further, taking in the idiosyncrasies of this new power. He could summon forth the Element in great blasts and torrents, crudely shaping it into walls or other forms. To experience its benefits, one had to be immersed in the Element itself, which meant stepping into those (harmless) blasts and walls or centering them on himself.
Thankfully we took Eldendross adept, which means this is much less of a problem than it would've been otherwise. Accidentally buffing enemies is still an occasional nightmare.

Unfortunately, no suitable challenger emerged this time, even as he cut down Elites by the score. Previously it had taken two or three blows to slay even one, but now they fell in droves to a single slice. It was almost boring.
Imagine enemies of yesterday not being a total joke to the Hunger of today. That... Could actually have been a thing if we didn't pick ring of Hunger; we would have progressed much more like Seram I think, who did advance rapidly through enemy murder but nothing quite like Hunger's mega-uber gainz.

Must say, Ring is really good remittance. I kind of struggle to imagine substituting it with anything else. Talon could have been good I guess if we went for Battle Magic? But Battle Magic is kind of meh compared to the awesomeness of Accretion. "Noble Phantasms, The Magic System" is just great stuff, thematically.
He sprinted into the depths of the swamp, outpacing the retreat of the mist, gathering Rotspawn about him like the eye of some inestimable storm. Only when they were packed so densely as to crush one another did he finally stop. Setting his feet, he brought his Blade around in a single full-bodied strike, weight and furious momentum as if swinging for the fences, and with a terrible crack of thunder laid earth and sky bare around him.
Mist retreats that rapidly? Not even a transformation effect, straight-up magic with upkeep, huh.

Also, juicy description. Feels like dropping a vortex on a clump of infantry in Warhammer Total War. Or like dropping a fireball into a group of enemies, if DnD is more your fare.

The force of his blow tore great fissures into the earth; the wind howled into the sudden vacuum of his wake; like the aftermath of a great tempest the world went quiet and still. Rotspawn like cut daisies fell slowly back to earth, pulverized and obliterated by that ruinous force, piling high atop each other like impromptu battlements.
We are now excaliblasting. Our wind-blades are reshaping the landscape. Feeling of awesome might is a good alternative to the brutal knife-fighting style of the early bits in this quest, I must say.

Behind him, the guards began to cheer wildly, whipping off their caps and waving them in a frenzy as the few remaining monsters began to rout. Whether out of animalistic fear or tactical prudence, the Rotspawn had broken, at least for today.
Honestly, I kind of question the self-preservation instincts of these guys. They are not even in power armor, apparently. Just straight movie starship trooper set up. This is really sad. Hunger can keep them alive of course, but really? Fragile baseline humans in a battlefield that managed to challenge the Hunger of Yesterday? Really?

Didn't sovereignty employ a drone warfare+elite armor support doctrine? What changed?
Still no viable opponent emerged. Perhaps that was to be expected. Hunger shrugged and departed the battlefield.
At this point I am all but certain that Rotbeast is at least somewhat intelligent and capable of strategic thought. Although in its place, maybe mobbing Hunger with a kill squad of Prime Rotspawns would be a better course of action? It does not know that Hunger is leaving tomorrow; for all it knows, Hunger is going to get even more powerful.
He walked back to the border, collected his murderer's wage and returned to the city after, dismissing the guards who importuned him to drive to the Rotbeast itself. Their vocal adulation only served to remind him of previous victory parades, though the crowds then who'd cheered the Tyrant's death had been so much louder and more joyous still...
Well, the aftermath soured Hunger a lot on things like this, but... I dunno, maybe quiet content of populace well-cared for would be better? Eh. Hunger needs to to learn to enjoy doing heroic stuff again, especially since he'll probably going to do a whole lot of heroic stuff in this universe. A man gotta derive some enjoyment from the things he does well, after all. Otherwise, it is rather unhealthy.


Hunger dropped a thick bag of Sovereign currency and gold plates on the table. "They gave me a bonus for exceptional work. They want us to stay."
Such a pity we are actually tied to the temple; here is a civilization that actually appreciated Hunger's deeds... But Hunger is so engrossed in his adventures he simply cannot afford to reap the benefits here. Even after the temple there is Letrizia, and after that Odyssey we'll surely find another mess to stumble into.

"I recruited some prospective duelists!" Letrizia said, opening her hand-written journal to a densely notated page. "There are some really interesting Elementalists in my class. I think you'll have fun sparring tomorrow!"
We saw some pretty reasonable elements, but most of the really exotic stuff, like fanwork elements kind of avoided us. Such a pity. Well, maybe we'll see more of surgecrafting once we get Flare and Ennoblement.
"I'm touched by your diligence, both of you." Gisena wiped a single tear from her eye. "I slacked off the whole day, but you guys more than compensated!"
Well, as long as she actually gets her sorcerous ascension before we return to the Temple, it doesn't really matter.
"And now our due reward," Hunger deadpanned. "The hot springs at last."
Yes, the hot springs. Not the massive breakthrough in power, the adulation of the masses, money, luxury or a moment's reprieve from Temple's pressure. Hotsprings.
 
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Actually, getting Silver makes Ruling Ring a viable option again. The main problem with Ruling Ring is the danger of the contest of primacy. What better way to defend against it than a power EFB?

In this case, we will be facing it with 1 power EFB, 1 mixed EFB, 1 potential EFB, and 1 Special Advancement.

At the same time, with its lower cost, we will get the Special Advancement sooner.
Considering one of the examples of the people we had to possibly contend with contend with was a Ringbearer Armament pilot; no. Definitely not. Getting the increased progression of Pillars would help far more in preparing against the contest of primacy than the immediate power of Sliver; which doesn't land us anywhere close of that. Seriously.
going to strategic vote Selune/Silver, as Selune is currently in the lead and Silver goes well with her.
Why would Sliver go well with Selune? She's the person most open to us and that we least need to convince; even when it comes to turning her. That extra Cha would be much more useful agaisnt soemone more skeptical; and if we are paying Arete to not need Charisma; why not get Crimson Flare?
 
Stick to the facts, because the facts are beneficial to us: every Templar we've fought so far has attacked first and asked questions later. The Librarian tried to oneshot us from invisibility, the Correspondent's team of Outriders opened fire on us in the middle of a hamlet. Even Vanreir opened with a Thrust. The first we heard of mercenary work was from Gondar's apprentice after we'd won and he was at our mercy, but he'd have said anything to convince us to spare him. Hardly a compelling pitch, are we supposed to buy he'd forgive being dismembered?
Avecarn: What about all the other Outriders?
Hunger: What about them?
Hunger: They aren't even named characters.
 
If we had Inksky, the mantle could expand to cover such tempting targets! Alas...

Looks like Gondar and None are lost causes according to the tally, swapping to Avecarn and Silver. I might go back to the first since we've got a full quiver of countermeasures for him, but Avecarn's character has grown on me. Also, the index has been updated. Again.

[X] High Marshall Avecarn
[X] Evening Sky: Silver of Evening


Diplomacy tactics for Avecarn:

Stick to the facts, because the facts are beneficial to us: every Templar we've fought so far has attacked first and asked questions later. The Librarian tried to oneshot us from invisibility, the Correspondent's team of Outriders opened fire on us in the middle of a hamlet. Even Vanreir opened with a Thrust. The first we heard of mercenary work was from Gondar's apprentice after we'd won and he was at our mercy, but he'd have said anything to convince us to spare him. Hardly a compelling pitch.

Ask questions, open a dialogue. Is that shoot-first policy set in stone, going back to the High Marshal's days in the Outriders? Or have things degenerated from when he was in active duty? Hunger's respect for Vanreir is genuine, so we should capitalize on it. The First Blade's actions revealed the first glimmer of real honor in the Temple's society, a sharp contrast to the more mercenary moonbrains. We're not a slave to the Call, not like the others are.

Hunger was able to retreat and go on vacation a training trip, something I suspect many might be incapable of. But neither should we be too eager to defect, he might detect Hunger's principled objections to a civilization built on suffering and unsustainable exploitation. Let him give the excuses, trot out the talking points that he no doubt knows by heart after his seven-decade career. If they sound stale now that he's been admitted to the Inner Ring, so much the better.

Hunger and Avecarn are both veterans, both passionate about their hobbies, and both have been hard done by. He doesn't want to fight an unknown enemy. There's a chance he might lose and not come back to his grandkids, after all! Play up the ambiguity of our rapidly-rising power level, mention that we did mercenary work for the Elixir Sovereignty to help them with encroaching Rotspawn, and let him present the offer as a palatable alternative to a one-man war on civilization. If he recruits us to replace Vanreir, the odds are lower that the Council'll call on him to deal with the next R-type.
Great ideas, perhaps if it comes to blows, we can convince him to surrender, or perhaps even subvert him, if we have a good trump card on our hand(in this case, either of the possible EFB are viable). We don't need to be more powerful than him for him to be unwilling to fight against us, merely make it so the odds of him winning are less than great.

It's unlikely that we can make him defect, but if we can secure his family's safety, we can likely avoid direct confrotation with him, and he would be the ideal person to allow us to be able to allow us to do such a thing in the first place.

I think stating that we are immune to the call might be unwise, because the biggest leverage that the civilization has towards people like Hunger is the capability of stopping the call.

Half truths that are likely ideal: Hunger doesn't want to harm the civilization, he wants to minimize the amount of death overall and that joining the ring civilization is the best way to do so, and this way, he can see if they are worth protecting. None of which is technically a lie, i think.
 
Why would Sliver go well with Selune? She's the person most open to us and that we least need to convince; even when it comes to turning her. That extra Cha would be much more useful agaisnt soemone more skeptical; and if we are paying Arete to not need Charisma; why not get Crimson Flare?

The rationale is that while getting Selune means we don't have to worry about getting into the Temple, once we're within we'll have to navigate various social challenges brought on both by our suspicious circumstances and by the curses we got that Silver can now mitigate, challenges that are even harder if we go the more peaceful route of getting the ring by taking over their society which just having Selune around won't be enough to overcome.

Edit: I haven't focused on this much, but the perfect defense and curse mitigation isn't a trivial reason to take Silver, especially since the route we're taking likely involves quite bit of socializing which our curse can really screw us over with.
 
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It's also great in case we want to subvert her. Subverting Selune would give us a powerful in with a social-focused character that we could boost even further towards what we want. In case we manage to do so, we would have 3 heavy social character within the civilization.
 
Why would Sliver go well with Selune? She's the person most open to us and that we least need to convince; even when it comes to turning her. That extra Cha would be much more useful agaisnt soemone more skeptical; and if we are paying Arete to not need Charisma; why not get Crimson Flare?

From what I'm understanding with the discussion, Selune bringing us into the Temple civ and going full guaranteed Infiltration route will still want CHA for social with other residents and Council members that we network with through her. While she herself may be easy to convince, if we plan on orchestrating an uprising or even a totally peaceful campaign then in the process we may need to convince people who aren't as easy to steamroll, right?
 
Also, it's likely that due to the magnetude of the social tasks, we can grab a few picks to increase our charisma even further.
 
[X] High Marshall Avecarn
[X] The Ring of Power: Crimson Flare


S'not a SORD option but I can dig either of these, the agi from Silver and Flare's rank-up are both sweet. High Marshall's got that peak old man energy, wanna see him interact with Hunger.
 
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Gondar will have poison arrows and we are weak vs poison. Fucktons of blood Rank may mitigate that so Flare is the choice for the "screw infiltration, let's just keep fighting" faction.
 
The s-word is getting thrown around a lot here a lot; but you have to balance what's immediately useful with what our long-term plans are. If we plan on getting Ruling Ring at all, then both Flare and Pillars are great becuase they both directly contribute to it; the former gives us raw power and guarantees the submission of the Azure Ring while the latter guarantees we get strong enough to be a viable contestant in a reasonable time-frame.

If we get Sliver, not only is the immediate power it provides not nearly enough for the contest; we are completely without access to safe Ring EFBs, delaying Trinity for essentially the foreseeable future. It just messes up our progression something fierce, while not even being that much stronger than Flare. Why pick it?
The rationale is that while getting Selune means we don't have to worry about getting into the Temple, once we're within we'll have to navigate various social challenges brought on both by our suspicious circumstances and by the curses we got that Silver can now mitigate, challenges that are even harder if we go the more peaceful route of getting the ring by taking over their society which just having Selune around won't be enough to overcome.

Edit: I haven't focused on this much, but the perfect defense and curse mitigation isn't a trivial reason to take Silver, especially since the route we're taking likely involves quite bit of socializing which our curse can really screw us over with.
It's also great in case we want to subvert her. Subverting Selune would give us a powerful in with a social-focused character that we could boost even further towards what we want. In case we manage to do so, we would have 3 heavy social character within the civilization.
From what I'm understanding with the discussion, Selune bringing us into the Temple civ and going full guaranteed Infiltration route will still want CHA for social with other residents and Council members that we network with through her. While she herself may be easy to convince, if we plan on orchestrating an uprising or even a totally peaceful campaign then in the process we may need to convince people who aren't as easy to steamroll, right?
Also, it's likely that due to the magnetude of the social tasks, we can grab a few picks to increase our charisma even further.
yeah just make up the arete kappa

Seriously, the reason to buy Selene is to have an easier infiltration at the cost of future power. Why double down on this aspect instead of using this flexibility to pick something more long-term instead? She already gives us near unfettered access to the Temple's facilities; who the hell would we need to convince as well? We don't need double our Charisma to bring her in, she alredy thinks we are great. Getting Sliver just for this purpose is complete overkill.

We are saving the Ring; it's beyond negotiation at this point. There's no away the Inners will go over peacefully, we are taking the basis of their entire society. Just using Charisma to paper over that is a pipe dream, it's direct against their material interests! And that's if they don't have social operators of their own, even, or had to deal with supernaturally gifted operators before, even though they literally can produce them!

Unless, of course, we offer something comparable, which Flare gives us access to! Why fight when you can still benefit even in "defeat"? Simple self-interest would see us have little opposition. If even then they would attached to their way of life, I don't think Sliver would have convinced them otherwise.

It gives more absolute power immediately, but we don't need all the power, just a great amount of it. Otherwise we can look towards the future.
 
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we don't actually know this, it may well be enough
I mean, maybe there's no other contestants at all and we are just being paranoid. But using two of the three examples Rihaku gave of a possible contestant, Sliver is definitely not enough. We'd basically have to gamble that it's just dudes somewhat above Hunger, and not an Armament Pilot, or even Human Sphere higher-ups who can deploy Armaments, etc. If the thread thinks it's too risky now; I don't think they will be able to accept it even after Sliver.
 
We are also not locked into grabbing ruling ring next, only a ring EFB. If we don't feel ready for ruling ring, we can just grab it later.
 
Unless, of course, we offer something comparable
Offering something comparable is only useful if they listen to us in the first place. +CHA is the way to make that happen. Ennoblement only becomes necessary to actually have once they offer us a job.
 
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