I assumed that since we started on RAs, we can finish them all in one swoop, too?
Less jumping around, if nothing else.
...Well, not really. But Rhaella's travel to distant isles to loot around their libraries and convince their rulers that "Empire = Good" is not really an RA despite the Progress numbers given.
Overall I'm not adverse on starting the off-plane reports right afterwards.
We have 3 distinct ones with Plane of Fire raiding, the Divs and the Plane of Water, at the very least.
The news that it was going to rain over some part of the island for the better part of two weeks thanks to Zathir's work in reforging the hammer of Anu-Simung is taken mostly in good grace by the people of Sorcerer's Deep, though unsurprisingly the closer one gets to court the less understanding there is. Your mother was even approached yesterday by a lady who wanted you to coax 'a little sunshine' out of Zathir so that she would not have to reschedule her Shepherd's Picnic. You are not entirely sure what the latter is besides the sort of event that would be improved from letting Glyra loose upon it, at least in Dany's opinion.
Thankfully, the world's mightiest and possibly most exasperating gremlin is busy scouting out minor courts in the Reach to no small effect. According to Ser Dregaire's last report, over five hundred fey had shown themselves open to swearing to you, mostly Sprites, Fauns, and Calpinas with a love of new horizons, though with a few venturesome nobles formerly of the Green leading them. Of course, success did not come without a few hurdles of its own, chief among them being that your agents could not spell out in so many words that you are planning an attack on the Court of Stars so the fey interested in joining you are mostly those who would not object to sailing over the water to Essos. You had hoped for spies and agents in the Reach ahead of the attack, but so far those sworn to the Voiolet Veil are not biting the proverbial hook.
Still, for all the gifts bought and future court locations pledged, you would count that coin well spent not just to add a bit more arcane expertise to the various Scholarum branches, but also to weaken the Court of Stars by like measure. Speaking of the Scholarum and fey lore, you are quite interested to see a meeting with Naria on your agenda for today. Seeing as it was not flagged as urgent you can assume it is good news about the more ephemeral of Imperial projects.
Lost 50,000 IM
***
"Once I actually convinced everyone that yes, we were going to do this, and no, it wasn't mad or blasphemy or whatever silliness their studies had not shaken out of them yet, it was smooth sailing to adapt the fey lore to rituals in service of the Empire," Naria began, after only the briefest of preamble. She wasn't quite as dismissive of courtly protocol as Aradia or Nuri, but it was close, especially when she was excited. Not that you can blame her. You are excited, too.
She goes on to explain that designing a prayer for any specific repetitive task, be it grinding grain or filing reports, is the easy part. Most assigned to that sort of task will naturally want the wheels to run smoothly, not necessarily because they value the ultimate purpose, but because any snag in the wheels most often means more work for them, or the stress and tedium of upset superiors. 'About as impersonal a prayer as you can send out,' the incarnate calls it.
Unfortunately, while the new day to day rituals of administration do have discernible impact upon the souls of those practicing them, the resulting power is very diffuse, more like morning mist than water you can pass through a leyline, blood that can fill the arteries of a Hollow God of Empire and serve as a reservoir to tap at need.
"We are going to need some kind of mechanism to condense the power into usable form before we move it anywhere, before it can do any work for us," Naria concludes. "There is one idea to use the properties of weirwood leaves as a starting point, though since the Old Gods do not accept prayer even the druids I've talked to don't know if that will work. Alternatively, if we could use the Dreamlands' property to distill concepts down to their core, that might produce a usable stream of power..."
Tying the rituals of Administration into Imperial Deity base Complete (39/30) -> Project Distilling Dreams (Progress 60 Cost 120,000 IM) Unlocked
What next?
[] Write in
OOC: I realized just the progress report would not fill a whole update so I added another one. Hope it flows properly. Not yet edited.
Here's an edited version of the chapter, @DragonParadox.
Glyra, we miss you! Good luck ruckus'ing in the Reach.
It's very cool to see this project progressing along toward a long planned for goal. Distilling Dreams is going to get some attention next month, that's for sure.
I assumed that since we started on RAs, we can finish them all in one swoop, too?
Less jumping around, if nothing else.
...Well, not really. But Rhaella's travel to distant isles to loot around their libraries and convince their rulers that "Empire = Good" is not really an RA despite the Progress numbers given.
Overall I'm not adverse on starting the off-plane reports right afterwards.
We have 3 distinct ones with Plane of Fire raiding, the Divs and the Plane of Water, at the very least.
With these projects completing, we should unlock the last push of research towards artificial Ley Lines, using Imperial Steel as the physical and dreamscaping as the metaphysical conduit.
So, will the lobotomized god be able to defend its self from corruption or something trying to take it over? Because I do not want a Star Child, and Imperial Tyrant BS to happen to our empire.
So, will the lobotomized god be able to defend its self from corruption or something trying to take it over? Because I do not want a Star Child, and Imperial Tyrant BS to happen to our empire.
It will be non-sentient, so it can't exactly learn bad habits.
For everything else there will be the Imperial Pantheon and Viserys with a giant flyswatter to keep all pests away from their shared jar of tasty, tasty god-juice.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Oct 22, 2020 at 3:34 PM, finished with 27 posts and 15 votes.
[X] Reports:
-[X] Trade for Fey Lore applicable to Imperial Deity project (without spreading the information on the exact nature of the project too freely) with the Fey of:
--[X] Sea Courts
--[X] Golden Grove Court
--[X] Spread-out Westerosi Old Gods-aligned Courts
--[X] Wild Hunt
--[X] Lys' Goblin Market Court ----[X] Rina (4d6 Progress); Tolos Scholarum Branch (2d6 Progress);
-[X] Dreamscaping: Having created a beacon in the dreamlands now you must consider how one might build a road that will endure the ever-shifting paths of that realm (21/25 Progress) ----[X] Aenie Caleris (4d6 Progress +1d6 Progress as per Specialization);
Over the past half month Rina's vague inquiries about 'divine lore' addressed to beings with no love of gods had been... rocky, filled with as many ups and downs as the Gulltown swells. The Wild Hunt did not trade in lore unless it was of some rare quarry. The Greenwood Fey had nearly turned on her from one part lingering suspicion as to her nature and one part mistaken impression that she wanted to act against the Old Gods, the same gods that had told her where to look. For the first time since she had woken herself up again under the boughs of a weirwood tree Rina had been more frustrated at being greeted with suspicion than apologetic.
As she walked through the near deserted streets of Lorath, Rina wondered if it had something to do with the way she had... changed. Fey, after all, were prideful beings. She was mostly just relieved at the memory, less a weight off her chest and more a clanking manacle she had finally shed, reveling in the unexpected silence left in its wake.
The moon was bright above and the faint sounds of revelry still spilled out of open tavern doors, but for a wonder there weren't any thugs or worse yet inebriated scions of 'good families' out here to ruin her mood. Perhaps the Hooded Lord saw that the streets just beyond were free of loiterers.
Pricking her finger on the tip of her blue ice dagger the sorceress quickly drew a crooked gibbous moon upon the door of what must have, based on the lingering smells, once been a butcher's shop, though there was no light in the windows. When she pulled it open however it did not lead to some cobweb filled room, but to another winding alley with shops leaning impossibly over it, their roofs steeped in the manner of the city but painted in every color one might imagine, like a gaggle of brightly dressed ladies whispering together. The Goblin Market had come to town, her best chance at buying some of the lore she had been tasked in finding.
At first it seemed she would have no more luck here than in the Greenwood, who after all the annoyance proved to know no more of gods than the Old Gods would freely share, but then the Hooded Lord himself directed her attention upon one who might have some secrets to share the Gods would wish hidden.
The stall was off among the bells, banners and stuttering torches, a simple wooden board perched on a rough stone plinth. Behind it stood a white haired fey woman who was doing a better job copying Lorathi dress than most of her fellows, though the raven, black as the silk of her doublet, rather ruined the effect. A Norn, Ricna would have known her for the weight of fate in her dark eyes even if the Lord of the Goblin Market had not warned her in advance. A shadow fey like the Orphne, though unlike them this particular being had not sworn to the king, she was merely obliged to follow the laws of the market and thus by the Hooded King's oath the laws of the realm.
"Well now, there is something I did not think to see again until the breaking of the world," the fate-weaver said in a voice neither old nor young, but some odd admixture of both that an alchemist might wish to bottle and sell as a 'voice of wisdom'. "Come into the light, girl. I want to see you closer..."
"That is not my name," Rina replied, politely but firmly. Allowing herself to be 'girl' in the presence of this being would make of her a supplicant, and that she would not be.
The ancient fey chuckled knowingly, the sound staying in the air for just a moment longer than it aught. "You have the will for it, and the stiffness more's the pity."
"What do you know that the gods wish to hide?" Rina pressed, not allowing herself to be distracted.
"Upon my loom I have woven the fate of dead gods and seen the white light, beneath the blazing gold, even dead stars still shine you know, for a while," came the strange reply. "I know of the keys to hollow halls and broken realms. I have read the fate of the divine in white dust and blood dried nearly black. They can come back you know." For the first time the norn gave a strange smile. "Even a blind man can stumble his way back to the light, as this city well knows."
"What do you want?" Rina asked again. Knowledge of divine death could be invaluable when trying to craft a sort of near-birth and not something the gods themselves were likely to hand out, but she allowed only polite interest to show on her face.
"The left eye of the Golden Seer..." This time the smile was uglier. "Come now, don't be surprised. I can guess your lord has ambitions of reclaiming his birth right, all of it, and for that to happen the Seer must fall with the Queen. While I have no doubt you could find some use for the eye, I have a better one..."
Behind the mask of frost and wards against the sharpest eyes the ice fey wove spells of insight and foresight of her own. "No deal," Rina leaned forward just enough for the chill of her presence to tug at a strand of the fate weaver's hair. "I'm not making an open ended deal that requires me to kill an elder fey lord, and in such a way that their eye is salvageable. I am young, not a fool. "
"Fine then," the norn snapped. "You know, you would be easier to judge if you did not hide yourself behind that trinket," she motioned to the warding ring on Rina's finger. "I require thirteen times thirteen black diamonds of the deep earth to do with as I see fit."
Trade on offer: Lore of Dead Gods (Likely to contain general divination knowledge in addition to main subject)
Asking price: 169,000 IM
Do you make the trade?
[] Yes
[] No
-[] Counter offer
-[] Refuse
OOC: I'm not going to reveal all the dice around this event, but I will say Rina did really well in the social challenge for someone without a social focus.
