Lies the Crown
What was the Fifth Sign of the Empyrean unlocked at the cost of so much treasure?
oh, so it's already fifth sign time? I'm actually not sure which of the 4th one won, let me check...
..it's not written anywhere!
Last tally was 29 to 21 for Deathly Star vs Veil of Grandeaur, but it wouldn't be the first time omake power had the less voted option win...
Well, I'll assume Deathly Star won for now.
The Limit Break attack, AND the 4th sign of the Evening Sky.
I liked the Noonday sign more, but oh well.
Maybe there's a good utility sign here...
the tally was 28 to 21
[ ] Fifth Sign: Procrustean Valor [Noonday Sky] - In uniformity, is fungibility. In uniformity, is cohesion. In uniformity, is order.
In uniformity, is strength.
Before the glance of Noon, each photon is equally swift and equally purposeless. So too with those that crawl beneath, not swift but purposeless still. Concern yourself not with the harshness of the sun at your back; look forward at what its illumination reveals!
Casting time: Passive
Activation speed: Thought
Duration: Permanent, Special
Cooldown: None
Reagent: Health
At any time the wielder of this Sign may activate its effects to copy over one Attribute of their enemy during a contest in which that Attribute is highly relevant. Only contests with substantial stakes may qualify, with about the same degree of freedom as defined by the Ring Hunger.
The character suffers physical damage proportional to the difference in final values between their Attribute and their opponent's. One Attribute may be copied per contest, and copying persists for the duration of that contest.
Eligible Attributes include: Might (Str, Con), Agility, Intelligence, Wits, Charisma, Appearance (will also cause wielder to steal their opponent's appearance), Protection, (Effect) Resistance*, and Luck.
*Such as Adorie's resistance to existential diminishment
Ineligible Attributes include: Wisdom (Locked for safety reasons, can be forcibly unlocked but severely not recommended), Manipulation (A fundamental flaw of the Sign; it seems to lack the finesse necessary to even conceive of such a thing)
Only Attributes whose final value is no greater than 1000 +s may be copied over in this manner. Final Attribute values are copied over without being subject to further modifiers. Attributes fade upon completion of the contest in question.
*Equalize in stats, then crush them in Rank!
*Prevent yourself from being speedblitzed as long as you have time to process a single thought!
*Defeat strange outlier-tier enemies with outrageously high Luck, Charisma, etc, should they appear.
*Prevent unfair 'symmetrical' field effects from screwing you over!
*Withstand the colossal Might of enemy Armaments!
*Hunger is mostly immune to the downside, as his massive physical durability, quick regeneration and wound penalty negation make physical damage less relevant. Worst case he can go Second Stage.
...ok, this one I REALLY REALLY like.
We can basically copy an enemy's strongest stats for the duration of the fight!
Just imagine how TRIVIAL this would have made the fight against the Armament Fish, for example, if we could have copied his Might!
And it even
synergizes (please don't be offended, I swear it's not a bad word!) with our health regen powers!
And it's passive/thought-activated!
Whenever we fight ANYONE who's better than us in at least a single stat, we can simply copy it! A great equalizer that brings us to the enemy's level AND THEN ABOVE THEM THANKS TO RANK AND OUR OTHER POWERS!
Are we facing a mage? copy Int.
Are we facing a shonen hero? we can probably steal Luck, they usually have lots of it.
An Armament/Kaiju? Might!
A tank? Might and/or protection!
SOCIAL CONFLICT?
CHARISMA (though, admittedly, ours is probably higher than most challengers we'll face anytime soon, but who knows)...
Yeah, I really REALLY
REALLY like this. It makes most fights against specialists of one stat much easier, and helps against anyone who has even the slightest edge on us.
Against Gisena, for example, we could steal Int and Cha.
Against any boss/ 4 pick fight: Start with Deathly Star/Artful Thorn, steal their best stat, and in most cases we already won.
And with this being thought activated it makes for a good last-second save in many cases. Never be speedblitzed! Never be outsmarted! Never be outlasted!
Again, LOTS to love from this one. And I like it much more than the Armor of Midnight we saw before, because it has no cost and can be used all the time!
[ ] Fifth Sign: As Above [Vast Empyrean] - The most foundational of sorceries wields the most fundamental of principles. That is all.
Required for Tenth Sign: So Below.
Unlocks [ ] Feat: Orb at an identical Arete and picks cost to Feat: Crown. Offers an impressive +.125 Base Rank, which is fully affected by Rank Gain modifiers.
Casting time: 12 hours
Duration: One Spell
Cooldown: 1 year
Reagents: Reagents of value sufficient to acquire the Fifth Sign by the wealth absorption method, or burn .1 Rank.
The caster's next Empyreal Sign is treated as if upgraded when cast. If their Rank would be lower than 10, elevate it to 10 for purposes of the casting. For example, Supreme Enclosure would be cast as Bring to Heel with an Astral Rank of 10. Does not affect Passive Signs.
Halve the Reagent cost of this spell and reduce Casting time to Instantaneous if performed on the summer or winter solstice of the caster's native world, or a world sufficiently similar. The Voyaging Realm qualifies, though winter solstice is far away...
*I probably don't need to advocate for this option, given the ludicrous power and versatility it represents.
*Mind the costs, though. And the cooldown...
*Somewhat synergistic with your high +Rank gain % build, though Rank is not easily won in this world.
mh.. an interesting option. In some ways even better than the previous one.
first of all, I'd like to point something out: We can probably use this in the Evening Realm, feeding the cloak with reagents from the Evening Realm to speed up the casting.
After all, while we can't bring anything we create OUT of it, that doesn't mean we can't use it while IN it.
We might even be able to create enough money to unlock the sixth sign, actually, though that would likely be something requiring either some level of mastery, or some arete, or both.
My point is that, while maybe not on our first evening vacation, we'll probably be able to boost a spell for free at least once every vacation, and more if we use them in there to train.
Maybe we can even manipulate the Realm to be in a perpetual solstice, though it probably doesn't qualify as "similar enough"...
The annoying part is that we can't actually choose WHICH spell to boost. It's automatically the following one.
Also it comes with the second Feat of the new trinity, giving us another way to get even MORE rank relatively soon, right after we finish Fisher King for the extra rank bonus...
Now, let's think of possible ways our signs could be boosted.
1st sign: Nightmare Flight
[ ] Nightmare Flight [Evening Sky] - As sudden and total as the onset of night.
Casting time: Fifteen minutes to charge
Duration: Once charged, persists up to 24 hours or until used
Cooldown: Until Next Evening
The caster and up to four additional individuals immediately teleport to any location under the same sky. The location must be familiar to the caster. Can pierce wards created by lesser magics. The Empyreal Signs sit only modestly below the Royal Praxis in potential power, though such is difficult to realize...
Can act as perfect defense against attacks of insufficient range / area or spatial penetration, should the caster react in time. Allows the traversal of far greater distances in the Voyaging Realm than the Noonday version of this sign.
well, the obvious possibilities are that it will either allow us to teleport more people (which means we won't need multiple teleportations to bring a bigger party with us, so we won't need to leave anyone behind), maybe it could allow us to teleport
enemies away... and, maybe,
just maybe, it would allow interdimensional teleportation, or teleportation to places we HAVEN'T been (or scried) before.
For example, say, Letrizia's lands? Or the Astral Realm?
This might very well allow us to bypass the Voyaging Realm's defenses, AND allow us to teleport between the Human Sphere and Our VR Kingdoms easily and cheaply.
Of course we don't know
exactly which of these boosts are likely to be applied, but at least one of them is very likely I think.
...ok, I JUST noticed the 1 year cooldown for this 5th sign. THat's annoying, and pushes me a bit more towards the noonday sign.
On the other hand, it also means the boost is likely to be greater than I expected. a teleportation directly to Letrizia's lands with our whole party sounds like something we could DEFINITELY use, though it has to contend with the other possible uses.
2nd sign: Bastion of Myth
[ ] Second Sign: Bastion of Myth [Evening Sky] - Ineluctable and unconquerable as a neutron star; merely to approach is to be bent into his sway. Hostile gravitation finds little purchase against such deeper might.
Synergy: Hero-Defeating Stance - Doubles the effects of Hero-Defeating Stance in all parameters. Hostile Rank greater than the caster's has its respective difference halved, then halved again. Increases Rank by a total of +0.4 (does not stack with Once and Future). Discounts Once and Future by 2 instead of 1. Grants additional commensurate Might, Agility, and Wisdom.
Casting Time: Instant Upon Acquisition
Duration: Permanent
If this counts as passive, we can ignore it. but technically it's not defined as passive, but as "permanent, with instant casting upon acquisition".
Could we maybe cast it again, and so get a higher bonus from it?
If so, it means we can get some extra power from boosting this. Still, the "1 year cooldown" makes this a bit hard to justify any time soon, especially as we don't know just what the power boost would be like.
3rd sign: Supreme Enclosure
[ ] Third Sign: Supreme Enclosure [Evening Sky] - The Luna Conquerer extends his reach, and within his grasp finds clutched a minion or servitor from beyond the arc of the physical.
Casting time: 1 hour
Duration: 1 Lunar month or until dispelled
Cooldown: 1 day after dispellation
Summons an Astral Entity of Rank no greater than the caster's own, minimum 7. The entity is incapable of directly harming the caster but is otherwise free to act, unless binding negotiations are entered into. If so, then both caster and entity will be bound to said conditions by the power of this sign; the summoned entity is by default unaware of this, but sufficiently powerful or capable entities may have means of making themselves aware. Entities can be dispelled by slaying them, or by waiting out the duration of this spell.
The summoned entity will tend to be useful for the caster's current short- and medium-term purposes, but this is not always the case. Their powers, tendencies and skills can vary wildly. Take care that you do not call forth what you cannot put down.
I don't remember where the Bring to Heel upgrade was showed, but it was basically "you can use this on Astral entities not summoned by you to take control of them, and you don't have to pay the Astral entity for their services".
So, in other words, we could summon a rank 10 astral slave. I think it's obviously tempting.
4th sign: probably Deathly Star
[ ] Fourth Sign: Deathly Star [Evening Sky] - 'Such force as to reduce entire worlds to ash, a pantheon-slaying strike of truly foremost malice.'
Casting time: Five heartbeats
Duration: Instant
Cooldown: Until Next Evening
The obverse reflection of Augustine's supreme offense, absorbed and now reflected by the Cloak of Sky. This is an onslaught of sheer destroying force that strikes across every level of the physical and conceptual gradient, targeting Health as well as the target's Attributes, both fundamental and emergent. Virtually no defense short of perfection absolute can shield against all the vectors by which this strikes. Cancel the apocalypse by marshaling power greater still.
Naturally, though imperfectly, scales with the caster's Rank. An attack that will almost never be irrelevant by virtue of its immense destructiveness, stellar precision and comprehensive scale. Theoretically useful even against Armaments in a direct contest.
I'm not really considering this one. Sure, it basically means our limit break will be even stronger.. but as we can only use the boosted spell ONCE PER YEAR, and it AUTOMATICALLY BOOST THE NEXT CASTING WE USE... it means we'd have to NOT use the signs at all to keep the super-ultimate ready.
Now, admittedly we'll probably not use summoning that often, but this means that, until the time we want to use the super ultimate, we won't be able to use the "normal" ultimate (deathly star) as well.
Or the teleport.
Or the Summoning.
Basically we need to either decide to actively NOT use the signs until necessary, or have enough forewarning (and no cooldown active) to prepare.
Ok, so, if we take this, I think we basically have a solution on how to leave the Voyaging Realm, possibly going as far as to reach Letrizia's territory in a single teleport with our whole team. After that... well, next time we could either summon an astral slave, or
maybe recast the 2nd sign's boost, or prepare the super-ultimate.
Or, potentially, boost any sign we unlock in the future.
Definitely a good choice, all things considered... I THINK it's a good choice if we don't take the Imperial Praxis cursebear, actually.
I imagine the Imperial Praxis could offer protection from the Voyaging's realm defenses against mage extradiction, but the other two either can't (Hubris All Might) or shouldn't (I refuse to wish a lesser wish from Haeliel on this!).
So, In my opinion this sign offers an easy solution to the "how do we leave the VR" problem, and in a year (so after a timeskip) we get to use it for something else.
Like, say, before declaring war on enemy armaments in the Human Sphere, and destoying them with a boosted Deathly Star, for example.
Or summoning a Armament-level Astral being to permanently control.
[ ] Fifth Sign: Armor of Midnight [Evening Sky] - The Cloak of Sky is the heavens and all their intervening vastness unfurled, yet that which was the Shroud of Evening has not forgotten the form of its predecessor. He who dons the Armor of Midnight becomes nigh-invincible to harm or ill, for the aegis of his panoply is as vast and unconquerable as the universal void.
Returns now the Evening Sky - not merely of twilight, but of all darkness, king!
Casting time: 10 minutes
Duration: 8 hours
Cooldown: 1 week
Reagents: If below Rank 11, burn .1 Rank, otherwise burn .01 Rank.
The wielder is nigh-invincible. Treat his Protection as effectively infinite for purposes of defending against any form of harm incapable of destroying the entire universe, otherwise treat his Protection as increased by one thousand. Non-damaging hostile conditions and unwanted esoteric conditions have their impact mitigated by three orders of magnitude or by a degree appropriate to the effect if it had attempted to target all interplanetary space within the entire universe, whichever mitigation is greater. This grants effective Stage II mitigation of all Curses while active. Returns the appearance of the Cloak of Sky to that of the Evening Sky while active; the disguise function of Skyveil may not be used for the duration.
*The Fifth Sign: Taking five Signs of the Evening Sky alone unlocks a moderate (for the Empyreal Signs) bonus, or, you may choose to defer until seven Evening Sky Signs are acquired for a major bonus.
*Rank burn is rough, but this would allow Hunger to tank even the Curse-unique Ultimates of most Armaments without their Shrouds and even some inside their Shrouds.
*Could also be used alongside Refinement of Quickness to intercept cosmically destructive blasts that would otherwise harm those you care about, or simply to project an air of invincibility that cows most opposition, extinguishing the possibility of dissent in their minds.
*More useful, though much more expensive, in truly dangerous situations than Procrustean Valor, though one does need forewarning to set it up. Still, the top end of Procrustean Valor is the Armor's barest minimum...
*The Evening Sky set bonus is fairly good but not worth compromising your build over, if you believe the Armor of Midnight to be a suboptimal pick. The Fifth Sign represents a substantial fraction of your total Sign-related power, and its careful selection should not be overridden for reasons of moderate synergy. The set bonus is roughly equivalent to half the benefit of a Third Sign-level spell.
*A major set bonus could have an impact on every Sign picked before, but who knows how long (if ever?) it will take for Hunger to get all the way to Seven Signs, and all of them Evening Sky
---
ok, Armor is a slightly better option now that we know of the sinergy buff from all evening signs.
Half a third sign means half the summoning, or the weather control, or the "at minimum charge +1 rank power" Pennant.
I don't think we're unreasonably far from the 7th sign, if we want to go in that direction, but that's because I expect us to be able to use Evening-Realm-generated wealth to buy the 6th sign (and possibly the 7th with enough mastery over it). Not getting to choose the 6th and 7th sign (or, alternatively, give up the sinergy bonus) is admittedly annoying though.
It's, in a way, making the "utility vs power" trade-off worse, though it does it by strenghtening the "power" side.
Now, let's consider this: Admittedly we can't use it as often as the Noonday Sky sign.
Also admittedly, this is much stronger than that.
Of course, it has a a pretty high cost for use.
This is also likely a solution to our "how to leave the VR" problem, by the way. After all, with a 1000+ protection at minimum (especially if we also take Iridescence), and Undying Vanguard possibly granting a fraction of it to our party, we can probably tank whatever the VT will throw at us once we try to leave.
This is, probably, the sign that helps with the actual conquest of the Human Sphere the most, by the way, as it's the only one that makes us nearly certain to defeat an Armament, and that can be used with relatively little warning.
The Noonday sign boost would allow us to copy an Armament's might, which puts us more or less on equal ground, but after that we have a difficult fight, depending on the match-ups between our powers and theirs.
The boosting sign would give us a super-ultimate, but it's a 1-per-year thing, which kinda makes me dislike it a bit.
This one, though.. this one, we can use relatively often, though we have to be careful to not overspend our hard-earned rank.
With all our rank-gain bonuses, this is not actually as bad as it sounds, and any fight that would have us use the armor would likely grant rank on victory.
So, all in all... I have NO IDEA which sign to pick!
I
tentatively would NOT take the boosting sign if we took the praxis cursebearer, as I think he can protect us while leaving the VR, so we wouldn't need the boosted teleport to leave.
Other than that... I think I'm
sliiiiiiiightly in favour of the Armor, but I can be convinced to go for the Noonday boost instead. Less raw power, but basically always active/usable and at no cost.
[X] Synthesis was the victor last vote, what will be the method?
oh, it did?
Well, let's see what are our possible solutions to the problem then.
[ ] Direct Line - With the knowledge now that an Apocryphal-influenced event is on the way, time is of the essence. There is no longer space to experiment with potentially frivolous paths of research. Instead, apply pure power to the question with overwhelming resources and might.
Requires the Fifth Sign of the Vast Empyrean.
Hunger will use As Above, burning .1 Rank, to summon an entity capable of dispensing sufficient quantities of Myth-infused platinum to run Adorie's government and replace all that he consumed. This would not normally be a practical method of addressing the issue, Myth-infused platinum being both highly specific and exceptionally scarce, but sheer weight of ability suffices to scour the field in this instance. This is more than enough to clear Hunger's personal debt and pay Aeira & Aobaru, although spending Rank for mere money is arguably the one of the worst trade deals in history...
*You pay a premium for convenience, but it's important to recognize when advantageous trades aren't a priority.
*A "good enough" solution that resolves the problem and frees up your further time and energy for other pursuits
*Expends your As Above cast for this year, as well as .1 Rank. Costly, but allows Hunger & party to orient totally towards the upcoming Apocryphal proc.
*You still effectively got the 4th Sign and all future uses of the 5th Sign for "free"
*Don't rely on chance, guarantee that you'll resolve this problem! Hunger's sense of honor will not allow him to simply renege on paying Adorie.
*Frees you to retreat from Nilfel, potentially (?) delaying the Apocryphal proc
mh.. I'm only willing to consider this if we also take the Praxis Cursebearer option, as I'd want to use "As Above" to leave the VR instead, either by using a boosted teleport, or maybe by summoning an astral being capable of smuggling us away.
Or... maybe we could instead boost the 4th sign, and use the super-ultimate on the "conceptual" defenses of the VR, if that's possible?
Even if it worked, though, it would likely make it easier/possible for the OTHER empires to smuggle mages away, which would likely become a problem for us thanks to Apocryphal, and might make it easier/possible for both the Chains of Fate enemy and the Shard to follow us in the Human Sphere.
[ ] Amplification & Distillation - As Gisena noted before, this entire realm is suffused by magic in the form of mythos. Myth-infused platinum merely holds a much higher concentration in a far stabler form. Given that the baseline essence exists elsewhere, it's a straightforward (if neither simple nor easy) matter of either distilling sufficient quantites of mythos from the external environment or amplifying the mythos inherent in objects, then extracting it and infusing it into mundane platinum. How specifically this is to be done is an extremely formidable technical challenge, since the very stuff of myth seems like something that actively opposes corporeal embodiment, much less scientific distillation, proliferation and perfusion. Still, it should hardly be beyond the bounds of Progression itself, or of Gisena's scientific insight. There's always a greater power, after all.
*Hunger & Co will attempt various means to synethesize Mythic platinum, such as by using Aobaru's Vigorflame to smelt and fortify mundane platinum while Gisena & Hunger attempt to infuse it with Myth via the causalty-warping effects of their Rings. Perhaps purified findross might serve as an adequate substitute, in which case Gisena merely needs to develop a Grace that can manifest such (not trivial). Perhaps Gisena could turn her attentions to repairing Verschlengorge in the hopes that Shroud Manifestation might be a useful tool for the purpose, even if this isn't even close to Verschlengorge's domain. Maybe they can try chipping off parts of the Walls of Myth for infusion. There are limitless possibilities!
*Success will depend on rolls with a bonus for both existing and novel tactics, as well as for relevant Attributes (General Rank, Int, Wis, Wits and Luck being relevant).
*Degree of success could vary wildly. The primary objective will be a quick & cheap solution that generates enough MYP to tide over Adorie's administration for a few months, though it's potentially possible to come up with a means of creating arbitrary quantities of the stuff.
*Will take time & energy.
mh.. I wonder, could we copy Gisena's int to face this challenge at her side if we took the noonday sign? there ARE stakes here, after all.
Still, we might not have the time to try this.
[ ] Blood Sorcery [12 Arete] - What Hunger needs now is effectively the inverse of Adorie's bloodline power: an effect that, rather than resisting existential diminishment, actively refines the essence of a material or person. This would normally be impossible to derive from current materials, but the power of the Blood Ring is not so easily denied, especially at such cosmically relevant Ranks as Hunger occupies by virtue of the Crimson Flare. Hunger can manifest a Blood Domain effect that allows him to directly invert the bloodline powers of another, even, to a degree, when this would result in elevation far beyond the target's station. It'll require a hero's determination and a virtuoso's finesse, but who would expect the Realm of Myth to demand anything less?
*Unlocked by generating sufficient tactics last pick
*This will definitely work, and will generate 2 picks. But can you afford the Arete cost at this juncture?
*Adorie will be able to generate Myth-infused versions of any object given a mundane version of that object. She can also slowly elevate a character's Rank over time, though the benefits of this ability are negligable for someone of Hunger's already high Rank.
*Requires Hunger's complete attention to buff the target safely, and is somewhat exhausting for Adorie to use, but that reduces the problem to a simple matter of keeping up Adorie's strength.
*After she deals with the current budget shortfall, Adorie will be able to mass produce mythic platinum for the Cloak's consumption whenever Hunger is able to visit her in person. Could lead to further "free" breakthroughs in the Empyreal Signs.
*Hunger can use this technique on other characters with bloodline abilities, including Surgecrafters, allowing him to either instantly neutralize most Surgecrafters with a modicum of effort, or spectacularly augment certain Surgecrafters with intense concentration.
mh.. a solution, a new power, an Adorie boost (..she ISN'T loosing her original powers, right? Or at least, the praxis-effecting part that we got from Tears!?) and 2 picks, in exchange for 12 arete.
Adorie could also maybe boost the ranks of our party members, though not Hunger himself. Maybe she could activate Gisena's rank, for example? Or help Letrizia with hers?
We can also obviously use this to possibly empower other surgecrafters (most of them are weak enough that we don't really need a weapon AGAINST them specifically), and if we come back in a few months/years Adorie might have managed to create enough magical platinum for our signs.
Actually, if she enters the Evening Realm with us, maybe she could boost mundane platinum created there? That's probably easier than outright creating the mythical platinum directly.
I'm willing to consider it. It depends on our arete reserves though. If we had 12 more after taking this, we could also take Fisher King (2 picks + 12 arete)..
...ehi, wait, Blood
sorcery? Does this makes us an ACTUAL FINDROSS USING Sorcerer?
Probably not, but that would be nice...
[ ] Complete Overkill (Requires Daylian or Haeliel) - Have your sponsor intervene to resolve this problem for you. Daylian's geokinesis can summon enormous quantities of Lazulite, which by its own ineffable nature can assume a variety of functions, including the replication of a substance functionally similar to mythic platinum for purposes of the prosperity technique. Haeliel can directly intervene to guarantee Nilfel's outrageous and ever-increasing abundance for ever, or empower Aobaru to the degree that Vigorflame could smelt Mythic platinum into being through sheer supernal veracity. Of course, these options have costs and risks in their own right.
This empowering of Aobaru is tempting, though we have to remember that "small chance of death, no rerolls against it".
Which, technically, means "small chance of Apocryphal Onslaught", to which follows "moderate or above chance of game over".
I think that if we take Daylian though we should choose this.
Sure, it will have a few downsides, but we'll have to deal with his Hubris anyway, so we might as well take advantage of his powers when they're the best suited
At least I think summoning Daylian would be better than using the 5th sign to solve this instead.
I wanted to post, "I voted for Broken Kaleidoscope before I voted against it," but John Kerry I am not.
