On a sidenote, given nine months have passed, I'm curious how strong Gisena has gotten. She does have access to 25% of Progression through Retinue, after all, which is no small deal.
When you also take into account that Sophont Halo + Grace of the Glaze got her to Sealing Protocol Level 2 on all of her Graces*, she was at a very solid jumping point for future escalation prior to the timeskip.
*Most relevant graces for accelerating this growth curve was Vanquisher's and Mental Apex.
Kind of makes me wonder what our other friends have done with the Timeskip. If we take Tree of Life, will Letrizia get over her ennui and start training her Rank 10 Sharpbright again? Did perfect manipulation of findross stores allow Gisena to awaken the Hungering & Threnody Sorceressess? What's Aobaru up to?
Right now I'm feeling
[1] Imprisoner True
[2] Tree of Life
[3] Unending Hunger
I don't know if anyone noticed this yet, but 9 months, in other words 9 visits to the RoE, in other words 27 weeks within the RoE, has gotten us significant benefits.
+27 Wisdom/Luck/Might/Agility/Willpower is neat and all, but surely the strongest effect is finally getting our base Rank to 10.
Now that it is, with OaF I, we have Rank 12 Military rank. That's a serious boost in effectiveness, since IIRC we've entered a tier past the High Ranks past Rank 11.
In other words, a difference of 0.1 is enough to be Overwhelming, not 0.5. Though, beings at this tier do tend to have a lot of anti-Rank, as Hunger himself does, so perhaps it's not as a big of a deal as I thought.
[X] Refinement of Battle: The Best Defense [X] The Unending Hunger
I could be convinced to vote for Master of Myths, or Imprisoner True, but for now this seems best.
Unending Hunger does two wonderful things, it gives us more curse mitigation, possibly even enough to reach the third step by the time skip, a prize beyond measure to all players, and it turns our robot into armor, making it actually fun to use, and qualifying it in my mind for a panoply spot.
First Omen: Who is Mistress Znel, really? And what is a Demon? She's mentioned another Demon as well, Naqerj, though you have no information regarding him other than his involvement in Lead Magic. She treats this world like it's a game or a toy, and one that she's mostly lost interest in. Supposedly she was once more engaged with it in the past, through the Blood Scions' empire. Maybe you can find out more by searching for remnants of that empire now?
Second Omen: Mistress Znel spoke of a place called the Temple of the Black Sun, apparently somewhere in the Summer Jungle, though she didn't say where. The way she called Secret Flames that can be found there 'murderous' can't help but make you morbidly curious as to what sort of temperament an entire Black Sun might have. There isn't too much to follow up on, but you at least know that there's a temple to it out there somewhere, maybe you could try and find it?
Form/Function
POWER
Value relative to starting value
FINESSE
Value relative to starting value
RESISTANCE
Value relative to starting value
PHYSICAL
Strength: 3+4=7
28.04x
Agility: 3+7=10
117.02x
Endurance: 3+8=11
188.4x
MENTAL
Intelligence: 3+4=7
28.04x
Wits: 2+4=6
17.42x
Wisdom: 2+2=4
6.72x
SOCIAL
Charisma: 2+4=6
17.42x
Manipulation: 1
Not... good
Composure: 3+1=4
6.72x
SPIRITUAL
Willpower: 2+6=8
45.14x
Luck: 2+5=7
28.04x
Protection: 2+5=7
28.04x
Progression: 5
Heartlessness: N/A
Miscellaneous/qualitative properties:
A body of black earth, the Life-Giver's blessed immortality, an artistic flare, immunity to transmogrifying maladies such as the formless plague or lycanthropy, as well as ANY creature traits, since the forms which you can take on no longer need to be biologically feasible as the black earth can sustain truly legendary shapes, and an elemental countenance. Able to freely evoke the inner earthly nature of any living thing, shaping it as easily as one might shape clay, though the subject will return to its ordinary substance when released.
Knowledge of the simplest power-words, and the skill to scribe them in copper, silver, and gold.
Able to gather the blood of slaughtered animals in specially prepared vessels, to arrange it in ritual formation, to draw out the elements of the blood-code and recombine them, either in yourself or in the form of a bound blood-spirit, and comprehensive knowledge of blood-codes, their formation, their meaning, and their mechanics.
Able to pursue Quests which do not begin at the Doors of Myth, to win miracles or die trying, the power to change the world, and to encounter danger around every corner.
"The Questing Knight can never truly be at rest, and can never truly be defeated."
To clarify the Parameters, lacking a better idea for generating base parameters I decided to guesstimate my IRL attributes in these categories (with a slight boost to a couple of Physical attributes to represent being able to give more attention to exercise while growing up post-reincarnation - edit: I increased a few attributes a bit more to factor in the training "benefits" of Znel's fuckery while growing up). I should also explain that I'm operating on the assumption that purchasing both Clay Magic and Sacred Earth will effectively unlock the bonuses of Body Sculpt as well. I'm also assuming that the limit of "no more than three in any attribute" doesn't really apply with a Sacred Earth body. If any or all of that's mistaken, I'll adjust accordingly.
This build is focused on maximizing the gains from Questing Magic, as that's a build-defining pick if there ever was one. To that end, it incorporates multiple additional sources of +Progression, and will probably seek to initiate into Key Magic as soon as feasible in order to add another. The Blank Mask in particular has excellent synergy with Questing Magic, as the Mask will grow fastest when fed a steady diet of heroic deeds, which Questing Magic practically mandates. The insertion location is also excellent for both of those - slaying dragons is literally archetypally heroic, as is leading a plucky resistance against rapacious invaders pillaging the land and slaughtering the inhabitants. Nishiminji is basically a two-for-one deal on high-grade sources of progression for your Questing Magic and your Blank Mask. Questing Magic also offers what is IMO probably the best possible mitigation for the Root sacrifice - not so much by actually alleviating the effect as by rendering it somewhat moot. Meaning, constantly Questing is not especially compatible with settling down anyway.
Sacred Earth, meanwhile, covers for the primary drawback of Questing Magic - constant danger is a lot less threatening when you're literally immortal. The physical stat boosts are pretty damn handy too, especially since now you can reconfigure your body into literally anything with Clay Magic. Fighting a physically powerful and agile enemy who can pull bullshit like spontaneously growing extra arms - or wings, or scorpion tails, or literally whatever - using mass drawn from the earth under their feet, while tracking your movements with literal eagle eyes, and so on, would have to be an absolute nightmare.
Blood Magic, besides adding an excellent additional source of +Progression, also synergizes extremely well with Clay Magic. Why, you ask? Because, used with care, Clay Magic is able to change the very blood-code of subjects. In other words, to gain the blood-code attributes of [whatever] for yourself or your blood-spirits, you no longer need to actually track down and kill [whatever]. You can just, say, buy some cattle, modify their blood-code to be the same as [whatever], then drain them for your rituals. It also works well with the insertion point, as dragon blood is presumably highly useful for Blood Magic. In addition, being specifically hated by the dragons will probably be helpful for legitimating the otherwise-offputting use of Blood Magic in the eyes of your local allies - after all, if those invading bastards hate it, it can't be all bad. Of course, the dragons will probably hunt you down with extra focus because of it too, but you're literally immortal and I suspect that dynamic works well for a Quest anyway. Blood-spirits will also be very useful for supplementing your guerilla forces and soaking casualties otherwise likely to be taken by your actual allies.
Blood Magic and Clay Magic also work very well with your insertion location as they unlock the ability to manipulate your own blood code with expertise, meaning you can imbue yourself with compatibility for Seeds of Magic in order to initiate into Tree Magic without having to pay for it at character creation. That does still leave the problem of actually obtaining Seeds of Magic, but being the Hero who led the resistance against the draconic invaders should be able to cover that, as that seems like a fairly reasonable level of gratitude to expect for a feat like that.
Ring and Rod magic, meanwhile, was pretty much chosen to fill out some of the build's weaker spots with its stat boosts. It also gives you some basic gear crafting capability to supplement your buffs and summons and add additional versatility and ranged firepower. Nothing spectacular there, just a patch to mitigate the build having too many flaws. You're not in a particularly good place for learning more power words, but being immortal means you literally have all the time in the world to remedy that.
The Omens chosen should also have good synergy with this build. Notably, they both seem like good targets for a Quest, as well as potential opportunities to accrue significant power in synergistic ways. For the First Omen, Clay Magic + Blood Magic means that you have the ability to edit your own blood-code, the knowledge base of a Blood Mage who has received the personal tutelage of Mistress Znel herself, and the prerequisite ability for purchasing Blood Scion. Together, I believe this should mean that if you can, via "regular" adventure-archeology or Questly shenanigans, acquire a sample of a Blood Scion's blood-code you can make yourself a Blood Scion. +++All and the incredible utility to a Blood Mage of a Blood Scion's abilities would be a hell of a thing. Especially since if you teach Blood Magic to your allies, you could then also make THEM Blood Scions, which is just ridiculous. Indeed, this might be among the more plausible ways to truly repel the draconic invaders. Perhaps the Blood-Tree Empire shall rise from the bones of dragonkind...
The Second Omen should, for obvious reasons, wait until you've managed to initiate as a Fire Mage. Fire Magic might not initially appear synergistic for a Hero of the Arborists, but if the above musings regarding a Blood-Tree Empire were to come to fruition... well, an oft-unspoken prerequisite of true kingship is the ability to guard yourself against your own subjects. The stat +s of Fire Magic add to things this build is already very good at, but there's nothing wrong with going from "very good" to "stupidly, offensively good." While acquiring Secret Flame from the Temple directly addresses two of the biggest weak spots of the build, increasing your total Wisdom by ~66% and literally tripling your Manipulation from its base value (the relative value of these diminish if Blood Scion with its +++All has already been achieved of course, but is still non-negligible). Also, black flames are just metal as hell. Even though black flames + Blood Magic basically makes you perfectly embody the stereotypical appearance of an evil mage (which ++Heartlessness isn't going to help with), it's totally worth it. Especially since adding another source of +Progression is just excessive. But in the good way. First initiating into Key Magic, in addition to adding another source of +Progression, would also probably be helpful for penetrating the Temple's presumptive defenses, especially if it's shielded by esoteric bullshit like the Ghost Magic practiced by the kuhiguru.
I'm glad that someone took the plunge and picked up Questing! I was worried I'd made its downsides too harsh.
You are correct that Sacred Earth eliminates the limits for Body Sculpt, which are there to represent the physical limitations of ordinary biology. I'd caution you against being too careless with your life, though. The sacred garden of the Life-Giver is not easy to destroy, but if anything could do it, it would be ancestral beasts.
Fusion build is currently my favorite tied with space/law. Curse mitigation is always fun, and it makes our armament boy into a neat panoply slot that doesn't mess with our usual fighting style. I'm also just a fan of maximizing benefits, and space and law is definitely the best bang for our buck.
Fusion build is currently my favorite tied with space/law. Curse mitigation is always fun, and it makes our armament boy into a neat panoply slot that doesn't mess with our usual fighting style. I'm also just a fan of maximizing benefits, and space and law is definitely the best bang for our buck.
You know, if we want to turn Novakhron into armor, it occurs to me that we should really get around to reclaiming the Armor of the Hero from our PC's second world in this incarnation. Its' power was preventing him from being slain while any piece of it existed, I believe.
In any case, an enemy Abduction specialist being our next Hero Assassination target, getting access to the Hero's armor, and as a result forcing us to Shatter ourselves really impressively if we lack the Task Leeway to Unshatter our dimensional alt instead of killing him beyond recovery?
That's the sort of thing Apocryphal would adore, I think.
Because I'm a dirty cheater, I've applied an errata, specifically to buff Questing Magic, since after discussing it in the discord, I realized that the Questing early-game is a bit rough considering the price Znel asks you for it. Instead of +++Willpower/Luck/Protection, it's now +++++Willpower/Luck/Protection.
How much would ++ echo potency be in practice? I don't think it would just add two pluses to all our echoes, that's just ridiculous. So would it be more along the lines of a percentage buff?
"I've thought about that," Aobaru said, "Yet there is still precedent for men and women of great ability to advance the interests of a capable and benevolent ruler. If the yoke of your tyranny is light, and the consequences positive, I can serve as a sort of wandering champion, pursuing our mutual interests even if outside of any formal command structure."
As a preliminary vote, I'd like to reinforce the damaged territories that is now Hunger's responsibility to rule over, which should help reconcile with Aobaru's sensibilities. Could be swayed for True Imprisoner, but focusing on reversing Dien's atrocities takes higher priority for me.
Unending Hunger's sheer benefit from extra Curse Mitigation isn't very appealing to me due to its mono-focus.
"It's been quiet for too long. But, I believe interesting times are coming again! Rumor has it that something's cropped up in the Epistolary Realm, a walking blot of disinformation that resists all forms of remote viewing... I dispatched a full legion of your echoes to investigate, but none so far have returned!"
Epistolary means composed of letters. The entity is described as a blot of disinformation, as distinct to a lack of information. Thusly, Rihaku has received a copyright notice in incomprehensible legalese. An ISH 4+ threat!
[X] Refinement of Battle: The Best Defense [X] The Imprisoner True
Imprisoner is the strongest and I do really like space so I'll vote for it. Besides this would give us access to Seven Seals which was offered alongside Accretion in the beginning. Here's the blurb for it,
[ ] Seven Seals - The magic of the world was evocation of the self, the light of the soul made manifest. Each who had awakened to the light could offer their own unique capabilities, but few were as versatile and encompassing as this. The power to Seal can broadly be thought of as the inverse of reification: a flame becomes the character for 'Fire'; an onrushing torrent locked into a picture of itself. But this is an ability whose applications well exceed mere storage and containment. Not only can attacks from one foe be captured to be released against another, the nature of things sealed can be intensified through addition or fundamentally altered via combination. One may lack the equipment to meld fire with stone, but far easier to combine the character 'Fire' with the character 'Stone.'
And stranger effects than this are possible for a true master of the art: drawing upon sealed reserves without unsealing them; sealing and combining concepts; safely converting one's self into a seal, thereby to reside halfway into the Realm of Forms!
*An extremely versatile ability that allows for countless permutations
*Seal and redirect enemy attacks or convert any convenient form of quickly moving mass-energy into attacks; contain and constrict the abilities of foes; channel intensified sealed strength for superhuman attributes, seal one's own tiredness, or even become a being of pattern more than form and sear yourself across the span of reality!
*The first two Seals are easy to learn. Each subsequent level represents a rapidly escalating leap in difficulty. Progress will be relatively slow compared to other disciplines.
*Forbidden Art: Fifth Seal. The hero can no longer recall any details of the Fifth or higher Seals.
We're locked into whatever domains we pick for another 3 months so it would make sense to take something both strong and reasonably versatile like Imprisoner. It's not as though their aren't other methods to recover the lost population. With this we have a good method to outright prevent any harm that could come to the Hunan Sphere rather than tanking it and hoping to recover afterwards