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Sheesh. How the hell is V'neef so well adjusted compared to the collection of screw-ups and sociopaths that are her siblings?

One is never sure how well adjusted she actually is because while she is younger and has had less time for her feuding with her siblings to affect her she is also known for her charm and socal skills and thus is likely better than the rest at hiding that part of herself. We are also pre-disappearance and so while all the houses jockey for position the civil war clock has not begun ticking.
 
Love love love love loved this update! I'm very excited to start our second year.

[X] [Goal] The Serpent Witch
[X] [Storyline] Endings and Different Colours


Sheesh. How the hell is V'neef so well adjusted compared to the collection of screw-ups and sociopaths that are her siblings?

V'neef has a unique gift among her siblings. She's never had to ask herself "Am I mother's favorite?"

She knows.
 
[X] [Goal] Stone Towering Toward the Sky
[X] [Storyline] Swords and Legacy


Be like Dad, reach for the skies. Also, sword-good.

If we do this well enough, we might be able to keep V'Neef and Tepet allied, somehow, after the Bull wrecks everything. And if we don't do it well enough, we get delicious drama and angst as we're forced to choose between friends.
Given that she's married to a tepet, as well as her eldest daughter having one for her fiance, I'd say she's functionally allied with a branch or two of the family already. We would instead be joining in and solidifying said alliance and tying them to the prasadi house of Brucan. In addition, house brucan is bolstering it's numbers for a grab at the throne of prasadi. While we don't have much of a shot of empress coming in so late, backing vneef for empress and being backed in a bid to assert clans brucans dominance of the prasadi royal court, is a wise move.
 
Given that she's married to a tepet, as well as her eldest daughter having one for her fiance, I'd say she's functionally allied with a branch or two of the family already. We would instead be joining in and solidifying said alliance and tying them to the prasadi house of Brucan. In addition, house brucan is bolstering it's numbers for a grab at the throne of prasadi. While we don't have much of a shot of empress coming in so late, backing vneef for empress and being backed in a bid to assert clans brucans dominance of the prasadi royal court, is a wise move.
The reigning Rani-Satrap of Prasad is already a Burano. It hasn't come up yet, but she's Ambraea's paternal grandmother. The way Prasadi succession works, the next Rani-Satrap will be an Ophris, and then the one after that another Burano. The mounting political crisis is that the officially designated heir has been missing for years, and the Rani-Satrap refuses Ophris's pressure to have a new one elected without proof that her heir (also her close friend) is actually dead.

Clan Burano favours both Earth and Air, and so trends toward both traditional/conservative and highly idealistic -- trying to take the Prasadi throne after the current Rani-Satrap's death would be quite out of character for them without very good reason, and would throw the whole Prasadi empire into civil war.

As for S'thera and Kedus, well... Let us remember that there are currently many people engaged to Tepets who may not have that particular concern in a few years' time.
 
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They would also be trying to take the throne knowing that they are currently earmarked to reclaim the two rulers down the line whereas attempting to take the throne now risks them being eliminated from succession entirely (a given if they lose) which would be a significant loss. Do we know whether Kedus is serving in the legions at the moment? I would assume not because Tepet's have tended to prefer non-military spouses (somone needs to run stuff while the wife is serving) and since S'thera is very much a warrior it suggests that this may be the reverse. This is also before the Great Houses seized the legions for themselves and became desperate for loyal officers to replace the existing ones that were not seen as loyal enough (even if they were less competant).
 
[X] [Goal] The Serpent Witch
I love a good curse
[X] [Storyline] Metal Honing Stone
Loved the showoff nonsense at the docks, let's hang out with her
 
If we do this well enough, we might be able to keep V'Neef and Tepet allied, somehow, after the Bull wrecks everything.
IIRC they do in fact technically stay allied anyway in canon. It's just the dynamic changes from V'neef being like "they are my close allies and the military lynchpin of my faction" to being like "they are a broken liability and I'll probably dodge their requests when I can, but it's not like I've got other allies queueing up to replace them and my husband is still from their House so we're not going to formally end the alliance. Yet, at least."

And just to be persnickety, it's technically more like "the Bull and a conspiracy of every other non-V'neef House wrecks everything." The Tepet legions were subjected to so much sabotage on that campaign they were half-defeated before they ever took the field for the actual disastrous final battle.
 
IIRC they do in fact technically stay allied anyway in canon. It's just the dynamic changes from V'neef being like "they are my close allies and the military lynchpin of my faction" to being like "they are a broken liability and I'll probably dodge their requests when I can, but it's not like I've got other allies queueing up to replace them and my husband is still from their House so we're not going to formally end the alliance. Yet, at least."

And just to be persnickety, it's technically more like "the Bull and a conspiracy of every other non-V'neef House wrecks everything." The Tepet legions were subjected to so much sabotage on that campaign they were half-defeated before they ever took the field for the actual disastrous final battle.
Hmm. Maybe subterfuge build would be best then? Out sabotage the other army?
 
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I'm afraid I've got some bad news about S'thera, who is in fact a canon character:

Article:
The blind swordswoman V'neef S'thera lost her fiancé Tepet Kedus at the Valley of Shards. S'thera wants nothing more than to meet the Bull of the North in battle and kill him, but V'neef refuses permission each time she asks to raise a Wyld Hunt. To V'neef, S'thera's blood is better spent on daughters than on the snow, and she hopes to entice House Cathak into an alliance through her daughter's marriage, so far without success. Robbed of vengeance, S'thera now drowns her sorrows with drink and attractive young women.
Source: Dragon-Bloodes: What Fire Has Wrought PG. 72


Also some good news, if you think that blind bisexual swordsmaster women lost in grief and unrealised vengeance are cool, I suppose.
 
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Hmm. Maybe subterfuge build would be best then? Out sabotage the other army?
Going "I see your Sesus and I raise you an Ambraea" would be a very fun vibe. Though realistically, we're very young, have no established powerbase, and all the movers and shakers involved are also going to be Exalts. So it's probably not that likely we'll be able to affect events on that scale anywhere in the near- to medium-term. Being the Empress' daughter could skew the equation some, but probably not that far.
Also some good news, if you think that blind bisexual swordsmaster women lost in grief and unrealised vengeance are cool, I suppose.
I mean, I do. But I could do without the "lost in grief etc." part of it as far as the cool factor is concerned.
 
I'm afraid I've got some bad news about S'thera, who is in fact a canon character:

Article: The blind swordswoman V'neef S'thera lost her fiancé Tepet Kedus at the Valley of Shards. S'thera wants nothing more than to meet the Bull of the North in battle and kill him, but V'neef refuses permission each time she asks to raise a Wyld Hunt. To V'neef, S'thera's blood is better spent on daughters than on the snow, and she hopes to entice House Cathak into an alliance through her daughter's marriage, so far without success. Robbed of vengeance, S'thera now drowns her sorrows with drink and attractive young women. Source: Dragon-Bloodes: What Fire Has Wrought PG. 72

Also some good news, if you think that blind bisexual swordsmaster women lost in grief and unrealised vengeance are cool, I suppose.
Sounds like we should lean heavily into Stone towering toward the sky and try to save him instead. That or back them up with prasadi army and turn entire battle around.
 
Well, that is one spot check failed on my part. While the lost in grief part adds little in regard to coolness, it is useful in that it gives us a little more information about S'thera (especially at the time that Exalted games usually focus on).
 
[x] [Goal] Eyes of Black Diamond, Smile of White Fangs
[x] [Goal] The Serpent Witch
[x] [Storyline] Swords and Legacy


Sounds like we should lean heavily into Stone towering toward the sky and try to save him instead. That or back them up with prasadi army and turn entire battle around.

I feel pretty safe in saying that Prasad probably won't put an army towards the Bull of the North's campaign.

This quest seems to be operating without the expectation that we can change how things play out--we don't know the Empress is going to go AWOL, so there's no chance to warn her, or tail her, or whatever. So, given that, there wouldn't be any particular reason to be that worried about fighting the Bull's forces. Anathema are scary opponents, but they are foes that the Realm has learned how to fight over the centuries (and even prior to that, when the Shogunate ruled). The expectation would be more than victory might be relatively cheap or surprisingly heavy, but it would come either way. If they had any inkling of how bad it'd get, I'd expect more Realm legions to get deployed over Prasadi ones.
 
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Sheesh. How the hell is V'neef so well adjusted compared to the collection of screw-ups and sociopaths that are her siblings?
I believe that socialising involves skills. Skill can be from natural talent, or from falling in love with a subject and working hard at it, from seeing personal advantage to wielding it as a weapon and thus choosing to study, research, and hone those skills... to all manner of other origins. In my admittedly humble experience, that which one is most inclined to trust, is that which is most appropriate to verify. Afterall, politicians, some of the most skilled speakers and beloved charmers, have a reputation for dishonesty.

That which looks like "well adjusted", could very well be "good at faking it"...

Or she is just the family pet...
the Bull wrecks everything.
So, no doubt The Bull does, indeed, wreck everything, but how certain are we that the alternative to The Bull, is the lack of everything being wrecked? It is easy to find fault with "what is", compared to the difficulty of discerning "what would be"...
 
Sounds like we should lean heavily into Stone towering toward the sky and try to save him instead. That or back them up with prasadi army and turn entire battle around.
I have to say, I do not see 'averting the fate of the Tepet legions with our sorcerous power and an army from the opposite side of the world and changing the course of Realm history' in this quest's future. We're still gonna be in school, studying magic, by the time all this business goes down.
 
If they had any inkling of how bad it'd get, I'd expect more Realm legions to get deployed over Prasadi ones.
Given that there are multiple hints that the wrecking of the Tepet legions was intentionally done by several of the other Great Houses, I am not sure that anything would have been done nor is there much that Ambraea could do. While she likely has more influence than other DBs near her age due to her being the daughter of the SE, there are no shortage of the SE's children/their immediate decendents with a great deal more experience and influence involved in the Tepet situation.
 
[X] [Storyline] Endings and Different Colours
[X] [Storyline] Metal Honing Stone
[X] [Goal] Stone Towering Toward the Sky
 
[] [Goal] The Serpent Witch
[X] [Goal] Stone Towering Toward the Sky
[X] [Storyline] Endings and Different Colours
[X] [Storyline] Metal Honing Stone


I feel like with the options presented that I can only select what I know I don't want. With Sola having plenty of time to develop, I feel more at ease pursuing the other two, especially Deiza to see if we can turn this rivalry into an opportunity. And I'll say it again, I don't want Ambraea to turn into a carbon copy of Big Red.
 
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[X] [Goal] The Serpent Witch
[X] [Goal] Stone Towering Toward the Sky
[X] [Storyline] Endings and Different Colours
[X] [Storyline] Metal Honing Stone


I feel like with the options presented that I can only select what I know I don't want. With Sola having plenty of time to develop, I feel more at ease pursuing the other two, especially Deiza to see if we can turn this rivalry into an opportunity. And I'll say it again, I don't want Ambraea to turn into a carbon copy of Big Red.
I'm more interested in taking her along the path of a Prasadi Dragon blood of House Burano than any interest in following her mothers path, which means swordplay and the goal that favors the Brucan motto.

In addition while I like snakes, the way that goal is being presented makes me warry. If we were to evaluate them on what kind of ruler Ambraea would be building from that sort of foundation, the first makes her a sort grand chestmaster, playing the court against itself, the second is a sort of Unknowable Terror, ruling thru fear, with the last being an unflabbable general, inspiring thru dedication and unwavering courage.

I'm more interested in the last. It's a more personable build. I think that most of the people voting for serpent witch are doing so because of spirit's when our connection to Diamond cut perfection already guarantee's some interaction along those lines. I'll just have to hop for a turn around.
 
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For my part, it kinda sounds like a choice of which aspect of the collapse we want to try to manage.

Do we try to hold the nobles together and keep them pointed at the actual enemies?

Do we learn the secrets needed to make an attempt at the realm defense grid?

Do we try and beat back the tides that flood into the realm?

Personally, I want to try for the realm defense grid, and that means learning hexes and the deeper secrets of spirits.
 
For my part, it kinda sounds like a choice of which aspect of the collapse we want to try to manage.

Do we try to hold the nobles together and keep them pointed at the actual enemies?

Do we learn the secrets needed to make an attempt at the realm defense grid?

Do we try and beat back the tides that flood into the realm?

Personally, I want to try for the realm defense grid, and that means learning hexes and the deeper secrets of spirits.

Y'know going after the Sword of Creation would be an extreme, but logical progression for Ambraea who wanted to be a sorcerer in emulating the image she had of Big Red. But if that's really gonna be our goal in the long term, I'd be saying no to that option just because it would mean wading into Mnemon's and V'neef's ongoing rivalry, and I fear getting too caught up in it. And yet the choices we've made for our education and initiation, the Mysticism and the Elemental, make us the most suited towards that goal without the latter causing us too many problems.

Still gonna rescind my vote for Serpent Witch though.
 
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