Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

Now, it's likely not benevolent (fire raksha), but it might be useful. And yeah, obviously we aren't letting it to just run around. If nothing else, having a steady supply of Gossamer would go well with our new forge.
If we really need gossamer we should just make a splendor for Rosie who is already an Oneiromancer to ethically harvest the stuff of dreams from people because rakasha can only get it by ravishing and while the term is rather tasteless it's not incorrect In what it does to Mortal people. Whether that be drinking the screams of mortals (Sword), drinking the years of cherished memories (Cup) (Pathfinders/Iku-Turso), creating a wine dark Madness that obliviates the selfcontrol or containment of their victims (Ring) or the most direct and Savage form of ravishing the complete diminishment of the self your convictions and your ability to stand up in both the physical and metaphysical sense (Staff).

So maybe theres a way for them to make it from the Never Never but considering what we see the Pathfinders doing I don't think that's the case.
 
[x] Offer to go to the Nameless Place and get his Cup back. You seem to be making a habit of springing people who do not belong in jail recently, not to mention you are good with talking
-[x]100 years of service seems fair.
I would say that's too many years but these guys perceive and experience time very differently. He doesn't want to be a "tool's tool" but he may not see an issue with working under royalty for a relatively brief (as far as immortals are concerned) period of time.

We never actually told him who we are so we could try this angle.

[X] Plan: Terms of Service
-[X] Introduce yourself as Queen of the Five Fold Courts of Fate.
-[X] Offer to go to the Nameless Place and return to him his Cup. You seem to be making a habit of springing people who do not belong in jail recently, not to mention you are good with talking.
-[X] In exchange for being reunited with his other half ask for 100 years of service.
--[x] Etiquette excellency

Edit: Changed to an etiquette excellency
 
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Conversely it is quite hard to tell what a Raksha will do if you remove one of their Graces, case in point what happened here.
I do feel the need to clarify now though, was this supposition on Molly's part or is this what the spirits from before told us directly?

while to the west there still lurked the Embermane, a patron of wild fire and misfortune that had only once been loosed upon the mortal world, but still hungered for the screams of men
 
I do feel the need to clarify now though, was this supposition on Molly's part or is this what the spirits from before told us directly?

The spirits told you directly, but keep in mind the spirits have only his history to work with, he does not seem like the talkative sort. Given that history Molly can well imagine a world where they conflated the Great Chicago Fire being set to summon him with him setting the fire especially since well... he is missing his compassion/desire. He's not what one would call personable.
 
I would say that's too many years but these guys perceive and experience time very differently. He doesn't want to be a "tool's tool" but he may not see an issue with working under royalty for a relatively brief (as far as immortals are concerned) period of time.

We never actually told him who we are so we could try this angle.

[X] Plan: Terms of Service
-[X] Introduce yourself as Queen of the Five Fold Courts of Fate.
-[X] Offer to go to the Nameless Place and return to him his Cup. You seem to be making a habit of springing people who do not belong in jail recently, not to mention you are good with talking.
-[X] In exchange for being reunited with his other half ask for 100 years of service.
--[x] Charisma excellency

Edit: Changed from empathy to charisma.
We don't have a Charisma Excellency. You were right the first time or you could change it to Etiquette or Occult for making deals with Spirits maybe.
 
We don't have a Charisma Excellency. You were right the first time or you could change it to Etiquette or Occult for making deals with Spirits maybe.
Okay, this is the second time I got that wrong. Do you mind stating which stats we're allowed to use excellencies on? This seems rather arbitrary.

I changed it from empathy because his capacity for it is in his missing fragment (Cup) so I didn't think there'd be a point after rereading. Transcendent Lord of Flies was said to be in affect though so it may not be necessary but I'll add an Etiquette one anyway since this is fairly important and it's hard to say how much of an ask it is.
 
Okay, this is the second time I got that wrong. Do you mind stating which stats we're allowed to use excellencies on? This seems rather arbitrary.

I changed it from empathy because his capacity for it is in his missing fragment (Cup) so I didn't think there'd be a point after rereading. Transcendent Lord of Flies was said to be in affect though so it may not be necessary but I'll add an Etiquette one anyway since this is fairly important and it's hard to say how much of an ask it is.
We can use it on abilities empathy etiquette anything below the attributes Stateline That we have highlighted. Solars, Infernals Abyssals, Sidereals, Dragonblooded are all ability based which means when they use an Excellency it's based on the ability that you're using rather than the attribute. Charisma is an attribute it essentially decides how you use an ability rather than something that we can Excellency it is a matter of how we're going about it. Only lunars Lydia and any other Attribute based Exalted that we meet can use attributes as Excellency. More specifically the key and Kingdom charm is our Excellency charm it is a one dot charm that we could use to apply to abilities to get more excellencies in more abilities if we wanted economics politics or anything else we could buy this one dot charm to have an Excellency for that ability. Which is to say it is kind of arbitrary but that's more due to the fact that abilities can be used with a large combination of attributes rather than a inflexibility on how you can use an Excellency.

For example if we were holding someone's neck against a wall we could use strength plus intimidation and then use an intimidation Excellency. A lunar could do the same thing but would use a strength Excellency. Wow this got away from me quickly sorry if it's a bit long.
 
Fire's Depths​
7th of February 2007 A.D.
COMMENTARY
Ok, this feels like another bigtime former raksha.
Iku-Turso big, which means we are potentially dealing with something the size of a real world volcano spirit OR an old god from the old pantheons.

Sixteen eyes? A spider has 8, IIRC.

Demonreach was able to fend off simultaneous attacks by
  • The Great Walker He Who Walks Before and an small army of lesser Outsiders and mortal accomplices
  • Winter Lady Maeve and her entourage
  • Summer Lady Lily and her entourage

At the same time.While still mostly dormant because its Warden wasnt dialled in yet.
There was absolutely negative chance that Embermane could have punched through Demonreach's defenses.
And any Denarian would have known this.

Which means that whatever its goals were, using Embermane to break the prison wasnt likely to have been part of it.
Potential goals being infiltration to steal something, or just an attempt to seize control.

Nevertheless, fucking with Supernatural Supermax is incredibly reckless.
I think we need to know which Fallen-human pair did this, and when.
As a priority. So we can have them un-Alived.

Im also going to note that Embermane appears to mention a single Denarian, not a group of them; whichever Denarian did this appears to have tried to do it on the down-low.

We also need to find out who was the poor fellow who got sacrificed.
Faith suggests he was a priest, but it doesnt necessarily mean that he was one.


[x] Offer to go to the Nameless Place and get his Cup back. You seem to be making a habit of springing people who do not belong in jail recently, not to mention you are good with talking
-[x]100 years of service seems fair.
No, it is not.
Pretty much a "your eyes are bigger than your head" situation.
At most, this would be a three favors situation. At most.

[X] Plan: Terms of Service
-[X] Introduce yourself as Queen of the Five Fold Courts of Fate.
-[X] Offer to go to the Nameless Place and return to him his Cup. You seem to be making a habit of springing people who do not belong in jail recently, not to mention you are good with talking.
-[X] In exchange for being reunited with his other half ask for 100 years of service.
--[x] Etiquette excellency

Edit: Changed to an etiquette excellency
Telling the not-raksha who just told us that he refused to serve that he should serve us for a hundred years seems like the sort of thing that would engender ill-will.
At best.

This is really a case of "Read the room"
Was there ever a solid given canon explanation for why Demonreach was left without a Warden? I do recall it being said that Kemmler was it's last Warden, you'd think the White Council would try and have someone there (or at least with the position) for asset denial if nothing else.
Kemmler wasnt its last Warden.
Kemmler was the third to last Warden; there were two Wardens between him and Dresden. Word of Butcher was that there was a stalemate among the senior wizards, who werent sure who could be trusted.

Its implied at some points that Kemmler was corrupted by some of the entities in the Well; that he either listened to some of the whispers, or drew from some of the power before he could
Regardless, thats the sort of thing to make White Council wizards especially wary about who can be trusted with it.

Citation:
Reddit Transcript said:
Priscellie: Who was the warden of Demonreach before Harry?

Jim: Lemme think, I know who it is, and who the guy before that was, but the guy before /that/ was Kemmler so...


Priscellie: Oh god. *laughs*

Jim: Yeah, I mean, half of that entire thing was just the white council trying to keep Kemmler from getting back to the island and opening it up. Which is why they had him being hounded by the wardens all through the wild west and so on. It was to stop him from being able to set things up even more. Kemmler is sort of in the Dresden Files universe he's sort of the Dresden Files version of WWI where it was actually the biggest most epic most incredible conflict the world has ever known but we're all used to seeing WWII because they got some of it on film but we didn't get nearly as much of the great war on film but when you actually go and study it and study all the troop numbers and resources involved WWI was really the great war and WWII was kind of a follow-up. A softer echo in many ways.

Priscellie: In terms of how long someone is a warden, I'm sure it varies from case to case but how long does wardenship typically last?

Jim: It depends on how quickly it gets you killed.

Priscellie: Is that the only way out?

Jim: I'd say it's not the only way out. You can definitely walk away from it or be dragged away from it or driven away from it. And then if somebody else comes along and challenges Demonreach then it's their island if your influence isn't there anymore. By the time Harry got there nobody had been there in a good long while because among the people who are in the know on the council it would be suicide to go try and do that. If one of the senior council guys got it all the other senior council guys would be like "yep he's the bad guy he's definitely corrupt and serving evil". And then Dresden walked into it and it was just such a stupid move they all kind of looked at him and went "I think he was he was being dumb? Do you think he was being dumb? Yeah it looks dumb. It looks like he was just being stupid, oh my god, we do need the firepower", you know, like that. The poor council, they find themselves so strapped for resources in so many ways that they keep having to tolerate Harry Dresden.


Priscellie: Did his (Kemmler) wardenship end when he was killed after WWII?

Jim: It ended during one of the times they killed him. Kemmler got killed a bunch of times. He was one of those fun villains who just kept getting back up again just kept Napoleoning his way back into being a problem for the white council.

Priscellie: Pop goes the weasel for necromancers.

Jim: Exactly.




Source:

Barbara's Bookstore Q&A transcript

Since this Q&A answers a lot of questions I figured I might as well post it here too. Question marks near words that aren't questions means that...
 
Telling the not-raksha who just told us that he refused to serve that he should serve us for a hundred years seems like the sort of thing that would engender ill-will.
At best.
He said that he wouldn't be a "tool's tool" not that he wouldn't serve. We aren't asking it to do something which would obviously doom itself either, in my plan we'd be bringing its other half over to it. The context is similar but there's some key differences in this offer compared to what happened before, therefore his response maybe different as well.
 
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@uju32 Well then someone has to vote to not take the plot hook, or a different deal because right now the other option seems to be blindly unleashing a monster on the land.
 
VOTE
[X]Plan Cupbearer
-[X] Offer to go to the Nameless Place and try to get his Cup back. You seem to be making a habit of springing people who do not belong in jail recently, not to mention you are good with talking
-[X] Ask more questions. What was the name of the Denarian? The sacrifice who communed with Embermane? (Charisma+Etiquette DC 9)
-[X] Does anything remain of the sacrifice or the sacrificer? Anything that would be useful/relevant to an investigator?
-[X] When did these events happen? Before or after the birth of Christ? Who were the Fae Queens then?
-[X] What does he know of the Nameless Island?
-[X] Active buffs: Transcendent Lord of Flies



RATIONALE
Shaped Raksha are usually not Creatures of Darkness.
So Demonic Primacy would not apply anyway.

This is a reminder: Saving Winter and Summer from infiltration of their very chain of command only got us Favors.
Saving Mab's daughter and heir got us a Favor.
Those people looking to enslave a Raksha for a hundred years have a significantly unbalanced view of what they can expect.
 
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He said that he wouldn't be a "tool's tool" not that he wouldn't serve. We aren't asking it to do something which would obviously doom itself either, in my plan we'd be bringing its other half over to it. The context is similar but there's some key differences in this offer compared to what happened before, therefore his response maybe different as well.
We are demanding a hundred years of servitude.
Thats very much what we're asking, and even an involuntary expression of anger can have significant consequences when dealing with a volcano spirit while there's a squishy mortal in the AoE.


Look up what a Cup's Grace is.
Raksha can live without them just fine; this one has evidently been doing so for years, if not centuries. They are just a lot more sociopathic .It is frankly in our best interests to return the magic organ that gives this thing empathy. For free, even.


Though I'd expect some balancing of the scales; in the Dresden Files, Fae-ish spirits remember favors done to them.
Dresden's army of Little Folk in Battle Grounds came from all the Fae he released for free during White Night.
He didnt demand anything from them then.

Again, saving Winter from subversion and destruction got us 2x Favors, not Mab or Maeve swearing to serve us for a hundred years. Temper your expectations
@uju32 Well then someone has to vote to not take the plot hook, or a different deal because right now the other option seems to be blindly unleashing a monster on the land.
See plan.
 
-[X] Does anything remain of the sacrifice or the sacrificer? Anything that would be useful/relevant to an investigator?
-[X] When did these events happen? Before or after the birth of Christ? Who were the Fae Queens then?
-[X] What does he know of the Nameless Island?
He got summoned by a nickel head puppet the only thing that would be remaining if he killed him would be the coin and he made no mention of killing him is so no there's nothing left. Because this happened a hundred years ago and he's made a fire.
He was summoned for or by the Great Chicago Fire which means Mab/Titania was the fae queen. Why does it matter if he knows the name of demon reach or not?
 
[X] Plan: Terms of Service
It is completely Immortal and otherwise it literally could never get this Grace back and this is the only alternative I'll take other than killing it.
Edit: Raksha are essentially a different flavor of demon they drink the souls of mortal men and they do it in a way that is completely synonymous with the destruction of their souls/Self. They're essentially Mikaboshi on a more personal scale so either let's kill this guy or get into our service either way let's not just let him run around.
 
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Again, saving Winter from subversion and destruction got us 2x Favors, not Mab or Maeve swearing to serve us for a hundred years. Temper your expectations
Different scenario and a favor from Mab or Titania is also a favor from their Court so it's worth much more than one would be from Embermane.

Saving Mab's court from Nemesis got us 3 favors as one was used to clear our perceived debt with Winter without our say.
Look up what a Cup's Grace is.
Raksha can live without them just fine; this one has evidently been doing so for years, if not centuries. They are just a lot more sociopathic .It is frankly in our best interests to return the magic organ that gives this thing empathy. For free, even.
Where? I didn't find anything on a wiki that would indicate they can live without them just fine. If we're it's only way of getting it back then I imagine we can ask for more than usual. I'm not seeing how a 100 years is a big ask to an immortal who doesn't and has never perceived time in a human fashion to begin with.
 
Where? I didn't find anything on a wiki that would indicate they can live without them just fine. If we're it's only way of getting it back then I imagine we can ask for more than usual. I'm not seeing how a 100 years is a big ask to an immortal who doesn't and has never perceived time in a human fashion to begin with.
The cup Grace when it exists governs communication empathy General ability to interface with others in a manner that is non-violent. The reason it's cable of talking to us is that the cup grace exists the reason there is no nicety or ability to recognize our face or tell what we are is because it does not possess its cup Grace. Which is to say if it's Cup grace was destroyed then it just be a monster it couldn't communicate or be understood in any particular manner other than what your perceptions would make a giant monster of Fire and it could no more communicate with you than a bonfire could.

So when Uju says it's lived just fine without its Cup grace it's not really true it can't relate or generally understand or recognize or form relationships with or generally act in a completely non-violent manner with another being without the cup so it kind of needs it if it wants to be a thing of Beyond just a beast on a volcano but if it was just a fiery monster then it doesn't need to Grace it's fine.

Edit: forgot something the cup Grace also governs desire of all types which means it's essentially trapped in a permanent depression as long as it does not happen.
 
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He got summoned by a nickel head puppet the only thing that would be remaining if he killed him would be the coin and he made no mention of killing him is so no there's nothing left. Because this happened a hundred years ago and he's made a fire.
He was summoned for or by the Great Chicago Fire which means Mab/Titania was the fae queen. Why does it matter if he knows the name of demon reach or not?
And there has never been a Denarian magic user onscreen who isnt a partner of their Fallen, instead of a puppet.
So you are wrong.

There is nothing that says WHEN he was summoned. Or who did it.
Was it back when Aurora was still Summer Lady? Or was it during Lily's reign?
We have no idea.

I didnt ask for the name of Demonreach. I asked what he knew ABOUT Demonreach.


[X] Plan: Terms of Service
It is completely Immortal and otherwise it literally could never get this Grace back and this is the only alternative I'll take other than killing it.
Edit: Raksha are essentially a different flavor of demon they drink the souls of mortal men and they do it in a way that is completely synonymous with the destruction of their souls/Self. They're essentially Mikaboshi on a more personal scale so either let's kill this guy or get into our service either way let's not just let him run around.
None of this is true either.
This isnt a Raksha. It probably USED to be a Raksha back in pre-history; its a spirit of some sort now.

Furthermore?
You dont even need to be Raksha to have a Grace; back in 2E, any Raksha with the appropriate charms could make one for you. There were spirits and Exalts and mortals with Graces. There's a non-zero chance this isnt raksha-born at all.

The next Warden of Demonreach could just as easily do a deal with it.
One that doesnt require slavery.
Different scenario and a favor from Mab or Titania is also a favor from their Court so it's worth much more than one would be from Embermane.
Saving Mab's court from Nemesis got us 3 favors as one was used to clear our perceived debt with Winter without our say.
No difference.
Like I said, we literally saved Mab's daughter and heir, and disinfected her Court.
That got us 3x Favors, one of which was expended on our perceived debt.

Our saving Joe Magarac from the Wicked City got us ONE Favor. For literally saving a dude from Hell.
So keep that in mind as a benchmark.

This entire hundred years of servitude bullshit is just that.
Its both greedy and shortsighted.
The grudging servitude of a spirt is worth much less than its active gratitude.

Like I have said before, Dresden's quarter million Little Folk army came from freeing a bunch of Little Folk and not demanding payment. People remember that sort of thing.
Even spirits.


Where? I didn't find anything on a wiki that would indicate they can live without them just fine. If we're it's only way of getting it back then I imagine we can ask for more than usual. I'm not seeing how a 100 years is a big ask to an immortal who doesn't and has never perceived time in a human fashion to begin with.
I opened the book Graceful Wicked Masques and looked. Circa p91
THE CUP
The Cup Grace is the font of the raksha's Compassion
and represents Desirability. Those who offer up the Cup
use it to invoke empathy in others. Raksha use it to feed
upon the Compassion of others and to undermine their
Temperance.
As mentioned before, each forged Grace manifests as a
minor Wyld artifact that has the indestructibility associated
with the magical materials but none of their material bonuses.

The bearer of a Grace is the being for whom the artifact was
forged and to whom it is sympathetically linked. The maker
of a Grace is the one who originally forged it. The owner of a
Grace is the one who is currently attuned to it. The possessor
of a Grace is the one with current physical possession of the
artifact. All of these titles can theoretically belong to the same
person. The owner can loan out or even give away a Grace,
but in the Wyld, it cannot be stolen from its owner except
through a successful shaping attack that vexes the owner (see
p. 125) or through the actions of a Creation-born.


Once the maker forges the Grace, he also becomes
both the owner and the possessor and is instantly attuned
to it. Possession can pass to anyone to whom he freely
gives the Grace (including the bearer) or to anyone who
successfully steals it.
Ownership comes with attunement,
which requires six consecutive scenes of handling and the
commitment of one mote.
In 2E, stealing or otherwise claiming another entity's Grace was a fairly well known occurrence.
Notice that Embermane has been without his Cup Grace for years now, if not longer.
He's still alive and active.

The critical Grace is the Heart Grace, which governs its Free Will, and he either still has that one, or he never forged a Heart Grace for people to steal in the first place.
 
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VOTE
[X]Plan Cupbearer
-[X] Offer to go to the Nameless Place and get his Cup back. You seem to be making a habit of springing people who do not belong in jail recently, not to mention you are good with talking
-[X] Ask more questions. What was the name of the Denarian? The sacrifice who communed with Embermane? (Charisma+Etiquette DC 9)
-[X] Does anything remain of the sacrifice or the sacrificer? Anything that would be useful/relevant to an investigator?
-[X] When did these events happen? Before or after the birth of Christ? Who were the Fae Queens then?
-[X] What does he know of the Nameless Island?
-[X] Active buffs: Transcendent Lord of Flies



RATIONALE
Shaped Raksha are usually not Creatures of Darkness.
So Demonic Primacy would not apply anyway.

This is a reminder: Saving Winter and Summer from infiltration of their very chain of command only got us Favors.
Saving Mab's daughter and heir got us a Favor.
Those people looking to enslave a Raksha for a hundred years have a significantly unbalanced view of what they can expect.
Pretty sure this guy has a connection to the Chicago fires, my impression was that the fire was part of the summoning ritual.

Also I think that should be an offer to try, not to definitively make it happen. Wouldn't want to be stuck with that as a hard requirement.

[X] Uju32
 
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