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A Different Breed (Warhammer 29K)

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984.M29 | Turn 3 | The Flaw Unveiled
  • Threadmarks
    • The Flaw Unveiled( Great Curses Three) , A Dread Knowledge( Isha LIVES!) , A Grand Quest( The Vilest of Durance) ​
    Study of the Flaw within your souls has revealed that its effects are far worse than your most terrible imaginings, yet at the same time far better than you could have hoped—for it is not one curse, but three together which make up much of the diminishment of your people, yet a great measure is simply irreparable—for your gods, it is now clear, were more closely bound to your people than either of you ever imagined, and much of the vast strength your people commanded of Eld was not of soul or body, but godly blessings wrought into your very bones and flesh—and those blessings are lost forever with the deaths of the gods that granted them. Even were you to kill the Dark Prince tomorrow, the Aeldari can never return to what they were before the Fall, for those broken links were the making of the Old Ones and with their passing there are none who know enough of god-forging to restore them.

    The Three Curses​
    Laid upon the souls of the Aeldari are three Grand Curses, each of which is responsible for a large portion of your diminishment. Here at least is some good news, for there should have been four, one from each of the Ruinous Ones, or perhaps even five, with one lain in unity—but Khane is shattered, not dead, and so his claim on your souls remains in primacy over that of the Lord of Skulls—and the curse the Blood God tried to lay against you is but tattered, fading shreds, soon to be gone entirely, the fifth never even lain, despite the foundations you can see within the three that remain.

    The Eye of Tzeench( Sight of The Fateweaver) ​
    The weakest of the curses lain upon you, the Eye of Tzeench is weakest for two principle reasons: Firstly because the Fate-Binder's claim is part of his proclaimed dominion over prophecy and the prophets who give it, rather than the Aeldari specifically, and secondly because it is not the hand of Tzeench Himself that has laid this curse, but that of one of his greatest servants, Kairos the Fateweaver. The Curse itself is twofold, allowing its master to see all that the Aeldari see, stealing their vision for himself, and it also allows him to cloud the vision of the Aeldari's Seers. At present this curse is too weak to do more than unsubtly disrupt attempts at scrying, but true to form, if given time to grow in strength it will allow the Fateweaver to hide entire branches of past and present from view, and even present fully false visions as the truth—an insidious and dangerous working. However, it also appears to be significantly less stable than the other two, as it seems to have been designed with the Blood God's curse as a key element. You are uncertain if this working will ever reach its full potential as things stand, and it is fragile enough that a significant disruption will likely shatter the entire working, with one of its keystones missing.

    The Hunger of Slaanesh( Kneel in Rapture) ​
    The core of the Flaw is, ironically, the second-easiest of the Curses lain on your souls to resolve—while the Dark Prince has a strong claim upon you, so much so that much of your remaining psykeic strength is now devoted to resisting her lure, your people's utter rejection of the Soul-Thirster and Excess has gravely weakened this claim—as has the incompleteness of his victory over the Pantheon, for you now know that three of your gods have evaded its grasp, ensuring that the Prince of Pleasure does not have sole dominion over the Aeldari as it wishes—and so its claim may be rejected entirely, for the Souldrinker is a usurper, not the rightful heir of the Phoenix Court. And that is a weakness you can use…

    The Jealousy of Nurgle( She is Mine) ​
    Last of the Great Curses lain upon you, the Plague God's brings mixed news, for it is wrapped like a fetid, strangling ivy around your people's connection to Isha—which can mean only that the mother goddess of the Aeldari lives, and is held prisoner by the Lord of Decay, whom she has ever abhorred. This, too, is a subtle and insidious curse, for it strangles the half-psykeic nature of Aeldari conception, striking at the instant a newborn soul would be formed and rotting it to nothing in an instant. Yet even worse is a more subtle portion, encouraging, ever so gently, lines of thought that align to the Plague God: Stagnancy. Complacency. Despondency.
    And while both your own souls and Isha Herself clearly struggle mightily against this Curse, unraveling it even as those studying it watched, it was renewed just as quickly: this is an active working, no mere curse lain and forgotten, but actively channeled and powered by the Lord of Decay. It is likely that the best you will be able to manage is to mitigate the effects of this Curse somewhat, unless and until Isha can be rescued from wherever she is held prisoner, for if She were no longer in the Plague God's power, he would be unable to reapply his Curse after it unravels. Given the likelihood that she is held within the Garden of Rot, the heart of the Plague God's domain, this will be no small undertaking. It will take cunning, caution and expert timing—plus no small amount of luck—to free her, yet you must, for you cannot abandon her to the less than tender mercies of the Ruinous Ones. If only because should her resolve fail, the Lord of Decay would gain greater claim to the Aeldari, and the thought of your people falling into the influence of that god is abhorrent to a previously unimaginable degree.
    You have fully mapped the Flaw, and it is both better and worse than you could have imagined. Three Great Curses are lain on the Aeldari, one of Tzeench, one of Slaanesh, and one of Nurgle. The last has also revealed something you previously did not know: Isha lives, held prisoner by Nurgle. This will allow you to access the Interfactional Quest Mother Of The Eldar( The Vilest of Durance) , the effort to rescue Isha from her imprisonment. This will require more than you alone can bring, and so you must recruit allies and build strength fit to face a Chaos God in the heart of his power, if you are to succeed.
    Stand by…
    ​


    A/n: This is what Super Critical Success looks like, kids.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Professor Vesca said:
    Either we were making them next turn (which would have been ideal imo, as we dont have a guarantee that BT is bringing a superheavy) or they would get made this turn. Its fine, the Anvils can pull their own weight, expensive as they may be. They DO have the capacity to shoot other things. So its not the worst it could be.
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    We paid enough for 3-4 tanks each for a super heavy weapon that is probably our legitimately worst option in that weight class for fighting Eldar superheavies given Holo-Fields are designed to counter slow firing weapons that deal catastrophic damage like it and you don't need said damage in the first place to destroy them given their designs. You can mount two vehicle weapons on a light grav vehicle, and there's a reason the only faction that really double down on '11 barrels of hell' style weapon arrangements are Imperials who have slow vehicles that can't rely on being able to dictate range and shit infantry support for their armor due to doctrinal hangups. So given this thing really wants range and to be fighting armored vehicles… we paid 1300 EP for a Starblade and two Fatesevers. With the latter having a lot of concerns to use around key infrastructure and the simple fact there literally isn't an Eldar vehicle armored enough in existence to be an ideal target for it right now.

    It's a Super Shadowsword with a third of its EP invested in a gun that either is going to miss, or be stupendous overkill. For two of them we could have had around 7 lighter tanks to better reinforce multiple locations while still having the equivalent firepower of a few dozen Fire Prisms. I am completely unconvinced that this wasn't a vote for the flashy cool thing as opposed to practical necessities. We've wasted EP and SAP addressing a hypothetical threat with a supposed 'hard counter' ill suited for actual Eldar superheavies when we could have just built 5+ lighter tanks for less EP, wasted no SAP, covered more ground, and still brought a major concentration of firepower to the table with less risk of wasteful overkill or missing.

    We made a warmachine designed to hunt Gargants and Warlords by the bushel on an open battlefield and gaslit ourselves into thinking it was our best option for fighting Eldar at narrow choke points and in our own home.
     
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    Mechanis said:
    ​
    Stand by…
    ​


    A/n: This is what Super Critical Success looks like, kids.
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    Hoo boy

    This knowledge alone is one hell of a bargaining chip to bring to the table. Everyone else just conceded defeat from the beginning, but the Vulkari alone applied scrutiny to the exact nature of their diminishment and learned how insidious it really is. Ulthwe in particular would love to know "Seeing is compromised, expect direct interference from the Fateweaver so they can implement suitable countermeasures. That's likely Knowledge enough to bring them into the Respected category.

    Does that mean every NPC Space Elf faction was forced to take Conservative @Mechanis?

    And how did this become a Super Critical Success? Was it just a roll at the end or was it a benefit of investing over 15 actions into a three turn project?

    (I imagine that all of our efforts also managed to keep Chaos none the wiser to our poking at it? Especially since we moved before Tzeentch had full penetration into our scrying capabilities?)
     
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    Ha. 15 years for us to figure this out, that's fantastic.

    I doubt we'll manage to avert Biel-Tan's attack with this info, but if we can get this out to everyone early enough that'd be a big feather in our cap.
     
    Well this certainly flips the board on all of the Eldar factions. I wonder if Vaul-kesh can use this to essentially form the Ynnari movement early, or at least an equivalent for Isha instead. Sure Ynnead 's powers won't be granted, but this is right when the various post Fall cultures are getting set up so it isn't that much of a trade off.
     
    Mechanis said:
    The Flaw Unveiled( Great Curses Three) , A Dread Knowledge( Isha LIVES!) , A Grand Quest( The Vilest of Durance) ​
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    Let's fucking GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Eldar Progressives here we come!
    Good on Khaine for stopping us from getting Khorned
    Not surprised Nurgle's claim is the strongest. He is effectively the Eldar's ugly, stinky, stepdad right now

    Mechanis said:
    The Eye of Tzeench( Sight of The Fateweaver) ​
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    I wonder if we can't empower Cegorah to better combat this curse. He does have tangentially related domains to the Changer of the Ways, we could possibly shift his domains to do so...
    Edit2: This explains SOOOO much about Eldar Seers.

    Edit: The Slaneeshi curse explains the lack of Psykana from the Dark Eldar a lot better since it shows that them embracing the Prince of Pleasure's philosophy(?) means they strengthened that portion of the curse.
     
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    Stars Burning said:
    Wonder will this be enough to make be-tien back off
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    Probably not because the core of our conclusions is that 'the Dominion will never ever be recovered and the Eldar soul is so fundamentally damaged we can only ever be a shadow of ourselves'. Maybe they might on some level us identifying the nature of the Flaw and mapping it, but our conclusions are ideologically unacceptable. The real curious thing will be how Iyanden acts on this information.
     
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    Funny thing is, this actually justifies us building a Shrine of Khaine after this.

    "He was a piece of shit, but in our direst moment, he made the ultimate sacrifice--and in doing so, allowed for a spark of possibility outside of the shadow of the Four. That is worthy of recognition and homage--the Khaine of the final day."
     
    Mechanis said:
    The Eye of Tzeench( Sight of The Fateweaver) ​
    The weakest of the curses lain upon you, the Eye of Tzeench is weakest for two principle reasons: Firstly because the Fate-Binder's claim is part of his proclaimed dominion over prophecy and the prophets who give it, rather than the Aeldari specifically, and secondly because it is not the hand of Tzeench Himself that has laid this curse, but that of one of his greatest servants, Kairos the Fateweaver. The Curse itself is twofold, allowing its master to see all that the Aeldari see, stealing their vision for himself, and it also allows him to cloud the vision of the Aeldari's Seers. At present this curse is too weak to do more than unsubtly disrupt attempts at scrying, but true to form, if given time to grow in strength it will allow the Fateweaver to hide entire branches of past and present from view, and even present fully false visions as the truth—an insidious and dangerous working. However, it also appears to be significantly less stable than the other two, as it seems to have been designed with the Blood God's curse as a key element. You are uncertain if this working will ever reach its full potential as things stand, and it is fragile enough that a significant disruption will likely shatter the entire working, with one of its keystones missing.
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    Well that certainly adds a whole lot of context for why we nearly triggered a Tzeenchian tripwire last turn
    Further progress has been made, despite a close call with some manner of monitor-working; though curiously it bears the taste of the Fate-Binder rather than the Dark Prince. Regardless of how or why, the keys to the monitor were discovered before it could be tripped, and those working on the project have successfully looped it back on itself so that it cannot be triggered in the volunteers. Though it does rather raise other concerns.
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    Our Seers have unknowingly performed a downright legendary task in denying 3 of the 4 with none the wiser.
     
    Yeah, we are still gonna clash with the Biel Tan, 99%.

    That said, depending on how successfully we are at unspooling the curses, we might drop of the "We'll never be great again" attitude. Dominion fucked itself to death, and really should not be revived, but what follows might yet rise into something worthwhile.

    If anything, Vulkhari actually figuring this shit out is a strong argument in favour of that.
     
    Mechanis said:
    At present this curse is too weak to do more than unsubtly disrupt attempts at scrying, but true to form, if given time to grow in strength it will allow the Fateweaver to hide entire branches of past and present from view, and even present fully false visions as the truth—an insidious and dangerous working. However, it also appears to be significantly less stable than the other two, as it seems to have been designed with the Blood God's curse as a key element. You are uncertain if this working will ever reach its full potential as things stand, and it is fragile enough that a significant disruption will likely shatter the entire working, with one of its keystones missing.
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    So it's vulnerable to a significant disruption, perhaps like widespread knowledge it exists?
     
    Professor Vesca said:
    Yes.

    At long last, Kahine is forgiven.
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    I mean, I wouldn't call him outright forgiven yet, he still played a part in letting things get that bad.

    But it's a hell of an attempt to make Amends, intentional or not, that is worthy of honor.

    And the Shrine of Khaine of the Final Day has a great ring to it. Might even end up being the start of an Aspect Shrine that didn't exist in canon.
     
    Alectai said:
    Funny thing is, this actually justifies us building a Shrine of Khaine after this.

    "He was a piece of shit, but in our direst moment, he made the ultimate sacrifice--and in doing so, allowed for a spark of possibility outside of the shadow of the Four. That is worthy of recognition and homage--the Khaine of the final day."
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    I'm glad since this means we're not going to be outright rejecting the Aspect Shrine just because Biel-tan super-turbo-embraced them.
     
    Although speaking of the curses, besides spreading the truth that Isha Lives, the other one that has to be let known is Tzeench's given how it can grow. It needs to be suppressed as much as possible.

    Alectai said:
    Funny thing is, this actually justifies us building a Shrine of Khaine after this.

    "He was a piece of shit, but in our direst moment, he made the ultimate sacrifice--and in doing so, allowed for a spark of possibility outside of the shadow of the Four. That is worthy of recognition and homage--the Khaine of the final day."
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    Khaine of the Shattered Chains as a epithet perhaps?
     
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    Well if anyone is going to disrupt it, its going to be Ulthuan, not us. Khairos Fateweaver is probably focusing on Ulthuans efforts, not ours. We are artisans and craftsmen. Not seers and psykers. Its probably going to be a surprise that we were the ones to figure it out, but Kairos can only ever see the past and the future. He saw that we were never psykers of great acclaim, and that we never would be. But the present? where we were the only ones who gave up on the Aeldari Dominion and strove to build something new from the remains?

    How could he see that? He cannot see the present.
     
    Mechanis said:
    We're kinda ignoring that stupid short timeline because it leaves basically no room for all the big established empires that get mentioned in various backstory for planets and sectors, and that warp storms definitely shouldn't vanish overnight.
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    I'll admit, I never really got the impression that there were a lot of big empires around during the great crusade except for the Imperium, orks and maybe the Ragdahn. Everyone else seemed to be subsector to at best sector sized polities. Occasionally they have advanced technology sure, but ultimately the Great Crusade came across to me as an endless series of "villian of the week" encounters for the primarches and various crusade fleets.
     
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