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A Simple Transaction I

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Rihaku said:
Gisena had now witnessed two examples of long-decayed Foremost Sorcery. The runes of Augustine, and the Grace of her sister Sorceresses.
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Interesting phrasing there. We've been assuming the Manifest Realm preceded the Foremost coalition; what if the causal chain goes the other way and Gisena's actually from the grim darkness of the far future? It'd help explain the ithilyor's ignorance of their heritage... Still, it's nothing less than tragic if the Foremost were reduced from a society that brought both the physical and Astral Realms to heel to a remnant splintered by inter-species strife, so weak that a properly nourished orc is an existential threat.
 
Rihaku said:
The power of Progression was elegant. In the ordering of its forms it spelled out its name for any mind capable of perceiving it, even for those, like Gisena Allria, whose vision was limited to the uttermost shallows of that blazing sea.

The Lathe of Heaven. The object, the symbol, the pattern by whose revolution the world was re-created and destroyed. Fitting heraldry for Hunger's patron, given his ultimate objective. That too was implicit in the Lathe of Heaven, for those who knew where to look.

A kinder world than this.
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Easily the best part of the update, in my opinion, given its meta-impact and relevance. It's so satisfying to get in-story confirmation on lore speculation, even if Rihaku did all but spell it out in his explanations on Progression.

Hoping for the day we get in-story confirmation on the Accursed's identity too. Just how epic will Odyssial's identity reveal be....
 
Rihaku said:
The twisted resemblance of the Lady Protector spell's to certain of the Maiden's Graces,
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Called it!
Rihaku said:
the likely true nature of the Foremost,
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Called that too, though Orm did a better job.
Rihaku said:
the reality of Letrizia's family strife,
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Don't know what that's about. She has family strife?
Rihaku said:
the underlying form of Hunger's Tyrant Curse...
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Is this talking about Uttermost?
Rihaku said:
Like her, Hunger's first taste of magic had resulted in the death of his dreams, though on a scale far vaster and crueler. Would he repudiate that quest, knowing what he did now? Or would he continue doggedly ahead, doing his uttermost even when the path was preordained?

As with many things, she already knew the answer. It was not in him to do anything less, no matter how much it hurt.
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I'm pretty sure that's Uttermost. Dang.
Knowing the blurb would've made Hunger sad, guys!
Rihaku said:
clarion sword-sword
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Rihaku said:
*Does not build towards a Special Artifact Advancement but also does not commit you to a path.
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These look like typos, but 'sword-sword' sounds like a good meme.
Rihaku said:
Abetted by the Apocryphal Curse, Augustine was a true threat, and Absorbing the Tower would, as expected, have given her good odds of outright victory.
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Oh dang. Is it still around, though?
Zfglx said:
Anyone else stunned that Augustine just had a complete counter to Rank. Or maybe we are not yet ranky enough to contest it. I really wonder what besides building stats more and taking the stat tripling we could have done to overcome this more effectively. Perhaps one of the methodical options or mor focus on praxis, or even grace development or rushing signs.
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Not really. I predicted something like that from the Tower of Earth, although my estimation of how dangerous it would be was off. And really, what we need is more breadth of ability. I know there's been a lot of complaining about lack of synergy, although that's been blessedly quiet in recent months, but really playing wide is one of the best ways to fight the Apocryphal Curse.
(Granted, "playing too wide and thus not having enough power" is also a thing the Curse could target, which is why Apocryphal is so bad. But it's probably a good strategy in general.)
 
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That was class.

Gisena, you're a sound woman.

I would kill to have an insight in to what Augustine was thinking this update, that just as it seems shes about to overcome the Interloper the "Purple Bitch" spontaneously undergoes a evolution and no sells her entire power.

I was pretty unsympathetic to her, cause of the whole being a Tyrant and the death squads thing, but still, that had to have stung.
 
Now that I'm caught up:

Man, what an update! Regardless of whether you're actually GisenaGang or not, I think we can all appreciate Gisena finally being able to show off what she's truly capable of. Thanks Mr. Rihaku, you've basically solved my current motivation/inspiration problem.
 
Sharkey_smt said:
Thx Rihaku, just ruined my 4k omake. I will need some time to process that. If you need me, I will be in the pub trying to win a drinking competition against myself.
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Projectile said:
Uh, hm... I did make a promise, so. This is the best I can do?

[X] Not Renaissance Woman

Damn geniuses...
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Well it seems to me that you shouldn't have gotten complacent with your mere metafictional input ISH tier. Too weak.

But the fight isn't over yet. There's still the possibility of RW II!

Ganbare, Sharkey. Cut Through!
 
Now that we have Niflel squared and the Decimator's curse halted for now, I think it its time to go for the Human Sphere.

Oh wait we still have to find a way to ensure that we survive the tribulation that comes out by trying to take out powerful magicians from the Voyaging Realm.
 
Mannan said:
Now that we have Niflel squared and the Decimator's curse halted for now, I think it its time to go for the Human Sphere.

Oh wait we still have to find a way to ensure that we survive the tribulation that comes out by trying to take out powerful magicians from the Voyaging Realm.
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If the tribulation is magical in nature can't Gisena just nullify it? It'll probably still take some prep but I think with all the power we've gotten it shouldn't be too much trouble. Of course apoc could hit but if we move fast enough it may not be able to store up enough power for anything too big.

Edit: Or Gisena could nullify our magicians. This could mask them from the tribulation.
 
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I should have gone to bed, but I couldn't help myself after catching wind of the Gisena POV, and it was more amazing than I had imagined. No regrets though, even if sleep will now be barred by images of Gisena flashing ascension runes all night.
 
That went well, as is only proper for the Cut Through option!

Hmm, given the scale of this fight, we likely have picks coming, Pillars is the obvious choice, but what if we could go for two Singularities?

It would be thematically appropriate for Elixir to drop here, Gisena being inspired by the Protector, and Hunger being inspired by Gisena.

I think we can afford to wait one more EFB before Pillars, its already unlocked and only needs one pick, we will be challenged in the Human sphere, at the very least socially, so one pick is not out of immediate reach beyond this fight.
 
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Well, this was a delicious update and did a lot to endear Gisena's character to me. The power of interludes is truly overwhelming. And I would like to thank whoever bought Gisena's advancement, this was truly fortuitous timing on her part and saved us much grief, since Hunger would have had to do the self-sacrificing thing again otherwise.

With this Curse Mitigation isn't as critical a problem as it has been previously? It's still not something we can just ignore, but perhaps we can focus more on other goals now, and leave Mitigation up to Gisena, helping her acquire more power when previous Mitigation efforts become insufficient. She certainly seems like the best option for Mitigation we have access to atm.

A good send-off for Augustine too, dyjng gloriously to promote Gisena's ascension. Our girl is probably going to be insufferable after this, having saved our ass in such a fashion once again, but she deserves it after the stunt she pulled.

And Versch is saved! All in all a very satisfying update, even if we likely didn't get any picks from this.
 
Rihaku said:
Gisena did not give voice to such theories, as she kept silent on countless matters of speculation. Theory, pattern, structure came naturally to her mind, and if she were to speak on every idle hypothesis they would lack the time to act on them. No sense, at this scale, in explicating harmful truths, so long as someone with influence kept them in mind. The twisted resemblance of the Lady Protector spell's to certain of the Maiden's Graces, the likely true nature of the Foremost, the reality of Letrizia's family strife, the underlying form of Hunger's Tyrant Curse... for all the clues she'd pieced together, the truth only mattered where such knowledge would change the actions taken in reality.
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some very interesting stuff to chew on here!!
this chapter was an absolute delight ^_^
 
Mannan said:
Now that we have Niflel squared and the Decimator's curse halted for now, I think it its time to go for the Human Sphere.

Oh wait we still have to find a way to ensure that we survive the tribulation that comes out by trying to take out powerful magicians from the Voyaging Realm.
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The Voyaging Realm is a theme park so the tribulation is some form of system that prevents any unauthorized taking of souvenirs. Gisena has some insight into the Foremost and achieving True Quintessence combined with maybe the magics we get from Augustine and possibly Sky Veil stealth and disguise advancements we might hunt down can all work together to extract our little party.

It still might behoove us to experiment how to. Oh, and maybe obtain Pillars of Creation before finally going to the Human Sphere.
 
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