A Simple Transaction I
- Thread starter Rihaku
- Start date
- Original
Tales Beyond Number
Rihaku
The Internet
Tales Without Number
The work, it appeared, was neverending. Gisena was occupied with research, and so the burden of rule fell to him, all the countless details and arrangements that had to be properly rectified before the two of them could depart the Voyaging Realm. Scarce had he dispensed with some document or administrative minutia, before another would rear upwards. There was no slaying the bureaucratic hydra.
Nilfel had the manpower, infrastructure and institutional alignment to rule capably and well, but installing Adorie as Regent of both the Elixir Kingdom and Stenallon's breakaway civilization was still a monumental task, especially in the wake of Adorie's own coronation and ongoing consolidation of power at home. The Mirellyian princess had also promised to assist Hunger in researching the sorceries inherent to his Cloak of Sky, as soon as matters settled down for her to spare the time.
Thus he had wholeheartedly flung himself into the endeavor of rule, a task made considerably easier by his world-warping Rank: merely tedious and draining rather than nigh-on impossible. Capable and promising administrators swarmed to him like flies around honey, but it still fell to his own faculties in order to vet, train, augment and organize the forces that surrounded him. Unfortunately this was a task in which the Elementalists could assist little. Letrizia was, by experience, a combatant first and a duchess second, while Aobaru and Aeira were precocious for high-school graduates, but nowhere near the standards of high-level Nilfellian diplomacy.
Nilfel was vast, its people naturally talented, but they were human all the same; their mortal foibles as-much exaggerated by the power of Myth as their capabilities. Augustine had preyed on and amplified their natural superiority complex, and many of the ministers, unwilling to support a queen who would amputate the status-creating economic engine of expansionistic dominion, had to be dislodged and carefully replaced - peacefully in most cases, though some few remained with Legions at their call and the willingness to use them.
There was much fallout still to clear up; the international situation avoided a state of maddening complexity only because Augustine had so thoroughly decimated the capacity of neighboring countries to resist Nilfellian dominion. Faced with Adorie who was at least willing to relent on the matter of conquest, they reacted not with indignation or advantage-seeking but exhausted, half-disbelieving relief. Even bereft of Augustine's runes or Hunger's raw power, Nilfel was by its Legions alone the sole hegemon of the Realm of Myth - at least so long as Augustine's mother still slept.
At times like these, it was all he could do to channel the all-defeating stance of the Forebear and embody stillness, grateful that the energies which it harnessed fortified not only his body but his spirit and mind. It was the master of Ruin, so much so that Ruin could safely infuse his form, eradicating flaws and imperfections on a modest but comprehensive scale. It was a swifter and more concrete power than Rank, and the form of the stance itself implicitly conveyed to all who beheld him the sheer might embodied by its vessel.
The Blade was the Forebear's instrument, and perfected towards that purpose: with it physically present he needed only to align his internal energies, body free to take any action it pleased. The process was difficult but somewhat self-maintaining, Ruin itself destroying the pathways of causality by which carelessness or inattention could disrupt its alignment.
One more power in a litany of powers. He stared down at the Ring on his finger. In less than two months he'd grown far beyond the Tyrant's might, if not the Tyrant's prowess. There was little question in his mind that he would convincingly prevail against even that foe in the majority of circumstances. With a few days' spare effort he could wield the Ring of Blood with effect against the cursed wounds that troubled him, enacting with brute force what he lacked the skill to unweave. And yet like the Forebear his powers were unbalanced, focused almost-unceasingly on combat or wide-scale devastation, utility emergent but mostly incidental to the true purpose of war.
He'd turned to the sorceries of the Cloak to rectify that matter; one path of many they were pursuing in search of a solution to the magus-extraction problem. The Voyaging Realm was unkind to those magi who wished to leave its borders, and to powerful magi even more so; the tribulations it forced to prevent their departure almost resembled the Apocryphal Curse in nature, if not in scale. Gisena's True Nullity was of course the obvious means, but bereft of a specific target to nullify (the Realm itself? some administrative command of unknown location or nature? an underlying phenomenon, possibly emergent, arising from interactions within the Realm?) progress was slow.
Letrizia entered his office, alongside Adorie who carried a large stack of tomes.
"Hello, Lord Hunger!" The pilot greeted cheerfully, her wounds magically healed in the wake of the battle's conclusion.
"That's King Hunger to you. You're in a good mood."
"Naturally," she said, sitting down in the plush chair facing his desk. "Verschlengorge is as close to fully-healed as he has been. I think he really likes the new weapons and armor we've installed. I've been thinking of asking Miss Gisena to take a look at him as well. According to her, the Foremost used magics similar to the Graces of her Maiden. Maybe she could fix him with the Ring of Artifice!"
"Gisena's got a dozen projects commanding her research attentions," Hunger mused. "What's one more?"
"I know, right?! What can't she do?"
"Find a way to extract Aobaru and Aeira in a timely manner. Hence the purpose of your visit today, I assume." He addressed Adorie.
"That's right," The presumptive queen said, slamming tome on to desk with a satisfying thud. "I spent all morning looking through my library and finally found these! If your Cloak of Sky does wield sorceries incipient to the Realm of Myth, you should be able to find reference materials in here."
"And I'm going to help!" Letrizia volunteered. "My Pressure may not be as strong as yours, but since it's my Element I have much greater fine control. I may be able to channel your Pressure towards more directly useful ends, like damming the flow of a river. Though in your case it's more like an ocean."
He shrugged. "Let's try it."
He cracked open the topmost tome and let his Pressure flutter the pages, then laid his hand on the text where it landed. The page was waxen yellow, the words spindled and raggedly; there was much unnecessary capitalization.
He began to read.
"The Sigils of the Arcanist are an expression of Form, by which energies Arcane are bent to her purpose. Hers is magic as Science, the technical manipulation of symbols with control over underlying reality, expressed ideally through the medium of appropriate energies but imperfectly through runes of air, stone, ice, steel, or flame. It is nothing more or less than a Language of marvelous intricacy and surpassing access, and any with the Arcanist's Knowledge could in theory wield her Science, though comprehension of her runes is beyond the Logic of our plainer minds..."
'...the Sorcery of the Well is an altogether different phenomenon, not science but Art: Will rather than Mind, Spirit rather than Reason directing the purpose of the magic, and it is the substance of the Well itself which is the essential component, that which responds to the workings of the Will and instantiates the sorcerer's implicit design. Our Art is not so precise, but of grandeur and spontaneity unmatched, not mere Iron to her Bronze but Water to her Stone, and it is not the tide that falters eventually in that contest..."
"Our modern techniques are nowhere near either the Arcanist's runes or the fabled Well Sorcery," Adorie said, "But just as Princess Gisena has theorized she may embody the former, though through a lens of her personalized design, I feel your Cloak of Sky may embody something like the latter. Perhaps something more ephemeral still, Air to its Water, but following the natural progression within! Or maybe the Waters of the Well came first from the rains which are contained within the full expanse of the Sky? Such wondrous possibilities!"
"The description of Well Sorcery does seem to match my own experience," Hunger replied. "I needed to travel to my Decimation target and developed teleportation. I needed information on the Lord Protector and summoned an Astral Entity that could provide it. But wells run dry, and the inherent potential of the Cloak to respond to my arbitrary demands has a while to go before it recharges. Nor does it have the power to do anything I desire, it's still constrained by its mysterious reserves. It could transport me across the Voyaging Realm, but only once a day. It could summon a being specialized in divination, but only one whose overall strength was much weaker than my own."
"Hm..." Adorie frowned. "By what means is the Cloak's potential recharged? Only the passing of time, or are there other ways? "
"I assume the Well of which this text speaks has already long run dry," Hunger said. "If not, that sounds like the first place to look."
Adorie nodded. "The times when we had a physical Well to call upon are mythical even to us. The power of House Mirellyian is merely to preserve the workings of that sorcery against future degradation, though it's not clear to us which are the results of Well Sorcery, versus the spells of the Arcanist. We've lost so much..."
"A well of myth, whose waters respond to the will, and do whatever you need..." Letrizia said thoughtfully. "A wishing well?"
"Good thinking," Hunger raised his head. "The Wishing Well, perhaps, since this is the Land of Myth. Maybe we need to look at the lore of old Earth for inspiration as well."
Adorie blinked, innocently tilting her head in confusion, while Letrizia preened.
"Let's try it!" The duchess said excitedly. "I know lots of Old Terran lore, like the archetypical cliche of cross-dressing swordswomen. How do you charge a wishing well? By throwing physical currency within, usually in the form of coins! Let's see if your Cloak can absorb any of the platinum we've got stored in Versch!"
Research continued apace.
---
The winner was [X] Consolidate Power, [X] Regency and [X] Intensive Research. You have unlocked the 4th-5th Signs of the Empyrean and gained 1 Cursebearer's Strain. The means by which these Signs were unlocked shall remain classified.
You are out of platinum with which to pay Aobaru and Aeira. Also, you owe Adorie 10 billion currency units worth of Myth-infused platinum, or goods and services of equivalent value. This is after she waived 99% of the debt as compensation for your services during the contest against the Lord Protector (on top of the favorable trade arrangements, possession of the Opalescent Tower, and possession of the Tears of Winter that Hunger had initially negotiated). As a reminder, 1 season's worth of labor for a mid-level employee in the Elixir Kingdom is worth 1 currency unit. A considerable quantity of Mythic platinum was consumed by the Cloak of Sky.
Nilfel's store of Myth-infused platinum, the primary component of their coinage, has been all but depleted by this experimentation. They will need to conquer or purchase additional deep platinum mines from the surrounding nations. As circulation of glyph-printed platinum coinage is a component of the working that sustains Nilfel's prosperity, a substitute will need to be found.
[ ] Liberation - Bring these benighted peoples the glorious freedom of Nilfellian citizenship by liberating them from their current unenlightened governments. Nilfel will only conquer the areas surrounding the mines, and will not make use of reaver-squads or forced conscription of subject populaces. Compared to Augustine's wars, this is downright beneficent, and the Nilfellians do enjoy a generally higher standard of living than the Mountain-Holds.
*Maintains some degree of continuity between rulers.
*The quickest, cheapest, and easiest way to replenish Nilfel's platinum. The Mountain-Holds cannot withstand the power of Hunger to storm their fortifications and break their carefully-maintained defenses.
*Adorie does not support this option, but it would be popular among the demographics most skeptical of her rule. +Nilfel Strength.
*Nilfellian rule is both competent and benevolent, and the resources of the nation immense. The lives of these new subjects actually will be improved by their integration into the kingdom, though they are still being inducted against their will.
[ ] Territorial Commission - Sell back the lands Augustine conquered to their original nations in exchange for their platinum reserves. Will be deeply unpopular among many of the powerful Nilfellian constituencies, somewhat reversing the political effects of your previous Consolidate Power action.
*Won't fully replenish the platinum expended, but goes far enough to just barely maintain the workings involved
*Will reduce Nilfel's overall strength and prestige in the long run
*Adorie is indifferent to this option
*Will empower several disgruntled neighboring empires who, while not a match for Nilfel in war, could complicate matters on a number of fronts later on
[ ] Reformation - Abandon platinum-backed currency entirely (despite its magical protections against strong inflationary/deflationary shocks and concept-level maintenance of a prosperous economy) in favor of a state-issued fiat currency. With proper management, could in theory approach the pro-social efficiencies attained by the previous system, but this is unlikely.
*Neatly sidesteps the problem at the cost of existential diminishment.
*Likely to strongly reduce Nilfel's economic strength in the long run
*Adorie is cautiously supportive of this option.
[ ] Synthesis - Attempt to generate a solution via magical means. Very difficult.
*Consumes research time & priorities
*If successful, resolves the matter fairly easily
*Responsive to tactics
*Unlikely to work on the first few tries; myth-infused platinum could not be manufactured in any relevant quantities even by Augustine at the height of her power
---
Choose your Fourth Sign of the Empyrean.
[ ] Fourth Sign: Skywards Claim [Vast Empyrean] - To they who aimed always heavenwards, make right their claim.
Casting time: Fifteen minutes
Duration: Indefinite or until dispelled
Cooldown: Fifteen minutes after dispellation
The caster elevates the direct physical-combat related Attributes (Might, Agility and Wits) of one character to a level roughly appropriate for the caster's Rank.
Does not work on the caster himself. Does not benefit from the military Rank bonus of Once and Future, but does stack with Vigorflame or Ring of Blood augmentation.
The uses are varied and potent. Enhance Gisena or Aobaru to staggering heights, or make Aeira relevant again in direct combat... perhaps even augment Adorie to create a potent military force ex nihilo! Could also serve as a half-measure for keeping Aobaru in the Voyaging Realm - Skywards Claim + Undying Vanguard means that the space of opponents capable of slaying him becomes much narrower.
[ ] Fourth Sign: Deathly Star [Evening Sky] - 'Such force as to reduce entire worlds to ash, a pantheon-slaying strike of truly foremost malice.'
Casting time: Five heartbeats
Duration: Instant
Cooldown: Until Next Evening
The obverse reflection of Augustine's supreme offense, absorbed and now reflected by the Cloak of Sky. This is an onslaught of sheer destroying force that strikes across every level of the physical and conceptual gradient, targeting Health as well as the target's Attributes, both fundamental and emergent. Virtually no defense short of perfection absolute can shield against all the vectors by which this strikes. Cancel the apocalypse by marshaling power greater still.
Naturally, though imperfectly, scales with the caster's Rank. An attack that will almost never be irrelevant by virtue of its immense destructiveness, stellar precision and comprehensive scale. Theoretically useful even against Armaments in a direct contest.
[ ] Fourth Sign: Veil of Grandeur [Noonday Sky] - Like the sun swallowed by clouds, his light is no blinding glare but a simple radiance suffusing; revelation without anguish, illumination without searing heat.
Casting time: Five minutes
Duration: Indefinite or until dispelled
Cooldown: None
Knowledge of this spell grants +++++Strength, Charisma, Intelligence and Appearance.
The recipients of this spell may make full use of their superhuman power-type Attributes, even if unbalanced, without the negatives consequences typical of such (insufficient durability, collateral damage, addiction, values warping, sensory burnout, etc). Each casting affects one recipient, but this spell may be maintained on up to one billion recipients at once.
Frees up some of Gisena's research time. Also you can be smug at her for having discovered a flawless solution to one of her research topics well before she did.
---
If you enjoyed the chapter, please consider subscribing on Patreon! Subscribers receive lots of patron-exclusive content, including early updates, timed exclusives, Discord roles, and bonus chapters. A huge thanks to existing subscribers, the amount of support has been breathtaking! Even more content is coming to Patrons soon!
If you'd like to discuss the quest in real-time or just chat with the questers, you're welcome to join us on the AST Discord! We encourage substantive posts to be made in the thread, and shitposting within Discord.
The work, it appeared, was neverending. Gisena was occupied with research, and so the burden of rule fell to him, all the countless details and arrangements that had to be properly rectified before the two of them could depart the Voyaging Realm. Scarce had he dispensed with some document or administrative minutia, before another would rear upwards. There was no slaying the bureaucratic hydra.
Nilfel had the manpower, infrastructure and institutional alignment to rule capably and well, but installing Adorie as Regent of both the Elixir Kingdom and Stenallon's breakaway civilization was still a monumental task, especially in the wake of Adorie's own coronation and ongoing consolidation of power at home. The Mirellyian princess had also promised to assist Hunger in researching the sorceries inherent to his Cloak of Sky, as soon as matters settled down for her to spare the time.
Thus he had wholeheartedly flung himself into the endeavor of rule, a task made considerably easier by his world-warping Rank: merely tedious and draining rather than nigh-on impossible. Capable and promising administrators swarmed to him like flies around honey, but it still fell to his own faculties in order to vet, train, augment and organize the forces that surrounded him. Unfortunately this was a task in which the Elementalists could assist little. Letrizia was, by experience, a combatant first and a duchess second, while Aobaru and Aeira were precocious for high-school graduates, but nowhere near the standards of high-level Nilfellian diplomacy.
Nilfel was vast, its people naturally talented, but they were human all the same; their mortal foibles as-much exaggerated by the power of Myth as their capabilities. Augustine had preyed on and amplified their natural superiority complex, and many of the ministers, unwilling to support a queen who would amputate the status-creating economic engine of expansionistic dominion, had to be dislodged and carefully replaced - peacefully in most cases, though some few remained with Legions at their call and the willingness to use them.
There was much fallout still to clear up; the international situation avoided a state of maddening complexity only because Augustine had so thoroughly decimated the capacity of neighboring countries to resist Nilfellian dominion. Faced with Adorie who was at least willing to relent on the matter of conquest, they reacted not with indignation or advantage-seeking but exhausted, half-disbelieving relief. Even bereft of Augustine's runes or Hunger's raw power, Nilfel was by its Legions alone the sole hegemon of the Realm of Myth - at least so long as Augustine's mother still slept.
At times like these, it was all he could do to channel the all-defeating stance of the Forebear and embody stillness, grateful that the energies which it harnessed fortified not only his body but his spirit and mind. It was the master of Ruin, so much so that Ruin could safely infuse his form, eradicating flaws and imperfections on a modest but comprehensive scale. It was a swifter and more concrete power than Rank, and the form of the stance itself implicitly conveyed to all who beheld him the sheer might embodied by its vessel.
The Blade was the Forebear's instrument, and perfected towards that purpose: with it physically present he needed only to align his internal energies, body free to take any action it pleased. The process was difficult but somewhat self-maintaining, Ruin itself destroying the pathways of causality by which carelessness or inattention could disrupt its alignment.
One more power in a litany of powers. He stared down at the Ring on his finger. In less than two months he'd grown far beyond the Tyrant's might, if not the Tyrant's prowess. There was little question in his mind that he would convincingly prevail against even that foe in the majority of circumstances. With a few days' spare effort he could wield the Ring of Blood with effect against the cursed wounds that troubled him, enacting with brute force what he lacked the skill to unweave. And yet like the Forebear his powers were unbalanced, focused almost-unceasingly on combat or wide-scale devastation, utility emergent but mostly incidental to the true purpose of war.
He'd turned to the sorceries of the Cloak to rectify that matter; one path of many they were pursuing in search of a solution to the magus-extraction problem. The Voyaging Realm was unkind to those magi who wished to leave its borders, and to powerful magi even more so; the tribulations it forced to prevent their departure almost resembled the Apocryphal Curse in nature, if not in scale. Gisena's True Nullity was of course the obvious means, but bereft of a specific target to nullify (the Realm itself? some administrative command of unknown location or nature? an underlying phenomenon, possibly emergent, arising from interactions within the Realm?) progress was slow.
Letrizia entered his office, alongside Adorie who carried a large stack of tomes.
"Hello, Lord Hunger!" The pilot greeted cheerfully, her wounds magically healed in the wake of the battle's conclusion.
"That's King Hunger to you. You're in a good mood."
"Naturally," she said, sitting down in the plush chair facing his desk. "Verschlengorge is as close to fully-healed as he has been. I think he really likes the new weapons and armor we've installed. I've been thinking of asking Miss Gisena to take a look at him as well. According to her, the Foremost used magics similar to the Graces of her Maiden. Maybe she could fix him with the Ring of Artifice!"
"Gisena's got a dozen projects commanding her research attentions," Hunger mused. "What's one more?"
"I know, right?! What can't she do?"
"Find a way to extract Aobaru and Aeira in a timely manner. Hence the purpose of your visit today, I assume." He addressed Adorie.
"That's right," The presumptive queen said, slamming tome on to desk with a satisfying thud. "I spent all morning looking through my library and finally found these! If your Cloak of Sky does wield sorceries incipient to the Realm of Myth, you should be able to find reference materials in here."
"And I'm going to help!" Letrizia volunteered. "My Pressure may not be as strong as yours, but since it's my Element I have much greater fine control. I may be able to channel your Pressure towards more directly useful ends, like damming the flow of a river. Though in your case it's more like an ocean."
He shrugged. "Let's try it."
He cracked open the topmost tome and let his Pressure flutter the pages, then laid his hand on the text where it landed. The page was waxen yellow, the words spindled and raggedly; there was much unnecessary capitalization.
He began to read.
"The Sigils of the Arcanist are an expression of Form, by which energies Arcane are bent to her purpose. Hers is magic as Science, the technical manipulation of symbols with control over underlying reality, expressed ideally through the medium of appropriate energies but imperfectly through runes of air, stone, ice, steel, or flame. It is nothing more or less than a Language of marvelous intricacy and surpassing access, and any with the Arcanist's Knowledge could in theory wield her Science, though comprehension of her runes is beyond the Logic of our plainer minds..."
'...the Sorcery of the Well is an altogether different phenomenon, not science but Art: Will rather than Mind, Spirit rather than Reason directing the purpose of the magic, and it is the substance of the Well itself which is the essential component, that which responds to the workings of the Will and instantiates the sorcerer's implicit design. Our Art is not so precise, but of grandeur and spontaneity unmatched, not mere Iron to her Bronze but Water to her Stone, and it is not the tide that falters eventually in that contest..."
"Our modern techniques are nowhere near either the Arcanist's runes or the fabled Well Sorcery," Adorie said, "But just as Princess Gisena has theorized she may embody the former, though through a lens of her personalized design, I feel your Cloak of Sky may embody something like the latter. Perhaps something more ephemeral still, Air to its Water, but following the natural progression within! Or maybe the Waters of the Well came first from the rains which are contained within the full expanse of the Sky? Such wondrous possibilities!"
"The description of Well Sorcery does seem to match my own experience," Hunger replied. "I needed to travel to my Decimation target and developed teleportation. I needed information on the Lord Protector and summoned an Astral Entity that could provide it. But wells run dry, and the inherent potential of the Cloak to respond to my arbitrary demands has a while to go before it recharges. Nor does it have the power to do anything I desire, it's still constrained by its mysterious reserves. It could transport me across the Voyaging Realm, but only once a day. It could summon a being specialized in divination, but only one whose overall strength was much weaker than my own."
"Hm..." Adorie frowned. "By what means is the Cloak's potential recharged? Only the passing of time, or are there other ways? "
"I assume the Well of which this text speaks has already long run dry," Hunger said. "If not, that sounds like the first place to look."
Adorie nodded. "The times when we had a physical Well to call upon are mythical even to us. The power of House Mirellyian is merely to preserve the workings of that sorcery against future degradation, though it's not clear to us which are the results of Well Sorcery, versus the spells of the Arcanist. We've lost so much..."
"A well of myth, whose waters respond to the will, and do whatever you need..." Letrizia said thoughtfully. "A wishing well?"
"Good thinking," Hunger raised his head. "The Wishing Well, perhaps, since this is the Land of Myth. Maybe we need to look at the lore of old Earth for inspiration as well."
Adorie blinked, innocently tilting her head in confusion, while Letrizia preened.
"Let's try it!" The duchess said excitedly. "I know lots of Old Terran lore, like the archetypical cliche of cross-dressing swordswomen. How do you charge a wishing well? By throwing physical currency within, usually in the form of coins! Let's see if your Cloak can absorb any of the platinum we've got stored in Versch!"
Research continued apace.
---
The winner was [X] Consolidate Power, [X] Regency and [X] Intensive Research. You have unlocked the 4th-5th Signs of the Empyrean and gained 1 Cursebearer's Strain. The means by which these Signs were unlocked shall remain classified.
You are out of platinum with which to pay Aobaru and Aeira. Also, you owe Adorie 10 billion currency units worth of Myth-infused platinum, or goods and services of equivalent value. This is after she waived 99% of the debt as compensation for your services during the contest against the Lord Protector (on top of the favorable trade arrangements, possession of the Opalescent Tower, and possession of the Tears of Winter that Hunger had initially negotiated). As a reminder, 1 season's worth of labor for a mid-level employee in the Elixir Kingdom is worth 1 currency unit. A considerable quantity of Mythic platinum was consumed by the Cloak of Sky.
Nilfel's store of Myth-infused platinum, the primary component of their coinage, has been all but depleted by this experimentation. They will need to conquer or purchase additional deep platinum mines from the surrounding nations. As circulation of glyph-printed platinum coinage is a component of the working that sustains Nilfel's prosperity, a substitute will need to be found.
[ ] Liberation - Bring these benighted peoples the glorious freedom of Nilfellian citizenship by liberating them from their current unenlightened governments. Nilfel will only conquer the areas surrounding the mines, and will not make use of reaver-squads or forced conscription of subject populaces. Compared to Augustine's wars, this is downright beneficent, and the Nilfellians do enjoy a generally higher standard of living than the Mountain-Holds.
*Maintains some degree of continuity between rulers.
*The quickest, cheapest, and easiest way to replenish Nilfel's platinum. The Mountain-Holds cannot withstand the power of Hunger to storm their fortifications and break their carefully-maintained defenses.
*Adorie does not support this option, but it would be popular among the demographics most skeptical of her rule. +Nilfel Strength.
*Nilfellian rule is both competent and benevolent, and the resources of the nation immense. The lives of these new subjects actually will be improved by their integration into the kingdom, though they are still being inducted against their will.
[ ] Territorial Commission - Sell back the lands Augustine conquered to their original nations in exchange for their platinum reserves. Will be deeply unpopular among many of the powerful Nilfellian constituencies, somewhat reversing the political effects of your previous Consolidate Power action.
*Won't fully replenish the platinum expended, but goes far enough to just barely maintain the workings involved
*Will reduce Nilfel's overall strength and prestige in the long run
*Adorie is indifferent to this option
*Will empower several disgruntled neighboring empires who, while not a match for Nilfel in war, could complicate matters on a number of fronts later on
[ ] Reformation - Abandon platinum-backed currency entirely (despite its magical protections against strong inflationary/deflationary shocks and concept-level maintenance of a prosperous economy) in favor of a state-issued fiat currency. With proper management, could in theory approach the pro-social efficiencies attained by the previous system, but this is unlikely.
*Neatly sidesteps the problem at the cost of existential diminishment.
*Likely to strongly reduce Nilfel's economic strength in the long run
*Adorie is cautiously supportive of this option.
[ ] Synthesis - Attempt to generate a solution via magical means. Very difficult.
*Consumes research time & priorities
*If successful, resolves the matter fairly easily
*Responsive to tactics
*Unlikely to work on the first few tries; myth-infused platinum could not be manufactured in any relevant quantities even by Augustine at the height of her power
---
Choose your Fourth Sign of the Empyrean.
[ ] Fourth Sign: Skywards Claim [Vast Empyrean] - To they who aimed always heavenwards, make right their claim.
Casting time: Fifteen minutes
Duration: Indefinite or until dispelled
Cooldown: Fifteen minutes after dispellation
The caster elevates the direct physical-combat related Attributes (Might, Agility and Wits) of one character to a level roughly appropriate for the caster's Rank.
Does not work on the caster himself. Does not benefit from the military Rank bonus of Once and Future, but does stack with Vigorflame or Ring of Blood augmentation.
The uses are varied and potent. Enhance Gisena or Aobaru to staggering heights, or make Aeira relevant again in direct combat... perhaps even augment Adorie to create a potent military force ex nihilo! Could also serve as a half-measure for keeping Aobaru in the Voyaging Realm - Skywards Claim + Undying Vanguard means that the space of opponents capable of slaying him becomes much narrower.
[ ] Fourth Sign: Deathly Star [Evening Sky] - 'Such force as to reduce entire worlds to ash, a pantheon-slaying strike of truly foremost malice.'
Casting time: Five heartbeats
Duration: Instant
Cooldown: Until Next Evening
The obverse reflection of Augustine's supreme offense, absorbed and now reflected by the Cloak of Sky. This is an onslaught of sheer destroying force that strikes across every level of the physical and conceptual gradient, targeting Health as well as the target's Attributes, both fundamental and emergent. Virtually no defense short of perfection absolute can shield against all the vectors by which this strikes. Cancel the apocalypse by marshaling power greater still.
Naturally, though imperfectly, scales with the caster's Rank. An attack that will almost never be irrelevant by virtue of its immense destructiveness, stellar precision and comprehensive scale. Theoretically useful even against Armaments in a direct contest.
[ ] Fourth Sign: Veil of Grandeur [Noonday Sky] - Like the sun swallowed by clouds, his light is no blinding glare but a simple radiance suffusing; revelation without anguish, illumination without searing heat.
Casting time: Five minutes
Duration: Indefinite or until dispelled
Cooldown: None
Knowledge of this spell grants +++++Strength, Charisma, Intelligence and Appearance.
The recipients of this spell may make full use of their superhuman power-type Attributes, even if unbalanced, without the negatives consequences typical of such (insufficient durability, collateral damage, addiction, values warping, sensory burnout, etc). Each casting affects one recipient, but this spell may be maintained on up to one billion recipients at once.
Frees up some of Gisena's research time. Also you can be smug at her for having discovered a flawless solution to one of her research topics well before she did.
---
If you enjoyed the chapter, please consider subscribing on Patreon! Subscribers receive lots of patron-exclusive content, including early updates, timed exclusives, Discord roles, and bonus chapters. A huge thanks to existing subscribers, the amount of support has been breathtaking! Even more content is coming to Patrons soon!
If you'd like to discuss the quest in real-time or just chat with the questers, you're welcome to join us on the AST Discord! We encourage substantive posts to be made in the thread, and shitposting within Discord.
Last edited:
Tyrant_Rayne
Probably Not Evil… Maybe
- Location
- Canada
Did anyone else forget that money is in fact a thing and that we require boatloads of it for our lifestyle?
- Location
- US
Damn, this is insanely good, especially considering how far our Rank has outstripped our stats. I'm shocked that a single Sign was all we needed for this—
Well fuck. That's genuinely depressing. Still, with our 8.475 Rank (no Military Rank), granting a character suitable STR/CON/AGI/WITS for that Rank is a titanic boost.
However, I'm far more inclined to Veil of Grandeur, since that actually solves the Voyaging Realm to Human Sphere problem.
Last edited:
- Location
- Earth
[X] Liberation
[X] Fourth Sign: Veil of Grandeur [Noonday Sky]
[X] Fourth Sign: Veil of Grandeur [Noonday Sky]
Lotta good shit here, hard to decide between them-
[X] Fourth Sign: Veil of Grandeur [Noonday Sky]
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
So. Goals. Nothing to say on how things fit our goals at the moment, but let's get the big board ready.
1. Decimators Affliction management.
2. Dealing with Aobaru's Terminator
3. Getting Letrezia out of the Voyaging Realm
4. Getting ourself/Aeira/Aobaru out of the Voyaging Realm
5. Conquering the Human Sphere
6. Successful Odds of Vengeance/Avoiding Death by Epilogue
7. Ruling Well
8. Curse Mitigation
Now we've got two new Goals.
9. Returning to Financial Stability(It's seriously unfortunate that we had to spend all that money on this).
10. Preparing for a Buffed Apocryphal Proc.
1. Decimators Affliction management.
2. Dealing with Aobaru's Terminator
3. Getting Letrezia out of the Voyaging Realm
4. Getting ourself/Aeira/Aobaru out of the Voyaging Realm
5. Conquering the Human Sphere
6. Successful Odds of Vengeance/Avoiding Death by Epilogue
7. Ruling Well
8. Curse Mitigation
Now we've got two new Goals.
9. Returning to Financial Stability(It's seriously unfortunate that we had to spend all that money on this).
10. Preparing for a Buffed Apocryphal Proc.
Tyrant_Rayne
Probably Not Evil… Maybe
- Location
- Canada
All the sign options we've been given are cool however it's important to note that we haven't been offered choices for the 5th. It's possible that what we choose here could decide the options we are given for the 5th. Either we get more options or certain options become stronger. For the strongest possible 5th taking evening again would probably be best. Noon on the other hand could weaken its power.
- Location
- US
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
Who knows. We got a sample Evening Sky 5th Sign in the form of Armor of Midnight.
For the 4th and 5th Signs we got this bit
There's also this bit. A Simple Transaction I Original
- Location
- US
I admit, while I do know the Tower of Earth was a trap, I'm still kind of sad about losing out on Intensified Signs that exceeded the Royal Praxis.
[X] Liberation
[X] Fourth Sign: Veil of Grandeur [Noonday Sky]
[X] Fourth Sign: Veil of Grandeur [Noonday Sky]
Zampano
🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
- Location
- Simping for DSB
Might be the correct choice here anyway. Allowing Existential Diminishment to happen in the Realm of Myth could make Aobaru's task more difficult.
Elder Sign (after we killed Augustine) had that effect without the trap, but nobody voted for anything other than Pillars. And we still don't know what happened to our second pick from Augustine.
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
Deathly Star gives us a super-attack, but we do already have Artful Thorn for "Always Applicable Offense." It's not like Praxis could fail, after all. As such, I would consider the other two higher priority. We can solve Gisena's Appearance issue and get some stat boosts, including the rare +Intelligence. Or we can get an extremely strong targetable boost to a companion. Both have a good amount of utility.
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
I'd like to call this bit out.
Each fourth sign option addresses one of our problems or our party members problems.
Skywards Claim: Protect a party member against the terminator or unforseen apocryphal bullshit
Deathly Star: Helps us fight the terminator. Or an Armament once we reach the Human Sphere
Veil of Grandeur: Helps Gisena with her problem and frees her up to do something like looking into getting us out of the Voyaging Realm among other possibilities.
The fact that the Fifth sign hasn't been revealed yet suggests the possibility that how we choose to solve our financial problems will determine our Fifth Sign options.
Each fourth sign option addresses one of our problems or our party members problems.
Skywards Claim: Protect a party member against the terminator or unforseen apocryphal bullshit
Deathly Star: Helps us fight the terminator. Or an Armament once we reach the Human Sphere
Veil of Grandeur: Helps Gisena with her problem and frees her up to do something like looking into getting us out of the Voyaging Realm among other possibilities.
The fact that the Fifth sign hasn't been revealed yet suggests the possibility that how we choose to solve our financial problems will determine our Fifth Sign options.
- Location
- Louisiana
[X] Liberation
[X] Fourth Sign: Skywards Claim [Vast Empyrean]
skywards claim is super appealing to me because I like the easy solution to bring some of our weaker members up to par. It also scales with our absurd rank as it goes higher. As for why I like liberation...
[X] Fourth Sign: Skywards Claim [Vast Empyrean]
skywards claim is super appealing to me because I like the easy solution to bring some of our weaker members up to par. It also scales with our absurd rank as it goes higher. As for why I like liberation...
Zampano
🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
- Location
- Simping for DSB
Additionally, Death Star is another [Evening Sky] tagged sign. Sticking to one kind of sign or getting 1 of every kind of sign is a mystery box still hanging over our heads.
I don't want to discourage +INT: that's a hugely valuable option (especially if we go for Reformation or Synthesis). But spending an entire sign on Gisena's Appearance issue seems a little expensive.
I'm happy with any of the 3 signs rn
Tyrant_Rayne
Probably Not Evil… Maybe
- Location
- Canada
[X] Territorial Commission
[X] Fourth Sign: Skywards Claim [Vast Empyrean]
I'm out of shits to give for Nifel but just going full warlord after taking down a Tyrant seems hypocritical of us. Commission isn't exactly efficient but it's more moral than liberation and not as hard as the other options. As for the signs we have plenty of combat abilities already so taking deathly star isn't all that appealing. As for veil it's good but the boost it provides is very limited. It's main utility comes from being able to elevate billions of people as opposed to just one, a limit which I don't think we'll be even getting near anytime soon. Skywards offers far more power in comparison and I see us getting a lot more value out of it in the short term.
[X] Fourth Sign: Skywards Claim [Vast Empyrean]
I'm out of shits to give for Nifel but just going full warlord after taking down a Tyrant seems hypocritical of us. Commission isn't exactly efficient but it's more moral than liberation and not as hard as the other options. As for the signs we have plenty of combat abilities already so taking deathly star isn't all that appealing. As for veil it's good but the boost it provides is very limited. It's main utility comes from being able to elevate billions of people as opposed to just one, a limit which I don't think we'll be even getting near anytime soon. Skywards offers far more power in comparison and I see us getting a lot more value out of it in the short term.
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
Not sure what I want for sign 4. I wouldn't discount Deathly Star vs Artful Thorn completely though. It's a once a day, where as Artful Thorn can be used more.
I'm not sure if I'm sleep deprived to be asking this or not but how does Artful Thorn interact with Regeneration? Could somebody flash regenerate the wound? Or use some kind of conceptual reversion ability on it? We attack somebody in the realm of forms or something with Artful Thorn.
Let's compare that to Deathly Star
You aren't blocking the 4th sign without an ISH 3+ defense basically. 3 is perfect. 4 is the level of author metafiction shenanigans IIRC. Health? Attribute Drain? Also. Cancel the Apocalypse by marshaling power greater still seems suspciously relevant to the mage extraction problem.
Last edited:
- Location
- Louisiana
I am also drawn to the all evening mystery box though. Wouldn't be upset if that won either.
Attacks of ISH 1+ potency, and anything that reaches ISH 2 proper in particular, has a quality of leaving behind wounds immensively hard to heal. Vanreir fucked up metaphysics of our organs, for example. Babysitter summon could have left wounds effectively unhealable. Thorn deals hard-to-heal damage on the simular principles, I suppose.
Last edited:
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
The lore in this update was interesting. Manifest Realm Sorcery and Augustine's Runes were both descended from the Arcanist's runes, and Total Eclipse is the union of those two. The Empyrean Signs seem to be a relation of this Well Sorcery, which itself is described as a peer of the Arcanist's magic.
We know that Empyrean Signs are close to the Royal Praxis in quality, and the upgraded Signs can match or exceed the Royal Praxis. Are the Arcanist's Runes then equivalent to the empowered signs, advanced to the 10th sign or more? The Shard of the Arcanist is more powerful then us even now I think, and it's only a fragment of the original Arcanist. The Foremost were pretty crazy, I wonder what happened that reduced them to the pitiful state they are stuck in in the modern day -
...Wait a minute. Who do we know who has a tendency to leave universes vastly diminished, and who we also know left a bloodline in this 'verse?
We know that Empyrean Signs are close to the Royal Praxis in quality, and the upgraded Signs can match or exceed the Royal Praxis. Are the Arcanist's Runes then equivalent to the empowered signs, advanced to the 10th sign or more? The Shard of the Arcanist is more powerful then us even now I think, and it's only a fragment of the original Arcanist. The Foremost were pretty crazy, I wonder what happened that reduced them to the pitiful state they are stuck in in the modern day -
...Wait a minute. Who do we know who has a tendency to leave universes vastly diminished, and who we also know left a bloodline in this 'verse?