Blood for power, and kindling for Fire. Everything, for Liberation. ...Don't mind me, just making a self-indulgent reference. Anyway, I'm obligated to vote for anything called Liberation; how convenient that it's not only the red option, but the best option! Increases to Nilfellian strength are flat-out better than improvements for the Elixir Kingdom or Temple, that singular plus sign encapsulates entire Legions' worth of might. The stronger Nilfel is, the better the results will be for the territories Hunger is leaving behind under its aegis. As expected, Adorie disapproves of this course of action, though evidently not enough to make for a relationship malus? That's fine, Hunger can play the villain here and be the face of the offensive, allowing Adorie to maintain her moral high ground.
It sates the remaining imperialists and she can be seen as reining in the unstoppable power that overthrew the Lord Protector, the carrot to Hunger's stick Blade. Nilfel's neighbors are too shell-shocked to exploit the new regime, but that state of affairs won't persist forever. Since it'll benefit the people of the Mountain-Holds in the medium to long term, this is honestly not that bad. Hunger may have outscaled Edeldross-based nonlethal tactics, but Holy Shit's great for compelling surrenders. Who knows, maybe this brief campaign of conquest will be worth a pick? We do still have to finish Fisher King if we want the Accursed Favor.
Hunger has followed the trail blazed by Nameless in inventing a bottomless money pit. It'd be more amusing if he wasn't now deeply indebted to Adorie, who burned through Nilfel's treasury to power up the Cloak. Hunger's honor and fairness are some of his most admirable attributes. This is in some sense his problem, so repaying the newly-minted Queen Mirellyian by using strength - his most valuable asset, except for the Ennobling I assume already took place - to advance Nilfellian interests is fitting. I'm curious about the supernatural nature of platinum too, why did Augustine use iron as a medium for runes instead? This being the Realm of Myth, are the Mountain-Holds inhabited by dwarves? Like the Extrusion and Cloak's hunger for currency, the thirst for deep lore is unquenchable. Anyway, that brings us to the build vote:
[X] Liberation
[X] Fourth Sign: Deathly Star [Evening Sky]
Gisena's 'problem' only exists because she's unwilling to do as Hunger did and invent a Charisma dial Grace akin to Skyveil. The perfect is the enemy of the good, and all that. It's uncharitable to call this preoccupation vanity on her part. Perhaps she just doesn't like to fail? Having had all previous challenges yield to her intellect, she assumes that in time she can have her Charisma cake and eat it too (before she winds up becoming a Christmas cake). She's probably right, too; even if 'impossible' wasn't a taboo word in this cosmology, the Veil of Grandeur is proof of concept. She could access the same effect through Science, just as Deathly Star translates Augustine's pantheon-slaying strike into the medium of Art. But that doesn't make doing so a good use of her time... or enabling Gisena a good use of the Cloak's Fourth Sign.
Don't get me wrong, the stat bonuses are juicy: raw Intelligence, Charima is also Protection, Strength benefits the All-Defeating Stance, etc. But we pursued the Fourth & Fifth Signs in hopes of developing a solution to our pressing mage extraction problem. Sadly there's no silver bullet to be found here, but both Skywards & Star are relevant for the upcoming tribulation. The Realm's anti-theft measures have been described as apocalyptic; what better answer to them than the ability to cancel said Apocalypse? That this update explicitly draws parallels between the Apocryphal Curse and the countermeasures is concerning, doubly so in light of the upcoming proc's increased power. Twenty to fifty percent means it's going to be at 92.5% of baseline strength at minimum, more than enough to make life very inconvenient interesting indeed.
Skywards Claim's a potent force multiplier and would be a clear frontrunner if it could be applied to all our companions. But that's not the case, we have to choose who gets the buff or rotate the enhancement, and while physical power's more interesting than it seems (to paraphrase a previous quest's blurb) I'm dubious that it will be game-changing. We'll have to vote on who gets it, then there'll be an opportunity to adjust our strategy and maybe leave Aobaru behind, and I'd rather skip those shenanigans and stay the course. Deathly Star's precise, powerful, and has a relatively short cooldown. We're heading for the Human Sphere and if you think Hunger's not going to wind up fighting an Armament, I have a bridge to sell you somewhere in Greenland. Also, it'll be enjoyable to read about when we're inevitably forced to use it, Rihaku writes wonderful explosions.
