I can't possibly answer that, sorry. Orm shared some behind-the-scenes stuff with me, so it would be cheating.
Besides, he is the one who came out with this beatiful masterpiece, so I'd feel like a terrible person to answer without his explicit permission.
However, if you ask him I'm sure he will indulge your curiosity!
Buuuuut I can say something else, totally unrelated to this matter but it might make things more clear to other readers.
- Dissident specifies that it cannot be taken together with Dominion Loyalist or High Society. Some of you did, so you might want to change that.
- Into the Fire is specified as an 'alternate insertion point'. This means that you do not have to pick a normal insertion point like The First Dominion or Ruined Garden - you are Isekai'd into the Pit.
Well.
Anyway, I see you too are a big fan of the Dominion and the Litanies.
However, have you considered taking Originator and Naturalization and Dominion Loyalist (Argyris lineage)? For, you know, that whole "Well maybe I
want to ruin the balance of power in the Dominion, huh! You ever thought of that?" flavor?
Needing only 2 orbs of drawbacks, can be easily achieved with just Lethe and Dreams! Lethe especially for that ability to be totally ignorant of the fact that you
set all this in motion.
Perhaps if you wanted Exemplar on top of that, you'd grab it with Nemesis I suppose. (You wouldn't be very good at the Litanies without it otherwise, so you'd basically just be extremely valued for your freak of cosmic accident of birth or weird experiment from some ancient Litanist (or Lady Reinforcement) that somehow resulted in you getting Originator powers somehow.) I mean, your very existence is probably bound to piss off the opposed faction in the Dominion anyway, so, why not then
own that with picking Nemesis?
Alternatively, what do you think of Plan: All In On The Litanies. Litanist + Ancient + Exemplar. Oh, yeah. Oh yes. This is just pure "How good do I want to be at the Litanies? I'm thinking... YES. I want to be
that good at it."
It's hard to pick the right sort of Drawbacks while starting in the Dominion -- Dreams of Distant Fires is only worth 1 rather than 2, Somber you are ineligible for, Dissident kind of sucks as you'd be on a collision course with the Lords, Oathbound is... well, it binds you to the Hand's purpose, so... and picking Into The Fire resets your insertion point anyway so Naturalization's good is a bit questionable there -- so you sadly probably can't pick Dominion as your starting point + Naturalization.
But. Litanist + Ancient + Exemplar. It's not meant to be efficient. It's just meant to make the best purist Litanist ever; talent-wise, anyway. (Well, a powerful Lineage would make you better, but... Eh.) Some combinations might be strictly better (like picking Prometheus Engine so you can steal souls, or Originator or Slice of the Fruit so you can have Reinforcement and Fruits, or the right Authority or Expression) but we're just looking into how you can stack the most innate Litanal talent.
So, in that vein... Litanist + Ancient + Exemplar. You only need 3 Orbs of Drawbacks to make it work. Lethe and Dreams, or Somber and Dreams... And then, the world is your Litanal oyster!
Or... You can pick all that,
with Naturalization in the Dominion. The Drawbacks you take would be: Lethe, Dissident, Nemesis, and Dreams of Distant Fire. I call it the "the rebel" path. Because you're an ancient, ancient, Litanist who has been biding his time. Stewing over failure and problems and such. And eventually... you had enough, and decided to oppose and overthrow the Dominion. Or perhaps, it was just a single Lord or Lady that you decided to oppose. So be it. You will gain enough power, and challenge your Nemesis.
For maximum style and appropriateness, maybe one of your Litanies should be Reassurance. That way, you'd be an Ancient and powerful Reassurer. And everybody
knows that powerful, old, talented, Reassurers are crazy.
So this way, it would be no great surprise that you one day snapped and decided to challenge a Lord or something. It perfectly fits into the narrative of the thing and just adds to the story!
... Of course I suppose maybe one of your Nemesis is another Ancient Litanist rather than a Lord. Well, maybe Father Time would be an appropriate pick... Perhaps you can have a final battle over just
who is the ultimate time-themed Reassurer? Perhaps you differ and disagree in your agendas; maybe you believe your theme should serve the cause of revolution and rebellion. Not be hidden away like any other Reassurer Enclave.
There would, of course, be even
less surprise at your being a madman in this case, then. The only other rival to Father Time? Yeah.
The only surprise people will feel will be at wondering what, specifically, finally made you and Father Time throw down in the Reassurer-Thunderbowl finally. What was the last straw, they'll wonder idly, that made two madmen finally have their ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny. (So I guess it's less "surprise" and more accurately "mild curiosity.")
Perhaps what made it happen, was the Dreams of Distant Fire, eventually forcing you to action. Thinking that you needed to take over the Dominion for your own good, and find some kind of
permanent end to the General -- as otherwise, eventually he would overpower your home. And so, your course became set. You would become the greatest Reassurer the world has ever seen. You would finally put down that upstart rival Father Time. You would Challenge Lady Reassurance for her Seat. And you would prepare the Dominion for the visitation of the General, aiming to pit your full powers
to his final, and permanent, demise. You know you can do it! You know it! You
must do it. And so, you set out on your labor.
They say that there has not been an Uprising worthy of the name for millennia, have they not?
Well.
You would hate to disappoint.
It will either be a Challenge to Lady Reassurance... ... or an Uprising finally worth of the name, in a long long time.
EDIT: Okay, wrote up some more ideas and expanded on one of the Litanist Ancient builds...
For maximum style and appropriateness, maybe one of your Litanies should be Reassurance. That way, you'd be an Ancient and powerful Reassurer. And everybody knows that powerful, old, talented, Reassurers are crazy.
... Of course I suppose maybe one of your Nemesis is another Ancient Litanist rather than a Lord. Well, maybe Father Time would be an appropriate pick... Perhaps you can have a final battle over just who is the ultimate time-themed Reassurer? Perhaps you differ and disagree in your agendas; maybe you believe your theme should serve the cause of revolution and rebellion. Not be hidden away like any other Reassurer Enclave.
Perhaps what made it happen, was the Dreams of Distant Fire, eventually forcing you to action. Thinking that you needed to take over the Dominion for your own good, and find some kind of permanent end to the General -- as otherwise, eventually he would overpower your home. And so, your course became set. You would become the greatest Reassurer the world has ever seen. You would finally put down that upstart rival Father Time. You would Challenge Lady Reassurance for her Seat. And you would prepare the Dominion for the visitation of the General, aiming to pit your full powers to his final, and permanent, demise. You know you can do it! You know it! You must do it. And so, you set out on your labor.
... Actually, I'll build on this some more and polish it up a bit...
So, okay, first of all... the reason I was musing on taking Litanist together with Ancient, was because... I figured that since Litanist spoke of 3 specific Litanies you were good at... that this meant that just like how Exemplar adds +1 Litany to an Ancient, that Litanist would add 3 whole Litanies. And then with Exemplar on top of that, you'd be an Ancient who specialized in all 6 Litanies. (Mind, this is "Just sort of eyeballing it" level speculation. Even if it's not quite like that, I'm really doing this just because I want to pick all the Litany options.)
Now, this is kind of inefficient and overkill. Even a "normal" Ancient is somebody who is already capable and terrifyingly potent even in the 4 Litanies outside of his 2 favorite ones. Adding more Litanies the Ancient is especially good at and known for is a bit... unnecessary? But, like I said, I was aiming for "MAXIMUM Litanal talent!" And so I had to take all of it.
Anyway, on to polishing up this choice!
My idea here is simple... An Ancient Litanist, who is set on a collision course with Father Time, and possibly the Dominion as a whole, all because he hopes to find a way to END the General of Fire.
So. Ancient, Litanist, Exemplar, Naturalization...
With the Drawbacks of Lethe, Dissident, Nemesis, and Dreams of Distant Fire.
But, there is one more choice I want to add. Something that is a reason and the start for your being willing to take on Father Time, finally. And that is... The Prometheus Engine. It, can steal a soul.
This... actually makes things tricky. Because I need 1 more Orb. But I don't want to take Oathbound -- and that gets too many Orbs anyway. So, here's my thought...
"Naturalization" can just be said to "Give you a history in the Ormulum universe", right?
That is, if I pick Ancient + Naturalization, I don't
have to start in the Dominion. I can pick the Street as my Insertion Point, and have my Naturalized history be: "An Ancient of the Dominion, who eventually went on a extra-dimensional walkabout, and stumbled upon the street eventually."
My story essentially begins 'in media res' of being on the Street. But, my
history and backstory in this world is that of somebody who was born and raised in the Dominion. Who saw the birth of the Dominion. See how that works? Naturalization, I am presuming, can let you define your history in the Ormulum in a way to smooth away edges.
(This also means that you can, say, pick Ancient + Naturalization + Into The Fire. This would let you write your backstory as "An Ancient of the Dominion, who went on a dimensional walkabout, and... uh... Kind of fucked up totally and hugely? Because he somehow got stuck in the fucking Transcendent Pit? How the fuck did you get there anyway man, you stupid stupid bastard. Most likely the Ancient got on the Street, and the got off in the Transcendent Pit. The stupid, stupid, stupid bastard. I want some of whatever he was drinking when he made that decision.")
I realize that I am stretching the meaning of "Naturalization", as it talks about giving you the common knowledge and abilities and stuff of somebody in that insertion point. But. It's for the good of being able to make a coherent story.
So anyway, yeah. Here's my revised build...
Ancient, Litanist, Exemplar, Naturalization, The Prometheus Engine.
Lethe, Nemesis, Dissident/Somber, Dreams of Distant Fire.
Insertion Point: The Street
I realize that picking Dissident does not quite work because I'm not picking the Dominion,
but. I fully intend on having my story be
about the Dominion. So I'm essentially going to be a Dissident, when I get back there. (I realize that this is kind of unfair, as anybody who also intended to go to the Dominion and pick a fight in it, could also claim to get Dissident, but... But on the other hand, Somber would just be free points for me anyway, given what I intend to do, so... it doesn't really matter, does it?) ... Actually, no, nevermind, maybe not... I'm not really a Dissident. I'm more like a rabble-rouser or somebody who makes people nervous. Hmm, okay, yeah, Somber might be more appropriate.
So, here's my story and my plan and the reason I got the Prometheus Engine...
You were an Ancient of the Dominion. You were one of its most scarily-talented geniuses. And, you had the misfortune of having a time-related Reassurance theme. There is only one other such, now. Father Time. When a Litanal experiment related to time went bad, he went mad, and slaughtered everybody in the city, and parked himself by the failed experiment. Proclaimed himself "Father Time." Anybody else who had a time-related Reassurance theme... met an entropic end. All, except you. You're the last one. The last Reassurer -- a Reassurer
Ancient, at that -- with a time theme. You alone survived. Survived the experiment, survived it's catastrophic end. Survived with your sanity intact. And survived Father Time's challenge.
Reassurance themes with time-based powers are not popular, in the Dominion, thanks to that madman Father Time. You being another Reassurer Ancient, who does not seem to be immediately insane, makes people a bit nervous.
The other thing that makes people nervous about you is...
Well, your name might as well be Cato, because you've ended all your speeches at the Magisterium for the past 600 years with "And also, the General must be destroyed."
People are a little bit bored and tired of it. The General is a solved problem(TM). The Lords and Ladies can kick his butt. Sure, you think differently. But, meh. You're wrong.
((OOC-wise they're, uh... probably right, actually, to be frank? The Lords and Ladies can kick the General's butt if he ever appears. You're a time-themed Reassurer, who probably got fucked up by the time experiment at least a little bit. Even if you weathered it and retained your sanity. But, when combined with your Dreams of Distant Fire... Yeah. I mean, on the one hand, it's no wonder you're worried about some Ragnarok. You've got the Dreams and the mess with the experiment and Father Time, all messing with your head. It's no wonder that entropic fears, combined with stress over the fiery Dreams, convince you that the future is in peril.))
So eventually, you got tired of being ignored, being shunned at parties for your theme (for goodness sake! it's not like you don't have
five other Litanies that you are equally if not more-so famous for! really, guys), and decided to go on a extra-dimensional walkabout.
... And eventually, you found it.
Something that would let you deal with not just that little shit Father Time (you are ignoring the fact that he is a peer; he's "that little shit" to you, he has always been "that little shit" to you, and he will die with you referring to him with a grumbling and overtly-familiar insulting way
) but perhaps even the General.
They called it... The Prometheus Engine.
It can tear away souls.
With this, you can not just defeat Father Time... But
subjugate him and his half of his time-based Reassurance theme.
Yes. You can feel it. With the power of Father Time's theme captured in a bottle, your own power will grow great enough, that the entropic ruin you could bring upon the General Who Arises In Fire And Does Not Die... why, it could perhaps even begin to permanently diminish him! You could finally start striking a blow against That Goddamn Asshole. Once and for all.
And so, you will return to the Dominion. You will challenge Father Time. You will tear out his soul, stick it into a little bottle. And you will master the time-calamity. Or maybe just avoid it entirely. Fuck that place. Regardless... With Father Time's soul, you will wield unprecedented mastery over time.
You will trap the General in a time bubble the likes of which GOD has never seen!
... And then, you'll stuff
him into the box. See how he likes
them potatoes!
Now, you're pretty sure that he doesn't have a soul. Or rather, a
single soul.
You're pretty sure that this asshole is of the "My name is Legion, for we are many" variety. Or maybe all those souls the Transcendent Pit burned for breakfast, means he has plenty of souls to part with.
Nevertheless. Being able to capture even just one soul, from the General, would be to meaningfully diminish him.
And so, that is what you will do. That is your quest.
You were born in the Dominion, grew strong in it, grew into Cato for a while, then decided to leave to find something to take care of a problem. Then you keep wandering until you find the Prometheus Engine. You return with it. You use it to defeat your Nemesis. And you use it to start taking chunks out of the General.
The Dominion as a whole are probably at least a liiiittle bit worried about you. I mean, who wouldn't be, really? You're really powerful, everybody probably questions your sanity, you went away for decades or centuries or even millennia or whatever, and then you returned and acted all confident that you could beat Father Time this time around... and you were right in that confidence. And now, you are proposing to use your newfound powers from your walkabout, plus whatever you got from defeating Father Time, to lay down the hurt on the General.
... Well, okay. Maybe they're not that worried about you. xD See, it's the perfectly-sane-seeming old-or-powerful Reassurers that are the ones you have to watch out for. If you're nutty enough to pull a Cato for centuries, and then leave the Dominion on a crazy multiversal journey, and then come back and beat your rival... and you're
still just going on about your old hobbyhorse of facepunching the General? Yeah, you're probably as sane/crazy as you've always been, and no crazier.
"So 'Cato' here is still going on about defeating the General?"
'Cato': "God fucking dammit guys, take me seriously dammit!"
"Yep. Hasn't changed despite a multi-versal road-trip, defeating Father Time, and everything else."
"... Okay yeah, it really
is good old 'Cato'. Man hasn't changed a bit."
'Cato': "... You guys
suck. D: What do I have to do to get you guys to take me seriously?"
"Don't end all your speeches wi--"
'Cato':
"And also, I think the General should be destroyed."
"--with that, yeah."
