Strawman argument.
One parahuman does not need to kill or disable an EB to damage it enough to drive it off early, or to keep it too busy to inflict major damage on the surrounding city.
It is canon that powerful capes matter to the course of EB fights; their duration often depends on how much force is at hand, and when:
Cell 22.6 said:
Miss Militia shook her head. "There'll be doubts, it's not enough. Behemoth can generate electromagnetic waves that wipe out electronics. Even many reinforced electronics, if he's close enough. The Simurgh can scramble coding. We don't just have to convince the public. We need to convince the heroes, and they know these things." "And they know what the difference is going to be, without Alexandria on the front lines," Defiant said. He sighed audibly. "Four times now, she's been the deciding factor in beating the Simurgh back early. Once with Leviathan, when I was new to the Protectorate."
How many senate commitees were held when Alexandria was outed as Costa-Brown?
When the warlord of Brockton Bay was inducted as a ward in Chicago?
When the PRT cut a deal with the Undersiders for the control and regulation of Brockton Bay?
They demonstrably have zero input on tactical considerations of that sort.
Do recall that this is a world where the United States Congress passed the DDID for residents of Wisconsin affected by Ziz, basically turning the city into a concentration camp quarantine zone whose residents are shot if trying to leave without permission.
This is not your father's United States.
Even in a world where Cauldron did not exist, release of people in the judicial system like this would be functions of the executive and judiciary.
The legislature has the power of review after the fact, and to pass laws for the future.
They don't have the power to dictate routine functioning of organs of government without passing a new law.
And it really boggles my mind that you bring up congressional testimony as an issue.
You realize that the person they'd be addressing those questions to is Kurosawa Saki right?
The Manipulation 7, Charisma 7, Appearance 7 Alchemical?
Are we opposed to GU because she would be too much trouble in terms of PR?
Because that's what it sounds like people are talking about, and I would just like to say, that's... Kinda really stupid?
I mean, we do care about PR, but we're not slaves to it, and there are plenty of ways to spin this that are good, or at least aren't bad.
PR is a non-issue here.
And if PR isn't what people are talking about, could someone please explain to me what we are talking about then? Because a lot of crap is being bandied about but from what I can see none of it adds up to anything resembling a cohesive argument about making GU part of our assembly. The closest thing there is to any kind of argument at all is a bunch of arguments about her moral character based on canon which is kinda irrelevant given her moral character in canon was pretty much entirely dictated by her shard and the warped view of the world it gave her. Since Exaltation would allow her to resist and remove shard influence, I don't see how that really relates.
Relevant part is that the shard delusions DO persist, but get respun as Autochton flavored.
Taylor now desires to administrate instead of dominate. Thus too would Accord and GU have their dysfunctions respun and represented under the lens of Autochton's own perceptions.
Accord and Armsmaster would probably have their shard issues largely remain the same in the broad thrust since they are very similar to Clarity issues for instance.
GU would get a complete refurbishment because her current shard delusions are anathema to Autochton. Convert to the Machine God rather than the Faerie Court.
I'm not, and most people aren't.
noliar just fell into much the same trap that people who didn't like Accord did : throwing assertions at the wall without much regard to canon or quest precedent.
Assault talked his way out of a Birdcage sentence into Protectorate employment.Defiant spent less than four weeks under house arrest for the homicide of six people and the breach of an Endbringer Truce. Taylor's father in this fic got a probationary sentence and a job offer after committing aggravated assault and possibly attempted murder against the Hesses. He also didn't get hit with anything for breaking Endbringer Truce.
How much allowance you get has always depended on how much trouble you are worth, how willing you are to play ball, or someone is to shield you.
Sophia got juvie after her text messages of school bullying were revealed. Canon Skitter murdered three PRT directors in less than a month: Coil, Tagg and Costa-Brown. In return, she got tactical command of a Wards team and the Undersiders got control of the underworld in the only portal city in the United States.
Hell, canon Bonesaw walked up to a PRT office and surrendered. It was accepted. If only because you couldn't be sure what contingencies were set to go off on her death. Clockblocker's team accepted the surrender of a S9000 clone in the field, interrogated him her, and then killed him. No reason. Just because.
EDIT
Nyx clone. Sting 26.3
Sting 26.3 said:
I was about to give the go-ahead, but Tattletale's voice came over the comm. "That's Nyx you're looking at. Her range is too short, she'd have to be in the building, and she's too distinctive looking to pass in a crowd."
I stared at the teenage boy. I'd almost said he could leave.
"Last chance, Nyx," I told the 'boy'. "Last words? Share a juicy tidbit?"
The 'boy' faded away. An illusion in an illusion. It was only a woman with pale red skin, overlarge black eyes and vents along her hairline, the back of her neck and down the backs of her arms. A fog seeped out from the holes. A small Cauldron emblem was tattooed on her face like a beauty mark.
"No way I can convince you to let me go?"
"You could," I said.
"Hey," Grue said. "She's too dangerous." "For good enough information? I'm willing to risk it."
"I agree," Clockblocker said.
"Good information?"
"Tell us where Jack is," I told her. She smiled. "And I get to go free?"
"My word as a hero," Clockblocker answered her.
"He's on his way to visit Nilbog."
"It's true," Tattletale said. "Now let me go," Nyx said. She rolled her shoulders, "Take me into custody, if you have to. All I want is to live."
"No," Grue said. "We can't let her go."
"No," Clockblocker agreed. "Crucible?"
Nyx snarled, and the fog blasted out of the vents along her body, forming into a shape.
She didn't get any further before the orb flared. Her scream was high, loud, and exceedingly brief.
"Nilbog," I said.
People forget, or choose to elide, just how much official procedures are made to bend, contort and outright dance for people who are judged valuable, or who have enough contingencies that killing/punishing them produces complications.
Anyway, I keep promising to make a proper argument for GU.
Later, when I have free time.
Accord and Armsmaster would probably have their shard issues largely remain the same in the broad thrust since they are very similar to Clarity issues for instance.
GU would get a complete refurbishment because her current shard delusions are anathema to Autochton. Convert to the Machine God rather than the Faerie Court.
I'm in favor of Armsmaster over the other two largely because I think his issues are much more easily dealt with. Accord and GU are much more likely to advocate for taking-over-the-world plans, and worse, they might be capable of it too.
I'm in favor of Armsmaster over the other two largely because I think his issues are much more easily dealt with. Accord and GU are much more likely to advocate for taking-over-the-world plans, and worse, they might be capable of it too.
I'm against Armsmaster's candidacy as things stand because entirely too much thematic overlap with Taylor's other specialty, and I've come to the conclusion he might be more interesting as a heroic mortal. He's gotten more screentime than any other candidates on the list, and he has failed to excite me as an Ori candidate.
I like him just fine .
I think as a male authority figure he's useful to the narrative in general and Taylor IC, along with Chevy.
I just don't see him as an Alchemical in this Assembly.
Plus, between Iris and the multiple Tinkers we have been buying Backgrounds for, I don't see why we need an Alchemical Tinker on the Assembly.
Assembly picks I'm ambivalent about because picking screentime pretty heavily weighs who gets the final pick.GU has been getting a lot of screentime and, having gotten characterization, people are now pretty gungho about adding her. Would rather avoid that sense of inevitability, even if that means that I'm in effect arguing against scenes where we try to inspire Alexandria to be more.
You were wrong, by the way.
Accord, Alexandria and Armsmaster have all gotten more screentime than Ciara.
Both in terms of on-screen time, and in the fact that they've all gotten Interludes.
She'll honor it for the same reason everyone does, it benefits her. And her collecting powers is a good thing, because as long as she doesn't kill the capes herself, well their dead anyway, lets keep their power in circulation. It's just positives for her to pick up the powers of capes killed in EB battles.
She has variety on the tier of Eidolon, with more consistency, the ability to see and create whatever synergies she pleases with the powers she has, and will only get stronger with time. She can preserve critcal powers from fallen capes, and generally can do most things better than capes specializing in them. She's really fucking potent.
Cite one instance of a parahuman killing or genuinely disabling an Endbringer. Post Golden Morning Valkyrie is an active hero but Ziz is still at large.
Imagine you are testifying before a sceptical senate committee:
You seem to be under the impression that the Powers That Be would let it get that far. I'm fairly certain that Due Process would be the first thing thrown out the window if they could get their hands on an anti-Endbringer weapon that actually works. All the reasons stated above for your questions work as well, but even then, I don't think that they'd even let things get as far as a senate committee hearing. That's assuming that the Senate even exists anymore, and I wouldn't put things past Autobot to simply nix the entire thing in the bud. "Inefficient use of resources."
Worry about the things that are going to kill you first. Worry about the things that will kill you later -after- you've dealt with the immediate problems. GU would be faaaaar down the Senate's to-do list unless she does something spectacular like murderize an entire city to steal their shards. And even then, they'd probably congratulate her on her brilliant strategy, if it wound up killing an Endbringer.
Thematic overlap is an issue; yes. It's not as bad as Alexandria, mind, but it is a pretty big problem for an Accord candidacy.... Glaistig Uaine's power literally talks to ghosts and sees shards. That helps both with the millions of ghosts that comprise the Shadow Nation in Autochtonia, and it should help a lot in dealing with spirits and raksha both. Not to mention that resurrection was possible for GU's shard in canon.
I agree here. I have been more against GU as an Ori more for the possibility that her power would drop if there were any unforeseen occurrences during Exaltation. Remember, GU's power is to recollect shards for the end of the cycle. She is basically the janitor that is sweeping up at the end of the party so the hosts can put all their stuff together before leaving. Nothing says she will keep (or lose) her access to the reaped shards. GU may very well come out with a power that lets her talk to ghosts and shards, but not keep her current library. For all we know, she only has a grip on them, like an Admin Access, rather than full possession of those powers, kind of like Khepri during Gold Morning. Auto reformatting her shard into a charm may wipe those admin protocols off the other shards and sever her connections.
...I like him just fine . I think as a male authority figure he's useful to the narrative in general and Taylor IC, along with Chevy. I just don't see him as an Alchemical in this Assembly. Plus, between Iris and the multiple Tinkers we have been buying Backgrounds for, I don't see why we need an Alchemical Tinker on the Assembly.
I can see this, and I agree. However, I am more against Armsmaster because he doesn't seems to fit with what we need. In a way, Accord barely does. We look at Taylor, Saki, and Marrow and what holes do we have that the Ori would fill that are present in the current candidates? I don't really see Armsy filling any. May just be me though.
Nothing says she will keep (or lose) her access to the reaped shards. GU may very well come out with a power that lets her talk to ghosts and shards, but not keep her current library. For all we know, she only has a grip on them, like an Admin Access, rather than full possession of those powers, kind of like Khepri during Gold Morning. Auto reformatting her shard into a charm may wipe those admin protocols off the other shards and sever her connections.
I think Gromweld said that GU would not lose her current library. I somewhat suspect the most likely outcome would be similar to Sakis teleport locations, which were lost until meditation, and then regained.
Ofcourse there is no way Auto could convert all the shards GU has collected given how hard its been stated to be to convert just one, so it would create a unique case of an essence based shard-charm controlling/commanding non-essence based shards. Could cause unknown issues. Might also lead to the shards starting to understand how Essence works better and faster, which is both good and bad (we don't really want Scion or hostile shards to understand it).
Another issue is that since all her collected shards exist in the Nowhere-universe dimensions and won't be converted to exalted behemoths, she might well lose access to them all and become "only" a normal alchemical once the group goes to Autochtonia, which is a completely foreign reality.
Maybe all the other shards will have learned how to both reach Elsewhere, and how to manipulate a purely essence-based reality by then, but maybe not. Could be a price to be paid for GU. Immense power on Earth, but all/most collected powers cut off in Autochtonia.
@uju32 - IMO, your argument is missing the forest for the trees. No, Exalting GU wouldn't (necessarily) be a Quest-losing disaster. But you're progressing from a base assumption that Exlating her (as opposed to any other candidate) is desirable, and placing the burden of proof on opponents of that.
IIRC, she's the only character we know that decided, upon learning of the Cycle, that it was something to be perpetuated. The only one that decided to support the Entities against humanity (even if she changed her mind when it truly mattered). When it turned out that the Cycle was broken and her vision could not be realized, she fought against Scion on a whim, but in the epilogue she admitted that she doesn't even know why. The vast majority of capes who fought on Golden Morning - heroes, villains, whatever - did not have a hard time making this decision; if they refused to fight, it was because they didn't think they could make a difference and didn't want to die for nothing. For Ciara it was a choice she made in the heat of the moment that could have gone a lot of different ways. And this Ciara hasn't made that choice.
She may not have taken the most lives of the non-Bonesaw Ori candidates, but despite your comments about body count - Alexandria and DM killed plenty of people, but they did so with the end goal of saving humanity. Accord killed people because they bothered his OCD, but at the same time he made concurrent efforts to improve Boston and the world. GU killed for the sake of it, and also to play her part in a plan that would involve the destruction of humanity. She hasn't done the most evil, but she has done it with the least justification and the least concurrent good.
Exaltation is not the default option. Exaltation is earned, if not necessarily grandly - and (this version of) GU has done nothing to earn it.
(Do I want to redeem her? Yes - let Saki have her own former-S-class friend! But that's a different issue to Exaltation, if a prerequisite for it. Her having been a victim is not an argument for Exalting her.)
I agree here. I have been more against GU as an Ori more for the possibility that her power would drop if there were any unforeseen occurrences during Exaltation.
Never been a real concern.
No shard has actually dropped in power since conversion; the norm has been a significant bump in power.
Basically, trust that the GM isn't going to screw us for a choice that he allowed on the table.
We look at Taylor, Saki, and Marrow and what holes do we have that the Ori would fill that are present in the current candidates? I don't really see Armsy filling any. May just be me though.
We need an Alchemical sorcerer (they call them protocol weavers in Autochtonia IIRC).
Someone who deals even more directly with shards, spirits, ghosts and Essence flows than Taylor's direct control or Saki's schmoozing.
The Saruman, the Gandalf, the Dr Strange, the Dr Fate, the Willow, the Merlin, the Polgara, the Dresden, the Raistlin.
In DnD terms?
We have our Ranger(Taylor), our Barbarian(Prayer), Bard(Saki/Sakura) and Thief(Aisha).
They all multiclass a little(actually, a lot), but those are more or less their party roles.
We are lacking a Paladin(Jade) and a Cleric/Wizard/Sorcerer/Necromancer(Orichalcum).
Of all the candidates for Orichalcum, Ciara is the most natural fit for that role in my opinion. Her shard already provides Othersight.
And her history fits thematically.
EDIT
Okay, I just have to address this immediately:
Exaltation is NOT earned. Alchemical Exaltation certainly isn't.
What did Taylor do to earn Exaltation? What did Saki do to earn one compared to Willow?
There is a minimum level of heroism necessary to qualify, but the idea that it goes to the deserving has zero textual basis in canon or this fic.
Under the normal basis for Alchemical Exaltation, the Sodalites monitor records of your life across reincarnations. If you are quietly heroic and noone notices, noone is going to pick you.
If your soul reincarnates multiple times among the tunnel folk where there are no records of your normal life, noone will notice except maybe the Divine Ministers if/when they are looking for Adamant Caste candidates. And most people don't qualify for Adamant Caste.
Even with the other Celestial Exaltations, for every person who gets a shard, there are a hundred, a thousand or more deserving people who just did not have a shard around when they did the impossible and pushed back against fate/overwhelming odds.
Please, don't hold the belief that deserts have anything to do with Exaltation.
It doesn't.
Anyway, as to the focus of 10.2 - I'm most interested in Tinkering, Combat Patrol, and Camden Bureaucracy, basically to catch up with potential Ori candidates in actual narrative settings rather than Assembly building in and of itself. Also to get more Sirkalla interaction. Then, we've gotten a fair bit of bureaucracy/relief already, and to some extent I feel more comfortable with that happening offscreen than 'gang management'. That feels like something that should not be skipped over. Therapy... is the only one of these to really be a 'downtime' option. Not sure it needs to be on screen, but might be interesting to see.
@uju32 - That not everyone who has earned Exaltation receives it does not mean it is not earned. It's a cosmic lottery in a sense, but a cosmic lottery with entry standards. Taylor was a special case. Each of the three candidates we've picked since was a Ward or Protectorate member, and that's actually a fairly high standard.
But at this point there's nothing to be gained by further debate. Honestly there's been nothing to be gained for a very long time. Hopefully we have the actual Ori vote soon.
@uju32 - That not everyone who has earned Exaltation receives it does not mean it is not earned. It's a cosmic lottery in a sense, but a cosmic lottery with entry standards.
It means just that: It is not earned.
To use your analogy, the fact that you bought a lottery ticket does not make you any more worthy than the thousands or tens of thousands that bought the ticket at the same time but didn't win. Or the others that did so, but picked the wrong day, the wrong month, the wrong year.
The idea that bearers of said Exaltation are somehow more worthy than other people is one of the contributory factors to the issues that First Age Exalts had with regards to relating to normal humans.
No it isn't.
Shards do not select for heroism in their candidates, just for likelihood to trigger.
And the Protectorate actively recruits capes, even those unwilling to do anything more than tour schools and make speeches.
We are lucky to meet people who would rise to the occasion, and impressionable kids who are amenable to being shaped by the examples of others.
Not everyone is anything like that.
EDIT
My apologies if I'm being a little strident. But this is something I feel rather strongly about.
Right, their so competent at investigation that they're riddled up, down and side to side with moles. Truly examples of exceptional investigative skill.
You used the term Sophistry before and it applies perfectly here. We take contracts from them, when we want, we get paid for completing these contracts. Much like Accord could buy and sell his services as he pleased in return for payment.
So either he isn't a sub contractor or we are, as our relationship is at least as close as his. Likely closer due to our more complete knowledge of the stakes.
I'm willing to concede this one because Accords plans are bullshit enough that even without Coil knowing he could have manipulated him well enough anyway. I will note that that is an assumption though, all we see here is that he monitored his friend Coil. Seeing as they were friends that doesn't actually mean much, a casual chat could have sufficed.
One parahuman does not need to kill or disable an EB to damage it enough to drive it off early or to keep it too busy to inflict major damage on the surrounding city.
With our OC knowledge and the IC knowledge of Taylor, we know this to be false. EB's have never been meaningfully damaged, ever (excluding scion later on). We have no reason to believe Ciara will be any different.
The more likely reason IC and OC that EB's tend to leave early after battling Lexi is that the action validates Eidolons work with Cauldron.
I believe differently.
You have to fulfill certain requirements to exalt, ergo they are earned by fulfilling those conditions. It just so happens that one of the conditions (by necessity and implicit design) is that there are only so many exaltations to go around.
Claiming otherwise is sophistry.
You also claim that Alexandria has killed more people than Ciara, I doubt that. From what we've seen in story Cauldron gives vials to those people who are about to die, this likely saves more people than not. Even if it doesn't, a doctor doesn't kill a patient by failing to save him.
Next, Alexandria has been a Hero for 20+ years. The triumvirate has their reputation for a reason, she has likely saved hundreds if not thousands even excluding Endbringers.
She might have allowed a few people to serve as bait, but we know that's not something she enjoys so it's probably not all that many. Note that even this can be disputed as she wouldn't be killing them but not saving them. But I'm leaving it in because that's likely dependant on individual moral beliefs.
Ciara has to kill twenty plus people, likely far more. We know of these for a fact, claims about Alexandria are assumptions.
Though Alexandria probably has a few dead bodies from Kill orders equating those potential kills to Ciara's definite count is suspect.
No, Exalting GU wouldn't (necessarily) be a Quest-losing disaster. But you're progressing from a base assumption that Exlating her (as opposed to any other candidate) is desirable, and placing the burden of proof on opponents of that.
I just wanted to emphasize this, and build on it. While there's been plenty of argument so far about why we shouldn't Exalt GU, I'm still not clear on the reasons for why we should. At present, she doesn't really have much personality, being either evil and homicidal (with shard influence) or being sort of aimless and subdued (with no shard-based purpose), so it's hard to use personality as an argument in her favor. The big pros that I've seen mentioned so far are that she's really powerful and that she'll fill some sort of "sorcerer/necromancer" role in the Assembly, but the great power just means that we'll face threats big enough to need that level of power, and I still have very little idea why we'll need or want a necromancer when we get to Autochthonia.
Did I miss something? Could someone clarify the necromancer argument? Because at present, it seems to be the only practical benefit of Exaltation that we couldn't get through simple supernatural therapy and social skills.
Right, their so competent at investigation that they're riddled up, down and side to side with moles. Truly examples of exceptional investigative skill.
Citation needed.
The only time we see moles mentioned in canon, they were Coil's, only managed to get that far in the chaos of Brockton Bay after Levi, and were rooted out pretty damn quick.
PRT screening is tight.
There is a reason why the Undersiders had to stage a physical break-in at PRTHQ in order to lay their hands on PRT files.
I suspect you've been reading too much fanfiction.
Ancillary agencies like the Asylum for dangerous/mentally ill capes?
Different matter. But that's not what you are talking about.
You used the term Sophistry before and it applies perfectly here. We take contracts from them, when we want, we get paid for completing these contracts. Much like Accord could buy and sell his services as he pleased in return for payment.
So either he isn't a sub contractor or we are, as our relationship is at least as close as his. Likely closer due to our more complete knowledge of the stakes.
This is wrong.
We have negotiated and taken work from them in areas of mutual interest.
Just like Cauldron did deals with Chevalier and the PRT when Khonsu showed up, in order to protect some Cauldron capes.
By comparison, Accord literally runs one of their major projects. Or rather, ran it before Brockton Bay went away.
We argued over this at length on this quest, possibly before your time.
It's why our Cauldron Backing is at 2 dots when we had the opportunity to buy all the way to 5 dots.
People are emotional about things. See Sveta, who was released as a C53 when she could quite easily have been murdered and dumped in a shallow grave for being more trouble than her power is worth. Or kept in the same prison they kept the others.
I'm willing to concede this one because Accords plans are bullshit enough that even without Coil knowing he could have manipulated him well enough anyway. I will note that that is an assumption though, all we see here is that he monitored his friend Coil. Seeing as they were friends that doesn't actually mean much, a casual chat could have sufficed.
I don't see how a reasonable interpretation allows for anything else.
You don't report on your friends to a shadowy conspiracy for kicks.
Especially not while keeping it secret.
Nor do you literally move cities from your base to keep a closer tab on things in another city barely a month after it got trashed by an Endbringer, the Nine and a Tinker bombing campaign in reverse order.
With our OC knowledge and the IC knowledge of Taylor, we know this to be false. EB's have never been meaningfully damaged, ever (excluding scion later on). We have no reason to believe Ciara will be any different. The more likely reason IC and OC that EB's tend to leave early after battling Lexi is that the action validates Eidolons work with Cauldron.
That bolded? Is fanon.
The nature of Eidolon's relationship with the EBs has never been explained, or even hinted at; there is literally no indication that they sandbag for him.
Why would they care about Eidolon's relationship with Cauldron? What makes you think any of them besides Ziz has the capacity to care?
Endbringers have demonstrable levels of damage they are willing to tolerate before retreat.
Scion is not, and has never been, the only person to drive them off; we see this in canon, when we see Chevy reviewing EB attacks, and noting who
eventually drove them off.
I believe differently.
You have to fulfill certain requirements to exalt, ergo they are earned by fulfilling those conditions. It just so happens that one of the conditions (by necessity and implicit design) is that there are only so many exaltations to go around.Claiming otherwise is sophistry.
Ergo, it is a lottery, which has zip to do with deserts.
Heroism is that one dollar lottery ticket you buy when Mega Millions hits a 300 million jackpot.
We see this same pattern with the other Exaltations.
Sidereals are literally born to their Exaltations. Dragonbloods Exalt in everything from stress to when having a dream. Infernals choose people who failed. Abyssal Exaltations come to people at the point of death. Or at the whim of a Deathlord.
Lunar Exaltations I don't know well enough to characterize, but I would not be surprised to find the pattern holds true.
In none of those cases does deserts have anything to do with it.
In Alchemical Exaltations in particular, the Sodalites look for people who are capable. Who display the characteristics of given Castes over generations.
They do not look for the deserving; in the case of the Moonsilvers, one of the examples given in canon is, and I quote:
A Protean comes to life only when bonded to a soul that has displayed a history of heroic innovation and adaptation.The Meticulous Surgeon who saves lives without adequate supplies, the Populat worker who diverts his factory's molten runoff to stop a foreign raid on his city, the deep-cover spy in a nation at war, the cunning aide who rises above her station by riding the success of those around her—.
Did I miss something? Could someone clarify the necromancer argument? Because at present, it seems to be the only practical benefit of Exaltation that we couldn't get through simple supernatural therapy and social skills.
The Triumvirate, Battery, Coils moles, Triumph (maybe, not sure if he still owed favors).
While Sophia's caseworker doesn't count for this she is further proof of the general failure that is the PRT and Protectorate screening process.
I'll see if I can find more tomorrow, if not I'll concede this because most examples are restricted to Brockton Bay. Which will be hard to work around as much of the PRT and Protectorate influenced story is there.
For this story we can add Loom. Might be a good idea to have Taylor do some spring cleaning in general now that I'm thinking on it.
He could have just sold them a plan and they're asking him if it still works. Seeing as only Accord can natively check up on his plans this is fully reasonable.
Sure its a bit cold of Accord to use his friend without telling him, but both Accord and Coil are skeevy people. No need for Accord to need to do much beyond that.
The nature of Eidolon's relationship with the EBs has never been explained, or even hinted at; there is literally no indication that they sandbag for him.
Excepting the fact they sandbag period, no they may or may not sandbag especially for him. But there is a hint, though a vague untrostworthy one (namely Scions four words), that they are his worthy opponents. Though I'll grant I overstated the definit nature of it due to fanon prevalence of the concept.
Which are arbitrary, depending almost completely on whatever drives them and not on much else.
See Phir-se and how ultimately useless his bomb was. Also, see Lung for Endbringers not giving a shit about how powerful a parahuman is.
First, deserts? Autocorrect mess up?
Second, in the quote, you give she earns her exaltation by being cunning enough to rise above her station. Heroic in the exalted and old story sense is not the same as we perceive it in modern times.
Edited: because I'm tired and forgot a whole point.
I'm in favor of Armsmaster over the other two largely because I think his issues are much more easily dealt with. Accord and GU are much more likely to advocate for taking-over-the-world plans, and worse, they might be capable of it too.
Not true.
Glaistig Uaine have had the power to take over the world if she wanted to begin with. The only person around capable of contesting her if she desired is Eidolon.
Instead, she followed her vision, and waited in the Birdcage to harvest otherwise lost shards. Keep in mind that in canon she acted to join humanity once she learned that the cycle is broken, and Scion is just lashing out and making sure there is no possibility of recovery.
This is not a world conquering megalomaniac. This is someone who is capable of subordinating her pride to fulfill her vision.
A more legitimate argument would be the risks of what her response to learning that Autochton cannot be saved might be...but Taylor said so herself. In that event, the Alchemical Exalted will take up their duties as godslayers.
Accord...yeah he totally would. Thats kind of his plan approach. Put himself at or near the top to enact his plans better.
This one was answered many many times. The Endbringers sandbag and take months long breaks because they allocate their power for a 3 century operation cycle.
This is because their role is that of terror weapons. They run ONE day of a year 'hot' then move to standby in between. Each time they have to fight harder cuts their remaining operation time, so they only ramp up if they have to.
Ciara Jean Dowager, first of her name.
The Green Maiden.
Keeper of the Dead. Shepherd of the Dead.
Kentucky gyal in this AU. Celtic ancestry, given both her given names and the choice of her cape name.
Older than Jessica Yamada, putting her in at least her thirties.
Blonde hair, green eyes.
We know she can be flipped; we know she was flipped in canon, with only some assistance from a child psychologist.
POWERS
What are her known powers?
Shard vision:
Which allows her to see a given parahuman's powers in full, if not necessarily it's application . This gives her insight into it's function; notably, she understood how to recharge Eidolon's powers after a couple hours of knowing him, when twenty plus years of effort told David nothing, even with Cauldron's full resources helping him.
This extends to being able to see and recognize powers through walls, and to detect distance surveillance by parahumans; notably, she was aware of Cauldron's Clairvoyant watching her in 27.4. This also apparently manifests with the ability to communicate with shards.
Powerjacking:
The ability to claim the power of a given parahuman.
Either by yanking their power out of them while they're alive, a process that's invariably fatal in canon. Or waiting for them to die of natural/unnatural causes and claiming it after their death.
Notably, she exhibited both forms during Gold Morning.
The first when she killed Doormaker for his power after his power reserves ran out, and the second when she claimed Clockblocker after Scion killed him.
She can do this at range, which we see on-screen when Scion kills Eidolon and she claims his ghost from a significant distance away while she's fleeing.
And when she claimed Bakuda's ghost from another part of the Birdcage.
Manifestation
The ability to manifest the ghosts of parahumans whose powers she claims, and to order those ghosts to use their powers. Three at a time.
This ability seems largely unlimited by power tier; we see her manifest Eidolon after his death, the only parahuman acknowledged to be in her power tier.
Those ghosts currently include Gray Boy, Arthwys of the King's Men and more.
These ghosts are not invulnerable; we know that Scion is capable of injuring them enough that they need time to heal.
There is no evidence I'm aware of that anyone else has ever been able to do so.
WoG for this quest is that she currently has somewhere around 400 ghosts in her cape library.
Resurrection
In cooperation with Nilbog and Bonesaw, we know that she is capable of reincarnating dead parahumans whose ghosts she claimed.
The epilogue shows her with a red-headed young man who Wildbow later confirms is a resurrected Clockblocker.
Yes, that is canon both for the original fic and for this AU; I quote:
Valkyrie returned the bow. When she rose to her full height, she was smiling a little in turn. It surprised her.
Flip sides of the same coin. Rebirth.
The act was an idle one, like one might move a hand inside a pocket to double check there was nothing inside it. She used her power. Bringing one of her warriors through, on the other side of the barrier.
The neanderthal reacted. Valkyrie's warrior didn't manifest in full, but it flowed through the neanderthal's body before rejecting the host.
Almost. Close. Shepherd of the dead, Valkyrie thought, as she walked away. The Goblin King was shushing his creation. They were all parts of a whole. The Chirurgeon, the Maker, the Keeper of the Dead. It only made sense that there would be synergies between such abilities.
A way to bring her dead back, perhaps?
She could see them, in the dark recesses, waiting, loyal, obedient. The ones she'd collected, some still mending from the great fight six months ago.
She felt better now. Less incomplete. Her other half was content with this line of thinking.
She just wasn't sure where she'd take it.
Amusingly, Shards double as Nowhereverse versions of Souls, given what we saw with the Glaistig Uaine/Bonesaw/Nilbog combo in the Epilogues. So... no, that's not really what it'd be thrilled about.
Amy's Shard is more excited about the possibility of finding an answer to the whole "Entropy" problem.
Basically, her Shard is an ever-so-useful Conversion Shard. From how Gromweld was describing it, it could play a key part in getting Earth Bet to run off of Motonic essence physics, meaning that one of the principal things Autocthon will need to survive out here in the Nowhereverse (Essence) will be provided.
I guess I should have clarified instead of just leaving the tease out there, but oh well. Suffice to say that it will not help directly with turning Earth-Bet motonic, but rather perform a task similar to its original purpose but more useful to Alchemical Exalted.
@Evil Atlas that's why I kept coming back to the term necromancer; I just wanted to find the exact quote in this quest as well as the one in canon.
There is a reason why some of us have done our best to keep both Riley and Amelia handy and relatively happy.
And have been making eyes at Nilbog.
It's not entirely sentiment.
Master Resistance
Notably, she was the only person capable of breaking free of Khepri's control, by simply shifting said power to one of her ghosts.
BENEFITS
Let's talk what she brings to the Assembly.
-She has a reputation as one of the top three parahumans on Earth Bet, including Scion and Eidolon. The OTHER bogeywoman, the one not named Contessa. People remember that in her early days, she single-handedly took down multiple S-class response teams.
When it is necessary to intimidate people, she just has to lean on it.
-Similarly, she is currently known as a supervillain.
It is to be remembered that at least 75% of the parahumans on Earth Bet US are villains. Possibly more abroad. That is a constituency that we need to keep in mind as a resource to draw on, and recruiting her, even more than flipping Crawler, says to them that we are willing to work with most people who come in good faith.
That might be relevant when we're outed as Alchemicals, and people wonder if we respect the same rules.
-She killed at least a hundred people in her lifetime so far, and scavenged the ghosts of more.
That's a lot of people, but compared to just the deaths Alexandria and Dr Mother are complicit in due to keeping quiet about their knowledge of the exact nature of Siberian's power? Or Riley's bodycount? Or Accord's as the leader of a major parahuman gang?
Importantly, this is all up-front, so we know about it. And it's public, so it's impact has faded somewhat.
There is no secret liaison with the Yangban to be sprung out of the blue. There is no Elite cell with recorded blackmail. There is no pre-existing Cauldron relationship with expectations. What you see now is what you get.
If we steal her from Scion and the cycle, we don't have to share her loyalties.
-Resurrection is the biggie. This is literally unprecedented in Exalted.
You could not bring a dead person back to life in Creation.Solars in the First Age spent decades and shittons of resources in the High First Age trying to get this done. They failed. No one has EVER pulled it off in Creation since Solars with surfboards beat the then-Primordials into imposing some limits on the universe as they knew it.
Ciara did it, with help. Bona fide Rinne Tensei. If she has Rinnegan eyes, you know we've crossed into Naruto.
This is major because we are putting together an army. Regardless of how well things go, against the shit that we're facing (Ziz and her siblings and Scion and gremlins and possibly Raksha), we WILL take casualties. People WILL die.
GU gives us the option to save the dead, and bring them back to life. At least, in cooperation with Riley, assuming we can recover parts of their body.
And maybe even if we can't; there is no indication that they got ahold of Clockblocker's DNA in canon.
This may no longer work after converting the Nowhereverse to Essence, because people will have souls then, and identical bodies will no longer mean identical persons. She needs her shard converted and optimized to keep working in the Essenceverse. And Autobot has so far redesigned Zion Entity shards to retain their original thematics, which means there's a good chance she can do it for non-parahumans with souls if Exalted.
I keep wondering how long after a person's death it takes to collect his ghost.
Whether Exalted!Ciara could go to Brockton Bay several months later and collect the dead ghosts of the parahumans that died during the Behemoth attack. Or if she could go to New York and do it for Hero.
-She has Gray Boy.
If she still has him after Exaltation, she could simply crack the multiple Gray Boy bubbles around the country and move on.
Small PR move, but a useful one, especially if there are useful capes locked up in those time bubbles.
-Her power talks to shards.
Cauldron is about to dump a shitton of C53s on us. We have implicitly undertaken to help improve their quality of life, as one of the concerns of our Adamant Caste bruiser. She(GU) is possibly one piece of the puzzle for fixing C53s.
Or helping advice other parahumans(see Accord, Labyrinth) to manage their shard issues.
-She is thematically appropriate to install a Man-Machine Weaving Engine at E4 to allow her to use Alchemical sorcery.
Or to have an ex-human familiar who can use sorcery from the get-go. To basically be our weird shit specialist; ghosts, spirits, raksha, strange parahuman powers.
She actively attempts to avoid diving headfirst into the more perception-distorting aspects of her power in her Interlude, which says good things about her likelihood of managing Clarity use responsibly. And while she doesn't like crowds, it's notable that post Gold Morning, she actually attempts to make friends, and does with Nilbog and Riley.
Which suggests that the 20 year prison inmate with delusions is better at social than Colin and Accord both.
Now that is just embarrassing.
-Zero thematic overlap.
She's neither an administrator(Accord), a craftsman(Armsmaster), nor is she a front-line bruiser(Alexandria), all three of which duplicate overlap on Taylor and Prayer respectively.
-She maintains our magical girl cyborg theme. Mahou shojo saibogu.
This is obviously a critical element for getting the approval of Autochton for who we wish to Exalt.
And might give us an edge dealing with Vision of Vengeance, who is possibly female.
SUMMARY
So in summary?
We have a woman with no conflicting loyalties to any other organization. A supervillain whose baggage is up-front and clear.
A woman whose recruitment makes a statement of our intent to both hero and villain communities to do our best to rehab and work with anyone who comes in good faith to help with the whole Endbringer problem.
A woman with an utterly unique power that has very little overlap with anyone currently on the Assembly.
A woman whose power gives insight into the whole "Fixing the Case 53 mess" problem. A power that has applicability towards the millions of Autochtonian ghosts that make up the Shadow Nation, and whose aid is canonically involved in fixing some of the areas of Autochtonia destroyed by Autobot's disease.
A power that makes the PRT and it's allied agencies salivate.
As roles go, she's up there with, and I quote:
"There are others who stand shoulder to shoulder with us, but queen is the wrong word, Administrator. The champion, the high priest, the observer, the shaper, the demesnes-keeper. Why do you ask?"
Eloquent, insightful, and informative. The resurrection potential and the lack of relevant conflicting loyalties are especially attractive, as is the point that given canon's precedent, she's likely to think of Taylor as an equal and a peer, and is very unlikely to deliberately or instinctively try to seize control of the Assembly.
I'm still internally debating the merits of Exalting an Ori at all, but if such an Exaltation becomes inevitable (which seems very likely), you've made a very convincing argument in Ciara's favor.
If anyone is interested in making similarly informative arguments in favor of other candidates, it would be very welcome. Seeing the benefits these candidates would bring, rather than just pointing out all the issues they carry, would bring some much-needed motivation and positivity to this debate.
