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Ascensions and Transgressions: the Tales of Keris Dulmeadokht (Exalted game)

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That said, it was mostly because he was annoying her. As he does frequently.

Truefax; if you click "Full Work" so that all of Parenthood is on one page and then search for the phrase "an ass", you get a dozen results. Two thirds of them are referring to Ney, and the other four are slices of other words (like "can assume").
 
This may be a bit silly but I am having some problems finding the latest character sheet. Is it still available now that the story has switched over to AO3?
 
Ct613hulu said:
This may be a bit silly but I am having some problems finding the latest character sheet. Is it still available now that the story has switched over to AO3?
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I haven't heard of it being moved so, unless Aleph says otherwise, the character sheet is here.

If you need to find it later its a bit tricky: Go to the index at the start of the thread, then into the first chapter, then you can find a link to the character sheet from there.

As far as I know, the thread itself contains no direct links the the character sheet, and the AO3 port doesn't appear to have that link available in it's openings. (though, admittedly, I didn't look all that hard.)


Incidentally @Aleph, I should inform you that there seems to be an error with the Parenthood AO3 chapters: Chapter 2 suddenly skips back to chapter 2 of Family Matters instead.
 
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Session 113
  • Threadmarks
    • Okay, added Keris's character sheet to the first post in this thread as a link.

    And now for Part 113, and the end of the Parenthood arc! Golly gee, but it's been a journey. And... well, the end of this particular journey is... see for yourself.

    So.

    Yeah.

    Maryam is dead. The ghost that has - hah - literally haunted Keris for the majority of this arc is gone - but the scars remain, and oh do they run deep. Keris has always had layers of trauma deep down around her core - the deepest and most damaging being her time in Nexus as a child, followed by her time there as a teenager, with the burning of Baisha wrapped around that. This? This has probably added a layer on one side or the the other of that middle layer. Maryam did so much damage - the guilt from killing her will probably never fully leave Keris, and we'll be seeing the aftereffects of her abuse and her end for... well, quite possibly the rest of the game, flat out. Certainly at least the next few in-game years, before it sinks down to just be one of those fundamental drives that shapes Keris's behaviour without ever really showing obviously.

    If Ney hadn't been there, she would have just walked away and done nothing to care for her wounds or aid her healing; resulting in a horrific bite-scar across her ribs that would linger even after she lost the health levels.

    And yes, we see at the end - as @EarthScorpion mentions in the extras - that Maryam died like a Disney villain; sacrificing the loyal guardian-creature she never really cared about and dying shortly after, all alone. She would totally have managed to become a Deathlord, I think. @EarthScorpion has less of a respect for the narrative potency there, but I really do like the idea that, yeah, this family (or this side of it) is just fucking bullshit in being able to pull out curveballs. Keris is her mother's daughter, and she would have managed it - therefore, so would Maryam. And she would have let Keris go and live peacefully; if Keris had done the same in return... but at the very, very end, even if she couldn't bring herself to fight her mother directly or kill any part of her, she still stood up for herself.

    And then we got the double-heartbreaker. Keris is Maryam's daughter. She's much less Kallash's. And - as I'd half-suspected from the moment I judged he was probably still alive - he'd moved on. I guessed that this might be the form her Sapphire Sacrifice would take far before it happened, but it still hurt. A lot. And little Keris... fuck, that just made it harder. @EarthScorpion is an asshole. If you have a good eye, you might well spot that Keris went through all five trials again here - a Journey through her homeland, Tutelage from the Eshtock materials and Malek Qaja, Humility in grovelling before her mother and Fear in confronting her, then finally the Sacrifice at her father's doorstep.

    Her Emerald Sacrifice was giving up her identity and self-definition as a street rat and accepting the mantle of Princesshood - part of why she's so well-adjusted and comfortable in being an Infernal, with no direct concern about being an Anathema. And now her Sapphire Choice continues that theme of setting down the past and looking forwards to the future, with a deeper and more personal subject and a more wrenching change. Should Keris ever attain the Adamant Circle, it says frightening things about what kind of Trial she might face to get there.

    I'll admit, writing this commentary was hard, because... fuck, how do you even sum up this arc? This pair of arcs, really, because I split Family Matters off midway through Parenthood and never really did a good wrap-up for it. Or even trio; including A Silent Blade. What even is there to say about the enormity of everything Keris has done in Taira since arriving; all the challenges she's faced, the things she's done, the revelations she's been put through, the changes she's undergone? Compare the Keris of now with the one that left Hell, and the difference is painful to analyse.

    That said, I really would love some commentary and reactions to things. So if the whole seems too big to make a productive comment on or know where to start, feel free to pick one of the following themes or subplots and just talk about that one - and then maybe pick another for a second post, if you really like giving me presents. In no particular order; I'd say these are the main things that have been tackled throughout Keris's time in her homeland:
    • Her rescuing of Baisha and her brother's family.
    • The birth of her twins, and Kali and Ogin themselves.
    • Rathan and Calesco and how they've become siblings.
    • The view we've had of Malra; an openly Solar-led nation.
    • Keris's tumultuous relationship with Ney Adami.
    • Maryam, her yidak, and all that she did to Keris.
    • The five trials Keris passed to gain the Sapphire Circle.
    • Oula and Rounen's maturation and Firisutu's birth.
    Of course, if you can think of any others; feel free to mention them too. This has been the end of a major part of Keris's story, so there's lots to talk about and I am a comment whore who loves people talking about my stuff.

    Enjoy!

    Extras:
    [spoilers even in here]
    [so I'm padding this out]
    [to stop them being visible]
    [in the shrunken quote box]
    [go read the session already!]

    ...

    EarthScorpion: Hee
    EarthScorpion: How was that, then? :D
    Aleph: Great. Oh, Keris.
    Aleph: That Maryam scene.
    Aleph: was just
    Aleph: beautifully and perfectly tragic
    EarthScorpion: I was really happy with how it turned out.
    Aleph: Keris lit up the boat to stop her getting away, and didn't realise she hadn't noticed it was on fire and didn't have a plan until it was too late.
    Aleph: also goddammit keris
    Aleph: 6 lethal damage (with the costs of the Gale) including a punctured lung is not "barely anything". I don't care that it's barely a quarter of the way through your health bar; most of that health bar is -2s.
    Aleph: -2 levels are not good levels to be in
    EarthScorpion: Keris hasn't been hurt badly in a while.
    EarthScorpion: She has warped perspectives.
    EarthScorpion: ... and the yidak was the last thing to hurt her, too.
    Aleph: Yes. Yes it was.
    Aleph: Honestly, the last time she was hurt worse than this was probably Lilunu while she was all drugged up.
    Aleph: heh
    Aleph: it just... yeah
    Aleph: gorgeous session
    Aleph: painful in the very best of ways
    EarthScorpion: I kind of had this plan for quite a while, so that's why it's so neat.
    Aleph: Hee.
    EarthScorpion: It's always pretty clear when I'm running off the cuff compared to when I have a long standing plan, at least from my PoV.
    Aleph: Did Keris do anything you didn't expect, there?
    EarthScorpion: I was about 50-50 on whether you'd go after Maryam or not. That was the thing I kind of didn't want, you to fight the two of them on the boat.
    EarthScorpion: Thankfully you decided to pull the ship back.
    Aleph: Yeah, which is why I had the bright idea of - quite.
    Aleph: (Because I suspected that jumping onto the boat would lead to Keris trying to get back from deep in the Underworld.)
    Aleph: (Which sounds like it would take too long and offer way too many opportunities to get lost : P)
    EarthScorpion: Also, hee, I was wondering before the session if you'd realise that I'd been trying to avoid letting you kill the Greater Dead with a spirit-killing charm and so pulled out the Millennium trick.
    Aleph: Hee. Oh, Kerrigor-Maryam.
    Aleph: I did love Greater Dead Maryam. She was wonderfully sinister.
    EarthScorpion: NGL, if you'd let her go, she'd have shouted back that she's going to the one place she's heard there's enough power to overthrow the golden thrones of the solar lords.
    Aleph: Hahaha.
    Aleph: Deathlord Maryam FTW
    Aleph: She'd probably have managed it, too.
    Aleph: This fucking family.
    Aleph: It was heartbreaking in a brilliant way how she was obviously not going to cooperate, but Keris kept on trying with the desperate belief that if she just wilfully ignored all of the contempt in Maryam's voice and the insults and slurs she threw and the casual menace in her posture then she might agree to go to Lethe peacefully and move on.
    EarthScorpion: Keris: "Okay, I want to invite my family to the wedding I'm having with Sasi in Hell. Lilunu is hosting. Sasi, should I invite my mother?"
    EarthScorpion: Sasi: "Keris, dear, I thought we agreed neither of us were going to invite our mothers."
    Aleph: : P
    Aleph: Keris: "I guess they wouldn't have much to talk about, it's true..."
    EarthScorpion: I particularly liked the tragedy at the end. The yidak loved her. It was all her balled up hate and rage as she was dying and the feelings, corrupted by death - and so it felt whole around her and did what she said.
    Aleph: But she didn't love it. : (
    EarthScorpion: She considered it just another tool, because she didn't even have a Passion for it. So she sent it to distract Keris - only regretting she wouldn't have a second Greater Dead ally down in the depths.
    Aleph: Yes.
    Aleph: She left behind both of the powerful, lethal beings that loved her desperately and which she didn't care for.
    Aleph: And as soon as she'd abandoned them both, she died.
    EarthScorpion: If it'd have been on the boat with her, it would have tried to swim away with her on its back - and she would have made it.
    Aleph: God, that would have been even sadder.
    EarthScorpion: Yes, I deliberately framed it as a Disney villain kind of death.
    Aleph: I'm always a sucker for "loyal animal devotedly gives its life for something that doesn't care for it"; it fucks me up every time.
    EarthScorpion: It's nearly a Precia death. Except Maryam was pretending she loved Keris to the end.

    ...

    EarthScorpion: Heh
    EarthScorpion: Quest combat is to a certain degree smoke and mirrors, but there is actual risk in it.
    EarthScorpion: More risk than, theoretically, the actual paranoia combat 2e play of that fight would have had.
    Aleph: Yes, heh.
    EarthScorpion: Heh.
    EarthScorpion: Scary thought.
    EarthScorpion: Imagine what things would have been like if there had been Abyssals around when Maryam died.
    EarthScorpion: Keris, why do so many important people in your life make good abyssals?
    Aleph: Malra would have been fucked, is what.
    Aleph: Heh. It really is clear that Keris is so much like Maryam. And that means Maryam is very much like Keris - and that means that Maryam is very much like a player character, or a protagonist.
    Aleph: She is an excellent Exaltation candidate.
    EarthScorpion: Heh. Not quite. The difference is in Conviction.
    EarthScorpion: Keris gives up way easier :V
    Aleph: If anything that makes Maryam more of one.
    Aleph: She would totally have succeeded at becoming a Deathlord.
    EarthScorpion: Or at least found a Deathlord willing to back her as a servant
    Aleph: ... yeah, but that just means she starts plotting to eat them when they let their guard down; hungry Greater Dead underling style.
    EarthScorpion: Yes, but she doesn't necessarily win that showdown.
    Aleph: Death or glory.

    ...

    Aleph: Oh, Keris.
    Aleph: And fuck, this works perfectly for her renaming herself Keris Maryam Dulmeadokht.
    EarthScorpion: Celestial Circle Sorcery achieved and paid for with end of arc XP.
    Aleph: Oh, Keris.
    Aleph: You've hit the big leagues now.
    Aleph: Was it worth the sacrifice? : (
    EarthScorpion: Well, what does she think?
    EarthScorpion: Heh. Well, she thinks it was worth it at the moment, because she chose this path.
    EarthScorpion: Just as if she'd stayed, she'd have thought it was worth it too.
    Aleph: Heh. Yes.
    EarthScorpion: Even if she had to run around gathering up family members and getting the Lionesses over to Malra.
    EarthScorpion: So, yeah. Post-arc review. Thoughts and feelings, both about this session and about the arc as a whole?
    Aleph: i am le tired
    Aleph: but I will give thoughts once I have slept
    EarthScorpion: Well, what about this last bit of the session, at least?
    Aleph: I think it worked, yeah. It didn't have the raw emotional impact that Maryam did, but... in a way that felt right? Because Keris was always fundamentally Maryam's daughter more than Kallash's, and that was the point - that the parent she was closest to was a malevolent ghost, and the parent that was still alive was distant and had built another life for himself and grown away from her.
    EarthScorpion: He was alive. Life went on for him - just like it had for Keris. They'd grown divergently.
    Aleph: yes : (
    EarthScorpion: And yes, he's very much Ali's father. And if Ali had known about Malra being like this - and there was work for smiths and he could go to a safe place with his father... well, there'd have been vicious arguments with him and Zany (who is, well... Keris isn't just her mother's daughter. There's a weird streak in that side of the family too. Too many smiths and priests.)
    Aleph: Hee.
    EarthScorpion: Heh.
    EarthScorpion: You know, if the Althing asks where Keris has been, she can just say "I helped Orange Blossom, then took some time for myself and initiated into the Sapphire Circle".
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  • Threadmarks
    • ...if Keris had stayed, Sacrificing Sasi and her connections to the Althing to renew her ties to her family, would that have been a valid Sacrifice?
     
    Why is Maryam definitely dead for realsies after her boat sank? If a Ghost with enough force of will ends up in a River, can't they become a Greater Dead? Why wouldn't that happen to Maryam?
     
    notanautomaton said:
    Why is Maryam definitely dead for realsies after her boat sank? If a Ghost with enough force of will ends up in a River, can't they become a Greater Dead? Why wouldn't that happen to Maryam?
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    A) She was already a Greater Dead, so it can't refine her further, just damage her.
    B) As I understand it, that requires surviving the trip back to shore, because it works by integrating the malevolent Essence you exposed yourself to in the process of recovering.
     
    Here are some thoughts about some of the points you asked for commentary on.
    • Her rescuing of Baisha and her brother's family.
    I remember thinking that you really nailed the whole "Arrival at long sought destination" back when Keris first closed in on the village, though with all the stuff that happened right afterwards it feels kind of weird to describe as the end of a journey.
    The family didn't leave much of an impression, though the name sharing was cute. The only scene of the Uncle after his fight I actually really remember is him bonding by fishing with Rathan, so I guess the rest of the bunch will also mostly be useful by giving whichever child is currently in creation someone to have some fun interactions with.
    • The birth of her twins, and Kali and Ogin themselves.
    The baby cuteness didn't really translate into text well. I mostly found myself skipping over the childcare segments. They will get another chance to win me over once they can actually produce dialog.
    • The view we've had of Malra; an openly Solar-led nation.
    All the quirks like the lamps and the architecture were fun, but most of their solar juice seems to be invested in having a competent and motivated administration, which is pretty boring in practice.
    I think we missed out on some fun undercover and investigation segments that could have given them more of a chance to shine by having Ney be this friendly.
    Not seeing the mind behind it all on screen also is a shame. Though he still has an opportunity to show up at the start of the next chapter, I guess.
    • Oula and Rounen's maturation and Firisutu's birth.
    Rounen lazing off as a dried husk wasnt quiet as fun as Oulas vision (and all the fun parental awkwardness afterwards:drevil:), but both stuck in my memory.
    What didn't was Firisutus birth though. That was a separate event from the mess caused by Dulmea losing trust in Keris, right? Like, I remember who he was, which fun and needed role he is now playing in the empire and that he has a super cool design, so you didn't fail at establishing him, but whatever in particular caused his ascension has slipped my mind between all the other stuff that happened.
     
    notanautomaton said:
    Why is Maryam definitely dead for realsies after her boat sank? If a Ghost with enough force of will ends up in a River, can't they become a Greater Dead? Why wouldn't that happen to Maryam?
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    So, the Rivers are essentially each a death. They symbolise a form of death, but they are also that death. The river running through Dead Malra is a river of Mining Accidents, brought up and fed by everyone who dies from the silver mining that is Malra's fortune. It is a river of coal dust, silver ore, and crushed bone; a river that grinds you to paste when you fall into it or pulls the air from your lungs as you asphyxiate in lightless spaces.

    And the Rivers are doubly lethal to ghosts, because ghosts have to deny their own death and have something that matters to them more than the natural order of things. But the River is going "You are DEAD DEAD DEAD DEAD", washing them away, like acid on silk. Rivers wash away the anchors of ghosts and snatch away their Passions. They take everything from them.

    The Baptised Greater Dead are the ones who, in essence, bargain with the River, becoming its creature. They accept the loss of their own Passions and take on something of the Passions embodied by the river. A ghost Baptised in the River of Dead Grain becomes a creature of hunger; always famished, their passions revolving around eating or despoiling grain or mourning the victims of famine or something that the River can't take from them because it's its own nature.

    But it takes an exceptional will, and a willingness to accept the loss of much of yourself and the corruption of your passions to the nature of the River.

    It is theoretically possible that Maryam could have survived. But it's not very likely. And Keris saw her lose so, so much of who and what she was.
     
    Poor Keris just cannot catch a break here, can she?

    Although I am deeply impressed by the subtle set up of EarthScorpion setting up the Trials of Sorcery through this arc. If I had to make a guess, the Adamant Circle sacrifice would be the choice to either turn away from the Allthing and embrace being a Neo-Primordial and independent entity in her own right, or to abandon the pretense of freedom and independence and embrace her role as an agent of Primordial Glory.

    Also, just to be clear here, Keris plans to use her mother's Enlightenment 6 yidak as the po soul for reuniting with the hun ghost of Kerisa to fuel her rebirth? Because that seems simultaneously like a bad idea and an awesome idea.
     
    Academia Nut said:
    Poor Keris just cannot catch a break here, can she?

    Although I am deeply impressed by the subtle set up of EarthScorpion setting up the Trials of Sorcery through this arc. If I had to make a guess, the Adamant Circle sacrifice would be the choice to either turn away from the Allthing and embrace being a Neo-Primordial and independent entity in her own right, or to abandon the pretense of freedom and independence and embrace her role as an agent of Primordial Glory.

    Also, just to be clear here, Keris plans to use her mother's Enlightenment 6 yidak as the po soul for reuniting with the hun ghost of Kerisa to fuel her rebirth? Because that seems simultaneously like a bad idea and an awesome idea.
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    Possibly even an aweful idea?
     
    Academia Nut said:
    Also, just to be clear here, Keris plans to use her mother's Enlightenment 6 yidak as the po soul for reuniting with the hun ghost of Kerisa to fuel her rebirth? Because that seems simultaneously like a bad idea and an awesome idea.
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    Keris is full of GOOD IDEAS.

    "Okay, so let's fuse this incredibly stubborn hun-ghost to a powerful yidak, and use a neomah to blend all these disparate sources of heritage - including several dragonblooded and the breath of the last High Queen of An Teng" may be one of the best plans to date. Her intent, if everything goes as planned, is to have an exceptional child who's going to Exalt as a DB with good breeding and also be the legitimate heir to the Tengese throne. Who is also her daughter and who's also set up to inherit control of the Hui Cha, making her a literal Mafia princess.

    I'm sure nothing will go wrong.

    (Haneyl's not going to give back the robe or the crown of the High Queen, though. It's just not happening. Willingly giving that up would go against her Urge)
     
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    EarthScorpion said:
    "Okay, so let's fuse this incredibly stubborn hun-ghost to a powerful yidak, and use a neomah to blend all these disparate sources of heritage - including several dragonblooded and the breath of the last High Queen of An Teng" may be one of the best plans to date. Her intent, if everything goes as planned, is to have an exceptional child who's going to Exalt as a DB with good breeding and also be the legitimate heir to the Tengese throne. Who is also her daughter and who's also set up to inherit control of the Hui Cha.
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    I see no way this could end up with a necromancer queen who decides that being a dragonblooded is holding her back and she must embrace the Whispers of the Neverborn to truly reach her true potential and abandon her mortal frame to achieve apotheosis.
     
    EarthScorpion said:
    Keris is full of GOOD IDEAS.

    "Okay, so let's fuse this incredibly stubborn hun-ghost to a powerful yidak, and use a neomah to blend all these disparate sources of heritage - including several dragonblooded and the breath of the last High Queen of An Teng" may be one of the best plans to date. Her intent, if everything goes as planned, is to have an exceptional child who's going to Exalt as a DB with good breeding and also be the legitimate heir to the Tengese throne. Who is also her daughter and who's also set up to inherit control of the Hui Cha, making her a literal Mafia princess.

    I'm sure nothing will go wrong.

    (Haneyl's not going to give back the robe or the crown of the High Queen, though. It's just not happening. Willingly giving that up would go against her Urge)
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    I mean the normal solutions to a ghost is either getting them to move onto the Lethe or Spirit-Killing Charms.

    But Keris likes this ghost and doesn't want to get rid of her so much as give her an actual chance at life and happiness. Which is kind of impossible as a ghost.

    So with the orthodox solutions out she kind of has to try something a bit off the wall.

    And hey! If she's psuedo-reincarnating this ancient ghost kid as a newborn anyway, might as well try and give her the best advantages she can, no?
     
    Hilariously I can already forsee the first problem with this plan.

    Keris is going to end up with a baby whose going to grow up at normal human rates.

    She's used to her deva childrens maturation rate. Not to mention the sheer care involved.

    Sasi is going to be amused at Keris's suffering.
     
    fitzgerald said:
    Hilariously I can already forsee the first problem with this plan.

    Keris is going to end up with a baby whose going to grow up at normal human rates.

    She's used to her deva childrens maturation rate. Not to mention the sheer care involved.

    Sasi is going to be amused at Keris's suffering.
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    Also, the hilarious problem of a Conviction 5 baby.

    No, the baby will not go to sleep and stop crying when you want them to.
     
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