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

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Well, uh...

Isn't it one of the Yozis' things to create a major problem just to solve a previous problem?

Like... They didn't want to have to deal with maintaining Creation themselves. So they created the Incarnae and other Gods. And then created mortals to sustain those gods. Worked out brilliantly for them, didn't it?

I mean, TED is the best at it because it's literally one of his main themes. But I'm pretty sure that it's very much a case of 'Holds permanent first place... but there's fierce competition for that placing, and especially the ranks below first'...
 
I initially quite disliked Rathan from when he first showed up to early-mid through soul development.

But with the latest arc I've warmed to him considerably, especially the scenes of him charming the family and learning how to make the Rathan/Caleseco sibling relationship work.

I guess what I'm saying is that his social skills and charms apparently function even extra-textually.
 
deadcrystal said:
I initially quite disliked Rathan from when he first showed up to early-mid through soul development.

But with the latest arc I've warmed to him considerably, especially the scenes of him charming the family and learning how to make the Rathan/Caleseco sibling relationship work.

I guess what I'm saying is that his social skills and charms apparently function even extra-textually.
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Honestly, Rathan is just one of those guys who's a real brat as a kid, but chills out a lot when he hits puberty.
 
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Session 116
  • Threadmarks
    • Part 116 dawns, and oh shit what the fuck how dare you @EarthScorpion how dare you-

    ... okay, no, let's be fair. Before you all go off and lynch @EarthScorpion - much as I understand the impulse, believe me - he did clear this with me before doing it. Basically, the problem was that of the Nexan orphans, only Piu really had any characterisation and it was hard to even remember the names of the other two. So @EarthScorpion suggested "why not kill the other two off to give Keris a rap on the nose and remind her that she can't use Hell as a safe place to stash things?"

    That it's encouraging her to go even further into Szoreny for healing tech is a mere bonus.

    I was initially kind of worried that Piu would hate Keris as a result, but... fuck, man. Her actual reaction; the blithe acceptance that people you care about die and there's nothing you can do about it but roll with the punches and move on, is worse in a lot of ways.

    Kids shouldn't be this fucked up by their life experiences, yo. :(

    Happily, things cheer up a tad with Vali and Zanara making a breakout from the Domain, and then LILUNU! GODSMOTHER! EEEEE!

    It was incredibly sweet, how she went briefly human when she accepted. So cute, srsly. Hee~

    And then, yes, Hermione shows up. Mwaa haa. Oh, Hermione. I suspect we will be seeing more of her this arc, so I'll hold off on any deep analysis or commentary there. Let us wait, and see...

    Extras!
    Aleph: Oh, Hermione.
    Aleph: I do rather suspect that in Keris and Vali and Nara, she may just have found some potential allies~
    EarthScorpion: She's a toxic, envious bitch
    EarthScorpion: however she's also ambitious and ambitious for Lilunu
    Aleph: : D
    Aleph: aaaaand she appears to have a crush on Rathan
    Aleph: god damn, boy
    Aleph:... also shit, keep her away from Oula
    Aleph: Keris's student is yan, but not that yan
    Aleph: there's not much she can do against an E6 demon lord
    EarthScorpion: look, Rathan has powers, man. And he may have been the first person to ask and consider what Hermione wants. Ever.
    Aleph: <wince>
    EarthScorpion: But yeah, how was the session?
    Aleph: Hee. It was good! Yeah, Piu was appropriately major as a Thing - and is leading Keris into EVEN MORE SZORENY, WHEEE
    Aleph: (Hermione might visit to give some snide comments that lead Keris to make the breakthrough to CBI, lol)
    Aleph: And the whole dinner with Lilunu was great.
    Aleph: I'm liking Hermione. : D
    Aleph: She's fun.
    Aleph: And will be a very useful ally, mwaa haa~
    EarthScorpion: She is not a moe waifu demon lord who is all sad about being hurt
    EarthScorpion: no she is just plain pissed about only being able to talk through echoes and only exist in mirrors
    Aleph: Oh Keris. She's slowly becoming a) more determined to help Lilunu and b) more aware that one of her major obstacles in doing so will be Lilunu herself.
    Aleph: Because, though Keris doesn't know it, her ability to be defiant has been systematically and deliberately crippled.
    Aleph:...
    Aleph: although ...
    EarthScorpion: Hmm?
    Aleph: As I recall
    Aleph:... let me just check...
    Aleph:... why yes indeed.
    "Of all the demons that descend from Lilunu, Lela suffers perhaps the most. Her suffering is two-fold - she is flawed by her nature, and she alone was chosen by Ligier and Orabilis to have brass spears hammered through each of her hundred limbs when they confined her under the Conventicle's heart. The spears are tipped with lanterns and the light burns her soft and defenseless scales constantly."

    ...

    "The Dragon Who Eats Her Own Tail hungers. Flesh is the most basal of her desires and she rarely rises above it, but at moments when she does she displays a piercing intellect that obsesses over a single goal and the path to it. Once she intentionally broke her own spine so that she could straighten out enough to drag herself along. She gnawed her way through thick walls of Malfean brass, making a straight line to the hidden place where Lela is trapped."
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    Aleph: Otokana at least knows - can sense, somehow - where Lela's prison lies.
    Aleph: And said prison has spears and lanterns in it to keep her there.
    Aleph: Spears and lanterns, no doubt, of gleaming, polished brass.
    Aleph: I wonder if Hermione might not know where her sister lies in agony?
    EarthScorpion: Keris: "OK, I have a heist plan. Each of my souls is going to have to schmooze up one of Lilunu's souls to get the required info."
    EarthScorpion: She'd have to find it first, and places warded against scrying can keep her out
    Aleph: Hmm. Fair.
    EarthScorpion: Basically, mechanically Hermione effectively always exists in Mirror World Evocation.
    Aleph: Heh.
    EarthScorpion: Which means, yeah, with that Charm you could visit her
    Aleph: ... oh my
    Aleph: : D
    EarthScorpion: And yes, she is less sick than some of the others
    Aleph: I had noticed that, yes
    Aleph: compared to Divisa she's far better off
    EarthScorpion: But then again, that's to be expected.
    EarthScorpion: Szoreny is inured to his own poison
    Aleph: Heheh
    EarthScorpion: (she would go downhill if she exerted herself)
    Aleph: mou~
    EarthScorpion: But yeah, that Szorenic nature means she's more resilient to the essence-poison
    Aleph:... hah!
    Aleph: I didn't even remember this line from her writeup, but...
    "The Image of a Dragon has ambition beyond measure. She is young, but she sees how her greater self is but a tool of the other Unquestionable and her mercury blood is raised in ire. Lilunu has the power of a fetich soul; how dare they treat her like that?"
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    Aleph: Keris literally echoed Hermione's exact thoughts
    Aleph: No wonder she went full Abridgedcard in her reaction.

    ...

    EarthScorpion: Poor Lilunu. A bunch of the GSPs have noticed she's always nice and trying to be their friend, and that the other 3CDs don't respect her
    EarthScorpion: so they don't respect her either, because she doesn't act like a tyrant demon princess
    Aleph: Keris: <glares at them>

    ...

    Aleph: You know, I think Wan Washed-Out Faces would read the same for Keris as for Hermione.
    Aleph: Her Reaction 5.
    Aleph: Her wits and her quickness, her keen senses and her sheer adaptability, her capacity to near-instantly react to any change and capitalise on weaknesses or opportunities; that's always been her strongest trait. Even when she was a mortal she was impressively high-Reaction.
    Aleph: It's probably the single most valued trait she has.
    Aleph: Because at a fluff-level it's not just a trait, it's also a way of using her other traits.
    Aleph: Oh Keris. She's very much an opportunist; our girl.
    EarthScorpion: Well, it's that or her awareness. Miss omnisensor really does love her senses.
    EarthScorpion: Ney would probably return his Investigation. More than being a Solar, what he's proud of is the way he can look at things and know what's going on. The way you can't lie to him. The way he can do Sherlock bullshit.
    Aleph: Sigh. No wonder he gets along with Keris well.
    Aleph: And it would be Reaction, because her awareness falls partly under that as well.
    Aleph: Heh. Amusing that Keris, who codes as Lunar, values an Attribute
    Aleph: While Solar Ney prides himself on an Ability : D
    Aleph: Zanara's, I notice, was their Expression.
    Aleph: Haneyl's would be a background. Dunno if it would be Status or Resources or Artifact or what, but it would be a Background based on what she has . Her stuff .
    EarthScorpion: Hmm. Might be her nature
    Aleph: ... heh. I suppose "demon princess" is essentially a status.
    Aleph:... interesting, Vali might be the same, in that his nature is the best way I can think of to show how he prides himself most on being able to break out of any confinement; that nothing can stop him.
    EarthScorpion: Heh.
    Aleph: Eko is definitely her ridiculous Cognition. ¬_¬
    EarthScorpion: I have no idea what the babies would return.
    Aleph: I'm not sure they're old enough to pride themselves on things yet. : P
    Aleph:... though if they are, sigh
    Aleph: It's probably something to represent how well they can work together.
    Aleph: They're both very pleased with how they can cooperate to get one over on mama.
    EarthScorpion: Keris wants them to return Mentor (Mama)
    Aleph: ... heh. In their case alone, it legit might return "Ally" even if that's not usually a trait WWOF can return because it's not fundamentally about a trait the target has.
    EarthScorpion: Heh. Wan Washed Out Faces is a good way of catching the self-righteous. Someone who considers themselves the sun's holy avenger will be caught by it even if they're cloaking their essence
    EarthScorpion:... god, I'm not sure what you'd get from Sasi. It might change depending on her mood.

    ...

    Aleph: Hmm.
    Aleph: So, it's a well-known fact that you're not really a proper mysterious weirdo occultist NPC until you have a pet area of study or focus obsession.
    Aleph: Like Malek and her plants.
    Aleph: And one of Keris's is probably going to be the study of the empowered po, so... hmm. Would creating a Draught of Dreaming the Lower-Soul be an arcane alchemy Project?
    Aleph: Heh. She may have a use for that dream-invasion spell after all.
    Aleph: It lets her ride along with people on their manifest-po-soul dreams and take notes without having to TLA them.
    Aleph: (Well, actually for Keris it's empowered soul hierarchies and pantheon heresy in general, because she is legitimately already a leading expert in that field)
    Aleph: (But for most non-Infernal Exalts that's just their empowered po soul)
    EarthScorpion: I mean, she's also biotechnology
    EarthScorpion: ... sigh
    EarthScorpion: That'd totally be a thing to be famous for in a mad occultist way.
    EarthScorpion: She's the one who can take your loved one's Hun ghost and make them a new body and have them reborn and you know it's them even if they don't remember it
    Aleph: : D
    EarthScorpion: She's the one Precia goes to with Alicia's trapped ghost.
    EarthScorpion: And she uses people to make new po souls from them, growing them, to try to minimise the changes in personality
    Aleph: Oh, Keris. : D
    EarthScorpion: Of course that means she's making Fates, not bringing Alicia back
    Aleph: Yes. But she's upfront about that. She can't resurrect the dead, but she can reincarnate them.
    EarthScorpion: ... and knowing Keris, her processes make sure the reincarnated one is also her descendant
    EarthScorpion: Of course, to really do that reincarnation thing, she'd need to start dabbling in necromancy
    Aleph: Well, naturally. : 3
    EarthScorpion: Or at least necrotic sorcery
    Aleph: I did actually consider Fossyi
    Aleph: Who would probably be interested in this.
    Keris: "I'll pay you with copies of all my notes and all of the necrotic power you can strip off this E6 greater yidak, save the core soul."​
    EarthScorpion: Hmm. How does Keris fit necromancy into her paradigm?
    Aleph: Hmm.
    Aleph: She'll struggle.
    Aleph: Her whole paradigm is conceptualising essence as a living thing and spells as things you train and coax it to do.
    EarthScorpion: Sigh. She might actually be a classical necromancer, which is to say, telling the future by talking to the dead. She doesn't touch necrotic essence herself and anchors everything in social backgrounds or scrying artefacts
    Aleph: Heh. Yeah.
    Aleph: Yeah, I think with her paradigm she just can't work with necrotic essence directly. It's a mental block.
    EarthScorpion: She summons a ghost by calling it into a scrying crystal or calling it up to talk to it.
    Aleph: And Adorjani essence is terrible for dealing with ghosts.
    EarthScorpion: Plus she has the infernal problem with handling necrotic essence anyway
    Aleph: Hmm?
    EarthScorpion: Infernals don't handle it well - not like lunars do. It's poisonous to them
    Aleph: Ah. Yes.
    Aleph: Honestly, her best method would be collaboration with a Lunar.
    Aleph: ... hah. No it wouldn't. It's Ogin. Who can learn necromancy of the Iron Circle (well, Emerald Sorcery; same thing) and naturally handle lunar and necrotic essence.
    Aleph: And is studious and clever, heh
    Aleph: Oh Keris. You can't do direct necromancy at all, so you had a baby who could do it for you.

    ...

    Aleph: Hee
    Aleph: Oh, Hanilyia
    Aleph: You have the world's scariest auntie.
    Teen!Hany: "You know, I don't really remember a time before Aunty Keris. I know there was one; mum and dad tell me she turned up when I was three. But her visit is some of my earliest memories. Like, you know what I remember most clearly, from that age?"
    Hany: "Auntie Keris had come to town and beaten up some of the horse-bandits who were oppressing the town, and she'd gone off with great-uncle Xasan to kill the naib who put them there. I mean, I didn't know that at the time, but that's why what happened... happened. So she'd gone off, and the rest of the horse-bandits were scared, so they decided to take us hostage so she would let them go."
    Hany: "I remember them coming to the forge - it's kind of blurry, but I remember I was really scared, and dad told auntie Kuha to take me and run, and we went off into the forest. And then a bit later there was lots of screaming and yelling from the town, and I was crying, and Kuha tried to keep me calm, but a couple of horse-bandits found us and were going to kill us."
    Hany: "And then Keris showed up. Kuha just screamed her name, and she was there. Like a thunderbolt. She came crashing through the trees faster than I could even see her move, and she blew them both away like... like rag dolls. And she hugged me and Kuha and said something and then went off again and dealt with the rest of them, and that was it. We were safe. And she was pregnant with my cousins the whole time, to boot."​

    ...

    Aleph: You know what's funny? As soon as her family get to Saata, Keris is going to start having her strategic cowardice challenged.
    EarthScorpion: Lol
    Aleph: Because she'll have a... let's see, the Lionesses were 300 strong at base, and Nandi levied another forty or so who were too crippled to fight, and said she could get another hundred by getting the word out...
    Aleph: So call it 450-500 soldiers.
    Aleph: And they'll want things to do.
    Aleph: The Baisha she can keep docked and just not do much with, and explain it as conserving fuel. But once she has subordinates, they're not going to be happy just sitting around waiting all the time, even if they're paid to. They'll want work. Challenging work, at least once boredom sets in.
    Aleph: She'll have to find goals to give them - and that'll mean she's acting, in ways that can be noticed.
    Aleph: Same when Kali and Ogin grow up, and especially when she gets her war-akuma.
    Aleph: Even if Susurrus is on a covert mission snapping up ancestor-worshipping cannibal ships without being seen directly; that's still a seasonal military Project action, and people will notice the effects, and speculate as to what's causing them, if not outright investigate.
    Aleph: Poor keris
    Aleph: She can't just build up a defensive force and get lots of protective Backgrounds and resources and be happy keeping them all secret.
    Aleph: She has to do things with them to keep them fit and in-practice and entertained and fulfilled.
    Aleph: They're not like automata, where she can have a whole army of them that she leaves dormant around her castle base where all her precious things are hoarded and only activates in dire need.
    Aleph: And waving a 450-strong military force around is, unfortunately, one of those things that can't help but change the status quo.
    Keris: <frets>​
    EarthScorpion: Keris has an army, and now she's finding she has to go conquer somewhere
    EarthScorpion: Plus, heh, the Lionesses would go soft if she just left them in Keriskanda, even if she had it yet
    Aleph: indeed
    EarthScorpion: They'd go get married, have kids, and haemorrhage fighting strength.
    EarthScorpion: Honestly, they will anyway. Soldiers are only good for ten years or so before they get sick of army life, and these are mercenaries
    EarthScorpion: They're very much a use it or lose it asset as Keris doesn't have any way of replenishing theirs strength
    EarthScorpion: Although it must be noted that she's much, much better at keeping up their strength
    Aleph: Well, in Keriskanda they'll probably raise their daughters to have ten-year mercenary careers where they get rich and blooded and so on
    EarthScorpion: Yes, that was sort of my point. She needs a culture to anchor her pet army in
    Aleph: Hee
    EarthScorpion: Of course, right now they're a good mercenary force with easy access to demon lord support and first circles and an Infernal patron.
    Aleph: mwaa ha haa
    EarthScorpion: So, yeah, what is she planning to use them for right now?
    Aleph: ... leeeeet me get back to you on that
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  • Threadmarks
    • Well, Keris can start by having her new personal army conquer her somewhere that has cacao trees. And maybe vanilla orchids too. And sugar plantations, although those would also be a target because sugar slavery is nightmarish even compared to other slavery and there's no way those plantations aren't using (and using up) vast quantities of slave labor at present.
     
    The Sandman said:
    Well, Keris can start by having her new personal army conquer her somewhere that has cacao trees. And maybe vanilla orchids too. And sugar plantations, although those would also be a target because sugar slavery is nightmarish even compared to other slavery and there's no way those plantations aren't using (and using up) vast quantities of slave labor at present.
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    Out of curiosity what makes sugar plantations worse than say, cotton ones?
     
    rogthnor said:
    Out of curiosity what makes sugar plantations worse than say, cotton ones?
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    By my understanding, the thing about Caribbean sugar plantations was the conflation of several factors:
    1. Sugar cane scales well with extra workers and has strong economies of scale, so just sticking in more extra workers gets you more output.
    2. Sugar cane was really, really valuable, selling for spice-level prices
    3. Europeans really, really wanted sugar, so the market just kept expanding whenever the price fell.
    Oh, and the Caribbean had both malaria and smallpox. And yellow fever. Which according to some things from Haiti killed half the newly purchased slaves in some years.

    End result? You got a cash crop plantation system that by some records had average life expectancy for slaves taken to the islands of less than ten years, in a system that encouraged the formation of massive, systematic plantations that could literally just afford to buy replacements for anyone they worked to death with all the profits they were making from sugar. And disease rates high enough that working people to death was "more efficient" since they'd probably just die of disease anyway.

    Seriously, look at the conditions of pre-Revolution Haiti. It's brutal and inhumane to a degree that it seems fictional.
     
    Pretty much the above, yeah. Also, sugarcane has remarkably sharp leaves, the stems are very hard and thus difficult to cut, it tends to ooze sticky cane juice, it attracts insects, and it grows best in hot humid environments. And then you usually do at least the initial processing at the plantation, so you have vats of boiling cane juice being distilled into molasses that need to be watched. After you extract the cane juice, which involves feeding the cane by hand into a press.

    So on top of everything else, injuries, maimings, and people collapsing from heatstroke are basically guaranteed.
     
    Session 117
  • Threadmarks
    • So, Part 117 is a bit of a filler chapter - or, I guess not filler, since stuff gets done, but certainly a middle chapter. Piu gets healed, Hermione shows up again, and Keris gets a new friend! I am incredibly proud of her new friend's name, and the reasoning behind it.

    So Keris's new dragon tattoo will be called "Iris". And it's the perfect name for her, because it works on so many levels.
    1. Irises are a cousin to the order Liliales - the lilies. So it's a veiled reference to Lilunu's name. But on top of that, irises are predominantly found in dry, semi-desert, or colder rocky mountainous areas. Or to put it another way; Harbourhead and Taira. It's a cousin to the lily that's native to Keris's homeland(s).
    2. The iris is also, of course, the coloured part of the eye. Which is fitting, both because Iris shares her coloured eyes with Lilunu, and also because one of Iris's most basic powers is that Keris can share her vision, either when she's on Keris's body (to watch her back) or when she crawls off it as a 2D living artpiece to spy for her mistress.
    3. And as well as that, Iris is the ancient Greek goddess of the rainbow - the same rainbow that Lilunu's eyes shift through - and the messenger of the gods. Given that Iris will be Keris's new Anchor for Infallible Messenger and that Lilunu is the Speaker for the Yozis, that is some pretty impressive synchronicity and basically I'm just brilliant. You may applaud now. ^_^

    Too tired to type more smart things now; speak lots and effortpost and I will come back and hit more keyboard button things when I have done the sleep.

    Extras:
    *babysitting*
    EarthScorpion: oh vali
    EarthScorpion: he is alarmingly probably the second-best childcare Keris has
    Aleph: ... that is genuinely concerning, yes
    EarthScorpion: Also, poor Ogin
    EarthScorpion: Quite apart from the fact that no one appreciates he's invented a sign language, he's already aware he has to spend his life stopping his sister metaphorically and in this case literally getting her head stuck in narrow gaps
    Aleph: : D
    EarthScorpion: Meanwhile, Zanara was... Zanara
    Aleph: zanara is very zanara, it is true
    EarthScorpion: How was Hermione?
    Aleph: you realise she's going to be even more people's favourite now, right?
    EarthScorpion: lol
    EarthScorpion: Oh Vali
    EarthScorpion: He took Iosoto with him, which is what was making Kali hyper
    Aleph: : D
    EarthScorpion: She goes hyper in the presence of other felines
    Aleph: She has only seen one other kitteh before
    Aleph: And this is a kitteh she can fit into her eyes without having to be half a block away.
    Keris: "Fit into... what?"
    Kali: "Well, tiger-Lilunu is too big, mama! I can't fit all of her in my eyes! Not unless I'm on the other side of the world! Iosoto is a littler big! He fits in my eyes better!"
    Keris: "... you come up with the oddest metaphors, baby."​
    EarthScorpion: Oh god what is she going to do when she runs into that cat beastman dock mafia?
    Aleph: ...
    Aleph: Oh dear

    ...

    Aleph: ... heh
    Aleph: You know, Zany may take some careful talking to clue her in on the whole "Hell" thing - which Keris will need to do when she picks them up in the Baisha
    Aleph: But the Lionesses - and Xasan - will understand it pretty simply.
    Aleph: She's not a slave or a servant of demons, she doesn't worship them, she isn't an infernalist working under them in dark pacts.
    Aleph: She's a mercenary, and her current employers are demons. That's all.
    Aleph: There's work she does for pay, and work she does for her clan, and this is the former.
    EarthScorpion: i mean
    EarthScorpion: she's kind of an infernalist involved in dark pacts :p
    Aleph: Yes, but they'll see it just as basically her being a mercenary in the highlander tradition. Yeah, she's made a few friends among her employers, but fundamentally for Keris, there's stuff she does for her clan, and stuff she does for her bosses.
    Aleph: And the two don't really meet.
    Aleph: Highlander born in the wrong country, lol.
    Aleph:... funny thing is, I actually think Zany will take the Hell thing better than Ali did
    Aleph: Miss "you can make boats out of plants; you can probably punch him fine".
    EarthScorpion: Well, duh
    EarthScorpion: There's a reason Keris named Zanara what she did.
    EarthScorpion: ... and Zana is the girl bit

    ...

    *Piu and Keris on how Bags think*
    EarthScorpion: One thing, of course, is that Piu isn't as hardened as Keris was on the streets
    Aleph: true, yes
    EarthScorpion: Like, she'd only been on the streets for a few years tops
    EarthScorpion: And hadn't had to do any of the really hardened things Keris did
    EarthScorpion: The most she really got up to was looking cute and selling things her brothers got their hands on, like stolen flowers
    Aleph: heh
    Aleph: the question is
    Aleph: does she recognise Keris as someone who did go through all that?
    Aleph: an experienced street rat
    EarthScorpion: Well, not as it stands, lol
    EarthScorpion: she's all pretty and cleaned up and harlot-y
    EarthScorpion: and not a cheap harlot
    EarthScorpion: the kinda harlot who is kept by a rich merchant prince
    Aleph: Heh. So it'll be if and when Keris starts sharing things with her.
    Aleph: Advice that makes Piu go "... wait" and put it together

    ...

    EarthScorpion: Yes, "Eko got out at the same time as Zanara and Vali" was the main thing I was grinning about
    Aleph: such an asshole
    Aleph: Goddammit, the only person I could pass that job off to is Calesco, and I'm not sending her out into Hell
    Aleph: eko i swear to god if you've found the forgotten dragon
    EarthScorpion: Eko is just running around pretending to be Adorjan and scamming people into running away and leaving all their valuables
    Aleph: ¬_¬
    EarthScorpion: She returns to Keris dragging a hellstrider
    EarthScorpion: Heh. Letting Eko loose is even worse than letting Keris loose, because Eko is even further along the line of "I'm much more dangerous when I don't plan".
    EarthScorpion: Also, did you like the Firisutu scene thing?
    Aleph: Yes. Brought him across very well. ^_^
    Aleph: I really liked his ziggurat and tools to track the presence of the monarchs in the Domain : 3
    EarthScorpion: Heh. Yes, I got the idea of that by just scaling up his 1CD stuff
    Aleph: : D
    EarthScorpion: Also, heh, the very prominent thing about him - and probably all her Psyche souls is that they're not children
    EarthScorpion: He's all well-spoken and temperate
    EarthScorpion: And doesn't have any Yozi charms linked to him
    EarthScorpion: He's just a chill golden monkey
    Aleph: Yes. Same with Sirelmiya
    EarthScorpion: Apart from his mostly irrational dislike for keruby
    Aleph: In all fairness
    Aleph: They are pests
    EarthScorpion: Yes, but if they weren't around, the monarchs would have to make their own entertainment
    EarthScorpion: They're problem alchemy.
    EarthScorpion: Rather than bored demon lords, you have a gaggle of child demons

    ...

    EarthScorpion: ... no Rathan
    EarthScorpion: A dream is not a wish your heart makes
    EarthScorpion: You don't get to rule over Calesco's dreams and claim to have made them
    EarthScorpion: Huh. If Calesco had landed between Rathan and Haneyl, we'd have had a oil polluted coastline
    EarthScorpion: Like those bits of Louisiana
    Aleph: Yes, but that would put... hmm.
    Aleph: If you just switched around the younger three, that would have it be Eko-Vali-Haneyl-Calesco-Rathan-Zanara-Eko
    Aleph:...
    Aleph: Wow
    Aleph: Just
    Aleph: Wow
    Aleph: That's, what, two permanent warfronts and the vicious bickering of Eko and Zanara?
    EarthScorpion: Vali: "Me and Haneyl are just playing!"
    Aleph: And rotating them the other way makes for, uh, Eko-Zanara-Haneyl-Vali-Rathan-Calesco-Eko.
    Aleph: Which, yeah
    Aleph: Just as bad, really

    ...

    EarthScorpion: oh, kali
    EarthScorpion: She's not quite at the age when she can copy Mama brushing her hair, but she's probably going to start soon.

    ...

    EarthScorpion: God; Keris in Atomic Blonde
    EarthScorpion: (at the end, she would kill the American and reveal she was working for Heaven all along. And then leave and go back to Hell, happily leaving everyone else to unpick what happened)
    Aleph: ^_^
    EarthScorpion: she might also be the person who "turned up dead"
    EarthScorpion: ... nah, that's a Ney thing.
    EarthScorpion: He totally has an "I'm dead, really dead" thing
    Aleph: Everyone thinks she's a double agent they flipped from one of the others.
    "Okay, does anyone here actually remember originally hiring her? "
    "I thought we got her from the Germans?"
    "No, no, we flipped her from Russia."
    "She was a British agent, we blackmailed her with her debts!"​
    EarthScorpion: Oh Keris, you're such a Night
    EarthScorpion: Your performances are multi-layered deception
    EarthScorpion: Your socialising is corruption
    EarthScorpion: Your ideal organisation to run is an organised crime family
    EarthScorpion: Hmm, her specialities are:
    Physical - assassin
    Social - corruption
    Mental - artist​
    Aleph: Not spy? Ah, no, I suppose that's just making part-use of her assassination toolbox.
    EarthScorpion: Sasi is:
    Social: Vizier
    Mental: sorceress
    Physical: failed gym class​
    Aleph: Lol
    Aleph: Heh. Though when she gets Elloge, her Physical will become stealth-related, I suspect.
    Aleph: Oh, Keris. You're an assassin/saboteur, honestly. In some ways your saboteur toolkit is even more frightening than your assassination one.

    ...

    EarthScorpion: Heh
    EarthScorpion: If you'd had your brushes out and about for the Taira stuff, Keris would have got a bit of paint building up on the brushes
    EarthScorpion: Especially maiden ones (all of them, especially journeys)
    Aleph: ... crap!
    Aleph: So she can get paint for them by... argh.
    Aleph: Wait, hmm. Even though she's Beyond Fate?
    EarthScorpion: Paint very slowly builds up on them when major events happen around them
    Aleph: Hee! Useful.
    EarthScorpion: Nowhere near as good as you can get by making proper paint
    EarthScorpion: That's the fate version of how you can dip a brush in water or a fire to paint
    Aleph: ... she's going to be incredibly pissed when she realises that she could have gotten some paint for them by keeping them out, though.
    EarthScorpion: ... oh Keris
    EarthScorpion: Goes to the all thing only wearing body paint made of secrets
    EarthScorpion: Watches the confusion in onlookers with Zanara hilarity
    EarthScorpion: She's causing headaches in onlookers who have to try to resolve their eyes telling them she's naked with their brains telling them she's covered up entirely and wondering what she's hiding under her costume.
    Aleph: Lol
    Keris: "Darling, I'm so fashionable it hurts."
    Sasi: "And how many hearthstones did that cost?'​
    EarthScorpion: But yeah, maiden paint is harder get than elemental paint. Things like firedust can be used to paint in fire and infuse things with the nature of fire, but to paint a ship's sails in secrets so people can't follow it is harder
    Aleph: Yes. Sigh. Ah well.
    Aleph: Heh. I think we said; that's totally something Keris would trade for with Sidereals.
    EarthScorpion: And, of course, there's always the choice of making it a gift to Lilunu in the hope she'll understand how they work and make her own hell variants
    Aleph: Nah, Keris really wants her Secrets sails. : P
    EarthScorpion: Or, heh, putting your own time into doing it. Or making variants so you could, for example, tattoo someone with Malfean ink and nurse them through the sickness as they become the Incredible Hulk.

    ...

    Aleph: oh my god
    Aleph: Kali.
    Aleph: Kali does this.
    Aleph: Not only that, she does it with other emotions too, so sometimes she'll just throw down her plate and shout "SAD!" at the top of her voice and when Keris is like "oh no, baby, what's wrong?" Ogin just goes "she thought about how Pippin's boat sank in the Four Fishermen story again" without even looking up.
    EarthScorpion: Oh Kali.
    EarthScorpion: She feels things very strongly
    Aleph: She is the po-themed one of the pair of them
    Kali: "H-he had the red boat!" *tearing up, lip wobbling*​
    EarthScorpion: It's also her job to shout "Hungry" at Keris when she gets distracted by things
    Aleph: : P
    Aleph: Ogin's job is to stop his sister getting her head stuck in small spaces, but Kali's job is to make sure Ogin remembers to eat and sleep when he gets absorbed in thinking about things.
    EarthScorpion: Kali: "I have to carry him because I took his legs when we were in Mama's tummy."
    Kali: "That's why I have 6 legs as a tiger."​
    Aleph: ... goddammit, it's true. She has six limbs rather than four.
    Keris: "..."​
    EarthScorpion: Kali no why have you inherited your mother's intellect?
    EarthScorpion: (even if you have less of it, it's shaped the same)
    Aleph: sigh, yes
    Aleph: She's very much like Keris. Most of the time she seems like a... well, like a Subaru.
    Aleph: But then every so often she'll come out with something genuinely thought-provoking and insightful and brilliant, and everyone will be like "well, but... um... huh?"
    EarthScorpion: Kali: "Mama I want smashfists. They'll keep my front paws, my talons and my hands safe when punching people."
    Aleph: Keris: "Hang on, aren't your talons your legs, though? So the smashfists would be on your... wings?"
    Keris: "..."
    Keris: "I'm gonna have to think about this." *trails off into muttering* "Maybe moonsilver? No, no, she likes sun and fire materials. Electrum, maybe? Shit, where can I get some electrum..."​
    EarthScorpion: (the next year she asks for god kicking boots, and the year after that, artefact weights for her twintails)
    Aleph: Hee. Sigh. Yes, she'll probably quite like electrum.
    "Electrum is a lesser cousin of both orichalcum and moonsilver. It is often found in First Age ruins, where essence discharges from ruined geomancy have fused gold and silver together into something which is neither. A few scholars in the Second Age have managed to deliberately recreate it by dumping the two metals into damaged manses."​
    EarthScorpion: Heh. She insists on calling them X kicking boots, where X is the last thing she kicked
    EarthScorpion: This sometimes results in her refusing to kick uncool things
    Aleph: "Mama-Kicking Boots" lasts a whole fortnight, because she's so proud about landing a hit that she refuses to kick anything else with them.
    EarthScorpion: KALI

    ...

    EarthScorpion: Keris has probably upgraded Lilunu to Mentor 4, what with the "you're my children's godmother and Zana is your daughter"
    EarthScorpion: So, uh, Keris can probably use that arm for Lilunu-themed sorcery effects
    EarthScorpion: Like that death laser thing she nearly got Keris with once when she surprised her
    EarthScorpion: Keris's arm is now basically permanently mutated to be Effect-OK for being a channel for uncontrolled bursts of Yozi energy
    Aleph: Hee! ^_^
    Aleph: yessss~
    EarthScorpion: Like, sigh
    Aleph: ...
    Aleph: like The Gathering of Essence?
    EarthScorpion: Heh, that spell explicitly doesn't need an Anchor, I think
    Aleph: yeah, but Keris is still gonna cast it through that arm
    Aleph: for a YOZISPLOSION
    EarthScorpion: If she got DOOB with that, it'd just be "grabbing every single Yozi form of butterfly that Keris's essence supports and hurling them out together". There's brass wasps and cutting ribbons and ember hawks and etc etc
    Aleph: hahaha
    Keris, after casting it for the first time: "... mother of fuck, what the hell was that?"​
    EarthScorpion: ... oh my god
    EarthScorpion: alif
    EarthScorpion: imagine casting Wood Dragon's Claw through it
    EarthScorpion: or, rather, All-Dragon's Claw
    Aleph: *whimper*
    Aleph: so
    Aleph: basically just a slightly more controlled version of what Keris's arm did just then
    EarthScorpion: Yes
    Aleph: it doesn't even stay the same shape
    EarthScorpion: ...
    EarthScorpion: oh god
    EarthScorpion: also, uh
    EarthScorpion: Keris is going to come home to Kali and Ogin with something moving beneath her skin
    Aleph: ...
    EarthScorpion: Kali is going to treat the tattoo like a cat with a laser pointer
    Aleph: lawl
    EarthScorpion: Ogin is just going to stare at it until it blinks
    EarthScorpion: Hehe
    EarthScorpion: Keris felt that hurt more than childbirth
    Aleph: well yes
    Aleph: she was out of it for most of childbirth
    Aleph: and hee
    Aleph: her native skill at safely and stably compartmentalising Yozi essences shows itself : 3
    EarthScorpion: ... heh, when she uses her po shintai, the tattoo grows
    Aleph: Eee!
    Aleph: ^_^

    ...

    Aleph: Hee ^_^
    Aleph: I am very happy with Iris. Both the tattoo and the name. Which I am still immensely proud of
    EarthScorpion: i am even happier for ~reasons~
    EarthScorpion: Also now Keris has a mutant demon arm
    EarthScorpion: (this would matter more if her entire body already didn't count as 'mutant demon X')
    Aleph: Indeed.
    Aleph: I will have to think about whether it's got any noticeable scars.
    Aleph: I guess that's just Iris, actually
    Aleph: Who, yes, finds it most comfortable to sleep there.
    Aleph: Heh. The many-part dragon.
    Aleph: Now, will Lilunu go do the, uh, more mature and Unquestionable-y version of throwing herself at her love in a hug and going "eeeeee! One of Keris's little child-souls helped me create life! I made a dragon that was healthy!"
    EarthScorpion: Keris: "Iris, no. Stay still. Mummy has to negotiate with the Hui Cha lords and she doesn't need a demon tattoo licking them."
    Aleph: : P
    Aleph: Sigh. It has the same tastes as Lilunu, so it certainly gets excited when it sees pretty works of art she would like.
    Aleph: Keris: *puts up with the constant prickling from her lower back, where Iris is digging her claws in*
    EarthScorpion: incidentally, just going to say this
    EarthScorpion: but keris could totally anchor any of lilunu's souls in her demon arm
    Aleph: Oooooo~
    EarthScorpion: and, uh, hermione can probably treat it as a mirror right now and appear as a white red-eyed version of Iris
    Aleph: Lol
    Keris: "Okay, I only have so much space on one arm, and you two are getting pretty friendly there."
    Keris: "Iris, love, move over to my other arm? Please? Thank you."​
    EarthScorpion: also, Keris can now help Lilunu by accepting excessive essence into the arm at the mere small cost of lethal damage and a misbehaving demon arm until Keris gets it back under control
    Aleph: Hmm. Yes, heh. Stuff she anchors in Iris is just "little 2D toon familiar does things"
    Aleph: It's stuff she anchors in the associated Mentor 4 (Lilunu) that taps her arm as a channel for uncontrolled demon magic.
    Aleph: Which are mostly the things where she doesn't care about being subtle in her demonic traits in any way, shape or form and oh god she's going to learn Butterflies to Chrysalis Bombardment through it.
    Aleph: It's like the DoOB we discussed, but WAY MORE.
    Aleph: And her arm goes through the same rapid flux as it sheds razor-insects of all types.
    Keris: "Not gonna lie; there's a bit of me every time that's scared I'm going to lose the arm doing that."​
    EarthScorpion: And yes, she's going to need to think how to cover up Iris when in different identities and forms.

    ...

    EarthScorpion: Incidentally, from what Zanara said, they were totally aware that Eko was doing her own escape thing
    EarthScorpion: They just didn't mention it to Keris.
    Aleph: goddammit zanara
    Aleph: ... urgh, they didn't even exactly lie
    Aleph: Hell, they even volunteered that Eko was trying to get to a hellgate in the Cloud Wall.
    EarthScorpion: Ikr
    Aleph: Keris: "This is a lot less funny when people use it on me. ."
    Sasi: *cannot stop laughing behind a hand held modestly over her mouth*​
    EarthScorpion: Zanara is Keris's child, after all. At least half.
    EarthScorpion: And yes, that means Eko masterminded Zanara and Vali escaping just so Keris would be too distracted to notice Eko was gone
    Aleph: ¬_¬
    Aleph: That girl is infuriating
    Aleph: Keris will smack her on the nose when she catches up
    Aleph: (And then congratulate her for being a devious little monster.)
    EarthScorpion: The thing that stops Eko being a super genius mastermind character in how she acts is that she starts having to make Temperance rolls on extended intelligence rolls
    EarthScorpion: She is literally too smart to be a "I planned everything 20 steps ahead" character because she gets bored
    Aleph: She even can't be BBC Sherlock effectively; her attention span is too short. She solves crimes, but she wouldn't be able to bear sitting around waiting for cases to come to her.
    Aleph:... hah, man
    Aleph: She literally would become a supercriminal because she was too bored not to.
    Aleph: What was it Sherlock said when they were looking for what turned out to be Moriarty?
    Watson: "Why would someone sponsor a serial killer?"
    Sherlock: "I can't be the only person who gets bored."​
    EarthScorpion: Eko in young justice lol
    EarthScorpion: To be fair, she'd stop being a super criminal when it got boring
    EarthScorpion: The easiest way for Sherlock to win is to do nothing
    Aleph: Yeah, but he wouldn't be able to compromise his ego enough to do so. : P
    Aleph: Oh Eko. And then on the other hand, to characters who do plan everything out 20 steps in advance, she is the bane of their existence, because deducing their entire plan and how to make it explode in an entertaining and unpredictable way is not boring.
    Aleph: So she does it. In twenty minutes or so. And then sticks a wrench in the works and forgets everything she deduced so as not to spoil her enjoyment of the fireworks.
    EarthScorpion: She is to be kept away from Sasi
    Aleph: Well, be fair. She really likes and admires Sasi for how happy she makes Keris and that shadow dress.
    Aleph: She's okay to be exposed to her in small doses.
    EarthScorpion: Yes
    Aleph: And, sigh
    Aleph: She adores Ney as much as Haneyl idolises Sasi.
    Aleph: ... lol. He hasn't had any chance to win over Haneyl.
    Aleph: She will be very obstructive to him horning in on mama and mother's romance if he shows up in the Anarchy.
    Ney: "Ah! You must be Haneyl. Well, wouldn't you happen to know..." *produces a wrapped package from behind her ear* "... that I brought some chocolate all for you?"
    Haneyl: "... this doesn't mean I like you!" *grabs it and starts wolfing it down*​

    ...

    Aleph: hmm
    Aleph: Iris's eyes and flame
    Aleph: Can they be identified as hellish with an Occult roll?
    EarthScorpion: Hmm. No, I don't think so. Not as a default thing, at least. I mean, in some ways they look more wyld.
    Aleph: Excellent. She can wear Iris openly as Cinnamon, then.
    Aleph: Or, heh
    Aleph: At least not freak out if she pops her head out.
    Aleph: So there are rumours that Cinnamon has a magical moving tattoo on her skin, and people - sigh - pay very close attention when she's wearing revealing outfits for even more reasons, trying to catch a glimpse of it.
    Cinnamon: "She was a gift from a divine patron who very much enjoyed my work."​
    EarthScorpion: Iris, no, don't try to cockblock Keris by trying to freak out her lovers
    Aleph: Cinnamon: "Don't worry, she's not a spirit herself. She's about as clever as a smart cat."
    EarthScorpion: Eko nods. Like she was when she was a baby, she explains

    ...

    Aleph: Oh elder!Keris. She'll be heartbroken when Kuha and Piu die. : (
    Aleph: And probably wind up with a gallery of living pictures of all her past apprentices and adoptees. Not quite HP-portrait level, but moving ones that show scenes from their life and the way they behaved and spent their time at all ages.
    Keris: "I paint them once a year, going over the picture every time, with a little of their blood in the ink or paint. It looks incomprehensible while it's waiting, but when they die and the arcane link breaks, the portrait wakes up and remembers them at every stage of their life."
    Keris: "This was Piu, one of my first apprentices. See, this is her in her late teens, when she was still Cinnamon's apprentice. It wasn't until her late twenties that she met the man she'd eventually marry - at this age she was still devoted entirely to the dance. Watch how she moves, you see? Her tattoo gave her the grace of a performance in every motion; she didn't need to concentrate on it at all."​
    EarthScorpion: Sigh. And now Lilunu is going to teach Zanara her styles
    EarthScorpion: Also, heh, are you liking Zanara and Zana in particular out and about?
    Aleph: Yesssss
    Aleph: It's really sweet how happy they are with Lilunu, and it shows - a lot - that they really thrive on attention
    Aleph: Heh. Keris headed off any jealousy towards Piu pretty well, by getting her stuff out of the way quickly and then making it about Zana again and additionally making Piu basically worship her talent and skill.
    EarthScorpion: It might clue Keris in to how lonely they've been without Haneyl and Rathan
    Aleph: Yes.
    Aleph: : (
    Click to expand...
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  • Threadmarks
    • So I just realized something.

    Vali is going to have a massive crush on Asarin. And if she succeeds in ascending to a 3CD, he'll still have the crush, because she'll have gone from a brown dwarf to a red dwarf and will thus be a flare star.

    And I can totally see Eko trying to set this up because she thinks it would be good for both him and Asarin.

    If Iris needs to hide, she can presumably go onto Keris' scalp. For weirder options, she could hide inside Keris, although none of the digestive, respiratory, or reproductive systems would be comfortable for any significant length of time. Or she could cut herself open, have Iris move to the underside of her skin, and then sew herself back up, which should work but would require her to reopen the wound afterward to let Iris out.

    I also suspect that the first szelkerub to have evolved is hiding that fact from Eko, under the principle that it's the sort of joke Eko finds funny when it's other people who are the butt of it.

    And it's a shame Keris has to keep the assassination of that 2CD on the down-low, because that would certainly be a soul exotic enough for Xia to add to her collection.

    Looking forward to the return to the Southwest just to see how Keris' various associates have changed during her lengthy sojourn abroad. As well as Haneyl, who is at present the only one of Keris' souls to have been developing independently of her for an extended period of time.
     
    Aleph said:
    Aleph: Now, will Lilunu go do the, uh, more mature and Unquestionable-y version of throwing herself at her love in a hug and going "eeeeee! One of Keris's little child-souls helped me create life! I made a dragon that was healthy!"
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Now the question is, does Ligier respond to that by going "That's wonderful, dear." or "That's. Wonderful. Dear." "Orabilis, we have a problem."
     
    Okay, so this latest development, the creation of Iris, has me curious and thinking.

    Not sure whether it would be better etiquette to spoiler this or not, but to be on the safe side...
    For a while I've wondered whether Keris would ever share a soul with Lilunu, in the same way that Lilunu gains her child souls from the Yozis. I have no idea whether the creation of her other dragons looked like this, but... look, we see Lilunu cooperating with a (nascent) third circle to create a living being that is part of an (unborn) yozi. That sounds a lot like what happening with her other souls, when put in vague detail.

    We've already seen Keris raising up small things into the realm of her third circles. Such as Firisutu growing from a first circle to a psyche soul of the second circle, which is expected to culminate in him becoming a third circle. Similarly, but differently, we saw Keris's progeny souls start as tiny little things that then grew in to their fullness as they were fed essence (especially, though not limited to, wild essence). We haven't seen how Keris's 2nd circles will come in yet but that may yet be similar to one of those paths.

    Tie this into how Keris's ex-hun soul's final theme is going to be "Small things become great" and it seems not unlikely that this trend will translate and diversify to raising up other things.*

    And all of that can be applied to Iris. She's not one of Keris's souls, but she's part of Keris, and has the same mix of essence as Keris herself. And she came out of a "knot in Lilunu's chakras." Which seems somewhat ominous and I can't help but think of in terms of an unborn embryo or fetus. Especially if Lilunu has a high rated "Relationship: Keris" principle to match Keris's reciprocal principles and "Mentor: Lilunu" background given what we know of Yozi metabiology.

    Plus Keris can use Iris to aid Lilunu in stabilizing herself, so there's at least the potential of a link there.

    Beyond all that, in a few of ES's comments in the extras slyly point in that direction, or at least the direction of something being up with Iris. "About as smart as a cat, the same as Eko once was," comes immediate to mind, as does ES giggling over the more vague "reasons." Certainly there could be other, more near-term reasons for that, but this is the idea that leaps out to me.

    So yeah, I think Keris accidentally herself a nascent soul of Lilunu.

    ...I wonder if this means her heresies are now opened to the other Infernals? (or... eventually will be. It would certainly be evidence in favor of this hypothesis if Po arts and/or Pantheon heresy start spreading more easily in the wake of this.)

    *If one day we see Keris just flat out adopt someone into her soul hierarchy and raise them up through it to a second circle? I would not be surprised. At all.
     
    So, question about Firisutu. As far as I'm aware, you need Principles rated at 4+ to spawn sub-souls. The thing is, Keris has only seven principles at 4+, one of which is taken up by her Po. So, how'd Firisutu evolve into a 2nd Circle?

    Also, another thing I've noticed, is that the Kerisgame mechanics call out giving free Excellencies to all exalts. How do you determine which excellencies they get though? Keris has Adorjan, Kimbery, Malfeas and Metagaos - the four Yozis she has the most charms for. She's got six charms from TED and 5 from Szoreny though, and doesn't have those excellencies. Is there a certain point at which you have enough charms to get the excellency (I'm assuming the favored Yozis would not have this requirement if this is the case).
     
    ImperatorV said:
    So, question about Firisutu. As far as I'm aware, you need Principles rated at 4+ to spawn sub-souls. The thing is, Keris has only seven principles at 4+, one of which is taken up by her Po. So, how'd Firisutu evolve into a 2nd Circle?

    Also, another thing I've noticed, is that the Kerisgame mechanics call out giving free Excellencies to all exalts. How do you determine which excellencies they get though? Keris has Adorjan, Kimbery, Malfeas and Metagaos - the four Yozis she has the most charms for. She's got six charms from TED and 5 from Szoreny though, and doesn't have those excellencies. Is there a certain point at which you have enough charms to get the excellency (I'm assuming the favored Yozis would not have this requirement if this is the case).
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Principle needs to be 3+ to support a soul, but a soul based on a Principle that low will be pretty weak.
     
    To expand, iirc it's, uh, Principle+2 for a 2CD level soul and Principle+4 for a 3CD level soul, so a Principle 3 Soul will be Enlightenment 5 and 7 respectively- which is as weak as a 2CD or 3CD can be.

    (Enlightenment 10 is theoretically the domain of the Po or a Fetich if you take An Usurpation Unnoticed, but those two souls aren't generally summonable so it's strictly theoretical)
     
    You know, a while back (was it years ago now? the idea of anchoring Total Annihilation in Keris' Mentor 1 (Adorjan), but I think her Mentor (Lilunnu) would make a much more spectacular display.

    I'm looking forward to Keris' Keris project. There are enough soul interested Unquestionables who could catch wind and get involved that I'm reluctant to speculate and accidentally lessen the surprise. I'm also looking forward to Keris dealing with a Conviction 5 baby.

    Also, it's nice to see the paintbrushes again. They seem like such a versatile and interesting artifact.
     
    I also put a hack in so that Keris, at least, needs both root charms. Those Yozis where she only finds part of herself in their "body" tree, she doesn't take enough of them into herself to internalise their way of acting on the world.
     
    Keris came across a fragment of one of SWLIHN's 'predecessor's spheres about halfway through the current story, at latest?...

    But yeah. Remember how one of Keris' big things is her omni-hearing? Well, that fragment was just constantly emitting a deathscream/scream of hatred and despair/etc, etc... It basically completely traumatised Keris as far as I remember. You have to understand that when I call what was being uttered a 'scream' I am drastically understating just what was being emitted, on how many levels of reality and just what it means when we're talking about a Primordial doing this.
     
    Also Keris has always been a little scared of the Whispering Pyre. SWLiHN is one of the least Kerisian Yozis in her themes and mindset, followed closely by Isidoros and perhaps surpassed only by Qaf.
     
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