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

I've been wondering this for a while now, but who or what is Qaf? I can't find a description anywhere.
One of the Yozi's, a mountain without base or summit, which is in a separate prison from the rest of Malfeas only reached through hidden portals.

A lot of Demons climb him/it.

At one point IIRC Qaf was the inventor/emboidment of Perfection, as in Perfect Defences, but during the War the Exalted um. castrated him and stole his uh, giant Adamant... spheres.

Autochthon may be using one as a hat, but that could be fanon.
 
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So, I had an odd thought the other day, that begat a rather crackish hypothesis. I think I'll not spoil this as it's a quite bit more off the wall.

So, Firisutu is the first of Keris's psyche souls, and before then was a mavaroska, a first circle, her first demonic familiar, and the very first deva she created with her own hand. His form and nature still show through, though altered by his growth, as he remains apelike and has turned from mapping out territory to mapping a path forwards.

Sirelmiya will be the third psyche soul of Keris, and a sphinx. That is to say, a creature that combines the aspects of feline and ape, and by that description her nature seems as far removed from the szulok, the felid apes, as Firisutu's does from his previous form. (And one would wonder what it says about Keris that Firisutu got a birdcage in his ascension and Sirelmiya got wings.) We don't have much on who Sirelmiya is as a person yet, but I think it would not be much of a stretch to see a szulok, as a creature of paternal love, warp to embody Keris's love for Sasimana. Especially given that they already have sides that both coddle their charges and seek to better them, which seems to be in the cards for how Keris will approach Sasi, especially after meeting her soul hierarchy. (See, all the hints at how Keris will view Kalaska said earlier in this thread.)

On its own, that feels like a not unreasonable theory but I can see a couple ways if it can be taken further, depending on just why it happened.

The first is that this is the result of Keris making first circles with her own hand, rather than her children doing so. In which case it's not unlikely we will see an Iszalgol and Vaslovan ascend. Given that the szulok were the third kind of deva Keris created with her own hand and Sirelmiya will be her third psyche soul, this would suggest Evedelyl may be out there right now as one of the scavengers in silt and likewise Okapamotis as an ironbelly toad.

What a scavenger in silt might come to embody I'm not sure, though if Keris's hatred of the fae grows further, that might be a natural slot for an Ironbelly toad to grow into.

The other possibility is that Firisutu's growth is related to him being Keris's first demonic familiar from her own soul-hierarchy. In which case we haven't seen the other two named psyche souls yet, but leads me to point out that we already see Rounen associated with a bit of landscape in the form of his libraries. So I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up resonating with something and ascending, be it as a second circle or the creation of the libraries as a mirror of and partial answer to "hurting is easy, caring is hard."

Folding the prior supposition into here, I don't think it's at all unlikely that Keris might summon a Szulok to care for and comfort Kalaska, who then grows from there.


So... yeah. In the likely event this all should not prove right, I hope it is at least amusingly wrong.
 
So, I was reading some discussion on old updates that happened well before I came across Kerisgame, and I came across this:

The fact that it was wrong based on a data point she didn't have. She's thinking of Keris as a corrupted Solar, and is missing certain key elements in her mental model of how Keris will react to things (simply from lack of exposure to them). If she'd had full knowledge of the fact that Keris is something more like a baby Primordial - if she'd known about Keris's pantheon souls, and especially the way that Haneyl and Dulmea in particular don't really stem from a specific Yozi - she'd probably have pushed Keris to take a more Gaia-like role, possibly even encouraged her to go find Gaia.

This got me curious. What is Gaia like in Kerisgame? As far as I'm aware there's not a lot about her in canon, and I'm wondering if Salina likes her just because she sided with the humans in the Primordial War or if there's something in the numerous expansions of the setting about Gaia.
 
So, I had an odd thought the other day, that begat a rather crackish hypothesis. I think I'll not spoil this as it's a quite bit more off the wall.

So, Firisutu is the first of Keris's psyche souls, and before then was a mavaroska, a first circle, her first demonic familiar, and the very first deva she created with her own hand. His form and nature still show through, though altered by his growth, as he remains apelike and has turned from mapping out territory to mapping a path forwards.

Sirelmiya will be the third psyche soul of Keris, and a sphinx. That is to say, a creature that combines the aspects of feline and ape, and by that description her nature seems as far removed from the szulok, the felid apes, as Firisutu's does from his previous form. (And one would wonder what it says about Keris that Firisutu got a birdcage in his ascension and Sirelmiya got wings.) We don't have much on who Sirelmiya is as a person yet, but I think it would not be much of a stretch to see a szulok, as a creature of paternal love, warp to embody Keris's love for Sasimana. Especially given that they already have sides that both coddle their charges and seek to better them, which seems to be in the cards for how Keris will approach Sasi, especially after meeting her soul hierarchy. (See, all the hints at how Keris will view Kalaska said earlier in this thread.)

On its own, that feels like a not unreasonable theory but I can see a couple ways if it can be taken further, depending on just why it happened.

The first is that this is the result of Keris making first circles with her own hand, rather than her children doing so. In which case it's not unlikely we will see an Iszalgol and Vaslovan ascend. Given that the szulok were the third kind of deva Keris created with her own hand and Sirelmiya will be her third psyche soul, this would suggest Evedelyl may be out there right now as one of the scavengers in silt and likewise Okapamotis as an ironbelly toad.

What a scavenger in silt might come to embody I'm not sure, though if Keris's hatred of the fae grows further, that might be a natural slot for an Ironbelly toad to grow into.

The other possibility is that Firisutu's growth is related to him being Keris's first demonic familiar from her own soul-hierarchy. In which case we haven't seen the other two named psyche souls yet, but leads me to point out that we already see Rounen associated with a bit of landscape in the form of his libraries. So I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up resonating with something and ascending, be it as a second circle or the creation of the libraries as a mirror of and partial answer to "hurting is easy, caring is hard."

Folding the prior supposition into here, I don't think it's at all unlikely that Keris might summon a Szulok to care for and comfort Kalaska, who then grows from there.


So... yeah. In the likely event this all should not prove right, I hope it is at least amusingly wrong.

I think this is worth more than 'amusingly' wrong. At the very least, it's 'thought-provokingly' wrong.
 
Sooo, yeah. That/those analysis post(s) on Family Matters and Parenthood arcs, plus Trust Your Instincts. I finally got around starting to write, so lets see how much of an (hopefully) quality effortpost I can make them.

Kicking things off, we have Keris arriving at Baisha, which in turn had Keris meeting her brother and other still living relatives, and REVEALING HER DARK SECRET to him. But I was more intrigued by the further solidification of the worldview that Salina had planted into her, that being "the Unquestionable free in Creation would be bad for nearly everyone, and I should care about it enough to oppose them in this" -realization. The whole thing was awesome, especially with all of her souls siding with her against Dulmaea (not counting one absent -vote from Haneyl) in an united front. The perks of her mediating by meditating her inner soul balance of conflicting strong principles. The chaos that this threw her inner world with Dulmea's meltdown to what Keris said, and the later reconciliation with the shift in their relationship was also a treat to read. That it wasn't "all is forgiven, lets go back to status quo" which annoys to me to no end in most conventional episodic media was a cherry on top of delicious drama-cake.

Meanwhile, family drama was kicking in with added spice of a war-torn-nation -locale. Oh, and we were once again reminded why ES is terriblu, this time with cheeky retroactive naming of the relatives of Keris. Anyway, if this was a fanfic, Keris would have probably come of at this point as a prime example of a Fixit-Sue. Instead, Keris and Ali had a bitter talk about how Exaltations are not fair, the same with nearly the rest of the whole Creation (and neighboring realms). That one was something I (and probably most of the other readers) can empathize with, as the unfairness of the world regarding talent is pretty universal concept that just about everybody has felt at one point or another.

Moving on, Xasan and his boner for vengeance played in a refreshing way, because for once our protagonist in this scenario isn't a creature of pure goodness and advocate for redemption, but a former street rat whose monkeysphere doesn't include the whole fricking world (even with Salina's prodding). I have to admit, I was laughing at the side-commentary pretty hard when the dice fairies decided to start favoring Xasan during his fight and thus kicking the encounter off the rails from what ES had planned. And thinking about this bit again, I'm reminded of the chills I got from first reading Keris confronting the Naib and later the Vakotans with the hammer-blows of supernatural charisma. That it isn't portrayed outright mind-control in Exalted (well, in most of the cases) makes it that more impactful and interesting to read about.

Then suddenly, Rathan! I must say it was both hilarious to read him smooch up everyone while still failing to get the context later of the some more, ahem, mature situations, but at the same time vaguely worrying how much putty mere mortals were at his hands. And when the two were combined together, more than slightly uncomfortable on top of all that. Still, its interesting how differing all of the souls are in what level of knowledge about the world they've started with. It seems that the later we go, the less they are like human childs, and more like spirits (with Calesco being an anomaly by actively trying to become defined as mature as possible just after her conception).

Next up, the great exodus of the Baishans. This also gave us something new, and that is a kind-of comparison point in normal-ish travel times. Before that, we had only seen Keris zipping around the Creation, Malfeas, and occasionally other realms with already ridiculous speeds at that point, but now we were allowed to see what happened when our former murderhobo was forced to slow down to mortal levels, and even further down by leading a large group of people. Watching her struggle with her impatience, further aggravated by certain Charms and natural desires coming to conflict with each other, all while trying to find even imperfect solutions? Very enjoyable.

And while the relationship drama was at the center stage, sorcery, and how its handeled in Kerisgame with its paradigms and anchors also produced once again interesting magibabble. Also, I didn't realize it until I was reviewing the little details, but Earthscorpion slipped in a DB version tracking/navigation spell with a dragon-fluff component in it to the sorcery-notes that were reviewed in this chapter. Hmmmmm.

As a side-topic, for a long time, I was kind of confused about how Aleph has used Ancient and Firstborn only once during that one time where Keris convinces the people of her home village to come with her. But I realized that the (probable) reason is letting other people know that Keris can speak in a way that lets you know if she is telling the truth. And that is something that Keris won't likely want to be known outside her most trustworthy inner circle of family, friends and allies. And probably not even those if she can in any way avoid it.

The rest of the arc was mostly tying up loose ends (with gloriously bitchy Keris dealing with annoying Dragonblooded), gathering up resources and allies for Keriskanda (plus amusingly awkard talk between Keris and Rathan about bees and flowers) and where did all this quicksilver come from ohdearitseverywherehelp-

Yeah. Szoreny. I maybe didn't get any nightmares of my own from that nightmare-sequence, but it was still like someone had slowly started dripping cold water down my spine while I was reading it. The worst part was realizing that this wasn't anything external inserted into Keris' thought-process, but her own envy and insecurities magnified just a little bit more and given free reign. The cute bit with Oula and Rathan immediately afterwards was much needed and appreciated, until you are hit by the cold sudden realization of that the nightmare triggered the evolution of Oula, and what this implies. Though were are still at zero bodies of suspected love-rivals (that we know of) in the latest available session, so maybe things will turn out okay? Please?

And then we say goodbye to most of the new cast, hope that ES is feeling merciful about how their trip goes and start looking towards the final culmination of the journey. The thing we had all been waiting for (or at least I was at that point), and hoped that Keris would succeed in, even if later on all those hopes were brutally crushed before our eyes:

Keris getting at least one dot in Travel.

But yeah, those were my scattered and rambling thoughts about Family Matters -arc. Next up: Trust Your Instincts and Parenthood in a combined analysis post. Likely to be posted while it is still 2018 (maybe).
 
Hee! Lovely pretty effortposting! I will reply in more depth later, but one point now...
As a side-topic, for a long time, I was kind of confused about how Aleph has used Ancient and Firstborn only once during that one time where Keris convinces the people of her home village to come with her.
There's actually a simpler reason than that. Which is that Keris vowed to get her family out of Baisha and safely to the Southwest to start a new life there. At present, without repurchasing the charm, she can't make and hold more than one oath at a time, and her family have not yet reached Saata and been provided for.

The oath she made back then still holds. She hasn't made any others since because she can't, until this one is complete.
 
There's actually a simpler reason than that. Which is that Keris vowed to get her family out of Baisha and safely to the Southwest to start a new life there. At present, without repurchasing the charm, she can't make and hold more than one oath at a time, and her family have not yet reached Saata and been provided for.

The oath she made back then still holds. She hasn't made any others since because she can't, until this one is complete.
Oh. In that case, I may have misunderstood this part in the Charm text:
Alternatively, the Infernal may use this Charm to sanctify an absolute statement he believes to be true. Rather than breaking the oath, this use of the Charm guards against any behaviour that treats the statement as false. Either way, this Charm only cares for the letter of the Infernal's words, not any perceived "spirit".
I read this as "You can make people understand the words you are saying are what you at least believe is true like while making an oath with this Charm, and the people hearing you cannot deny that you currently believe so sincerely", but this being different than making an oath. Like saying "This person next to me with a golden glow is not an Anathema." for maximum mindfuckery when used against an Immaculate Dragonblooded monk. Though they could probably easily rationalize this with various ways, like you having been mislead by the Anathema or something like that. (And of course getting very suspicious about you when you demonstrate that power...)

Anyway, my original point is that this is not an oath, but a statement about what you believe is true. And the Charm text seems to imply that you can use this as freely as you want, even if you do have an oath or oaths taking up all of your "slots". But maybe it is just easier to ask in this case. @EarthScorpion, what is the original intent of that part of the Charm's function?
 
Oh. In that case, I may have misunderstood this part in the Charm text:

I read this as "You can make people understand the words you are saying are what you at least believe is true like while making an oath with this Charm, and the people hearing you cannot deny that you currently believe so sincerely", but this being different than making an oath. Like saying "This person next to me with a golden glow is not an Anathema." for maximum mindfuckery when used against an Immaculate Dragonblooded monk. Though they could probably easily rationalize this with various ways, like you having been mislead by the Anathema or something like that. (And of course getting very suspicious about you when you demonstrate that power...)

Anyway, my original point is that this is not an oath, but a statement about what you believe is true. And the Charm text seems to imply that you can use this as freely as you want, even if you do have an oath or oaths taking up all of your "slots". But maybe it is just easier to ask in this case. @EarthScorpion, what is the original intent of that part of the Charm's function?

Nah, it's essentially an oath of "this is what I believe, I am not lying".
 
Thanks, that clarifies things up. The second function being an instant duration oath and not a "slotless" power is what got me misunderstanding things.
I'm not even sure it's instant duration. If you oath-swear that you truly believe Solar McProtagonist is the rightful king of Creation and that no other claim is legitimate, you have etched that truth into your bones and anyone who hears you say it will know that you are absolute in your certainty until you either break the oath by acting as though he's not in any way or shatter it to free up that slot.
 
I'm not even sure it's instant duration. If you oath-swear that you truly believe Solar McProtagonist is the rightful king of Creation and that no other claim is legitimate, you have etched that truth into your bones and anyone who hears you say it will know that you are absolute in your certainty until you either break the oath by acting as though he's not in any way or shatter it to free up that slot.

Yep, pretty much. If you vow that something is true, then you swear into your bones that you will act and believe that it's true.
 
I'm a bit behind on my reading but I can comment on the art.

First things first holy shit that is a LOT of hair. Like ... Keris must be 2/3 hair by volume.

The Chibis are adorable.

Can't place names to the kids right now ... the top one seems to have a slightly different art style for the face than the rest of the picture. A lot more ... stylized? Streamlined? Animesque? Big eyes, that spark to the left, and the ovals below the eyes.

Keris's armor is AMAZING. Detail, structure, theme... really goes with the falling feathers. Nice bit of asymmetry with the vertical shoulder-rim thing on her right.

Also makes her look damn hot. THIS is how you do attractive female armor. None of this boob plate or bikini mail bullshit. Just accentuate the contours of the body properly. Those legs. WOW.
 
No comment in the picture right now. Just wanted to say I just realized the ribbon-clothes pendant is a sailor moon reference
 
The picture is adorable! Kali and Ogin in her hair, and is that Kerisa 2.0 in her arms? D'awww!

....

Although for some reason the armor is really bugging me. It's NICE armor don't get me wrong, but it just doesn't fit the image I get of her Moonsilver plate from your descriptions of it. I envision something like Witchblade armor and this is a lot... hm. Bulkier?
 
The picture is adorable! Kali and Ogin in her hair, and is that Kerisa 2.0 in her arms? D'awww!

....

Although for some reason the armor is really bugging me. It's NICE armor don't get me wrong, but it just doesn't fit the image I get of her Moonsilver plate from your descriptions of it. I envision something like Witchblade armor and this is a lot... hm. Bulkier?

Remember - it's still superheavy plate. Sure, it's lithe and organic, but it's lithe and organic in the style of some of the more armoured female Warframes, not in the style of "silver body paint". It protects her by having nice and solid layers of magical silver between her and attackers. And I suspect the "feathers" function as crumple zones too, absorbing the strength of a blow and then springing back into shape.

Yeah. Szoreny. I maybe didn't get any nightmares of my own from that nightmare-sequence, but it was still like someone had slowly started dripping cold water down my spine while I was reading it. The worst part was realizing that this wasn't anything external inserted into Keris' thought-process, but her own envy and insecurities magnified just a little bit more and given free reign. The cute bit with Oula and Rathan immediately afterwards was much needed and appreciated, until you are hit by the cold sudden realization of that the nightmare triggered the evolution of Oula, and what this implies. Though were are still at zero bodies of suspected love-rivals (that we know of) in the latest available session, so maybe things will turn out okay? Please?

So, there's a funny story here about the evolution of the evolutions of Rathan's demons.

In the original plans, his grown up keruby were going to be a comment on toxic masculinity and patriarchy. You had the moon wives, who had to obey the one who had their heart and got limit if they disobeyed them, and you had the other ones, who got stronger the more things loved them and so when they were young were dashing crusaders for justice, but as they got older and got more power realised how much they benefited from how things were right now and took the easy path of building up stockpiles of moon wife hearts and therefore getting harems of moon wives (who back then could be either lioness-headed women or women-headed lionesses). And the Sea was going to turn into this mess of gender-politics-based metaphors.

But then @Aleph decided to associate Rathan with Szoreny instead of SWLIHN, Rathan grew up more in his time outside, and more than that Oula developed into a character. And Oula as a character is not particularly obedient (even if she's loyal), as well as being decidedly wilful and Keris's adorable little protege.

And the thing is, Keris has never really seen "love" and "obedience" as very related.

As a result, moon wives underwent a significant rework. Some of it was cosmetic - reshaping things with mercury as sculptors, rather than singing up stone by making crystal grow, and becoming dolphin-themed rather than lioness-themed. But the heart of the change was altering their limit thing slightly which totally changed what they are. They don't have to obey their loved one; they have to act in their love's best interests as they see them.

And that's a much less constraining thing, that makes moon wives far more dangerous and far more able to push their own wants. Now building a moon wife harem isn't just a question of getting hold of their heart. Now the would-be harem builder has to consider the real and pressing risk that the first moon wife will go "She's corrupting him! I'm going to gut her!" and that's far more fitting for a Kerisian demon and also for a grown up wave cherub. And sure, you might be able to find two moon wives who get along and can fit an arrangement where they don't mind sharing you, but what about the third? And the fourth?

With these changes to the moon wives, as @Aleph said, trying to build a harem of them is like trying to build a love polygon where every node past the first is a yandere.

The end result is that Szoreny in general, and Oula in particular, have made the future of the Sea much more egalitarian in how the two grown-up breeds interact. Put simply, Oula is not going to let the same kind of culture develop, because she is of the opinion that it's not in his best interests (and she will pull in Keris if needed). Oula is not going to give up her duchy nor her position as his general nor will she tolerate other wives. There might be room for compromise on temporary concubines, but as far as she's concerned, she's the first girl, she's the student of her mother-in-law-to-be, and she's won. Now, yes, Oula might be an exceptional, heroic demon, but she's very willing to set a precedent (and will likely gleefully do so when she realises the other breed can grow more powerful by being more loved, because she wants to be the most powerful 1CD in the Sea).

One of Oula's traits I actually really like is that she's only soft and deredere around Rathan - and even then she's willing to roll her eyes and humour him while guiding him away from what she thinks is a mistake. The rest of the time she's driven, smart, ambitious, and kind of bitchy. The first time she spends time around Rounen post-maturing, she takes the chance to remind him he's only the second one to mature, and she's willing to talk back to Rathan's siblings despite the fact they're 2CD-level and she's a 1CD. She's a dangerous lady and would be even if she wasn't also a demonic yandere.

(One of the other consequences of this is the precedent set that the first of a grown-up kerub breed has the power to set the template that others can follow. Rounen has shaped the future path for the dragon aides too because of this. It also means that later examples of the breed will find the growing-up process to be a bit more radical in how it changes them, because they don't have the "you were already like that" of the firstborn.)
 
So by my understanding, moon wives can function as an indirect social defense/weakpoint? As in, if you social someone with a moon wife into something that's against their best interest (from the view of the moon wife) she'll take action against that.
On the other hand, if you social a moon wife into thinking that something is in their love's best interests...
 
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