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

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Well that was about as Keris as you can get. General rowdiness, fleecing super-rich people to the point where they have to make under-the-table deals to get out of it, and getting a surprise visit from someone really powerful and dangerous. Although I guess it wasn't specifically her who was getting that last one this time. It still furthers the trend though.

Now, on to prophecy analysis. There's three distinct parts to it - rather classical, prophecies often have the number three be prominent somehow. Doom of the Three Golden Lands, Golden Lord's Bane, and Last Queen of An Teng. As Aleph brought up there's really a lot of ways this could manifest. The most obvious would be Atiya becoming queen of An Teng, and this somehow leading to bad things for the Golden Lord and some great ruin for An Teng, with her line not continuing to rule afterwards. There's a lot of wiggle room though. For example, she could institute a republic or something, resulting in her being the last queen. Also, "Golden Lord's Bane" is really vague. It doesn't call out anything specific happening to the Golden Lord, just that he probably will be at odds with Atiya. Which, given her parentage, is probably a given. It's possible it could refer to her killing the Golden Lord or permanently screwing him over, but it could just as easily refer to her thwarting some important goal of his and generally being a thorn in his side.

The first section of the prophecy is probably the hardest to have happen in a less-harmful manner. "Doom of the Three Golden Lands" implies a certain amount of mass destruction, chaos, war, or whatever. It'll be interesting to see how Keris deals with that, assuming it comes up in-game. Atiya is a cute little artificial abomination baby, and won't be in position to carry out prophecies of doom until she's older.
 
Noh, the fuck? A doom prophecy on a child born of demonic artiface, with the blood of royalty, Dragonblooded, and the souls of a Greater Dead and the most stubborn ghost-child of the age, yeah, that is scary.
 
I'm now picturing the Golden Lords Bane being straight out of Phoenix Wright.

Atiya's the ace Barrister whose defences in the Golden Lords Court are legendary for their success as they are for being utterly over the top.

He's the poor bastard who had to understand Atiya's over the top but totally correct legal arguements
 
I mean, she's pretty thoroughly corrupted a Green Sun Princess and won her personal loyalty before and beyond any other Unquestionable.

Does that count?
 
ImperatorV said:
The first section of the prophecy is probably the hardest to have happen in a less-harmful manner. "Doom of the Three Golden Lands" implies a certain amount of mass destruction, chaos, war, or whatever. It'll be interesting to see how Keris deals with that, assuming it comes up in-game. Atiya is a cute little artificial abomination baby, and won't be in position to carry out prophecies o
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It could be the historic meaning of doom, which is just another word for fate, really. So she is the future of the three golden lands.
 
I enjoyed how Noh's appearance showed and subverted the games of divinity writeup for the Ebon Dragon. And I think I can imagine how the ancient joke from before Creation in the Contrary One's writeup goes now.

Because it has become apparent that within the depths of the Dragon, shadows fuse into undifferentiated darkness.

And that darkness has Noh face.

---------

Yuula, meanwhile, has be giggling at just how hilariously high and fast she escalated there. If this is how she gambles, I'd hate to see her in a fight. XD

Related to the subject of Yuula, I've been wondering for a while what the greater effects of healing the likes of her and other notably maimed third circles might be, particularly on Lilunu's souls.

Most notable here are Yuula and Molacasi, who's cripplings have had an obvious and profound effect on their worldview, and in the latter's case, even sees two of his particular maimings reflected in Bruleuse. It would be curious to see how deep the echoes of their change might go if both were healed.

I'm not so sure about the likes of Imre and Fossyi as their cripplings are certainly part of them, but not obviously deeply connected to their outlook on life. (Or rather, Fossy's are... but as a result of his necromancy, rather than a source of something.)
 
The Phoenixian said:
I enjoyed how Noh's appearance showed and subverted the games of divinity writeup for the Ebon Dragon. And I think I can imagine how the ancient joke from before Creation in the Contrary One's writeup goes now.

Because it has become apparent that within the depths of the Dragon, shadows fuse into undifferentiated darkness.

And that darkness has Noh face.

---------

Yuula, meanwhile, has be giggling at just how hilariously high and fast she escalated there. If this is how she gambles, I'd hate to see her in a fight. XD

Related to the subject of Yuula, I've been wondering for a while what the greater effects of healing the likes of her and other notably maimed third circles might be, particularly on Lilunu's souls.

Most notable here are Yuula and Molacasi, who's cripplings have had an obvious and profound effect on their worldview, and in the latter's case, even sees two of his particular maimings reflected in Bruleuse. It would be curious to see how deep the echoes of their change might go if both were healed.

I'm not so sure about the likes of Imre and Fossyi as their cripplings are certainly part of them, but not obviously deeply connected to their outlook on life. (Or rather, Fossy's are... but as a result of his necromancy, rather than a source of something.)
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Imre is crippled? I was under the impression that he was a moody, drunken lout.
 
Said I'd post this during the next lull, and I figure it's been waiting more than long enough so...


Give the nature of the Keruby, I've wondered for a while just how far they could spread, be it to other Infernals or even further afield. After seeing an aside mention of hypothetical Kalaskan crystal-keruby in the preface to Seven Assembled Scenes I decided to take things to their logical, and crackish, conclusion.

Article:
In her waning centuries, the elder Keris sought to secure a future for her people and her world-lands for all time, and opened negotiation with Heaven. At first, she was rebuffed, for the agents of Heaven thought that with age at least they might be rid of her at last.

And as Keris was shunned to far afield she wove a curse-prank upon the high gods of Heaven and the Chosen of the Maidens.

"You who would leave me and mine to waste away. May you take the service of my firstborn servants and may they bring you the peace they brought me. May my blessing lead you away from the despair of boredom. May your underlings find themselves without want of work. May this gift bring you all you sought to turn aside."

On that very hour were born the Keruby of the Most High, for this curse they could not turn aside.

Why yes, this is a modified version of ES's take on the Great Curse. Why do you ask? :;-P
 
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Session 122
  • Threadmarks
    • So then.

    End of Hybrid Vigour. Part 122 closes the arc.

    We start with Atiya's introduction to the twins, and omg!!! OGIN'S FIRST WORDS! OMG OMG OMG!!!!

    He will be a fantastic big brother.

    More seriously, this is something we've had planned vaguely for a while - that while Kali throws herself into things and babbles constantly, Ogin is the more watchful, thoughtful one of the pair, and would just flat-out refuse to speak until he'd soaked up enough to manage grammatically correct sentences on his first try (though we see later with Xasan that he's sounding more sophisticated than he actually is by means of parroting people). If Kali's - to borrow a term from 3e - "supernal" skill is Athletics, which is to her as Expression is to her mother; her art form and passion and the thing she loves picking up new Styles in and learning new sports and pulling off insane stunts for fun and as her pasttime (and which she is really, really good at), I think Ogin's is Awareness. He's the type to adore Where's Wally books and spot-the-difference puzzles and bird-watching when he's little.

    So then we have Keris's long-awaited talk with Xasan. And here's the big tragedy - I really do think that there's a parallel to be drawn between young, impulsive, reckless teen!Maryam saying "I'll go to Taira with you and get rich working for the Shah!" and sociopathic, bitter, monstrous ghost!Maryam saying "I'll go deep into the Underworld and claim the power to punish Malra!" It was the same attitude in both cases; the same fundamental personality... just terribly warped. And Keris recognised that. It was still her mother in there, to some level.

    But as she said later with Dulmea, while she might have done things differently, she probably couldn't have made them turn out better. More on this from @EarthScorpion, perhaps - or he might wait for @meianmaru to come out with the Parenthood analysis first, before offering secret lore into how it might have gone otherwise.

    Perhaps more interesting, in a fit of high-Limit pliability, Keris overshares and spills everything that happened in Malra to Xasan - our reader's eye view of what went on, rather than the sharply limited experience he had. For the first time, Xasan gets a really in-depth look at the kind of person his niece is - and while he's not entirely comfortable with it, he does at least still accept her.

    Anyway, with the family business done, we move onto Work Meetings with Colleagues from Hell. Naan is always a riot - and a terrible influence on Kali, who is now going to think that biting people will get her treats for at least a week or two - and Orange Blossom is delightfully bitchy as always. Ligier's present bodes worryingly for the future, so there's a dangling plot hook and a half.

    We also get a look at some problems down the line that Atiya may have. Urgh. The title of this arc is coming around to bite me. I feel sad now. : (

    And then Dulmea. This conversation... honestly sort of suffered from the fact that neither ES nor I had a solid plan in mind for it, so it was just kind of Saying Things. Still, I feel like some ground got covered - particularly in Keris apologising and addressing Dulmea's experience of - heh - parenthood, as well as recognising that the Maryam situation, while tragic, didn't really have an attainable Good End in it that can be seen in hindsight.

    Finally, Calesco. And oh, but this was the gutpunch. I said waaaay back when that her kerub maturations would be traumatic for everyone involved, and hoo boy, was it. Yeah, the masks on mezkeruby? They don't build up from age. They build up as the kerub is exposed to things that attack their certainty in their Happening, as they suppress the awful truth that it might be impossible. Vela's Happening was making it so that Calesco would never cry or be sad again - he's from way back in Rise of a Pirate Queen, when Keris first saw her daughter's true form. The impossibility of his Happening - and the frequency with which he racked up Limit from having evidence against it mount up during Calesco's sad periods - meant that his mask developed super fast and grew super-large; becoming this elaborate owl's mask thing that represented the calcified stress of his mind defending itself against Calesco's truths.

    And then when he finally tipped over the edge and realised it was never possible at all... he broke his mask. And became one of Calesco's cruel angels; enforcers of justice and dispensers of pain.

    Poor Calesco. : (

    In closing, I'm pretty happy with the title of this arc. Like Keris says at the end; hybrid vigour does work for some of her children, and others it doesn't. She has a goal going forward, and she's settled her past. Now it's time to move on - and set her sights on Saata, and the bright new future that awaits her there.

    Until next session, then! And a new arc to come!
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Oof. Having a person's whole nature be determined by disillusionment with their childish dreams is not something I'd wish on my worst enemy. Poor Vela, and poor Calesco. I find myself really hoping she'll find something she can love about herself and share to the world, but she keeps running smack into the nasty sides of her nature instead.

    ...I wonder if Calesco will have a second Keruby type that she can feel better about. Somehow, based on the comment about her Keruby growing up being traumatic for everyone involved, I doubt it.
     
    So I suppose the other mezkerub evolution would be the one where their Happening actually does happen, or perhaps where they make it happen themselves if it's still supposed to be a pointed adulthood metaphor.

    I also wonder if Keris told her uncle that Maryam's po soul was the other primary ingredient in Atiya along with Kerisa.

    On a lighter note, I liked that the fire-favoring soon-to-evolve Saji was totally blazed.

    Something that would be absolutely hilarious a decade or two down the line from in-game present would be if Atiya Exalts as a Solar before she does as a Dragonblooded.

    Also I noticed that Keris didn't mention the weirdness she noticed around what to the readers was obviously a Siddie to Orange Blossom. I'm guessing that she'll take the opportunity to try to look up what might have been going on at that party before returning to Creation.
     
    She's digitigrade in her true form, though Keris says "backwards knees" both as shorthand and also because she's not exactly massively read up on bird anatomy.

    The question of "how exactly does she lie that she has normal human legs when veiled" is one that Keris and Eko have both independently put considerable amounts of thought into.
     
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