Remove ads

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

Reader mode
Remove ads
Five Calibrations Pass - Earth 773
  • Threadmarks
    • The year advances once again, to Earth 773! Keris is finally getting some use out of her training charms (in a variety of ways), and making some long-term plans for the future. Meanwhile, various of her souls throw themselves into construction projects. This is a year of building things.

     
  • Threadmarks
    • At least Neride is starting to deliver, though. That talk Rathan gave her must have done some good, because Keris was getting ready to bring her wrath down if the sea-krait demoness had failed once more. This captured plunder is enough to buy her another season, and if she performs well against the Zu Tak during hurricane season, she'll clear her slate of fuck-ups as far as Keris is concerned.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Neride: "Feels like I got a stay of execution there."

    Priest: "Yes. You did."
     
    Things I forgot to put in my first post;

    All around the island, demons are working. And they're following Oulie's orders, even if some of them - the hellish ones - think that they're following his orders conveyed through her.

    Gods, Hell is so stupid sometimes. Why would you put a demon lord in charge of something that's not really their thing?

    ......

    Nothing of Hell is allowed in here, and Ipa and Bhui are two hungry ones who handle the administrative documents here as well as being willing to kill and eat any overly curious hellspawn.

    ......

    We leave the day after tomorrow; myself as captain, and some of the more," he flaps his hand, "expendable hellspawn as brute muscle.

    ......

    "Oh, no doubt, no doubt. I know everyone's on edge having to put up with," Mele catches his eyes, "the hellspawn. They're such... beasts."

    Rathan nods. "They're a pain. But they're useful, so we'll put up with them for as long as we have to. They don't need to know how things really work to help get the manse repaired."

    "No doubt. But I'll be glad when they're not here, stinking up the place," Mele says drily.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Interesting to see just how little Rathan and his demons care for the ones from Hell.

    Keris eventually resorts to taking Kali back out into the gardens to run around with her dog. The dog is a recent development; Kali found a feral stray wandering around the estate grounds a few days ago and aggressively adopted it, which it seems to have taken to happily enough. Keris is a little more concerned about the situation. This is the second wild animal Kali has adopted, and the last one - a spiny rat - spent two weeks as "the bestest friend in the world" before some internal balance in Kali's brain shifted from one side to the other and it went from pet to prey.

    The fact that Kali's newest friend has been dubbed "Breakfast" - ostensibly because she found it early in the morning - does not give Keris high hopes for this one's survival.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Kali, no. Dogs are precious creatures with nothing but love in their hearts. They are not for eating.

    "I'm trying, I just... want to make sure they're loyal," Keris grouches. "I can't trust coin-hire Dragonblooded with anything important, and that limits how much I can use them for anything. They're too strong to kill easily if they find out stuff about my children and react badly, or start thinking about outing me to a higher bidder. That means I can't just employ established dragons, I need to find some I can get on my side with, like..." She waves a hand vaguely. "Gratitude. Love. Genuine loyalty, you know what I mean."
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Didn't Keris win a Dragonblood in a card game with a Demon Prince? The one that she learned healing from?
     
    So Atiya is autistic, yeah? Keris thinks of her behavior in terms of demonic bans, because that's what she's familiar with, but the actual behaviors she's describing are pretty classic signs of autism, especially in children. Extreme sensory sensitivity (especially touch), avoidance of eye contact, little emoting, strict routines, strong preference for solitude, emotional volatility whenever someone touches on one of her triggers, etc. If she's somehow not autistic, she's doing a damn good impression of a kid who is.

    I'm curious to know whether this was always the plan for Atiya since, if I recall correctly, there was a "complications" roll back when she was born (which is why she was premature). I'm wondering whether the autism is related to that or if, like the rest of Keris' kids, her personality and character have been planned out since before she was born.
     
    Don Alverzo said:
    So Atiya is autistic, yeah? Keris thinks of her behavior in terms of demonic bans, because that's what she's familiar with, but the actual behaviors she's describing are pretty classic signs of autism, especially in children. Extreme sensory sensitivity (especially touch), avoidance of eye contact, little emoting, strict routines, strong preference for solitude, emotional volatility whenever someone touches on one of her triggers, etc. If she's somehow not autistic, she's doing a damn good impression of a kid who is.

    I'm curious to know whether this was always the plan for Atiya since, if I recall correctly, there was a "complications" roll back when she was born (which is why she was premature). I'm wondering whether the autism is related to that or if, like the rest of Keris' kids, her personality and character have been planned out since before she was born.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    So, yes, she's autistic. Keris of course doesn't have the vocabulary to describe it that way, but if you gave her to a child psychologist from the real world, they'd diagnose it pretty quickly.

    And... mmm. So, no, this wasn't planned all along, but it was sort of planned. Specifically, after that roll for her creation went so poorly, I sat down and thought about things, and decided to allocate some of the plotlines which had previously been Kalaska's to Atiya instead. As a result, Atiya becomes Keris's "parenting a child with autism" primary storyline, while Kalaska got reconsidered a bit and shifted up a bit to make her considerably more demonic and her problems to more specifically tie into how she relates to Sasi's psychology. Original-concept Atiya was going to be a bit more... well, uh, somewhat Azula-ish (only from a considerably better family) with the joke that despite being the human one of her siblings, she was the one who coded as villain.

    The Noh plotline also wasn't originally there; I decided to add it in so @Aleph gets a possible storyline to fight against her daughter being trapped in a prophecy.
     
    Five Calibrations Pass - Early Wood 773
  • Threadmarks
    • Here it is! The promised time! The big event! The moment you've all been waiting for! Early Wood 773, and the return of Haneyl! Also featuring the new home base of the Daiwye clan, Ahangar House! It's still being built and upgraded and decorated as they go, but eventually, it'll wind up looking more or less like this:

     
  • Threadmarks
    • It's a good thing Haneyl didn't learn sorcery before getting her heart ripped out, because I don't know if she'd have been able to let go of the mercury without making it her Sacrifice. We've seen before that giving up her possessions is generally a violation of her urge and thus an unacceptable order for her. I don't know if refusing to reclaim something she'd previously lost would also count as violating her urge, but it's close enough to "giving up her possessions" to make me nervous.

    It's a shame this is the end of chibi!Haneyl though, especially since we never got to see her with Aiko. Ah well, it's good to have her back in proper form.
     
    She still needs to do something with everything she got from the dragon-crawler. And with the dragon-crawler itself.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Oh right, that thing.

    Isn't that still full of Contagion dead? How do you even dispose of that? Yeet it into the Wyld and hope?

    Haneyl considers this. "Vali, I order you to get taller and bulkier!" She glances at her mother. "Worth a try."

    Still laughing, Keris shakes her head. She's already tried that, and-

    "Okay sis!" Vali grins obnoxiously. "If it'll make you feel better, I will! Oh! I'll turn into a dragon, that's both!"
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Why do I get the feeling that Vali and Noh would get along?

    "Mama is glad you're back," Calesco says softly. "She's so bad at paperwork and managing things. And she's been making me do it when I have to cover for her."

    Haneyl pauses, and Keris can hear her happy little sigh. She slings an arm around Calesco's shoulders. "Missed you too, baby sis."

    "That's not what I was saying."

    "Yes," and Haneyl kisses her on the cheek, "but it's what you meant." And with that said, she saunters off.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I see Haneyl is fluent in tsundere.
     
    Don Alverzo said:
    I mean, Vali is basically Keris' Noh. He's one of her TED souls and embodies Keris' refusal to be bound much as Noh embodies TED's refusal to be bound, so yeah, they'd probably get along. Either that or they'd fight to the death solely because everyone is expecting them to be best friends.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    No, they fight to the death and just when it looks like one will finally die... They stop the duel and declare each other best friends. For the moment at least.

    Meanwhile everyone around them is facepalming and going "No seriously, why did I expect things to go either of the ways I had anticipated?"
     
    I'm pretty sure reverse psychologying Noh doesn't work.

    If you "expect" her to do a thing to keep her from doing it ... she may well detect that you're doing that and do it because reverse psych working on her is a constraint.

    Noh is a fetich with a major focus on "why do people do things", playing any sort of intent related headgame with her is a losing proposition unless you have massive levels of applicable mojo.

    It does work on Vali, sometimes.
     
    Last edited:
    Ruminations on the Progeny Souls, and their fighting capabilities, and what says about Keris.

    All threat level assessments are for En level.

    ---

    Eko:


    Principle: Be Loved.

    Keris-part: Afterimage.

    Keris-aspect: Joy.

    Combat threat level: Extreme Eko uses the heart of Keris's combat set. She doesn't have any of the battlefield control or badtouch or the damage boosters but she has the complete Adorjan combat suite minus Racing Vitaris. Or, in other terms, 2CDeva Eko has a Solaroid core combat suite. Oh, and her knife does Agg outside of one super edge case if I'm reading the writeup right! The lethal damage touch is basically an afterthought.

    Fighting Style: Keris's murderwind set, with extra collateral and avoidable mook deaths from the destruction touch and not having any of Keris's non Silence In Her Wake anti-group options or any of her less-lethal tools.

    Her combat suite is sourced directly from Keris's movepool almost in its entirety and that makes her incredibly lethal - which places her as a counterpoint to Calesco and and Rathan - see their entries for more.

    What I think it says about Keris: Keris's Joy and need for love is a nightmarish death machine because Keris at some level feels being a nightmarish death machine is an option she needs to be happy / be loved - and because Eko is the very first soul, who came into being when Keris was the most purely killing-focused. Specifically ... to keep those things. Violence to try and gain/keep happyness/love is threaded through the flashbacks ... and it didn't work well much of the time - hence Eko's innate inadvertent collateral.

    The primary reason at the narrative / thematic / metabiology level beyond charm purchases for Eko to be ludicriously fite is actually that she's the afterimage and the echo and the wake, and to properly be that she has to be almost as fite.

    ---

    Calesco:
    Principle: Compassion.

    Keris-Part: Shadow

    Keris-aspect: Compassion / Judgement - Calesco is where the parts of Keris that AREN'T overtly "it's fine when I do it, it's not fine when they do it to me" live.


    Combat threat level: Very high. Extreme firepower ... I have no idea what her defenses once combat starts besides flight are, tho.


    Fighting style: Aerial bombardment with a shitload of options. Her bow is pretty much perfect or die if she wants you dead and on the off-chance you can somehow tank the damn thing she has special ordinance options that will fuck you up anyway, plus there's the light which which is definitely a keyword defense move. Notably, she's dial-a-yield, she's got sleep and agony settings on the bow and while the light will really fuck someone up and likely leave them wide open for a followup if she decides they have to go after using it's generally non-lethal.

    She's an opposite of Eko in terms of movepool- while she's the runner up for fiteness, she has precisely one of Keris's combat charms and uses exclusively Calesco Panoply Charms. Her Kerisian Infernal Charms are all social. ...Amusingly she's extremely mobile despite the mobility effects from the Yozis she draws from going everywhere but her - Vali got CCC, Rathan got TED's getaway charm, Vali and Eko got Adorjan movement split between them.

    What I think it says about Keris: Calesco is a devastating attacker as Compassion for a whole bunch of reasons. One: Keris believes compassion is the privileged of the strong - Calesco is strong. Two: Keris believes the world defaults to dog eat dog rule of the strong to some degree. Calesco's power is tailor-made to declare that as is her right as the strong she's imposing something better ... and then reach out and enforce that. Three: Keris understands that a lot of the grunts in any given conflict don't have better options. Calesco, as her compassion, has lots of less-lethal tools because it lets her disable the grunts who are not the root of the problem and then blast the root of the problem. Just like how her Greater Self prefers to go straight for the leadership. She'll still judge them of course - it's what she does - but she has a range of options. That she uses virtually no Yozi charms just the arti and her own Panoply stuff - that's because Compassion is where the parts of Keris that are most Yozi-hostile live.

    Her use of a combat skill that Keris is actively pants at (shooting) - well, she's between Ambition/Self-Improvement and Genius. Eko is better than Keris at plenty of things when she can work around her ADHD and Haneyl isn't satisified with just mama's skillset - the combination produces Caleso being amazing at a thing Keris is pants at. She's also the only one of the Progeny souls to ever try to reject being adopted as Keris's human-like kid - so it's fitting that she uses a skillset/moveset Keris is outright missing because she's the one who actively tried to distance herself.

    From Calesco's PoV: her fite suite is how she ENFORCES Compassion on the world in extremis. The world is not nice or kind, it's chock full of assholes. Calesco's dial-a-yield stand-off suite lets her reach out and summarily interrupt unCompassionate behaviour without being a hypocrite. It's a thing she wishes she never had to use but she does need to use it so it's good it is what it is.

    ---

    Rathan:

    Principle: Pay Each Man Back In Kind (formerly Revenge).

    Keris-Part: Blood.

    Keris-aspect: Innocence. <jk>Somehow this doesn't paradox him out of existence</jk>

    Combat Threat Level: Comparatively low, substantially more dangerous in water.

    Fighting Style: ... Sailor Moon Villian. Responds to attacks by popping a PD and vaulting away then GTFOing or calling in minions. If he actually has to fight extreme reach with Szorney branches and weirdness, very limited offensive powers. Also, sorcery.

    Opposite of Eko movepoolwise in the opposite way from Calesco - Rathan has basically nothing BUT Keris's charms in a fight and that leaves him the least fite as opposed to Eko's murder-machine because the Keris-known charms he as access to don't include base combat competencies and his themes don't cover for that.

    What his fite-ness says about Keris: Rathan's a little wierd here, because you have to look at his urge / personality facet, not the Principle he represents, then or now, to see why he's not fite. Revenge being not-fite compared to Greed or Art is odd - ditto for Pay Each Man Back In Kind for someone as violence-immersed as Keris. But (Proclaim) Innocence - THAT being not-fite makes sense because innocence and fite-ness don't mesh well.

    What his style says about Keris: Rathan may be innocence and consquently not-fite but he still can fight pretty well for a social-heavy demon/deva. Because he's innocence his combat magic is defensive/disruptive - he doesn't have much to hurt people but he still has survive/GTFO ... and that's because in Keris's paradigm the innocent absolutely DO have things to fear when accused and need panic options. Wrongful accusations and random cruelty is just how the world works in her mindset - hence her innocence has magic to deal with that beyond the social - but it's not murder-my-way-out like all the other progeny souls.

    Also, he's Calesco's opposite in Kiristy - and she's Compassion/Judgement, runs a standoff offense build and her combat suite is how she enforces, he's Proclaim Innocence/Payback, runs a zoning defense/escape/disruption build and his combat suite is his final line of evading enforcement of anything on him (I don't say defy because that's VALI and Rathan avoids while Vali opposes). And like his opposite number, he's one of the two who would NEVER USE their fite suite in their ideal world - because nobody would be accusing him in his and nobody would do anything smiting worthy in Calesco's. They also both have a light based mindwhammy that is a major part of their combat toolkit - Rathan's innocence aura remains useful in combat by forcing checks to actually start swinging at him, and we all know what Calesco's light does.

    ---

    Haneyl:

    Principle: What's Mine Is Mine. (Possiveness/Greed).

    Keris-Part: Heart.

    Keris-Aspect: Self-improvement.

    Combat Threat Level: Intermediate - Adorjan sisters dunk on her, Vali and her are even fite-ness but very different builds.

    Fighting Style: Starts with dynastic polearm in armor, gets increasingly plant-fire-dragony as she's pressed. Her stamina's not good when she cuts loose - front-loaded DPS in game terms.

    What her fiteness says about Keris: Keris sees the capability for violence as an essential part of getting and keeping stuff - but but only a part. Also as basic life skill skill everyone should have, ergo her possessive greed has Just Take Things as an option and her fire-dryad-dragon self-improvement's first phase is fighting like a Dynast rather than going straight to plants and fire. But at the same time Haneyl is not a nightmare murder machine like the Adorjan sisters - there's a lot more to getting/keeping stuff than fite.

    What her style says about Keris: Keris is greedy but she's TERRIBLE at budgeting. Haneyl is Keris's greed and burns hot and fast and ... isn't fite enough for a hot-and-fast alpha strike to be a top of the line fite suite. She can either go low-key in dynast mode or break out the flames and vines and burn through her stamina. While Haneyl is much better at resource management and budgeting than Keris - that's her human side - the side that she pushes away to go full burst.

    Her lack of endurance is also a reflection of the downside of Keris divvying up Yozi's for health and stability - she's got Malfeas fire attack but not the durability assumed to come with.


    ---

    Vali:

    Principle: Free From All Save Clan And Kin.

    Keris-Part: Bones.

    Keris-Aspect: Defiance.

    Combat Threat Level: Intermediate

    Fighting Style: Escalates from brawler with field improv weapons to dragon.

    What his fiteness says about Keris: Again, Keris files violence under essential life skills. The self-determination/defiance soul is pretty fight because Keris sees having the fight your way out option as mandatory - but isn't PEAK fite because that's just a fraction of escape and defiance. Not being controlled, being able to actually break free, being able to endure till there's a chance - these are important.

    What his style says about Keris: Vali's style says things about the Greater Keris more than about Keris-the-Exalt IMO: First, escape and defiance is one of the few places that she's capable of a long game. Vali takes time to ramp-up as opposed to the zero-to-die Keris-soul default but when he's ramped he's SCARY. Much like how the Greater Keris is running a long game to screw the Reclaimation over on a level that they'll probably need to get an Eko-language to describe. Second, the way he breaks out of confinement by ramping up reflects the fundamental truth that anyone who would create/empower a Keris *WILL* be destroyed by their Keris after a time - he spins up, then breaks free.

    Vali has a symmetry with Hanyel on the far side of the City, much like Calesco with Rathan - but a different one.

    They're both ramping dragons - but where Haneyl burns out if the fight doesn't end fast and triggers her ramp-up on a whim, Vali crashs when the fight *ENDS* and can't trigger the ramp-up at will. Vali's defensive to Haneyl's offense - counterparts.

    But they both have more-or-less the same in your face elemental force + natural element dragon thing going - the prime difference is that Vali has the linear speed rush and combat crafting while Haneyl just ... brings kit and has battlefield control options.

    They're similar with differences highlighted by the general similarity where Calesco/Rathan are polar opposites.

    ---

    Zanara:

    Principle: Love of Art.

    Keris-part: Skin.

    Keris-Aspect: Being a freaking drama queen, She Of Ten Thousand Faces.

    Combat Threat Level: Low-medium, rising.

    Fighting Style: Martial Arts with a side of poison, mutagenic shit, and crafted adds.

    What Zanara says: Zanara is where Keris's drama queen tendencies are strongest. (Like violence, productive fear, and trolling, dramaticness is a core element of the greater Keris - the only entity in Kiristy without a serious taste for drama is DULMEA.) Zanara is the one notable for making mistakes out of a desire for drama that are actual MISTAKES not power mechanics that resemble tropes that are self-owns when people do them voluntarily. By being the only entity with that quirk, Zanara demonstrates that the Greater Keris's drama-nature is under control by default. Zanara being fite by semanticing martial arts into theme, borrowing poison from Dulmea, using the non-active half as a weapon - this all reflects how Art is a thing Keris has incorperated into herself that wasn't in Kit. Zanara's fiteness is a later incorperation into their nature unlike the others because Art is a later incorperation into Keris than any of the other Progeny's themes save Calesco's Compassion - and like Zanara Calesco's fiteness is odd.

    Zanara's poison use ... well, Zanara does consider Dulmea a mom as part of their disagreement about whether Keris is their mom or not. And like Keris - who is their *SISTER* in their take on the parentage - Zanara makes plenty of use of the Kimmy poison that's given to Dulmea.

    Also like Dulmea Zanara has opinions about the proper aesthestics of violence - Dulmea does not hold to "if it works it works" she expects elegance and finesse, and neither does Zanara.

    ---

    As for what all of this says about Keris as a whole? She's deeply steeped in violence, always keeps it in her option pool, and thinks everyone (she likes) should have it as an option.
     
    Okay, so I love all of this. Some highlights!

    pheonix89 said:
    What I think [Eko] says about Keris: Keris's Joy and need for love is a nightmarish death machine because Keris at some level feels being a nightmarish death machine is an option she needs to be happy / be loved
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Yup, dead on. Partly because, as you say a little later, Keris feels that if she can't kill anything that even hints at threatening her loved ones then she'll lose them all, but also, in a slightly more frightening take, because the only reason Keris can trust people to get close to her is because she knows she's powerful enough to kill them all if they even turn on her. If Keris actually had to worry about her school of Emerald sorcerers betraying her in a coup to take over leadership of the group, or if the risk of Asarin or Claudia doing some serious damage to her if they ever had a major falling out was, you know, an actual risk in a physical sense, you better believe she wouldn't be anywhere near as casual about letting them get close. Keris's killing prowess is a safeguard, it means that anything below the level of a combat-optimised demon lord subconsciously scans as "safe" - at least in the sense of physical harm - and can thus be let close enough to love her.

    pheonix89 said:
    Notably, [Calesco]'s dial-a-yield, she's got sleep and agony settings on the bow and while the light will really fuck someone up and likely leave them wide open for a followup if she decides they have to go after using it's generally non-lethal.

    (...)

    Three: Keris understands that a lot of the grunts in any given conflict don't have better options. Calesco, as her compassion, has lots of less-lethal tools because it lets her disable the grunts who are not the root of the problem and then blast the root of the problem. Just like how her Greater Self prefers to go straight for the leadership. She'll still judge them of course - it's what she does - but she has a range of options.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Yeah, it's notable that Calesco is also a very precise killer. Oh, she's just as able to slaughter everything around her as her sister, but Eko can't really help but kill everything around her when she goes all-out. Calesco's bow is capable of those terrible cutting-arc shots that slice towers in half, but by default it's very much a highly precise single-target weapon - one that can ignore the common soldiers completely and just snipe the leadership over their heads to rout the army with minimal casualties.

    pheonix89 said:
    That she uses virtually no Yozi charms just the arti and her own Panoply stuff - that's because Compassion is where the parts of Keris that are most Yozi-hostile live.

    Her use of a combat skill that Keris is actively pants at (shooting) - well, she's between Ambition/Self-Improvement and Genius. Eko is better than Keris at plenty of things when she can work around her ADHD and Haneyl isn't satisified with just mama's skillset - the combination produces Caleso being amazing at a thing Keris is pants at. She's also the only one of the Progeny souls to ever try to reject being adopted as Keris's human-like kid - so it's fitting that she uses a skillset/moveset Keris is outright missing because she's the one who actively tried to distance herself.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Perceptive point. Yes, Calesco is in many ways the soul who fights the least like Keris herself - perhaps as a nod to how she's the one who wasn't born in the Domain like the other five, and is on some level more "foreign" to the pantheon than anyone but Dulmea.

    pheonix89 said:
    Keris-aspect: Innocence. <jk>Somehow this doesn't paradox him out of existence</jk>
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    More generally, Rathan is Keris's judge, just like Calesco. It's just that where Calesco is a judge who sees things in black and white, he's a judge whose rulings are always biased in her favour - the one who says she's acquitted and justified in her actions and that her enemies are the ones who are wrong.

    pheonix89 said:
    Fighting Style: ... Sailor Moon Villian. Responds to attacks by popping a PD and vaulting away then GTFOing or calling in minions. If he actually has to fight extreme reach with Szorney branches and weirdness, very limited offensive powers. Also, sorcery.

    (...)

    What his style says about Keris: Rathan may be innocence and consquently not-fite but he still can fight pretty well for a social-heavy demon/deva. Because he's innocence his combat magic is defensive/disruptive - he doesn't have much to hurt people but he still has survive/GTFO ... and that's because in Keris's paradigm the innocent absolutely DO have things to fear when accused and need panic options.

    (...)

    [Rathan and Calesco] also both have a light based mindwhammy that is a major part of their combat toolkit - Rathan's innocence aura remains useful in combat by forcing checks to actually start swinging at him, and we all know what Calesco's light does.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Note that Rathan does have another side to his combat options, which is to hammer you with social charms saying that HE'S INNOCENT HE'S VULNERABLE HE'S ADORABLE HOW DARE YOU ATTACK HIM, thus forcing you to fight UMI to lift your blade to him at all. And specifically, he can do this while attacking you for painful psychological stressor action. Charms like MOE can't force you to stand still and let him kill you, but they can effectively negate your numbers advantage by preventing anyone he's not already hit from raising their weapon against him, letting him pick you apart one by one.

    pheonix89 said:
    What [Haneyl's] style says about Keris: Keris is greedy but she's TERRIBLE at budgeting. Haneyl is Keris's greed and burns hot and fast and ... isn't fite enough for a hot-and-fast alpha strike to be a top of the line fite suite. She can either go low-key in dynast mode or break out the flames and vines and burn through her stamina. While Haneyl is much better at resource management and budgeting than Keris - that's her human side - the side that she pushes away to go full burst.

    Her lack of endurance is also a reflection of the downside of Keris divvying up Yozi's for health and stability - she's got Malfeas fire attack but not the durability assumed to come with.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    This is also why she tried to steal Szoreny to BOOST HERSELF with PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING DRUGS.

    Buuuut we know how that song and dance ended, so, moving swiftly on!

    pheonix89 said:
    Vali has a symmetry with Hanyel on the far side of the City, much like Calesco with Rathan - but a different one.

    They're both ramping dragons - but where Haneyl burns out if the fight doesn't end fast and triggers her ramp-up on a whim, Vali crashs when the fight *ENDS* and can't trigger the ramp-up at will. Vali's defensive to Haneyl's offense - counterparts.

    But they both have more-or-less the same in your face elemental force + natural element dragon thing going - the prime difference is that Vali has the linear speed rush and combat crafting while Haneyl just ... brings kit and has battlefield control options.

    They're similar with differences highlighted by the general similarity where Calesco/Rathan are polar opposites.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I do like the symmetries around the wheel of souls. Each pair's dynamic is different, but they're also all clearly foils who play off each other in distinct and interesting ways. Vali and Haneyl are particularly interesting as the only opposites on the soul-wheel who are also full siblings, and so get the sibling-dynamic and the opposite-dynamic shmushed into the same relationship, to neat effect.

    pheonix89 said:
    What Zanara says: Zanara is where Keris's drama queen tendencies are strongest. (Like violence, productive fear, and trolling, dramaticness is a core element of the greater Keris - the only entity in Kiristy without a serious taste for drama is DULMEA.) Zanara is the one notable for making mistakes out of a desire for drama that are actual MISTAKES not power mechanics that resemble tropes that are self-owns when people do them voluntarily. By being the only entity with that quirk, Zanara demonstrates that the Greater Keris's drama-nature is under control by default. Zanara being fite by semanticing martial arts into theme, borrowing poison from Dulmea, using the non-active half as a weapon - this all reflects how Art is a thing Keris has incorporated into herself that wasn't in Kit. Zanara's fiteness is a later incorporation into their nature unlike the others because Art is a later incorporation into Keris than any of the other Progeny's themes save Calesco's Compassion - and like Zanara Calesco's fiteness is odd.

    Zanara's poison use ... well, Zanara does consider Dulmea a mom as part of their disagreement about whether Keris is their mom or not. And like Keris - who is their *SISTER* in their take on the parentage - Zanara makes plenty of use of the Kimmy poison that's given to Dulmea.

    Also like Dulmea Zanara has opinions about the proper aesthetics of violence - Dulmea does not hold to "if it works it works" she expects elegance and finesse, and neither does Zanara.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    To be fair, Firisutu also isn't much of a drama hoe, and Evedelyl's only so-so. But yes, this is good stuff - and another of the things Zanara will use to increasing degrees in their fighting are derangement- and madness-inducing displays; mind-rending war banners and armour that drives men insane to look upon, etc. Which ties back into both the DRAMA, and also the weaponisation of aesthetic beauty (in their conception of it).

    pheonix89 said:
    As for what all of this says about Keris as a whole? She's deeply steeped in violence, always keeps it in her option pool, and thinks everyone (she likes) should have it as an option.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    A++ analysis, take one Keris Point and wear it with pride.
     
    Aleph said:
    This is also why she tried to steal Szoreny to BOOST HERSELF with PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING DRUGS.

    Buuuut we know how that song and dance ended, so, moving swiftly on!
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    It also ties into something that comes up time and time again; Haneyl is Keris's generalist. There really isn't very much she's the best at, but she's not really bad at very much compared to her siblings. The cost of this tends to come in her burn-out/hunger fuel requirements. But this is Haneyl, and so she tends to overestimate herself when she's well-fed/doing well, and that's how she gets in fights her actual "2CD with some moderate combat investment" capacities can't actually manage. She's not as smart as Eko or Rathan, not as deadly as Eko or Calesco, not as pretty as Rathan or Calesco, and her artwork doesn't have Zanara's brilliance.

    Keris usually finds Haneyl's generalist side very useful, because she can give her tasks and they'll get done. But it is a thing that against a specialist in a field, she tends to run into problems - and so Haneyl wins in such cases by finding a field of play that isn't in the specialist's strengths.
     
    On the fite styles and what they say about Keris are missing one crucial axis: they are, I think, postulating 'empty arena one vs one's.

    This isn't horrible but it misses some of the nuances of the characters fiteness.

    Case in point is Haneyl whose personal combat suite is merely okay and not ideally specced into a single strategy.

    This misses the fact that Haneyl shouldn't be showing up to a fight alone instead of with a proper retinue of her nobles and heavy calvary. A charge of supernatural heavy Cav armed with enhanced weapons with strong social ties and obligations (thanks self seeding method) is bloody terrifying. Add on her other 1CD and Haneyl has a pile of force multipliers and is going to present a serious challenge to almost all of her siblings over a broad area.

    Rathan notably Keris's other group orientated social character still remains a Dark General from magical girl shows, but his General (really Admiral) needs to be stressed more. He has bands of privateers lead by able Captains he can assign tasks and jobs too. indeed make his Captains fight for the right and prestige to undertake perilous tasks.

    You aren't just fighting Rathan, you have to fight all his lieutenants and their troops as well.

    In summary I'd call it Keris as a Queen aspect of fighting. She is after all more than just a single blade in the dark.

    So you've got this scale of personal fite vs organizational fite where Eko is Uber strong at personal but utter pants at the second. In contrast Haneyl is weak at personal (in comparison to her siblings) but strong at organizations. Tasking Eko to organize and run a season long raiding campaign would be an utter mismatch vs having her go kill a singular target.

    Ironically this leaves both Zanara and Vali as the objectively weakest in conventional sense of fiteness (personal combat vs organised combat). Of course Zanara is going to get eldritch with esoteric effects and Vali doubles down on Shonen troops (I fully expect him to develop a Punch into Frenemy charm), but still both aren't conventional.
     
    Last edited:
    Five Calibrations Pass - Late Wood 773
  • Threadmarks
    • So! With Haneyl back for Late Wood 773, it's time for Keris to start doing her job! And she is going to start by establishing a foothold in Ta Vuzi in true Kerisian style, showing off the utterly terrifying levels her "corruption and subversion" specialty has grown to and just how frightening her social-fu can be when she focuses.


    Aleph: Oh Keris.
    Aleph: It's her Envy themes that make her so terrifyingly subversive, really.
    Aleph: Because she understands that fundamentally, it doesn't matter if someone was raised Immaculate and has mental defences if they also feel underappreciated and passed over and stuck in some dead-end job when they're deserving of more.
    Aleph: Because they will value feeling appreciated and valued more than they value the abstract purity of their religion, so all you have to do is phrase it in a way that doesn't put the two into direct conflict and they'll doublethink their own way around the gaps.
    Aleph: She's good at working out what people want but don't have.
    EarthScorpion: Damned by Envy. Both its cause and its victim.
    Aleph: :D
    EarthScorpion: It's kind of funny. When you look at "seven deadly sin" themed villains, the leader is usually either Pride, or "Envy was secretly the real villain all along".
    Aleph: Because Pride is the most able to build and maintain its own empire, Envy is the most able to stab the others in the back, and both are kind of the only two that really focus on improving themselves.
    Aleph: Heh. Kerisgame falls firmly into the latter camp. :p
    EarthScorpion: Of course, heh, from a certain point of view...
    EarthScorpion: Well, is it possible to map her progeny souls to the other six sins?
    Aleph: Hmm. I suspect it might stretch them. None of them really fit the apathy of Sloth, fr'x.
    Aleph: Though... perhaps Vali, in how he doesn't care for any other people or societal norms outside his promises, as we saw with Kalaska.
    Aleph: Haneyl makes a good Greed, as possessive as she is. Zanara touches on Lust in objectifying things for beauty rather than what they are.
    Aleph: Rathan might be the overindulgence of Gluttony, leaving, hah.
    Aleph: Wrath and Pride for the Adorjani sisters.
    Aleph: And Calesco does have a temper that tends to solve problems by doing verbal or physical violence to them, and Eko does have a very high opinion of herself.
    EarthScorpion: Hee. First Keris separates out her Pride, then her Gluttony, then her Greed, then her Wrath, then her Sloth, and only last her Lust. :p
    Aleph: Lol.
    Keris: "I'm a healthy and well-rounded person!"​
    Monk: "Healthy and well-rounded is meant to mean all the sins at 0, not grinding them all to max level!"​
    Keris: "Sounds like you're just envious of my spread of stats~"​
    EarthScorpion: God, Eko does work so well as Pride, in that weird way that Keris is proud.
    Aleph: Right? It's not conventional arrogance because she's so much of a coward and has such deep insecurities, but she is very chauvinistic about certain things to people she reads as weaker.
    Aleph: Calesco as Wrath is an interesting one though.
    Aleph: ... but then, heh, I guess Keris does... generally mostly get angry over Compassionate causes, really - and it's also where her anger is the most indiscriminate and uncontrolled.
    Aleph: I mean, Envy gets her feeling spiteful, but she only tends to get furious when something jabs her in the conscience.
    Aleph: Heh. And Keris is Envy while Pekhijira is Fear. :p
    EarthScorpion: And yeah, heh, the thing about Haneyl is her Pride, her Wrath, her Lust and her Gluttony... they're all subordinated to her Greed. She'll scrape and bow and do anything if she doesn't have what she wants; she values her pride, but in extremis she'll simply discard it. Same as her Lust; she might be horny on main, but getting laid is just an entertainment to her and she won't lose her fortune because she fell for someone
    Aleph: While Rathan's vengeance is Overindulgence of his feelings. Just as his love for Oula is. And his Sorcery nerdery.
    Aleph: Huh. The big sign of why Calesco is Wrath is that one of her major themes is black-and-white morality. No room for shades of grey; you're either with her or against her.
    EarthScorpion: Well, rather, it's very hard for her to be shades of grey. :p
    Aleph: Yes. And god, Eko really, really is a good Pride. She nails how Keris shows it - split wildly between her severe insecurities that she tries to hide, and the things she's confident about where she doesn't boast or brag much, she's just kind of unthinkingly chauvinistic and dismissive of "lessers". With Eko it's her body image she's insecure about and her intelligence she's arrogant about. With Keris it's her mind she feels doesn't measure up to her peers and her physical abilities and raw metaphysical might where she dismisses those weaker than her.
    Aleph: Pride isn't just feeling good about where you're strong or perfect. It's feeling crippling anxiety about where you're weak or flawed.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • *The Baisha gets 11 sux on its job*

    Neride: "YES! Not gonna die!"

    Priest: *sigh of disappointment*

    ehhh, anyone who gets close enough to recognise a Yozi-tinted Style in the cult idol will already have clocked the Night and Border Dragons as TED and Oramus
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Kinda got to wonder just how often that particular heresy crops up.

    Seems like an obvious choice for corrupting Immaculates while also being a cheeky bastard about it.
     
    Five Calibrations Pass - Fire 773
  • Threadmarks
    • As the year draws to an end, Oula shows off what she's learned, Keris gets some last-season schmoozing done among Saata's high society with help from a surprising corner, and Calesco proves that she is very much her mother's daughter in petty spite even if there's some confusion as to whether her mother is actually her father. Yes, it's Fire 773, people! And I'm sure the year won't end on any ominous foreshadowing whatsoever!

     
  • Threadmarks
    • I really do enjoy seeing Keris' souls act like siblings, especially when Keris isn't around. It's fun to see these great and terrible demon lords bitching about their mom, sharing their private fears while comforting each other, helping with one another's petty schemes, etc. They've got a really nice dynamic where they all bitch about their siblings and snipe at each other constantly, but they still genuinely care about each other and are always willing to lend their siblings a shoulder to cry on.

    Also, Calesco swooning over a different "true love" in every chapter is always hilarious to me. Everyone gives Haneyl shit for how much she gets around, but I can't imagine Calesco's far behind her, especially given she's literally training to be prostitute*.

    *Yes, Joyful Priestesses are more than just prostitutes and it's more complicated than that, but they're still very much sex workers so the point stands.
     
    Aleph said:
    And I'm sure the year won't end on any ominous foreshadowing whatsoever!
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Up until I read the bits about it being Shogunate stuff, I was all but sure that a giant metal face was going to punch its way out of the ground and start spiting out a force of fresh faced Autochthonians ready to launch the Locust Crusade engage in peaceable resource trading with their new neighbors.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top