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

[Aleph]

Wow! Well, this was definitely a lovely long effortpost to get as an Easter present, and I'm super glad you've been enjoying the story! I'm very impressed at you having binged the entire thing, and I hope to high heaven you mean that you read the whole thread over the past couple days rather than the whole two million plus words of Kerisgame on AO3, because otherwise good god, friend, when did you sleep?

As to your more specific comments...

I do have a question - somewhere in one of the early logs, Testolagh says he doesn't miss sleeping (shortly after they first meet in the North). This is fairly clearly him being Malfean and having Nightmare Fugure Vigilance, but in Secrets Revealed Ch4 he mentions having a sleep cycle? Caught my eye.

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There is a simple and very satisfying answer this which is completely in-character and makes perfect sense and indeed implies a fascinating depth of insight into Testolagh's character and how he relates to Permanent Yozi charms that transform the human condition such as Nightmare Fugue Vigilance, but unfortunately I can't make it up under this kind of pressure and so have to admit that we forgot he had it. 😅

But moving on to more general reactions, I have consistently been super impressed by you guys' mastery of characterisation. Keris' grappling with her budding compassion and her loyalty to the Reclamation, her need to be loved, the dynamics of her relationship with Sasi re: they genuinely do love and support each other but are also kind of a little bit really unhealthy (and that was before I got to Fear and Excess, which I'll return to in a minute), becoming a mother and trying to parent a bunch of deva lords with fundamentally not-entirely-human psychology, the whole fallout of the Big Reveal About Keris' Past - I've already skipped a bunch that could be in the middle of that list and I could still go on, but you get the picture. You do a consistently fantastic job of making not just Keris, not just her souls and supporting cast, but Creation as a whole feel like a living place.

This is a big part of what makes the "being an at least nominally loyal Infernal" thing work for me (also, Lilunu, who is fantastic and ES should be proud). Keris is a better person than she used to be, but she's still not exactly a good person. But she's engaging and compelling because she struggles with it, because she grows and develops not just as numbers on a character sheet but as a person. I usually drop a work as soon as mind control comes into things if it's any more than a section/chapter or two I can skim through, let alone a monster series like A&T, but here I am, even after all the UMI social Charms and genuinely freak-me-out shit I have to not think too hard about like Self-Seed Infestation and whatever the secondary-personality-watchdog spell was called. Yeuch.

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Thank you! We often get told that characterisation is our strongest area, and the depths and complexities of Keris's personality and moral landscape is really fun both to play and to talk about. I kind of designed her in a lot of ways to look from a distance like a typically two-dimensional Saturday morning cartoon villain to your average group of Generically Good Solars, but once they get closer and start to investigate and poke around, things quickly become more morally nuanced and confront them with some hard questions about who the good guys are. Her growth from feral street rat to mother and Mistress of Ceremonies has definitely been one of the best parts of the game, and I'm constantly delighted by the interactions between her and her by-now-pretty-damn-extended family. (The watchdog spell, incidentally, is called Imbuing the Golden Hellhound, and was definitely in Keris's character sheet all along honest. And you're right that it's a little bit 😖; it's meant to be. Keris is very much still a villainess, even when she's being an antihero.)

Speaking of yeuch, it's time to talk about Fear and Excess, which is as impressively well-written as everything else you've published, entirely in-character and believable, builds on hints from previous instalments re: Sasi being Not Okay, and yet even setting aside... I probably can't get specific on SV but some of Sasi's particular kinks... I hate it. This is hardly any slight against you; the fact that your characterisation is so consistently fantastic and you're so good at writing complex characters means I do genuinely like Keris and Sasi despite myself, and I am a sap, so seeing them be viciously, fundamentally Not Okay is just unfun. Hopefully things will resolve in a way that means they can eventually be at least Slightly More Okay.

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I'm glad you're captivated, though sorry you're squicked, and I hope you'll stick with us until the end! I will once again remind everyone of the last tag on the Fear & Excess AO3 story; despite everything happening at the moment, we swear it's not a Bad End fic. Snek Keris is indeed best snek, and you're probably going to enjoy some further mechanical development in Keris's general Pekhijira-associated stuff soon - not just po Heresy, but also some more growth from Strigida, who as this chapter noted is with Lilunu this season for UPGRADES (which without spoiling I can reveal have gone very well to the tune of ten successes over seven).

Anyway, in conclusion, this is overall one of my very favourite series - not just in RPG terms but as a story - and you guys should be super proud of what you've created here as authors and homebrewers, even aside from the fact that you've been playing this game for ELEVEN YEARS WHAT THE FUCK.

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😁🥰😘

Honestly I feel pretty sorry for the guy. Having your girlfriend come back one day and tell you "so I know we agreed I could sleep around for the sake of the mission/as long as my heart was still yours but surprise I have a girlfriend now" is already a super rough deal (and puts me in the amusing position of being less forgiving than a Malfeas-primary Infernal); even acknowledging that the 'different needs' thing Sasi uses as her rationale for having two romantic partners could reasonably mean that she loves Testolagh primarily for hun-reasons...

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@EarthScorpion has sardonically noted that from Testolagh's PoV, Keris is basically a hentai doujin fat bastard who happens to be female and pretty and thus everyone forgives her for stealing your girl (and that the fact that she also slept with Testolagh for a while just means the fat bastard also mind broke the protagonist too).

This can be taken as further proof that @EarthScorpion is teriblu.

 

[theajl]

Well, this was definitely a lovely long effortpost to get as an Easter present,

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> effortpost

I'm flattered, but that was pure stream-of-consciousness waffle You can tell because I got to talking about the UMI Charms, which reminded me to talk about Fear & Excess, and then I noped out without stopping or going back to talk about all the other things I love about A&T such as (but not limited to):

• All the work you've put into Keris' souls and spreading the different Yozi influences around rather than just following the basic "each soul is defined by its Principle filtered through all the (Yozi) Excellencies the character knows".
• The worldbuilding. So much awesome worldbuilding, seriously.
• Hellish politics and the constant tug of war between the Unquestionables over the limited supply of Infernals. (EDIT: and to stop them forming a block of their own, as we saw with Iudicavisse at the Director's Meeting... I think recently? I read the whole thing in one go, so.)
  • Ligier being a Magnificent Bastard, in particular. It should be harder for me to like Ligier than Keris and Sasi, and yet.
• The anticipation of Keris reaching E10, getting Titanic Will Unquestionable, and it occurring to her to put together "I can have 3CDs + my souls don't have multiple-Yozi-essence problems + Lilunu is a 3CD with multiple-Yozi-essence problems".

Hope you had a good Easter, though!

I'm very impressed at you having binged the entire thing, and I hope to high heaven you mean that you read the whole thread over the past couple days rather than the whole two million plus words of Kerisgame on AO3, because otherwise good god, friend, when did you sleep?

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Yeah, no, I read the whole AO3 series. Hence "mixed glee and horror" at discovering this thread because in order to follow the commentary along I'd have to go back and read it all again - which would be a bit much even for me!

I kind of designed her in a lot of ways to look from a distance like a typically two-dimensional Saturday morning cartoon villain to your average group of Generically Good Solars, but once they get closer and start to investigate and poke around, things quickly become more morally nuanced and confront them with some hard questions about who the good guys are.

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That's a fantastic way of describing it I always enjoy approaches that really get stuck into realistic complexities and implications of a setting - I can understand that some people are perfectly happy with their four-colour righteous facepunching, but it's not my jam.

Her growth from feral street rat to mother and Mistress of Ceremonies has definitely been one of the best parts of the game, and I'm constantly delighted by the interactions between her and her by-now-pretty-damn-extended family.

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I completely agree with you there. Found family is one of my favourite tropes (as per my last post, I am a sap), and I also really enjoy... I don't know the fancy term but interaction between human and non- or not-entirely-human psychologies. You've made some pretty great use of demon Bans - which is a pretty great term coin, too. Definitely haven't shamelessly stolen that as well

I'm glad you're captivated, though sorry you're squicked, and I hope you'll stick with us until the end!

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I always intended to. I can deal with the UMI stuff as an Exalted/Keris-being-Keris thing, and I appreciate Fear & Excess in an abstract sense as a consequence of what's come before and a catalyst for what's coming next (and a characteristically exceptional piece of writing), it's just that if I were writing myself up as a Kerisgame character I'd have a five-dot Principle themed along the lines of "sanctity of mind" or "free will"; compelling someone to stop trying to blood-sacrifice that orphan right now is one thing, but taking them out of their head and resculpting them like clay is... I'd rather die clean than have some twisted mockery be left walking around in my body.

Snek Keris is indeed best snek, and you're probably going to enjoy some further mechanical development in Keris's general Pekhijira-associated stuff soon - not just po Heresy, but also some more growth from Strigida, who as this chapter noted is with Lilunu this season for UPGRADES (which without spoiling I can reveal have gone very well to the tune of ten successes over seven).

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Excite!

@EarthScorpion has sardonically noted that from Testolagh's PoV, Keris is basically a hentai doujin fat bastard who happens to be female and pretty and thus everyone forgives her for stealing your girl (and that the fact that she also slept with Testolagh for a while just means the fat bastard also mind broke the protagonist too).

This can be taken as further proof that @EarthScorpion is teriblu.

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Oh man, that got a laugh. He may be teriblu, but he's not entirely wrong, either


Actually, while this post is pinging both of you anyway (Edit: apparently at some point quote-@'s stopped pinging people. @EarthScorpion I summon you.), do you have mechanics/thoughts/lore for supernatural martial arts beyond what exists in the Kerishacks doc re: SMAs? Are Terrestrial and Celestial Martial Arts still a thing in Kerisgame, even, or are they just Melee charms applied to a martial arts Style? Keris has Snake Style as a Style, but no Snake Style Charms as presented by core, I don't recall off the top of my head any obvious martial arts Charms being used onscreen and I'm damn sure not going back to check when I can just ask, and the Enlightenment hack rules give mins for sorcery but not martial arts.

I ask firstly because I'm interested, but also because I'm working up a complete set of conversions - including support for Kerishacks requires literally a single extra line of Mins per Charm, since I'm switching over to your 6/15 Att/Ability system - and I'd like to make it as compatible as possible with your stuff as something of a gift for the two million words of fantastic content you've produced. If nothing else I might manage to come up with one or two fun ideas or save ES a little work on future npcs

 

[EarthScorpion]

Actually, while this post is pinging both of you anyway (Edit: apparently at some point quote-@'s stopped pinging people. @EarthScorpion I summon you.), do you have mechanics/thoughts/lore for supernatural martial arts beyond what exists in the Kerishacks doc re: SMAs? Are Terrestrial and Celestial Martial Arts still a thing in Kerisgame, even, or are they just Melee charms applied to a martial arts Style? Keris has Snake Style as a Style, but no Snake Style Charms as presented by core, I don't recall off the top of my head any obvious martial arts Charms being used onscreen and I'm damn sure not going back to check when I can just ask, and the Enlightenment hack rules give mins for sorcery but not martial arts.

I ask firstly because I'm interested, but also because I'm working up a complete set of conversions - including support for Kerishacks requires literally a single extra line of Mins per Charm, since I'm switching over to your 6/15 Att/Ability system - and I'd like to make it as compatible as possible with your stuff as something of a gift for the two million words of fantastic content you've produced. If nothing else I might manage to come up with one or two fun ideas or save ES a little work on future npcs

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So, by and large, there are no general Martial Arts charms. Your martial arts are in general capabilities represented by your native Melee charms. SMAs are a blight on Sidereal Charm design anyway because they get effects they should have made to have to be martial arts, so they're healthier as a splat if SMAs aren't core to them.

Here's where the "but" comes in.

Firstly, Form Charms exist. @Aleph just doesn't care about it because Form-type charms are fighting for her Form-type activation and she'd rather be able to turn into a giant snek when she wants to.

Secondly, for characters who really want to focus on it, the same kind of similar tree that one might see for Keris and her Id stuff could be created. That'd be something specifically balanced for your splat and your personal martial art, and that's not something every character would have. They're a personal, "I want to be The Master of Tiger Style" thing, just like Keris has "I want to be the Fear Snake".

 

[Aleph]

Firstly, Form Charms exist. @Aleph just doesn't care about it because Form-type charms are fighting for her Form-type activation and she'd rather be able to turn into a giant snek when she wants to.

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It's true. I love turning into a giant snek. It always helps.

So, by and large, there are no general Martial Arts charms. Your martial arts are in general capabilities represented by your native Melee charms. SMAs are a blight on Sidereal Charm design anyway because they get effects they should have made to have to be martial arts, so they're healthier as a splat if SMAs aren't core to them.

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To clarify that a little; our Sidereals don't have a fixed closed charmset but rather what might be called a semi-open one. At any point, they can make a petition to the Bureau of Destiny and the Maidens that they're lacking a capability that they're in need of (for instance, demon-castigation), and if the petition is considered and debated and approved, a new constellation will be created that's linked to a short charmtree of demon-castigating charms. Constellations that go unused for too long fall out of favour and get removed from the skies, so in this way the heavens see a little bit of change over the centuries and Sidereals can get their kung fu natively instead of needing to outsource for it.

 

[The Sandman]

So astrology is a matter of knowing what sort of things Siddies are currently focused on by observing which constellations are ascending, descending, absent or particularly bright? With things like "in the house of Venus" meaning that Bluesids are currently the most common users of the associated Charms or some such?

 

[iledian]

Having a bit of trouble parsing the final bit of your segment on SMAs (may be me, may be word choice/phrasing) but I believe the gist of what you are saying is that SMAs as a blight on Sidereal design because rather than crucial abilities becoming Sidereal charms they get shoehorned into SMAs which means a Sidereal needs to get SMAs to have a complete kit rather than getting that from charms with SMAs allowing for further specialization/focus. Is this correct or am I missing something.

 

[EarthScorpion]

Having a bit of trouble parsing the final bit of your segment on SMAs (may be me, may be word choice/phrasing) but I believe the gist of what you are saying is that SMAs as a blight on Sidereal design because rather than crucial abilities becoming Sidereal charms they get shoehorned into SMAs which means a Sidereal needs to get SMAs to have a complete kit rather than getting that from charms with SMAs allowing for further specialization/focus. Is this correct or am I missing something.

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This is an old argument, but in essence, yes. It means that Sidereal expansions get jammed into things that must be High Essence and Based Around Punching Or At Least Violent Use. Sidereals should be able to expand their charmsets in ways that are still Sidereal charms, but can be low essence and don't force you to be a martial artist.

 

[theajl]

So, by and large, there are no general Martial Arts charms. Your martial arts are in general capabilities represented by your native Melee charms. SMAs are a blight on Sidereal Charm design anyway because they get effects they should have made to have to be martial arts, so they're healthier as a splat if SMAs aren't core to them.

Here's where the "but" comes in.

Firstly, Form Charms exist. @Aleph just doesn't care about it because Form-type charms are fighting for her Form-type activation and she'd rather be able to turn into a giant snek when she wants to.

Secondly, for characters who really want to focus on it, the same kind of similar tree that one might see for Keris and her Id stuff could be created. That'd be something specifically balanced for your splat and your personal martial art, and that's not something every character would have. They're a personal, "I want to be The Master of Tiger Style" thing, just like Keris has "I want to be the Fear Snake".

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Awesome, thanks! About what I was thinking, though I wouldn't have called the Form Charms still being a thing. Do you have thoughts/an example for how those work with Styles?

It's true. I love turning into a giant snek. It always helps.

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Spoiler: Original Version

EDIT: I made a better/worse shitty Paint edit

Double edit: technical issue, please hold

Behold!

To clarify that a little; our Sidereals don't have a fixed closed charmset but rather what might be called a semi-open one. At any point, they can make a petition to the Bureau of Destiny and the Maidens that they're lacking a capability that they're in need of (for instance, demon-castigation), and if the petition is considered and debated and approved, a new constellation will be created that's linked to a short charmtree of demon-castigating charms. Constellations that go unused for too long fall out of favour and get removed from the skies, so in this way the heavens see a little bit of change over the centuries and Sidereals can get their kung fu natively instead of needing to outsource for it.

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I hate to tell you this, but the "beyond what exists in the Kerishacks docs" clause was there to say "I know this bit already". Thank you for going to the effort of typing it out again for me though!

 

[EarthScorpion]

Awesome, thanks! About what I was thinking, though I wouldn't have called the Form Charms still being a thing. Do you have thoughts/an example for how those work with Styles?

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I mean, they'd just be a Form-Type Charm with a prereq of Style 3, that give you some buffs while the style is active. The form-type charms from the associated styles are good for a baseline, though you might need to re-balance them as appropriate for the user so it's worth it. But, for example, Infernal Monster Form was always a pretty good Form-Type charm for non-Infernals (while sucking for Infernals, because their native charms did it better and they were already Outside of Fate).

 

[theajl]

I mean, they'd just be a Form-Type Charm with a prereq of Style 3, that give you some buffs while the style is active. The form-type charms from the associated styles are good for a baseline, though you might need to re-balance them as appropriate for the user so it's worth it. But, for example, Infernal Monster Form was always a pretty good Form-Type charm for non-Infernals (while sucking for Infernals, because their native charms did it better and they were already Outside of Fate).

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Alright, cheers. Just checking you weren't envisioning anything fancy

 

[Bugs]

It's true. I love turning into a giant snek. It always helps.

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Only because you do so in situations and for purposes that it's helpful for.

The thing in the Evil Overlord list is there because a disproportionate number of villains who turn into snakes do so for extra staying power in combat, when snakes are ambush predators and severely lack staying power. Keris, on the other hand, turns into a snake to run away, recuperate, and maybe crush somebody to death with her coils, all of which snakes are actually good at.

 

[mastigos]

I've been wondering: isn't part of Rathan's core nature casting the blame off of himself and onto others? Why does that never seem to come up? Is it that he's so successful at it that Keris's viewpoint is blinded to it?

 

[pheonix89]

I've been wondering: isn't part of Rathan's core nature casting the blame off of himself and onto others? Why does that never seem to come up? Is it that he's so successful at it that Keris's viewpoint is blinded to it?

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It actually does quite a bit earlier on.

He's also kind of lazy and fairness is a core part of his nature so it doesn't come up as much as you'd expect these days.

And he's been out-of-focus doing a lot of sorcery business lately.

 

[Aleph]

Relevant to Fear & Excess Release Five: The Serpent's Claim.

Fearful Hearts Exposed
Cost: 2m; Mins: Id 2, Enlightenment 7; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Lurker in the Mists
Soul: Pekhijira
While this Charm is active, any successful standard (Reaction + Awareness) roll to notice sensory details about a targeted being reveals if they fear Keris. In addition, Keris is also informed of the general theme of their greatest fear (eg: "insects", "abandonment", "the death of loved ones", etc).

Should Keris enter Limit Break, this Charm is automatically activated for 0m.

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Terror Given Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Id 4, Enlightenment 9; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion, Obvious
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Snarling Lower-Soul
Soul: Pekhijira
Keris gives a chilling performance that invokes a creeping dread, wreathing herself in an Obvious aura of fearful mist that exerts unnatural mental influence on her victims. She rolls (Persuasion + Expression), and if her successes overcome her victims' MDVs they gain an appropriate 3-dot Principle of fear towards the subject she describes. If a victim suppresses the Principle during the scene, it falls to a 1-dot Principle at the end of the scene. Should the subject of Keris's terrifying performance be present, or should she focus her attention on a single victim by rolling Presence rather than Expression, the fear-mists need not manifest and this Charm usage is not Obvious.

When Keris is in Limit Break, this Charm generates a secondary Principle in addition to whatever subject she describes, focused on Keris herself.

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("Oh no," says Ney. "I was right. She can smell fear.")
(Then Keris bops him on the head and tsunishly corrects him that she can feel it, baka, her feathers resonate with terror-vibrations in your heartbeat, smell is a totally different sense.)

 

[Indivisible]

That was pretty tense. I'm a little surprised that Sasi didn't use any of those Cecelyne debts she's been stocking up against Keris just in case during the fight.

 

[Aleph]

The thing is - on top of the fact that Sasi was trying to cajole and persuade rather than command right up until that last attempt to forcibly tune her - Cece debts do nothing to actually compel behaviour. They're purely stick-based persuasion that rely on intellectual fear of consequence. Which means that if Sasi had used them, Keris would have been entirely free to ignore them completely, would have done so, and then it would have been Sasi's fault that something horrible happened to her as a result of oathbreaking.

Keris would have been fine with punishing someone for saying no out of spite and bitter resentment. But po-Sasi doesn't think like that. She doesn't hold grudges, because grudge-holding is awful and exhausting and doesn't bring her delight. So her Cece debts over Keris, ironically, are not a tool that helps her at all in this case, and which in fact are likely to cause her problems because the next thing Keris is going to do is try to fix her, and a botch on that could be extremely dangerous to Sasi's own health and wellbeing.

 

[Indivisible]

That makes sense.

My compliments on the whole story so far. Sasi's issues have been boiling in the background of the entire Kerisgame series, and Keris has never been sure how to help her with her issues without pushing too hard. I'm looking forward to the promised happy ending.

Freedom Lets Go was a hell of a wham line. I never would have seen it coming, but of course Keris would be willing to give up her romantic love of Sasi in order to save her.

 

[Ct613hulu]

Anyone care to share their guesses on how Keris plans to fix Sasi? We can expect that it will be extremely heretical from the perspective of the Yozi given how Keris is taking additional precautions to keep her actions secret from Lilunu and Dulmea finds it to be terrifying.

Maybe it involves resurrecting the past holder of Sasi's Exaltation (whose name escapes me) to serve as a replacement Coadjutor and new morality chain? This would certainly solve the narrative problem of Sasi's coadjutor being a boring non-character who only really matters because of how his lack of a relationship with Sasi harms all of her other souls by limiting their personal space and resources. Installing Sasi's past life as the new coadjutor could allow the story to further explore the wonder and horror of the First Age by letting Keris directly interact with someone responsible for many of its greatest manifestations.

I could also see Keris building on how this past life hinted that Infernal Exalt could be purified and turned into a normal Solar Exalt when the Past Life Background temporarily let her take over Sasi. If we assume that the root cause of this Sasi's mental collapse is spiritual corruption from Eremor than drawing on the purifying power of the Sun could represent a potential long-term solution. An Infernal Exalted returning to their roots as Solar Exalted is the type of nightmare scenario that would give the Unquestionables trauma flashbacks and motivate them to be far harsher in binding the Infernal Exalted to their will.

PS: I did some quick checking and it seems like the event I am referencing was written almost a decade ago. It is absolutely crazy how long this story has been going.

 

[Chloe Sullivan]

Anyone care to share their guesses on how Keris plans to fix Sasi? We can expect that it will be extremely heretical from the perspective of the Yozi given how Keris is taking additional precautions to keep her actions secret from Lilunu and Dulmea finds it to be terrifying.

Maybe it involves resurrecting the past holder of Sasi's Exaltation (whose name escapes me) to serve as a replacement Coadjutor and new morality chain? This would certainly solve the narrative problem of Sasi's coadjutor being a boring non-character who only really matters because of how his lack of a relationship with Sasi harms all of her other souls by limiting their personal space and resources. Installing Sasi's past life as the new coadjutor could allow the story to further explore the wonder and horror of the First Age by letting Keris directly interact with someone responsible for many of its greatest manifestations.

I could also see Keris building on how this past life hinted that Infernal Exalt could be purified and turned into a normal Solar Exalt when the Past Life Background temporarily let her take over Sasi. If we assume that the root cause of this Sasi's mental collapse is spiritual corruption from Eremor than drawing on the purifying power of the Sun could represent a potential long-term solution. An Infernal Exalted returning to their roots as Solar Exalted is the type of nightmare scenario that would give the Unquestionables trauma flashbacks and motivate them to be far harsher in binding the Infernal Exalted to their will.

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This seems unlikely to me. Keris finds the golden solar past-age kinda terrifying, last I recall.

It could involve some soul surgery, which is automatically extra heretical, even without bringing in shiny solar glory.

 

[Endymion]

Anyone care to share their guesses on how Keris plans to fix Sasi? We can expect that it will be extremely heretical from the perspective of the Yozi given how Keris is taking additional precautions to keep her actions secret from Lilunu and Dulmea finds it to be terrifying.

Maybe it involves resurrecting the past holder of Sasi's Exaltation (whose name escapes me) to serve as a replacement Coadjutor and new morality chain? This would certainly solve the narrative problem of Sasi's coadjutor being a boring non-character who only really matters because of how his lack of a relationship with Sasi harms all of her other souls by limiting their personal space and resources. Installing Sasi's past life as the new coadjutor could allow the story to further explore the wonder and horror of the First Age by letting Keris directly interact with someone responsible for many of its greatest manifestations.

I could also see Keris building on how this past life hinted that Infernal Exalt could be purified and turned into a normal Solar Exalt when the Past Life Background temporarily let her take over Sasi. If we assume that the root cause of this Sasi's mental collapse is spiritual corruption from Eremor than drawing on the purifying power of the Sun could represent a potential long-term solution. An Infernal Exalted returning to their roots as Solar Exalted is the type of nightmare scenario that would give the Unquestionables trauma flashbacks and motivate them to be far harsher in binding the Infernal Exalted to their will.

PS: I did some quick checking and it seems like the event I am referencing was written almost a decade ago. It is absolutely crazy how long this story has been going.

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Honestly, I think Eko will be part of the resolution with her blade going ~snicker-snack~. She's the only on of Keris' souls that has first hand knowledge of Heretical Soul Surgery. The issue seems to be that Sasimana's Hun derailed. Therefore fork and prune a copy of her Hun, install it as a Watcher with orders to not let Sasimana slip into Sasi (Po).

 

[Azrael]

("Oh no," says Ney. "I was right. She can smell fear.")
(Then Keris bops him on the head and tsunishly corrects him that she can feel it, baka, her feathers resonate with terror-vibrations in your heartbeat, smell is a totally different sense.)

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Keris absolutely can smell fear, she has the Metagaos charm for it. Or actually she can taste fear, I guess. I'm never sure if Keen (Sense) is or should be good enough to pick up on that but Unsurpassed (Sense) definitely is.

 

[Bursting Eagerness Soul]

I'm finally back! Very glad to have so much great content to binge through! I'm loving the more zoomed out stuff with the strategic actions and jumping viewpoints between Keris and the kiddos.

 

[Indivisible]

Y'know, it strikes me that letting go of her romantic love for Sasi because it was holding her back from helping her is a hell of a Sacrifice for Adamant Circle Sorcery.

 

[Aleph]

Sadly, Keris isn't Enlightenment 10. Also, making it a sacrifice would prevent her from ever choosing to fall back in love with Sasi, should she ever want to - it'd be defining herself anew by that relationship's absence, permanently severing romantic ties with her infernal princess love.

 

[Shane_357]

It occurs that Salina is best placed to realise the full truth of what the Yozi's have accidentally wrought in the Green Sun Princes.