- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Lies and slander. Clearly that's the great, the brilliant, the incredible Princess Eko!
Ascensions and Transgressions: the Tales of Keris Dulmeadokht (Exalted game)
- Thread starter Aleph
- Start date
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Look I'm entirely expecting the final confrontation with the Althing Infernal to just end with Eko calling Mummy and having her reduce the Unquestionable to fine Essence-paste.
TenMoreMiles
rotating 梅长苏 in my head 24/7
- Pronouns
- It/Its
She'd have to overcome her (perfectly reasonable) terror of the Csend first
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
I would argue that you don't need to specify that the terror of the Csend is reasonable. Such a statement is redundant.
Sasi's Id Tree (and Mechanics)
And to celebrate the latest drop for Fear & Excess, Worlds Within and Wiles Without, we can now release the Sasi Id tree.
Sasi's Id
Id 1: Her po is her own inner demon, a strange synthesis of the second soul of men and a demon prince. Its passions whisper to her, empowering her should she follow its whims. She has the Slave to Vice Solar Limit Break associated with her po.
Voluntarily, she may reflexively succumb to a Controlled Limit Break. This lasts for a scene, and may not be terminated early. Once the madness ends, she may roll her Id and remove a number of points of Limit equal to her successes. While this madness endures she is immune to any further Limit gain.
Id 2: She learned to draw power from the nagging urges at the back of her mind. Stunts which channel behaviour in line with Slave to Vice have their rating increased by one dot.
Id 3: Her Id provides a free 3-dot Style themed around her po (Golden Hedonist Style).
Id 4: Infernals this in-tune with their po are almost inhuman in their human drives. She requires one fewer scene to develop or reinforce a Principle in line with Slave to Vice. In addition, she gains a positive 3-dot Principle towards Slave to Vice. This Principle can be eroded as normal, but she effectively spends a scene renewing it whenever she regains Willpower from sleeping or enters a Limit Break as per Id 1.
Id 5: When one's own feelings fill one's mind, external influences are easily sensed. All emotionally-rooted mental influences targeting Sasi are Obvious during the scene which they are imposed. If she does not resist, then she will still act in line with the influence but she can sense its nature as something which did not spring from her own mind.
Sasi's Id-themed Limit Break is Slave to Vice:
The character escapes the hard, unpleasant choices the world demands through hedonistic submission. The character will not willingly make decisions, save when they directly lead to her obtaining her desired vices, and will submit to anyone who offers her the delights she craves. She indulges in all vices at hand, regardless of expense or consequences, and will seek out fresh delights when she exhausts what she has at hand.
Partial Control: The character will submit to her companions or those she holds a positive principle to, but needn't do so with others. She looks at strangers with needy eyes, but only tempts them to sin with her if they indulge in front of her or express interest in the vices she offers.
Duration: One full day
Limit Break Condition: The character is forced to make decisions which cause suffering for herself or others.
::SIDEBAR::
Venal Principles
For the purposes of these Id charms, a venal principle is any Principle which is focussed on personal pleasure, puts the self above the collective, or opposes the Realm, the Immaculate Faith, or the Dragonblooded. Naturally, as a wretched sinful anathema, any positive principle towards Sasimana is a venal principle.
::END SIDEBAR::
Sasi's Id
Id 1: Her po is her own inner demon, a strange synthesis of the second soul of men and a demon prince. Its passions whisper to her, empowering her should she follow its whims. She has the Slave to Vice Solar Limit Break associated with her po.
Voluntarily, she may reflexively succumb to a Controlled Limit Break. This lasts for a scene, and may not be terminated early. Once the madness ends, she may roll her Id and remove a number of points of Limit equal to her successes. While this madness endures she is immune to any further Limit gain.
Id 2: She learned to draw power from the nagging urges at the back of her mind. Stunts which channel behaviour in line with Slave to Vice have their rating increased by one dot.
Id 3: Her Id provides a free 3-dot Style themed around her po (Golden Hedonist Style).
Id 4: Infernals this in-tune with their po are almost inhuman in their human drives. She requires one fewer scene to develop or reinforce a Principle in line with Slave to Vice. In addition, she gains a positive 3-dot Principle towards Slave to Vice. This Principle can be eroded as normal, but she effectively spends a scene renewing it whenever she regains Willpower from sleeping or enters a Limit Break as per Id 1.
Id 5: When one's own feelings fill one's mind, external influences are easily sensed. All emotionally-rooted mental influences targeting Sasi are Obvious during the scene which they are imposed. If she does not resist, then she will still act in line with the influence but she can sense its nature as something which did not spring from her own mind.
Sasi's Id-themed Limit Break is Slave to Vice:
The character escapes the hard, unpleasant choices the world demands through hedonistic submission. The character will not willingly make decisions, save when they directly lead to her obtaining her desired vices, and will submit to anyone who offers her the delights she craves. She indulges in all vices at hand, regardless of expense or consequences, and will seek out fresh delights when she exhausts what she has at hand.
Partial Control: The character will submit to her companions or those she holds a positive principle to, but needn't do so with others. She looks at strangers with needy eyes, but only tempts them to sin with her if they indulge in front of her or express interest in the vices she offers.
Duration: One full day
Limit Break Condition: The character is forced to make decisions which cause suffering for herself or others.
RADIANT SUN-EATER
Cost: - ; Mins: Id 1, Essence 1; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Anathema devoured the nature of the sun to become something terrifyingly powerful. Sasimana gains the following powers as permanent enhancements from her union with her po-soul:
As a side-effect of learning this Charm, Sasi's irises turn an unnaturally bright amber-yellow, a similar hue to yellow jade. This is a permanent alteration to her base form.
Cost: - ; Mins: Id 1, Essence 1; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Anathema devoured the nature of the sun to become something terrifyingly powerful. Sasimana gains the following powers as permanent enhancements from her union with her po-soul:
- When in the direct light of Creation's sun or within a Solar-aspected manse or demesne, or while submitting to the indulgent desires of another, she counts as resting for the purposes of essence regeneration and fatigue.
- She takes no damage from Solar-aspected environmental damage. This includes sunburn, essence flares from a damaged Solar-aspected manse, and sorcerous spells which create environmental hazards from Solar-aspected essence. Additionally, she does not take penalties from exposure to Solar essence such as a solar essence field intended to obstruct entrance to an ancient tomb or a Solar charm intended to blind an opponent through an intense flash.
- When in Creation, she can spend one mote to know the time of day by feeling the strength of the ambient Solar essence.
- While in Limit Break, effects that would determine her essence aspect return "Solar". Additionally, all visual manifestations of her charms, caste-mark and anima become those of a Solar Zenith caste (for example, Green Sun Nimbus Flare burns golden-yellow). Should her anima flare totemic, the totem is that of her po.
- While in Limit Break, Sasimana does not count as a Creature of Darkness, unless she activated a non-excellency Infernal Charm since the previous time her DV refreshed or in her previous action.
As a side-effect of learning this Charm, Sasi's irises turn an unnaturally bright amber-yellow, a similar hue to yellow jade. This is a permanent alteration to her base form.
EYES OF DAMNATION
Cost: 2m; Mins: Id 2, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Radiant Sun-Eater
The sun-stealing lords who ruled before the Great Rebellion knew every sin and indulgence in others, for they had experienced them intimately. Those childhood tales left a lasting mark on Sasimana.
While this Charm is active, any successful standard (Perception + Awareness) roll to notice sensory details about a targeted being reveals their greatest moral failing, as defined by the Immaculate faith. For Celestial Exalted, this will almost always be "Is an Anathema". In addition, should she beat the Difficulty of the roll by three degrees of success or more, Sasi discovers their highest-rated venal principle and an additional principle for each additional degree of success. The Storyteller should convey this information numerically, even though Sasi experiences flashes of their sins as if she was committing them.
While in Limit Break, Sasimana automatically and reflexively activates this charm for free, with the Duration "Until the end of the Limit Break".
Cost: 2m; Mins: Id 2, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Radiant Sun-Eater
The sun-stealing lords who ruled before the Great Rebellion knew every sin and indulgence in others, for they had experienced them intimately. Those childhood tales left a lasting mark on Sasimana.
While this Charm is active, any successful standard (Perception + Awareness) roll to notice sensory details about a targeted being reveals their greatest moral failing, as defined by the Immaculate faith. For Celestial Exalted, this will almost always be "Is an Anathema". In addition, should she beat the Difficulty of the roll by three degrees of success or more, Sasi discovers their highest-rated venal principle and an additional principle for each additional degree of success. The Storyteller should convey this information numerically, even though Sasi experiences flashes of their sins as if she was committing them.
While in Limit Break, Sasimana automatically and reflexively activates this charm for free, with the Duration "Until the end of the Limit Break".
::SIDEBAR::
Venal Principles
For the purposes of these Id charms, a venal principle is any Principle which is focussed on personal pleasure, puts the self above the collective, or opposes the Realm, the Immaculate Faith, or the Dragonblooded. Naturally, as a wretched sinful anathema, any positive principle towards Sasimana is a venal principle.
::END SIDEBAR::
GLORIOUS SOLAR ENSLAVEMENT
Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Id 3, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Compulsion, Illusion
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Eyes of Damnation
The tales say that the Blasphemous could make a man believe things that weren't true; see things that weren't there.
With a glance of golden eyes, Sasi rolls her Manipulation + Presence, subtracting the MDV of a single target as an external penalty. If she succeeds, she submerges his mind into a waking dream themed around a venal principle of hers, or one of his known to her, as an unnatural Illusion. It further puts him under an unnatural Compulsion to act like everything he experiences is real and avoid any actions that would break the dream.
The dream initially appears identical to reality. As a Miscellaneous action, Sasi can take control of any aspect of the dream and modify it in line with the theme of the dream, changing locations, scenery, adding characters, and so on. When controlling a character, she may speak through them, allowing her to make social attacks or appear to interact with elements she has introduced to the dream. When not controlled, dream-characters will act and behave in accordance with the dream's theme and the knowledge of the target. This will allow them to, for example, give the correct answer to a request for a password. The character remains lucid enough that they are still capable of reacting to threats, though Sasi may roll to re-establish surprise without cover with the appropriate stunt.
It costs one willpower to resist the Compulsion. The target's mind remains trapped, however, and he still experiences the deception to his senses. It costs one willpower to resist the Illusion for an action, showing the truth behind it, and once the target has spent three willpower resisting the Illusion it breaks. If the charm is not resisted, the character accepts the events of the dream and clings to it. It costs four willpower to accept the events were false, which must be spent all at once.
When in Limit Break, this charm does not cost willpower to use and Sasimana can reflexively change the associated intimacy without reactivating the charm.
Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Id 3, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Compulsion, Illusion
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Eyes of Damnation
The tales say that the Blasphemous could make a man believe things that weren't true; see things that weren't there.
With a glance of golden eyes, Sasi rolls her Manipulation + Presence, subtracting the MDV of a single target as an external penalty. If she succeeds, she submerges his mind into a waking dream themed around a venal principle of hers, or one of his known to her, as an unnatural Illusion. It further puts him under an unnatural Compulsion to act like everything he experiences is real and avoid any actions that would break the dream.
The dream initially appears identical to reality. As a Miscellaneous action, Sasi can take control of any aspect of the dream and modify it in line with the theme of the dream, changing locations, scenery, adding characters, and so on. When controlling a character, she may speak through them, allowing her to make social attacks or appear to interact with elements she has introduced to the dream. When not controlled, dream-characters will act and behave in accordance with the dream's theme and the knowledge of the target. This will allow them to, for example, give the correct answer to a request for a password. The character remains lucid enough that they are still capable of reacting to threats, though Sasi may roll to re-establish surprise without cover with the appropriate stunt.
It costs one willpower to resist the Compulsion. The target's mind remains trapped, however, and he still experiences the deception to his senses. It costs one willpower to resist the Illusion for an action, showing the truth behind it, and once the target has spent three willpower resisting the Illusion it breaks. If the charm is not resisted, the character accepts the events of the dream and clings to it. It costs four willpower to accept the events were false, which must be spent all at once.
When in Limit Break, this charm does not cost willpower to use and Sasimana can reflexively change the associated intimacy without reactivating the charm.
HARLOT OF MERU SHINTAI
Cost: 15m, 1wp; Mins: Id 4, Essence 4; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Glorious Solar Enslavement
It is said that the wickedness of the Anathema led to revelry and indulgence beyond human ken - and by the time the brave dragon-children broke into their inner sanctums, the Solar Anathema had lost their human forms and revealed their inner demons. Sasimana embraces these old tales, as her po subsumes her. Her face becomes a radiant china mask, with golden horns rising from her skull like the rays from the dawn sun. Her hands become graceful claws; her feet taloned; a prehensile tail lashes behind her and profane markings in glowing sunlight spread across her body, endlessly recounting the glory of the anathema. The weak-willed who see her fall for her; her touch steals the minds of demons and gods alike.
Cost: 15m, 1wp; Mins: Id 4, Essence 4; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Form-type, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Glorious Solar Enslavement
It is said that the wickedness of the Anathema led to revelry and indulgence beyond human ken - and by the time the brave dragon-children broke into their inner sanctums, the Solar Anathema had lost their human forms and revealed their inner demons. Sasimana embraces these old tales, as her po subsumes her. Her face becomes a radiant china mask, with golden horns rising from her skull like the rays from the dawn sun. Her hands become graceful claws; her feet taloned; a prehensile tail lashes behind her and profane markings in glowing sunlight spread across her body, endlessly recounting the glory of the anathema. The weak-willed who see her fall for her; her touch steals the minds of demons and gods alike.
- Upon activating this Charm, she rolls her Appearance + Performance. If her successes beat the MDV of any who sense her, the onlooker is overcome with desire for her. This is an unnatural emotion, which costs three willpower to resist. If the onlooker does not resist, he becomes committed to the emotion, which lasts until the target breaks the commitment. It costs one Willpower per scene to resist. Once affected, a character cannot be affected again by this effect until a season has passed.
- Any social attack the Harlot of Meru makes which plays off desire, venal principles, lust, or loyalty to her is undodgeable.
- Her presence is like acid on the cloth of righteousness. All characters in her presence treat non-venal Principles as being 1-dot lower in rating. Those touching her treat all their non-venal Principles as being rated at 0. This is an Illusion which costs one willpower to resist for an action, and when a character has spent (Sasi's Essence, max five), they are immune to this effect for the rest of the scene.
- The Harlot of Meru is not a warrior, but her claws are sharp. Her Kick and Punch attacks inflict lethal damage.
- While this Shintai is active, Sasi counts as being in Limit Break for the purposes of all her other Id charms.
DEMON QUEEN'S RETURN
Cost: - ; Mins: Id 5, Essence 5; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Harlot of Meru Shintai
The Anathema can't be killed. Not really. They'll always come back, seizing the body of some weak-willed, intemperate soul. And Sasimana's wicked po will not let her pass on, unsatisfied
If Sasimana is slain by an attack which cannot permanently kill spirits, her corpse ignites in mixed hellfire and solar flames. Any externalised demons remain free, and do not discorporate. Her po refuses to let go of either her hun or her Exaltation, and instead flees to a mortal character who would be a valid target for a Zenith Exaltation. This target experiences a false exaltation, increasing their Essence to match Sasimana's, becoming an Infernal Exalt, and gaining access to her Charms and Backgrounds.
They gain a new Background, "Nemone Sasimana", which functions as Past Lives 5, except the first time a day they make use of any non-Permanent Infernal charm counts as botching a roll enhanced by Past Life dice. Rather than the "past life" personality emerging, however, the corruption is more insidious. When it triggers, they lose a Principle and replace it with one of Sasi's, and adjust their Attributes and Abilities by one dot to match Sasi's sheet. Memories associated with the Principle are lost, and replaced with Sasi's associated with her Principle. This is accompanied by progressive alteration of their physical appearance to resemble her, including skin colour, hair length, physique and sex. At the end of the process, Sasimana's character sheet has replaced theirs, along with all her memories and thoughts, and she has fully supplanted the victim, losing access to the "Nemone Sasimana" background. Their face will be seen among the ranks of her po's servants in her inner world.
Should the character be slain without the use of spirit-killing charms before Sasimana has fully returned, the charm activates as described above, and will begin modifying the new host to resemble Sasi.
Cost: - ; Mins: Id 5, Essence 5; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Harlot of Meru Shintai
The Anathema can't be killed. Not really. They'll always come back, seizing the body of some weak-willed, intemperate soul. And Sasimana's wicked po will not let her pass on, unsatisfied
If Sasimana is slain by an attack which cannot permanently kill spirits, her corpse ignites in mixed hellfire and solar flames. Any externalised demons remain free, and do not discorporate. Her po refuses to let go of either her hun or her Exaltation, and instead flees to a mortal character who would be a valid target for a Zenith Exaltation. This target experiences a false exaltation, increasing their Essence to match Sasimana's, becoming an Infernal Exalt, and gaining access to her Charms and Backgrounds.
They gain a new Background, "Nemone Sasimana", which functions as Past Lives 5, except the first time a day they make use of any non-Permanent Infernal charm counts as botching a roll enhanced by Past Life dice. Rather than the "past life" personality emerging, however, the corruption is more insidious. When it triggers, they lose a Principle and replace it with one of Sasi's, and adjust their Attributes and Abilities by one dot to match Sasi's sheet. Memories associated with the Principle are lost, and replaced with Sasi's associated with her Principle. This is accompanied by progressive alteration of their physical appearance to resemble her, including skin colour, hair length, physique and sex. At the end of the process, Sasimana's character sheet has replaced theirs, along with all her memories and thoughts, and she has fully supplanted the victim, losing access to the "Nemone Sasimana" background. Their face will be seen among the ranks of her po's servants in her inner world.
Should the character be slain without the use of spirit-killing charms before Sasimana has fully returned, the charm activates as described above, and will begin modifying the new host to resemble Sasi.
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
Well I can always count on you two for a dose of horror.
Vaalintine
Wild Wondorous Wolfalope
Since I'm not caught up at all on Keris' adventures, this is rather interesting given it contradicts the last interpretation of Sasi's Po soul. Did Sasi undergo an internal shift or some form of personality change? An evolution of her understanding of her own self? Last I read her Po was kinda shadowy and murderous, not a debauched social showboat.
Edit: and doesn't Keris have a soul that is basically her love of Sasi, among other things? If any positive intimacy towards Sasi is Venal, wouldn't that affect Keris' souls in some manner?
Edit: and doesn't Keris have a soul that is basically her love of Sasi, among other things? If any positive intimacy towards Sasi is Venal, wouldn't that affect Keris' souls in some manner?
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Looks like Keris has consumed an energy field bigger than her head. I think Sasimana's a is Enlightenment 10 to Keris' Enlightenment 9, so yeah. Maybe resolving... everything in this story... will be the sacrifice Sasimana needs for Adamant sorcery, since Salina mentioned it a few times.
Is it bad that when the tentacle monster showed up my first thought was that "Oh yeah, a lot of Keris' early design was based on an anime girl"?
Is it bad that when the tentacle monster showed up my first thought was that "Oh yeah, a lot of Keris' early design was based on an anime girl"?
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Sasi is not E10.
Sasi's po has always been manifesting as Sasi's take on the Anathema.
It's social-spec because Sasi is social-spec.
Really? I guess I got taken off guard by the last Sasi Id charm.
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Uh, what?
This is all the Sasi Id charms.
They're all social.
Keris is the one with horrible murdertime Id charms.
Although they're more defensive and sensory than offensive.
The last Id charm is Essence 5, which is Enlightenment 10, which is what's needed for Adamant Circle Sorcery.
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I got you mixed up with the other person I quoted my mistake.
Nah Sasi doesn't have DQR yet.
Although as per comments by @Aleph on the Kerisgame discord, Keris killing her might have provided enough of a shock/trauma to push Sasi right to E10 and getting DQR *if* Keris had decided to go down that route.
So, you know, stabbing was not a valid solution for this problem.
Bursting Eagerness Soul
Threadwalking Rating Machine
- Location
- Wisconsin
Well that was horrifying. Keris what did you just do to yourself?
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Find out next week!
And see if Pekhjira is doing a dumb!
Jesus Christ, how horrifying.
I mean, all of these charms are some degree of horrifying, but this one is particularly messed up.
As for the chapter itself, that was some well-written horror-erotica / erotic horror. I am unsurprised that it went wrong for Keris - relying on a protective power derived from your wants and drives to protect against something that corrupts those same wants and drives seems ill-advised in retrospect.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Pretty much. Basically, my current inner ruleset for Id charm trees is that they're basically mini-Yozi trees, except themed around you and your po. Just as my soul charm stuff is basically a "no, this is how to do it better" of the BWC soul charms, these are basically the replacement (or at least one of the replacements) for the Devil-Tiger stuff.
And because they're "you" charms (as interpreted through your failings), they'll tend to very much be "do what I do better" charms - Sasi gets social-corruption Id charms, Keris gets terror-snek charms, Orange Blossom (if she went into Id charms) would get charms to make people into Homo economicus who always act in their fiscal best interest uncaring of things that can't be quantified by money and probably things to literally buy and sell power and souls, Crysanthenum would (again, if she went into this kind of thing) definitely get the kind of Charms you need to be a Final Fantasy final boss who's become an evil god.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Okay that was fucking hilarious Eko does horny perverted nosebleeds! Also the Delinquent Girl Squad Eko brought to fight the Golden Child was funny too. The uh... other stuff about Eko is a bit... hm. Gonna need thinking. Awesome chapter though.
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I feel like one should strongly reconsider their course of actions if a potential failure state involves attempting to use "You love me!" as a defense against Adorjanian violence.
Well, it makes sense that Adorjan would give her children that option, and that Eko would spend a great deal of effort making sure that she'd keep her mind if she took that option. Holding on to things is what her grow up, after all.
More than that, Eko is in a sense Keris's pride, and pride is really Eko's big flaw. And she is very, very proud of her mind. After all, the reason she is such a mess in her body is because she absolutely refused to let Elloge's creative sterility or mimicry anywhere near her mind.