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

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In my obsession I have continued to obsess. Gotten through the Secrets Revealed Arc and am growing increasingly nervous about what is going to happen next. Reading the recent comments in the thread I'm not predicting anything good going forward. And also the flashback sequence that covered Keris's life in Nexus was rough.

I really like the Kerisity and how it relates to her nascent potential as a primordial. Things like how Dulmea's an ordered world surrounded by chaos thing fits well with the whole wheel shape of the world. My only disappointment is that the place is the lack of non-Euclidean geometry. Like. You talked at one point about how the terrain rises conistently as you progress through all six segments starting at the Sea and ending in the Spires. I kind of wish that the Sea was somehow above the Spires so that one direction is always up, the other always down.

I spent a little while overthinking demonic anatomy. Can't remember if by default need to eat, sleep, and breathe. And I ended up trying to work out what sort of organs an Ochre Crawlers might have (I really like them for some reason). I'm pretty certain they have spleens.

Last of all. I bet Balanodo in battle can pull off something like Splintered Gale Shintai. Just, shows up and suddenly there are a bunch of near identical cookie cutter copies of him causing problems with paper thin personalities.
 
Grytorm said:
I really like the Kerisity and how it relates to her nascent potential as a primordial. Things like how Dulmea's an ordered world surrounded by chaos thing fits well with the whole wheel shape of the world. My only disappointment is that the place is the lack of non-Euclidean geometry. Like. You talked at one point about how the terrain rises conistently as you progress through all six segments starting at the Sea and ending in the Spires. I kind of wish that the Sea was somehow above the Spires so that one direction is always up, the other always down.
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That's not really true - the land rises to the Meadows, which are the highest, hottest point, and then in both directions falls (on average) to the Sea.

More generally, the reason the geometry of Kerisland is so "real" is because it's made to be a "real" place, a little alt world where her soul-clan can live and be people in a place that's safe from outside threats. It's not a place of abstract logic and powers-as-personality like Orange Blossom's souls's sanctums; because they all overlap it's made to be more Creation-like.

Grytorm said:
I spent a little while overthinking demonic anatomy. Can't remember if by default need to eat, sleep, and breathe. And I ended up trying to work out what sort of organs an Ochre Crawlers might have (I really like them for some reason). I'm pretty certain they have spleens.
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Ocre crawlers are a skin filled with clinging brown fire instilled by Asarin. It's gelantinous enough that it works sort of like cytoplasm, so if they lose too much fire they die, but they don't really have conventional organs.

As I depict them - things like "eating", "sleeping" and "breathing" basically depends on the demon in question, although most will have something that roughly parallels in some way them. For example, teodozija don't sleep, but get increasingly erratic if they don't spare some time periodically to commune with the hive mind and refresh their thoughts.

Keruby are notable for how they've got pretty harsh, human-level requirements there - you can't just bind a kerub to guard a remote tomb without accepting they'll end up setting up a village next to the tomb, and will have to take up farming to feed themselves, will sleep around 8 hours a day, etc etc. All in all, they're not great sentinel demons for that reason. But one of the baidek will just endlessly guard a place, like an automaton (because that's basically what they are).

Grytorm said:
Last of all. I bet Balanodo in battle can pull off something like Splintered Gale Shintai. Just, shows up and suddenly there are a bunch of near identical cookie cutter copies of him causing problems with paper thin personalities.
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No; Ohasei's already occupying that Ellogean niche.

(Edji is my favourite of her daughter-bodies)

In battle he just goes and blandly shounens it - because he's not weak. He's a combat-and-charisma-focussed 3CD. The fact that he shouts a heroic catch phrase and then punches people doesn't change the fact that his punches can smear people across landscapes.
 
I ha e continued reading somewhat, reached the chapter in which Keris is in Gem. But have closed the tabs on my phone for now. Because the upcoming side arcs about Sasi screwing up and the Street of Golden Lanterns terrify me. I'm kind of scared to keep reading but it sounds like there is some very cool stuff going forward. I don't know how to approach it.
 
Grytorm said:
Because the upcoming side arcs about Sasi screwing up and the Street of Golden Lanterns terrify me. I'm kind of scared to keep reading but it sounds like there is some very cool stuff going forward. I don't know how to approach it.
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You can avoid those side stories if you really want to avoid all the gory details, it's pretty easy to infer the important parts of what happened from context.
 
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Kind of but kind of not. I skimmed the latest Infernal Liasons. And a lot of important character stuff happens. And a lot of stuff I might otherwise enjoy. I think the reason I am having trouble with it is because the characters exist outside of this particular set of stories so watching these bad things happen is a lot more disturbing. And I enjoyed the chatecterization of Imre, Balanodo, and the "Innocent" Demon. I think a similar story in which Keris hadn't been forced into breaking her contract would have been much more enjoyable. But Earth Scorpion is a healing type GM and we cannot have nice things.

Now to distract myself I will think about the missing Infernal for a bit. So the missing Slayer is the 40th seat of the Infernal Althing meaning she was roughly in the middle of the final wave of Exaltations. So that would mean that she (or he as this is purely hypothetical and I have no way of knowing her identity) exalted maybe a year or two after Keris. Keris has been Exalted for about ten years by the time the story reaches the present. That gives the missing Slayer perhaps eight years to build her power base. In whatever corner of elsewhere she may have found herself in. Perhaps she has started to develop her own uniquely structured pantheon of souls. Maybe envisioning them as different versions of herself. Each glutted on one particular strand of primordial essence becoming more defined, more real as their greater self explores their new powers...

Edit: Mind is agitated. Very stressful. This is maybe the thing that started my head being too busy. Mostly editing in hopes that saying something will help mind calm down.
 
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The author recently said on discord that she was in the process of writing a summary you can read without subjecting yourself to anything extreme.

But yes, you can just skip it and figure things out from context. It's how I first binged the story and it works fine.
 
nathanwe said:
I think the missing Slayer exaltation is meant to be Louise's exaltation from Earthscorpions other story, a green sun illuminates the void.
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I know, I was originally going to mention that but I thought it would be funny to make a joke speculation. Unfortunately I was tired and stressed so it didn't make a very good joke. I think the only thing that directly touches on the idea in my post is the comment on Louises' hypothetical soul structure. Just how her visions starting in the Albion arc could definitely be the start of Louise's inner world. I think by the end she has the Pantheon charms Countless Cities Clotting and maybe Green Sun Furnace Soul. Counter Pronounciation of of Enthymemic Law wouldn't be out of character for her but I don't think she necessarily had the need for it by the end of the story.

For more concrete speculation. So AGSItV ended at the conclusion of the Albion Arc. And given that Louise gains access to Metagaos charms at the tail end of that story we can tell where in the timeline it occurs. In the short to medium term Louise will have to deal with the Albian invasion, the dragonblood conspiracy, and whatever threats are posed by two to four antagonist void mages at least one of which, the King of Galia, is aware of her presence. By Kerisgame present I think those plotlines could have been for the most part resolved.

That then leaves the fuzzier areas of long term problems and the fundamental question of whether or not Louise would ever visit Creation or Malfeas. So long term issues include the windstone cataclysm, the state of Lyranvais and her third circle souls, the elves and Louise's potential status as new god empress of Halkegernia.

So I can see a few rough scenarios for Louise to intrude on the Kerisgame plot. She could come as an individual player be it supplicant, refugee, or some other scenario. Significant but not world shaking. She could arrive as herald to a returning Lyranvais, which is unlikely but amusing to think about. Even Louise as a representative of a clique of third circle Deva would make waves. And finally Louise could arrive triumphantly as ruler of Halkegernia which is in some ways a likely scenario but in others one which is unlikely to happen any time soon.
 
Yeah, so.

The AGSITV thing and the missing Slayer Exaltation is basically an in-joke that got out of hand. AGSITV isn't going to get involved in the plot of this, and I reserve the right at any time to decide that the "missing Exaltation" shows up in a plot of my chosing.
 
EarthScorpion said:
Yeah, so.

The AGSITV thing and the missing Slayer Exaltation is basically an in-joke that got out of hand. AGSITV isn't going to get involved in the plot of this, and I reserve the right at any time to decide that the "missing Exaltation" shows up in a plot of my chosing.
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I wasn't seriously thinking you ever would. I mostly find it amusing to think about and needed something to distract myself. In addition to being a somewhat goofy plot development an actual crossover with AGSItV would probably be either a disappointing followup to your earlier story or be immensely disruptive to the plot and focus of Kerisgame. I will drop the subject.
 
My guesses would be either

A) Number 50 is the only Infernal to have successfully gone rogue, and the unquestionables are keeping quiet so to a mix of wounded pride and not wanting the others to follow their example.
or

B) 50 is being trained in complete isolation as a hyper loyal hatchet person to hunt down any other infernals that decide to go completely free agent.
 
EarthScorpion said:
Yeah, so.

The AGSITV thing and the missing Slayer Exaltation is basically an in-joke that got out of hand. AGSITV isn't going to get involved in the plot of this, and I reserve the right at any time to decide that the "missing Exaltation" shows up in a plot of my chosing.
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See, I know the whole thing is just an in-joke and a cute reference that has no possibility of ever really being a crossover of any sort.

That said, the idea of Keris adopting Louise like some kind of feral kitten remains intensely amusing to me.
 
Louise is barely less experienced than Keris herself, and is similarly independent - even more so, honestly, because she hasn't even had the Althing's support. She's very much not a feral kitten newbie; their relationship would probably be closer to Keris's dynamic with Ney (stripped of the chemistry and romance) than with Suriani; a peer and potential rival who Keris has to take very seriously as a potential threat.
 
Aleph said:
Louise is barely less experienced than Keris herself, and is similarly independent - even more so, honestly, because she hasn't even had the Althing's support. She's very much not a feral kitten newbie; their relationship would probably be closer to Keris's dynamic with Ney (stripped of the chemistry and romance) than with Suriani; a peer and potential rival who Keris has to take very seriously as a potential threat.
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Are we talking about a hypothetical post story Louise?

I don't remember her being especially powerful as an Infernal. Last thing I remember from that fic was.....Louise breaking out of a prison tower(in Albion? IIRC?) after she got caught by I think Reconquista? Oh, and there was a Wyld Hunt of Dragonblood with Gunzosha Armor trying to murder her, but I can't remember when exactly.

It has been a while since I read AGSITV though.
 
Well the thing is that at the end of AGSItV Louise starts to develop Metagaos charms which were seemingly unavailable before. Which means that AGSItV happened before the An Teng arc of Kerisgame. Louise has had another decade to grow into her power and resolve outstanding plotlines. *overthinking removed as unnecesary*

Edit: I'll probably finish reading this eventually, but my brain is still worked up about it. I think that is because the story is really well written, so I keep wanting to think about Kerisgame but then I start thinking about the stuff that got me wound up. But I find it kind of disturbing how Keris tends to underestimate the threat posed by sexy social demons when compared to the likes of Orabillis. Just. She brushed off her encounter with Erembour as if it was nothing when I'm pretty certain that Erembour could have twisted Keris at a deeper level if she had wanted to. And then the whole thing with the Street of Golden Lanterns happened.

Edit: Reading the chapter of the main story just after the Golden Coin arc. It just. I don't know. Keris. Please don't do this to yourself again.

Edit: Chapter was stressful at first, but I've started to calm down.
 
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To Follow A Star - Chapter 15
  • Sidestory
    • Calesco returns to the domain in To Follow A Star 15, and faces the sins of her past in the Meadows, as well as trying to work out some of what Keris has been doing this past year. Fari steals a couple of scenes, we get a look at the Far Meadows... and there's also a little surprise for you all. Enjoy!
     
  • Sidestory
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    Fear & Excess / The Golden Coin Summaries
  • Threadmarks
    • Somewhat belatedly (okay, very belatedly), we've written up summaries of the two big sidestories from Earth 775, which can be found in the main AO3 story. Hopefully this will make it a little less jarring to go from Early to Late Earth, and allow anyone who didn't want to read the stories themselves to get the summarised version without all of the smutty bits.

    Fear & Excess
    The Golden Coin
     
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    • I've been rereading To Follow A Star and it was mentioned how Liho could get some useful powers out of a pact with Calesco and I was curious what the system behind that kind of thaumaturgy is. Is it based off of Earthscorpion's sorcery?
     
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    alexthealright said:
    I've been rereading To Follow A Star and it was mentioned how Liho could get some useful powers out of a pact with Calesco and I was curious what the system behind that kind of thaumaturgy is. Is it based off of Earthscorpion's sorcery?
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    A little. It's a homebrew background by ES, with some ties to ES's sorcerous anchors homebrew, that can be found in the here in the Exalted General Thread.
     
    Aleph said:
    Somewhat belatedly (okay, very belatedly), we've written up summaries of the two big sidestories from Earth 775, which can be found in the main AO3 story. Hopefully this will make it a little less jarring to go from Early to Late Earth, and allow anyone who didn't want to read the stories themselves to get the summarised version without all of the smutty bits.

    Fear & Excess
    The Golden Coin
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    Thanks! After the last Calesco chapter I had totally assumed the announced summaries would just be that in-character investigation.

    I think I might actually read the second half of F&E. Based on this the stuff that's an issue for me is mostly at the start. (And I already read and enjoyed Golden Coin a while ago because it's a bunch tamer.)
     
    Would someone be willing to direct me towards that guide of all the creatures in Krisity written from the perspective of a Sziromkeruby?
     
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