- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
No, I mean literally. Lilunu is the one who creates Coadjutors in the first place. And she's basically written to be a perfect patron 3CD for Keris.
Wheels within wheels~
Ascensions and Transgressions: the Tales of Keris Dulmeadokht (Exalted game)
- Thread starter Aleph
- Start date
Wheels within wheels~
That's the result of the way the focus of the Infernal society has been readjusted. Under the model we use, Infernals do not interact with the Yozis on a frequent basis. They are the servants of the Unquestionable. The Third Circles give them their orders, try to coax them into doing off-the-books missions, and politic with each other to set the overall goals for the All-Thing.
That means that when a Yozi shows up - or even when a Yozi extends a fragment of its consciousness into Lilunu and uses her as a hand puppet - it's instantly a big deal. Because it's something very out of the ordinary. It's something very, very big and it doesn't naturally think on a human scale. You don't chat to a Yozi. You try not to anger it and keep out of its way while it does whatever drew its attention and then hopefully leaves without wrecking the area or trying to hurt you.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This can understandably cause problems when "whatever drew its attention" is "you". Keris is very abnormal for actually seeking out contact with the Yozis (or at least one of them) to the extent that she does (which is to say, "at all").
Hunting in the North - Chapter 11
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
And here's Hunting in the North 11. Keris has picked up a couple of permanent scars from her little run-in and makeout session with Adorjan (I'm fluffing that her anti-Crippling Charms are good, but not that good - the touch of a Primordial avatar while its full attention is focused on you is mythic plot-level stuff). She's also going a little bit mad fleshcrafter. Heh. And I really am quite smug about the internal logic of her plans, which occurred to me at about the same time they occurred to her, and with a very similar reaction (minus the blood).
Because, after all, her only source for Small mutation leaves them sickly and weak-boned. So counteract that with Exalted healing. Her source for that is herself and Testolagh. So sympathetically link in her build (so they're not child-like and neotenous anymore) and his toughness to counteract the weak bones! It balances! And then she can harmlessly extract a bone sample using her root-hands and work it into the artifact as a DNA template that it copies the mutation package from!
That this also accidentally an entire corps of owlriders who could be described as genetically her and Testolagh's children is an unanticipated side effect she won't see coming until it's too late.
The usual bonus features:
Because, after all, her only source for Small mutation leaves them sickly and weak-boned. So counteract that with Exalted healing. Her source for that is herself and Testolagh. So sympathetically link in her build (so they're not child-like and neotenous anymore) and his toughness to counteract the weak bones! It balances! And then she can harmlessly extract a bone sample using her root-hands and work it into the artifact as a DNA template that it copies the mutation package from!
That this also accidentally an entire corps of owlriders who could be described as genetically her and Testolagh's children is an unanticipated side effect she won't see coming until it's too late.
The usual bonus features:
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The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
Now I want to see Sasi making arch comments about what Keris and Testolagh have apparently been doing together after she sees one of the neo-owlriders. Preferably when both Keris and Testolagh are there, because their combined reaction will be even funnier than their individual ones. Also because I like the image of Sasi breaking down into giggles after simultaneously reducing both of her lovers to blushing, stuttering messes.And here's Kerisgame 47. Keris has picked up a couple of permanent scars from her little run-in and makeout session with Adorjan (I'm fluffing that her anti-Crippling Charms are good, but not that good - the touch of a Primordial avatar while its full attention is focused on you is mythic plot-level stuff). She's also going a little bit mad fleshcrafter. Heh. And I really am quite smug about the internal logic of her plans, which occurred to me at about the same time they occurred to her, and with a very similar reaction (minus the blood).
Because, after all, her only source for Small mutation leaves them sickly and weak-boned. So counteract that with Exalted healing. Her source for that is herself and Testolagh. So sympathetically link in her build (so they're not child-like and neotenous anymore) and his toughness to counteract the weak bones! It balances! And then she can harmlessly extract a bone sample using her root-hands and work it into the artifact as a DNA template that it copies the mutation package from!
That this also accidentally an entire corps of owlriders who could be described as genetically her and Testolagh's children is an unanticipated side effect she won't see coming until it's too late.
I'm curious as to what Sasi's reaction would have been if Keris and Testolagh actually had had sex with each other. Given that Sasi spent most of her life as nobility in a pre-modern aristocracy, I think she might not have the same implicit connection between sexual and romantic fidelity as the average person in a modern Western society.
On a different subject, I'm surprised Keris doesn't seem to have considered either crafting better owls for the owlriders (harder, better, faster, stronger) or creating owl-like demons for them. Not instead of helping fix the riders themselves, especially given her feelings on their situation, but in addition to it.
I'm also wondering if Sasi's po soul has a representation in her Inner World the same way Keris' does, or if that's something unique to Keris. As well, I'm curious as to whether any of her souls bear a physical resemblance to either Keris or Testolagh the way Keris' do to their other 'parents'.
I'd think it should be possible to avoid the "letting somebody with a GET-alike near your souls" problem with inviting other people into your Inner World by including some sort of binding oath in the entry process to the effect of "willing visitors may not use spirit-killers nor have spirit-killers used upon themselves, the owner, any other visitors, or any member of the soul hierarchy of those people so long as they or any member of their soul hierarchy remain within the owner's soul." Or they could go without that oath as a sign of trust, but since I recall the "having your component souls murdered" issue as the reason why direct interactions between Keris' souls and Sasi (or Sasi's souls and Keris) was unlikely, I figured such an oath might make the idea more palatable.
Walker of the Yellow Path
Ho There!
- Location
- The Land of Memes
The best way to do so would probably be a charm that allows you to meditate with a willing person, and you both go into your inner world. The person you brought in would be 'immaterial' for the purpose of interaction, but would be immune to I Hit Spirits charms, and as a consequence can't use charms themselves, since they're basically dreaming and not actually there. Of course, both of you would be sleeping, and unable to react to threats without a surprise negator, and activation of one would snap both back to the real world and cost them a point of temporary willpower from the psychic shock.
Still, the only use of this charm would really be to have ABSOLUTELY secret conversations and or have someone interact with Souls that were patterned off them like Haneyl is for Sasi, so it wouldn't be that useful.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, Realm culture regarding affairs comes into play here, and one of the things that @EarthScorpion can probably speak at more length and in more detail on is the fact that Sasi is "with" Testolagh, and is basically treating Keris as her mistress - which is a totally accepted thing in the Realm, especially if you're the same gender (so there's no chance of bastards) and you keep it discreet.
She did mention "size-boosting hawks" to Melunen. But demons run into the problem that a) there are plenty of flying demons already, and b) demons are Banishable, which tends to prove rather awkward for the owlrider. Part of why she wants some owlriders of her own is because they're an airborne corps not subject to Emerald Banishment making their steed go bye-bye, and who don't trail infernal essence around as much.
Sasi's po soul does show up in her Domain, yes. Signs of her reaction to it have also shown up in her behaviour, though Keris has largely missed them because she assumes that if anything, Sasi's po would be like hers - mostly only an issue if you annoy it or something.
Honestly, I may well just have Keris design an Emerald Circle Working that lets her and Sasi meditate themselves into one or the other's Inner World, with the "you're only a dream-avatar" mechanics that entails. Possibly anchored on her ship, in a special meditation room. It can be a downtime project of hers!
(Sasi will almost certainly ask to go to Keris's Domain and quietly deflect her away from asking to go to Sasi's.)
greensun
You shall all burn beneath my light!!!
@Aleph, did Testolagh just warm his hands by sticking them in fire!?
Malfeas be fucking tough yo.
And Keris seems to catching into the cycle of destruction and usurpation that Exalted has going on. Everything comes to an end eventually, no matter how strong you are, no matter if you're a Solar Queen or a Primordial God-Monster. I wonder if its possible to end it?
And Haneyl is right, Keris does need another terraforming charm. It would make her life so much easier if she could change the local enviroment to better suit her. And the Metagaos one is probably the next one and the one that can offer the best benefit; so many of his charms are improved if they're being used in foliage. Especially his ambush and Stealth charms.
Malfeas be fucking tough yo.
And Keris seems to catching into the cycle of destruction and usurpation that Exalted has going on. Everything comes to an end eventually, no matter how strong you are, no matter if you're a Solar Queen or a Primordial God-Monster. I wonder if its possible to end it?
And Haneyl is right, Keris does need another terraforming charm. It would make her life so much easier if she could change the local enviroment to better suit her. And the Metagaos one is probably the next one and the one that can offer the best benefit; so many of his charms are improved if they're being used in foliage. Especially his ambush and Stealth charms.
What sticks out to me is how Haneyl says she'd treat her people better, when just last chapter she genocided them in a fit of rage.
One of those things you just don't talk about, I guess.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Note that she was specifically shown as being heartbroken about that, and cried about their loss, and admitted that sometimes she gets so angry that she burns things around her and then she gets upset that she's burning her things, which makes her burn more things, and pretty soon her emotions have gone completely out of control and half the Marsh is on fire.
It also wasn't rage, so much as her having a massive chibi-crush on Ligier, and some deep-rooted issues about how Echo gets to go out and help Keris and play with her outside and do things with her, and then Echo got to be around Ligier first, and he even applauded, and she didn't care at all and Mama knew Haneyl liked him and still showed him Echo first...Haneyl said:
... and she is, basically, only six or seven years old. Mentally speaking. And kind of lonely, to be honest, because her only peers are her siblings (who she fights with a lot), and Keris spends a lot of her time out in Creation, and of the grown-ups she idolises - Sasi, Ligier and the Shashalme - only two know about her, and only one really cares. I would not be at all surprised if she treasured her collection of letters from Sasi's Lawmaker, as a peer her own age (ish) who isn't related to her and is friendly. Except now even those are gone, because they burnt in the fire and she can't get any more until Keris is around Sasi again.Haneyl said:
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
And she had something of a breakdown over that as she realized she's stuck with the same issue that Echo has where her power hurts people she cares about regardless of whether she wants it to.
greensun
You shall all burn beneath my light!!!
Aww... Poor dear. I wonder if other Third Circle Demons have the same problems, or does their connection to something greater and their Second Circle Demons let them socialise more.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's less the connection and more that she can't leave the Domain. And the only things in there are: a) Keris's other souls, of which only three talk and two are annoying rivals, and b) things she or Keris's other souls have created. Other 3CDs have all the other 3CDs in Malfeas to talk to/war against/ally with/work alongside/get crushes on/etcetera.
Hunting in the North - Chapter 12
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Soooo...
Chapter 12 is up, in which Keris does something even more reckless than usual and decides to talk to her Past Life. By, uh. Deliberately inducing a flashback. For which she gets, I swear to god, the most bullshit-ridiculous roll since that Ranged sling attack in Chapter 22 of Lady Sareh's Mistress that the Fire Aspect asshole parried. Some interesting stuff about Yamal arises from it! I find myself rather liking him. And feeling sorry for him, too.
Also, Keris's first use of the Project system, a fair bit of which we scrambled to mechanise as we were using it. We actually stopped on Saturday evening and continued on Sunday afternoon, partly because I was getting tired and partly so that @EarthScorpion could think about what to do. @Shyft might be interested in those bits of the bonus quotes below. Lots of discussion about methodologies and implementation, so skip past it if hashing out mechanics and then deciding how to use them isn't your thing.
Chapter 12 is up, in which Keris does something even more reckless than usual and decides to talk to her Past Life. By, uh. Deliberately inducing a flashback. For which she gets, I swear to god, the most bullshit-ridiculous roll since that Ranged sling attack in Chapter 22 of Lady Sareh's Mistress that the Fire Aspect asshole parried. Some interesting stuff about Yamal arises from it! I find myself rather liking him. And feeling sorry for him, too.
Also, Keris's first use of the Project system, a fair bit of which we scrambled to mechanise as we were using it. We actually stopped on Saturday evening and continued on Sunday afternoon, partly because I was getting tired and partly so that @EarthScorpion could think about what to do. @Shyft might be interested in those bits of the bonus quotes below. Lots of discussion about methodologies and implementation, so skip past it if hashing out mechanics and then deciding how to use them isn't your thing.
I can also promise a demon writeup soonish. A fun one. Or, perhaps, ones. ^_^Aleph: ... hah. I think I've just worked out what Keris's eventual conclusion to this "cycle of destruction" and "the Chosen are the problem" stuff will be.
Aleph: It is a very Keris conclusion.
...
Aleph: So, hmm. Vitriol alchemy mutations. She's basically applying hers and then stripping away all the ones she had from the drugs. Most of which are negative. Do I need to roll for this, or what?
EarthScorpion: Um... I don't think we have a system for this. Hmm. I guess... sum up the modulo of MPs, positive + negative, that you're applying.
Aleph: Alternate Reproduction (third sex - altering a normal couple's child) [0], Cosmetic (short and slender instead of neotenous) [0], Small (child-sized) [-1], Slow Ground Movement (duck-footed on land) [-2], Superior Healing [3], Glider (sycamore-seed wings) [4], Creature of Darkness [-4].
Total = 14. Wait, no. 10, since I suspect Creature of Darkness is a side-effect.
EarthScorpion: Okay, hmm. So, Keris probably needs to design a way to do this through a mix of theorising and experimentation on people and animals, and the difficulty will be in some way based off the total level of changes she's implementing. So, let's try to model this as a draft Project to kind of think what you might ask when doing this. What does she need as Assets to carry out a project? Hmm.
Required Assets:
Can you think of anything else?
- A trained skilled vitriol alchemist.
- Multiple test subjects.
- A source of fresh, high purity vitriol.
- Mystical reagents based on the sources she's using.
- The drugs they take normally.
- A Malfean workshop set up for working with vitriol, complete with specialist tools.
Aleph: Other than the obvious "time", no.
EarthScorpion: She can probably reduce her net successes required if she can get her hands on some specialist texts on vitriol alchemy and mutating humans.
Aleph: Heh. She can summon a vitriol-alchemist assistant. Possibly a metody; one who specialises in this sort of thing.
EarthScorpion: Yes, that would help. She will need to work to get the workshop set up - she doesn't have one of them. And. Um. Testolagh won't want that set up on his sky island, for fear of it interfering with the air essence flows that keep it aloft. It is probably a justified fear, Dulmea agrees.
Aleph: Guess she's setting that up in her base, then.
EarthScorpion: So, I'm thinking that this project is going to be split into different phases:
Aleph: She's already spent a fair bit of time thinking about it and studying owlrider physiology and coming up with clever ideas on how to use her and Testolagh's traits to implement her changes, so she can get started on the theory quickly.
- Theory stage - she needs to work out what to do, plan it out, make sure it won't be lethal.
- Testing phase - She begins testing it on people. How much care she puts on her subjects health and how willing she is to call off the tests if it hurts them can raise the difficulty of the rolls.
- Refinement stage - she makes adjustments to the formula based on results, and designs a thaum ritual that any sufficiently trained vitriol alchemist can do.
EarthScorpion: So, the overall project is... hmm. You're applying 10 points of mutations, so that's a fairly sizeable change - let's say 2 successes per mutation point required for the overall project. So it's a 20 success project - midway between A1 and A2 under Revlid's model. Now, 5 of those successes are going to be in the refinement stage. But what's the relative weighting you want for testing and theory? How much is Keris going to devise theory and do small-scale things before she starts human experimentation?
Aleph: A fair bit. She can certainly test the internal Small/Superior Healing changes extensively on random animals, and then mostly tweak it and add Glider sycamore-wings on the human testing.
EarthScorpion: Theory gives you one roll per month - experimentation is one roll per two weeks. Both are Diff 3. Well, experimentation increases in difficulty if she takes more care of her test subjects.
Aleph: And the roll is Cog+Occult, which she can apply her Style to... okay, a month of theory, which I can probably get a fair number of successes on, and then move into human testing. And yes, she'll take care of them. Which is admittedly easier for her, though she's still probably going to be here for a couple of months.
EarthScorpion: Okay, so aiming for 10 successes of Theory needed, 5 of Experimentation, and 5 of Refinement. Excess successes on a project phase are wasted.
EarthScorpion: Of course, first she needs an alchemy lab set up before she can start properly. And setting up a working lab is not trivial this far out in the wastes. How is she getting the exotic tools and the like? They're rare knowledge in Creation.
Aleph: Fuck, Sasi would be really helpful here. Well, she can get some from her townhouse by IMing it and ordering a demon to gather the ones she has there, then summoning them.
EarthScorpion: Or she could go get them herself, since it's a five day travel regardless.
Aleph: True. Ach, she really wants to do this whole thing at the Nests, but that means stalling on her preparations to invade the Wyld zone.
EarthScorpion: CHOICES
Aleph: ... to what extent does she need the alchemy lab for theorycrafting alone? Could she do that with a stripped-down lab for a month, then invade the Wyld zone and take her test subjects back to the Nests and use better tools for the actual experimentation phase? Presumably taking an "improvised tools" penalty for the stripped-down lab.
EarthScorpion: Well, by "experimentation", I really mean "human experimentation". Theory still involves things like dropping bits of their hair into vitriol and taking bits of her blood and Testolagh's and mixing them in oil of mesotona and seeing how they taste.
Aleph: ... yes, so I'm asking if she can do the Theory work in the northeast, and then the Experimentation and Refinement at the Nests. That way she's not just hanging around for a month of dead time while building up force to invade the Wyld zone, and after she's done so she can take her test subjects back to Hell with her and do the really tricky work in her craft manse. Since the Theory roll is a month long, and that's about how many demons she wanted to attack the freehold with. And Theory presumably doesn't require quite as many exotic tools.
EarthScorpion: Hmm. That'll increase the Difficulty by 4 to Diff 7. And no, it does need the tools - it needs things like Cecelynite-glass-lens microscopes to see how the vitriol reacts with the hair and things like that. A vitriol alchemist needs their alchemical set up since they're weird freaky mad scientists - and also because Keris can't actually handle Vitriol safely because she's not immune to poison. If she had more of the right charms, she wouldn't need all the tools.
Aleph:
EarthScorpion: ... sigh. She can in fact visit Malfeas, find a lab and buy it and move it into her soul, and then dump it down. So then there's an entire Malfean brass building sitting in the middle of her encampment. It has EKO WAS HERE carved into the outside wall.
Aleph: ...
...
Aleph: Okay, theory roll. 2+4+3 Empyreal Alchemist+1 bonus {altering living beings with personally-refined vitriol}+2 stunt+2 assistants+3 Kimmy ExSux {great artist, patronage and kindness, endlessly giving}+1wp=14 at Diff 3. 4+3+1=8 sux; 5 threshold. Damn.
Aleph: Hmm. In that case... yeah, since the theory is going slower than she expected and she's built up enough force to seriously assault the Wyld zone by that point, she'll probably go on the attack next session, and then do the rest with careful human experimentation back at the Nests with better equipment.
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Keruby, the Firstborn Children
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
... okay, demon writeup wound up finished earlier than I'd thought it would. So! Who remembers the szelkeruby? Keris's very first species of First Circle, ever. Made not by her but by Echo, who is known for being the smartest thing in Keris's soul hierarchy. Including Keris. Hint hint.
One of the things that sort of naturally emerged from conversation, in the way that many things do with me and @EarthScorpion, was that szelkeruby weren't just going to stay Echo's. Because the three siblings are rivals, and not above stealing a good idea when they see one. So the ones who land on the moon after misjudging a jump while storm-riding [1] become basically Little Sisters, Haneyl infects some and turns them into flowery handmaidens, etcetera. So we joked about this for a bit, marked it down as a future idea, and then forgot about it.
[1] A popular szelkeruby method of rapid travel across the Domain, and also of alleviating boredom. Basically, a group of them spin up a tornado, dance it into the cloud wall, ride it up the inside of the hurricane eye-wall, and then leap out and fall down to - usually - their intended destination. This is a great deal harder than it sounds, indicating that perhaps szelkeruby are also surprisingly smart in the same way as their creator.
And then, uh. About a week ago, this happened:
So then writeups started, and some of them evolved a bit more - Rathan's stopped being Little Sisters quite so much, etcetera - and then @EarthScorpion posted his Fast Demon Rules, which I just had to take as a challenge. And it also sort of turned out that... yeah, in a lot of ways, keruby are basically made to be little demonic familiars. They can do things like steal a person's keys while you distract them, and act as spies (since a lot of them are pretty stealthy when they want to be) and general "familiar-spirit" stuff.
It also turned out that despite having themed elementally-linked powers and a range of personalities that includes The Moe Bookish One, The Delinquent Loner, The Ditzy Love-Obsessed One, the Passionate JUSTICE One and the RURURURURUUUS One, they are pretty terrible magical girls. And not just because they keep finding other children to be friends with when they get loose in Creation and causing the kind of havoc as unbound familiar-spirits that magical girl teams are usually meant to be fighting against.
So! Have writeups!
Keruby, the Firstborn Children
Progeny of Many Souls
The keruby are a curiosity of Krisity. The first demon breed ever formed from the soul hierarchy of their ultimate progenitor; the subtleties of their nature are not obvious at first glance. Only when observed over time do they become apparent, for rather than a single species, keruby are a related family of demons, and the borders between them are fluid. All keruby take the form of young children - most female, though males exist in smaller numbers - whose bodies are formed from the stuff of their aspect. However, a kerub aspected to one flavour of essence can change to another if exposed to its source - vines and petals replacing wind and ribbons, or ice and pearl growing within swirling cloud. This can only happen once in a kerub's life, but it displays a fluidity to their nature that might bear surprising similarities to the fate of the corrupted Solar Exaltations, to those who know of such things.
While the breeds differ in composition, behaviour and drives; similarities exist between them. All keruby love music, and love to congregate and dance in whirling groups where they hear it. Their dances are not the graceful, beautiful movements of gilmyne or neomah, though. Instead, they frolic and cavort about in great lines and circles, and create surges of their aspect around them that grow stronger the longer they dance. Often this will scare off the musicians whose melodies drew them, depriving them of their accompaniment. Though some try to remedy this by singing or playing stolen instruments themselves, they have no great musical talent of their own and spark no urge to dance among their kin. Gatherings of hundreds or thousands of keruby can give rise to devastating natural disasters of multiple aspects. These maelstroms often kill the keruby that they spring from, as the firstborn children have no immunity to the aspect-hazards of other breeds. All keruby gain Limit when exposed to music but prevented from dancing to it.
More diverse are the obsessions of Krisity's firstborn children. Each breed has a cause it holds above all things, be it the shades of love and passion seen by a szelkerub, the tiny hoards of stolen treasure collected by a cloud thief or the high standards of behaviour a firstborn child aspected to the Endless Melody demands from its peers. These strange passions are important beyond measure to the keruby, and they pursue them alone and gather in groups to debate them around natural boundaries such as shorelines, forest borders and cliff edges. Equally variable-yet-similar is the apparent tendency of keruby to "grow up". While the process has never been directly observed, there exist demons such as the szerafy or the erdeifa who resemble mature versions of the breeds of firstborn children, and who interact fondly with their younger cousins. This, perhaps, is another sign of the curious fluidity to their essence that so characterises their nature.
Keruby in general make useful familiar spirits; able to accompany a summoner immaterially and provide minor aid with their Charms. They are attuned to the flow of their particular environments, and can generally serve as guides for those venturing into appropriate territory. The ruthlessly pragmatic might also see use for the destructive maelstroms that they can create in large enough numbers, though such a project usually requires multiple sorcerers working together to accomplish.
Fast Charms:
Gleeful Hand of (Breed)
Keywords: Shaping, Obvious
All the keruby have the capacity to animate a small amount of their linked phenomenon, allowing them to play pranks and interact with the world even when they are immaterial. Once per scene, the kerub may create an animate doll from a source of the appropriate phenomenon, which lasts for a scene. This doll is material, and has no soak, one health level (meaning a solid slap will make it fall apart) and rolls 1 dice for all Physical actions that require strength. Otherwise, it uses the kerub's traits.
(Aspect) Dancers
Keywords: Obvious, Various
Keruby stir up surges of their aspect when they dance, whether they wish to or not. When there are ten of them or fewer, the effects are mostly cosmetic, but more create an environmental hazard [number of dancing keruby] metres in radius with Trauma 2. The force of the surges depends on the number of firstborn children dancing. Should multiple breeds dance together; only those present at least in numbers one level below the total contribute their aspects to the effects.
Edit 08/03/2016:
And some cuteness to finish this post off:
One of the things that sort of naturally emerged from conversation, in the way that many things do with me and @EarthScorpion, was that szelkeruby weren't just going to stay Echo's. Because the three siblings are rivals, and not above stealing a good idea when they see one. So the ones who land on the moon after misjudging a jump while storm-riding [1] become basically Little Sisters, Haneyl infects some and turns them into flowery handmaidens, etcetera. So we joked about this for a bit, marked it down as a future idea, and then forgot about it.
[1] A popular szelkeruby method of rapid travel across the Domain, and also of alleviating boredom. Basically, a group of them spin up a tornado, dance it into the cloud wall, ride it up the inside of the hurricane eye-wall, and then leap out and fall down to - usually - their intended destination. This is a great deal harder than it sounds, indicating that perhaps szelkeruby are also surprisingly smart in the same way as their creator.
And then, uh. About a week ago, this happened:
EarthScorpion: ... oh, Haneyl. Are her "dryads" literally born of her stealing szelkeruby and infecting them?
Aleph: I think we said they were, yes.
Aleph: ... hah.
Aleph: That might start now, actually.
Aleph: After she goes and talks to Echo in a less "stupid Echo! Stop it!" way than normal about hurting things you touch, and makes friends with some of her friends.
Aleph: ... and then steals them.
EarthScorpion: ... heh. And she also has the flesh-weaving tendrils. So she can extensively reshape them once she's infected them.
EarthScorpion: Haneyl: "I think... you need a voice. And pretty skin... and flowers. I do like ribbons, though."
Aleph: I think we said she would plant seeds in them that grew throughout the ribbons until they were little mangrove-girls.
Aleph: And Rathan makes his into Little Sisters.
EarthScorpion: ... Rathan. Do you then steal Haneyl's ones?
Aleph: He has already amassed... quite a few, who love him and orbit his moon.
EarthScorpion: Ah, yes, of course. The ones who make their way up to the moon by storm-riding.
EarthScorpion: He's fascinated by them. Especially since they always have energy to play with him. And they're hypnotised by his mandala too. So since he's generous and kind, he starts redecorating them with ice and pearl.
Aleph: Echo looks very smug that her genius creations are the "friend" demons to both her siblings.
Aleph: And remains smug that their tendency to evolutionary forms seems to have carried over. Because Rathan eventually has Big Sisters. And Haneyl has, uh
Aleph: Ents. Or Entwives.
Aleph: Echo rests her chin on one hand, wondering what her siblings would do without her to come up with good ideas for them.
EarthScorpion: ... no, dammit szelkeruby
EarthScorpion: don't go bothering the po or Dulmea
EarthScorpion: wanting one of them to adopt you because you think it might be fun
Aleph: wait
Aleph: oh goddammit
Aleph: they're Eevees.
EarthScorpion: ...
EarthScorpion: omg they really are
Aleph: DAMMIT ECHO
EarthScorpion: ... oh gods, the storm children are what happens to the ones lost in the fog
Aleph: Echoooooo
Aleph: Was this intentional, or did you somehow do this by accident?
EarthScorpion: Echo twirls, indicating that the thing about ribbons is that they can be lots of colours.
EarthScorpion: ... sigh
EarthScorpion: And it's even weirdly appropriate because
Aleph: They're the very first type of demon from Keris's soul hierarchy, too.
EarthScorpion: yeah
EarthScorpion: that
Aleph: So it's sort of fitting that they can shift.
Aleph: Okay Echo, you can stop being so smug now.
Aleph: ...
Aleph: Dulmea's are... oh god.
Aleph: Oh god.
Aleph: They're going to be music-children.
Aleph: They will be the most powerful of all the keruby breeds.
Aleph: ... they may also form from szelkeruby who keep pouncemurdering chell and stealing their instruments.
Aleph: But don't play them for quite long enough to be turned all the way into chell themselves.
EarthScorpion: ... so they form with their ribbons always soaked in blood?
EarthScorpion: No, wait, worse.
Aleph: keris why are so many of your demons morbid
EarthScorpion: They're the szelkeruby
EarthScorpion: who spy on Dulmea's lessons to the prince and princesses
Aleph: Hahahaha
Aleph: All the breeds are -keruby.
Aleph: Hee. I shall write some of them up tomorrow.
Aleph: I think we said they were, yes.
Aleph: ... hah.
Aleph: That might start now, actually.
Aleph: After she goes and talks to Echo in a less "stupid Echo! Stop it!" way than normal about hurting things you touch, and makes friends with some of her friends.
Aleph: ... and then steals them.
EarthScorpion: ... heh. And she also has the flesh-weaving tendrils. So she can extensively reshape them once she's infected them.
EarthScorpion: Haneyl: "I think... you need a voice. And pretty skin... and flowers. I do like ribbons, though."
Aleph: I think we said she would plant seeds in them that grew throughout the ribbons until they were little mangrove-girls.
Aleph: And Rathan makes his into Little Sisters.
EarthScorpion: ... Rathan. Do you then steal Haneyl's ones?
Aleph: He has already amassed... quite a few, who love him and orbit his moon.
EarthScorpion: Ah, yes, of course. The ones who make their way up to the moon by storm-riding.
EarthScorpion: He's fascinated by them. Especially since they always have energy to play with him. And they're hypnotised by his mandala too. So since he's generous and kind, he starts redecorating them with ice and pearl.
Aleph: Echo looks very smug that her genius creations are the "friend" demons to both her siblings.
Aleph: And remains smug that their tendency to evolutionary forms seems to have carried over. Because Rathan eventually has Big Sisters. And Haneyl has, uh
Aleph: Ents. Or Entwives.
Aleph: Echo rests her chin on one hand, wondering what her siblings would do without her to come up with good ideas for them.
EarthScorpion: ... no, dammit szelkeruby
EarthScorpion: don't go bothering the po or Dulmea
EarthScorpion: wanting one of them to adopt you because you think it might be fun
Aleph: wait
Aleph: oh goddammit
Aleph: they're Eevees.
EarthScorpion: ...
EarthScorpion: omg they really are
Aleph: DAMMIT ECHO
EarthScorpion: ... oh gods, the storm children are what happens to the ones lost in the fog
Aleph: Echoooooo
Aleph: Was this intentional, or did you somehow do this by accident?
EarthScorpion: Echo twirls, indicating that the thing about ribbons is that they can be lots of colours.
EarthScorpion: ... sigh
EarthScorpion: And it's even weirdly appropriate because
Aleph: They're the very first type of demon from Keris's soul hierarchy, too.
EarthScorpion: yeah
EarthScorpion: that
Aleph: So it's sort of fitting that they can shift.
Aleph: Okay Echo, you can stop being so smug now.
Aleph: ...
Aleph: Dulmea's are... oh god.
Aleph: Oh god.
Aleph: They're going to be music-children.
Aleph: They will be the most powerful of all the keruby breeds.
Aleph: ... they may also form from szelkeruby who keep pouncemurdering chell and stealing their instruments.
Aleph: But don't play them for quite long enough to be turned all the way into chell themselves.
EarthScorpion: ... so they form with their ribbons always soaked in blood?
EarthScorpion: No, wait, worse.
Aleph: keris why are so many of your demons morbid
EarthScorpion: They're the szelkeruby
EarthScorpion: who spy on Dulmea's lessons to the prince and princesses
Aleph: Hahahaha
Aleph: All the breeds are -keruby.
Aleph: Hee. I shall write some of them up tomorrow.
So then writeups started, and some of them evolved a bit more - Rathan's stopped being Little Sisters quite so much, etcetera - and then @EarthScorpion posted his Fast Demon Rules, which I just had to take as a challenge. And it also sort of turned out that... yeah, in a lot of ways, keruby are basically made to be little demonic familiars. They can do things like steal a person's keys while you distract them, and act as spies (since a lot of them are pretty stealthy when they want to be) and general "familiar-spirit" stuff.
It also turned out that despite having themed elementally-linked powers and a range of personalities that includes The Moe Bookish One, The Delinquent Loner, The Ditzy Love-Obsessed One, the Passionate JUSTICE One and the RURURURURUUUS One, they are pretty terrible magical girls. And not just because they keep finding other children to be friends with when they get loose in Creation and causing the kind of havoc as unbound familiar-spirits that magical girl teams are usually meant to be fighting against.
So! Have writeups!
Keruby, the Firstborn Children
Progeny of Many Souls
The keruby are a curiosity of Krisity. The first demon breed ever formed from the soul hierarchy of their ultimate progenitor; the subtleties of their nature are not obvious at first glance. Only when observed over time do they become apparent, for rather than a single species, keruby are a related family of demons, and the borders between them are fluid. All keruby take the form of young children - most female, though males exist in smaller numbers - whose bodies are formed from the stuff of their aspect. However, a kerub aspected to one flavour of essence can change to another if exposed to its source - vines and petals replacing wind and ribbons, or ice and pearl growing within swirling cloud. This can only happen once in a kerub's life, but it displays a fluidity to their nature that might bear surprising similarities to the fate of the corrupted Solar Exaltations, to those who know of such things.
While the breeds differ in composition, behaviour and drives; similarities exist between them. All keruby love music, and love to congregate and dance in whirling groups where they hear it. Their dances are not the graceful, beautiful movements of gilmyne or neomah, though. Instead, they frolic and cavort about in great lines and circles, and create surges of their aspect around them that grow stronger the longer they dance. Often this will scare off the musicians whose melodies drew them, depriving them of their accompaniment. Though some try to remedy this by singing or playing stolen instruments themselves, they have no great musical talent of their own and spark no urge to dance among their kin. Gatherings of hundreds or thousands of keruby can give rise to devastating natural disasters of multiple aspects. These maelstroms often kill the keruby that they spring from, as the firstborn children have no immunity to the aspect-hazards of other breeds. All keruby gain Limit when exposed to music but prevented from dancing to it.
More diverse are the obsessions of Krisity's firstborn children. Each breed has a cause it holds above all things, be it the shades of love and passion seen by a szelkerub, the tiny hoards of stolen treasure collected by a cloud thief or the high standards of behaviour a firstborn child aspected to the Endless Melody demands from its peers. These strange passions are important beyond measure to the keruby, and they pursue them alone and gather in groups to debate them around natural boundaries such as shorelines, forest borders and cliff edges. Equally variable-yet-similar is the apparent tendency of keruby to "grow up". While the process has never been directly observed, there exist demons such as the szerafy or the erdeifa who resemble mature versions of the breeds of firstborn children, and who interact fondly with their younger cousins. This, perhaps, is another sign of the curious fluidity to their essence that so characterises their nature.
Keruby in general make useful familiar spirits; able to accompany a summoner immaterially and provide minor aid with their Charms. They are attuned to the flow of their particular environments, and can generally serve as guides for those venturing into appropriate territory. The ruthlessly pragmatic might also see use for the destructive maelstroms that they can create in large enough numbers, though such a project usually requires multiple sorcerers working together to accomplish.
Fast Charms:
Gleeful Hand of (Breed)
Keywords: Shaping, Obvious
All the keruby have the capacity to animate a small amount of their linked phenomenon, allowing them to play pranks and interact with the world even when they are immaterial. Once per scene, the kerub may create an animate doll from a source of the appropriate phenomenon, which lasts for a scene. This doll is material, and has no soak, one health level (meaning a solid slap will make it fall apart) and rolls 1 dice for all Physical actions that require strength. Otherwise, it uses the kerub's traits.
(Aspect) Dancers
Keywords: Obvious, Various
Keruby stir up surges of their aspect when they dance, whether they wish to or not. When there are ten of them or fewer, the effects are mostly cosmetic, but more create an environmental hazard [number of dancing keruby] metres in radius with Trauma 2. The force of the surges depends on the number of firstborn children dancing. Should multiple breeds dance together; only those present at least in numbers one level below the total contribute their aspects to the effects.
- If more than ten keruby are present, the hazard inflicts 2B/quarter hour.
- A hundred or more create a lethal natural disaster that deals 2L/minute.
- Should a thousand or more gather, they create a vast cataclysm that does 2L/action.
Keruby of the Joyful Wind
Szelkeruby are the oldest and most common of the keruby aspects. They wear the form of small children - of both genders, despite the name - woven from ribbons and wind. These whimsical demons are mute save for tears and laughter, and communicate through strangely comprehensible mime. Windspun bridesmaids stir up gusts and breezes when they dance, and enough of them will generate cyclones and tornadoes. They see in shades of love and passion, and are drawn to passionate hearts, whether they be filled with love, loneliness or loathing. A szelkerub will look for potential lovers; unrequited passions and romances too shy to proceed, and act to nudge such relationships into bloom. Those lonely and longing for affection may find the winds guiding them to gain it, or leading those with love to spare to meet them.
Not all such relationships are healthy. Szelkeruby see only shades of passion, not of contentment or peace. They will ignore lesser loves for greater ones; thinking nothing of breaking up a happy partnership of twenty years to fulfil the stronger, unrequited love of one who covets another's husband from afar. They fear those with no love in them, and ever avoid their hollow gazes. Such empty-hearted monsters often find themselves stalked from behind by a determined, fearful bridesmaid, who will pounce and kill them at the first opportunity to save others from the bitter void within.
While the shades of passion they see hold little specific contextual information; wind-cherubs are intelligent and curious. A patient summoner can use them to learn about the longing, hatred or devotion in the hearts of those around them. Szelkeruby gain a point of Limit for every hour they are forced to stay close to one with no love in their heart. Sometimes, on a Venusday when a lonely heart cries out for love, a wind-kerub can blow through a crack in Fate nearby and set out to find it for them.
Physical: 3; Physical Styles: Madcap Dancer Style (5), Ribbon on the Wind Style (8)
Social: 3; Social Styles: Mischievous Matchmaker Style (10), Miming Trickster Style (8)
Mental: 5; Mental Styles: Aerial Explorer Style (7), Passion Perception Style (7)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 4, ACC +2, DMG 0B, DEF 2, Rate 4 (Rapid slapping)
Armour: 0 (Ribbons)
Join Battle 2; DV 5
Accuracy: 5; Damage: 1B;
Soak 1; Health Levels; 3
MDV 2; Urge: Fill the World with Love
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Fear of the Loveless (4), Matchmaking (4), Curiosity (3), Mischief (3)
Fast Charms:
Whirlwind Dancers
Keywords: Knockback, Obvious
Szelkeruby stir breezes and whip up wind when they dance, creating gale-force winds, tornadoes laced with razor-sharp ribbons and hurricanes that strip flesh from bone. Characters must roll against Knockback at each interval against Difficulty 2 at the first level, rising by 1 for each subsequent level.
Love in the Air
Keywords: Emotion
Szelkeruby can enact a complex scheme to bring two people together. This is a dramatic action lasting at least one hour, at the end of which they roll their appropriate dicepool. Should their result beat the MDVs of their targets, the couple gain a 2-dot Principle of of "honeymoon love" towards each other as an Emotion effect that lasts (szelkerub's Enlightenment) days. Should they spend a full day guiding the pair together, the duration increases to weeks, and an entire week's labour anchors it for months.
Szelkeruby are the oldest and most common of the keruby aspects. They wear the form of small children - of both genders, despite the name - woven from ribbons and wind. These whimsical demons are mute save for tears and laughter, and communicate through strangely comprehensible mime. Windspun bridesmaids stir up gusts and breezes when they dance, and enough of them will generate cyclones and tornadoes. They see in shades of love and passion, and are drawn to passionate hearts, whether they be filled with love, loneliness or loathing. A szelkerub will look for potential lovers; unrequited passions and romances too shy to proceed, and act to nudge such relationships into bloom. Those lonely and longing for affection may find the winds guiding them to gain it, or leading those with love to spare to meet them.
Not all such relationships are healthy. Szelkeruby see only shades of passion, not of contentment or peace. They will ignore lesser loves for greater ones; thinking nothing of breaking up a happy partnership of twenty years to fulfil the stronger, unrequited love of one who covets another's husband from afar. They fear those with no love in them, and ever avoid their hollow gazes. Such empty-hearted monsters often find themselves stalked from behind by a determined, fearful bridesmaid, who will pounce and kill them at the first opportunity to save others from the bitter void within.
While the shades of passion they see hold little specific contextual information; wind-cherubs are intelligent and curious. A patient summoner can use them to learn about the longing, hatred or devotion in the hearts of those around them. Szelkeruby gain a point of Limit for every hour they are forced to stay close to one with no love in their heart. Sometimes, on a Venusday when a lonely heart cries out for love, a wind-kerub can blow through a crack in Fate nearby and set out to find it for them.
Physical: 3; Physical Styles: Madcap Dancer Style (5), Ribbon on the Wind Style (8)
Social: 3; Social Styles: Mischievous Matchmaker Style (10), Miming Trickster Style (8)
Mental: 5; Mental Styles: Aerial Explorer Style (7), Passion Perception Style (7)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 4, ACC +2, DMG 0B, DEF 2, Rate 4 (Rapid slapping)
Armour: 0 (Ribbons)
Join Battle 2; DV 5
Accuracy: 5; Damage: 1B;
Soak 1; Health Levels; 3
MDV 2; Urge: Fill the World with Love
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Fear of the Loveless (4), Matchmaking (4), Curiosity (3), Mischief (3)
Fast Charms:
Whirlwind Dancers
Keywords: Knockback, Obvious
Szelkeruby stir breezes and whip up wind when they dance, creating gale-force winds, tornadoes laced with razor-sharp ribbons and hurricanes that strip flesh from bone. Characters must roll against Knockback at each interval against Difficulty 2 at the first level, rising by 1 for each subsequent level.
Love in the Air
Keywords: Emotion
Szelkeruby can enact a complex scheme to bring two people together. This is a dramatic action lasting at least one hour, at the end of which they roll their appropriate dicepool. Should their result beat the MDVs of their targets, the couple gain a 2-dot Principle of of "honeymoon love" towards each other as an Emotion effect that lasts (szelkerub's Enlightenment) days. Should they spend a full day guiding the pair together, the duration increases to weeks, and an entire week's labour anchors it for months.
Keruby of the Flower Maiden
The skin of the sziromkeruby appears to be scaled from a distance, but up close it is revealed to be made of countless petals layered on top of a tough corpus made of vines. Cold-burning fire trails from their bud-like heads, forming a mane that drips embers behind them. The first petal-kerub - her flowers white over grey vines and her fire palest green - still resides in Haneyl's court among her more colourful brothers and sisters.
These demons are more sedate than their windspun cousins, but in dancing they spread great clouds of petals that flash into flame as the music reaches its apex. The heat does not harm the seeds they scatter in their excitement, which blossom into strange flowers with parchment-petal pages and ink-filled stalks. These are invaluable materials for the sziromkeruby, who love stories in all their forms - both writing and reading; telling and hearing. They listen wide-eyed to tales fantastical and mundane, fashion books and scrolls to record their favourites, and obsess over crafting their own stories - factual or wild invention; it matters not to them.
Despite their lack of regard for the truth of a story as a measure of its value, there are still many that love to see their tales take place. These would-be biographers have been known to try and make their fantasies happen, or manipulate ongoing events to be more dramatic. Petal-keruby reserve a special hatred for book-burners, and are careful to leave their precious anthologies at a safe distance before going to dance, as well as the spare paper they fashion into makeshift clothes for ease of carrying. When this proves insufficient to keep them from harm, the guilty sziromkeruby are shunned and shamed until they have made meticulous replacements for all the missing texts.
The obvious use for a petal-kerub is as a scribe. If commanded to sit and record the events going on around them, they will be perfectly happy to do so with minimal embellishment. They also make excellent aides when researching past events or other texts they see as stories, and will become deliriously happy if offered work in a library. When books are threatened by a forest fire, a dancer of flame and flowers will sometimes arrive and attempt to rescue them. Should it fail, it will gain a point of Limit at the sight of stories lost to destruction.
Physical: 2; Physical Styles: Hidden Leaf Style (9), Madcap Dancer Style (5)
Social: 4; Social Styles: Narrative Debater Style (8), Shy Storyteller Style (11)
Mental: 4; Mental Styles: Diligent Scribe Style (7), Forest Explorer Style (7)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 5, ACC +2, DMG 1L, DEF 0, Rate 1, Range 5 yards (Spit fire)
Armour: 2 (Tough vines)
Join Battle 2; DV 1
Accuracy: 4; Damage: 2L;
Soak 3; Health Levels; 2
MDV 2; Urge: Gather the Greatest Stories Ever Told
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Hatred for Book-Burners (4), Stories (4), Reading and Writing (3), Pretty Fire and Flowers (2)
Fast Charms:
Fireblossom Dancers
Keywords: Obvious, Poison
Sziromkeruby spread clouds of petals, sparks and embers when they dance, which ignite into curtains of flame and many-coloured firestorms. The petals and pollen that accompany them provoke allergic reactions; causing stinging eyes and violent coughing fits upon exposure. This acts as a plant-based toxin with the statistics DMG 1B/hour, Toxicity 2M, Tolerance (Endurance+Survival)/1 hour, penalty -2.
Rapid Reading/Writing Method
Keywords: None
Petal-keruby fill page upon page with their fast-growing stories, and devour books and scrolls like wildfire. They multiply their reading and writing speed by (Enlightenment x 5).
The skin of the sziromkeruby appears to be scaled from a distance, but up close it is revealed to be made of countless petals layered on top of a tough corpus made of vines. Cold-burning fire trails from their bud-like heads, forming a mane that drips embers behind them. The first petal-kerub - her flowers white over grey vines and her fire palest green - still resides in Haneyl's court among her more colourful brothers and sisters.
These demons are more sedate than their windspun cousins, but in dancing they spread great clouds of petals that flash into flame as the music reaches its apex. The heat does not harm the seeds they scatter in their excitement, which blossom into strange flowers with parchment-petal pages and ink-filled stalks. These are invaluable materials for the sziromkeruby, who love stories in all their forms - both writing and reading; telling and hearing. They listen wide-eyed to tales fantastical and mundane, fashion books and scrolls to record their favourites, and obsess over crafting their own stories - factual or wild invention; it matters not to them.
Despite their lack of regard for the truth of a story as a measure of its value, there are still many that love to see their tales take place. These would-be biographers have been known to try and make their fantasies happen, or manipulate ongoing events to be more dramatic. Petal-keruby reserve a special hatred for book-burners, and are careful to leave their precious anthologies at a safe distance before going to dance, as well as the spare paper they fashion into makeshift clothes for ease of carrying. When this proves insufficient to keep them from harm, the guilty sziromkeruby are shunned and shamed until they have made meticulous replacements for all the missing texts.
The obvious use for a petal-kerub is as a scribe. If commanded to sit and record the events going on around them, they will be perfectly happy to do so with minimal embellishment. They also make excellent aides when researching past events or other texts they see as stories, and will become deliriously happy if offered work in a library. When books are threatened by a forest fire, a dancer of flame and flowers will sometimes arrive and attempt to rescue them. Should it fail, it will gain a point of Limit at the sight of stories lost to destruction.
Physical: 2; Physical Styles: Hidden Leaf Style (9), Madcap Dancer Style (5)
Social: 4; Social Styles: Narrative Debater Style (8), Shy Storyteller Style (11)
Mental: 4; Mental Styles: Diligent Scribe Style (7), Forest Explorer Style (7)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 5, ACC +2, DMG 1L, DEF 0, Rate 1, Range 5 yards (Spit fire)
Armour: 2 (Tough vines)
Join Battle 2; DV 1
Accuracy: 4; Damage: 2L;
Soak 3; Health Levels; 2
MDV 2; Urge: Gather the Greatest Stories Ever Told
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Hatred for Book-Burners (4), Stories (4), Reading and Writing (3), Pretty Fire and Flowers (2)
Fast Charms:
Fireblossom Dancers
Keywords: Obvious, Poison
Sziromkeruby spread clouds of petals, sparks and embers when they dance, which ignite into curtains of flame and many-coloured firestorms. The petals and pollen that accompany them provoke allergic reactions; causing stinging eyes and violent coughing fits upon exposure. This acts as a plant-based toxin with the statistics DMG 1B/hour, Toxicity 2M, Tolerance (Endurance+Survival)/1 hour, penalty -2.
Rapid Reading/Writing Method
Keywords: None
Petal-keruby fill page upon page with their fast-growing stories, and devour books and scrolls like wildfire. They multiply their reading and writing speed by (Enlightenment x 5).
Keruby of the Martyred Moon
The orvenkeruby cut dashing figures - albeit not terribly subtle ones - with skin of pink-red nacre over muscles of luminescent ice. Ridged or fluted shells cover their heads where a human child would have hair and tiny waterfalls of brine fall behind them from a ridge along their shoulders; trickling when they are calm and gushing when they are angry. They are known for the unusual number of male demons among their rank - indeed, the gender ratio of whirlpool-keruby is almost equal, though this seems to be a largely cosmetic trait to them. Unlike most keruby, the dances of the wave charmers do not send surges of their aspect outward. Rather, their wild circling pulls water inward; bursting open pipes, overflowing riverbanks and slanting rain horizontally. The water in human blood is no exception, and people and animals alike find themselves drawn into the spiral - sometimes to drown, should the waterspout rise over their heads.
Orvenkeruby bear a passionate sense of fairness and justice, and can sense those who feel unjustly maligned by their enemies. They are known to be the most frequent breed to challenge the rule of zenekeruby, and if they see a betrayal or wrongdoing they will set out to punish the perpetrator. Their reprisals often take dramatic or poetic forms that reference the sins that merited them, though certain subjects are more offensive to wave charmers than others. Particularly upsetting to their sensibilities are false accusations or aggrandisation, and those who try to pin their wrongdoings on an innocent or take credit for the actions of another under moonlight may find themselves harassed by an angry orvenkerub in short order.
Whirlpool-keruby hold particular use in their ability to trap creatures in large numbers with their dances - whether to be captured alive or killed while unable to escape. Their sense for self-defined victims can prove helpful to socialites, as such people are ripe for recruitment by a sympathetic ear, and their retributions can ruin a person's reputation in quite sophisticated ways. Wave charmers gain a point of Limit when a wrongdoer they have sworn to punish escapes reprisal.
Physical: 5; Physical Styles: Champion of Justice Style (9), Madcap Dancer Style (5)
Social: 4; Social Styles: Pearl Poser Style (7), Righteous Denouncement Style (10)
Mental: 3; Mental Styles: Ocean Explorer Style (7), Tireless Tracking Vigilante Style (6)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 5, ACC +2, DMG 3L, DEF 1, Rate 1 (Club or trident)
Armour: 3 (Improvised shell or dinner-plate armour)
Join Battle 4; DV 5
Accuracy: 11; Damage: 7L;
Soak 5; Health Levels; 5
MDV 5; Urge: Defend the Innocent and Punish Evildoers
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Justice (4), Contempt for Liars (4), Looking Heroic (3), Waterfall Slides (2)
Fast Charms:
Whirlpool Dancers
Keywords: Knockback, Obvious
Orvenkeruby exert a tidal pull on nearby water sources when they dance, causing flooding waves, swirling waterspouts and tsunamis. Characters must roll as if against Knockback at each interval to avoid being pulled into an orvenkeruby dance. This roll is made against Difficulty 2 at the first level, rising by 1 for each subsequent level, and increasing by 1 again to actively move away rather than maintain position.
Smiters of Wrongdoing
Keywords: None
Orvenkeruby bring low the sinful and defend the weak. When they witness a victim being wronged, they may publicly challenge the perpetrator, stating their own identity, their foe's crime and the name of their victim before swearing to punish them. Until the wrongdoer surrenders and repents, the wave charmer deals Aggravated damage to them. They may only target one individual with this at a time.
The orvenkeruby cut dashing figures - albeit not terribly subtle ones - with skin of pink-red nacre over muscles of luminescent ice. Ridged or fluted shells cover their heads where a human child would have hair and tiny waterfalls of brine fall behind them from a ridge along their shoulders; trickling when they are calm and gushing when they are angry. They are known for the unusual number of male demons among their rank - indeed, the gender ratio of whirlpool-keruby is almost equal, though this seems to be a largely cosmetic trait to them. Unlike most keruby, the dances of the wave charmers do not send surges of their aspect outward. Rather, their wild circling pulls water inward; bursting open pipes, overflowing riverbanks and slanting rain horizontally. The water in human blood is no exception, and people and animals alike find themselves drawn into the spiral - sometimes to drown, should the waterspout rise over their heads.
Orvenkeruby bear a passionate sense of fairness and justice, and can sense those who feel unjustly maligned by their enemies. They are known to be the most frequent breed to challenge the rule of zenekeruby, and if they see a betrayal or wrongdoing they will set out to punish the perpetrator. Their reprisals often take dramatic or poetic forms that reference the sins that merited them, though certain subjects are more offensive to wave charmers than others. Particularly upsetting to their sensibilities are false accusations or aggrandisation, and those who try to pin their wrongdoings on an innocent or take credit for the actions of another under moonlight may find themselves harassed by an angry orvenkerub in short order.
Whirlpool-keruby hold particular use in their ability to trap creatures in large numbers with their dances - whether to be captured alive or killed while unable to escape. Their sense for self-defined victims can prove helpful to socialites, as such people are ripe for recruitment by a sympathetic ear, and their retributions can ruin a person's reputation in quite sophisticated ways. Wave charmers gain a point of Limit when a wrongdoer they have sworn to punish escapes reprisal.
Physical: 5; Physical Styles: Champion of Justice Style (9), Madcap Dancer Style (5)
Social: 4; Social Styles: Pearl Poser Style (7), Righteous Denouncement Style (10)
Mental: 3; Mental Styles: Ocean Explorer Style (7), Tireless Tracking Vigilante Style (6)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 5, ACC +2, DMG 3L, DEF 1, Rate 1 (Club or trident)
Armour: 3 (Improvised shell or dinner-plate armour)
Join Battle 4; DV 5
Accuracy: 11; Damage: 7L;
Soak 5; Health Levels; 5
MDV 5; Urge: Defend the Innocent and Punish Evildoers
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Justice (4), Contempt for Liars (4), Looking Heroic (3), Waterfall Slides (2)
Fast Charms:
Whirlpool Dancers
Keywords: Knockback, Obvious
Orvenkeruby exert a tidal pull on nearby water sources when they dance, causing flooding waves, swirling waterspouts and tsunamis. Characters must roll as if against Knockback at each interval to avoid being pulled into an orvenkeruby dance. This roll is made against Difficulty 2 at the first level, rising by 1 for each subsequent level, and increasing by 1 again to actively move away rather than maintain position.
Smiters of Wrongdoing
Keywords: None
Orvenkeruby bring low the sinful and defend the weak. When they witness a victim being wronged, they may publicly challenge the perpetrator, stating their own identity, their foe's crime and the name of their victim before swearing to punish them. Until the wrongdoer surrenders and repents, the wave charmer deals Aggravated damage to them. They may only target one individual with this at a time.
Keruby of the Hoarding Serpent
In the mists and fog at the edge of Krisity, a flash of silver may be many things. One possibility is a lurking storm thief. They are the smallest of the breeds of keruby, and the dense grey-white fog that serves as their flesh appears ragged and puffy like the edges of clouds - atop their heads, it tends to form in short wisps that look like tousled, tufted hair. Within the mist, they blend in perfectly, but outside it they seem to be dressed in tattered rags - at least until the glinting of silver bones within gives them away. Cloud-kerub teeth are sharp and obvious, and they use their silver talons to scratch messages when they wish to speak, for the only vocalisations they are capable of are screams and whale-like moans. They cover their mouths when they wish to hide - and if this position is similar to the coiled arms and bared teeth of their attack preparations, well, the one often follows the other.
When viharkeruby dance they are all but indistinguishable, as mist and cloud wreath the area and the temperature plummets until frost forms on every surface. Though this doesn't hurt them, they can often be heard grumbling as they wait for ice-locked silver bones to thaw and allow them full freedom of movement again. They are confined to the ground during such times - otherwise, they can walk on air, leaving hanging footprints of frost behind them.
Above all else, a viharkerub is a thief, and a maker of secrets. They search out trinkets and information and hide them in intricate nests, which they guard with paranoid fervour. Of all keruby breeds, they are the least social - unsurprising, as other cloud-keruby are threats to their hoard who cannot be trusted. When the secrets they steal are known only to a few, they can purloin even the memory of them so that none seek out their nests. Storm thieves don't distinguish between their treasures, and value quantity over quality - a viharkerub will happily trade the location of a secret entrance into a keep for a pair of glass beads, and think it a bargain at one treasure for two.
Viharkeruby find employment as stealthy spies and listeners; exploiting their natural drives to learn secrets and induce others to forget them. Those with a secret can use a cloud-kerub to keep it, and of course they are an easy way to gain money. Storm thieves can escape into Creation when a person bedecked in signs of wealth wanders into thick mist or fog. They take a point of Limit whenever one of their treasures is taken without another being traded for it.
Physical: 4; Physical Styles: Madcap Dancer Style (5), Mistborn Sneak Style (11)
Social: 2; Social Styles: Cunning Bargainer Style (6), Paranoid Hoarder Style (9)
Mental: 4; Mental Styles: Foggy Explorer Style (7), Secret-Sleuthing Style (8), Random Style learned from stolen secrets (7)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 5, ACC +2, DMG +3L, DEF 0, Rate 3 (Sharp silver talons)
Armour: 1 (Soft silver bones)
Join Battle 2; DV 2
Accuracy: 6; Damage: 7L;
Soak 3; Health Levels; 4
MDV 4; Urge: Hoard Secrets and Precious Things
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Mistrust of Strangers (4), My Hoard (4), Staying Hidden (3), Stealing Secrets (3)
Fast Charms:
Mist Dancers
Keywords: Obvious
Viharkeruby wreath themselves in suffocating cloud and vapour when they dance, spreading opaque fog banks that leave people gasping for breath and blinding mists that rip the air out of men's lungs. Characters in a cloud-kerub dance suffer reduced visibility; clear/murky vision ends at 10/30 metres at the first level, 0/10 at the second and 0/0 at the third.
Theft of Memory
Keywords: Illusion
Three can keep a secret if two don't know it. Storm thieves can enforce this, should they find one worth stealing. When a viharkerub learns a piece of information that is only known to fewer than (kerub's Enlightenment) people, they can afflict the group with an Illusion effect that causes all memory of the pilfered knowledge to slip from their minds in sleep. This effect lasts until the cherub dies or trades away the information to another. Spending 1wp renders a target immune for a month, and should they spread the secret to more than (Enlightenment) people while the Charm remains active, the magic is shattered and the viharkerub loses a point of Willpower from the backlash.
In the mists and fog at the edge of Krisity, a flash of silver may be many things. One possibility is a lurking storm thief. They are the smallest of the breeds of keruby, and the dense grey-white fog that serves as their flesh appears ragged and puffy like the edges of clouds - atop their heads, it tends to form in short wisps that look like tousled, tufted hair. Within the mist, they blend in perfectly, but outside it they seem to be dressed in tattered rags - at least until the glinting of silver bones within gives them away. Cloud-kerub teeth are sharp and obvious, and they use their silver talons to scratch messages when they wish to speak, for the only vocalisations they are capable of are screams and whale-like moans. They cover their mouths when they wish to hide - and if this position is similar to the coiled arms and bared teeth of their attack preparations, well, the one often follows the other.
When viharkeruby dance they are all but indistinguishable, as mist and cloud wreath the area and the temperature plummets until frost forms on every surface. Though this doesn't hurt them, they can often be heard grumbling as they wait for ice-locked silver bones to thaw and allow them full freedom of movement again. They are confined to the ground during such times - otherwise, they can walk on air, leaving hanging footprints of frost behind them.
Above all else, a viharkerub is a thief, and a maker of secrets. They search out trinkets and information and hide them in intricate nests, which they guard with paranoid fervour. Of all keruby breeds, they are the least social - unsurprising, as other cloud-keruby are threats to their hoard who cannot be trusted. When the secrets they steal are known only to a few, they can purloin even the memory of them so that none seek out their nests. Storm thieves don't distinguish between their treasures, and value quantity over quality - a viharkerub will happily trade the location of a secret entrance into a keep for a pair of glass beads, and think it a bargain at one treasure for two.
Viharkeruby find employment as stealthy spies and listeners; exploiting their natural drives to learn secrets and induce others to forget them. Those with a secret can use a cloud-kerub to keep it, and of course they are an easy way to gain money. Storm thieves can escape into Creation when a person bedecked in signs of wealth wanders into thick mist or fog. They take a point of Limit whenever one of their treasures is taken without another being traded for it.
Physical: 4; Physical Styles: Madcap Dancer Style (5), Mistborn Sneak Style (11)
Social: 2; Social Styles: Cunning Bargainer Style (6), Paranoid Hoarder Style (9)
Mental: 4; Mental Styles: Foggy Explorer Style (7), Secret-Sleuthing Style (8), Random Style learned from stolen secrets (7)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 5, ACC +2, DMG +3L, DEF 0, Rate 3 (Sharp silver talons)
Armour: 1 (Soft silver bones)
Join Battle 2; DV 2
Accuracy: 6; Damage: 7L;
Soak 3; Health Levels; 4
MDV 4; Urge: Hoard Secrets and Precious Things
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Mistrust of Strangers (4), My Hoard (4), Staying Hidden (3), Stealing Secrets (3)
Fast Charms:
Mist Dancers
Keywords: Obvious
Viharkeruby wreath themselves in suffocating cloud and vapour when they dance, spreading opaque fog banks that leave people gasping for breath and blinding mists that rip the air out of men's lungs. Characters in a cloud-kerub dance suffer reduced visibility; clear/murky vision ends at 10/30 metres at the first level, 0/10 at the second and 0/0 at the third.
Theft of Memory
Keywords: Illusion
Three can keep a secret if two don't know it. Storm thieves can enforce this, should they find one worth stealing. When a viharkerub learns a piece of information that is only known to fewer than (kerub's Enlightenment) people, they can afflict the group with an Illusion effect that causes all memory of the pilfered knowledge to slip from their minds in sleep. This effect lasts until the cherub dies or trades away the information to another. Spending 1wp renders a target immune for a month, and should they spread the secret to more than (Enlightenment) people while the Charm remains active, the magic is shattered and the viharkerub loses a point of Willpower from the backlash.
Keruby of the Endless Melody
No kerub is viewed with such awe and fear by others of their kind as a lyrical heir, for music is the vice of all firstborn children, and music is a zenekerub's nature. At a glance, their bodies are woven hair over bands of brass; taller and stockier than most other breeds, but their every movement brings with it a clear and pleasant chord. Their voices are sweet and lyrical; their laughter a tiny hymn. Though they are capable of using instruments competently, zenekeruby do not create music with their dancing alone. Rather, they amplify what is already there; making it louder, smoothing over discordant notes and drawing other keruby from far and wide to celebrate it. Music-keruby are rare - perhaps one in every hundred children of other breeds - but they are the natural rulers of their kind, and the crown-like protuberances of brass that top their heads only emphasise their status.
Their behaviour also bears this out. Lyrical heirs are instinctively authoritative towards their kin; inventing and enforcing strict rules and standards of civilised behaviour. When challenged; their tones turn commanding and their movements crash and resound like cymbals, cowing the insolent kerub who has roused their ire. They vie for dominance amongst themselves when they meet, but keep such squabbles intensely private; allowing no-one to see their differences of opinion and presenting a united front in public. Tragically, zenekeruby bear no immunity to the natural hazards of large keruby-dances, and maelstroms sparked by their amplified music often claim their lives.
Music-keruby are essential for managing keruby in groups of any size; arbitrating disputes between the breeds and keeping them from turning on one another. Their management skills can be turned to other uses as long as their rules are obeyed, and they are not unskilled leaders when they are taken seriously; accustomed as they are to managing demonic Limit conditions. The cunning or devious might also compose songs with messages favourable to them, and make use of zenekeruby to be heard far and wide. Lyrical heirs can step into Creation when ten or more keruby gather without a proper leader, and gain a point of Limit whenever they are unable to intimidate a defiant rule-breaker into submission.
Physical: 4; Physical Styles: Madcap Dancer Style (5)
Social: 5; Social Styles: Musical Mediator Style (10), Crashing-Chord Coercion Style (12)
Mental: 4; Mental Styles: Random Musical Style (7), Rambunctiousness-Restraining Governance Style (9)
Enlightenment: 3;
Arms: SPD 5, ACC +1, DMG 8B, DEF 0, Rate 1, Range 10 metres (Blasts of sound)
Armour: 3 (Brass plating)
Join Battle 2; DV 2
Accuracy: 5; Damage: 10B;
Soak 5; Health Levels; 4
MDV 6; Urge: Rule My Kin Fairly and Properly
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), My Authority (4), Proper Rules and Standards (4), Caring for Other Keruby (3), Regalia of Authority (3), Everyone Getting Along (2)
Fast Charms:
Musical Dancers
Keywords: Obvious
Zenekeruby amplify and harmonise all nearby music sources when they dance, turning a lone instrument's melodies into deafening orchestras that are as much physical force as sound. At the first level, characters take a -1 penalty from the noise, which rises by 2 with each subsequent level. Those without ear protection must roll (Endurance+Survival) at each damage interval to avoid being deafened, at Difficulty equal to the current level.
Ruling Hymn
Keyword: Compulsion
Lyrical heirs are natural leaders. By displaying her musical skill and symbols of leadership, a zenekerub may enhance a social attack against no more than (Enlightenment) Magnitude intended to compel, coax, or otherwise enforce behaviour. Those she overcomes suffer a Compulsion to follow her rules and act in line with her expectations until they resist the effect. This costs two willpower, which falls to one willpower should a victim witness another person challenge her. This Charm only affects individuals with lower Enlightenment than the kerub.
No kerub is viewed with such awe and fear by others of their kind as a lyrical heir, for music is the vice of all firstborn children, and music is a zenekerub's nature. At a glance, their bodies are woven hair over bands of brass; taller and stockier than most other breeds, but their every movement brings with it a clear and pleasant chord. Their voices are sweet and lyrical; their laughter a tiny hymn. Though they are capable of using instruments competently, zenekeruby do not create music with their dancing alone. Rather, they amplify what is already there; making it louder, smoothing over discordant notes and drawing other keruby from far and wide to celebrate it. Music-keruby are rare - perhaps one in every hundred children of other breeds - but they are the natural rulers of their kind, and the crown-like protuberances of brass that top their heads only emphasise their status.
Their behaviour also bears this out. Lyrical heirs are instinctively authoritative towards their kin; inventing and enforcing strict rules and standards of civilised behaviour. When challenged; their tones turn commanding and their movements crash and resound like cymbals, cowing the insolent kerub who has roused their ire. They vie for dominance amongst themselves when they meet, but keep such squabbles intensely private; allowing no-one to see their differences of opinion and presenting a united front in public. Tragically, zenekeruby bear no immunity to the natural hazards of large keruby-dances, and maelstroms sparked by their amplified music often claim their lives.
Music-keruby are essential for managing keruby in groups of any size; arbitrating disputes between the breeds and keeping them from turning on one another. Their management skills can be turned to other uses as long as their rules are obeyed, and they are not unskilled leaders when they are taken seriously; accustomed as they are to managing demonic Limit conditions. The cunning or devious might also compose songs with messages favourable to them, and make use of zenekeruby to be heard far and wide. Lyrical heirs can step into Creation when ten or more keruby gather without a proper leader, and gain a point of Limit whenever they are unable to intimidate a defiant rule-breaker into submission.
Physical: 4; Physical Styles: Madcap Dancer Style (5)
Social: 5; Social Styles: Musical Mediator Style (10), Crashing-Chord Coercion Style (12)
Mental: 4; Mental Styles: Random Musical Style (7), Rambunctiousness-Restraining Governance Style (9)
Enlightenment: 3;
Arms: SPD 5, ACC +1, DMG 8B, DEF 0, Rate 1, Range 10 metres (Blasts of sound)
Armour: 3 (Brass plating)
Join Battle 2; DV 2
Accuracy: 5; Damage: 10B;
Soak 5; Health Levels; 4
MDV 6; Urge: Rule My Kin Fairly and Properly
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), My Authority (4), Proper Rules and Standards (4), Caring for Other Keruby (3), Regalia of Authority (3), Everyone Getting Along (2)
Fast Charms:
Musical Dancers
Keywords: Obvious
Zenekeruby amplify and harmonise all nearby music sources when they dance, turning a lone instrument's melodies into deafening orchestras that are as much physical force as sound. At the first level, characters take a -1 penalty from the noise, which rises by 2 with each subsequent level. Those without ear protection must roll (Endurance+Survival) at each damage interval to avoid being deafened, at Difficulty equal to the current level.
Ruling Hymn
Keyword: Compulsion
Lyrical heirs are natural leaders. By displaying her musical skill and symbols of leadership, a zenekerub may enhance a social attack against no more than (Enlightenment) Magnitude intended to compel, coax, or otherwise enforce behaviour. Those she overcomes suffer a Compulsion to follow her rules and act in line with her expectations until they resist the effect. This costs two willpower, which falls to one willpower should a victim witness another person challenge her. This Charm only affects individuals with lower Enlightenment than the kerub.
Edit 08/03/2016:
Keruby of the Midnight Whisper
It is a curious trait of the mezkeruby that they possess two shadows; one flinching away from the light and the other stretching toward it. Sometimes their movements fail to match the tar augur's, especially when the light is dim and they go half-unseen. Tar-keruby have rubbery skin that appears black - in fact it is transparent; the colour coming from the boneless tar that fills them and passes for blood to their kind. Though they cannot change their essential bipedal shape; they can ripple their skins from within to alter surface details, and commonly rearrange their features into eerily smooth blank masks when they wish to go unrecognised.
Every tar augur is enthralled with the belief that they possess a special destiny; that a fated something awaits them in the future that will change their lives forever and be the fulfillment of all their dreams. To this end, they pursue any way they can find of predicting when, where and what this event will be; from astrology to lithomancy to vision-quests - though their favourite method is invariably their natural clairvoyance in bowls of tar and honey. There is no record of any tar augur ever having met their destined Happening, as they call it, but they remain upbeat and hopeful in their efforts - though to question their certainty is to invite a quick and cutting response.
While they themselves are only subject to Fate when they are in Creation, and have no particular importance in the records of Fate, mezkeruby are nonetheless skilled in the many forms of fortune-telling they practice. A tar augur can serve as a personal astrologer, and their semi-fluid bodies can be put to various uses. They are talented mimics of profiles, though they can do little about their obvious colouration and size, and a liquid-filled finger in a keyhole can quickly find pins and tumblers. Mezkeruby will gain Limit if anything prevents them from trawling the future each day, and a tar augur can slip into Creation whenever oil or tar spills across the apparatus for a form of fortune-telling they have never before encountered.
Physical: 2; Physical Styles: Madcap Dancer Style (5), Sneaky Shadow Style (6)
Social: 4; Social Styles: Devious Disguise Style (9), Sharp-Tongued Retort Style (7)
Mental: 5; Mental Styles: Murky Mélimancy Style (12), Random fortune-telling Style (8), Shadowy Explorer Style (7)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 6, ACC +0, DMG 2B, DEF 0, Rate 1 (Suffocating clinch)
Armour: 0 (Rubbery skin)
Join Battle 2; DV 2
Accuracy: 2; Damage: 2B;
Soak 1; Health Levels; 2
MDV 3; Urge: Find My Destiny
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Hope for the Future (4), Sceptics are Stupid (4), New Forms of Fortune-Telling (3), Yummy Honey (2)
Fast Charms:
Shadow Dancers
Keywords: Obvious
Mezkeruby dances cloak the area in shadow and airless gloom, dimming the light around them and plunging bystanders into suffocating darkness. Characters in a tar-kerub dance suffer reduced visibility; clear/murky vision ends at 10/30 metres at the first level, 0/10 at the second and 0/0 at the third.
Diviners of Destiny
Keywords: None
Tar augurs do have some small talent at gleaning truth from the future. A mezkerub may roll its Conviction at Difficulty 5 whenever it makes a divination. Success reveals a tiny, out-of-context glimpse at a random facet of samsara. Though it is unlikely to relate to the augur's own future, most assume these fragments of knowledge relate to their Happening in some way, and pursue them enthusiastically.
It is a curious trait of the mezkeruby that they possess two shadows; one flinching away from the light and the other stretching toward it. Sometimes their movements fail to match the tar augur's, especially when the light is dim and they go half-unseen. Tar-keruby have rubbery skin that appears black - in fact it is transparent; the colour coming from the boneless tar that fills them and passes for blood to their kind. Though they cannot change their essential bipedal shape; they can ripple their skins from within to alter surface details, and commonly rearrange their features into eerily smooth blank masks when they wish to go unrecognised.
Every tar augur is enthralled with the belief that they possess a special destiny; that a fated something awaits them in the future that will change their lives forever and be the fulfillment of all their dreams. To this end, they pursue any way they can find of predicting when, where and what this event will be; from astrology to lithomancy to vision-quests - though their favourite method is invariably their natural clairvoyance in bowls of tar and honey. There is no record of any tar augur ever having met their destined Happening, as they call it, but they remain upbeat and hopeful in their efforts - though to question their certainty is to invite a quick and cutting response.
While they themselves are only subject to Fate when they are in Creation, and have no particular importance in the records of Fate, mezkeruby are nonetheless skilled in the many forms of fortune-telling they practice. A tar augur can serve as a personal astrologer, and their semi-fluid bodies can be put to various uses. They are talented mimics of profiles, though they can do little about their obvious colouration and size, and a liquid-filled finger in a keyhole can quickly find pins and tumblers. Mezkeruby will gain Limit if anything prevents them from trawling the future each day, and a tar augur can slip into Creation whenever oil or tar spills across the apparatus for a form of fortune-telling they have never before encountered.
Physical: 2; Physical Styles: Madcap Dancer Style (5), Sneaky Shadow Style (6)
Social: 4; Social Styles: Devious Disguise Style (9), Sharp-Tongued Retort Style (7)
Mental: 5; Mental Styles: Murky Mélimancy Style (12), Random fortune-telling Style (8), Shadowy Explorer Style (7)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 6, ACC +0, DMG 2B, DEF 0, Rate 1 (Suffocating clinch)
Armour: 0 (Rubbery skin)
Join Battle 2; DV 2
Accuracy: 2; Damage: 2B;
Soak 1; Health Levels; 2
MDV 3; Urge: Find My Destiny
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Hope for the Future (4), Sceptics are Stupid (4), New Forms of Fortune-Telling (3), Yummy Honey (2)
Fast Charms:
Shadow Dancers
Keywords: Obvious
Mezkeruby dances cloak the area in shadow and airless gloom, dimming the light around them and plunging bystanders into suffocating darkness. Characters in a tar-kerub dance suffer reduced visibility; clear/murky vision ends at 10/30 metres at the first level, 0/10 at the second and 0/0 at the third.
Diviners of Destiny
Keywords: None
Tar augurs do have some small talent at gleaning truth from the future. A mezkerub may roll its Conviction at Difficulty 5 whenever it makes a divination. Success reveals a tiny, out-of-context glimpse at a random facet of samsara. Though it is unlikely to relate to the augur's own future, most assume these fragments of knowledge relate to their Happening in some way, and pursue them enthusiastically.
Keruby of the Sound that Sunders
A femkerub wears a bronze helmet over its head, trapping a wild crackling bob of electric dreadlocks beneath it. There is no substance to their heads beyond this anchored lightning, and it exhausts them to leave it unconstricted. Their limbs are thin and spindly things of scratched metal, but their torsos are hardy, and sparks leap from the bumps and nodules that form there. Despite their seeming fragility, spark jockeys are both strong and rapid workers when they feel so inclined. There is little art or elegance to their slapdash tools and constructions, but they are generally sufficient to do the job they're made for before they break. They gravitate to cities and settlements, both for the familiarity of patchwork slums and for the fauna that come part and parcel with civilisation.
Lightning-keruby are great animal-lovers and love to ride. Their preference is not for grand or majestic beasts, however. Rather, their favourite breeds are livestock, domesticated beasts and those urban vermin who live off humanity without permission. Femkeruby delight in the company of such creatures, and encourage them to be wild and free, stripping away their tame natures and rendering them independent once more. They are superb jockeys, and the most common use femkeruby put their handiwork to by far is the making of saddles. Such saddles are nothing like any human work, though, and nor is their usage. A femkerub saddle has one purpose: to comfortably protect the animal from the electrified metal body of the cherub, and everything not essential for that purpose is stripped away. Spark jockey riding is rapid, chaotic and wild, and a human who tried to replicate it would be thrown and trampled to death in very short order.
Femkeruby are summoned as ostlers, though asking one to corral livestock is likely to result in the entire herd going missing overnight. They can, however, happily tolerate men and beasts living in equal partnership, and a wandering hero could benefit greatly from a spark jockey to help care for their steed. Their quick and dirty construction is just as useful when one needs a ramshackle shelter or improvised cooking pot for the night. When lightning strikes near a group of owned or imprisoned animals, a femkerub can emerge from the bolt to free them. If they see an animal suffering under human ownership, they will gain Limit unless allowed to remedy the situation.
Physical: 6; Physical Styles: Madcap Dancer Style (5), Wild Rider Style (12)
Social: 3; Social Styles: Beast-Befriending Style (9)
Mental: 2; Mental Styles: City-Creature's Clinic Style (6), Slapdash Builder Style (6), Urban Explorer Style (7)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 5, ACC +2, DMG 3L, DEF 1, Rate 1 (Club or flail)
Armour: 3 (Tough metal body)
Join Battle 1; DV 3
Accuracy: 8; Damage: 6L;
Soak 6; Health Levels; 6
MDV 1; Urge: Free Beasts from their Chains
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Riding (4), Urban Animals and Livestock (4), Quick and Dirty Crafting (3), Complex Contraptions (2)
Fast Charms:
Lightning Dancers
Keywords: Obvious
Sparks are never far from the surface of a femkerub. When they dance, their inner charge is brought to the surface in arcs and showers of sparks, bright bolts of electricity and tremendous fields of crawling lightning. Those unfortunate enough to be holding metal objects must roll at each interval against a disarm attempt. This roll is Difficulty 2 at the first level and rises by 1 for each subsequent level.
Friend of Feral Things
Keywords: Training
It is with strength of spirit that the femkeruby connect with the beasts they encounter, not conditioning or cruelty. A spark jockey can ride any beast - even nonsensically small steeds such as foxes or rabbits - and ignores Control rolls for any animal with Enlightenment lower that its own. Prolonged exposure to lightning-keruby will wear down domestication and training, increasing the Difficulty for any other rider to handle the creature by (kerub's Enlightenment) until it is re-tamed.
A femkerub wears a bronze helmet over its head, trapping a wild crackling bob of electric dreadlocks beneath it. There is no substance to their heads beyond this anchored lightning, and it exhausts them to leave it unconstricted. Their limbs are thin and spindly things of scratched metal, but their torsos are hardy, and sparks leap from the bumps and nodules that form there. Despite their seeming fragility, spark jockeys are both strong and rapid workers when they feel so inclined. There is little art or elegance to their slapdash tools and constructions, but they are generally sufficient to do the job they're made for before they break. They gravitate to cities and settlements, both for the familiarity of patchwork slums and for the fauna that come part and parcel with civilisation.
Lightning-keruby are great animal-lovers and love to ride. Their preference is not for grand or majestic beasts, however. Rather, their favourite breeds are livestock, domesticated beasts and those urban vermin who live off humanity without permission. Femkeruby delight in the company of such creatures, and encourage them to be wild and free, stripping away their tame natures and rendering them independent once more. They are superb jockeys, and the most common use femkeruby put their handiwork to by far is the making of saddles. Such saddles are nothing like any human work, though, and nor is their usage. A femkerub saddle has one purpose: to comfortably protect the animal from the electrified metal body of the cherub, and everything not essential for that purpose is stripped away. Spark jockey riding is rapid, chaotic and wild, and a human who tried to replicate it would be thrown and trampled to death in very short order.
Femkeruby are summoned as ostlers, though asking one to corral livestock is likely to result in the entire herd going missing overnight. They can, however, happily tolerate men and beasts living in equal partnership, and a wandering hero could benefit greatly from a spark jockey to help care for their steed. Their quick and dirty construction is just as useful when one needs a ramshackle shelter or improvised cooking pot for the night. When lightning strikes near a group of owned or imprisoned animals, a femkerub can emerge from the bolt to free them. If they see an animal suffering under human ownership, they will gain Limit unless allowed to remedy the situation.
Physical: 6; Physical Styles: Madcap Dancer Style (5), Wild Rider Style (12)
Social: 3; Social Styles: Beast-Befriending Style (9)
Mental: 2; Mental Styles: City-Creature's Clinic Style (6), Slapdash Builder Style (6), Urban Explorer Style (7)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 5, ACC +2, DMG 3L, DEF 1, Rate 1 (Club or flail)
Armour: 3 (Tough metal body)
Join Battle 1; DV 3
Accuracy: 8; Damage: 6L;
Soak 6; Health Levels; 6
MDV 1; Urge: Free Beasts from their Chains
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Riding (4), Urban Animals and Livestock (4), Quick and Dirty Crafting (3), Complex Contraptions (2)
Fast Charms:
Lightning Dancers
Keywords: Obvious
Sparks are never far from the surface of a femkerub. When they dance, their inner charge is brought to the surface in arcs and showers of sparks, bright bolts of electricity and tremendous fields of crawling lightning. Those unfortunate enough to be holding metal objects must roll at each interval against a disarm attempt. This roll is Difficulty 2 at the first level and rises by 1 for each subsequent level.
Friend of Feral Things
Keywords: Training
It is with strength of spirit that the femkeruby connect with the beasts they encounter, not conditioning or cruelty. A spark jockey can ride any beast - even nonsensically small steeds such as foxes or rabbits - and ignores Control rolls for any animal with Enlightenment lower that its own. Prolonged exposure to lightning-keruby will wear down domestication and training, increasing the Difficulty for any other rider to handle the creature by (kerub's Enlightenment) until it is re-tamed.
Keruby of the Tidal Artisan
If there are differences between the genders of the agyakeruby, they are invisible to any save each other. Their malleable bodies of seabed clay and woven reeds give no sign, for they can be reshaped and sculpted with ease; mutations and decorations applied and removed like letters written in sand. Avid critics and consumers of art, clay-keruby are prone to keep homages to their favourite pieces on their bodies, and a change in their tastes can render them almost unrecognisable. The dances of the living canvases make the area around them as malleable as their own bodies, warping land, structures and even living things that linger too long; often damaging them in the process.
Althrough dreamy and prone to strange chains of logic, agyakeruby are nonetheless effective diplomats and negotiators. Some are surprised at this, but such people have never seen a seemingly random comment from a clay-kerub disarm an offended warrior's growing wrath, or a serene non-sequitor about the quality of a treasured painting flatter its merchant owner. While they can be blunt in their appraisal of arts and crafts, they are generally friendly in disposition, and many find work in trade and barter. Offending them is difficult but not impossible, and insults to their favourite art pieces - intentional or otherwise - will often spark a creative mind to plot odd and inventive means of revenge.
Clay-keruby can serve as aides in diplomacy and bartering for those other than the lyrical heirs, who look on them with favour as well-behaved subordinates who help them in controlling mixed groups of their kin. Any artist might find their critique a useful prompt, but those who work with the sculpting of flesh are likely to benefit most - living canvases are perfectly suited as test subjects for intentional mutation. When a person's flesh is changed or sculpted into a form they consider beautiful, an agyakerub can arrive nearby to congratulate them on their good fortune. Insults to their own aesthetic tastes cause them to gain a point of Limit.
Physical: 2; Physical Styles: Flesh as Clay Style (8), Madcap Dancer Style (5)
Social: 5; Social Styles: Bewildering Barter Style (9), Dizzy Logic Style (9)
Mental: 3; Mental Styles: Connoisseuring Critique Style (10), Random artistic Style (7)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 5, ACC +2, DMG 2B, DEF 0, Rate 1, Range 5 yards (Hurling clay)
Armour: 2 (Thick clay)
Join Battle 1; DV 1
Accuracy: 4; Damage: 4B;
Soak 4; Health Levels; 2
MDV 4; Urge: Judge the Merits of Artwork
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Art (4), Everyone Getting Along (4), Bartering (3), Curiosity (3)
Fast Charms:
Mutative Dancers
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping
Agyakeruby warp the world like clay when they dance. Stone ripples, metal twists, wood warps and flesh flows like wax; growing more fluid and less formed as more of them gather. The stress of these changes tear at objects from within until they crumble, and even the survivors leave changed. At each interval, characters within the radius of a clay-kerub dance must roll Endurance+Survival to avoid mutation. This roll is Difficulty 2 at the first level and rises by 1 for each subsequent level. Failure inflicts a randomly chosen thematically-appropriate mutation, whose cost cannot exceed the number of successes the character failed by.
Flesh of Clay
No agyakerub looks exactly like another, for they can reshape themselves and others as they wish. A clay-kerub has a pool of (Enlightenment x 2) mutation points, which it can reassign with a dramatic action of one hour as it reshapes its subject. 0-point Cosmetic mutations do not count towards this limit, but it can only have (Enlightenment x 2) of them at a time. Agyakeruby use this most often on themselves and each other, and can grant anyone able to work with clay or apply mutations the benefits of this Charm in their stead. They can also reshape others - clay-keruby always have the tools to make a disguise with Flesh-as-Clay Style, and can mould other creatures by slathering clay onto their bodies to change a face's hue or grant a working third eye or limb. However, such changes to beings other than agyakeruby fall away after a day, and must be reapplied with exacting care.
If there are differences between the genders of the agyakeruby, they are invisible to any save each other. Their malleable bodies of seabed clay and woven reeds give no sign, for they can be reshaped and sculpted with ease; mutations and decorations applied and removed like letters written in sand. Avid critics and consumers of art, clay-keruby are prone to keep homages to their favourite pieces on their bodies, and a change in their tastes can render them almost unrecognisable. The dances of the living canvases make the area around them as malleable as their own bodies, warping land, structures and even living things that linger too long; often damaging them in the process.
Althrough dreamy and prone to strange chains of logic, agyakeruby are nonetheless effective diplomats and negotiators. Some are surprised at this, but such people have never seen a seemingly random comment from a clay-kerub disarm an offended warrior's growing wrath, or a serene non-sequitor about the quality of a treasured painting flatter its merchant owner. While they can be blunt in their appraisal of arts and crafts, they are generally friendly in disposition, and many find work in trade and barter. Offending them is difficult but not impossible, and insults to their favourite art pieces - intentional or otherwise - will often spark a creative mind to plot odd and inventive means of revenge.
Clay-keruby can serve as aides in diplomacy and bartering for those other than the lyrical heirs, who look on them with favour as well-behaved subordinates who help them in controlling mixed groups of their kin. Any artist might find their critique a useful prompt, but those who work with the sculpting of flesh are likely to benefit most - living canvases are perfectly suited as test subjects for intentional mutation. When a person's flesh is changed or sculpted into a form they consider beautiful, an agyakerub can arrive nearby to congratulate them on their good fortune. Insults to their own aesthetic tastes cause them to gain a point of Limit.
Physical: 2; Physical Styles: Flesh as Clay Style (8), Madcap Dancer Style (5)
Social: 5; Social Styles: Bewildering Barter Style (9), Dizzy Logic Style (9)
Mental: 3; Mental Styles: Connoisseuring Critique Style (10), Random artistic Style (7)
Enlightenment: 2;
Arms: SPD 5, ACC +2, DMG 2B, DEF 0, Rate 1, Range 5 yards (Hurling clay)
Armour: 2 (Thick clay)
Join Battle 1; DV 1
Accuracy: 4; Damage: 4B;
Soak 4; Health Levels; 2
MDV 4; Urge: Judge the Merits of Artwork
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Art (4), Everyone Getting Along (4), Bartering (3), Curiosity (3)
Fast Charms:
Mutative Dancers
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping
Agyakeruby warp the world like clay when they dance. Stone ripples, metal twists, wood warps and flesh flows like wax; growing more fluid and less formed as more of them gather. The stress of these changes tear at objects from within until they crumble, and even the survivors leave changed. At each interval, characters within the radius of a clay-kerub dance must roll Endurance+Survival to avoid mutation. This roll is Difficulty 2 at the first level and rises by 1 for each subsequent level. Failure inflicts a randomly chosen thematically-appropriate mutation, whose cost cannot exceed the number of successes the character failed by.
Flesh of Clay
No agyakerub looks exactly like another, for they can reshape themselves and others as they wish. A clay-kerub has a pool of (Enlightenment x 2) mutation points, which it can reassign with a dramatic action of one hour as it reshapes its subject. 0-point Cosmetic mutations do not count towards this limit, but it can only have (Enlightenment x 2) of them at a time. Agyakeruby use this most often on themselves and each other, and can grant anyone able to work with clay or apply mutations the benefits of this Charm in their stead. They can also reshape others - clay-keruby always have the tools to make a disguise with Flesh-as-Clay Style, and can mould other creatures by slathering clay onto their bodies to change a face's hue or grant a working third eye or limb. However, such changes to beings other than agyakeruby fall away after a day, and must be reapplied with exacting care.
And some cuteness to finish this post off:
EarthScorpion: Also, omg squee
EarthScorpion: alif
EarthScorpion: wild young petal cherubs who are living in the Swamp
EarthScorpion: hiding from the other predators
EarthScorpion: and writing their books and hiding them in hollow tree trunks
Aleph: so cute
EarthScorpion: And they'll go and run away and hide in the tree trunk with little flame blossoms decorating the inside and just sit there and read
Aleph: some of them also cut out the middle man and just write directly onto the tree itself, on the basis that a book can burn, but a tree generally won't.
Aleph: (then they get very upset when there's a forest fire and the bark gets burnt off)
EarthScorpion: Heh. And they're moe and shy, but they're also very social in their own way because that way they can read each other's stories
EarthScorpion: So the way they show alliance and friendship is by trading books
Aleph: omg so adorable
Aleph: when one of them is sad
Aleph: her friends make her a little anthology
Aleph: of stories she hasn't read yet
Aleph: ...
Aleph: ... and bicker about which ones to put in it
Aleph: because at the end of the day these are still haneyl's creatures
Aleph: ¬_¬
EarthScorpion: Oh, Haneyl. Your inner circle of petal cherubs are highly valued, incredibly spoiled, and have learned to be acutely aware of your moods and when to be around you and when not to and when to write... sigh, satirical pieces mocking Rathan which make you laugh.
Aleph: Also mocking Echo, though this is harder.
Aleph: ...
Aleph: omg
Aleph: one of them
Aleph: Heh
Aleph: the first one
Aleph: the one that used to be a szelkerub, which Sasi summoned and which started dressing all in white
Aleph: she survived the great fire
Aleph: and may in fact just now be mostly adapted
EarthScorpion: Sigh. They do in fact know how to survive Hanyelian fires, the szelkeruby.
EarthScorpion: They're light enough to be carried up on the updrafts from the fire.
EarthScorpion: So all they have to do is avoid getting set alight by embers.
EarthScorpion: The first one, heh, some of the embers have settled in her head.
EarthScorpion: And now she has permanent embers there.
Aleph: The best bit, though?
Aleph: She has worked out that Haneyl is sad, and is currently very intently spending ages and ages and ages writing Haneyl a story about Sasi summoning her; Haneyl, and them going and doing Mama and Daughter things together
Aleph: (she is somewhat shaky on what exactly said things are, but is mostly guessing based on what she's seen Keris and Haneyl and Dulmea doing together)
EarthScorpion: omg
EarthScorpion: so cute
Aleph: ... she may in fact be rerolling and rewriting repeatedly until she gets the best number of successes ever
EarthScorpion: Some of it is also based on what Sasi did with her.
EarthScorpion: So Sasi is asking Haneyl what she can do.
EarthScorpion: And of course, that means Haneyl gets to show off how super-amazing she is.
Aleph: She is going to become Haneyl's #1 favoured noble handmaiden overnight.
Aleph: Her story may well be copied out several dozen times and put in multiple places so it can't get lost to fire.
EarthScorpion: Haneyl is going to make her her own treehouse.
EarthScorpion: Next door to the palace
EarthScorpion: And she also gets her own room right next to the royal nap room
Aleph: such honour
Aleph: much privilege
Aleph: wow
Aleph: Haneyl: "Keris! She's mine! You're not allowed to summon her!"
Aleph: Keris: "I... wasn't going to?"
Aleph: Haneyl: "Good!"
Aleph: Haneyl: *aggressively hugs her friend*
EarthScorpion: alif
EarthScorpion: wild young petal cherubs who are living in the Swamp
EarthScorpion: hiding from the other predators
EarthScorpion: and writing their books and hiding them in hollow tree trunks
Aleph: so cute
EarthScorpion: And they'll go and run away and hide in the tree trunk with little flame blossoms decorating the inside and just sit there and read
Aleph: some of them also cut out the middle man and just write directly onto the tree itself, on the basis that a book can burn, but a tree generally won't.
Aleph: (then they get very upset when there's a forest fire and the bark gets burnt off)
EarthScorpion: Heh. And they're moe and shy, but they're also very social in their own way because that way they can read each other's stories
EarthScorpion: So the way they show alliance and friendship is by trading books
Aleph: omg so adorable
Aleph: when one of them is sad
Aleph: her friends make her a little anthology
Aleph: of stories she hasn't read yet
Aleph: ...
Aleph: ... and bicker about which ones to put in it
Aleph: because at the end of the day these are still haneyl's creatures
Aleph: ¬_¬
EarthScorpion: Oh, Haneyl. Your inner circle of petal cherubs are highly valued, incredibly spoiled, and have learned to be acutely aware of your moods and when to be around you and when not to and when to write... sigh, satirical pieces mocking Rathan which make you laugh.
Aleph: Also mocking Echo, though this is harder.
Aleph: ...
Aleph: omg
Aleph: one of them
Aleph: Heh
Aleph: the first one
Aleph: the one that used to be a szelkerub, which Sasi summoned and which started dressing all in white
Aleph: she survived the great fire
Aleph: and may in fact just now be mostly adapted
EarthScorpion: Sigh. They do in fact know how to survive Hanyelian fires, the szelkeruby.
EarthScorpion: They're light enough to be carried up on the updrafts from the fire.
EarthScorpion: So all they have to do is avoid getting set alight by embers.
EarthScorpion: The first one, heh, some of the embers have settled in her head.
EarthScorpion: And now she has permanent embers there.
Aleph: The best bit, though?
Aleph: She has worked out that Haneyl is sad, and is currently very intently spending ages and ages and ages writing Haneyl a story about Sasi summoning her; Haneyl, and them going and doing Mama and Daughter things together
Aleph: (she is somewhat shaky on what exactly said things are, but is mostly guessing based on what she's seen Keris and Haneyl and Dulmea doing together)
EarthScorpion: omg
EarthScorpion: so cute
Aleph: ... she may in fact be rerolling and rewriting repeatedly until she gets the best number of successes ever
EarthScorpion: Some of it is also based on what Sasi did with her.
EarthScorpion: So Sasi is asking Haneyl what she can do.
EarthScorpion: And of course, that means Haneyl gets to show off how super-amazing she is.
Aleph: She is going to become Haneyl's #1 favoured noble handmaiden overnight.
Aleph: Her story may well be copied out several dozen times and put in multiple places so it can't get lost to fire.
EarthScorpion: Haneyl is going to make her her own treehouse.
EarthScorpion: Next door to the palace
EarthScorpion: And she also gets her own room right next to the royal nap room
Aleph: such honour
Aleph: much privilege
Aleph: wow
Aleph: Haneyl: "Keris! She's mine! You're not allowed to summon her!"
Aleph: Keris: "I... wasn't going to?"
Aleph: Haneyl: "Good!"
Aleph: Haneyl: *aggressively hugs her friend*
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
This seems a little overpowered for a first circle, especially if you're lenient in your definition of victim.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Note that they have to make a speech first, and it stops working if their target surrenders and apologises. It's basically Bane Weapon.
That's just adorable.
I dread the day Octavian discovers them and decides to use their dances as siege weapons.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
...How? He can't summon them without the explicit and personal permission of Keris, and most of her souls are going to lobby her to not let their playmates get summoned as weapons by Octavian, as he's kind of creepy. Also, Octavian probably has his own breeds of siege weapon first circles.
I was assuming that it could be a pretty short speech, like 'You, evildoer who perverts justice! In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!' I'm pretty sure that while 2e doesn't allow social attacks in combat, you can still give pretty long speeches, ST allowing. And the 'surrender and apologize' weakness is both rather unintuitive, and means that the summoner wins anyway, as allowing the target to 'surrender' then immediately start fighting again is nonsensical.
...
@Aleph
Am I right in thinking the szelkeruby haven't changed yet, and so still can change once summoned? If so, could, for instance, Octavian (or, say, a Sidereal for really weird ones) aspect one of them to himself?
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hmm. True. Smiters of Wrongdoing is probably the one I'm iffiest about, balance-wise.
Ah, well. That's the question. How far do keruby aspects go? The only ones known about (so far) are the five aspected to her souls. Is it even possible for them to adapt to other Essence blends? Quite possibly not. Then again, maybe Sasi would be able to make crystal-cherubs and shadow-cherubs if she studied them (the latter of which would, uh, basically be grown-up Things That Hide In Corners, in that they're pretty little decadent creatures who make it darker when they dance). It's unclear.
Currently, my thinking is that Keris-sourced ones can only aspect to Kerisian essence flavours, and that you'd need to basically study and create a new breed from scratch to make one themed around something else. And such a demon might well not be as fluid as Kerisian keruby are - they'd be missing the "first demon species ever created by a newborn titan", for a start, which is a pretty potent exotic ingredient as such things go.
Oh my God.
I just got that reference.
Now Rathan has his own army of Sailor Scouts.
Every so often, they arrange a meetup between Rathan, Ululaya and Luna and try to get them to combine.
Dynamesmouse
Bzzzzzz
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Who take it as a personal offence whenever they see someone: a) accuse an innocent of something their victim didn't do, or b) take credit from someone for something their victim did do.
Echo and Haneyl are going to get mobbed by the little pests.
Hmm? In what sense? The way that Keris has... sigh... basically set up an Evil Demonic Forest Fort from a Miyazaki movie with a brass-and-basalt tower at the centre and rough structures thrown together from the rubble of an old Shogunate town around it and berms and palisades fencing the whole thing in and demonic knights on horseback jousting and hunting at all hours of the day? Or just the weirdness of horses that sound like leopards and buildings being carried as luggage?
Remember, to transfer the tower in and out of her soul Keris had to use Great Mother's Blessed Waters.
Which means the evil demonic tower which does strange and unholy flesh-warping experiments using magical acid and demonic alchemy is next to a polluted evil demonic lake filled with strange metallic salts and which isn't the colour normal water should be.
(Oh, Infernals. It's so much fun when you accidentally make yourselves the villains of a piece. Presumably Keris should next start dumping mutagenic waste in the lake, polluting the streams and leaving them twisted with strange powers.)
Keris: "It's not dumping! It's carefully calculated mutagenic chemicals I'm putting in the water, to make the land more fertile and the plants better able to grow in the cold!"