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

[Sanctaphrax]

See, this is the problem with 2e's approach to superhuman charisma. Every effective method of persuasion is treated as brainwashing, and it starts to look like murdering people for disagreeing with you is morally better than talking to them.

 

[Bursting Eagerness Soul]

A couple questions for @Aleph and @EarthScorpion. What kind of music do you use as inspiration for Kerisgame? Like, what comes to mind when you think of An Teng or angyalkae? Related, what would you pick as a leitmotif for each character?

 

[Aleph]

After a several-week break to do frantic Power Games writing, I'm please to announce Kerisgame is back! With our first look at a divine court (spoiler alert: Keris happens to it) and Haneyl having the bestest best birthday ever.

Extras:

EarthScorpion: If Keris gets Rounen and Cissidy as Familiars, they can pop in and out of her when they feel like it.
Aleph: Heh. I may. Hmm. Honestly, yeah, they've been with her long enough that they may have worked out a way in and out - probably not the same one Firisutu uses.
...
EarthScorpion: Does Keris want to start training anything with her current XP plus the XP for this session?
Aleph: Oh yeah, hmm. I... yeah, actually, I might get a few of the non-Pantheon Zanran charms that are in-theme with what she's been doing so far - Price-of-Everything Undercurrents and Hidden Depths Temptress and Kindness Expects Repayment. So, hmm. Yeah, I'll spend 8xp to start learning PoEU.
EarthScorpion: So, hmm, how to train that in a short scene?
Aleph: Well, it's in-theme for what she has been doing, which is why I chose it. She's been offering this court of gods things they really want, and she's been offering things to the Hui Cha - and seeing how far she can stretch that credit in stuff like "disappearing for three weeks" - for a while now.
...
EarthScorpion: And yes, the idea about the flower things is that Haneyl looked at a peronelle and... uh
EarthScorpion: took the usual Haneylian lack of subtlety
Aleph: Went "I CAN DO THAT BETTER!"
Aleph: So they're, heh, basically very Obvious power armour, which might be lower defence but which give you Physique boosts.
Aleph: Kuha is going to <3 <3 <3 them.
EarthScorpion: One of its Charms is a mobility-booster.
...
Aleph: Oh, Keris. PoEU has, in one Charm purchase, made you considerably more socially dangerous, because suddenly some of your self-esteem issues are getting challenged because you can tell with absolute certainty what your aid is worth to people.
Aleph: Which turns out to be "a hell of a lot"
EarthScorpion: : D
EarthScorpion: Heh. If Keris starts using PoEU in the bedroom, it'll do funny things with her "I am not a harlot" self-definition. But on the other hand, she realise that she means more to Sasi than perhaps even Sasi knows.
EarthScorpion: Sigh. When she gets Kindness Expects Repayment, she becomes even more dangerous - because her services are worth Resources 5, so "Provided that the gift is accepted - and in the case of a service, the service is complete - the Infernal's player rolls (Appearance + Socialise) as an undodgeable social attack, adding bonus successes equal to the gift's Resources value." she can basically go seduce powerful people, and leave them a memento or a piece of art and suddenly a lot of powerful people feel gratitude to her.
...
Aleph: Hee. Keris's insistence that she's not a harlot is one of those funny little bits of self-justifying circular-logic no-true-scotsman exception-making rationalisations that most humans do.
Aleph: And which I always appreciate seeing in fictional characters instead of having everyone be Maximum Logical and Self-Aware Bleep-Bloop Robots or Angsty Melodramatic Idiots who Can't Manage Basic Communication.
EarthScorpion: I wonder what that retroactively says about what she did on the Nexan streets during cold winters. It's not like she sold herself - she just found someone who'd take her home for the night.

Keris: "And if they gave me a present, I wouldn't rob them blind."
Sasi: "Ah, yes. A present. Certainly not payment."
Keris: "Yeah, that's right."
Sasi: "Well, that's the difference between you and me. I am one. Maybe I was one all along. My parents sold my body in an arranged marriage and..."
Keris: "Boop!"
Sasi: "What?"
Keris: "You're getting depressed and self-pitying. It's not very cute. Trust me, arranged marriages are nothing like having to choose between sleeping with a stranger and sleeping outside in -10 temperatures."​

Aleph: Poor Keris.
Aleph: *hugs*
EarthScorpion: Sasi: "Sometimes it becomes a little clearer why you run from the past."

Keris: "My past is just made up of lots of unpleasant things. Since I became Exalted. It's basically just been mostly good. I mean, I have you. I have a family. And oh yes, I'm a possibly-immortal demigoddess who can run on walls and doesn't need to sleep."​

Aleph: Oh, Keris. She works so well as an initially-creepy villainess who gets tragic and sympathetic if you stop to look.
Aleph: (and who then stabs you for your trouble)
...
EarthScorpion: Heh. One of the most adorable things about Haneyl is all the ways she's not quite the perfect princess Keris wishes she had lived her life as. Her high-class accent is a sham and her real accent is the same Nexan burr as Keris. She doesn't have Sasi's air of unconscious grace - it's deliberate effort. And, of course, despite being a perfect princess she still goes hungry, because being hungry is part of life for Keris.
EarthScorpion: Poor Haneyl. By her very nature, she's noveau riche.

Click to shrink...

 

[beowolf]

@Aleph
May I enquire as to who Zanran is?

 

[Aleph]

@Aleph
May I enquire as to who Zanran is?

Click to shrink...

Zanra - "Zanran" is referring to things related to Zanra in the same way that "Echoan" means all things Echo-related - is one of the remaining planned souls that Keris has yet to bud, the other being Vali. Technically they both have an as-yet-unrealised presence in her Tiger Empire, but they're not ready to be born yet. Like her various other souls, they each have a number of Charms under their purview beyond just the Pantheon Charm they stem from, and they'll be birthed properly when Keris has completed their respective Charm-clusters.

 

[Peanuckle]

Her high-class accent is a sham and her real accent is the same Nexan burr as Keris.

Click to shrink...

Now I've got the image of Haneyl as a backwoods hillbilly pretending to be Cinderella at a ball, only to be taken at face value by prince charming.

Of course, when the magic wears off, she's a blood-splattered swamp monster who eats his face off instead of a comely village lass.

 

[Academia Nut]

Now I've got the image of Haneyl as a backwoods hillbilly pretending to be Cinderella at a ball, only to be taken at face value by prince charming.

Of course, when the magic wears off, she's a blood-splattered swamp monster who eats his face off instead of a comely village lass.

Click to shrink...

Also, that the "Cinder" part is both literal and an understatement.

 

[EarthScorpion]

Now I've got the image of Haneyl as a backwoods hillbilly pretending to be Cinderella at a ball, only to be taken at face value by prince charming.

Of course, when the magic wears off, she's a blood-splattered swamp monster who eats his face off instead of a comely village lass.

Click to shrink...

Trufax. Mentally, and entirely because of the similarity of the words, Nexans sound like Texans to me.

So Haneyl mentally sounds like a Southern girl who most of the time manages to affect an RP accent [1] and is usually somewhat convincing, but when she gets worked up or emotional it really slips.

[1] Because of course the Realm sounds super-British. After all, it's an American-made game and the Realm are the villains. And you have to use those classic voice-acting decisions with Romanesque casting.

 

[Aleph]

Trufax. Mentally, and entirely because of the similarity of the words, Nexans sound like Texans to me.

So Haneyl mentally sounds like a Southern girl

Click to shrink...

... this is the first I've heard of this. Sigh. That means that Sasi's every syllable is crisp and clear RP, as befits a posh manipulative villainess.

Hmm. What would Rathan's Lintha accent be, then?

 

[EarthScorpion]

... this is the first I've heard of this. Sigh. That means that Sasi's every syllable is crisp and clear RP, as befits a posh manipulative villainess.

Hmm. What would Rathan's Lintha accent be, then?

Click to shrink...

Well, let's look at the Lintha. They're a declined naval power who were once mighty, but have since fallen. They're egotistical and have a grossly inflated sense of their own importance, which leads them to do stupid self-destructive things that only harm themselves.

An obvious accent suggests itself. Unfortunately, we've already assigned the British accent. (zing) [1]

So instead, I'mma gonna say "Greek", for much the same reasons. Also, it means the pirates (and Rathan) all have sexy Greek accents, which is a distinct plus.

(This means that Kimbery may well have a soul that looks like Megara from Hercules.)

[1] Lintha Faraj Nijil

 

[Aleph]

Chapter 8! There are no bonus bits this time - for obvious reasons, happy metagame behind-the-scenes chatter has had something of a pall cast over it recently. Also, what chatting there was mostly revolved around us trying to find a shorthand for Rathan's characterisation, which hasn't clicked in the same way that Keris's other souls have (I'm still trying to find a good model, grrr). Expect a bit more of him - this session has him show up and argue for more screentime, including something we've been planning for ages - the beginning of his "marine mammal" theme. Rathan has been shifting for quite a while from "Lord of the Waters" to being much more moon-and-ice themed - he rules over the Sea, but he's not of it. So while he went through a "squid" phase when he was younger, he's now very much settled on liking dolphins and especially orca.

Third Circle Rathan totally has a "war form" of a great orca with human arms (or possibly squid-like tentacles), skin of red nacre and ice and beautiful pearls for teeth and eyes.

It is a very pretty orca.

In other news, Haneyl got SEVEN PRESENTS for her birthday! Three of them were the gods that Keris infected with her seeds. She is very pleased. Three more were experience points that Keris (subconsciously) gave her for demon-making!

Spoiler: Erooltony, the Armour Blossoms

Progeny of the Flower Maiden
Sessile and unintelligent, an erooltony resembles nothing more than a harness made of grey vines when it lacks a host. Should a living being touch the demon with their bare skin, however, it quickly slivers across them, laying down hair-thin roots which dig into the skin. These roots produce a thick, armoured shell that covers the entire body like many layers of chain swathing, while from the vines bud countless brightly coloured blossoms. Such beauty hides a hidden danger, though - the flowers spit fire at anything they perceive as threatening their host.

The Flower Maiden did not cultivate these demons for their cunning, though - nor for their wisdom. They are dumb beasts, but their vine-skeletons are strong and when they wrap themselves around a host, they lend their strength to them. A man wearing an erooltony is faster and stronger than any man should be. Such prowess comes at a cost, though, for the demon takes the nutrients it needs from its host. On campaign, a warrior who wears one of these will have to eat several times as much food to fuel the exertion of the plants - and likewise, the armour blossoms require light. Those who think to remove such a symbiote find it leaves its marks on them. Normal humans who don an erooltony find that the roots leave acne-like scars across their entire body when the demon is removed. If they have worn it too long, their own muscles may have withered from lack of use.

Sorcerers summon the armour blossoms for exactly the same reason Flower Maiden Haneyl made them - to wear, or have their servants wear. If one can meet the requirements of the demon, they provide excellent protection - though they have all the subtlety of a scream, unlike the peronelle. Should the demon not receive its required sustenance, though, it gains one point of Limit per day as well as inflicting one point of lethal damage per day on the host. The erooltony do not willingly escape from the strange realm where they are grown, but still, sometimes when an armoury is left to fall into ruin and rust one may blossom from the rusted remnants of fine plate.

Spoiler: Matuzyiks, the Sailbacked Lizard-Wolves

Progeny of the Flower Maiden
The tiny realm of Krisity the land is built from echoes of Primordial glory and its architects were the Demon Princes born with it. The realms of the Princes war without ceasing, and should one dominate it is inevitable the bickering siblings will turn their attention on the upstart, for none would like to see their brothers or sisters rule unchallenged. They have no need for the elementals of Creation. Yet green-eyed Haneyl wrought the matuzyiks to tend to her garden lands, and they mock the forms of the guardians of Creation just as the metody of Malfeas do.

A matuzyik is a quadrupedal demon who stands with its shoulders as high as a man's, and in its features partakes of the natures of both lizard and canine. Much like a wolf, its posture is alert and attentive, its eyes are keen and its prominent snout is sharp. Its scales, however, are the muddy browns and clean greys of Haneyl's woods, its forked tongue is long and prehensile - indeed, it is just as useful as a man's hand - and at most times its blood runs cool. Upon their back their exposed spine sprouts with many kinds of extravagant bulbs, one growing from each exposed neural vertebra. From the side, the plants which sprout from them resemble a sail, which gives them their name.

The matuzyiks are prone to laziness, and would rather bask under the red moonlight in Krisity, planting their seeds in bare scorched earth and supping on fruit and the flesh of other demons. When they cannot find bare earth to relax on, though, they grow agitated and should this go on too long their blood runs ablaze with ardour. This is no mere metaphor, for in such times their veins are filled with the emerald fire of their progenitor. The heat makes the plants on their back bud and burst, and burning blossoms festoon their forms, seed-shrapnel spraying everywhere. This drives them into a contagious frenzy, and should one member of a pack enter the burning mood the others will join them.

Once the mood passes and they are surrounded by flame the lizard-wolves fall into a deep lethargy, burying themselves deep in the burning ground to escape the heat. When the fires stop, they will - eventually - wake and dig themselves out. And then on the freshly scorched ground, they lazily begin to plant their seeds and eat and sleep in the fire ecology of Haneyl's lands.

Spoiler: Nyilsaskae, the Firequills

Progeny of the Flower Maiden
Admire the scene; a forest glade as autumn draws in. Grass carpets the ground and the leaves of the trees are a fiery collage of red, yellow and brown. The sun beats down from above, and a faint ringing hiss and crack can be heard on the breeze, like the sound of a sword being unsheathed and a match being struck in its wake.

At this point, the wise or knowledgeable stop admiring, and start to run.

Firequills are insectoid demons the size of a child, and resemble nothing so much as a praying mantis crossed with a porcupine. From their long, bulbous abdomens sprout a thousand banded quills that radiate backwards and to the sides, each up to a metre long. Though the length of the quills changes colour with the foliage as its owner does, the tips are always a fierce and angry red. A nyilsaska can reach back with its front claws to pluck a quill from its back, lighting the flammable tip with a bite from the incendiary venom they carry in their jaws, and then throw it as fast and as far as an arrow. The characteristic sound of them preparing to fire is a warning well-heeded in their woods, since being shot full of burning arrow-quills often offends.

The typical nyilsaska is a proud and competitive creature which prefers to stay in the trees, hiding amongst thick foliage and observing without being seen. Their eyesight is keen, and colonies of them will often inhabit a stand of trees together, having frequent competitions of eyesight and accuracy. Finding firequill barbs lodged around target flowers or in the corpses of trespassers is a strong sign of these companies, but it is not necessarily death to stumble into one. Nyilsaskan pride is taken as much in metaphorical accuracy and insight as physical, and they can often be mollified and cajoled by flattery in the form of poetry or prose. New and perceptive ways of seeing or describing the world are particularly pleasing to them, and they will often refuse to harm those who impress them in this way.

Should a firequill be rejected or ignored by one who it has challenged to a competition, its wounded pride will cause it to gain a point of Limit. When a burning arrow snuffs out the life of an insect on the wing, a nyilsaska may use its landing point as an entrance into Creation.

... yeah, I've had two of them waiting for quite a while. Pretty pumped about getting them made. Especially the firequills, who are my bae~

The seventh present is a mystery. But it may not stay that way for long...

 

[greensun]

@Aleph

Is that a demonic Exo skeleton!

 

[Aleph]

@Aleph

Is that a demonic Exo skeleton!

Click to shrink...

Yes. Yes it is. It is very floral power armour that spits fire at your enemies.

Haneyl is actually getting quite good at designing demons.

 

[EarthScorpion]

Yes. Yes it is. It is very floral power armour that spits fire at your enemies.

Haneyl is actually getting quite good at designing demons.

Click to shrink...

Well, within her biases and her modes of thinking.

For example, the armour blossoms are probably Mobility -0, Fatigue 5 to wear because while they don't handicap the wearer's mobility, they do draw all their nourishment from the host's bloodstream which means they swiftly become fatigued and hungry and tired. That's the same penalty as the heaviest mortal armour in the corebook, which is literally draping yourself in layer upon layer upon layer of chainmail.

Haneyl doesn't see this as a problem - at least, not enough of a problem to make them less greedy and thus make her armour blossoms less powerful - because for your super-special warriors, of course you're going to give them lots of food and lots of rest, right? And the bit where they'll eat their host if they can't keep up the supply of nutrients is just how things work.

Basically, a peronelle is a subtle, protective demon that one can wear all the time to no ill effect (apart from possibly giving Lucien a spy on everything you do). An erooltony is the result of Haneyl looking at a peronelle and going "But what if they were super overt and really tough and spat fire and were as dumb as rocks? Who cares about having subtle defence? I just want to put one of these on my brave cataphracts and make them even tougher. And also set things on fire when they charge."

... it's fairly obvious she's a dual-natured Malfean-Metagoyin soul, sometimes.

 

[MJ12 Commando]

For example, the armour blossoms are probably Mobility -0, Fatigue 5 to wear because while they don't handicap the wearer's mobility, they do draw all their nourishment from the host's bloodstream which means they swiftly become fatigued and hungry and tired. That's the same penalty as the heaviest mortal armour in the corebook, which is literally draping yourself in layer upon layer upon layer of chainmail.

Click to shrink...

Look, if 300 seconds of combat effectiveness was good enough for Shinji, it's good enough for you.

 

[Aleph]

Chapter 9! In which Keris finally overcomes the one foe she cannot slay. She also very nearly walks right into a heavily guarded Realm treasury, and sure, she got turned away, but she walked right up to the door and demanded she be let in without an access pass and wasn't arrested. Rathan is a lot more powerful than I've been treating him, and I need to start making better use of her Kimmy social tree. She also drops a gentle reminder that for all of Keris's relative laxness in certain areas; she does view herself as a Green Sun Princess, does have ambitions and plans that are separate from and perhaps even at odds with Sasi's, and is willing to take action towards them. Like sparking a full-scale Tengese rebellion against the Scarlet Throne, which she will be arguing for with increasing insistence depending on how the Realm Civil War goes in the future.

There is a crapload of extra stuff for this session, and I'm not even posting all of it since a fair chunk was to do with Vali and Zanra, who I want to leave mysterious until they arrive in case we decide to change them a little in the time between now and then. I'll probably post the missing chunks whenever that happens.

Aleph: I've had some breakthroughs with defining Rathan, and... no wonder he's the polar opposite of Calesco, when summarised like this.
Aleph: Looking over the notes I have on him - his grudge-holding, his childish wonder, his generosity, his attention-wanting - a common theme basically just seems to be that... Rathan is the most emotional of her souls. Whatever he feels, he feels absolutely and with no restraints - not quite in the way of Haneyl's fire dancers; he's not overwhelmed by it and still has his intellect alongside it. But he does basically seem to have a single-track mind, emotionally speaking, and dials it to 200%.
Aleph: If he's happy, he's overjoyed and a smiling cherubic angel who is honestly the best out of all of them at making Keris happy just by proximity. If he's calm, he's lazy and content and at peace. If he's upset... well, we know what happens when he's upset.
Aleph: And the other side was, heh. He's privilege. He is literally the privileged, entitled mindset of someone in power who just doesn't have "I am wrong" as a mental tool. People like... what's her name, that girl who demanded she get into university with sub-par grades and decided that it was reverse racism that was keeping her out when they said no. He can be generous, in the manner of the privileged where they're being charitable for themselves rather than the people they're giving to. But he's fundamentally privilege culture (while Calesco is all about social justice and caring more for the weak than the strong, lol).
Aleph: Amusingly, in being her emotional side... he's basically The Chick.
Aleph: lol keris ur gender roles
Aleph: they r weird
Aleph: srsly keris what is up with ur psychology
Aleph: I should do a little mini-essay on What Ur Souls Say About U once Vali and Zanra show up.
EarthScorpion: And then there's Haneyl, who's... not privileged despite being a princess, and in fact spends a lot of her time worrying about proper standards.
EarthScorpion: ... indicating she's actually noveau riche middle class pretending to be upper class.
Aleph: Oh, Haneyl. You're noveau riche. Rathan is true nobility. No wonder you don't get along very often.
Aleph: Heh. This does give me a better handle on Rathan, I think. And it makes him rather fun. Because he can be horrible, yes, but in a good mood he can also be amazingly sweet. And then someone criticises him, and #masculinitysofragile.
Aleph: ... though Rathan's approach to real-life masculinity is to turn his nose up at it. Especially the part where you're not meant to show your emotions.
...
Aleph: ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: GIRLFRIEND'S KID NO LONGER HATES YOU!
Aleph: ... hee.
Aleph: There is something inherently endearing about a woman who is warier about walking into a ten-month old's playroom than charging at a four-storey-high ten-headed cannibal giant that eats souls and also the people they belong to.
EarthScorpion: Heh. The existence of Keris's children is going to be the final thing to win over Aiko. At least once they become playfriends.
Aleph: Hee. Also lol, Keris did it again.
EarthScorpion: Oh?
Aleph:

Keris shifts uncomfortably. "I... okay," she sighs. "I won't upset the Order. I do want to avoid a Wyld Hunt, if I can," she admits. "And I wouldn't want to make your job harder."

She frowns. "Actually, what is your job?" she asks. "I know mine is to ruin the Dynastic trade out of An Teng, but you're working with the Tengese themselves, aren't you?"

Click to shrink...

Aleph: she did not actually technically promise
Aleph: that she wasn't going to steal the ships from the harbour
Aleph: and then she smoothly changed the subject to a related one before sasi could ask any follow-up questions
Aleph: (I don't think Keris actually notices when she does that)
Aleph: (she's just so naturally evasive that she does it instinctively in combat and in conversation)
EarthScorpion: Kerissssssss
Aleph:

Sasi: "Stop doing that."
Keris: "???"
Keris: "Doing what?"​

...
Aleph: Sigh. Dammit Keris. I have a feeling she might be going to scare Sasi accidentally next year.
EarthScorpion: Mmm? Oh dear.
Aleph: At least unless Keris has bought Sapphire Sorcery, Demon of the Second Circle (as her first purchase therein) and Raise the Puissant Sanctum by then. Hmm. Or Monstrous Manse-Mother, I guess.
EarthScorpion: Oh. I thought you were going for "monstrous manse mother will scare her".
Aleph: Nah. The thing that will scare her is if Keris hasn't, because then when she finds the Sister that's in a Wyld Zone, she's going to go "fuck the manse is broken" and then "Sasiiiiiii, come help me reverse-engineer the blueprints for these manses and then use your sorcery to rebuild this one after I murder everything in the Wyld Zone with Wyldeater!"
Aleph: And then she's going to murder everything in the Wyld Zone singlehandedly while Sasi is waiting outside and possibly watching, because Keris has not quite grasped the fact that some forms of showing off do not make people impressed so much as intimidated.
Aleph: Oh, Keris. She's semi-frequently going to pop back to Malfeas and be like "yo Ligier, I found another Wyld Zone packed full of raksha, I can has borrow Wyldeater plz for murdertime?"
Aleph: And Ligier will be like "no use my waypoint-collapsing engine this time I want to see how well it works", and Keris is all "but but but then I barely get to murder anything :c" and Ligier is like "deal with it".
Aleph: ... huh, actually. Would that hoover up the wyld zone but leave the remains of the manse (and the jade) still in Creation? Does it basically just suck all the Wyld essence up and revert the terrain to Creation? Because that would be very useful, since Infernal terraforming is probably going to do less-than-good things to the demesne.

Keris: "So you want me to carry the Pyrian shrine (in my soul) to the middle of the waypoint, and then guard it for like an hour while it charges up. And not kill too many things so that it gets maximum yield."
Keris: "You realise my style of 'guarding' involves murdering everything attempting to damage it, right?"
Keris: ":c"​

EarthScorpion: The Little Sister is probably utterly wrecked. Like, the geomancy is just plain fucked. It's not like the powered down one where some geomantic work could shift the dragon lines back into position, or the Wood one which would require work to change the aspect from Wood to Water.
Aleph: Ah crap. Hmm. Well, it's probably worth reverse-engineering a blueprint from the others anyway. If nothing else, I might be able to find another nearby demesne that I can connect to the geomantic grid.
Aleph: Okay, just working out what Keris has left to do before heading back to Malfeas.

THINGS TO DO BEFORE HEADING BACK TO MALFEAS

- Raid Agenete, steal the silver, steal the ships, burn the docks.
- Capture a raksha pirate ship to give the Shashalme (possible one-session thing; useful way to offload that debt and have some more "little Keris" RP).
- Offload fleet at the Isle of Gulls for repair & storage away from keruby.
- Learn Jupiter's Embroidery Style for Lilunu.​

Aleph: ... I can't say I don't like the image of the Baisha towing a dejected raksha pirate ship (lol Flying Dutchman) behind it with all the hatches nailed shut with cold iron and the crew imprisoned by bars of the stuff.

not!Davy Jones: "Do you fear death?"
Keris: "No." *stabs him*​

Aleph: Heh. You know, for all that she's a Green Sun Princess now, Keris still has a very Nexan-street-rat attitude to fights. That is to say; if you're going to fight, fight. If you're going to talk, you get stabbed repeatedly mid-sentence, because she has no respect for dramatic tension or the deep and complex nuances of her enemies' backstories.
Aleph: She also considers that shanking the other guy before he's ready and indeed preferably before he's actually pulled his weapon out is not only fair game, it should be encouraged.
Aleph: ... Keris is basically the sort of antagonist who is very unfair to a group of heroes in your standard fantasy cartoon series, and who the Protagonists probably lose several members to before they catch wise and start treating her like a lethal threat in every engagement.
EarthScorpion: Oh, Keris. And yes, it's true, the fleet in her soul is suffering extra keruby-based degradation.
Aleph: Yeah. I think she's probably going to strip the Baisha down to a skeleton crew, leave as many as she can with the fleet to repair them (and later crew them), and then pick up more crew in Malfeas.
Aleph: ... bluh. Need her to learn a shipbuilding style and teach it to people so that they can be repaired in her personal variant of the style.
Aleph: Hmm. She may come up with a name for that specific style of patterning she's starting to use as a signature. You know, the abstract one that brings to mind waves and wind and mangroves.
Aleph: Well, it's not a single pattern. More a style like, hmm... like Celtic knots. Many different types, but distinctly recognisable as that "family" of art.
EarthScorpion: Mmm, yes.
Aleph: Latin, I think. Some combination of the Latin words for "wave" and "wind". Named in the Malfean style.
...
EarthScorpion: So, how does Keris feel about what her souls say about her and what they feel about her?
Aleph: Oh, hmm. Hmmm. Well, let's start at the top.
Aleph: Keris knows the snake is her po, and what the po is. The seat of emotion, the wellspring of passion and instinct. Hers is, uh... a giant snake. She supposes that means she has really strong instincts and passions? Which seems fair. That it will even attack her... is something she hasn't (yet) put much thought into (pending the Trust Your Instincts short), but it would probably unsettle her a bit that... apparently her instincts can turn against her.
EarthScorpion: Also, it's beautiful
Aleph: Heh. Yes. She likes that. If part of her is going to be a giant monster, she's pleased that it's such a gorgeous one.
Aleph: Moving onto her Fourth Soul; Keris does consider Dulmea to be a part of her, I think. A more independent part who is also her own person, but... hey, all Keris's souls are their own people. They're still part of the greater her that she considers her "self" - as her hun - to be merely the first among equals in and wow, I don't know if Keris has actually sat down to meditate on this (and perhaps she should) but her mental self-image is weird.
EarthScorpion:
EarthScorpion: Oh, Keris. She's literally become more than she can handle on her own.
Aleph: She's simultaneously thinking of herself as a baby Unquestionable with seven+ souls and... almost heretically toying with the notion that she's the fetich of an infant Primordial that's the combination of all her souls, of which she is only one, because she doesn't feel like a Greater Self so that must be some emergent thing from how sometimes her other souls prod her to do stuff.
Aleph: If she does sit down to meditate on this she might get a bit freaked out for a while and start wondering if "the Greater Keris" is going to form a jouten in her Devil-Domain or something. And she would fight tooth and nail against the view that she was the Greater Keris, because she doesn't feel any different and it makes her edgy to think of herself that way.
EarthScorpion: ... no, Keris, don't wonder if Greater-Keris is cute
EarthScorpion: Hmm, I wonder if her experiences with forking are causing any weirdness there, and if she's wondering if she's just a limited facet of the greater-Keris.

Keris: "... can I have a Keris Shintai?"​

EarthScorpion: Actually, sigh, a Keris Shintai would merge the imagery of all her souls into its form.
Aleph: Heh. Yes. Sasi would get a headache talking to her about this, lol. Especially since... annoyingly, Sasi is aware that she probably has to defer to Keris's judgement on this stuff, because Keris has explored it a lot more than she has.
Aleph: Man, this stuff is totally going in the extras.
Aleph: But yes, getting back to Dulmea, Keris considers her very much a part of the Greater Keris, and is basically using her as a downloaded sense of caution and superego. Who she <3s, obviously. If you brought her attention to the fact that she's grouped together her ideas about motherhood, caution and poison, she would consider that perfectly natural. Obviously mothers need to be cautious and patient and calm, and poison is the careful measured way to kill someone, so they go together really well!
EarthScorpion: Fate: "Why would you consider motherhood to be poison?"
Aleph: Keris: "It's not that those two are linked to each other, it's just that both of them are linked to being calm and patient and cautious and smart."

Fate: "..."​

Aleph: Next up; Echo!
Aleph: ... ooo. *wince* Echo. Yeah, Keris still remembers Calesco's words here. Her sense of fun and whimsy and desire to be loved (which Echo doesn't actually show much of, hmm) is, uh... the part of her that murders people and hurts everything it touches.
Aleph: ...
Aleph: ... yeah, Keris does not like thinking about that, and would probably dive overboard to avoid talking about it.
EarthScorpion: Isn't Rathan the desire to be loved?
Aleph: Mixing up Principle, Charm and Urge. Echo is Be Loved/Silence In Her Wake/Follow Keris. Rathan is Get Revenge/Carmine Mantled Emissary/Proclaim Innocence. Though, hmm. Echo does get very upset when Keris is unhappy or risks her relationships and losing the people she loves. Echo is the desire for love, I guess. Rathan is the desire for attention. Echo is happy because Sasi loves them and they love Sasi, no matter where Sasi is at the time. Rathan is happy if Kasseni is staring at them and can't look away, because they're all she's thinking about even if she doesn't love them and they hate her.
EarthScorpion: Oh, Echo. Also, she made the szelkeruby as the worst cupids as an expression of her own desires as friends.
Aleph: Heh. True. But yeah, Keris is not comfortable with the fact that her happiness and joy hurts people. And prodding her about that would, uh
Aleph: ... be a fantastic way to drive her into a killing rage, actually.
Aleph: Like, wow. A few pointed barbs at that particular sore spot and she'll be ready to murder you to shut you up, unless you're Calesco, in which case she'll shout at you to go to your cave and then go storm off into the Marsh and stab a bunch of trees until they catch fire, which happens regrettably often in the Marsh even if you're not stabbing them with any magic.
EarthScorpion: Haneyl: "That's what trees do."
Aleph: it's... it's really not, haneyl
Aleph: well
Aleph: like
Aleph: maybe your trees
Aleph: but not normal ones
EarthScorpion: Haneyl: "Mine are normal ones. That's how most trees in the world work."
Aleph: *facepalm*
Aleph: Anyway, Rathan. So Keris has put her emotional side, her innocent aura and her VENGEANCE together. Like Dulmea, this is actually pretty intuitive to her. Of course her grudges are justified - she's the victim here. And of course her revenge is the most emotional part of her. She wants revenge because her feelings were hurt, after all.
Aleph: ... actually, at a deep down level, Echo might be intuitive. Because... hasn't Keris always hurt the things she loved? She hurt Ogi and she killed Rat and maybe her village wouldn't have been attacked if she hadn't been there...
EarthScorpion: Oh, Echo. Echo understands a lot more about her position in the hierarchy than Keris wants to acknowledge.
Aleph: Oh Keris, more like. She's never even thought that last part consciously, but... she came from Baisha and now everything is wonderful and she's an Exalt. And everyone else who came from Baisha is probably either dead or a slave; why did she get to survive and flourish where they didn't?
Aleph: But this is touching the sort of deeply buried insecurity that brings the knives and spears and TEETH out, so let's hastily move on.
Aleph: Haneyl, then! We've spoken a lot about what Haneyl means as part of Keris. She's another of those intuitive-to-Keris souls that reveals a lot about how she thinks. In fact, Haneyl does so even more than Dulmea and Rathan (and Echo). Greed, possessiveness... and the sincere drive for self-improvement? Not something most people would consider a natural fit. But it makes perfect sense to her.
Aleph: It comes down to hunger. Fundamentally, to Keris, you can only afford to be generous if you have enough already. If you're hungry, you can't give away food; you have to fight for every scrap. If you're cold, you can't share your space, you have to kick people out and defend your fire and blanket. Cling to what's yours and always reach for more - that's the only way to claw your way up out of poverty. Improving yourself; bettering yourself, means never lacking in things. Then - then - you can start being compassionate (more on that with Calesco). But letting go of your things risks losing everything, and the more you have to lose the further you have to fall.
Aleph: Keris is a little worried by Haneyl sometimes, though. Her greed is by far the most aggressive of all her souls; the loudest and the most headstrong and demanding in what she wants from Keris - both in materials and perhaps more so in behaviour. Maybe that's part of her nature - her Urge compels her to claim all that she can, even control over Keris herself - but it unsettles Keris that some part of herself wants to overtake all the rest, regardless of the harm it would cause.
EarthScorpion: Haneyl is the soul probably... mmm, she's the first post "I'm a GSP, not a street rat" soul.
Aleph: Yes. And it really shows.
EarthScorpion: If Keris had chosen another way, Haneyl wouldn't be Haneyl.
Aleph: Heh. An interesting hypothetical for another day.
EarthScorpion: In fact, mmm, both Haneyl and Calesco are more "princessy" in Keris' eyes. Rathan owes at least as much to a Nexan gang boss in her eyes.
Aleph: Calesco is in many ways a reaction to Haneyl, heh. Which again harkens back to Keris's axiomatic view that charity is something that only rich people can do. Fundamentally, to her, you cannot afford to be kind unless you are secure. It's a form of power, in some ways. A thing that the strong can do to - or rather do for - the weak. The street rat in her would balk at the idea of kindness from someone in poverty with everything to lose and nothing to gain - and perhaps that's why Calesco has some street rat in her. Or maybe her dirty fighting is just because she sees the awful truths of the world and thus doesn't bother with the lies about fighting being noble or fair.
Aleph: But yes, Calesco is her messenger, and her compassion, and her understanding of how horrible the world can be - and they're all interlinked in a way that challenges Keris. Calesco is the bit of her that interacts with the world - that has to interact with the world - in a way that renders her unable to ignore the injustice and cruelty there. Which she reacts to with kindness towards the weak who suffer it and with bitterness towards the strong who allow it.
Aleph: Calesco is definitely the soul that pushes Keris off-balance the most. Dulmea and Rathan she understands, Echo she doesn't like to think about and Haneyl pushes Keris to act and worries her. But Calesco is the one who, as a core part of her nature, calls the powerful out on their lies - and that means that Keris doesn't see much of her kindness, because Calesco is driven to ask her the hard questions.
EarthScorpion: Heh. There's the axis of pushing-Keris - Haneyl, Calesco, Echo.
Aleph: Specifically the girls, I note. The boys - well, the boys-and-Zanra - are her more passive half.
Aleph: ... keris your gender roles are really weird. Your emotional side is Rathan, your hyper-lethal killer is Echo, your active souls are the girls while the passive ones are the boys. Hmm. This was probably set by you and Rat. "I'm the muscle, he's the mouth", etc.
[VALI, ZANRA AND HOLISTIC SOUL-HIERARCHY STUFF CUT TO AVOID SPOILERS]
...
EarthScorpion: Oh, Dulmea. She does insist that all the children know the proper ways of acting as angyalkae.
Aleph: Oh yeah! That was something else I wanted to do back in Malfeas, heheh. I had a thought that was a thing that was funny.
Aleph: [Games of Divinity, pgs 110-111]

Those who listen to [an angyalka] hear the beat of moments within their soul and know what they have lost - an hour from a life of valor, perhaps, or five minutes from a life of shame. To those that like their nature, the song of the angyalka seems beautiful. To those that despise themselves, it is painful - either denying their self-image or confirming it.
...
The truths of the angyalkae's song sound to the spirits of the world as much as human ears. The earth rests peacefully, secure in itself. Water ripples uneasily, aware of its forgetfulness and unsure of what it has forgotten. Fires burn the angrier for knowing their own rage, and winds blow more subtly, commending themselves on their guile.

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Aleph: So firstly, that second part is totally valid thaum for Time-Strung Harpist Style. Keris can play a song to a fire to make it flare, for instance. And secondly, in AESSing the innermost melody of a person's very Essence and then playing it, Keris has basically taken this to a whole new level that even angyalkae would probably be in awe of (and that's discounting the fact that she can get as many successes as the best mortal alive has dice). So she should totally go hunt down Dulmea's old assassin house and introduce herself.
EarthScorpion: Keris: "I'mma gonna steal you."

Dulmea: *facepalms*​

Aleph:

Keris: "Also you should all be totes proud of Dulmea, she's awesome."​

Aleph: ... aww. In all honesty, she probably will be on her absolute bestest best most Mama-Approved civil polite graceful elegant behaviour ever to wow them all with AMAZING MUSIC and SUCH POISE and VERY ASSASSINATION SKILLS.
Aleph: ... and then, yes, steal them.
EarthScorpion: Of course, heh, she knows Dulmea and she knows how Dulmean honour works. They won't abandon their master. So she needs to either do it legitimately and get the house to sign on with her with the permission of the master, or she needs to leave them masterless and looking for someone new to serve.
Aleph: Keris: "Yo. Pretty horse dude. I wanna buy your assassins."

Lamulis: "... you... what?"
Keris: "Well, actually I want to steal your assassins, but this seems to be one of the very rare cases where buying them is actually easier."
Lamulis: "..."​

...
Aleph: Heh. This right here. This is why Keris likes cities. Mortal Keris could parkour her way around Nexus. Pirate Queen Keris considers it almost insulting not to.
...
EarthScorpion: Hmm. If Keris had stayed a Street Rat and rejected being a princess, her hunger soul would be a cheeky cheerful liar and trickster who gets their hooks into people to rip them off - Metagaos and TED - and her messenger soul would be a thing of burning bright truths (Adorjan and Malfeas).
Aleph: Sigh. That Haneyl and Echo would have gotten along well.
EarthScorpion: Well, that Haneyl would have been utterly, utterly untrustworthy. Willing to do anything to ensure she got fed, without pride or dignity or morals.
Aleph: ... Keris would once again be made very uncomfortable by her.
EarthScorpion: Heh. Also, probably wouldn't have anything to do with Sasi. That might wind up with alt-Calesco, a painfully-bright burning exemplar of perfection.
Aleph: Who probably wouldn't be between Haneyl and Echo anymore.
EarthScorpion: Sigh. Oh, Echo. The way she expresses her urge is by being someone who loves Keris unconditionally and who always finds her fun things to do.
EarthScorpion: Meanwhile, Rathan expresses his urge by... well, being a spiteful little brat who never lets go of a grudge. And Haneyl expresses Keris' greed by wanting Keris to be the best and have the best things (also, as part of Keris, she naturally gets the best bits of that as it's her hard work that's pushing Keris to actually be not-useless!)
Aleph: Well, technically his Urge is to Proclaim Innocence. The grudge thing is "merely" a defining element of his personality. And he can let go of a grudge! Just... only once it's been paid out in full.
Aleph: Heh. You could probably circumvent his revenge by paying him homage and attention and making an incredibly elaborate, humiliating, sincere and expensive apology that involves you publicly grovelling a lot where everyone could see you agreeing that he was in the right and you were in the wrong.
Aleph: He'd like that enough that he'd probably let you off unless it was something really major.
EarthScorpion: Haneyl still doesn't understand that. Calesco does understand that - she just refuses to do it. Echo both understands it and would be willing to do it - she just can't be bothered.
Aleph: *snrrk*
Aleph: dammit eko
EarthScorpion: ... oh, Calesco. TLA is hers. That means all her Compassion works like TLA Compassion.
Aleph: Yyyyup. She loves Keris, and wants to help/teach/hurt her.
EarthScorpion: Haneyl: "... does that mean you love Rathan?"

Calesco: "I love all of you. I just also hate him."​

Aleph: Keris: "I hope all my children love each other as family, even if you argue a lot."

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[EarthScorpion]

In which Keris finally overcomes the one foe she cannot slay.

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Truly the most potent foe she has ever faced, who has managed to be a significant antagonist to Keris for longer than pretty much any character you can mention. And she still hasn't been defeated yet, so might have something up her sleeves to allow her to pull another one over Keris.

 

[Giygas]

Well, if she had a warstrider she might have succeded in slaying the foe. Maybe. I am not really sure i got the identity of the foe right: it was the realm treasury, right? (I am almost sure it wasn't the Treasury, but i am confused and headachey.)

... Hey, couldn't she horribly modify her ship into a dual mode thing part Warstrider part "Warship"?

...No, wait, she has already the double mode with the submarine... triple mode Warstrider/Warship/Warsubmarine?

No, wait, it was the helldragontoddler from hell, right? Well, a musical Warstrider would have helped too!

 

[Aleph]

Well, if she had a warstrider she might have succeded in slaying the foe. Maybe. I am not really sure i got the identity of the foe right: it was the realm treasury, right? (I am almost sure it wasn't the Treasury, but i am confused and headachey.)

... Hey, couldn't she horribly modify her ship into a dual mode thing part Warstrider part "Warship"?

...No, wait, she has already the double mode with the submarine... triple mode Warstrider/Warship/Warsubmarine?

No, wait, it was the helldragontoddler from hell, right? Well, a musical Warstrider would have helped too!

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It was Aiko, yes; her BITTER RIVAL FOR SASI'S AFFECTIONS AND TIME. I was making a funny. Though no, turning her ship into a transforming warstrider would defeat the point of keeping it maintainable with high-end Third Age/recovered Shogunate tech, and she has hellstriders for that anyway.

Also, hee.

Aleph: Hmm. She may come up with a name for that specific style of patterning she's starting to use as a signature. You know, the abstract one that brings to mind waves and wind and mangroves.
Aleph: Well, it's not a single pattern. More a style like, hmm... like Celtic knots. Many different types, but distinctly recognisable as that "family" of art.
EarthScorpion: Mmm, yes.
Aleph: Latin, I think. Some combination of the Latin words for "wave" and "wind". Named in the Malfean style.

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So yeah, Latin and Hungarian failed me, so as a third resort I went for Greek, and found κύμα/kýma and αέρα/aéra. Which work very nicely together! So yes, Keris pretty much has invented/is in the process of inventing this as an Expression style, and is going to teach it to, like... everyone who works for her and makes things for her (lol her Saatan women's group including it in silver thread in their Jupiter's Embroidery undergarments).

... honestly, I think Keris's "signature style" is one of the subtle things I'm really proud of. The way that unlike how a lot of crafting characters seem to turn out; her stuff is incredibly recognisable and all really thematically linked, because it's all vitriol-silver and kymaaeran patterns and hellish alchemy. It's the sort of thing that totally works as a plot hook for the hypothetical "circle of generic-Good hero Solars" game where she's the antagonist (I design so much of her like this) where they encounter what seems to be a one-off assassin or something with this intricately patterned sword who's targeting someone they're protecting, and then a dozen sessions later find a ship full of pirates which has the stuff all over it, and it crops up with increasing frequency as they wander closer to her territory and eventually leads them back to her when they decide to go see where it's coming from.

I also realised while writing it up as a style that she's totally going to make sure it's possible to hide messages in it in a sort of thieves cant. ¬_¬ Which, uh. Means I accidentally a heavy metal band logo font. Dammit Keris.

Kymaaera Style (Expression)
An art style themed around abstract representations of the wind and waves, often with root or branch-like overtones that conceal hidden messages. Reminiscent of Southern styles, there are subtle similarities to certain forms of Hellish art in the flowing lines and bold strokes, and those who remember the beauty of the ancient Lintha might compare it to a partial reinvention of their aesthetics. Kymaaeran patterning can be painted or drawn, but is more often carved or etched - in its purest form, it is always engraved in silver. It serves as a unique identifier of its inventor; Keris Dulmeadokht, who uses it as a signature in much of her work.
1: +1 to find messages hidden in kymaaeran patterns.
2: +1 when carving or engraving kymaaera in silver.
3: -1 Difficulty to conceal a message from those not familiar with the artstyle.

 

[Giygas]

It was Aiko, yes; her BITTER RIVAL FOR SASI'S AFFECTIONS AND TIME. I was making a funny. Though no, turning her ship into a transforming warstrider would defeat the point of keeping it maintainable with high-end Third Age/recovered Shogunate tech, and she has hellstriders for that anyway.

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Not if you made it into a tecnorganic horror capable of repairing and reshaping itself! (You might want to get a lunar chimera or two to make it)

Of course, it would probably require another N/A rating just by itself, would make faint everyone of weak mind, and would completely shot any sublety that the ship mighty still have.(Peoples inside the horror may also mysteriusly disappear, but that's positively homely for the avarange demon) Also the future Alchemicals might band against you with higher gusto than avarage.

 

[Chehrazad]

Actually, I have a question for @EarthScorpion.

So, Kerisgame is kind of the testing ground for all you and @Aleph's new hacks. Keris has virtues, even though Principles supplant virtues completely. How does that work out, rules-wise? How do virtues do, when they conflict with Principles? What do they do?

 

[EarthScorpion]

Actually, I have a question for @EarthScorpion.

So, Kerisgame is kind of the testing ground for all you and @Aleph's new hacks. Keris has virtues, even though Principles supplant virtues completely. How does that work out, rules-wise? How do virtues do, when they conflict with Principles? What do they do?

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Virtues are a subset of Principles. A Virtue is a Principle with a minimum rating of 1. That means you don't pay XP for Virtues - they rise and fall just as any other Principle, except for the fact you can't mundanely get rid of them entirely.

When they clash, it follows the normal Principle rules - ie, higher Principles trump lower ones (if you have a 5 dot Principle of REVENGE FOR MY MURDERED HUSBANDO and Compassion 4, you don't need to suppress Compassion when doing things all for revenge), equal ones force suppression of the one you choose not to follow.

Since Virtues are just a special-case for Principles, it also means Infernals can have Virtue-demons. Calesco is Keris' Compassion (admittedly, mentally she's a bit... off, because as an Adorjani soul she 'owns' Tragic Love Amusement and thus Calesco uses her Compassion to teach and hurt Keris to try to make her a kinder person [1]).

[1] Calesco also can use her compassion to pull her siblings' hair.

 

[mothematics]

What was the logic behind rewriting and rearranging the attributes, actually (e.g. Reactions and what-have-you)? I'm curious; I can't seem to find any comment about the design choices and intent anywhere but that may just be me not searching properly lol

 

[Chehrazad]

Virtues are a subset of Principles. A Virtue is a Principle with a minimum rating of 1. That means you don't pay XP for Virtues - they rise and fall just as any other Principle, except for the fact you can't mundanely get rid of them entirely.

When they clash, it follows the normal Principle rules - ie, higher Principles trump lower ones (if you have a 5 dot Principle of REVENGE FOR MY MURDERED HUSBANDO and Compassion 4, you don't need to suppress Compassion when doing things all for revenge), equal ones force suppression of the one you choose not to follow.

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Interesting, very interesting.

Since Virtues are just a special-case for Principles, it also means Infernals can have Virtue-demons. Calesco is Keris' Compassion (admittedly, mentally she's a bit... off, because as an Adorjani soul she 'owns' Tragic Love Amusement and thus Calesco uses her Compassion to teach and hurt Keris to try to make her a kinder person [1]).

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Look, Tragic Love Amusement is a perfectly valid Compassion Charm, I mean it has the words "love" in the name, and Compassion includes love. It also has the word "amusement", which means it must be fun.

Perfectly valid.

[1] Calesco also can use her compassion to pull her siblings' hair.

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As opposed to me, I must have used Conviction...

"It's for a higher cause, it's for a higher cause, it's for a higher cause..."

 

[Aleph]

What was the logic behind rewriting and rearranging the attributes, actually (e.g. Reactions and what-have-you)? I'm curious; I can't seem to find any comment about the design choices and intent anywhere but that may just be me not searching properly lol

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See here, here and here.