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

[The Laurent]

Article:

Face-of-Pasiap Style (Presence, Expression)
"These are the markers of beauty for those blessed by the Earth Dragon: a triangular face with a stubborn jawline that reminds us of the beauty of Mt Meru, a statuesque build that is solid and not excessively slender, and skin that is cool to the touch. The hair should be naturally straight - waviness indicates too much sympathy with water or wood. The eyes may either resemble precious gems, or be the colour of stone. In both sexes, the shoulders should be broad as to carry their responsibilities; in a woman, so should the hips. The nature of such a child well-suits command, so teach them to be as unyielding as granite when all else is uncertain and lesser men will obey them without doubt."

1: +1 to social rolls against characters native to cultures whose aesthetic values were set by the Realm.
2: +1 to appearing calm and unflappable during times of crisis
3: When giving orders to characters loyal to the Face-of-Pasiap, treat the loyalty Principle as being one level higher.

Note that it's not exactly an "appearance" Style, though your looks are a major bit of it. Look at the bonuses: they're "the Realm has been culturally imperialistic and told you that people who look like this are attractive", "they raised me to not show my feelings because I'm expected to be calm at all times" and "because of how I look and how I was trained, I'm very good at giving orders to people who are already loyal to me". Characters who have the looks, but don't have the training can only get one dot in this Style. And that's true for a lot of "appearance" Styles - they're still Styles which are trained things, so you need to know how to use your looks too.

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I accidentally read that as 'Face of Parsnips' at first.

It gave me an interesting mental image.

 

[Aleph]

So you're getting a pretty good deal from this Charm, if you don't mind hitting Enlightenment 10 and finding no one in the setting is hotter than you and that everyone who isn't E10 is an ugly peon.

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Lies and slander! Man, just stand on a really high balcony and look at Malfeas shake that colossal cityscape Enlightenment N/A ass. Mmm. Glorious.

Note that it's not exactly an "appearance" Style, though your looks are a major bit of it. Look at the bonuses: they're "the Realm has been culturally imperialistic and told you that people who look like this are attractive"

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Sigh. Despite being a street rat who had very little contact with culturally-set views of attractiveness, Keris is remarkably weak to Styles which hinge on Realm views of aesthetic beauty. Damn past lives.

 

[Aleph]

So obviously it's quite hard to have a real-time game when you're on holiday overseas and have only an iPad to type from. However, @EarthScorpion had a brainwave and so chapter 3 was held as Kerisgame: the PBPering in a Googledoc over the three-week period. It's interesting seeing how the pacing of a PBP game shifts compared to realtime play, even - or perhaps especially - with us doing it. Our posts got longer and try to cover more things, and the amount of conversation was reduced because there was a delay whenever characters talked.

This session had quite a lot in it! Keris started a project (yay!), got it hijacked by Orabilis (grrr), had an argument and touching bonding moment with Calesco (aww~) and discovered that Haneyl has been a busy bee - and also a perceptive one (wow!) The current arc has also found a name; the rather ominous-sounding "From One, Many". It promises to be fun!

Finally, as you may notice but as Keris hasn't, Haneyl has finally finished reforging the High Crown and Robes of An Teng. Yes, you heard that right. Reforging. Turns out that when you give an Artifact to an infant Third Circle whose very nature is based on infecting things and making them hers, it changes to become a Panoply item. Go figure. We're not using the (rather dumb) write-up it had in Blood and Salt, but it might be instructive to imagine what powers an Artifact crown and robes might have had originally as an item for a Golden Child, and consider how Haneyl has warped them. And what that says about her needs (and perhaps her secret insecurities).

Spoiler: Királyi

Artifact 5 Crown
The most significant of all the lost implements of rulership over An-Teng, the Seven Lotus Crown once graced the head of An Teng's High Queen; a Golden Child who died as the Usurpation raged across Creation. Reclaimed twice over, it fell into the hands of Haneyl Kerisdokht, and under this infant Unquestionable's ministrations it has undergone great changes. Királyi is a living crown with seven lotus flowers arranged along it; its band an orichalcum branch, its soft petals formed from vibrant jade. In its prior incarnation it gave the true queen of the Tengese the strength of spirit and grace of tongue to rule the Three Golden Lands. In Haneyl's hands, its powers are no less potent.

Crowned by Blossoms: The flowers that bloom from the crown are beautiful, their fragrance delicate, their aura captivating. She who wears it is a queen who cannot be disobeyed. Direct orders from Haneyl to those of lesser Enlightenment count as unnatural mental influence when she wears Királyi, and cannot be ignored.

Flesh of My Flesh: Királyi is a living crown, vibrant with growth. Haneyl may pluck a flower from her crown, which will regrow over the course of a week, and give it as a favour to a champion or servant. When worn, the blossom will grow microscopic roots into its bearer's flesh and blood, installing a Principle of servile loyalty towards Haneyl. This ability is currently immature, for Királyi holds the potential to grow whole blossom-crowns from its flowers, which might control their wearers at a far deeper level. As yet, though, its power is chained to its owner, and it is limited to lone blossoms.

High Princess of Princesses: The petty or spiteful may cast aspersions on their betters, but they cannot deny a princess her position. It is Obvious to all who see her that Haneyl is a rightful ruler as long as she wears Királyi. Those loyal to her must pay 1 Willpower to attack or oppose her even for an action, for who can bear to rebel against a princess who deserves to rule? Once a traitor has spent 3 Willpower in this manner, they are free to go about their treasonous business as they wish.

Spoiler: Nemes

Artifact 2 Robe
The orichalcum robes of An Teng's High Queen were once blessed to give the wearer respect and beauty beyond compare. In the hands of Haneyl Kerisdokht, they have been retailored and remade. The golden raiment Nemes installs an Illusion effect in all beings of lesser Enlightenment, convincing them that anything its wearer does is dignified and proper. Should she devour raw meat in the centre of her grand hall, this is of course expected behaviour, and they will make no complaint or judgement. Nemes also makes it Obvious that the wearer is highborn of noble blood - people might disparage her actions, but they cannot deny her innate birthright and superior standing.

Extras were rather more spread out, but I think I got most of them:

Aleph: Hmm. There are different types of loyalty, really. By far the best, in Keris's opinion, is "love". If the person is grateful to you and loves you and likes you and considers you to be a good person who they think is worth following; that's ideal. That's what she has from the misbegotten.
Aleph: No, actually. They're not that anymore. The Gullites, heh.
Aleph: That's made even stronger if it's based on truth, which at the moment it isn't from them. Kuha is by far her strongest and most loyal follower who's not Kerisian herself, by that measure. She knows exactly what Keris is - well, she might not understand it all, but Keris isn't deceiving her at all - and she still loves her and is loyal to her.
EarthScorpion: Keris saved her life and cured her and give her a flying demon pony. : p
Aleph: The second type is Money. You're paying someone, they stand to profit more from following you, turning on you would cause their personal prospects to dip and damage their own property or goals in some way. They may not like you, and it's not an emotional loyalty, but it's a pragmatic intellectual one. As long as it's maintained, that's nearly as good - Keris considers it slightly worse in most ways because of the possibility that a better offer might come along and also because it can be overridden by emotional things (at least in her paradigm). She's pretty paranoid about the emotional force of the Immaculate Faith, and probably assigns the prejudice against Anathema more weight than it actually has with most people she's had contact with.
EarthScorpion: That's why she loves Kindness Expects Repayment.
Aleph: Yes. Money is better in only one respect, and that's that someone who is Money-loyal to you is less likely to go off half-cocked if they think you're in danger. A head-based loyalty rather than a heart-based one lends itself to a more measured, cautious approach. That might be a way to get House Sinasana on her side. Give them a better offer, and then rapidly get them deep enough that turning her in would get them executed by the Realm as Anathema-slaves as well. That one is also somewhat enhanced by honesty, in that secrets mean it's possible for a shocking reveal to lead to an emotional override. Basically it's a way of defending against Chrono's tactic versus Fate.
Aleph: The last form of loyalty, and the kind Keris doesn't really like at all, is Fear. If someone is more scared of you - or the consequences of disobeying you - than of whatever you want them to do, they'll do what you say. She doesn't really trust that to hold people with any sort of force, because Keris herself loathes being trapped or intimidated, and her instinctive response to being backed into a corner like that is violence and scheming. She doesn't really understand cowards or people like Wormtail, and so she can't judge the careful balance of "scared enough that they don't dare disobey but not scared enough that they have nothing to lose".
Aleph: Sasi, I suspect, is a lot better at that balance. But yeah, Keris doesn't like that form at all for anything more than very short-term immediate loyalty; "get me into the camp or I'll gut you". She expects a knife in the back one night if she tries to maintain it. Or for them just to cut and run. It's what she'd do. That one is probably better without honesty, because of the risk of them blabbing to a perceived protector.
Aleph: Sasi might balance them all equally, and prefer combinations. She especially likes Money and Fear - they profit from following her and if they turn on her they lose everything.
...
<re: Sasi's souls>
EarthScorpion: Sasi is, unfortunately, fucked up. So her souls have issues too. And Sasi is also rather more typical of how soul relationships will turn out, because Keris has invested huge amounts of time into her souls.
Aleph: : (
EarthScorpion: Well, also, they probably will be getting on better when they have more room. For example, most of the problems with Seresa in Kalaska's mind are caused by her being a) loud, and b) a screamer. She likes her a lot when she's being motherly, rather than when she's having threesomes with other souls.
Aleph: Keris is a paragon, somehow, of inter-soul unity and harmony of self.

Keris: "Wait, what?"​

Aleph: Oh, Keris. You won't notice it for quite a while, but... resolving disputes between your souls and making sure they all can get along at times (or at least don't loathe each others' existence) and spending family time with them and humanising them...
Aleph: ... has actually had the result that you're remarkably stable and centred in yourself and can resolve internal struggles and conflicts really well, by Exalt standards. Like, she's unintentionally pouring vast amounts of time and effort into a regime of meditation and personal stabilisation that's probably on a similar scale to the regime of an Immaculate monk who's doing the same thing with a paradigm of asceticism and meditation and prayer.
EarthScorpion: ... huh. She probably should buy up Politics, actually. She's been training it up a lot with her children.
Aleph: Hmm. Yes, true. Oh, Keris. That's sort of hilarious, really. To things that detect, I dunno, "internal strife" or "imbalance in the self" at a fluff level, you read like an Immaculate master. Or a monk who spends half of every day in meditation and self-examination.
Aleph: Hmm. I could get Politics, or I could sneaky-buy up a Style that's basically "Can't We All Just Get Along"
Aleph: ... she'll get a lot of use out of that one.
EarthScorpion: Oh, Keris. She's got, hah, such self control that when her Principles clash sometimes they just resolve things through Rock Paper Scissors.
Aleph: lol
Aleph: Heh. Yeah, that's a big difference between Keris and Sasi. Sasi is wildly split in different ways, and has a lot of bundled up self-loathing and guilt, while almost every part of Keris is comfortable at least with the existence of every other. Even Calesco and Rathan eventually find meeting points. She's, hmm. Secure in herself.
EarthScorpion: Sasi broke them up in worse ways. : p
Aleph: Heh. Yes. The way Keris bundles them up is a help. She has a knack for taking bundles of maimed Yozi psychology and crossing them over to produce healthy(ish) behaviours.
Aleph: Hee. It really is going to be a while before she figures that side-benefit out. Heh. It's possible it'll be one of her kids who's like "well yeah, mama. Of course they're more stupid than you. They don't spend as much time meh-di-tay-ting, so they don't like themselves as much."
EarthScorpion: But yeah, there's also the fact that Sasi's souls split up based on "aspects of her"
Aleph: Hmm. Yes. The different faces she wears.
EarthScorpion: While Keris' ones are elements of her personality made into personalities on their own.
Aleph: Yes. It means that Keris's are far more able to cooperate. They're parts that naturally form a whole.
...
Aleph: ... heh. It says something very alarming to the Althing - or would, if they knew the full extent of the Infernal soul hierarchies - that Sasi is loyal because a defining element of her personality and one of her Third Circle souls is defined by being submissive towards the Yozis and loyal to the Reclamation.
Aleph: While Keris is loyal largely because several of her souls are sympathetic to the the Yozis' plight - chief among them Haneyl and Vali - and because she loves Sasi and Sasi is loyal, and because they pay her a lot.
Aleph: Sasi is Love-loyal, or rather a mixture of Love and Fear of what it means if they're not in the right. Keris is... Love-loyal to Sasi and mostly just Money-loyal to the Yozis themselves. She sympathises with their situation, but she's already having doubts over whether the Unquestionable would be good rulers for Creation - or are good rulers for Hell.
EarthScorpion: Well, with Sasi, it's also because the only way she could cope with becoming an Anathema was to decide that being an Anathema was a good thing and the Dragonblooded were the real villains. And so if she's an anathema, she'd rather be a princess of Hell than hunted by the Wyld Hunt
Aleph: Yes, that's the Fear aspect.
...
Aleph: Project System Concept:

State PROJECT


Base TURN is seasonal; can be shifted to week, month, year or decade by the circumstances and details of a given Project.


Identify and gather MEANS. Means are the things you need to complete the Project. Examples:


- Labour. People to do the work. (Construction crews to reroute a river, trained teachers to uplift a town to literacy, network of spies to build a profile of foreign nobles). Backgrounds like Followers, Contacts, etc.
- Research. Information that must be known. (Books of tax records to rewrite a city's trade laws, relevant occult texts to create a new spell, knowledge of a foreign country's customs and society to create a watertight false identity).
- Resources. Essential funds or seed capital. (Silver to fund the purchase of everything necessary for a master's workshop, land on which to build a new temple to Mela, food and supplies to provision an expedition to a new land).
- Tools. Specialist equipment needed for the job. (A Shogunate repair kit to fix the damage done to a war strider, kitchens of sufficient size to feed an entire garrison for a month, a ship capable of ocean travel to set up a new trade route).
- Access. A way to apply one's efforts to the project. (Regular audiences with the members of a council to be swayed, an excuse to regularly escape one's duties and work on a secret Artifact, a hidden route to smuggle loyal soldiers into a fortress).
- Various others.


Determine the DIFFICULTY. (???)


ROLL. If you meet the (high) Difficulty in one shot, the Project advances automatically. Otherwise, a complication arises that must be played through, and you add the next roll once you advance past it.​

Aleph: So an explicit stage of "okay, what do I need for this project", and then something similar to the old extended rolls, except that instead of advancing time intervals it just encourages sessions of "resolve this complication". Which might involve sub-Projects, or might just need you to social-fu or sword something until it goes away, or may total the entire Project if you fuck up too badly. So Keris's Project to wean the Hui Cha off slavery (by building a Principle of "no slavery" in the organisation) might take a season, she rolls against a somehow-calculated Difficulty, and if she fails a problem occurs, like a group who make £££ off of slaves getting uppity so she has to go play out getting them to calm down. Or murder them.
EarthScorpion: Hmm. We want these Projects to be multi-player compatible.
Aleph: Well, this lets multiple players pool Means for a Project.
EarthScorpion: So we want to break them down into steps, and some steps can be parallelised if, for example, you have two PCs who both have some bureaucracy. Like, you remember how when she was designing the owl-riders, there was a design action, and then two experimentation actions.
Aleph: Yes. Hmm. Not sure how to standardise that.
EarthScorpion: Well, that's just a form of difficulty. How many successful checks the action is made up of, which serves to set a minimum duration. You just break the action up into discrete units. And it means that when a party does things, for example, part of the "research" phase can be a Night going and hunting down copies of a book, while the Twilight does active research and the Eclipse pulls their trade network to get the parts together. And they can all use their pertinent skills on the strategic scale and get three actions worth of research done in a season.
EarthScorpion: (Or, heh, Keris and Sasi can decide they're not talking to each other after a flaming row on the best way to research something, and can go spend a season off doing their own thing).
Aleph: Yes. : D
EarthScorpion: Hmm. I do think the Book of Three Circles' "this assumes 3 weeks of every 4 are being spent on full time research" is a useful ballpark.
Aleph: Hmm. So the Difficulty of a Project is set in Stages (number of). And yeah, that's fair. Though I think there should be Charmtech to allow you to run two separate Projects in parallel, so that the sorcerer-king is capable of running his kingdom while doing mysterious and terrible research in his tower outside capital city limits. You can't double up on the same Project with it, though.
EarthScorpion: Oh, that's totally valid space for Eclipse-ness. Like, in the same sense as those flurry effects that demand that each flurry attack be directed at someone else
Aleph: Yes.
EarthScorpion: Echo asks when there'll be a Silence-In-Her-Wake-alike for organisation management.
Aleph: Lol
EarthScorpion: ... no, Echo, Keris can't manage every project she runs by.
EarthScorpion: ... the fact that you can doesn't change things
Aleph: She can attack every Project she runs past, though! That's nearly as good! Better, even!
EarthScorpion: Heh. So if we assume that making a TCS spell is 4 actions, Keris just needs to get her hands on things that provides 2 actions worth of development, persuade Lilunu to work with her for an action, and put her own action of work in, and she can get the spell done in a season.
Aleph: Yay! Aleph: ^_^
EarthScorpion: Keris: "What up, Orabilis my homedawg. I need to know things about how demons can possess mortals."
Aleph: So, hmm. A bunch of stuff about demonic possession from Orabilis's libraries is one, yes. Hmm. The fourth... heh. Get Dulmea to weigh in?
EarthScorpion: Ha, that is... true. Keris can actually pool her souls.

Haneyl: "Mama! Mama! Mama! Mama! I have a workshop for it!"
Haneyl: "I'm going to need lots of fake yous! And grandma is also going to be there and she knows all about how the yous work! I'm going to be doing genesis on the yous!"
Haneyl: "... does that mean I'm working with Lilunu? It does! It does!"
Keris: "... didn't you used to not like her?"
Haneyl: "Mama! I was just a baby back then! Now I'm older I see how pretty and stylish and good at art she is! And... and even if Ligier loves her, she's good enough for him!"​

Aleph: ... so cute.
...
Aleph: ... oh shit.
Aleph: SUCCEEDED TOO WELL
Aleph: GOT ORABILIS'S DIRECT INTEREST
Aleph: WUH OH
EarthScorpion: : D
EarthScorpion: That's what happens when you throw so many dice into your deal-making and use a success doubler~
Aleph: Fffff
EarthScorpion: And then Orabilis is like "Hmm, a spell to get demons to sit inside cultists' heads and monitor them, how very useful"
Aleph: Goddammit.
Aleph: Well, on the plus side, it'll be a really good spell. And this might get me the aid of a second Unquestionable.
Aleph: ... of course, it might also alter infernal cult dynamics across a fairly wide swath of Creation In Hell's favour. Dammit Keris.
Aleph: Sigh. Keris is, in some respects, exactly what the Yozis were going for with coadjutors - she adores Dulmea and takes her advice and Dulmea has considerable influence over her. In other respects she's a disaster, because she's basically flipped Dulmea to be more on her side than the Althing's. And Dulmea is doing a very poor job of limiting Keris's growth in power. In fact, precisely the opposite is happening. Instead of Dulmea dragging Keris down, Keris is dragging her up.
...
Aleph: o keris
Aleph: "Calesco - and I suppose I - suspect that the coadjutor is meant as a choke-chain for Infernals. So I'll just casually mention that it's working and that I'm dependent on mine."
EarthScorpion: If Orabilis had a goatee, he would be stroking it
Aleph: In satisfaction?
EarthScorpion: In pondering.
Aleph: Heh. Oh, Keris. You're not all that sure yourself of why your Gales don't seem to work as well as others. Bar maybe a quiet pondering if maybe the extent to which you've explored Pantheon Heresy might not have left you a bit dependent on a soul hierarchy of some sort.
...
Aleph: Hee. I do sometimes just giggle gleefully at the Keris pantheon and all their distinct and recognisable aesthetics. ^_^
EarthScorpion: What, you mean the way that the tsundere, the moe cook and the palladin class rep are the same person. : p
Aleph: Well, I actually meant the things like Vali's metal and lightning and stormclouds aesthetic and how you can spot a Rathanite temple from the sixty-handed idols and the orca and dolphin reliefs and how Calesco has her tar and her amber and her light. They're really clearly visually coded, the different areas of the domain. It'd be good for an anime.
...
Aleph: Oh, Vali. Totally going to make your kitten a prosthetic leg. Probably after he discovers automata.
Aleph: Hee. Copper-brass fur and iron teeth over flesh and blood. Strange little creature.
...
Aleph: ... heh. I do find it hilarious still that Echo has worked out things about Keris's metaphysical nature that Keris hasn't. I wonder if it might not be partly because she's irreverent as well as a genius, and so forbidden notions like "maybe Mama is even greater than an Unquestionable" don't get her to instinctively shy away from the blasphemy. A soul like La would never even be able to finish the thought.
EarthScorpion: La handles the world by forcing people into roles. The Yozis are too big for roles. : p
Aleph: : P
EarthScorpion: Well, heh. Echo also has the advantage that she can feel she really isn't so different from the Csend. She's just littler, because she's still a baby.
Aleph: Hmm? How so? Oh right, because she's actually met her counterpart outside of Keris. Yes, true. That's rare.
Aleph: Oh, Keris. You're fully aware that your souls have "big siblings", you just haven't really followed that thought. Some instinctual survival reflex, perhaps.
...
Aleph: Hee. "Pay each man back in kind" works so much better for Rathan than Get Revenge. Hmm. Can I change that now?
EarthScorpion: I think, hmm, she'd need four scenes to adjust it by Rules as Discussed on Skype (also known as Rules As Written Down Somewhere).
Aleph: Mmm. I'm just thinking back to the times she's tried to guide him away from being purely revenge. But yeah, there should be a few points of explicit shift.
Aleph: Oh, Rathan. If people love and idolise you, you perform and display for them and sign autographs and kiss babies and so on. If they criticise or insult you, you scorn them with caustic words and vitriolic counterattacks. If they attack you, you burn them horribly with acid and set your hordes of followers to tear them apart and cut their hearts out to make crystal ornaments.
EarthScorpion: Unless they're your siblings. In which case things are more, uh, proportional.
Aleph: ... heh. He is, again, a healthier version of Ululaya, because he does understand payback and deals, and so if someone loves you you'll love them back and give them a helping hand. Like, he's actually a pretty good patron.
EarthScorpion: The proportionality actually should be a thing for him
Aleph: Hmm. Yes. On the one hand, he does react fairly proportionally to his siblings. But on the other, he is the most, hmm, "noble" of Keris's souls, and... well, overreactions are a thing for her.
EarthScorpion: Ah. Yes. Of course, it's a Keris thing. He's proportional by intent, not by capacity.
Aleph: Hmm? Ahhhh. If someone tries to kill him, he kills them right back. If someone only tries to slap him, he'll hurt and humiliate but not kill.
EarthScorpion: If he thinks you're trying to destroy him, he'll act fully to destroy you. It doesn't matter if they're just a peasant with a knife that can't really hurt him. It matters that they're trying to kill him. Likewise, his siblings send armies against him, but they both really know they're just doing it to take land or extract concessions.
Aleph: Hah. That's why the tidal raiders who try to overthrow him get crippled, emasculated and reduced to pathetic wretches that the others hunt. And yeah, at most, Haneyl wants to bloody his nose and make him cry and take his stuff. So he wants to shave her head bald and break her thumb and flood her art room.

Keris: "You two! Stop it!"​

EarthScorpion: Heh. Rathan is more like Ululaya than he would ever admit. But he doesn't have the "I look like what you most want" stuff.
Aleph: Yes. And the big difference between Rathan and Ululaya is that he comes to understand the principle of "pay each man his due", and so even the leastmost of his worshippers do get a corresponding reward. Which is admittedly usually "basking in his beauty", but the thought behind it is different from Ululaya, who considers "basking in her beauty" to be a valid reward for even two Exalted in her service.
Aleph: If someone saved Rathan's life (or even acted to stop what they thought was a life-threatening event directed at him, especially if they did it at their own personal risk), he would decide that he really liked them and give them considerable support.
EarthScorpion: The core difference is that Ululaya is completely fine with people starving to death because they're caught in her awe field. While Rathan will make sure anyone who adores him is fed and housed.
Aleph: ... heh. Yes. The intent thing. Most of the people who worship and give gifts to him do so because they want his attention and pleasure. So he responds by giving them a little of his attention and demonstrating that he is greatly pleased.
EarthScorpion: Oh, Rathan, walking down the streets of the City with his followers handing out food behind him. Which of course means the poor of the City come flocking whenever he's heard to be there. Which he is juuuuuuuuuust fine with
Aleph: Hee. He is a rather good patron with this change. Still a Buddhist-vice-themed one who can be really sadistic to those he doesn't like, but if you genuinely try to help him, he rewards you in kind, and sincere loyalty to him means he won't just discard you at a whim. (Calesco maintains that he still doesn't care about people's lives as having their own intrinsic worth and is still fundamentally making it all about him.)
EarthScorpion: ... huh. Rathan and Seresa alike understand that compassion is a vice. It's something you indulge in to make yourself happy.
Aleph: Heh. He and Zanara are, I think, the most classically demonic of Keris's Progeny souls, while Haneyl and Vali are her most human and Echo and Calesco are the... weirdest, really.
EarthScorpion: Eh. Calesco is an angel. A somewhat fallen one. : p
Aleph: Nah. The joke about Calesco is that yes, she's literally just an angel. An Old Testament one; terrible and agonising and all eyes and light and blood and pain. But who is nonetheless Good. That's something I always did rather like about that kind of angel; the fact that if you read between the lines they're basically the idea of this kaiju or monster showing up and yet it's on your side, and is there to help you and do good things and serve the cause of right.
EarthScorpion: Hmm. Haneyl and Vali are really gods rather than human. That kind of polytheistic god
Aleph: Hah. Yes. Sort of fitting with Keris's relationship to Sasi.
Aleph: Hmm. Honestly, Echo could be an Old Testament angel as well, at a stretch. A wind of joy that brings freedom from suffering, who almost embodies "turn the other cheek" and "forgive and forget the sins of others". So Keris has two classical demons, two classical polytheistic gods and two classical angels.
Aleph: ... Calesco, no, don't call Rathan the Prince of Vice. He'll take it as a compliment.
...
EarthScorpion: Hee. Oh, Kerisian aesthetic arguments. When she's planning out a new artefact, it sometimes winds up as free-for-all warfare in her head as everyone tries to fight over varying aesthetics.
Aleph: : P
Aleph: Sometimes she just gives up and makes themed sets of eight [things] - like her paintbrushes - which sum up to A2 or so. Which makes everyone relatively happy.
Aleph: ... honestly, Kerisian family time is like a stereotypical Jewish family gathering. Complete with arguments, nagging, "oy vey!", "two Jews, three opinions", lively banter, lots of people and general chaos. Also Immaculates people persecute them on religious grounds. : V
EarthScorpion: Also, bagels. There's totally bagels in Nexus
Aleph: Food and music in general.
...
<Re: the opal>
EarthScorpion: Oh, Keris. When she was a street thief, she actually got valuable hauls like this a few times. Every single time she blew it. The money vanished on nice things and on paying back debts and bribes and countless little things.
Aleph: She's much better at selling now. Though she doesn't quite appreciate that yet.

Click to shrink...

 

[Chehrazad]

Kerisgame

Click to shrink...

Rathan is a brat,
Echo and Calesco suck,
Haneyl hurray.
-A totally masterfully written poem, written by an even more unbiased and neutral source.

 

[EarthScorpion]

Rathan is a brat,
Echo and Calesco suck,
Haneyl hurray.
-A totally masterfully written poem, written by an even more unbiased and neutral source.

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Oh, Haneyl.

In many ways, the interior of Keris' soul vaguely resembles an extremely twisted Avatar AU. Haneyl considers it very unfair that her attempts to be Azula are doomed to failure [1], and even more unfair that her Fire-and-Plant Nation has to go up against Rathan's Water and Pearl Tribes and Echo's Murder-Wind Nomads and loses about as much as it wins.

She also finds it unfair that lightning has been claimed by Vali for his Earth and Metal Anarchy [2], rather than it belonging to fire. And that Calesco is in the way when she tries to invade Echo, because the Meadows are very misleadingly named.

It's a hard life being a demon princess when no one takes you seriously and your siblings are being really unhelpful when you're trying to build a giant Disney castle.

[1] She'd love to be like that, but she's let down by the fact she's a volatile hothead who's more Asuka than Azula.

[2] Vali does not believe in kingdoms.

 

[Chehrazad]

[2] Vali does not believe in kingdoms.

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Vali is stupid,
Dulmea's really nice,
Shut up, dumb serpent.
-Another completely unbiased poem, mysteriously found the same place as the first one.

 

[Bel]

From Kerisgame we now know that rather than just demons that are spawning, mortal creatures are spawning in Keris's Tiger Kingdom. That's really interesting. More, there's a new soul that is going to emerge soon. I wonder what this soul will represent. Also, the fact that Keris has inadvertently harmonised herself to the level of a Immaculate Master is hilarious. I wonder, other than her souls working in lockstep on occasion, what the end result of that is?

(Also, I'm sure this has some up at SOME point but are Sidreal Martial Arts still a thing in Kerisgame? And if so, are Infernal's still barred from learning them?)

Poor Calesco is not having a very nice time. Though, with what ES said about Sasi's own inner world, I'm not sure that she is going to have a great time (even if she is not actually internalised).

 

[Aleph]

Vali is stupid,
Dulmea is awesome,
Shut up, dumb serpent.
-Another completely unbiased poem, mysteriously found the same place as the first one.

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Blasphemy! That middle line only has six syllables, instead of the blessed seven!

Also stop pretending, we all know that sziromkeruby are writing them.

From Kerisgame we now know that rather than just demons that are spawning, mortal creatures are spawning in Keris's Tiger Kingdom. That's really interesting.

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It's also something that you're soon going to get a Kerisgame extra for; entitled Beasts of Krisity. Coming soon [1] to a computer screen near you!

[1] For given values of "soon".

 

[Broken25]

The room here is far bigger than it should be. As far as the eye can see, Keris traces bookshelves. The room gleams everywhere. She can hear countless glass books, sitting in their shelves, sand-dust coating them. There is no roof on this impossible room - and above her, the burning stars of the Malfean sky gleam. She knows that each star is a demon who burns, and that Orabilis was the one who threw them up there.


She can hear the demons screaming faintly, high above her, and her heart goes out to them.

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Hmmm.

You know, i find this vaguely hypocritical, given what she did (is doing?) to Kasseni.

 

[Aleph]

You know, i find this vaguely hypocritical, given what she did to Kasseni.

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Keris's personal hatreds can override her compassion, and even Calesco can agree that Kasseni was a horrible woman (though she'd have preferred it if Keris had just killed her). And Kasseni is dead. All that's left on the bracelet is a psychic imprint aware enough to whimper; it's not the same as being stuck in the sky burning in agony for hundreds of years.

That said, yes, it is still a mite hypocritical. Keris does that sometimes.

 

[Chehrazad]

Blasphemy! That middle line only has six syllables, instead of the blessed seven!

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That you would spread lies and slander about this beautiful poem that I just happened to find in a sziromkeruby tree really hurts me, it's written to perfection.

Also stop pretending, we all know that sziromkeruby are writing them.

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*puts on mustache*

Miss, I don't know whatcha talk'n 'bout, oi reckon they'd ner' do 'at.

*breaks down a door and runs away, taking great care to not look like a sziromkeruby in the process*

 

[horngeek]

I dunno 'bout you
But these weird poems annoy me
Someone make them stop.
-Found nearby the last two poems, obviously written in a different hand

(I'm not actually saying this )

 

[Chehrazad]

I dunno 'bout you
But these weird poems annoy me
Someone make them stop.
-Found nearby the last two poems, obviously written in a different hand

(I'm not actually saying this )

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hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss
hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss
hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss
-snek poem

I am not sorry.

Keris' Po is the best by the way.

 

[Aleph]

Keris' Po is the best by the way.

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You will be delighted to hear that Keris's po (and Id background) will also be getting a Kerisgame extra soon (though not quite as soon as Beasts of Krisity), entitled Trust Your Instincts.

 

[Carrnage]

Trust Your Instincts.

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that seems hard to do when your instincts steal your stuff and beat you up.

 

[Bel]

You will be delighted to hear that Keris's po (and Id background) will also be getting a Kerisgame extra soon (though not quite as soon as Beasts of Krisity), entitled Trust Your Instincts.

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...odd thought. With the way Keris has her inner Pantheon set up...is it possible to summon her Po? I mean I can't see much use of it unless you just wanted lots of people killed and lots of stuff stolen, but is it technically possible?

 

[pheonix89]

...odd thought. With the way Keris has her inner Pantheon set up...is it possible to summon her Po? I mean I can't see much use of it unless you just wanted lots of people killed and lots of stuff stolen, but is it technically possible?

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Can't summon Po Souls. Ever.

Also, Calesco remains best Deva of a Nebulous Circle.

 

[Sucal]

You will be delighted to hear that Keris's po (and Id background) will also be getting a Kerisgame extra soon (though not quite as soon as Beasts of Krisity), entitled Trust Your Instincts.

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So does that mean she'll be getting decent ranks in both ID and Coadjutor ?

Two different worlds within her soul, soon about to go to war!

 

[Chehrazad]

Hahah! Thank you! Not to poke unkindly, but I have a lot of homebrew sprinkled around as well.

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I am aware. Your homebrew is pretty cool too.

I like your Nodes system for example.

So does that mean she'll be getting decent ranks in both ID and Coadjutor ?

Two different worlds within her soul, soon about to go to war!

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hiss

angery snek no go to war

angery snek devour enemies

 

[EarthScorpion]

From Kerisgame we now know that rather than just demons that are spawning, mortal creatures are spawning in Keris's Tiger Kingdom. That's really interesting. More, there's a new soul that is going to emerge soon. I wonder what this soul will represent. Also, the fact that Keris has inadvertently harmonised herself to the level of a Immaculate Master is hilarious. I wonder, other than her souls working in lockstep on occasion, what the end result of that is?

(Also, I'm sure this has some up at SOME point but are Sidreal Martial Arts still a thing in Kerisgame? And if so, are Infernal's still barred from learning them?)

Poor Calesco is not having a very nice time. Though, with what ES said about Sasi's own inner world, I'm not sure that she is going to have a great time (even if she is not actually internalised).

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Mechanically, Keris' soul has "mortal" animals (technically, Enlightenment 0 akuma, because an akuma is a creature native to a Primordial Mythos) because the Devil Domain and Tiger Empire can be shaped by her souls by "Wyld Shaping" within their themes. Wyld Shaping naturally makes animals to populate a land, so there's no reason you won't get weird animals that are basically there to be eaten by the demons and add a bit of fluff to the place.

(My rule of thumb is that most Infernal souls are basically going to wind up looking like Pokemon AUs because of the mix of demons and akuma wildlife.)

Especially in the Swamp, because Haneyl and the sziromkeruby are relentlessly carnivorous. Sziromkeruby ecologically basically fill the same role in Keris' soul as foxes do in Creation. A sorcerer who summons a petal-cherub as a familiar will find that they keep their kitchen clean of mice and rats - admittedly by spitting fire at them, so it's probably a good idea to make sure your sorcerer's tower is made of stone. Then they'll probably start depopulating the surrounding countryside, like cats would if they could spit fire.

Sidereal Martial Arts do not exist in Kerisgame in a "Martial Arts" sense of the word. However, the capability for them is just folded into their Charmset, into a suitable House.

The Kerisgame Sidereal Charmset is technically closed, but it's closed in a lot more of an "open" way than canon depicted it. Basically, Sidereal Charms are organised into short, compact trees (called Constellations) which all fall under the House of a Maiden. If you want a new bunch of Charms, either five Sidereals working together or a Maiden can create a new Constellation (though Sidereals will be punished for making a new constellation if they didn't get permission first, unless enough Sidereals participated in making it that their bosses basically have to sign it off as a "Yeah, we totally authorised it").

So in a sense, they're sort of... hybridised with native Sidereal Charms. That is, when a Sidereal wants a new effect, they have to devise a 4-6 Charm tree and then carry out the necessary paperwork and blackmail the necessary people to get a new constellation inserted into the sky of Creation - they can't just make a single Charm that does what they want. Hence, over the years there have been quite a few specialist constellations devised that sort of parallel old-style SMAs because the Sidereals found they really needed an anti-spirit exorcist set of Charms for banishing and forcing out demons and ghosts, or whatever.

(Constellations where no Sidereals currently know their Charms often get removed once it gets noticed they're no longer serving a purpose)

I have a question on the loyalties of demons. Specifically, if a given Infernal were to summon a demon to aid him/her, then later went rogue, would it be possible to convince said demon (with reasoning short of social charms) to join them? I imagine most first-circles would need to have their indoctrination and fear of retribution reassured, but would it be possible to convince a second-circle to abandon the cause? A third? We know that Gramalkin left Mardukth, but I don't think there's much detail on what was involved in that.

Another thought: IIRC Earthscorpion was against the idea of adopting other creatures into an Infernal's soul pantheon. What about other souls, either of Yozis or other Infernals? It's the same sort of creature and it could be a way to save an aspect of a dying ally, or maybe steal some secret? Or maybe both parties could be consenting and trade souls as a sort of meta-negotiation, representing an exchange of thought by a literal adoption of an idea.

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Demons are just people. If you want them to do something, find the levers in their head and persuade them that what they want to do is what you want to do and you have common interest. Turning against the Yozis is a big ask - but by no means impossible, especially if you're willing to offer things like Eclipse oaths of their safety and of keeping them from being sent back to hell.

And for 2CDs and 3CDs, a demon will act to further their own goals even if their greater self would prefer to do other things. Because a demon is an expression of their greater self's nature, and 3CDs and Primordials are complicated enough that their own internal divisions are self-aware beings who want their own things. Just as a Kerisgame example, for example, if Keris was determined to be actively incompassionate to people (on the grounds of "they deserved it" or something), Calesco would be quite willing to subtly act against her - possibly going as far as to warn the people that Keris was planning to brutally kill, so they had a chance to escape.

Do recall, however, that Second and Third Circles are aware that they're dependent on their progenitor for their existence. Trying to persuade them into a course of action that'll kill their progenitor is very hard, because they're aware that's suicidal. Not impossible, however. Lots of demons have high Virtues, so they're going to act heroically often.

After all, neomah have 3 Virtues at 5 and the other at 3. Neomah are almost certainly More Virtuous Than You.

Can't summon Po Souls. Ever.

Also, Calesco remains best Deva of a Nebulous Circle.

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Calesco is adorbs. Even if she is a personification of Stupid Useless Compassion.

(also, even if her Compassion is Tragic Love Amusement compassion and thus she considers it loving to make her loved ones suffer if they learn from it)

A lot of stuff like powered armor and magitech required Hearthstones usually.

Kerisgame is big on it.

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Do note that Kerisgame considers "powered armour" to be generally a Shogunate thing, because the Shogunate is 1930s fascist-anime visuals as fuck and that means lots of people were walking around looking like they were straight out of Jin-roh. Complete with the glowing eyes.

Keris has a heavily damaged and broken suit of High First Age armour (that she damaged even further by vitriol-tainting it), and it doesn't look like power armour - it's moonsilver plate and it's all graceful organic curves and much more Warframe than Warhammer.

How do you guys feel about the mechanics of the Raksha from 2e? Is Shaping Combat soem bizarre complex system attached to them? It sounded like it did not have a good rep when I was googling.

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The Raksha have never been fit for purpose, because a NPC splat has been given a lot of complicated and involved mechanics that require lots of careful reading to understand the synergies and which doesn't play nicely with the rest of the game and half their stuff only makes sense in a place where no other characters go. They are fundamentally flawed by that, even before their shitty 2e implementation written by Alex "Rape-rape" Alexander is taken into account.

Burn their mechanics to the ground. Run them off fae-themed spirit charms and steal inspirations from Changeling: the Lost contracts. Make your life much easier.

 

[Imrix]

Burn their mechanics to the ground. Run them off fae-themed spirit charms and steal inspirations from Changeling: the Lost contracts. Make your life much easier.

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Just to hammer the point home: Here EarthScorpion is suggesting homebrewing everything about Raksha, because it is easier, and speaking as a longtime fan of the Raksha and Fae mythology, I'd say it's a pretty fair appraisal.

 

[Chehrazad]

Do note that Kerisgame considers "powered armour" to be generally a Shogunate thing, because the Shogunate is 1930s fascist-anime visuals as fuck and that means lots of people were walking around looking like they were straight out of Jin-roh. Complete with the glowing eyes.

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Yeah, your Shogunate stuff is Jin-Roh and Fallout, as compared to the Orokin First Age.

And also something that expert crafters in the Second Age can create with years of manufacture and careful management of resources.

Keris has a heavily damaged and broken suit of High First Age armour (that she damaged even further by vitriol-tainting it), and it doesn't look like power armour - it's moonsilver plate and it's all graceful organic curves and much more Warframe than Warhammer.

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Actually, how would it look compared to it's current state if it wasn't damaged, and instead was operating at full capacity? I kinda want to see an actual, fully working set of First Age Warframe-powered-armor now.

 

[EarthScorpion]

Actually, how would it look compared to it's current state if it wasn't damaged, and instead was operating at full capacity? I kinda want to see an actual, fully working set of First Age Warframe-powered-armor now.

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Basically consider it a Familiar/Ally, on top of being a suit of armour - what a peronelle wants to be when it grows up. The armour had an animalistic intelligence and its own motive power. When it was not worn, it could stalk around on its own - and assume various animal forms. In battle it would defend its master with additional arms it grew, protecting her when she cast spells and watching for betrayal. As a Lunar's armour, it of course changed shape to match whatever shape she wore. In addition, there were mighty sorcerous spells laid into it that it could cast for its master, to bless her and slay her foes. The intelligence of the armour was not a god, but was instead a new order of being created by the Exalted so it was not bound by the geas and could aid its master in full to fight any foe.

Among the many problems that stop Keris from restoring it to full order is that it was armour made for a Lunar, and so it was designed to feed off Lunar essence. Keris is not a Lunar and has no easy access to Lunar essence. Even if the intelligence had not starved to death from thousands of years of inactivity, she couldn't fuel it.

For her, it's basically a nice suit of moonsilver armour that shapeshifts with her, which is a very useful trait for an Infernal as well as a Lunar. Infernals probably make a lot of things out of moonsilver if they can, because Lunars understand the complexities of armour design when you sometimes just gotta turn into a giant winged monster covered in teeth. Solars just don't get it, man.

Abyssal: "I sometimes turn into a blood-drinking shadow covered in eyes."

Infernal: "NOBODY CARES, ABYSSAL! YOU JUST STOLE THAT FROM ALUCARD!"

Abyssal: "Says the man who's busy pretending to be DBZA Perfect Cell because he just picked up a bunch of Metagaos Charms."

 

[Sucal]

Abyssal: "Says the man who's busy pretending to be DBZA Perfect Cell because he just picked up a bunch of Metagaos Charms."

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Unfortunately the charmset doesn't quite give you that drinking people fun!

 

[Bel]

Speaking of Enlightenment, are there any Infernals running around in Kerisgame at Enlightenment 10? Would the Unquestionable regard such a being as a threat? I get the feeling that the coadjutors are meant to stop things like that. Though I guess anybody who gained that level of spiritual growth is probably shanked or suppressing their power.