- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ascensions and Transgressions: the Tales of Keris Dulmeadokht (Exalted game)
- Thread starter Aleph
- Start date
azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
But how else would she go fast?Lies!
I just assumed Keris operated on Ork logic and the red ones go faster.
Nah, the red ones are calm and mellow and never do anything wrong at all and any evidence to the contrary is a lie so there!
Azrael
Sakura Saber
- Location
- Throne of Heroes
This is Exalted.
Obviously it's actually the yellow ones that move faster.
The red ones are more killy though
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
This is Exalted.
Obviously it's actually the yellow ones that move faster.
The red ones are more killy though
Incorrect. Red ones are better at fighting. Purple is what ded killy tho'.
deadcrystal
Slaaneshi Cultist
- Location
- The Warp
Question, have you been playing without limit/torment?
I mean, maybe it just hasn't come up yet or I missed it, but Keris has a Malfean Urge, yes? Malfean torment looks pretty obvious so I don't think I've missed anything like that.
Limitwise, there are what, four ways of gaining limit?
She hasn't really been defying her Urge so that's not relevant.
She's mostly been resisting UMI with the Adorjan charm, but I think she has spent the odd point of willpower?
She's defs suppressed her highest virtue a time or two, though you have a radically different system of virtues and intimacies, so who even knows there. I'd think you'd have picked up a few points though.
The coadjutor limit thing I don't really know, since I don't know much of anything about the abscissic plates, but that only applies when your wp is zero so nothing there I think.
It's just I don't recall seeing Keris do anything that would qualify as an act of villainy? At least for the reclamation five, I dunno about AoV for any of the other Yozi.
Just curious really, as to what's going on there, or if you scrapped it what the reasoning was.
I mean, maybe it just hasn't come up yet or I missed it, but Keris has a Malfean Urge, yes? Malfean torment looks pretty obvious so I don't think I've missed anything like that.
Limitwise, there are what, four ways of gaining limit?
She hasn't really been defying her Urge so that's not relevant.
She's mostly been resisting UMI with the Adorjan charm, but I think she has spent the odd point of willpower?
She's defs suppressed her highest virtue a time or two, though you have a radically different system of virtues and intimacies, so who even knows there. I'd think you'd have picked up a few points though.
The coadjutor limit thing I don't really know, since I don't know much of anything about the abscissic plates, but that only applies when your wp is zero so nothing there I think.
It's just I don't recall seeing Keris do anything that would qualify as an act of villainy? At least for the reclamation five, I dunno about AoV for any of the other Yozi.
Just curious really, as to what's going on there, or if you scrapped it what the reasoning was.
Azrael
Sakura Saber
- Location
- Throne of Heroes
First, I'm pretty sure Keris has an Adorjani or Kimberian Urge. She is, after all, a Kimbery-focused Scourge.
Second, Limit mechanics exist to encourage certain suboptimal behaviour. Keris regularly acts like that anyway , so the mechanics don't see much use.
Third, canon Infernal Limit is terrible. You are infinitely more likely in a game run by ES to see, for example, an Infernal with a Cecelynian Urge losing all motivation for a scene as despair overtakes her from witnessing the proper rule of law overturned or ignored through force, than 'you and maybe some other people you have Intimacies for get hurt by silver sand'.
Nah, Infernals just get two favoured Yozis in Kerisgame. Castes are basically a residual holdover (also, the caste marks are basically slightly altered Solar ones - that means, yes, we don't have the silliness of the Fiend mark being the same as the Midnight one). It's totally valid to have a Scourge who favours TED and Oramus, for example.
Basically, given there's ten usable Yozi sets, being chained to a caste Yozi doesn't work so well.
Other than that, yeah, you have things right.
I do have a partially rewritten set of Limit rules for Infernals, but in practice we ignore it because there's no need to have a set of mechanics to force @Aleph to do silly neo-Primordial things and be self-destructive.
(If she had more of the Malfeas Limit-using Charms, you probably would see it)
Azrael
Sakura Saber
- Location
- Throne of Heroes
Ah.
I thought I remembered something like that. Bit surprised she favors Malfeas though, she doesn't seem to use quite as much of it as she does Adorjan or Kimbery.
She doesn't favour Malfeas. She has a Malfean Urge, and favours Adorjan and Kimbery.
A Malfean Urge means there's a weak spot in your Primordial-ness that can be used to give you an Urge which fits in the theme "DESTROY SOMETHING". It doesn't mean you're personally particularly Malfean. It's something the Unquestionable set when they send out your Exaltation, at least five days before it finds you.
Azrael
Sakura Saber
- Location
- Throne of Heroes
...Hmm? Has this been explained before, because this sounds new to me.
I was operating off canon/Unwoven Coadjutor rewrite where your Urge has to come from either a Caste or Favored Yozi.
Well, now I know.
Azrael
Sakura Saber
- Location
- Throne of Heroes
It very much isn't, and if it is, it wasn't there last week, which was the last time I was looking through that.
Well, that or I completely missed it. Which is possible.
Heh. Probably because it's such a common bit of homebrew that I forgot it was houserules.
Basically, the way Yozi Charms work is that they're actually personality Charms. You should only learn Charms that fit who you are/could be. For example, GSNF is you channelling your own hate and because you are like Malfeas, your hate comes out as green fire. If you are not at least a bit proud, hateful and bombastic, you'll find it hard to learn Malfean Charms.
As a result, you should favour Charms who suit you, not get them assigned by your Urge (not set by you) and your Caste (the Yozis don't map very well to castes). So the Yozis can give you whatever Urge they want, but that doesn't change who you are.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Also, you know. Keris is Coadjutor 5.
So for Keris that's... spending a scene "performing the moments of existence as music". To which I say "hahaha, lawl", because Keris is playing music almost whenever she visits Dulmea, and frequently uses "family music time" to make her souls sit down together and get along without bickering. So even if we were using Limit, she can bleed it trivially.
Romantic_Kaiju
Romantic Kaiju
- Location
- National Battlefield
That sounds cool, could you post that?
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Fool! It is the way of the Imperator Scorpion Terrene to keep it's secrets and workings hidden in it's lair.
The Phoenixian
The Glacier Witch
- Location
- My own little world
Finally caught up with this. Very good read.
Some odd thoughts that struck me throughout reading it:
@Keruby
Is it just me, or is are the demons of Malfeas going to learn to fear these kids? Because my first thought on their dances in response to music is "Oh god, someone took Adorjan and ran her in reverse." (especially the szelkeruby and their matchmaking inclinations... "In the Demon city, there is no shipping without pain.")
@Parts 71 & 73
Do I espy two nascent 2nd circles in Saji (who could be read as taking over parts of Haneyl's nature due to being the one feeding Haneyl when she wasn't feeding herself and being her plant side when she was ashen) and Vali's Enlightenment 0 Brass furred cat? (Who's notably Kerisian essence, as opposed to the plant things later in the chapter that have Haneylian essence, and who's missing, bandaged leg fits with his themes of protecting and caring for animals.)
@Keris's Po
Since I haven't seen it mentioned, all the Introduction to Pantheon Heresy in the story has me wondering about how that's going to interact with the Po soul. Not just in "Is Pekhijira going to get 2nd circles souls" but also in wondering how that would affect the Po. Would having seven subsouls grant it more complexity of thought? Or would they all be animals in and of themselves and not raise it much? (Which brings up Brass cat theory 2: It's a subsoul of the Po.)
And now that I think of it, that makes a lot more sense and brings up a lot of potential implications. (Being the serpent's progeny rather than Vali's explains the Kerisian essence since it stems directly from what was once human rather than a pantheon soul that would mix in the Yozi's charms, it explains the animal side... but it also fits with Vali's themes and Lilunu does show us that subsouls can be shared. And that would also explain why it formed rather fast if both Pekhijira and Vali's natures were feeding into it simultaneously.)
And now I can't help but picture that Dulmea and the six kids will each get their own spirit animal from the Serpent.
...Pardon my mind twisting into loops for a moment there.
Some odd thoughts that struck me throughout reading it:
@Keruby
Is it just me, or is are the demons of Malfeas going to learn to fear these kids? Because my first thought on their dances in response to music is "Oh god, someone took Adorjan and ran her in reverse." (especially the szelkeruby and their matchmaking inclinations... "In the Demon city, there is no shipping without pain.")
@Parts 71 & 73
Do I espy two nascent 2nd circles in Saji (who could be read as taking over parts of Haneyl's nature due to being the one feeding Haneyl when she wasn't feeding herself and being her plant side when she was ashen) and Vali's Enlightenment 0 Brass furred cat? (Who's notably Kerisian essence, as opposed to the plant things later in the chapter that have Haneylian essence, and who's missing, bandaged leg fits with his themes of protecting and caring for animals.)
@Keris's Po
Since I haven't seen it mentioned, all the Introduction to Pantheon Heresy in the story has me wondering about how that's going to interact with the Po soul. Not just in "Is Pekhijira going to get 2nd circles souls" but also in wondering how that would affect the Po. Would having seven subsouls grant it more complexity of thought? Or would they all be animals in and of themselves and not raise it much? (Which brings up Brass cat theory 2: It's a subsoul of the Po.)
And now that I think of it, that makes a lot more sense and brings up a lot of potential implications. (Being the serpent's progeny rather than Vali's explains the Kerisian essence since it stems directly from what was once human rather than a pantheon soul that would mix in the Yozi's charms, it explains the animal side... but it also fits with Vali's themes and Lilunu does show us that subsouls can be shared. And that would also explain why it formed rather fast if both Pekhijira and Vali's natures were feeding into it simultaneously.)
And now I can't help but picture that Dulmea and the six kids will each get their own spirit animal from the Serpent.
...Pardon my mind twisting into loops for a moment there.
This note on cores souls has me now picturing an Infernal who's gone shoulder deep in Pantheon Heresy coming out after elevating Hun, Po and Coadjuster alike and boasting "Hey guess what? I've got three fetich souls!"
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, recall that it takes hundreds of them before their dances become lethal and thousands before they create natural disasters. Mostly in Malfeas they're just a pest, because they drive away musicians with Bashing damage when there are tens of them dancing and thus beckon the Silent Wind.
Ah. No. Second Circles don't get uplifted from existing things very often - Saji will be more like Elly (eg: one of Haneyl's favourite nobles) while Iosoto will most likely become part of Vali's legend - a companion-beast and familiar who's summoned along with him like Stanewald's horse.
The reason Iosoto has Kerisian essence with a Valiant slant while the mudvine men have Haneylian essence is that Iosoto is a type of akuma common to all of Krisity which, like the keruby, come in different flavours - however, the internal bits are all the same and at a metaphysical level it's a single species with sub-breeds rather than eight separate ones. Mudvine men, on the other hand, were made by Haneyl for Haneyl with Haneylian essence and materials.
The Beasts of Krisity extra, which I will have more time for now that Power Games is finished, will go into more detail on the types of Kerisian akuma that have grown and flourished within her nascent Tiger Empire.
The Phoenixian
The Glacier Witch
- Location
- My own little world
Aha.
Alas, it seems that at this rate I shall never see shippers become the eleventh plague of Egypt...
Gotcha. In that case I'll stick to assuming that the genesis of second circles will be more condensed down towards single moments, such as the Minervian creation of Haneyl, rather than a slow accretion.
---
On another note, reading through some old posts about Kerisgame in the Exalted thread reminded me of another odd thought, which has just spawned an off the wall theory. Although the site itself is on a Shogunate era map, for whatever reason - well I know exactly what reason, but it's not really relevant - something in the name "Catalyst of the Red Sunrise" make me think of the Realm and the Scarlet Empress.
Taking that into consideration alongside the nuclear waste theory that brought it to my attention again, when you look at it from a certain lens, the Contagion and Baloran Crusade that followed would be a catalyst for the rise of the first Scarlet Empress.
Judging by the timescale it's about the right age for those two things, though I think a bit better for the Contagion than the Baloran Crusade.
Kerisgame Part Six said:
Diverging for a moment, in the real world we keep a record of all the very worst things, storing every disease from smallpox, to anthrax, measles, to cancers, to whatever else in special facilities. Because, well, shit happens and we might need them available for study and other science some day.
Having a lab to study, cure, and afterwards contain the Contagion likewise makes a fair amount of sense. The first two for the fairly obvious reason of "Oh god, it's killing everyone somebody stop it!" and the third because shit happens and it might someday be useful to have a sample of the Contagion down there to study later. If locked up and very safely away from the world. The sound of active machinery does point in a different direction from simple "hazardous materials storage" but there are things the sound could be (From requiring complicated active containment methods to failsafes like "We know wyld zones kill it so let's use this machine as a means to contain one that's ready to burst open and consume the facility if something happens." if late enough in the timeline/the interactions were known from the edge of Creation at the time the facility was used.)
And, as the kicker, an Abyssal is running around the same region, looking for old ruins around An Teng. One who, IIRC, has a fair hand with crafting things of Death into weapons of war. (Or at least works with someone who crafts them for her... Don't quite recall which) Once the two are within 500 miles of each other it seems like a natural plot hook.
(Apologies if I got something badly wrong on Creation's mechanics and history here: I'll be the first to admit that my knowledge of Exalted comes almost entirely from secondary sources rather than the rulebooks themselves. As it stands, the relative time period of the Contagion and Baloran Crusade are things I certainly have no idea of.)
Nah, I'd bet this is literally just the geological layer of 'this is when the Contagion happened'. The Contagion was one of those rare events that was truly, utterly Creation-wide. It affected everywhere.
The Phoenixian
The Glacier Witch
- Location
- My own little world
No, I get that. It's laid out pretty clearly that the sediment layers are deposits that result from the mass death (and/or method of mass death) and, on the layer above that, regrowth after the Pole of Wood reconnected.
The thought here is "Okay, if the Contagion is in the middle of happening, and Kerisgame's Shogunate still has much of the old, industrial-era-but-magic wonders, (and thus, conceivably similar social institutions) wouldn't there be attempts to study and cure it? And likewise attempts to contain samples of the Contagion like we contain samples of our plagues, both current and eradicated?"
I don't think the sediment layer is the disease itself, it would be kind of stupid to have a huge plug sealing something dangerous when what you're sealing inside is also laying on top of it, or even think that the disease is leaking through it, but rather bring up the quote to show Keris' supposition that the geologic layer does put this in the same rough time period that the Contagion happened.