YOU, SV, are Ignis Divine, Sol Incarnate, better known as the Unconquered Sun. While you wile away the hours with the Games of Divinity, it is your job to choose which gods deserve the Spark of Exigence to create their own Exalted!
Break Glass in Case of Emergency (Exalted Exigent-Creation Quest)
- Thread starter Critian Caceorte
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Inside the Jade Pleasure Dome...
New
Critian Caceorte
Currently Suffering from Space-Time Narcolepsy
- Location
- Washington State
Yu-Shan, as always, is beautiful. It's golden streets, gold as the sun's light, are trod upon by feet, hooves and wheels both mortal and divine (yes, including the wheels, Gods can be odd like that). It's diamond towers reach up to the sky, glittering like the stars which occasionally manifest in the sky. Its quicksilver seas splash upon the shores of the continent-sized city, drawing the eye much like Luna themself does. It is a city of divine beauty, filled with ten million gods alongside other creatures. It's also a city where corruption runs rampant, where homeless deities dwell in the ruins of ancient temples, where mortals live on the margins.
But that's a problem for another time, as it always is for you. YOU are Ignis Divine, Sol Incarnate, better known as the Unconquered Sun. As King of the Gods, it is normally your duty to make sure that this entire enterprise is functioning as it should. But... well, that was before the Games of Divinity. Before you took that first move, felt the rush of elation as something unthinkable happened, drawing your interest like nothing else could. Eventually, like a boar following a food trail into a trap, you willingly walked into your own destruction. Now, trapped in an addiction which has proven your undoing, you have largely remained distant from the goings-on of both Yu-Shan and Creation.
Until a year ago, that is. As the mortals of today reckon it, it is currently the Realm Year 764. A year ago, that one Dragon-Blood who ruled the Blessed Isle disappeared. A year ago, your precious Solar Exalted returned in numbers not seen since millennia prior. Not all of them sadly, only around half are active from what you can tell, but enough to give an iota of hope that they might turn out better than their predecessors were.
But that's not what you are focusing on today. For while the Solar Exalted are YOUR Chosen, whose selection is solely your own prerogative, you also hold the keys towards another type of Exaltation: Namely, the Flames of Exigence. Any God in Creation or Yu-Shan can send a prayer to you, begging for the opportunity to be delivered a spark of that flame, which can be used to create Exalted of their own. It is a rare privilege, and of all the millions of gods and billions of humans out there, only around 300 Exigents currently exist within Creation's boundaries. But, now that your own Chosen have returned, some part of your heart which still bleeds compassion demands that share this gift with more gods than before.
And so, you shall. Turning your divine ears to the wind blowing through the Jade Pleasure Dome, you briefly close your eyes (which already beg to gaze upon the Games of Divinity once again) and focus on the prayers directed towards yourself. And of them, one catches your attention first.
Who Shall Be the First of these to receive the Spark of Exigence?
[] A lowly harvest deity, Ten Sheaves the field god of Kolisz pleads to the King of Gods for someone to protect his poor village. With its Immaculate presence now non-existent, and with an army of Fae along the way, he could simply abandon his post but instead begs for a Chosen to protect his desperate worshipers. Such selflessness, especially for a God, should be rewarded. (Center)
[] Arduinna, a Goddess of Ice Boar Hunting in the frozen North, flees on foot from her pursuer with all-due haste. Currently, an older Lunar Exalt is on her trail, intending to devour her and steal her powers for their own use. Though she begs primarily for her own safety, she is willing to sacrifice part of her strength in order to empower her mortal paramour, as two minor powers (or at least 1 young Celestial) should prove enough to convince the Lunar that this hunt is more trouble than its worth. (North)
[] Descending from the skies, Hail-Scourge gnashes her teeth as yet another ship successfully avoids her wrath. One of the weakest of the Storm Mothers, she does not have the natural strength to pay evil to evil for those sailors who avoid sacrificing to her, which in turn limits how quickly she can grow in strength. In frustration, she screams at the heavens that if she cannot make her mark on the world, than surely her Chosen could do so in her stead. (West)
[] Cloaked from sight, Pleasant Forgery of Light sighs as yet another prayer goes unanswered. For many months, the minor God of Hazy Mirages has tired of their long life, and looked for a way to end it without breaking their promise of protection to a remote settlement. The only solution, as they see it, is to obtain a Spark of Exigence, and from there create a protector they can leave behind for those downtrodden mortals, freeing them up to say goodbye to this world as all illusions must do. (South)
[] Migog, a deity of Root-Cracked Rocks, seeks enlightenment just as mortals do. He has tried aestheticism, philosophy, drugs and several other paths which all came to a dead end. At this point, he figures, the risk of dooming himself is nothing compared to the chance of communion with the greatest God of All. Besides, if he survives with no enlightenment in tow, at least he'll have a student to listen to his ramblings. (East)
Author's Note: Yes, I really do need to update Sidereal Force soon, in the meantime I guess you can have this as a treat.
This quest is inspired by @undead frog 's excellent Long Founding and Chaos Founding quests, which revolve around the creation of Space Marine Chapters and seeing how their history develops based upon the conditions of their founding. This quest will run on a similar concept, except instead of a whole group of people it will instead be one divine warrior at a time. As the Unconquered Sun, you hold the power to choose which gods get their wish of having their own Chosen. Now, normally this process risks the possibility of these sparks of Exigence getting stolen by some other deity and sold on the black market, but as a personal guarantee of this quest: NONE of the Exigence sparks you hand out will suffer from this risk, because that seems pretty dickish to go against what you just voted on. Instead, you can assume that other Exigents besides the ones featured here will also be chosen, with the full risk of being the result of black market dealings.
Let me just get into the mechanics right away: This stage is Part One of the process, where a deity is chosen to give the spark to. Once the vote is locked in, I will make 4 1d100 rolls: One for the resulting Exigent's power level, one for the deity's survival, one for their maximum lifespan, and one for whether their Exaltation can be passed down to someone else when they die. The first roll will have a DC of 80, passing it means a Celestial level Exigent on par with Solars, Lunars and Sidereals. Failure means a Terrestrial akin to a Dragon-Blood. Since Celestial-level Exigents typically require more power, they will inflict a -20 penalty on the god's survival roll, which can be offset if the deity is of particularly high strength. None of your current options are of sufficient level to offset the penalty.
The third roll (lifespan) will have a DC of 40 and 100, with Celestials gaining a +20 bonus to the roll and weaker deities penalizing it. On a failure, the Exalt will only live as long as a mortal can. At 40 or higher, they will live for a few centuries, and at 100 or higher, they will live for a few millennia, assuming all goes well. Finally, the fourth roll will have a DC of 80 and 95. At 80 or higher, the power can be passed down to a new host a limited number of times before fading away, ensuring a small legacy after the Exigent's death. At 95 or higher, it is a full-blown Exaltation, just as indestructible as the regular Celestial ones are.
From there, we proceed to part two and so on. This quest is mostly an excuse for me to create some cool NPCs that people can use in their own games if they so choose. If you want to use these characters for campaigns, for quests, for fiction, etc YOU HAVE MY BLESSING. Just make sure to credit me for it, please. I am NOT, however, designing entire charmsets for every single one of these Exigents, because I am obviously of sound mind and body. At most, I might provide a sample Charm or two if you want to extrapolate from there, most of these Exigents will be narrative only instead of mechanical.
Some of you familiar with the recent Exalted material might recognize Ten Sheaves, and yes he is indeed a canon character with a canon Exigent, but the other 4 are wholly original. I figured that the chance of creating someone other than the canon Strawmaiden might work here, so long as we don't, you know, get rolls that precisely mirror her canon abilities.
With all of that said, feel free to choose our first test sub- I MEAN humble recipient!
But that's a problem for another time, as it always is for you. YOU are Ignis Divine, Sol Incarnate, better known as the Unconquered Sun. As King of the Gods, it is normally your duty to make sure that this entire enterprise is functioning as it should. But... well, that was before the Games of Divinity. Before you took that first move, felt the rush of elation as something unthinkable happened, drawing your interest like nothing else could. Eventually, like a boar following a food trail into a trap, you willingly walked into your own destruction. Now, trapped in an addiction which has proven your undoing, you have largely remained distant from the goings-on of both Yu-Shan and Creation.
Until a year ago, that is. As the mortals of today reckon it, it is currently the Realm Year 764. A year ago, that one Dragon-Blood who ruled the Blessed Isle disappeared. A year ago, your precious Solar Exalted returned in numbers not seen since millennia prior. Not all of them sadly, only around half are active from what you can tell, but enough to give an iota of hope that they might turn out better than their predecessors were.
But that's not what you are focusing on today. For while the Solar Exalted are YOUR Chosen, whose selection is solely your own prerogative, you also hold the keys towards another type of Exaltation: Namely, the Flames of Exigence. Any God in Creation or Yu-Shan can send a prayer to you, begging for the opportunity to be delivered a spark of that flame, which can be used to create Exalted of their own. It is a rare privilege, and of all the millions of gods and billions of humans out there, only around 300 Exigents currently exist within Creation's boundaries. But, now that your own Chosen have returned, some part of your heart which still bleeds compassion demands that share this gift with more gods than before.
And so, you shall. Turning your divine ears to the wind blowing through the Jade Pleasure Dome, you briefly close your eyes (which already beg to gaze upon the Games of Divinity once again) and focus on the prayers directed towards yourself. And of them, one catches your attention first.
Who Shall Be the First of these to receive the Spark of Exigence?
[] A lowly harvest deity, Ten Sheaves the field god of Kolisz pleads to the King of Gods for someone to protect his poor village. With its Immaculate presence now non-existent, and with an army of Fae along the way, he could simply abandon his post but instead begs for a Chosen to protect his desperate worshipers. Such selflessness, especially for a God, should be rewarded. (Center)
[] Arduinna, a Goddess of Ice Boar Hunting in the frozen North, flees on foot from her pursuer with all-due haste. Currently, an older Lunar Exalt is on her trail, intending to devour her and steal her powers for their own use. Though she begs primarily for her own safety, she is willing to sacrifice part of her strength in order to empower her mortal paramour, as two minor powers (or at least 1 young Celestial) should prove enough to convince the Lunar that this hunt is more trouble than its worth. (North)
[] Descending from the skies, Hail-Scourge gnashes her teeth as yet another ship successfully avoids her wrath. One of the weakest of the Storm Mothers, she does not have the natural strength to pay evil to evil for those sailors who avoid sacrificing to her, which in turn limits how quickly she can grow in strength. In frustration, she screams at the heavens that if she cannot make her mark on the world, than surely her Chosen could do so in her stead. (West)
[] Cloaked from sight, Pleasant Forgery of Light sighs as yet another prayer goes unanswered. For many months, the minor God of Hazy Mirages has tired of their long life, and looked for a way to end it without breaking their promise of protection to a remote settlement. The only solution, as they see it, is to obtain a Spark of Exigence, and from there create a protector they can leave behind for those downtrodden mortals, freeing them up to say goodbye to this world as all illusions must do. (South)
[] Migog, a deity of Root-Cracked Rocks, seeks enlightenment just as mortals do. He has tried aestheticism, philosophy, drugs and several other paths which all came to a dead end. At this point, he figures, the risk of dooming himself is nothing compared to the chance of communion with the greatest God of All. Besides, if he survives with no enlightenment in tow, at least he'll have a student to listen to his ramblings. (East)
Author's Note: Yes, I really do need to update Sidereal Force soon, in the meantime I guess you can have this as a treat.
This quest is inspired by @undead frog 's excellent Long Founding and Chaos Founding quests, which revolve around the creation of Space Marine Chapters and seeing how their history develops based upon the conditions of their founding. This quest will run on a similar concept, except instead of a whole group of people it will instead be one divine warrior at a time. As the Unconquered Sun, you hold the power to choose which gods get their wish of having their own Chosen. Now, normally this process risks the possibility of these sparks of Exigence getting stolen by some other deity and sold on the black market, but as a personal guarantee of this quest: NONE of the Exigence sparks you hand out will suffer from this risk, because that seems pretty dickish to go against what you just voted on. Instead, you can assume that other Exigents besides the ones featured here will also be chosen, with the full risk of being the result of black market dealings.
Let me just get into the mechanics right away: This stage is Part One of the process, where a deity is chosen to give the spark to. Once the vote is locked in, I will make 4 1d100 rolls: One for the resulting Exigent's power level, one for the deity's survival, one for their maximum lifespan, and one for whether their Exaltation can be passed down to someone else when they die. The first roll will have a DC of 80, passing it means a Celestial level Exigent on par with Solars, Lunars and Sidereals. Failure means a Terrestrial akin to a Dragon-Blood. Since Celestial-level Exigents typically require more power, they will inflict a -20 penalty on the god's survival roll, which can be offset if the deity is of particularly high strength. None of your current options are of sufficient level to offset the penalty.
The third roll (lifespan) will have a DC of 40 and 100, with Celestials gaining a +20 bonus to the roll and weaker deities penalizing it. On a failure, the Exalt will only live as long as a mortal can. At 40 or higher, they will live for a few centuries, and at 100 or higher, they will live for a few millennia, assuming all goes well. Finally, the fourth roll will have a DC of 80 and 95. At 80 or higher, the power can be passed down to a new host a limited number of times before fading away, ensuring a small legacy after the Exigent's death. At 95 or higher, it is a full-blown Exaltation, just as indestructible as the regular Celestial ones are.
From there, we proceed to part two and so on. This quest is mostly an excuse for me to create some cool NPCs that people can use in their own games if they so choose. If you want to use these characters for campaigns, for quests, for fiction, etc YOU HAVE MY BLESSING. Just make sure to credit me for it, please. I am NOT, however, designing entire charmsets for every single one of these Exigents, because I am obviously of sound mind and body. At most, I might provide a sample Charm or two if you want to extrapolate from there, most of these Exigents will be narrative only instead of mechanical.
Some of you familiar with the recent Exalted material might recognize Ten Sheaves, and yes he is indeed a canon character with a canon Exigent, but the other 4 are wholly original. I figured that the chance of creating someone other than the canon Strawmaiden might work here, so long as we don't, you know, get rolls that precisely mirror her canon abilities.
With all of that said, feel free to choose our first test sub- I MEAN humble recipient!
Critian Caceorte
Currently Suffering from Space-Time Narcolepsy
- Location
- Washington State
Reserved
Critian Caceorte
Currently Suffering from Space-Time Narcolepsy
- Location
- Washington State
Alright, NOW I can open the vote for everyone, sorry about that.
[X] Migog, a deity of Root-Cracked Rocks, seeks enlightenment just as mortals do. He has tried aestheticism, philosophy, drugs and several other paths which all came to a dead end. At this point, he figures, the risk of dooming himself is nothing compared to the chance of communion with the greatest God of All. Besides, if he survives with no enlightenment in tow, at least he'll have a student to listen to his ramblings. (East)
[X] A lowly harvest deity, Ten Sheaves the field god of Kolisz pleads to the King of Gods for someone to protect his poor village. With its Immaculate presence now non-existent, and with an army of Fae along the way, he could simply abandon his post but instead begs for a Chosen to protect his desperate worshipers. Such selflessness, especially for a God, should be rewarded. (Center)
theflyingbiscuit
"Titanic neechan"
[X] A lowly harvest deity, Ten Sheaves the field god of Kolisz pleads to the King of Gods for someone to protect his poor village. With its Immaculate presence now non-existent, and with an army of Fae along the way, he could simply abandon his post but instead begs for a Chosen to protect his desperate worshipers. Such selflessness, especially for a God, should be rewarded. (Center)
[X] A lowly harvest deity, Ten Sheaves the field god of Kolisz pleads to the King of Gods for someone to protect his poor village. With its Immaculate presence now non-existent, and with an army of Fae along the way, he could simply abandon his post but instead begs for a Chosen to protect his desperate worshipers. Such selflessness, especially for a God, should be rewarded. (Center)
- Location
- France
[X] A lowly harvest deity, Ten Sheaves the field god of Kolisz pleads to the King of Gods for someone to protect his poor village. With its Immaculate presence now non-existent, and with an army of Fae along the way, he could simply abandon his post but instead begs for a Chosen to protect his desperate worshipers. Such selflessness, especially for a God, should be rewarded. (Center)
Creation need hero.
Creation need hero.
[X] Migog, a deity of Root-Cracked Rocks, seeks enlightenment just as mortals do. He has tried aestheticism, philosophy, drugs and several other paths which all came to a dead end. At this point, he figures, the risk of dooming himself is nothing compared to the chance of communion with the greatest God of All. Besides, if he survives with no enlightenment in tow, at least he'll have a student to listen to his ramblings. (East)
Probably won't succeed since there is a ton of Ten Sheaves support, but I like this
Probably won't succeed since there is a ton of Ten Sheaves support, but I like this
- Location
- United States of America
[X] Migog, a deity of Root-Cracked Rocks, seeks enlightenment just as mortals do. He has tried aestheticism, philosophy, drugs and several other paths which all came to a dead end. At this point, he figures, the risk of dooming himself is nothing compared to the chance of communion with the greatest God of All. Besides, if he survives with no enlightenment in tow, at least he'll have a student to listen to his ramblings. (East)
- Location
- italy bologna
[X] Migog, a deity of Root-Cracked Rocks, seeks enlightenment just as mortals do. He has tried aestheticism, philosophy, drugs and several other paths which all came to a dead end. At this point, he figures, the risk of dooming himself is nothing compared to the chance of communion with the greatest God of All. Besides, if he survives with no enlightenment in tow, at least he'll have a student to listen to his ramblings. (East)
- Location
- United states of america
[X] A lowly harvest deity, Ten Sheaves the field god of Kolisz pleads to the King of Gods for someone to protect his poor village. With its Immaculate presence now non-existent, and with an army of Fae along the way, he could simply abandon his post but instead begs for a Chosen to protect his desperate worshipers. Such selflessness, especially for a God, should be rewarded. (Center)
- Location
- Gainful Employment
- Pronouns
- He/They
I do like the Ten Sheaves and Migog options, but
[X] Cloaked from sight, Pleasant Forgery of Light sighs as yet another prayer goes unanswered. For many months, the minor God of Hazy Mirages has tired of their long life, and looked for a way to end it without breaking their promise of protection to a remote settlement. The only solution, as they see it, is to obtain a Spark of Exigence, and from there create a protector they can leave behind for those downtrodden mortals, freeing them up to say goodbye to this world as all illusions must do. (South)
Is my favorite here. (How upset would Pleasent Forgery be if they get a Nat 100 on the survival roll?)
[X] Cloaked from sight, Pleasant Forgery of Light sighs as yet another prayer goes unanswered. For many months, the minor God of Hazy Mirages has tired of their long life, and looked for a way to end it without breaking their promise of protection to a remote settlement. The only solution, as they see it, is to obtain a Spark of Exigence, and from there create a protector they can leave behind for those downtrodden mortals, freeing them up to say goodbye to this world as all illusions must do. (South)
Is my favorite here. (How upset would Pleasent Forgery be if they get a Nat 100 on the survival roll?)
[x] A lowly harvest deity, Ten Sheaves the field god of Kolisz pleads to the King of Gods for someone to protect his poor village. With its Immaculate presence now non-existent, and with an army of Fae along the way, he could simply abandon his post but instead begs for a Chosen to protect his desperate worshipers. Such selflessness, especially for a God, should be rewarded. (Center)
Critian Caceorte
Currently Suffering from Space-Time Narcolepsy
- Location
- Washington State
At that point, they'd probably just leave to find something able to take them out permanently.
- Location
- Gainful Employment
- Pronouns
- He/They
They the keep getting Nat 100s against everything they find, and have to task their Chosen to find something that can kill them
[x] A lowly harvest deity, Ten Sheaves the field god of Kolisz pleads to the King of Gods for someone to protect his poor village. With its Immaculate presence now non-existent, and with an army of Fae along the way, he could simply abandon his post but instead begs for a Chosen to protect his desperate worshipers. Such selflessness, especially for a God, should be rewarded. (Center)
On Votes not chosen or soon to be added
New
Critian Caceorte
Currently Suffering from Space-Time Narcolepsy
- Location
- Washington State
They will! Like with Long Founding, I'm storing any options not chosen for a future turn, in case there are really popular second and third places. Think of it as a Schrodinger's Cat situation, where the situation described in the vote doesn't yet occur UNTIL the Unconquered Sun makes his choice. When it comes to adding new options, I am going to add a few each turn from different Directions (so we had the main 5 this turn, next turn I'll probably add the 4 diagonal directions, etc.), adding less each turn until we've cleared more of our existing options.
Vote Closed
New
Critian Caceorte
Currently Suffering from Space-Time Narcolepsy
- Location
- Washington State
It's an hour early, but I think the vote is clear enough that we can proceed. Apologies for those who thought this would be closing a day later, I got the dates wrong when I was setting up the vote time.
In any case, we have our canon option of Ten Sheaves as the winner of this round! I will be doing the initial dice rolls in the next post below, before getting started on writing up the next step.
In any case, we have our canon option of Ten Sheaves as the winner of this round! I will be doing the initial dice rolls in the next post below, before getting started on writing up the next step.
How rolls work in Part 1 + 1st Turn Rolls
New
Critian Caceorte
Currently Suffering from Space-Time Narcolepsy
- Location
- Washington State
I'm going to threadmark this post here to serve as an example of how rolls will work for the first part, as well as go over how it work again for those who didn't read the author's notes in the first post.
After a deity has been selected, a series of 4 rolls using 1d100 will occur. The first roll determines the power level of the Exigent in question, whether they are a Terrestrial (and thus on par with a Dragon-Blood) or a Celestial (and thus equivalent to those folks). The first roll has a DC of 80, failing it means Terrestrial, passing it means Celestial. By default, there are no modifiers for this roll, because in canon some minor gods produce really powerful Exigents and vice versa. I'm debating whether or not a major deity like Ahlat for example would provide a slight bonus, but for now assume that it's a straight dice roll.
As for Ten Sheaves here...
Roll Result: 50, a Terrestrial level Exigent. If we go by the canon example of Strawmaiden Janest, this is technically a worse outcome, but lets see if the remaining rolls turn out well.
The second roll determines if the God in question will survive the Exaltation process. After all, they are sacrificing quite a bit (perhaps even all) of their power for this work, survival is far from guaranteed. This roll has a DC of 80: If the roll succeeds, the God survives to some degree, otherwise they perish. It also has two primary modifiers: If the resulting Exigent is a Celestial Exalt, the roll suffers a -20 penalty, because of the increased power requirements. The second is if the God is a more powerful deity: For now, I am classifying Gods outside of the Incarnae in 3 categories: Minor, Moderate and Major. Minor Gods are Essence 1 - 3 spirits who generally have stewardship over a small area or a specific niche. Moderate Gods are Essence 4 - 5, and generally preside over a wider area or portfolio, and Major Gods are Essence 6+ who typically rule over a major domain.
Minor Gods provide +0 to the roll, Moderate provide +20, and Major provide +40. Thus, a Major God with a Terrestrial Exigent would only need to roll a 40 or higher to live. That's still not amazing odds though, which is partly why you don't often see Major deities create Exigents of their own outside of Wun Ja who has a workaround.
In this case...
Roll Modifiers, -0 (Terrestrial), +0 (Minor God)
Roll Result: 54, just like in canon Ten Sheaves perishes here.
The third roll is for the Exigent's lifespan. Typically, most Exigents don't live for very long compared to more "standard" Exalts, usually only going for up to a couple centuries at most. This roll has two DCs: 40 and 100. Passing the 40 threshold means that the Exalt will be able to live for up to a few centuries, passing the 100 means a couple thousand instead, assuming they don't suffer an early death. Failing the roll altogether means a human lifespan or slightly more at best.
Celestial Exigents get a +20 to this roll, since their increased power grants them an increased life span. In this case...
Roll Modifiers: +0 (Terrestrial)
Roll Result: 46, the 40 threshold has been passed. The Exigent will live for up to a couple of centuries assuming no early demise, which is actually better than canon. There, Janest could only live for a few decades past a hundred.
Finally, perhaps the most important roll of all is the Exigent's legacy: Does their Exaltation survive beyond their death. In the vast majority of cases, the answer here is no, because its too unstable otherwise. But there are always exceptions, and so this roll has 2 DCs: 80 and 95. At 80 or higher, the Exaltation will persist for a few more users before eventually destabilizing. At 95 or higher, it instead becomes a genuine Exaltation, able to persist after every user's death without fail.
No modifiers for this roll, so...
Roll Result: 33, the Exaltation will die with its user.
So, we have a Terrestrial-level Exigent of the Harvest, whose creation demanded the life of their patron. They will live for up to a few centuries, and take their Exaltation with them when they die. Overall, this is a pretty typical Exigent, nothing really fancy here. I'll get started on Part 2 as soon as I can. For that, we will have options for the lucky mortal who receives the Exaltation.
After a deity has been selected, a series of 4 rolls using 1d100 will occur. The first roll determines the power level of the Exigent in question, whether they are a Terrestrial (and thus on par with a Dragon-Blood) or a Celestial (and thus equivalent to those folks). The first roll has a DC of 80, failing it means Terrestrial, passing it means Celestial. By default, there are no modifiers for this roll, because in canon some minor gods produce really powerful Exigents and vice versa. I'm debating whether or not a major deity like Ahlat for example would provide a slight bonus, but for now assume that it's a straight dice roll.
As for Ten Sheaves here...
Roll Result: 50, a Terrestrial level Exigent. If we go by the canon example of Strawmaiden Janest, this is technically a worse outcome, but lets see if the remaining rolls turn out well.
The second roll determines if the God in question will survive the Exaltation process. After all, they are sacrificing quite a bit (perhaps even all) of their power for this work, survival is far from guaranteed. This roll has a DC of 80: If the roll succeeds, the God survives to some degree, otherwise they perish. It also has two primary modifiers: If the resulting Exigent is a Celestial Exalt, the roll suffers a -20 penalty, because of the increased power requirements. The second is if the God is a more powerful deity: For now, I am classifying Gods outside of the Incarnae in 3 categories: Minor, Moderate and Major. Minor Gods are Essence 1 - 3 spirits who generally have stewardship over a small area or a specific niche. Moderate Gods are Essence 4 - 5, and generally preside over a wider area or portfolio, and Major Gods are Essence 6+ who typically rule over a major domain.
Minor Gods provide +0 to the roll, Moderate provide +20, and Major provide +40. Thus, a Major God with a Terrestrial Exigent would only need to roll a 40 or higher to live. That's still not amazing odds though, which is partly why you don't often see Major deities create Exigents of their own outside of Wun Ja who has a workaround.
In this case...
Roll Modifiers, -0 (Terrestrial), +0 (Minor God)
Roll Result: 54, just like in canon Ten Sheaves perishes here.
The third roll is for the Exigent's lifespan. Typically, most Exigents don't live for very long compared to more "standard" Exalts, usually only going for up to a couple centuries at most. This roll has two DCs: 40 and 100. Passing the 40 threshold means that the Exalt will be able to live for up to a few centuries, passing the 100 means a couple thousand instead, assuming they don't suffer an early death. Failing the roll altogether means a human lifespan or slightly more at best.
Celestial Exigents get a +20 to this roll, since their increased power grants them an increased life span. In this case...
Roll Modifiers: +0 (Terrestrial)
Roll Result: 46, the 40 threshold has been passed. The Exigent will live for up to a couple of centuries assuming no early demise, which is actually better than canon. There, Janest could only live for a few decades past a hundred.
Finally, perhaps the most important roll of all is the Exigent's legacy: Does their Exaltation survive beyond their death. In the vast majority of cases, the answer here is no, because its too unstable otherwise. But there are always exceptions, and so this roll has 2 DCs: 80 and 95. At 80 or higher, the Exaltation will persist for a few more users before eventually destabilizing. At 95 or higher, it instead becomes a genuine Exaltation, able to persist after every user's death without fail.
No modifiers for this roll, so...
Roll Result: 33, the Exaltation will die with its user.
So, we have a Terrestrial-level Exigent of the Harvest, whose creation demanded the life of their patron. They will live for up to a few centuries, and take their Exaltation with them when they die. Overall, this is a pretty typical Exigent, nothing really fancy here. I'll get started on Part 2 as soon as I can. For that, we will have options for the lucky mortal who receives the Exaltation.
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Critian Caceorte
Currently Suffering from Space-Time Narcolepsy
- Location
- Washington State
Well, this is pretty common for smaller deities that create Exigents. Beyond the fact that canon!Ten Sheaves also died in the process, the process just takes so much energy from the patron that they either die or are permanently weakened. You almost never see a God create multiple Exigents with two exceptions: The Sovereigns of Uluiru, who cheat by using a dead Incarna's power, and Wun Ja, who hands off the majority of the cost to whatever City Father/Mother is creating the Architect. And even in the latter case, she's still sacrificing something each time, and by this point she's dangerously weaker than she was beforehand because of how many Architect's she's created.
Now, there is always the option of multiple Gods contributing to a cost in order to all survive, but the issue there is that the resulting Exigent is a horrifying mashup that almost invariably has some major issues (health-wise, sanity-wise, etc.) The only exception there is again Wun Ja's Architects because her portfolio over ALL cities lines up well with a City Father's portfolio over A city. Unless you have aligning portfolio's like that, it's almost always a bad idea.
The First Exigent: Part 2
New
Critian Caceorte
Currently Suffering from Space-Time Narcolepsy
- Location
- Washington State
[X] A lowly harvest deity, Ten Sheaves the field god of Kolisz pleads to the King of Gods for someone to protect his poor village. With its Immaculate presence now non-existent, and with an army of Fae along the way, he could simply abandon his post but instead begs for a Chosen to protect his desperate worshipers. Such selflessness, especially for a God, should be rewarded. (Center)
Roll Results:
Power Level: 50, Terrestrial
God Survival: 54 - 0 (Terrestrial) + 0 (Minor God) = 54, Ten Sheaves dies
Lifespan: 46 + 0 (Terrestrial) = 46, Centuries-long life
Exaltation Survival: 33, Dies with User
Roll Results:
Power Level: 50, Terrestrial
God Survival: 54 - 0 (Terrestrial) + 0 (Minor God) = 54, Ten Sheaves dies
Lifespan: 46 + 0 (Terrestrial) = 46, Centuries-long life
Exaltation Survival: 33, Dies with User
So it was after hearing the small harvest god's prayer that You made your choice. Exigence was a privilege earned by very few, for only those who petitioned for it in full service to their duties DESERVED such power. Granted, You had also acquiesed to many pleas that didn't fall within those boundaries in centuries past, but those were exceptions which played to your nature as God of Virtue rather than just the King of the Gods. You did, after all, have a very compassionate heart.
And so, You sent a tiny prismatic ember, a white core surrounded by a rainbow corona, down from the sky towards Ten Sheaves location. The god in question, who resembled a tall and thin mortal with wheat-yellow hair and pink skin, received that blessed spark in his cupped hands. Immediately, it merged into his skin, causing bright gold cracks to appear like lattice down his hands and arms and an involuntary hiss to escape his lips. Yes, it was just as You suspected: This god would sadly not survive the fulfillment of his duties. But that was the norm with Exigency, it was rare that a god of such small strength would be able to survive this excruciating process. You could only hope that his Chosen would serve Creation well in their patron's stead.
| Current Traits: Power Level: Terrestrial Lifespan: Centuries Exaltation: Dies With User Charm Themes:
Martial Arts: Terrestrial Sorcery: Terrestrial Circle Added Traits: None |
Indeed, it seemed that the harvest god already had a candidate in mind: A woman of the village, likely chosen because of some homestead tradition. Whoever he chose would likely have a different approach in mind for dealing with the oncoming fae army, which in turn would influence how his Champion would tackle most problems in their short life.
Select who Ten Sheaves will Choose as his Exalt. As a Terrestrial, they will gain a +20 bonus to events of the same type.
[][Candidate] He chose a child taken from her parents in a raid who was taught to harvest both wheat and lives. She will fight these Fae by herself with her divine strength. (Canon Choice; Bonus to Fight)
[][Candidate] He chose the daughter of the village's mayor who strove to inherit her mother's position. She will lead her fellow townsfolk to battle against these Wyld rabble. (Bonus to Lead)
[][Candidate] He chose a blacksmith's apprentice who earned some infamy due to her "unique" alcoholic brews. She will provide restorative concoctions to grant health and strength to others. (Bonus to Make)
[][Candidate] He chose a hunter whose eyes could see as far as an eagle's. She will be the first to alert others of attacks, and fire her bow to impressive distances. (Bonus to Sneak)
[][Candidate] He chose a local innkeeper who knows everyone within and without the village. She will negotiate with the fae army, convincing them to leave or to grant mercy. (Bonus to Talk)
As You observed this take place from on-high, a thought came to You. While Your Chosen possess amazing power and traditionally at least some legacy from their slain predecessors, this Exigent, whoever they turned out to be, would start with nothing but themselves and their fellow villagers. If they had any hope of actually surviving the encroaching horde, they would need more help than just an Exigent. And while Your direct intervention was likely unneccessary here, that didn't mean You couldn't give this child a gift to assist them.
Select 1 of these gifts which the Unconquered Sun will give this Exigent. In the future, Gifts must be pre-purchased ahead of time, but this one will be a freebie. Each provide a +10 bonus to their associated category, unless otherwise stated.
[][Gift] You had quite a collection of artifact weapons from millennia of gifts just lying around, they could be better used to help someone else. (Bonus to Fight)
[][Gift] While you could not assign a Celestial Lion to assist this Exigent, you do know of a minor god who can serve as an assistant. (Bonus to Lead)
[]Gift] You are the God of Perfection, and that must include Perfect Education as well. You will use a mote of your power to grant the Exigent greater knowledge. (Bonus to Make)
[][Gift] Your favorite familiars, the Mice of the Sun, are a rather sneaky bunch able to assassinate others with disease. You can easily lend one for a century or two. (Bonus to Sneak)
[][Gift] By your will, you shall grant this Exigent a personal ray of light, invisible to all but spirits who will look upon them with your favor. (Bonus to Talk)
[][Gift] In this dire situation, perhaps more direct action could be taken. You shall allow this Exigent a singular use of your most divine panoply, to help them get on their feet. (Instead provides a +50 bonus to the FIRST event roll, bonus counts as part of natural die roll, will come at a cost later)
Finally, what was this child's name? And what did they look like?
[] Exigent's Name
[] Exigent's Appearance
[] Exigent's Anima Banner (Should be agriculture-related)
Please write these votes in the form of a Plan.
Author's Note: Writing this was faster than I thought it would be, but here we are.
When this vote is done, I will do the Part 2 dice rolls. How they work is as follows:
- There will be a series of dice rolls, up to 3 (for Exalts with a human lifespan), 5 (for those who live centuries) and 8 (for those who live millennia). This is a soft limit, and more rolls can be done to a point.
- Each 1d100 roll will be for a major event in that Exigent's life, and will be noted as one of five categories: Fight (Personal Combat), Lead (Army Combat, Organizations, and Survival), Make (Knowledge, Crafting, Medicine, Sorcery), Sneak (Stealth, Investigations), and Talk (Diplomacy, Socialization). What type of event happens will be determined by a 1d6 dice roll out-of-thread, with the character's chosen bonus being twice as likely to occur as any other option (so a 2/6 or 1/3 chance).
- In addition, the FIRST event will always be of the type associated with the Exigent's bonus, as it is their Exaltation event. So, if you were to choose the Fight character option, their first event would be a Fight event.
- In general, there's no strict DC for these events, a higher number just means a better result. If, however, their die rolls a 10 or lower, then they must make a recovery roll.
- Recovery rolls work as follows: on a 51 or higher, things proceed as normal. On a 11 to 50, the recovery period becomes long enough to take up one of the character's events. 10 or less, they end their adventure there.
- "Recovery" doesn't just mean recovering from physical injuries, though that also counts. It could be regaining your follower's trust or numbers (Lead), taking a sabbatical to improve your knowledge (Make), going to ground when your cover is blown (Sneak), or making up for a major faux pas (Talk).
- I mentioned above that the "limit" of events is a soft limit. After all, some people have more eventful lives than others, especially the Exalted. I will still keep rolling for events so long as the Exalt does well, but every event past the soft limit adds +20 to the recovery trigger as well as the recovery thresholds per event past the soft limit, as old age and exhaustion creep in.
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- Location
- Gainful Employment
- Pronouns
- He/They
[][Candidate] He chose a blacksmith's apprentice who earned some infamy due to her "unique" alcoholic brews. She will provide restorative concoctions to grant health and strength to others. (Bonus to Make)
I just like crafters.
[][Gift] You had quite a collection of artifact weapons from millennia of gifts just lying around, they could be better used to help someone else. (Bonus to Fight)
[][Gift] While you could not assign a Celestial Lion to assist this Exigent, you do know of a minor god who can serve as an assistant. (Bonus to Lead)
Fighting fae is literally their job, and the local god that cared is now dead, so these are my preferred gifts.
(I have absolutely no idea how to come up with an Exalted-sounding name.)
I just like crafters.
[][Gift] You had quite a collection of artifact weapons from millennia of gifts just lying around, they could be better used to help someone else. (Bonus to Fight)
[][Gift] While you could not assign a Celestial Lion to assist this Exigent, you do know of a minor god who can serve as an assistant. (Bonus to Lead)
Fighting fae is literally their job, and the local god that cared is now dead, so these are my preferred gifts.
(I have absolutely no idea how to come up with an Exalted-sounding name.)