Remove ads

Ebeli Quest: How to Manage your Plot Devices and Save Creation

Reader mode
[X]Find the Eye and the Jadeborn.

bryanfran36 said:
What's a Jadeborn?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

They used to be the People of Adamant. Originally raksha, they were caught in the formation of Creation; instead of being calcified as one would expect, they became truly shaped beings. They worship Autochthon. The People of Adamant became the Jadeborn when the Solar Deliberative forced Autochthon to lay a powerful Geas on them, so they wouldn't try to supplant the Exalted; that was the last straw for Autochthon, who started making preparations to leave Creation.
 
Finagle007 said:
[X]Find the Eye and the Jadeborn.



They used to be the People of Adamant. Originally raksha, they were caught in the formation of Creation; instead of being calcified as one would expect, they became truly shaped beings. They worship Autochthon. The People of Adamant became the Jadeborn when the Solar Deliberative forced Autochthon to lay a powerful Geas on them, so they wouldn't try to supplant the Exalted; that was the last straw for Autochthon, who started making preparations to leave Creation.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Alternatively, the People of Adamant were their ancestors - perfect beings shaped from magical materials and given life by a raksha's trapped soul, spiritual forefathers to the Clay Man (and through him, all mankind). They were brilliant beyond compare, able to craft wonders unmatched by any until the coming of the Celestial Exalted. Their only failing was in the demands of recreating such perfection: each Adamantborn needed to be slowly, painfully sculpted from a single block of adamant over the course of a century, its "parent" carefully managing the local geomancy and singing a 100-year prayer to the Great Maker so that no flaws would enter its form.

Thus, when the Incarnate Rebellion began and their father called them to war, the Mountain Folk could see no means of bolstering their numbers in time... unless, of course, they created versions of themselves which were - lesser. More cheaply made. Thus they seized grand deposits of jade to make their army, and the Jadeborn marched forth to aid the Exalted Host.

It was only when the war ended that the troubles began. The Men of Adamant, in their perfection, could see the Men of Jade only as inferior craftsmanship, something made in haste and never to be repeated. They passed an edict to ensure this, banning the Jadeborn from attempting to create more of their own kind.

To the Solar Deliberative, this galled them to the core of their being. The Men of Jade were their friends, fearless warriors who had fought and died at their side to overthrow the Primordials. To them, the Adamantborn were haughty, alien creatures, hiding in caves and sending their own children to die in their place. Further, they refused to acknowledge the Sun's primacy, laying claiming to Mount Meru itself and conducting themselves as equals to the Solar Exalted. Such sins could not be allowed to stand.

So the Solars marched with crushing hammers, and the light of their animas was as the sun itself, turning the Adamantborn to stone - and so the People of Adamant were no more.

Alas, the Jadeborn found that there had been truth in their dead makers' words - no matter how they strived, they could not match the genius of Adamant. Their children all too often came out flawed, lesser than their parents just as their parents had been lesser than their grandparents. In time, a solution might have been found: the Exalted veterans of the Incarnate Rebellion were certainly interested in saving their comrades.

They simply ran out of time. The Vision of Bronze swept them all away, and when the Solars lay dead the Jadeborn were offered a simple choice by the ascendant Dragonblooded. Kneel, or die.

They chose to kneel.

(Credit to @EarthScorpion for this idea, I just couldn't find his post on the General Exalted thread.)
 
Vaalintine said:
Okay so its a Jadeborn. That's much better than what I was expecting.

Where is this from? Shards of the Exalted Dream?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
@EarthScorpion came up with it, and I honestly find it a smarter idea for why Autochthon left than him being forced to cripple his children. Instead, the Solar Deliberative murdered his eldest children for the sake of his grandchildren, and Autobot decided that he couldn't safely work out what the Deliberative might or might not do anymore.
 
GardenerBriareus said:
@EarthScorpion came up with it, and I honestly find it a smarter idea for why Autochthon left than him being forced to cripple his children. Instead, the Solar Deliberative murdered his eldest children for the sake of his grandchildren, and Autobot decided that he couldn't safely work out what the Deliberative might or might not do anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I do like that idea- it's also a case of Your Creation May Vary, and I sort of take from the game Shyft ran. His interpretation- which may be more in line with the books- was that the Solars were enraged that the People of Adamant began shutting down the weapons and devices they created to aid the Exalted in the War to focus on their own matters- Vodak in Gethamane, the Darkbrood, the varied other things happening beneath Creation. The Exalted, with sense of noble purpose and righteousness, believed the People of Adamant were to compete with them, to attempt their own rebellion, and acted preemptively.

My character's response to this was to send Chejop a missive that said he was absolutely right to kill the Solars if the Geass was the least thing they did. Mainly because competition is important, and competition makes you grow and strive. Admittedly, my character was like Ebeli- if confronted with the Great Curse, he would wait a moment, and skeptically ask, "Are you sure the First Age Solars weren't just assholes?"

But in this case, the Great Geass would have a similar reasoning to the execution of Ruvelia- the Exalted barely won the Primordial War, and the idea of fighting another army as organized and zealous as them- even if they don't know exactly what's happening- was not on their 'to do' list. But either one- your interpretation or mine, fits with a common theme-

The Exalted tended to act without complete knowledge or appreciation of the consequences.
 
Last edited:
GreggHL said:
The Exalted tended to act without complete knowledge or appreciation of the consequences.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

To be fair, the Incarnae were almost instantly hooked on the Games of Divinity, and the Exalted who had survived the War had major PTSD, from multiple lives in the case of Celestial Exalts. The Great Curse, of course, only made things worse.
 
Finagle007 said:
To be fair, the Incarnae were almost instantly hooked on the Games of Divinity, and the Exalted who had survived the War had major PTSD, from multiple lives in the case of Celestial Exalts. The Great Curse, of course, only made things worse.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
also the Exalted from the primordial war never really had any form of institutional knowledge or power until granted a supernatural hammer and sidereal training in hitting nails, these exalted were also the oldest and usually the most powerful.
 
Finagle007 said:
In canon, no Exalt has ever - EVER - reached Essence 10.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
According to the Scroll of Exalts, Chejop was Essence 10. And, depending on how canon you interpret Dreams of the First Age, several of the veteran Solars such as Bright Shattered Ice and Desus were also Essence 10.
 
Carrnage said:
also the Exalted from the primordial war never really had any form of institutional knowledge or power until granted a supernatural hammer and sidereal training in hitting nails, these exalted were also the oldest and usually the most powerful.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Which is the other big thing - mankind consisted of either roving Stone Age tribals or slaves to more advanced races before Autochthon decided to use them as the housing for his weapons. It's quite likely that the only experience even the most erudite war-era Solars had with any kind of conflict resolution or strategic management consisted of brutal murder and internal clan disputes over who gets to use the smokehouse this week, respectively, outside of their knowledge from leading a no-holds-barred, failure-is-not-an-option apocalypse war against inhuman hypergods.

Hell, one of my most cherished ideas for a homebrew First Age Solar thought that the Unconquered Sun and Theion were the same being (with Sol and Ligier as the two eyes of the Bull of Heaven) before Sol Invictus (the Eye of Creation) rebelled against Ligier (the Eye of Heaven) for the love of humanity. Like, even once the war was over, he was still offering a monthly hecatomb* to the 'Eye of Creation', went around in a gilded bull's hide with glowing tattoos on his head meant to suggest a bull's horns and muzzle (both being blinged-up leftovers from his days as a tribal), and believed his Terrestrial subordinates were "blessed nephews" whose progenitors sprang fully formed from the side of Mount Meru where Sol struck it with his spear.

Also, he refused to believe that the Neverborn weren't secretly fine and plotting to overthrow the new Age of Sun from their dark castles in the Labyrinth, and ended up running his own version of the Abyss Watchers from a vast fortress-city in the Underworld, which had to be burned to the ground when the Second Usurpation came because the Terrestrial Exalts who lived there all believed that their citadel was the last bastion of "true" sun-worshipers in the world.


* A term that literally translates to "killing of a hundred"; it was a highly extravagant (even for the time) expression of religious devotion where a hundred heads of cattle were sacrificed to a single god in one go. In case you haven't noticed, this guy had kind of a thing when it came to bull imagery.
 
GardenerBriareus said:
Which is the other big thing - mankind consisted of either roving Stone Age tribals or slaves to more advanced races before Autochthon decided to use them as the housing for his weapons. It's quite likely that the only experience even the most erudite war-era Solars had with any kind of conflict resolution or strategic management consisted of brutal murder and internal clan disputes over who gets to use the smokehouse this week, respectively, outside of their knowledge from leading a no-holds-barred, failure-is-not-an-option apocalypse war against inhuman hypergods.

Hell, one of my most cherished ideas for a homebrew First Age Solar thought that the Unconquered Sun and Theion were the same being (with Sol and Ligier as the two eyes of the Bull of Heaven) before Sol Invictus (the Eye of Creation) rebelled against Ligier (the Eye of Heaven) for the love of humanity. Like, even once the war was over, he was still offering a monthly hecatomb* to the 'Eye of Creation', went around in a gilded bull's hide with glowing tattoos on his head meant to suggest a bull's horns and muzzle (both being blinged-up leftovers from his days as a tribal), and believed his Terrestrial subordinates were "blessed nephews" whose progenitors sprang fully formed from the side of Mount Meru where Sol struck it with his spear.

Also, he refused to believe that the Neverborn weren't secretly fine and plotting to overthrow the new Age of Sun from their dark castles in the Labyrinth, and ended up running his own version of the Abyss Watchers from a vast fortress-city in the Underworld, which had to be burned to the ground when the Second Usurpation came because the Terrestrial Exalts who lived there all believed that their citadel was the last bastion of "true" sun-worshipers in the world.


* A term that literally translates to "killing of a hundred"; it was a highly extravagant (even for the time) expression of religious devotion where a hundred heads of cattle were sacrificed to a single god in one go. In case you haven't noticed, this guy had kind of a thing when it came to bull imagery.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Which, of course, brings up the question: Why did the Incarnae trust the Exalted with Creation?

Did they seek to reward them?

Or did they want to give them spoils so they would not murder them next?

The answer usually falls somewhere in between.
 
GreggHL said:
Which, of course, brings up the question: Why did the Incarnae trust the Exalted with Creation?

Did they seek to reward them?

Or did they want to give them spoils so they would not murder them next?

The answer usually falls somewhere in between.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
My perception is that it started partially as guilt. The Incarnate Rebellion was horrific, but few races were fed into the meatgrinder with quite the sort of reckless zeal that mankind was. Numerous, quick reproduction, easily enhanced, no prior commitments to reduce their utility as all-purpose spackle. Oh, and the only reservoir for the Great Maker's silver bullet, of course. For all that the Dragon Kings (and Sol knows how many others) suffered more, it was the corpses of men that must have been piled higher than any other.

Moreover, guilt about the Primordials, a sense that the horrors they brought forth by rebelling made the 'prize' of Creation somehow tainted, that seizing it for themselves would make it have been about naked avarice rather than higher ideals. Seating himself upon Theion's throne and taking up his crown would make the Unconquered Sun feel like just a continuation of his 'father', ignoring the consequence to revel in the reward.

So they put the Exalted in charge. They were human, and they were capable, and they could let the Incarnae feel like they weren't greed-driven autocrats who had murdered their own parents to lay hold of their wealth and power.

Also, you have to consider that managing Creation had basically been the Incarnae's jobs already - they rebelled in part because the grinding drudgery of fixing the Primordials' Creation for them became too much for them to bear. Why not take time off, try to find meaning in their lives beyond the roles the Primordials programmed them to fulfill?

As time went on and the cracks started to show, it became a matter of exhaustion. Had they not dirtied their hands enough, endured enough, sacrificed enough to be free of this? Were they to clean up the Deliberative's messes, too? All the while, the bulk of the Incarnae found their individual quests for self-actualization flagging. The Maidens gazed at their Loom and could find no meaning outside its bounds, no greater purpose to turn its power to. Luna abandoned the search for some higher calling and chose to simply enjoy her love for Gaia, with occasional jaunts into Creation to keep their time together from growing dull - a more selfish sort of bliss than what the others wanted, but far easier on the mind than eternal futile questing.

Sol Invictus fell apart. Torn apart by his Virtue, unable to escape his past as a glorified guard dog, and haunted by what he'd done in the war, he ultimately turned to the Deliberative, his surrogate children, as a final hope for proof he'd done the right thing, and found them just as hypocritical & corrupt as the Primordials he'd dethroned. He vanished into the Jade Pleasure Dome that day, and will never emerge again, even if Mount Meru is ground to sand and all Creation slides into the maw of Oblivion. Should the Yozis break free and rain vengeance upon him, Sol would not lift his spear nor raise his shield, for what possible purpose could he find in fighting further? Compassion, Conviction, Temperance, Valor, he finds no nobility in them anymore. He finds no nobility in anything anymore.
 
Which makes Ebeli and her circle somewhat exceptional, because in revealing- and fixing- the Great Curse and in awakening Autochthon, they may have done something believed impossible.

They may have given the Unconquered Sun hope that his Chosen were better than he feared. Or at least, could be.
 
GreggHL said:
Which makes Ebeli and her circle somewhat exceptional, because in revealing- and fixing- the Great Curse and in awakening Autochthon, they may have done something believed impossible.

They may have given the Unconquered Sun hope that his Chosen were better than he feared. Or at least, could be.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It helps that you're taking a much less pessimistic picture of the man(?) than I do. This Sol Invictus still has fucks left to give.

The real challenge is giving the Maidens something to do with themselves.
 
GardenerBriareus said:
Oh, and the only reservoir for the Great Maker's silver bullet, of course.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That was deliberate on Autochthon's part. The reason Exaltations can only bond to humans was to stop the Primordials from simply making a new species, better than humanity in every way, with inbuilt loyalty to the Primordials, and therefore basically "stealing" the Exaltations.
 
Finagle007 said:
That was deliberate on Autochthon's part. The reason Exaltations can only bond to humans was to stop the Primordials from simply making a new species, better than humanity in every way, with inbuilt loyalty to the Primordials, and therefore basically "stealing" the Exaltations.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Also, humans were free of the Primordial Geas, and thus could raise weapons against the very titans themselves.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top