Enlightenment
- Thread starter Academia Nut
- Start date
- Mature
One thing that's interesting is that "the harvestfather" is an aspect that Nurgle legitimately has, but it doesn't come up much because Chaos is all about excess. It makes me wonder if it'll change the way that any kind of nurgle phenomenon appears to Yon and the other folks from his world.
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
I wonder if demons look different for them to, that demons who appear before them literally take the better aspects of the gods, because the way Yon reacted to Piggy, imply that this excess isn't normal even amongst cultivators.
Maybe the nature of cultivation, taming mutations and the influence of the gods, made the gods take a more tame persona to them.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yon knows what "one step below ascension" looks like in cultivators, though. They were there in the very best seats when everyone was waiting for the Celestial Envoy to show up.
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
Re-reading the latest update, another interesting detail I noticed was how Yon's sect practices and philosophy differed from Cinder's sense-freak reaction. You could almost make the case that the sect/cultivators had hit upon a kind of moderating culture or extremophile adaptation of warp energies.
So the Lotus Prince as Yon knows it, does cover things like masochistic extremes, but their sect culture emphasizes enlightenment over the purposeful pursuit of excessive stimulation.
So the Lotus Prince as Yon knows it, does cover things like masochistic extremes, but their sect culture emphasizes enlightenment over the purposeful pursuit of excessive stimulation.
daedalus725
Kell of Kells, godking of Planet X
- Location
- Daedalus crater, The moon
I mean I ask because I hate two of the big 4 for being gross & boring respectively if they are explies I may not have that issue
He does, yeah:
And what they look like is "every last one of them is different."
Indeed, Yon's reaction to Piggy strongly implies that transformations like that are pretty common in old monsters:
"This specific old monster seems to have stepped out of a lurid hell, as is common to old monsters, but none of the people who wrote our ancient texts had encountered this one in particular" is how that reaction reads to me.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Cultivation seems, to me, to be about using proper training and preparation to induce mutations in proper and controlled measures and amount. Diamond Body stuff is like, us developing the iron skin mutations from the rpg but in a manner that keeps our skin looking fairly normal for now. Learn to control the chaos God's essence and order (gasp) it into purely beneficial forms.
Spontaneous Cultivators, as Yon refers to Cinder, seem to be just normal mutants. These people tend to die or go crazy or otherwise not be well off because the chances of a random mutation being purely beneficial is much lower than the controlled mutation of the cultivators.
Spontaneous Cultivators, as Yon refers to Cinder, seem to be just normal mutants. These people tend to die or go crazy or otherwise not be well off because the chances of a random mutation being purely beneficial is much lower than the controlled mutation of the cultivators.
- Location
- Washington
One might even say they are cultivating the mutations.
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
He also called some of her mutations deviations, which show they are badly done.
Transit 4
New
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Indifferent
Yon considered being a catty bitch to rile Amep up. He considered manipulating him. He considered using the affront Amep must feel as a motivator for self improvement.
Ultimately though, the best approach was to just ignore the inner disciple as best he could within an otherwise professional approach. So Yon let his eyes slide right across Amep, refusing to give anything other than the briefest of acknowledgements, any more attention than Yon was giving everyone else.
It was an effort of will to keep a smirk from creeping into his expression as he caught the twitch Amep's eye gave. He would watch his back, but sometimes the best way to slap a person's face was to refuse to acknowledge that they had face in the first place.
And that should have been it. Maybe Amep would say or do something disparaging towards Yon in class, but it would probably be something that came off duty or potentially on the battlefield, but unless Amep wanted to make a fool of himself nothing significant would come in the moment.
That should have been it.
Only right as Yon was turning away, he felt something brush across his spiritual senses. A spirit, a minor thing in ethereal form passing unusually close to the mortal realms. Nothing significant, but like every other cultivator Yon immediately muted his presence to avoid disturbing the being in its appointed task.
Every cultivator except one.
Bone deep certainty reached Yon before his conscious mind could process what was about to happen, and he was screaming a warning even as he dove for cover.It was a moment so significant it rippled backward in time a few heartbeats, for those with the senses to feel it.
A moment of outrage that could not be expressed to the world.
A sudden need to squash emotion to avoid perturbing an unexpected visitor.
Seething resentment was not concealed, but crushed, and frustrations and embarrassment became despair so acute it became a spiritual beacon. Amep couldn't even be angry properly because he needed to be composed around a spirit, and thus he failed in his composure.
The spirit took interest, and in that moment Amep's despair resonated enough with its essence that it could synchronize with his meridians. There were many ways that could go, but Yon could already feel the consequences incoming with his spiritual senses.
One moment Amep was fine.
A heartbeat later his left eye twitched.
A heartbeat later the classroom was covered in putrefied viscera.
Yon managed to get to cover in time thanks to his fortuitous premonition, but he could see a hole corroding in the desk he was behind. Sticking his head out, he saw that those closest to Amep had had most of at least one side of their body exposed to such rapid decay that their skin was falling off. At least one disciple was dead outright, their body turning into a rapidly spreading puddle of black corpse-juice, but two others seemed to have techniques to slow the decomposition process down and survive with half their skin missing.
"Get it off! Get it off!" Yon shouted in warning as he vaulted over a desk to render aid. Disciples were shucking contaminated clothing, and one inner disciple had a breathing technique that allowed her to exhale flames to begin burning off the contamination on surfaces.
Yon almost had to stop again as he felt that the spirit was still present, but it quickly drifted away from the boundary of the veil, its curiosity and possibly hunger sated. Spiritual invasion of a cultivator's meridians was always something to worry about, but usually the spirits around the sect were only roused to interfere with mortals if someone got their attention via some ritual. Meridian detonation was usually a horror story told to junior cultivators about what might happen if they tried to consume too much energy at once, not something Yon thought he would ever actually see.
Thankfully those who had been standing closest to Amep had been other officers and thus were inner disciples. They had been exposed to massive doses of Harvestfather aligned essence, but their cultivation was strong enough that they could cycle and respire it to restore balance. Yon began to apply emergency acupressure to help better manage the damage and force essence away from parts of the body and soul that couldn't handle it well to areas that were perfect for breaking it down or kicking it from the body.
"WHAT IN THE BLOODY BRASS BALLS!" Someone screamed, causing the disciples to divert attention to the officer who had just opened the door. People froze mid-action as they considered what to do next.
A chunk of ceiling directly above where Amep had been standing collapsed, a chunk of rot blackened skull clattering down amidst oily resin and rust. At some point someone started pointing at the blast markings radiating out from where Amep had been, and Yon actually found that he had wordlessly done it too.
The officer blinked and then said to one of the NCOs trailing him, "Get a fucking decon team down here." He then turned to the group and said, "You're all either going in the chem showers or you're bunking in Grandfather's Temple from now on!" After a round of "Sir, yes sir!" he added on in exasperation, "Continue cleaning up and helping the wounded. Fucking-" He trailed off into mumbling curses as he aboutfaced and stormed off.
It looked like class was cancelled for the day.
Yon considered being a catty bitch to rile Amep up. He considered manipulating him. He considered using the affront Amep must feel as a motivator for self improvement.
Ultimately though, the best approach was to just ignore the inner disciple as best he could within an otherwise professional approach. So Yon let his eyes slide right across Amep, refusing to give anything other than the briefest of acknowledgements, any more attention than Yon was giving everyone else.
It was an effort of will to keep a smirk from creeping into his expression as he caught the twitch Amep's eye gave. He would watch his back, but sometimes the best way to slap a person's face was to refuse to acknowledge that they had face in the first place.
And that should have been it. Maybe Amep would say or do something disparaging towards Yon in class, but it would probably be something that came off duty or potentially on the battlefield, but unless Amep wanted to make a fool of himself nothing significant would come in the moment.
That should have been it.
Only right as Yon was turning away, he felt something brush across his spiritual senses. A spirit, a minor thing in ethereal form passing unusually close to the mortal realms. Nothing significant, but like every other cultivator Yon immediately muted his presence to avoid disturbing the being in its appointed task.
Every cultivator except one.
Bone deep certainty reached Yon before his conscious mind could process what was about to happen, and he was screaming a warning even as he dove for cover.It was a moment so significant it rippled backward in time a few heartbeats, for those with the senses to feel it.
A moment of outrage that could not be expressed to the world.
A sudden need to squash emotion to avoid perturbing an unexpected visitor.
Seething resentment was not concealed, but crushed, and frustrations and embarrassment became despair so acute it became a spiritual beacon. Amep couldn't even be angry properly because he needed to be composed around a spirit, and thus he failed in his composure.
The spirit took interest, and in that moment Amep's despair resonated enough with its essence that it could synchronize with his meridians. There were many ways that could go, but Yon could already feel the consequences incoming with his spiritual senses.
One moment Amep was fine.
A heartbeat later his left eye twitched.
A heartbeat later the classroom was covered in putrefied viscera.
Yon managed to get to cover in time thanks to his fortuitous premonition, but he could see a hole corroding in the desk he was behind. Sticking his head out, he saw that those closest to Amep had had most of at least one side of their body exposed to such rapid decay that their skin was falling off. At least one disciple was dead outright, their body turning into a rapidly spreading puddle of black corpse-juice, but two others seemed to have techniques to slow the decomposition process down and survive with half their skin missing.
"Get it off! Get it off!" Yon shouted in warning as he vaulted over a desk to render aid. Disciples were shucking contaminated clothing, and one inner disciple had a breathing technique that allowed her to exhale flames to begin burning off the contamination on surfaces.
Yon almost had to stop again as he felt that the spirit was still present, but it quickly drifted away from the boundary of the veil, its curiosity and possibly hunger sated. Spiritual invasion of a cultivator's meridians was always something to worry about, but usually the spirits around the sect were only roused to interfere with mortals if someone got their attention via some ritual. Meridian detonation was usually a horror story told to junior cultivators about what might happen if they tried to consume too much energy at once, not something Yon thought he would ever actually see.
Thankfully those who had been standing closest to Amep had been other officers and thus were inner disciples. They had been exposed to massive doses of Harvestfather aligned essence, but their cultivation was strong enough that they could cycle and respire it to restore balance. Yon began to apply emergency acupressure to help better manage the damage and force essence away from parts of the body and soul that couldn't handle it well to areas that were perfect for breaking it down or kicking it from the body.
"WHAT IN THE BLOODY BRASS BALLS!" Someone screamed, causing the disciples to divert attention to the officer who had just opened the door. People froze mid-action as they considered what to do next.
A chunk of ceiling directly above where Amep had been standing collapsed, a chunk of rot blackened skull clattering down amidst oily resin and rust. At some point someone started pointing at the blast markings radiating out from where Amep had been, and Yon actually found that he had wordlessly done it too.
The officer blinked and then said to one of the NCOs trailing him, "Get a fucking decon team down here." He then turned to the group and said, "You're all either going in the chem showers or you're bunking in Grandfather's Temple from now on!" After a round of "Sir, yes sir!" he added on in exasperation, "Continue cleaning up and helping the wounded. Fucking-" He trailed off into mumbling curses as he aboutfaced and stormed off.
It looked like class was cancelled for the day.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Lol, wasn't expecting that
- Location
- California
I think it was because of what he rolled. That 77 and 99 were apparently up to no good.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
No, this was essentially just a random event. The 77 on its own wasn't enough to do this, just suggest a possibility space, but the 99 had me going "Okay, the dice have decided on Evil™️ today".
This does let me show off a few things about the setting though, and I hadn't actually established Amep as a rival where such a random ending would feel cheap. Just have to do something else for that sort of plot thread.
Look back at the rolls- this was not what was expected to happen.
I know it will give the game away somewhat, but I can't wait to find out just how much of a cultivator setting we are in outside of our own planet. Should those inner cultivators be processing the nurgle essence so easily, or does this lot of primitive tribals look weirdly good to the mortals in charge of them.
I have to admit, something about the incredible callousness of Warhammer 40k mixed with xianxia just WORKS.
It fits perfectly with the xianxia setting but exposes the absurdity of the usual narratives.
Young Master as a bitter rival? That's nice, but 99% of the time it doesn't end with a hero surpassing a rival so much as someone stepping on an elder's toes by accident or fucking up their cultivation in a moment of distraction and dying horribly, because absent plot armor the setting is just that fucking dangerous and you've got bigger problems to worry about than adolescent drama.
It fits perfectly with the xianxia setting but exposes the absurdity of the usual narratives.
Young Master as a bitter rival? That's nice, but 99% of the time it doesn't end with a hero surpassing a rival so much as someone stepping on an elder's toes by accident or fucking up their cultivation in a moment of distraction and dying horribly, because absent plot armor the setting is just that fucking dangerous and you've got bigger problems to worry about than adolescent drama.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Seems not every roll is about chaos gods, sometimes their if your going to spontaneously combust.