Esquestria: The House of the Sun - A pony cultist experience

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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Dear reader! Whether you are new here, archive-reading and whatnot, or you are already someone who has been with us for quite a while, I would like to say a few words that I believe are best kept close to mind.

-This is an MLP quest. And more importantly, none of us are gratuitously cruel. So good things will happen on this quest, and I hope that enough good things have already happened to prove that.
-This is also a horror quest, so bad things will happen. Bad things might happen to good characters if you are not able to protect them, and you most certainly will not be able to intervene if you lack the tools to do so.
-And finally, this is a quest in which you jostle with powers greater than yourself, with all that it entails.

Please, do keep those things in mind as you go forward. But ultimately, this is also a quest in which it is hoped we all have fun! So if any of the above points is not exactly your cup of tea, or somehow make the experience as a whole "not worth it", then this quest might not be for you. Which is fine! Individual tastes are a thing, so don't think any more about it if you don't want to read anymore. And regardless, I hope you have a lovely day!

Kaelor said:
PSA for whoever needs to hear it:

Readers should take their own mental health into consideration when voting and not subject themselves to triggering narrative elements like rape or constant mental torture of a friend just for the Greatest Good of a world that doesn't exist.

If those are fine for you or Regrettable is even more triggering, then GREAT! More power to you. But you aren't a bad or selfish person for picking the option that keeps the characters you've emotionally connected with safe. [REDACTED for spoiler warning]

This is a high intensity quest that doesn't hold back when it comes to horror and negative consequences. Take care of yourself.
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(Quote slightly edited to avoid spoilers)
 
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Ericwinter said:
Oh no, I meant saying she was just a relative from outside of town. Actually going out and doing paperwork would be very attention grabbing, but nobody would question someone who is already family just coming to live with us. Especially after the recent crisis, consolidation makes sense. Family seeking solace in each other, and stuff.
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ah. Then I'll remind you that our father has spies among our staff, and he'd likely hear of this cousin he never heard of before.
 
Pittauro said:
ah. Then I'll remind you that our father has spies among our staff, and he'd likely hear of this cousin he never heard of before.
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And? That's part of the fun, honestly. Even if he cared enough to notice—or even get actual information during the current crisis and limited communication across country—at worst he'll want to meet her to figure out why we're playing games like that. More likely he will just completely ignore it, since he's really fucking busy at the moment, but if he really wants to make a fuss, let him. I would love to see what happens when he meets a Name face to face.

And, again, we don't have to make a statement or anything. The whole "distant cousin from out of town" is just a plausible deniability. At best he'll know that There's a new guest at the mansion named Velvet Axe, who may or may not be family according to the staff rumours.
 
@BirdBodhisattva Does Velvet believe she can in an acceptable time frame find a suitable Winter contact in Mansus for achieving a Sacrament that is NOT associated with The Wolf? I personally would prefer to avoid deaths, but not at the cost of regrettable actions.
 
permeakra said:
@BirdBodhisattva Does Velvet believe she can in an acceptable time frame find a suitable Winter contact in Mansus for achieving a Sacrament that is NOT associated with The Wolf? I personally would prefer to avoid deaths, but not at the cost of regrettable actions.
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come on permeakra, the OBVIOUS answer is that we don't know.

we've met and heard of very few names (or sapient summons) thus far, and we have no way of knowing if there's more winter ones up above.

It's possible. It's also unlikely, especially because OOC knowledge implied there's one name for each Lore at most.

With that said, There's always a chance of our personal sacrament requirement changing, or us somehow gaining access to Neighna.
 
Or we do the more acceptable Sacraments first. It's unlikely we'll get through all the lores before our house of cards comes tumbling down, so the problem will likely solve itself.
 
Pittauro said:
It's also unlikely, especially because OOC knowledge implied there's one name for each Lore at most.
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OOC knowledge says there is a lot of names. It's unclear how much, but 3-4 per hours isn't outstanding going by CS page on names, so I'm pretty sure there is more names out there we are yet to find.

Also, we managed to see Mares-in-the-Light, a akind of sentient denizens of the Mansus. And where there is one, there is usually more.

There are also ancient beings that are neither names nor hours. Case in point: Chrisalis. She probably had enough Moth to give a sacrament.
 
The thing about the Wolf's sacrament is that it is really cheap (stain withstanding), only one Manus action for two sacraments and two scraps of lore and it's 120% guaranteed - no rolls required.

Given the constant AP and bits crunch we keep being under it's quite tempting.
 
permeakra said:
OOC knowledge says there is a lot of names. It's unclear how much, but 3-4 per hours isn't outstanding going by CS page on names, so I'm pretty sure there is more names out there we are yet to find.

Also, we managed to see Mares-in-the-Light, a akind of sentient denizens of the Mansus. And where there is one, there is usually more.

There are also ancient beings that are neither names nor hours. Case in point: Chrisalis. She probably had enough Moth to give a sacrament.
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with OOC knowledge (mostly implied, not quite explicit) I was referring to the potential Masters from the beginning of the quest.

We've been told each of them is still in play, but they're now mere "pieces" rather than the player our moth master is.

So, we've been outright told there's at least one formerly potential master for each lore.

Baldomare for Lantern and SH, presumably with different backstories depending on which one.

Master for Moth.

DoA for Knock

Neigna for Winter

and we're expecting King Crucible for Forge and Ezeem for Grail.


It's possible that there might be more, but we don't know that, and have no way to guess what the chances are.

We don't know if the Mares can give sacraments. If they can give the Lantern Sacrament, that raises the chances of there being a winter summon somewhere that can do the same for Winter.

We have no idea if Chrysalis could grant Sacrament, or if she had lore levels at all. It's possible she just had innate abilities that could not be shared. And until her death she didn't remember her most ancient past, and her moth abilities came from an artifact, not from herself
 
Shaper47 said:
The thing about the Wolf's sacrament is that it is really cheap (stain withstanding), only one Manus action for two sacraments and two scraps of lore and it's 120% guaranteed - no rolls required.

Given the constant AP and bits crunch we keep being under it's quite tempting.
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THIS is a fair argument, and it's not that different from the arguments in favour of wolf help with the door.

Just as long as you don't try to say that wolf is better in any other way other than efficiency and pragmatism compared to the 3 random deaths of the personal winter sacrament

In any case, there's no real reason to decide now.

We can delay the choice until at least the moment we get winter 4/4 0/1
 
Honestly, unless we really want to devote ourselves to the Winter Ascension or try a last ditch effort to buy Windy with what is behind the Mist, then we shouldn't bother with the winter sacrement.

The reason the sacrament is good beside power up for Winter is that we get access to the Sun-in-Rags corpse and bring its light back into the mortal world from us. This is not a small thing since Windy would be very interested in it at this point as this is a very real alternative Winter answer. The questline would also make us a Long at the end if we complete its requirements.(Not guranteed, but I would be damned if the end of this questline didn't give something similar to the tower given it also needs a sacrament) However if Windy swears himself to the wolf next turn, then his interest in the alternative winter Hours drops dramatically. Again this all depends on how much you care about bringing Windy who is Windy in our court.

A real win condition for us is to reach the Secret Histroy Sacrament plot the moon and complete the ritual after plotting the moon to achieve our win condition. There are no other win conditions asides from the nebulous continue to climb higher in the Mansus or wipe the planet with 7 works with the Wolf. I don't even believe in the harmony win condition at this point even if we restore Luna cause we can never really be truthful with those two without the chance of instant game over and that are initial attempt on Twilight will be pure gaslight her to say you never saw us at all. These are not the pillars a harmony win condition is based on.
 
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Pittauro said:
ah. Then I'll remind you that our father has spies among our staff, and he'd likely hear of this cousin he never heard of before.
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We got in the adoption bandwagon for funsies, but I don't think that Velvel will actually adopt DoA, remember that it's Silky who will give her a name, so it's possible that everyone will just say that no, she's not actually a member of the Velvet family, but Silky gave her that nickname because <reasons we'll know in the next update> and she found it hilarious and thus rolled with it.

That or the distant cousin thing and our father learning about it is irrelevant, since we'll soon leave Ponyville and become head of the pony inquisition, so fuck him and his opinions.
 
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If DoA gets angry because she is called hissy fit, and if that means more trouble for us to deal with, i'll rub in your faces that is your fault for choosing an obviously offensive name for a prideful Name just because.

I hope that it doesn't come to that, because we are full of problems as we are and without enough actions/time to solve them all.
 
Don't worry!

There is literally a character called "Spoiled Milk" (Filthy Rich wife's maiden name). And I would've mentioned it if any of those names were too bad for either Silky to suggest or DoA to accept.

There may be a variable amount of hissing, depending on what wins. But nothing that will ultimately have an effect that would require remedying. So go right ahead with all that.
 
Alright.

VOTING CLOSED for DoA's name.

But the story update itself is fighting me tooth and nail.

However, since I already planned on making the story and the Turn Vote separate updates, I'll just post them on the reverse order.

Haven't caught up to the thread yet, so I'll most likely take a good while to answer questions and pings. So play nice.

And I hope you are all doing well!
 
VOTE CLOSED
Scheduled vote count started by BirdBodhisattva on Jul 22, 2022 at 4:19 PM, finished with 133 posts and 32 votes.
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