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Essence of the Age (Exalted Quest)

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Cubbyhb1 said:
I think that at high enough Essence an alchemical can have both a mech body and a Humanscale body, but that's for when we are old enough to turn into a city, which is, like, centuries from now, I'm pretty sure.
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I've never liked the lore that high-Essence Alchemicals turn into cities. Not that playing as a living city doesn't sound cool, but it also sounds like something that should be the focus of a different TTRPG. Other Exalts know that their hypothetical future selves will retain their PC ability to be wandering adventure heroes, while being much more powerful. But Alchemicals know that their future lies in turning into a city, and the bulk of their power and focus will be tied up in the whole being a city rather than being able to punch injustice and such. It feels like Alchemicals have less to potentially level up into than everyone else.

...besides, you could get a similar dynamic, but have it be way cooler, if high-Essence Alchemicals gained Jaegers advanced warstrider bodies to pilot. :p
 
Derpmind said:
I've never liked the lore that high-Essence Alchemicals turn into cities. Not that playing as a living city doesn't sound cool, but it also sounds like something that should be the focus of a different TTRPG. Other Exalts know that their hypothetical future selves will retain their PC ability to be wandering adventure heroes, while being much more powerful. But Alchemicals know that their future lies in turning into a city, and the bulk of their power and focus will be tied up in the whole being a city rather than being able to punch injustice and such. It feels like Alchemicals have less to potentially level up into than everyone else.

...besides, you could get a similar dynamic, but have it be way cooler, if high-Essence Alchemicals gained Jaegers advanced warstrider bodies to pilot. :p
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I think this difference stems mainly from a fundamental difference in Exalt philosophy. While the rest are built around the idea of personal power, where the Exalted usually acts as the leader and ruler of ordinary people, Alchemicals' goal is primarily to serve people and be an element of society at large. Moreover, their role in this society will be determined already at the time of creation. So being a city that supports a lot of people is cool for them.

Admittedly, I'm new to the series, but that's how I got things.

Although I understand that it is somewhat different under the circumstances. Being one of the very few of her kind, there are only so many things an Arbiter can do while staying in one place, right? Fortunately, there is a relatively simple solution. Nomadic city. Imagine a mobile Fortress City-chan, who moves around the world, bringing love and justice wherever she goes. Given her gravity-bound abilities, it could even be a flying Fortress.
 
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Derpmind said:
I've never liked the lore that high-Essence Alchemicals turn into cities. Not that playing as a living city doesn't sound cool, but it also sounds like something that should be the focus of a different TTRPG. Other Exalts know that their hypothetical future selves will retain their PC ability to be wandering adventure heroes, while being much more powerful. But Alchemicals know that their future lies in turning into a city, and the bulk of their power and focus will be tied up in the whole being a city rather than being able to punch injustice and such. It feels like Alchemicals have less to potentially level up into than everyone else.

...besides, you could get a similar dynamic, but have it be way cooler, if high-Essence Alchemicals gained Jaegers advanced warstrider bodies to pilot. :p
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Maybe it's because I got into Exalted in 3e where high-Essence is not really playable, but I've always seen high-Essence as a sort of distant endgame for the character. Like, it tells you what your character will be doing long after you stop playing them. From this perspective, turning into a city always felt like a cool end to the character's story.

Maybe the idea would be more palatable if turning into a city wasn't tied to specific Essence levels, but instead was something Alchemicals did when they grew old and tired of an active lifestyle? This way you could have high-Essence Alchemicals still doing PC things, with turning into a city being the end of their story.
 
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It works out the same in Autochtonia - a group of mortals can only really survive long term in Autochtonia under the direct and continued aegis of an Exalted, because there is no food, the air is a gradient of different forms of poisonous, theres at least three different forms of high energy discharges, and sometimes Autochthon rolls over in his sleep and crushes everything into a paper thin paste because they're just too small to notice.

So your city-founding unit is pretty much based around having a high essence alchemical escort the colony to the site with suitable resources, and then deploy like an MCV, the Alchemical being environmental dome, defensive barrier, power supply, resource extraction, food synthesizer and industrial apparatus all in one.

If they didn't become a city, the Alchemical would have been more or less confined to the same space, doing the same job of keeping the environment livable, and knowing that if they do anything else a lot of people die very shortly, and not in the same sense as taking a few months off for a higher risk of gribblies eating your town, but rather the more immediate sense of the air possibly ceasing to be breathable within the hour.

IMO, the only real issue is that its not really fleshed out so much as described as a cool thing , with the specifics left to imagination.
 
If we scramble enough eggs, we might be able to craft an omelet big enough. Nobody ever said our swords couldn't also be shapeshifting megacities.
 
Locking up, I'm not certain precisely when the update will drop, and I'm trying to correct my sleeping habits, but probably sometime within the next 24 hours.
Scheduled vote count started by Alectai on Apr 5, 2023 at 9:56 PM, finished with 55 posts and 30 votes.
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Should be able to update tomorrow evening, I've gotten my sleeping... Not under control, but less out of control, hopefully that'll be enough to push it the rest of the way to something normal.
 
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Arc 1 - Arbiter's Daily Routine (2)
  • Threadmarks
    • You were going to conduct an assessment of the Watch, it was all well and good to have a reliable source of recruits to pull into your actual professional irregular operations corps, but the very fact that the Watch was a prime place to pick from them meant that the most obvious Best and Brightest were already spoken for. It was something of a mess from end to end, but you had a few tricks that should let you sift through the dross in good order, and pick up the handful with the right moral fibre needed to serve as your first reasonable recruits.

    "You're going to do the spooky thing to them, aren't you?" Bryn asks you after you lay out your plan. "Are you trying to make me look like some evil queen?"

    You meet her gaze with your own stoic mask. "Any who can resist my pressure is, by definition, one with a formidable foundation. Even if their skills and motivation are lacking, they can be trained given time and attention."

    "Do you even have the time and attention to spare?" Bryn sighs, steepling her hands together in some manner of concern. "I'll already be pulling you in several directions until we can rebuild the bureaucracy and tally up our leads on the Enemy's play. That even assumes that nothing goes terribly wrong in the meantime!"

    "If things go terribly wrong, then I will simply have to work harder" You explain. "Adapt, Grow, and meet the challenges of a rapidly changing scenario." It's obvious after all. "It's for these reasons that I was created, I would be doing a disservice to my Maker by operating at less than my potential."

    You have no idea how humans manage, honestly, having to master every little trick and skill one by one. What happens if they get caught out of their aptitudes and have to make do with only what they know?

    Of course, given Bryn's somewhat sceptical face, she doesn't quite understand this yet–even after you've spoken to her on the Rite of Reconfiguration and its capacities, but that's fine, she'll learn when the time comes what you can really do. You had a Mission, you had Charges under your protection. You would not be found wanting.

    Intimacy Revealed: Hard Work Solves All Problems (Minor Principle)

    Now, all you needed to do was your Bit, and everything would steadily begin to fall into place. You wonder how many people could withstand the pressure of your aura, should you choose to exert it?
    It should be fun! You were confident that this realm had wonderful people who could carry the weight you needed.


    You were Adelmar of Rosalia, and you had just made a terrible mistake.

    In the aftermath of the Night of Wicked Blades, Lady Rozen Bryn had sent out a call to the best and brightest within the City Watch, to serve as the nucleus of the rebuilt Greycloaks–the finest irregular operatives that modern techniques and equipment could muster. Headed up by the very Sword of Bryn that had turned the tide–the Final Contingency of the Founder given life in the city's time of greatest need–it would be a place of untold honour to be found… That it would also be an opportunity to network with the other elites, and potentially even gain the ear of the Steward Herself? Well, that was just a bonus.

    You were confident in your skills, your spearwork was well above average, and you rarely missed a detail during your investigations and patrols. You had even fought during the Night of Wicked Blades and held your own–you thought your position was a shoe in, a formality even.

    You couldn't have been more wrong.

    The first feeling was a sense of pressure, like someone had begun to walk on your grave. The words of the chatting Candidates went silent, as everyone raised their guard, none here were amateurs.

    But against the thing that sauntered with the easy grace of an apex predator? None were its match.

    Standing with uncanny balance upon a pair of spikes, marched a revenant clad in deepest black iron. A tabard of some strange material, only slightly transparent, was the only garment she wore–cinched at the chest with a jewel that appeared as an endless abyss. This was no indication that she was some loose woman though, as her eerily petite curves were all clad with impossibly form-fitting armour.

    And the face! The only mercy was that only half of it was visible, a ragged gap in the mass of hair that would have mercifully shrouded it, if not carved loose by some dark witchcraft, revealing a pale-as-bone face. And the eyes! Yellow and burning with balefire, staring with disdain at each and every one of you.

    The Thing frowned, and you knew now that your fate was sealed.


    You are Arbiter of Iron Law, and you are disappointed. Was this really the best that the Watch could do? You hadn't even begun speaking when quivering knees and screaming candidates began to lead to a general collapse, retreat, or paralysis of the group!

    They couldn't handle it! You hadn't even begun to test them, and they had already washed out! This was a disaster! You thought you'd have a little bit of work to do before they'd be ready to take up the Grey Cloaks, but you didn't think you'd suffer literally no viable candidates from the Watch's ranks!

    What were you going to do!

    [ ] If the Watch is no good, you'll have to cast a wider net! Go on a little walk through the town and see if anyone can handle the weight of your anima!! You're sure that you'll be able to find some people with a strong foundation to work with, though you might have to start training them completely from scratch. At the end of the day though, strong moral fibre is critical to have in those who are trusted to operate independently for extended periods of time.

    [ ] They took an oath! If they're just being scaredy-cats, you're sure you can conduct some important remedial training! Go catch them all and give them some proper training, you were sure that you could make something of them with a little heavy practice! Of course, it'll be a bit of a pain to chase them all down, but you're sure you can outmanoeuvre them and stop them from disappearing if they think to back down on what they swore when they took up the Steward's Coin!

    [ ] Maybe you're being a little bit unreasonable? dial down your Anima and pivot to pretending like this was just a little joke–a prank! You might be able to salvage this before everyone scatters. They still do have a fair amount of experience training, and if you lower your standards just a teensy bit, maybe they'll still work out in the end? After all, you did do the Spooky Thing–as Lady Bryn called it–maybe it's a little unreasonable to expect them all to handle it on their first day of testing? Maybe some with better character will emerge more organically?
     
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    • [X] They took an oath! If they're just being scaredy-cats, you're sure you can conduct some important remedial training!

    I really, really hope she forgets to turn off the spooky thing when she chases them all down.
     
    [x] Maybe you're being a little bit unreasonable? dial down your Anima and pivot to pretending like this was just a little joke–a prank! You might be able to salvage this before everyone scatters. They still do have a fair amount of experience training, and if you lower your standards just a teensy bit, maybe they'll still work out in the end? After all, you did do the Spooky Thing–as Lady Bryn called it–maybe it's a little unreasonable to expect them all to handle it on their first day of testing? Maybe some with better character will emerge more organically?

    It's a prank bro :V
     
    [X] Maybe you're being a little bit unreasonable?
    No offense but these are mortals. Falling over and praying is what they're literally designed to do.
     
    [X] They took an oath! If they're just being scaredy-cats, you're sure you can conduct some important remedial training!

    We have a "Hard Work Solves All Problems" Intimacy. QED. This is the Way.
     
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