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[Exalted, ?] Most High

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Seriously, he's already warned us in the past how little time Odyssial would need to achieve his goals.

If he takes control Even Once, he achieves his goals, which are explicitly "Take complete control and set the world to order". Because he was explicitly given full access to his mind, and even under a heavily nerfed version, he was said to be to bootstrap his way into omnipotence in a setting where this was possible within femtoseconds.

The very best we could hope for is that he wouldn't anticipate losing control again, but if there's one thing I won't do, it's underestimate Odyssial's perception and intuition. Even if he makes such an uncharacteristic error in judgement, it won't happen a second time, and it'll be easier for him to get that second time.

We get one "Push the Odyssial Button to Win" event if we are Incredibly lucky, we lose the second time we push it, because he won't make a mistake like that twice. And we gain no immediate resources to help survive the oncoming clusterfuck that don't involve pushing the Odyssial Button.
 
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Can we not vote for a ticking time bomb please? Odyssial himself wanted the "as planned option". And if he, with greatness and heartlessness 10, decided that it is the best option, well, that should tell you all you need to know.
 
Savonarola said:
Except it isn't a bad decision. Odyssial only gains ground if we let him out intentionally; if we just ride the tiger, he gets his couple of epic victories that spread our legend, we get most of our benefits. If we never cave, this problem never emerges. That's a fact.
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As has been said 50x in this thread - he wants out and "he will find a way."
 
Rihaku said:
Remember this: Zao was planning for you to Exalt as a Solar. He thought it was super likely. Zao is not beholden to the tiresome superstitions of the Immaculate Philosophy. He was around when the invented the Immaculate Philosophy.

Zao has absolute power in the Acdemy.

I'm not saying it'll be smooth sailing. But there are certainly ways you get out of this alive.
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He just wasn't expecting us to Exalt as THE Solar.
Right?
 
Savonarola said:
Wait. Desus lived? What the hell?
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He's implied to be the Silver Prince. Yeah, I know.

Alectai said:
No, he's not lying, he's just underlining the benefits while completely glossing over the flaws. Or more accurately, not addressing them at all.

He does this, it's how he encourages players to make bad decisions and then encourage them to figure out how to mitigate them.

Again, you should know this if you've participated in any of his Quests at all, this is what he Does.
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I advocate for the losing option pretty much regardless. Frequently I have listed an extremely risky Red Option, it has been overwhelmingly argued for, and I have argued against it. If you look at the actual numbers, that is what you will see.

Anyway, I don't think any of the options here are bad. You are over-estimating the chances of Odyssial taking over. Nor is this the outcome he would have wanted. He doesn't want to have to essentially subsume his mortal self, because mortal selves give irreplaceable perspective. The outcome he wanted is Essentially as Planned. That is why it costs XP.

The more-to-plan things go, the more XP they cost. That is how this cost gradient works.
 
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Fumbles said:
If mechanics hold, we might buy favored and caste charms, or is that different in 3e? If we can only insta-buy Supernals, then Supernal Stealth would get us out of this jam instantly.
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I thought that was a feature of Uly's Infernal anima, but maybe not.
Rihaku said:
Remember this: Zao was planning for you to Exalt as a Solar. He thought it was super likely. Zao is not beholden to the tiresome superstitions of the Immaculate Philosophy. He was around when the invented the Immaculate Philosophy.

Zao has absolute power in the Acdemy.

I'm not saying it'll be smooth sailing. But there are certainly ways you get out of this alive.
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Nice. Face-time with Zao. Sheltering under the dragon's wing.

Then let me be the first to vote for
[X] Identity Crisis
 
Nezi karaketas said:
Can we not vote for a ticking time bomb please? Odyssial himself wanted the "as planned option". And if he, with greatness and heartlessness 10, decided that it is the best option, well, that should tell you all you need to know.
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I don't think you have anything to worry about. The bandwagon has already left the station.
Rihaku said:
He's implied to be the Silver Prince. Yeah, I know.
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And suddenly, the gigantic clusterfuck that is Skullstone makes sense.
Xsi said:
As has been said 50x in this thread - he wants out and "he will find a way."
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Setting aside the fearmongering, we have WoG that if we don't give him the inch he needs, he won't.
 
Guile said:
I thought that was a feature of Uly's Infernal anima, but maybe not.

Nice. Face-time with Zao. Sheltering under the dragon's wing.

Then let me be the first to vote for
[X] Identity Crisis
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It'll do a ton of good when we leave the academy to the faces of the Immaculate Monks camping outside. :V
 
Rihaku said:
He's implied to be the Silver Prince. Yeah, I know.



I advocate for the losing option pretty much regardless. Frequently I have listed an extremely risky Red Option, it has been overwhelming argued for, and I have argued against it. If you look at the actual numbers, that is what you will see.

Anyway, I don't think any of the options here are bad. You are over-estimating the chances of Odyssial taking over. Nor is this the outcome he would have wanted. He doesn't want to have to essentially subsume his mortal self, because mortal selves give irreplaceable perspective. The outcome he wanted is Essentially as Planned. That is why it costs XP.

The more-to-plan things go, the more XP they cost. That is how this cost gradient works.
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I'm just using your own previous statements as your guide, and the fact that he's operating on Heartlessness 10, which means he gives no fucks about sentimentality, or anything beyond the practical benefits of a mortal experience. The very instant that he finds that not worth the potential risk of destruction, he'll nom-nom, and we won't have a chance at overcoming him within close to a thousand years.

If we had him at Heartlessness 7-8ish? Or if we took more of the "Be a relatively decent person" I'd be less worried, because he had plenty of mitigation for it. There is no possible way I'll allow an undiluted Odyssial loose on the Age of Sorrows though after how much he's been hyped up.
 
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Beaten to the punch by Guile! Again!
[X] Identity Crisis - More or less the correct amount of Odyssial made it into the reincarnation, but integration failed. Now, the resultant entity sometimes believes he is Ulyssian, and sometimes Odyssial. Though memories are shared, they are confusing without the extensive inferential context that builds up in a person's consciousness. It is also much harder to retrieve additional memories from Odyssial.

After seeing some discussion, I favor Identity Crisis. I'm desperate to see what Zao wanted with a Solar Ulyssian. That bothered me for two whole quests. Further, we can escape this situation one way or the other, and I want to see Odyssial and Ulyssian actually interact, which this option comes closest to.
 
Xsi said:
It'll do a ton of good when we leave the academy to the faces of the Immaculate Monks camping outside. :V
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Considering we're Sesus Ulyssian Odyssial with some 700k xp stocked?

If we get a little training time, we'll be fine. Zao will give us that time.

Vote for Identity Crisis! Then all of Uly's friends will have to decide if they like Uly or Uly's New Invisible Friend (/Self) best.
 
Alectai said:
I'm just using your own previous statements as your guide, and the fact that he's operating on Heartlessness 10, which means he gives no fucks about sentimentality, or anything beyond the practical benefits of a mortal experience. The very instant that he finds that not worth the potential risk of destruction, he'll nom-nom, and we won't have a chance at overcoming him within close to a thousand years.
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He doesn't have any way of staying perpetually emerged except the mechanism I described.
 
Fumbles said:
Beaten to the punch by Guile! Again!
[X] Identity Crisis - More or less the correct amount of Odyssial made it into the reincarnation, but integration failed. Now, the resultant entity sometimes believes he is Ulyssian, and sometimes Odyssial. Though memories are shared, they are confusing without the extensive inferential context that builds up in a person's consciousness. It is also much harder to retrieve additional memories from Odyssial.

After seeing some discussion, I favor Identity Crisis. I'm desperate to see what Zao wanted with a Solar Ulyssian. That bothered me for two whole quests. Further, we can escape this situation one way or the other, and I want to see Odyssial and Ulyssian actually interact, which this option comes closest to.
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Really? It'd probably be pretty boring. They're essentially the same person except for Intimacies, and it's not like Odyssial would particularly object to who Ulyssian likes either way.
 
[] Essentially As Planned

I'd go for Totality except I'd rather not have the quest end if we\re unable to keep Odyssial in check.

Edit:
[X]Totality

Go big or go home. The world will tremble as Odyssial makes his triumphant return.
 
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CrawlingChaos74 said:
[X] Essentially As Planned

I'd go for Totality except I'd rather not have the quest end if we\re unable to keep Odyssial in check.
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We know how to keep him in check, though. Just... don't intentionally let him out, and we're good. It's simple, even.

We get to see Odyssial do a full-force rampage once or twice, and play Ulyssian the rest of the time.
 
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Rihaku said:
Really? It'd probably be pretty boring. They're essentially the same person except for Intimacies, and it's not like Odyssial would particularly object to who Ulyssian likes either way.
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Really. After all of Ulyssian's angst over the difference between the Exalted and Mortals, I want to see him chat with the guy who went through the same shit at the dawn of man, before rising to literally unequaled heights.
Might not be much to it, but I'd settle for an acknowledgement.

Edit: But, ultimately, their interaction is peanuts next to Ulyssian hanging with his classmates and Zao. That's what I want, and every option facilitates it.
 
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Alectai said:
Yeah, but seriously, how difficult would it be for him to arrange circumstnaces to obligate us to call on him again during the window that he was active for?
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I don't know that he'd be willing to risk death so cavalierly. If he dies, considering how fucked up this Reincarnation was, he may not persist at all. Anything short of that, well. Ulyssian can also find ways. I'm not saying it will always be uncomplicated, but ultimate power is rarely this cheap.
 
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