Remove ads

[Exalted, ?] Most High

Reader mode
[X] Raw Power

I don't particularly enjoy for the lulz votes, and the majority of the real reasoning for Maximum Revelry is social links with friends and family. For the friends we continue to be capable of gaining favor with, and they are unlikely to be too much off-put as they like and know Ulyssian. As for the Sesul family there is a limited amount of social maneuvering that this option will open up, however, I find the value of such maneuvering debatable unless we are going to attempt to control House Sesul in its entirety, which we currently don't have the stats/charms to do and picked a contrary short term plan.
 
"We gave them a power structure in Chanos and Ventus Prefectures to express the themes of light and darkness the Sesus now espouse"

Light and Darkness? What would this means?
I know they have sketchy shadow experiments, like that Assassin DB that follows around Roseblack

...
Wait!
Tepet Ejava and our uncle, the Slug, Sesus Nagezzar, were childhood friends??/


At any rate, what does the phrase means?


Edit: and now they are claiming that the Dynasts are based off "The Domination" (of Draka?? Oh no..)

"The Domination. S.M. Sterling. Baen Books. New York, NY. ISBN 0671-57794-8.

"An alternative history featuring a successful expansionist, slave-taking white state in the south of Africa, these excellent books are so grim as to verge on unreadable. This series provided much of the inspiration for the culture of the Dragon-Blooded."

-Exalted: The Dragon-Blooded p. 13, under "Suggested Resources."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Huh.
Oh well, I guess I'm still a bit curious...
 
Last edited:
Well, I would be more for the party-animal option, if we hadn't passed up the previous choice that would have gotten most out of this (which I voted for). Yes, it will hurt our reputation to do this, but maximizing the benefits from our given choice is a priority to me. Unlike Orm, however, Moon is a secondary concern to me. When compared to starting mastering Evocations for our uber-sword which we have decided to keep, most other concerns don't seem so urgent anymore. With those and the extra XP, we can likely reach a position where we can make any assassination attempts against us, our inner circle allies or our friends much, much harder.

Mending relationships with our own house and friends might be difficult later on if we do this, especially with the former. But we don't have to play the game of Dynasts their way. By becoming a succesful leader in the Realm's military structure, we can accumulate that influence in effective way while also suppressing/destroying threats to the Creation, which seems more efficient to me in this particular situation. Social manipulations could be left for our allies for now, who are better equipped for that.

With that in mind:

[X] Raw Power
 
Now that I think it, there is a potential way to reduce the heat that we take: Make Nilul spread a rumour that Zao has "grounded" us for our actions earlier, both for intervening in the duel and "revealing" our Exalted nature when we were supposed to be hiding it. We might have to run this by Zao for his approval, as it might put some additional heat on him, but his position is much more secure than than ours.

Actually, creating that vote now:

[X] Raw Power
-[X] Spread rumours through Nilul about being forbidden to attend because Zao is furious about Ulyssian's earlier actions. If Zao approves it.
 
inawarminister said:
Edit: and now they are claiming that the Dynasts are based off "The Domination" (of Draka?? Oh no..)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Huh, never noticed that before. Though, I suppose that probably could fit with statements like this:
Hatewheel said:
Originally Posted by Kalisara
What are some wild, crazy and potentially profitable adventures that young Dynasts touring the Threshold could have?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

War tourism is a big thing that Dynasts do, getting involved in foreign wars for fun, profit, military and political experience. The Empress's system is actually set up to reward Houses that engage in more effective tax-farming and by going on vacations to embattled places young Dragons could cut their teeth on the realities of government without fucking up Mom's tribute states.

Many Dragon-Blooded, both Outcaste and Dynast, are flocking to Faxai-on-the-Caul to engage in a crusade against the Lunar Exalted there.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Source
 
Finally, I have access to a computer again.

[x] Wild Revelry - Nilul has a point. Maybe this won't be so bad. His other friends must be concerned, and there is a bridge to mend with his family, before the Sesus burn it. Hero's loyalty, Saery's genuine worry - he shouldn't forget about them, as well. He is better at this than he used to be, and maybe he can get some honor-duels out of the thing. It won't be as productive as training, but he'll take what he can get. And... it might be a little bit fun, as well. Though not as fun as training. However, the rampage of riotous celebration that is a full-on Dynastic Calibration Feast with Dragon-Blooded constitutions means he will almost inevitably miss Moon's awakening, as well as several hours of memories. Hopefully Zao will be there to explain things to her. [Chance to earn Background Merits, including potentially Artifacts, Deepen friendships]


Ironically, if we had chosen Develop Connections, I would have chosen to spend Calibration training. However, I feel that since we chose to stay in the Academy and train, we should spend this time socially.

While the bonus XP and more interactions with Moon are indeed attractive, both things can be found in relative abundance as we chose the P&S option. Conversely, opportunities to interact socially with other Dynast outside of the Academy would be harder to come by, especially with Sesus. Furthermore, since we would be going to the Calibration party with Nilul, we can at least count on her to head off situations that could possibly result in us being revealed as a Solar.

Indeed, while personal power and accomplishments indeed do mean much in Realm politics, the other side of the coin is political connections and influence. Currently, we have already snubbed our house by hiding our Exaltation. If we do not at least attempt to mend fences with them, then its likely that we would become estranged from them. Compared to training, this is a time sensitive option, as we did choose the plan that gives us the greatest amount of time for personal training. After all, currently, our XP would only allow us 1-2 months worth of intensive training. Delaying it by a few days would not set us back too far, even counting the 80k that we would not get.

Anys knows that we are a Solar and that we have subverted Ivory. Thus, she would be moving her pieces into place to try and ensure that we are revealed as such as it would also weaken her opposition. By having greater support from our family and more political connections, we would be able to weather the storm better as our house would be willing to expend at least some effort to protect us, considering the prestige we have from being Zao's heir. However, that support would be contingent in the house believing that we possess some modicum of loyalty to their house. If we do not visit them now and try to mend fences, regardless of what excuses we use later, they would be likely to believe that we have thrown in totally with Zao and thus cannot be trusted to consider their interest at all, and thus they would not expend resources on helping us at all. Thus, using Zao as an excuse for why we cannot attend would probably be counterproductive, as it would only solidify their thoughts about us being solely loyal to Zao and not caring about the house.

Conversely, if they believe that we can be trusted to at least consider helping House Sesus when they ask us of it, they would be willing to spend resources and political capital on helping us advance our goals, as well as protecting us from the politicking of the other houses. This also has the advantage of ensuring that they would not feel slighted by Zao taking one of their DB. We do not need any embers, with Anys fanning the flames.

While Zao is likely the strongest and most influential DB still alive, he is but a single individual. He can only be so many places at once, and his resources are not as great as what one of the Great Houses can bring to bear. We are already stretched quite thin, and Zao needs to spend his influence on numerous different projects. Therefore, I feel that spending the time and effort to ensure that House Sesus becomes our ally instead of an enemy to be worth it. While we will be able to deal with them even if they are hostile in the future, that would eat up valuable time and effort that could be better spent elsewhere.
 
Last edited:
[X] Raw Power
So we are worried for our friend who is recovering from nearly fatal wounds and we find training to be relaxing. Thus as strange as it sound, throwing ourself into training at this time should be better for Uly's mental health. It was trying night already, don't pile additional stress on him.
 
Guys if we wanted to focus on socialization then we should have either talked things out with our family before we went to see Ivory or chose Develop connections.

We didn't so please so not flake on our choices and give up xp (which Rihaku has told us we're low on), getting a lot of training done, and a chance to explain things to Moon personally by being there when she awakes.

Remember Moon would've done the same for us and we owe to her since it's because she's our best friend that she's in this state. It's the very least we could do to be there when she wakes. We can talk to our other friends at other times and if need be we simply punch our way to family headship.

We are a dawn greatest of warriors. Beating the shit out of things is our specialization and Solars do best when they specialize. There is a reason Odyissial had Lea take care of social shit. Moreover we chose power and Security so we could prepare to face threats like that solar with a shitton of SCDs, those E4 Abyssals, and Anys.
So let's take the opportunity to prepare as in character and follows the choice we made instead of running off to do socialization which we deliberately chose to ignore for power at the first chance we get. Does Ulyssian or Odyissial seem that flakey to you guys?

Let's continue though with our decisions.

[X] Raw Power
 
Last edited:
[X] Wild Revelry - Nilul has a point. Maybe this won't be so bad. His other friends must be concerned, and there is a bridge to mend with his family, before the Sesus burn it. Hero's loyalty, Saery's genuine worry - he shouldn't forget about them, as well. He is better at this than he used to be, and maybe he can get some honor-duels out of the thing. It won't be as productive as training, but he'll take what he can get. And... it might be a little bit fun, as well. Though not as fun as training. However, the rampage of riotous celebration that is a full-on Dynastic Calibration Feast with Dragon-Blooded constitutions means he will almost inevitably miss Moon's awakening, as well as several hours of memories. Hopefully Zao will be there to explain things to her. [Chance to earn Background Merits, including potentially Artifacts, Deepen friendships]

Man, Nilul really knows how to levererage that Ebon Dragon Excellency. I think everything she daid was Manipulation. Especially the well meaning stuff.

My tremendous bias towards anything infernal aside, I want to draw on the advantages of being Dynast, and we've locked in a powerful training choice for the future.

Lastly, Moon's adorable naivete will become a dangerous weakness if it isn't handled. I'm a little worried that Zao may actually coddle her, by his own standards. A small betrayal of her storybook ideals seems like a safe way to help her become more realist.
 
Serous said:
Thus, using Zao as an excuse for why we cannot attend would probably be counterproductive, as it would only solidify their thoughts about us being solely loyal to Zao and not caring about the house.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmm. Could be, but Nilul is so good that she may succeed in still spinning it positively for us. Or maybe fabricating some other excuse.

On more reasons for choosing training and the extra experience, lets look at the choices after our character creation that have impacted our XP:

Essentially As Planned - XP Cost: 350,000
Disguise - XP Cost: spreading out our focus from combat
Ivory Secured as an Ally - XP Cost: 150,000
Night Time - XP Cost: Not choosing Me Time, so more of a training time thing
Prove It - XP cost: 245,000 flash-bought (even if at 75,000 reduced cost)
Persuasion - XP cost: Not picking Somehow for +50,000 to our drying account
Power & Security. - XP cost: Good for training time, but no extra plot XP

...Yeah, I think its time we picked some XP positive actions and try to make the best out of the situation.

EDIT: Besides, if we we are ambushed in a situation where we have to flash-buy titles, our XP total will drop even further with less benefits. Lets just focus for one thing at the time, okay? Even Ulyssian can't be on the level of surpassing all in every area, at least immediately.
 
Last edited:
[x]Raw Power

Fanwork## 717 words
There was much to learn in fighting ghosts, at least those who dwelt in the graves littering his memories. They had turned to be a treasure of uncountable wort, even know he doubted having a clear and complete view of what they could provide him in the future, exploring those depths would take time. Still, his first excursions had paid handsomely. Ambition first. And know, the the figures of his old enemies preserved in all their dreadful glories in his recollection, summoned from their rest by his will. To fight one more.

To take their revenge in a certain way, for he few among them would have appreciated the irony of their present positions as training help for the reincarnation of their slayers, Ulyssian was certainly much more easy a foe to face than Odyssial that was at been. At least at the apex of its strength. At his beginnings as an Exalt there where few differences to speak, hence he started a metaphorical ascension, foe after foe, from the lowly to the great.

A billion battle calculations floated troughs his mind, the series of strikes and moves Odyssial had perfected in an unstoppable style, forging it in the crucible of aware, its material to be found in the patterns played his enemies. A litany of steps, blows and counter blows, growing increasingly more improbable, a series of outrageously delicate moldings of essence, workings of utmost precision and terrible power. Straightforward burst of such might that he wondered if his body would ever bear their strain. As they danced before his mind's eye, his body flowed from stance to stance, muscle coiling and uncoiling, limb scything in the air, essence churning and coalescing into more and more complex ways.

He was like a chameleon or a mirror reflecting sights long lost despite the gulf of age and death. To any outside observer, he would had seemed alike a statue, an unfinished work from some divine sculptor, where some godly spark at been abandoned and which strove to achieve itself of his own. Indeed, his forms straitened, imperfections slowly smoothed out, what essence fueled strike took seconds to conjure up became almost instantaneous and seem to grow only faster.

Where he could only strike one blow and catch a dozen leaves in flight, this time was long past gone, a rain of them would find no purchase in the interdiction field raised by his blurring arm, nor any arrows or any blade.

This had been the result of a particularly deep plunge in the flow of his recollection, where he had found himself standing upon a shore, his sword for sole bulwark against a living ocean furious waves.

His arm had rose and fell with frightening strength and speed, the shock of its passage booming in the air, the hurricane like force of the galls of wind it raised, hurling themselves against the oncoming rush of water. Their meeting occurred in terrible crash, the seeking tendrils losing any coherency only to reform themselves almost immediately. To be blown over again. Then from the friction caused by his roving blade, a nuclear blaze ignited the air, rushing forward to dry in growing steaming clouds the coming water.

One memory among many others.

He had begun able to run on walls and ceiling, now his launching step seemed to anchor themselves in nothing at all, finding purchases in the blowing wind and propelling his rocketing from trough the air. A marvel born of his encounter with Fae Lord whose entire form was of jagged lighting and never touched ground.

He knew how to conceal himself in shadows, and now how to fade out in the background of watchers mind, blending even in the light. And many other things beside. But that was not enough. Now you knew that a meeting awaited at the top of your "climb", a colossus who had bestrode Creation most elevated height and from which you need to wrestle the might you sought.
They said that the greatest victory was to conquer yourself. And indeed no other than the you that was, met at the apex of his power, could bestow upon the strength you needed, it would be under this unfathomable might that you would regain you own.

The king is dead, long live the king.
 
[X] Raw Power

Yes, I still really want to see the update if we had chosen Revelry. Honestly seems like the more entertaining of the two, and the arguments about how skipping this causes us problems in the future are still valid. Revelry is not without its benefits. But in the cold light of morning, Raw Power is probably the more sensible option.

*sigh*
 
Fanwork## 846 words

Something went very wrong.
For a sentient wish granting artifact housing the root of all evils and bent on proving right all the fairies tales warnings on the prices of wishes, this was an unfamiliar feeling. Turning bloody all happy endings was his ordinary practice, only...things usually turned properly wrongs, that is horribly for everyone but quite satisfactorily for him. Now the bloodiest heroic figure had been summoned, its heartlessness unmatched by any dwelling on this earth and yet, it couldn't shake the feeling that, something less than pleasing was going to happen. How strange.
Was it the fact that this new servant didn't quite fit the Caster class ? But that had happened before. Hm.

- - - - -

Surveying his handiwork, Ryuonnuske couldn't help but smile. After all this time the color red hadn't lost its appeal, and there was no shade of it so pleasing to eye than this one. The rivulets and spatter of bloods arcing around the room were really a wonder, even now, with so much practice he had trouble believing people could contain so much of the stuff ! And what luck to end up upon a whole family, he imagined artists felt the same things when they ended up on a whole stack of abandoned paint. Still, he had work to do, having followed the instructions of the book till now, he had to see if something would really happen at the completion of the ritual. Oh, he had switched around some steps, and left out some boring ones but it should work right ? Demons were primarily interested in blood surely. Beside there was the boy as a welcome gift !

_ _ _ _

Kenta had seen his whole family murdered in front of him, he should have been driven beyond fear by now, maddened by what was happening to him. And yet the towering figure that coalesced out of the shadow of the shops, and loomed in the circle of blood induced a sudden jolt of fear in him. Ever so slowly he summoned the courage to lift his snot covered and tear stained faces toward it, dreading what he would see.
An impassive face cut in sharps angles emerged from the neck-piece of tough looking armor then eyes, bottomless, riveting, those were like portals upon, upon-he couldn't understand what he saw there. It didn't matter anyway, they were turning away from him. That's right, forget me please. Just leave alone.

_ _ _ _

" Your work ?"
The mundane way the question fell from the lips of it, so...inappropriate in this setting sent a slight frisson of worry in Ryunossuke. The giddiness of seeing something really irrupt out of nowhere was swiftly fading. This...this wasn't exactly was he had expected. The armor was impressively fearsome, the sword was of a daunting length. The inhumane countenance and the feel hanging around him were certainly appropriately threatening but...where was the blood-lust, the enthusiast for mayhem ? And the tentacles ! The horns or the ugliness. As severe as this guy looked, he was much too handsome...even red eyes would have sufficed. Still they were quite piercing. Yes quite an intense gaze this one.

There was absolutely no tremble in his voice when he answered, not at all.
" Yeah, you like ? It took me some time you kn-".

- - - - -

Kenta hadn't bothered to follow what happened between the armored man and his tormentor, what could follow if not more suffering for him ? If they were busy with each other that was fine. He could stay curled right there, near this...rolling head ?
He stared uncomprehendingly at the severed appendage passing. What ?
A hissing sound wrenched his gaze away. Smoke was rising from another body part-the crazy red head was in pieces !- that was, yes, the arm the armored man was griping in his hand was sizzling. What was....

His head had turned, what was he...sirens ! The police was coming and the man was dead, a feeling he though never to have again struggled to rose in his chest-it brutally halted as those eyes fell upon him.
"Are they coming for you ?"
An hesitant nod was all he could manage.
" Will you be safe with them ?"
Before he could achieve his movement, he was engulfed in a blurring whirlwind. He would swear not even a second had passed when suddenly the blaring of the sirens exploded much closer to him and he found himself seated on a stairway. The house it was connected was in the middle of the roads the police cars were rushing through. As the screeching of tires against asphalt resonated Kenta gave up, and reclined on the cold stone. This...was finally over.

- - - - -
Miles from there, something blurred through the streets of Fuyuki City, unaware that at each of its steps, prescient powers around the world felt a frisson course through theirs spines for it seemed for who could that Gaia trembled under his tread.
 
Currently leaning towards Wild Revelry, mainly because ignoring our House (and to a lesser degree our firends) is just such a massive fuck you to everyone.
Our House particularly because we've been lying to them for years and while you can kind of try to justify it with the argument that securing the psoition of being the one and only Zao's successor for a member of House Sesus is worth it, it's not likely they'll be all that rational about it (especially not the somewhat jealous people in our house, which likely includes everyone our age or with favoured children/descendants of our age) and not even talking with them now to discuss for example how to take the most advantage of this arrangement for House Sesus now that we're allowed to talk about it, makes it seem a hell of a lot as if we have no loyalty to House Sesus whatsoever and are now Zao's animal entirely.

We have no friends in House Sesus, we haven't worked with anyone of our family outside of Nagezzer for ages, we've hurt a member of House Cygnis, a Sesus ally, with the whole Beman incident and, while all of that might be apologized because of how huge being Zao's successor is (though they're still likely to be pissed), not taking the first opportunity to apologize, patch things up as well as we can and promise to advance House Sesus goals again basically seals the deal on making it clear that Uly might not be a member of House Sesus in the first place.

A successor to Zao that is effectively nothing but a successor to Zao has no value to House Sesus and is not worth giving the resources and support he's asking them for if he's only going to pursue hios own and Zao's goals with them.


It's also kind of a dick move against any of our other friends and associates, especially since Moon is not actually the only one with reason to be pissed at him. Saery in particular has a lot of reason to be unhappy with su, given how we apparently abused her predisposition towards helping mortals just so some ridiculous training axcercise Zao has forced us into becomes a bit easier.

And finally as already mentioned using this first chance to finally cut loose does do a hell of a lot for our cover as a DB who was forced to hold back until now and our subsequent return to single-minded training and not working much with our family for the time being can easily be justified by Zao tightening our leash again and insisting we make up for blowing up our cover by training trice as hard after Calibration is over.
Talking with our family and making this clear would do a lot however for smoothing over our ruffled feathers and giving them a timetable for when we're done with our curriculum and will be able to do stuff that helps us, our family and the Realm will make them a lot more willing to wait for the next six months.


If we do however end up doing training after all, we might want to see about spreading word that Zao is effectively punishing us for ruining his plans by forbidding us to attend the festivities, though there's probably at least some risk of this making House Sesus pissed at Zao.
 
We're already set to do maximum training after Calibration's done, so why not take this opportunity to make connections with our fellow DB which we earned from pretending to be one of them?
It's a total waste not to do so, we might as well have just run off from the Academy, while taking Moon with us if we're only going to focus on more training and her.
By attending we'll be able to reconnect with our family ensuring their support whenever we need it, we could also beat up/duel some remarkably drunk dudes in the party for their artifacts, and who knows how damn shiny their loot is?
Besides that we also deepen our bonds with our other friends, Moon's not our only buddy, you know? I'm sure the others feel rather betrayed by this whole I-was-only-pretending-to-be-a-mortal-thing, Moon's loyalty is already more-or-less guaranteed even if we don't spend all our time with her, but what about the rest? With a close enough bond we might be able to keep Mountain Hero friendly even after we get revealed as a Solar should shit hit the fan one day
 
meianmaru said:
Now that I think it, there is a potential way to reduce the heat that we take: Make Nilul spread a rumour that Zao has "grounded" us for our actions earlier, both for intervening in the duel and "revealing" our Exalted nature when we were supposed to be hiding it. We might have to run this by Zao for his approval, as it might put some additional heat on him, but his position is much more secure than than ours.

Actually, creating that vote now:

[X] Raw Power
-[X] Spread rumours through Nilul about being forbidden to attend because Zao is furious about Ulyssian's earlier actions. If Zao approves it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

What would you give her for it?
 
Last edited:
meianmaru said:
Hmm. Could be, but Nilul is so good that she may succeed in still spinning it positively for us. Or maybe fabricating some other excuse.

On more reasons for choosing training and the extra experience, lets look at the choices after our character creation that have impacted our XP:

Essentially As Planned - XP Cost: 350,000
Disguise - XP Cost: spreading out our focus from combat
Ivory Secured as an Ally - XP Cost: 150,000
Night Time - XP Cost: Not choosing Me Time, so more of a training time thing
Prove It - XP cost: 245,000 flash-bought (even if at 75,000 reduced cost)
Persuasion - XP cost: Not picking Somehow for +50,000 to our drying account
Power & Security. - XP cost: Good for training time, but no extra plot XP

...Yeah, I think its time we picked some XP positive actions and try to make the best out of the situation.

EDIT: Besides, if we we are ambushed in a situation where we have to flash-buy titles, our XP total will drop even further with less benefits. Lets just focus for one thing at the time, okay? Even Ulyssian can't be on the level of surpassing all in every area, at least immediately.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This. There's a reason Rihaku keeps telling us to not keep ignoring options that give us XP.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top