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[Exalted, ?] Most High

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[X] Raw Power
[X] Better Listener

We can't train like this again: let's make the most of it.
We're staying at the Academy, so we'll have plenty of chances to make connections: debauchery connections probably aren't the strongest anyway.

The Listener is the largest utility option there are many non-combat options we can use to start dominating(blackmailing) our social opposition.
 
Hm, Better Listener probably also should allow gains in the Social arena, as it allows for some degree of lie detection. Not perfectly of course, it's possible to control some or even all (if you're an exalted) of the physiological signs of lying, but it should probably allow for some degree when Ulyssian isn't dealing with Elder Dynast/Celestial level conceptual shenanigans.
 
A good point. With Better Listener, acquiring blackmail would be a relatively simple matter. Since we have connections with Nagazzer and influence in the criminal underworld of Seacrown, making use of such information should only be marginally more difficult.
 
Another point-

Given our friends are worried and asking after us and we're choosing training and Moon over reassuring them, I'd judge the Raw Power vote to be putting Moon over the rest of our friends combined.

Moon's great and all, but better than everyone from Hero down to the Aust twins together? I think not.

She's not even going to be AWAKE for three days. And we even get a 50% chance to be by her side with Revelry anyway. So really, it's more like we're ignoring ALL of our friends and family for 3 days just banking on that last 50%.
 
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SirLagginton said:
The vast majority of time training would be enormously inefficient later because by then our Exaltation would've fully settled in. 80k XP is most certainly not a non-trivial amount, especially since we are very much in need of XP right now, running low after purchasing Immortal Blademaster to convince Pearl. And after all the bad blood between us and the fact that Sesus is apparently rather unreasonable, I am very much doubtful that they are going to be reliable enough allies to make that opportunity cost worth it. I very much doubt that three days of social time (which we are BAD at I might add) with an unreliable house is going to advance us very far in the snakepit of Dynastic politics.
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The training time later on would not be XP inefficient. What Raw Power gives us is faster training time, not less expensive training time. Currently, we have around 2-3 months worth of XP, so the faster training time is not too important. While 80k is indeed a decent amount of XP, its not like chosing Revelry would not result in us not gaining anything. In mechanical terms, Revelry can be thought of as buying dots in social backgrounds such as backing, allies and artifacts.

Furthermore, as for House Sesus be unreasonable, its not like anyone solely makes decisions on the basis of cold hard logic. Look from it from their point of view. We apparently exalted as an early age with a good/unique bloodline and was scouted by Zao. Listening to him, we hid our exaltation and pretended to be a mortal for years until we revealed ourselves to save Moon. Afterwards, instead of meeting them and patching up, we decided to follow Zao. Now, during the Calibration, the time for social gatherings, if we decide to not attend due to Zao, it would be the third time we obeyed him over the house. Thus, it would firmly establish us as being loyal to Zao over them. Even if we try to mend bridges afterwards, they would be unlikely to believe that we are doing it as a member of House Sesus so much as as a member of Zao's faction. That is of course, assuming that we would have time to meet House Sesus to mend bridges. We are all busy people with numerous commitments to our time. Our house elders have their politicking to do, while we would be stuck at the academy training. Thus, outside of this calibration celebration where everyone is gathering, it would be hard to arrange a meeting with our house elders to try and explain and bring them over to our side.

Furthermore, there is the matter of Sesus social standing. With us showing that we have Exalted as a young age, it brings prestige to them. However, the longer we delay mending bridges, the more socially embarrassing it would be to House Sesus about our existence, that despite our ability, that despite being a part of their bloodline, we instead belong to Zao's camp instead of theirs and that they did not even know anything about it.
 
Emerald Oracle said:
Hm, Better Listener probably also should allow gains in the Social arena, as it allows for some degree of lie detection. Not perfectly of course, it's possible to control some or even all (if you're an exalted) of the physiological signs of lying, but it should probably allow for some degree when Ulyssian isn't dealing with Elder Dynast/Celestial level conceptual shenanigans.
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This i what I'm speaking about.
We can enhance our social traits using this. Tell Nilul that.
and have her tell everyone that we are being *punished*
 
Vanguard_D said:
Have you even been reading this quest? It does not work that way, there is no dissolving there is two that is now the same.
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We seem to be in Doctor like situation, same person reborn and yet new one is different. Throwing away all from new life just because we regained memories of last one doesn't strike me as good idea, plus it's not something I want.
 
Hm, Serous makes cogent points, but it must be remembered that Sesus is the Great House that regards combat ability the highest. While ignoring them at this juncture will have severe repercussions, at the same time they can be mitigated later on in a way that would not be possible in another house. Ultimately, if we show off our peerless combat prowess we're going to win a lot of points back, especially if we do so in a manner that advances the House's interests, like protecting their satrapies, or expanding their holdings.

Also, Ulyssian IS a Solar, and the reincarnation of Odyssial at that, if he wants to hard enough he can punch his way through the damn House if he has to.
 
Guile said:
You think it's a good idea to instruct Nilul to tell our family Zao is punishing us like an unruly child.
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It's in character with the previous public interactions with Zao during Ulyssian's exaltation. He all but called Uly an unruly child then, having this be part of his actual punishment does make logical sense. The repercussions are ... less than optimal perhaps, but will likely be entertaining.
 
Guile said:
Another point-

Given our friends are worried and asking after us and we're choosing training and Moon over reassuring them, I'd judge the Raw Power vote to be putting Moon over the rest of our friends combined.

Moon's great and all, but better than everyone from Hero down to the Aust twins together? I think not.

She's not even going to be AWAKE for three days.
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They're not the ones in the hospital, about to learn that her closest friend is an Anathema, and that Anathema don't even exist. They're worried, but they're going to be here in three days.

Not so much Moon, this is sort of a one-time only thing. Doubly so because after this we won't be seeing her for months.
Serous said:
The training time later on would not be XP inefficient. What Raw Power gives us is faster training time, not less expensive training time. Currently, we have around 2-3 months worth of XP, so the faster training time is not too important. While 80k is indeed a decent amount of XP, its not like chosing Revelry would not result in us not gaining anything. In mechanical terms, Revelry can be thought of as buying dots in social backgrounds such as backing, allies and artifacts.
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In three days? I understand Artifacts, but even those are gained through application of our martial might. Three days is not in any way enough time to gain any amount of substantial resources through social links, especially not with our social skills.

And yes it would be XP inefficient, especially from the view of training/time. The fact that we gain all this XP in three days makes this vastly more efficient than if we do it later.
Serous said:
Furthermore, as for House Sesus be unreasonable, its not like anyone solely makes decisions on the basis of cold hard logic. Look from it from their point of view. We apparently exalted as an early age with a good/unique bloodline and was scouted by Zao. Listening to him, we hid our exaltation and pretended to be a mortal for years until we revealed ourselves to save Moon. Afterwards, instead of meeting them and patching up, we decided to follow Zao. Now, during the Calibration, the time for social gatherings, if we decide to not attend due to Zao, it would be the third time we obeyed him over the house. Thus, it would firmly establish us as being loyal to Zao over them. Even if we try to mend bridges afterwards, they would be unlikely to believe that we are doing it as a member of House Sesus so much as as a member of Zao's faction. That is of course, assuming that we would have time to meet House Sesus to mend bridges. We are all busy people with numerous commitments to our time. Our house elders have their politicking to do, while we would be stuck at the academy training. Thus, outside of this calibration celebration where everyone is gathering, it would be hard to arrange a meeting with our house elders to try and explain and bring them over to our side.

Furthermore, there is the matter of Sesus social standing. With us showing that we have Exalted as a young age, it brings prestige to them. However, the longer we delay mending bridges, the more socially embarrassing it would be to House Sesus about our existence, that despite our ability, that despite being a part of their bloodline, we instead belong to Zao's camp instead of theirs and that they did not even know anything about it.
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Firmly? Maybe, but it's only natural that a disciple would be loyal to a mentor, especially an influential mentor that has given us so much in the way of resources and training. As long as we seek to benefit the house later at some point, then we shouldn't have a problem. The fact that not only House Sesus would burn its bridges, but become actively hostile to our interests should we not come over there like a good little lapdog does not fill me with much confidence at the prospect of them as allies. While it would be understandable that they would be upset at us for our actions, taking such extreme actions in such a situation informs me that whatever influence and resources that Sesus would care to throw at us is not worth the opportunity cost of the valuable training time we could be executing in the wake of our exaltation. If Sesus wants to be unreasonable about this and not accept the power we could offer them a later date because we aligned ourselves with Zao then let them, after the way they treated us they have no right to expect us to be their faithful muppet.
 
Guile said:
Moon's great and all, but better than everyone from Hero down to the Aust twins together? I think not.
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Hey, speak for yourself! Also, our other friends aren't lying nearly dead in a hospital bed. So, yeah, she takes priority.
Guile said:
She's not even going to be AWAKE for three days. And we even get a 50% chance to be by her side with Revelry anyway.
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We do?
Serous said:
The training time later on would not be XP inefficient. What Raw Power gives us is faster training time, not less expensive training time. Currently, we have around 2-3 months worth of XP, so the faster training time is not too important. While 80k is indeed a decent amount of XP, its not like chosing Revelry would not result in us not gaining anything. In mechanical terms, Revelry can be thought of as buying dots in social backgrounds such as backing, allies and artifacts.
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Revelry might get us an artifact, but we need access to Evocations to even begin to leverage its full potential, and that access must be purchased with experience that we don't have. Raw Power isn't only power, it's memories. It's us accessing a unique chance to call on our past life for knowledge and power. In that regard, it can be viewed as purchasing background dots as well.
Serous said:
Furthermore, there is the matter of Sesus social standing. With us showing that we have Exalted as a young age, it brings prestige to them. However, the longer we delay mending bridges, the more socially embarrassing it would be to House Sesus about our existence, that despite our ability, that despite being a part of their bloodline, we instead belong to Zao's camp instead of theirs and that they did not even know anything about it.
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Thing is, we are in Zao's camp. They're fools if they don't already know that. He chose us as his heir, was the first to know of our Exaltation; that embarrassment isn't going away, no matter what we do about it. That blow has already been struck, and while we can smooth over that perception and heal the damage to Sesus' reputation somewhat, there is no way they are actually going to trust us or believe our first loyalty lies with them. And to be entirely fair, they shouldn't and it doesn't.
 
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Something as simple as keeping a mortal with her to alert us when the doctors say she'll be waking up soon gives revelry a 50% chance to be there for her.
 
SirLagginton said:
Firmly? Maybe, but it's only natural that a disciple would be loyal to a mentor, especially an influential mentor that has given us so much in the way of resources and training.
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No, see, the public narrative is that we've been mooching of Sesus resources for years while lying to them and are now publically spitting in their face, again.

It's only the fact that their pride would work against later reconciliation that's unreasonable, not their initial reaction itself.
 
Orm Embar said:
That blow has already been struck, and while we can smooth over that perception and heal the damage to Sesus' reputation somewhat, there is no way they are actually going to trust us.
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Exactly! The only way to dominance of House Sesus is through sheer BRUTAL FORCE! Beat downs for all who looked down on Ulyssian as a mortal! It's not just cathartic, it's necessary!
 
Van Ropen said:
No, see, the public narrative is that we've been mooching of Sesus resources for years while lying to them and are now publically spitting in their face, again.

It's only the fact that their pride would work against later reconciliation that's unreasonable, not their initial reaction itself.
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I don't deny that, but I don't think that really invalidates what I said either.
 
Emerald Oracle said:
It's in character with the previous public interactions with Zao during Ulyssian's exaltation. He all but called Uly an unruly child then, having this be part of his actual punishment does make logical sense. The repercussions are ... less than optimal perhaps, but will likely be entertaining.
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Yes... entertaining... Except we won't be there to see their reactions, so we can only imagine their shame at their new exalt being treated like a child, and their loathing of Zao for this insult.
 
Guile said:
Yes... entertaining... Except we won't be there to see their reactions, so we can only imagine their shame at their new exalt being treated like a child, and their loathing of Zao for this insult.
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It accomplishes the intended function, if you want to keep the possibility of reconciliation open for the future. It also doesn't have to be 'treated like a child', that's up to how the information is presented; we could be undergoing some heinously brutal training regimen as punishment that Nilul can describe in great detail, while praising the strength of House Sesus' greatest scion.

... to be fair, we are actually doing some hilariously effective training.
 
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They're already going to be loathing Zao, he snaked Ulyssian from them! I wouldn't be surprised if some of House Sesus will place the blame entirely on Zao in an attempt to avoid blaming their Scion. Plus, Zao's well known for his eccentric ways, which may mitigate the entire thing! He's got a strong reputation, but he has odd preferences by dragonblooded standards.
 
While it is true that Uly is basically in Zao's camp, there is the matter of degree. For Sesus, someone who would always follow Zao and someone who is occasionally willing to go against Zao are very different and require different treatment. By meeting them now, it would more likely place us at the second category.

As for 3 days not being sufficient time, I disagree. Firstly, Uly himself is a very valuable piece to try and court, even discounting his connection to Zao. After all, he managed to perform at a level matching other DB without any obvious use of essence, speaking well of his ingenuity and base stats. As he has been thought to be a mortal, there are relatively few factions who have had established relationships with him, thus now would be a good time to try and court him.

In addition, while we can socialize in the Academy, it is only now, during Calibration that several of the high power Dynast can make time to come and are available to network with such as the heads of the various families. After this, they would be busy and we would be in the Academy and would find it far harder to meet them. Thus, we should make use of this opportunity to build our foundations with them.
 
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