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[Exalted, ?] Most High

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You're welcome to your ship I suppose, but I view that as an altogether premature decision. I'll wait until we have at least met all the players, and even then such a choice should rest upon whom best suits Ulyssian rather than simply first come, first serve or personal preference.
 
Indrik said:
But it is also that Odyssial's path is an isolated one by its very nature (even if somewhat less so due to the Fury choice). Though Moon sympathizes and cares for Ulyssian, she does not have the background to truly understand his approach to life and the struggles inherent in his position. Lealope offers an actual counterpart, which is available nowhere else. Whether that will result in a continued relationship with Ulyssian is questionable, but it is a question worth consideration and exploration despite the shipping in prior versions of the quest. Much of the issue I think is merely that Lea never appeared so we have a necessarily flimsy grasp on her character in comparison to the wholly present Empty Moon.
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You seem to be under the impression that you need to completely understand someone for a relationship to last, this is simply not true. While jumping into a relationship with someone you have no idea about is obviously a terrible idea love doesn't require you to utterly empathize with the one your with. Moon and Ulyssian in both iterations loved each other for who they were and stood by each other to provide support when things took a turn for the worse (Mardukth incident aside), add that to the fact that Ulyssian's first action after Exalting was to go back for Moon and I don't think that it's fair to say that she can't have a place in his life as an equal since it's obvious that as solitary as his life is she is someone he wants in it.
Indrik said:
You're welcome to your ship I suppose, but I view that as an altogether premature decision. I'll wait until we have at least met all the players, and even then such a choice should rest upon whom best suits Ulyssian rather than simply first come, first serve or personal preference.
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What are you nuts? If we manage to stretch out the Waifu discussion long enough we might manage to get enough XP for Greatness 10!
 
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Da Boyz said:
Discrepancies in personal power aside why do you think so?
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Well, unless you have the assumption that everyone's equal I presume you'd have to have criteria by which to measure people. Completely discounting supernatural elements (which are a reason; Uly is simply more cosmologically important than Moon, and vastly more powerful) my criteria (for "betterness" as opposed to moral forthrightness or likeability) would probably be:
Capacity for hardwork. Uly wins.
Willingness to stick to ideals. I think Uly would win.
Capability (both intellectual and physical). Uly wins.

Mostly it does come down to personal power, though.

I'm probably not articulating myself well, so I'll ask, "Why aren't Superman and Green Arrow equal?"
 
Da Boyz said:
You seem to be under the impression that you need to completely understand someone for a relationship to last, this is simply not true. While jumping into a relationship with someone you have no idea about is obviously a terrible idea love doesn't require you to utterly empathize with the one your with. Moon and Ulyssian in both iterations loved each other for who they were and stood by each other to provide support when things took a turn for the worse (Mardukth incident aside), add that to the fact that Ulyssian's first action after Exalting was to go back for Moon and I don't think that it's fair to say that she can't have a place in his life as an equal since it's obvious that as solitary as his life is she is someone he wants in it.
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While it's true that understanding is not necessarily a prerequisite for love, I'd say that Moon and Ulyssian's relationship makes her well-positioned to understand his travails. Previously mortal, he struggled to make himself matter in the face of an overwhelming disparity in power between him and the Dragon-Blooded. Given the reversal in their respective positions following his own Exaltation, I would say she is the person most likely to understand the drive for power that motivates him, and is capable of learning to emulate his incessant quest for advantage.
 
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Fuck going with Moon all over again for the THIRD time.

Lea doesn't even appear in the last two exalted quests. Why the hell are we doing this all over again? We might as well continue off from the last quest.
 
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Rihaku said:
Prelude: The First Sunset
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Cool. You said we'd be seeing Odyssial's backstory, and now we know he was one of the initial Solars. By the Usurpation he's probably within a few years of being the oldest human in Creation.

The sun was moving. It had never done that before, and so Odyssial was tracking it.
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The Principle of Diminishment: the Sun set for the first time when He gave of Himself to create the Exaltations. It's good to see Ody was inquisitive and practical before Exaltation. Keep that Uly continuity going!

From the apex of its height in the sky, it had steadily descended towards the lip of the horizon. At this rate, it would disappear entirely, and soon. That did not bode well for Odyssial, or for the small tribe that he now led. What would they do if the sun... disappeared?
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Oh no!:o

I must find a way, he reminded himself.
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He had to stay focused; to waver was death. Even if the sun vanishes, I must find a way for us to survive.
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I am the determinator of my soul, Unlimited Endurance Works! The fact that he isn't shitting himself here is a testament both to his character and the crappiness of the Age of Glory.

Once, they had been a great people. Prosperous, learned, capable of bending bronze from the earth into tools of agriculture, tradecraft, even war. In a land of mountains and valleys, they had colonized the valleys and made headway against the mountains.
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He comes form a settled civilization, then. I wonder what position he held in it?

Humankind had been built to quail in terror, to turn easily towards superstition and the worship of spirits. Their place, in the order of things, was to pray for succor, and thereby provide an easy source of adoration and reverence to the gods, who could metabolize that devotion into spiritual strength. But in this purpose, as in many others, mankind was imperfect, and Odyssial's people had aspired to a greater meaning.
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In keeping with the "Odyssial is the greatest human ever theme." this makes me wonder what the results would be if he tried to optimize a species towards generating prayer. Also, meaning? Ha! This is Exalted.

It was not for this reason that they had been slaughtered.
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Welp. Who am I kidding, they were mortals. A Primordial probably sneezed and sank their continent.

There were those in the tribe who believed otherwise, but they did not know the daevas as Odyssial did.
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I missed this on the first read through. So either Odyssial didn't bother to explain his opinions or he isn't yet a capable enough articulator to sway all mortal opinions.


Odyssial had treated with daevas, traded with them. Long years he had spent, studying deep into the night, wracking his spirit so that he could twist his mind around the twenty-seven Trade Cants of their Grand Marketplace. He had risen as high in their estimation as a mortal could: lower by far than a peer, but somewhat above an insect.
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I love how you (in this case not you specifically, Rihaku, though you do it quite well) can throw in random references to supernatural stuff ("Trade Cants") and it can give flavor even when not defined.

In secret, he had even hunted the more bestial daevas, when they ranged too far into human lands and devoured children. He had learned how to sprint without breath to stalk the fleet-footed voshino. He had built great pit traps to strike down the hardy cogolem, letting gravity do what human thews could not. He had flayed off broad strips of his own shoulder and cured them in the sun to serve as bait for the wary selantis.
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If I was more proactive I'd probably try to look these species up. Still, good work on Ody for hunting THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME! I lied, the most dangerous game occurs in the bedroom with Lea; after a few thousand years there aren't enough positions (or words to describe them). Odyssial had to invent new charms that enabled him to describe their kinkiness, while Lea was inventing new Knacks to increase it. This is making it notable how much Uly sucked compared to Ody, though, even as a mortal.

Daevas, Odyssial knew, did not think like humans did. Most of the time they did not even pay attention to humans, and could fail tell the difference between an impoverished village and a flourishing fortress-city.
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I have this idea that this was used to great effect during the War. "This is not a war camp. We are a happy slave/prayer village. Those aren't warstriders."

Human cities had endured cataclysm in the past. Every so often there would come a blood-storm that boiled men from their homes, or a wind full of teeth that sliced flesh to ribbons, or a crimson flood that swept in over their walls, drowning every first daughter and second son. Sometimes full seasons would pass between decimations, and sometimes not. Tragedy had been an inescapable aspect of their lives, but they were not a people that easily gave in to despair. They'd had many children, and the valleys were bountiful. They had persevered, and that was simply the order of things.
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These people were basically a more extreme Two Rivers. I wonder which of the Prota'veren Ody most resembles?

Men, Odyssial reasoned, were created to be fearful, so it only stood to reason that many things in this world seemed fearsome to them. Even the mightiest of mortal warriors struggled to match a daeva of the First Circle. Ten thousand together would struggle even to scratch a daeva of the Third. They could do little but endure, and even in that they were flawed. Acid waterfalls, lava wellsprings, mists that blurred flesh into gold: Perhaps mortals were simply so frail, that the beautiful things of this world were just... incidentally lethal to them.
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I'm sad I misremembered this passage. I thought it was thousands for a Second Circle, and was quite impressed with Ody.

Some of that beauty shined before him, as the bright orb above continued its slow decline. The mountain peaks were stone the color of blood, crowned with icecaps like knives. As the sun descended, they blazed like molten gold. The valleys were green grass stippled with black, rivers like glistening serpents, trees like puffs of cloud. From the height of this peak, he could see their home valley, where, on that fateful day, the deadly flower had appeared. It dwarfed even the mountains, a single impossible blossom, ochre and violet. Its buds splayed out for miles, leaves shooting up in a Titan's phalanx of blades. Its top brushed up against the very dome of the sky. Under every petal, a civilization of daevas sheltered from the sun's zenith glare.
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SURPRISE!

From the daevas Odyssial had learned that it was named Lethos, the Flowerbed Panoply, and that it was a Primordial Titan, an architect of the world. A god above all gods; even the daevas were merely its souls. It had desired a place to set down, and the tribes of men had simply been in its way. The daevas had assured him that Lethos bore them no malice, but surely men could not expect Her to lower Herself by warning them? That was how he knew that the death of their civilization had been a cataclysm like any other, the product of an unguessable and inscrutable alien whim. Some devastations killed two children in ten, and some killed ninety-nine in a hundred. Dooms like the latter simply did not leave anyone behind to record them, and so there were no such records in the annals of men.
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"Yeah, don't worry, Flowergod doesn't hate you, you're just completely and utterly below her notice. I hope that's some consolation."

Over a year later, Odyssial still vividly remembered that day. He remembered tendrils the size of tree trunks coiling down from heaven, sun and sky blotted out by the Titan's dreadnought canopy. Its movements had seemed lethargic from a distance, but they were of a scale that dwarfed comprehension. A Titan could move further in one stride than a man could in a year of sprinting. He remembered the sound of grinding bones as it settled over their city, too fast for all but the swiftest to dash clear of the edge. He remembered the sudden and total panic, the too-brief screams. A blood-red mist had puffed from the seams of the flower as it'd settled, the final respiration of their city-state.
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And, of course, Odyssial qualifies as the swiftest. I'm having a hard time visualising the tentacles from the sky, but I'll keep trying.

Then came the swift, total poisoning of the valley grounds beneath them, all the grass dying off in a single blackening wave. Then came the long, hungry march outwards and upwards, passing the putrefied corpses of those that had chosen swifter deaths than starvation. Fourteen brothers and sisters he'd had before that day, and now they were three.
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That's a huge family, and that's a deadly poison.

Idly he toyed with the talisman on his arm. Woven of weeds, flowers, and reeds, it was Nio's creation, her first thaumaturgical work. She was his littlest sibling, an inveterate brat, but already precocious in the mystical arts. The stubborn hint of a smile worked its way past his facade. He had no idea what the talisman did, if it even did anything.
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It's kind of weird because in 3E Thaumaturgy is being separated from Sorcery, and I don't think this would fall under it. Maybe a Terrestrial Working?

"For good luck!" She'd proclaimed, as she'd pinned it on his sleeve. "One day, I'll be a mighty sorceress and protect all of the People. Until then," she'd sighed, patting the thing, "you'll have to make do with this."
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Capital People? I wonder what the full title was.

Down to the mannerisms of the sigh, it was the same way their mother had spoken. Odyssial had never seen Nio cry. She didn't complain, even when the tribe force-marched at paces that made grown men groan. Tragedy had only made her work harder, learn faster. She may well have become a sorceress, one of the rare mortals to rise above the lot of mortality, if their civilization and its libraries had survived.
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Sad Nio, while working hard and learning fast might run in the family, you're no Odyssial.

In his secret heart, he hated Lethos.

He was one of the few who dared. But he knew vengeance was not a practical endeavor.
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I'm surprised. It's not like it knows, and Lethos did kill their civilization. I still don't like this hatred thing; it's not a productive passion.

He had turned his people away from the fat and powerful gods, seeking out spirits as bedraggled and desperate as the tribe itself. Better to have a minor power willing to act on their behalf, than a mighty one too lazy even to notice them.
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I'm reminded of Bean trying to find a cooperative bully in Rotterdam.

He had collaborated with their remaining priests and medicine men, breaking down superstition, deriving from first principles, carefully constructing a series of rituals to maximally strengthen those allies per unit of worship time.
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Oh, Ody's already started optimizing prayer.

When hungry ghosts had caught their scent, he'd killed a group of billy goats and strung them out on a trail that diverged from the one his tribe had taken.
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Hungry ghosts existed before the Underworld?

When a cataphract of the Fair had blocked their path, demanding slaves as tribute, he had offered himself instead, thereby getting close enough to bury a dagger in its gut. A normally useless gesture, but his blade had been coated in the grass-blackening poison of Lethos.
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"Grass-blackening"? A frightening adjective.

And because the world was not actively trying to kill them,
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Hahaha, yet.

But they were still losing people. Each cataclysm they were being whittled down. One here, two there. What had been a troupe of seventy-five had, over the past year, become twenty-three.

And now the sun was moving.
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When will it end. Well, soon, for most of your tribe.

Very possibly, it was going away. Where did that leave them? Could they survive without it? He held himself in stillness, observing the world. The shadows grew longer; the air grew less warm. If the sun dipped all the way below the horizon, would they be left in darkness? Would it return - he could not be that optimistic.

Crops in shade grew worse than crops exposed. Their dream, of finding a secluded meadow to settle, was likely gone. Fire would be at a premium, the only reliable source of heat and light. Spirits of darkness, cold, and associated emotions would grow stronger, while their opposites weakened. He would have to act fast, secure the alliance of one that was frail before it realized its coming strength. Could he bid one against another, set darkness against cold to see which spirit could offer greater benevolence in exchange for their party's small but efficient trickle of worship?
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Always the pragmatist, always finding a way. Staying true to true!Ody, but soon the voters will get control and taint your potential perfection.:(

Venturing far from shelter would become excessively dangerous, that was likely the greatest threat. Exposure and heavy wind would kill with the cold, so they would have to find a cave complex to settle in. Water and food would be more difficult to secure, but animals that relied on sight would be vulnerable. Without a large source of water in or near the cave complex, they would die. That meant they needed to shelter next to an icecap, or find a cave with a lake inside.
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Where will we find bizarre geological features? Oh wait, I forgot that this was Creation.

A time of great disorientation was coming, and its apparent factors did not favor them. But if they acted swiftly, perhaps they could exploit the change enough to emerge stronger than before.
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Well, one of them will be exploiting a change to become unimaginably stronger. The others...

Failure was not an option he could entertain. Even if he could see the dire and hopeless trend. Even if he knew more than anyone how slim their chances were. Two-thirds of their tribe gone in a year - even so, he could not stop trying. Even if they could never win, neither could they stop playing this world's futile game. The mere prospect of a loss was too horrible to comprehend.
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That's an adequate reason to never stop trying. I'll expect better in future.

[ ] Dawn
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- Turn back East, and return to the camp. That darkness will fall, seems inevitable. Whatever abyss may come, you will confront it head-on, stare into its depths unblinking. The world may be changing, but the paths to victory remain the same. Ruthlessness. Strategy. And above all else, the unrelenting will to prevail. It is not by choice that you live by the sword, but if not for the sword, you would not be alive.

Aspect: The Strategist
Superlative Quality: Will
Greatness: 9 to 10
Heartlessness: 7 to 10
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Best option. Red text and greatest Greatness, not to mention the defining characteristic of Uly.

[ ] Twilight
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- Continue to observe until the sun disappears. This is crucial data, an irretrievable resource in a world where knowledge is often humanity's only recourse to power. With that data, you will plan. You will iterate and adapt. Preparation and foresight are your watchwords, the ceaseless accumulation of advantage.

Aspect: The Schemer
Superlative Quality: Cunning
Greatness: 7 to 10
Heartlessness: 5 to 9

[ ] Night - Strike out alone, and further, performing forward reconnaissance. You will have to trust in the ability of Nio and your lieutenants to discern the proper strategies. In the meantime, you, most capable of your tribe's scouts, must find a place for the tribe to shelter, during the darkness to come. Always you have been alone, forging the path, finding the way. Though you are their chieftain, in many ways you are an outsider to your own clan. But that does not mean you will fail to protect them.

Aspect: The Solitaire
Superlative Quality: Perceptiveness
Greatness: 6 to 10
Heartlessness: 5 to 8
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Okay options.

Edit:
649 words, not including this edit.
 
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[X] The Obliterator
[X] Masked Queen

Kind of a shame that we won't get to see a Lea that wants to crush everything we accomplish (considering how messed up terrible but great Oddyssial is, she may even be right to do so), but it's just not popular enough to win and with admittedly good reason.
 
Hungry ghosts did. The half of the soul left in the remains needed processing, and certainly could animate the corpse. The higher soul was always reprocessed until the Primordials choked the recycling system with theirs.

As for power levels...as I understand it, Lunars and Solars in 3e are differently strong. Solars got their artifacts(shared with DBs), martial arts(shared with sidereals) and sorcery on top of their intrinsic abilities. Lunars got their shapeshifting and sheer versatility through being attribute based(example antagonist lunar could get up to the same dicepool as a solar by stunting the use of two stats in an action for the purpose of excellencies)

Throw a Solar at a random situation and he can crush it if it can be framed in terms of his focal abilities...or completely unsuitable if it cannot.
Throw a Lunar at just about any situation and they can cope, though not as good as a Solar dedicated to the same task...an Exalt's good enough, is major completion for anyone else.
 
veekie said:
Hungry ghosts did. The half of the soul left in the remains needed processing, and certainly could animate the corpse. The higher soul was always reprocessed until the Primordials choked the recycling system with theirs.

As for power levels...as I understand it, Lunars and Solars in 3e are differently strong. Solars got their artifacts(shared with DBs), martial arts(shared with sidereals) and sorcery on top of their intrinsic abilities. Lunars got their shapeshifting and sheer versatility through being attribute based(example antagonist lunar could get up to the same dicepool as a solar by stunting the use of two stats in an action for the purpose of excellencies)

Throw a Solar at a random situation and he can crush it if it can be framed in terms of his focal abilities...or completely unsuitable if it cannot.
Throw a Lunar at just about any situation and they can cope, though not as good as a Solar dedicated to the same task...an Exalt's good enough, is major completion for anyone else.
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Well, I don't know about how well it worked, but as far as I was aware that was the intention for most of the line. I recall a dev parable about getting all of the Solars and all of the Lunars to sneak into castles and steal an item without being noticed. One fifth of the Solars could do it, and do it better than the best Lunars, but the rest would be screwed. Meanwhile, nearly all of the Lunars could do it easily.

Also, a cool thing (at least, I like it. I know some don't) is that in 3E Solar charms are explicitly mechanical representations of miraculous levels of skill, not discrete things that exist in reality.
 
[X] The Field Commander - Swift as sunlight, he lead always from the front. A masterful strategist, ever-inventive, his tactics and thoroughness shocked and bewildered enemies and allies alike. A consummate polymath, he commanded the unwavering and absolute loyalty of his legions despite his cold, furious disposition.

I want an Odyssial who believes that the optimal route to a perfect world for humanity demands a perfect humanity to live in that world, and surrounds himself with people who he strives to perfect. One man, no matter how unstoppable and perfect of vision, cannot build an entire world with his own hands; instead, he must build the people who can build the world he wishes to see for him. His brilliance cannot be limited to that which he can do or think of himself; every resource becomes an asset, every person a tool to craft the results which are required. Odyssial is the most potent tool in his own arsenal, but never the only one.


[X] Masked Queen - Strong where he was weak, direct where he was circuitous, together they eclipsed even the sun and moon. The thousand-faced seductress stalked the gardens and courtyards of the Titans and the Fair, plying her wiles, pouring poison and honey into their councils of war. Masks beneath masks she hid, and in all the history of Creation her true name was spoken only when they were alone. A love made strong by weakness: the weakness of her true face, and the weakness of his kindness.

We don't need to decide between Lealope and Moon, because with the Masked Queen option we can discover at the most dramatic possible moment that Moon was Lealope all along.

If that's infeasible (possibly because Lealope has better things to do than romance the mortal shell destined to become her reincarnated Solar mate), then Masked Queen remains the best because she could be anyone we've ever met (or possibly everyone we've ever met). On more trivial matters, she's the most likely option to have been actively maintaining or even advancing Odyssial's minions, works, and reputation over the course of the last several thousand years. A queen can rule in her own right, after all, even if she'd prefer a king by her side.
 
Orm Embar said:
As if Odyssial would tolerate his successor dallying with Infernal scum!
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Odyssial isn't content with merely dallying with Infernal scum, he planned to become Infernal scum. For you see Odyssial intentionally allowed himself to die and his Exaltion to become altered by the Primordials and then, just as planned his Exaltion then came back into his own reincarnation to allow him to rise to greatness again.

Why would he do such a thing you ask? Simple. You see realizing that Creation could never become the perfect paradise he dreamed of for humanity he decided to instead create an entirely new place for them reside and what place could possibly be more perfect than perfection made manifest, the primordial titan Odyssial. Future home of Humanity.
 
We've been told that the expression of our power won't greatly affect its net level, merely the feats and legends around it. I want an Odyssial who wasn't merely looked upon as the greatest of the Solars, but greater than the Solars. Someone who acted seperately from them and was great enough that in an age when Titans fought Man fought Gods He was His own faction, and the greatest. We can achieve Greatness 10 if we get a few more people chipping in, and we will be the most powerful being Creation has or will ever know.

For all her glory, for the fact that she killed the former King of the Titans with her bare hands, even with the fact that it was blasphemy to say her name, for all that M-R-L was considered the Queen of the Solars, she was still considered a Solar.

Do we want to settle for that? Because that's what striving to be a part of the Solars will be.
 
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