Fancy Face
Tactically Superior
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Giving Zao ambition before fading away to strike from the shadows is actually pretty appealing to me, thematically. It hits alot of my "this sounds like something out of myth" buttons.
[Exalted, ?] Most High
- Thread starter Rihaku
- Start date
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- Tags
- exalted (white wolf)
Deadly Snark
Tryhard As Fuck
Hmm, actually yeah. That's even better than the Zao Plan. It gives us a new supremely powerful piece to play that Anys won't see coming until it is way too late.
Now, how to convince Zao so that he won't murder us?
Rihaku
The Internet
Well, she's still not ruling openly - she's appearing as Hesiesh to multiple House Heads and Immaculate Masters in TOP SECRET meetings, that's it.
Depends on what she decides to do with Flame, on the Moon issue. Moon is probably safer now than she was, though, 'cause Anys is feeling secure. Relatively, in the her power.
You'd still have to locate a TOP SECRET meeting and ensure she doesn't perfect dodge it, though. EoTUCS can be dodged, there is otherwise no defense. But Anys Syn is pretty good at Dodge.
You'd probably get brutally put down even if you could locate her, though with everyone there is a chance you could succeed. Just not a very good one.
It doesn't grant access to the Sword itself, but if you're saying he might be able to break through the Manse's protections - well, maybe. Risky though!
Indeed, at least in Lusang you know who your enemies are and what you're supposed to do! Since they're the Realm's enemies too, Anys won't even sabotage you that much!
Except that it doesn't really do that anymore?
Giving Anys Syn an entire year to do what she wants with Uly losing serious amounts of personal power, so that we can have an ally that is not actually powerful enough to fight Anys Syn with the entire Realm at her back and, even if we somehow make it, end up with literally all of the downsides giving Zao Ambition would always have had is pretty much the height of foolishness.
People messed up when they decided against the Civil War, but it's pretty clear that doing what they think is resorting to the nuclear option out of spite but is actually just pointlessly flailing around is not going to solve the mess we are in now.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Again, he's a known quantity, and one that's been planned for. Anys is watching him like a hawk, and if she notices he's growing again, she's likely to strike immediately.
Moon is a Pawn with regards to Anys Syn's schemes below the radar except as a piece to be played. That's why when we promote her to a Queen, while she's still on our side of the board, we may very well checkmate her, especially since nobody is watching her very closely at the moment.
Anys has done the chess equivilent of a Four Move Mate, essentially trying to checkmate us before we get a chance to move. We can counter that by secretly placing a Queen in our front line of pawns to capture her own when she moves to our side of the field in what she thought was an opening in our defense.
In the meantime, between keeping Zao pinned down, and Ulyssian "Useful, but out of the way of anything important", we're actually husbanding another figure--and once we're ready, we can put the Winter Empress on the throne and completely bypass all of Anys Syn's best laid plans.
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Rihaku
The Internet
Hey, the Civil War would have had its own complications, and be much more of a clusterfuck than this. At least now you have a clear, united enemy without too many extraneous factors, even if they are overwhelmingly strong.
Fancy Face
Tactically Superior
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You mean she'll only try to aim for a stalemate rather than trying to wipe us out entirely?
That's downright benevolent of her.
From what I read of the charm, using EoTUS only removes essence muting magic and stealth from the solar. It should not affect any disguises the solar has, unless rihaku has a different ruling.
My suggestion is to go somewhere really high, possibly using sorcery from Ayala, position ourselves against the sun and use the Eye on her from extreme range and remove her disguise where a lot of people can see.
My suggestion is to go somewhere really high, possibly using sorcery from Ayala, position ourselves against the sun and use the Eye on her from extreme range and remove her disguise where a lot of people can see.
Rihaku
The Internet
She just wants you to do as much damage as you can before dying. If you succeed in Lusang, she'll send you off to the next suicide posting. Unless you rebel, in which case she'll try to crush you. At that point...
In a way, it's like a bastardized version of Zao's plan. Use the godlike power of the Solar against Creation's enemies. Zao's already done her the favor of training him!
Usernames
Merc gonna merc ya
Hmm. I wonder if we can still join with the bull of the north and the lunar.
The abyssials got to go though.
Rihaku
The Internet
Your Caste Mark will still blaze visible, as it mentions in the Charm text. Could be irrelevant if you are Extreme Range away behind a zeppelin wall, though.
She won't use her disguise except in closed-door, secret meetings with important authority figures. Just locating them is going to be a chore. She'll probably have to use it less now that her power is already established.
Which option won last vote? Can't say from update.
[X] Luseng - The newly-conquered coastal satrapy of Luseng is rich in resources, close to several major island ports, and has a developed urban base. However, it is threatened from the south by the Deathlord, The Gardener of Elysian Fields, and her loyal deathknights, Abyssal Exalts of tremendous power. To the north, it contends with the cunning and treacherous Lunar Ragmar, whose horde has allied with the Bull of the North. To the north-west, it is bordered by the Freehold of Sislay Chorus, an ancient seat of Fae power whose behemoths have recently taken six of the satrapy's outlying cities. It is believed that the three powers circling Luseng have taken up a non-aggression pact to carve up the city-state and its territories; one third shadowland, one third freehold, and one third Lunar domain. If they intend on betraying each other, it is not until the elephant of the Realm has been carved at the joints.
The satrapy has essentially been given up as lost, though Realm forces have been ordered to fight to the death. The previous satrap was killed a week ago in a decisive losing battle, and at least two behemoths are en route to the capital.
This one have at least on site resources so we aren't that dependent on importing stuff so despite enemies closing it's safer.
We need to pull as many of our friends with us so we have trustworthy people to put in important positions.[X] Luseng
[X] Keep Ambition
Edited in sword vote.
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- Location
- Southern Virginia
Give Zao Ambition, then fake our death, head out into the Threshold to make contact with Lealope and gather power; establish a spy network so we can actually pin down where Anys Syn is, stir up disorder in the Realm, force her to expose herself, then launch a full-on decapitation strike to kill her and as many heads of the Great Houses as possible, while also exposing her Hesiesh as a fraud, leaving the door wide-open for Zao to step through the claim the Realm.
The problem of course is what happens after Zao-with-Ambition has control of the Realm...
Needless to say Moon and Nilul should come with us. It might also be useful to hand out favors to the Infernals to defend the Academy and keep Zao alive as a bastion of resistance to Syn's dictatorship.
The problem of course is what happens after Zao-with-Ambition has control of the Realm...
Needless to say Moon and Nilul should come with us. It might also be useful to hand out favors to the Infernals to defend the Academy and keep Zao alive as a bastion of resistance to Syn's dictatorship.
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Rihaku
The Internet
Hm, it might be viable, if you can wrangle up support, but you can't use Wake The Sleeper on others until you're E5, and you don't have it yet, so those are obstacles. Moon would need lots of time to train without WtS to become remotely relevant on this scale; she is a very powerful DB, but she hasn't been buffed and she doesn't have your XP gain rate.
Oh, I don't doubt that would be a clusterfuck as well, but it seems to me that the support for hastily shoving Ambition into Zao's hands is more or less the result of people feeling bitter about how this move blindsided them and could have been mitigated by kickstarting our own clusterfuck first.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
I meant for us to master a different weapon so we're not completely outmatched.
We're still looking at a few months here that we'll be in this campaign. And actually securing Luseng would be a feat worthy of Essence 5, wouldn't it?
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Deadly Snark
Tryhard As Fuck
You are potentially right, but you are also overlooking that there are advantages to giving Zao, or Moon, Ambition while Anys's attention is mostly focused on us and she feels completely secure against Zao.
Rihaku
The Internet
You do still need to buy Wake The Sleeper, in that case. I think you might have enough XP to flash-buy it, or only a few ten thousand short.
Hm, people seem more pissed at Anys than bitter, but it is one of the most major escalations you could make. You guys should be careful, though. Ambition is like, 50% of your combat strength, no exaggeration. Its Evocations are integral to your current fighting style, and whichever weapon you get won't be as perfectly tailored to Odyssial as it was.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Which is true, but that doesn't mean she won't ever figure it out.
[X] Luseng
[X] Keep Ambition
After thinking it over going to Luseng without Ambition would probably be a very bad idea as it'd drastically increase the chance of us dying horribly.
[X] Keep Ambition
After thinking it over going to Luseng without Ambition would probably be a very bad idea as it'd drastically increase the chance of us dying horribly.