Welp, after not getting access to my desktop for the weekend, I really felt like rambling about the various options we have for this update. 1.5k words long, for the curious.
[x] Serentidopolis
[x] Keep Ambition
Choice Discussion:
While going to the Satrapy is playing into Anys plans, its the high risk high reward path. If we succeed, not only do we keep the influence and power that we have carefully build, it would also vastly increase. In addition, by basically endorsing us in the eyes of the public, our position and identity as a DB becomes basically unassailable by Anys unless she wants to cause a lot of chaos.Ironically, it also gives us the ability to weaken Anys by revealing that we are an Anathema, thought that is part of the nuclear option that we don't really need right. Another factor that tickles my fancy with this choice is that the trope of reassignment backfire, if only to see Anys face.
As for why I prefer Serenti over Luseng is that Luseng main issue is fighting, and fighting against opponents that can challenge a mid high tier solaroid combantant. The issue with that is that makes it harder and more dangerous for our allies and associates like Nilul and Moon to contribute as their strengths are not really relevant in Luseng, and their combat ability is far lower than ours. Conversely, in Serenti, the problems there play well with their strengths, while also being an area where we are good at. The lore charms that we have bought would be equally useful in both Luseng and Serenti, after all, while Nilul is basically as good in social as we are in combat. The lowered danger level towards our allies would also make it more likely that they would be able to join us. Zao will probably throw a fit about sending Moon towards Luseng.
Furthermore, Uly's best abilites does not really require him to show his face at Luseng to help out. Both Prophet and God King Strike do not have a range limit on their use, after all, and since Uly does not have any war charms, his impact at battles would be more on the level of his personal combat prowress.
Another issue to consider is exposure. Unlike Luseng, Serenti does not as obviously have opponents who have actual knowledge of Solar charms and capabilities. Luseng has a Deathlord, ancient Fae Holds as well as a Lunar who knows the Bull Of the North. All of those, especially the Deathlord, should be able to recognize the effects of Solar Charms, especially the more obvious ones like God-King Strike and Prophet. On a more socialpathic note, let Luseng get conquered by the three forces, then when they inevitably betray each other, use God King Strike on Luseng, denying them access to Luseng resources while severely damaging the three factions.
Another issue that makes me more partial to Serenti is the mysterious backers causing the assassinations. With surprise anticipation method, surprising Uly is quite hard, while his personal combat prowress means that most assassins are absolutely no match for him. Furthermore, those assassinations give us a pretty good excuse for why Anys lackeys die when they come here. In addition, rather than the known threat facing Luseng, Serenti has an unknown threat of unknown power, so we should investigate it to see which faction is stirring the pot. Also, it is me, or does the problems plaguing Serenti sound a bit like someone using Prophet on the city?
Plans:
Regardless of what option is chosen, there are certain things I believe should be done. Firstly, would be to delay the amount of time it takes before Uly is deployed to the field. This addition time would allow Uly research and use Prophet. If we fade away, it would be harder to do research, while allowing Prophet to come into effect before being deployed to the Satrapy should lower the suspicion that arises when all those miraculous coincidences start to happen. The delay would also give us time to contact our allies, marshal our resources and make plans before moving off.
One thing we definitely need to do would be to contact the Infernals, Having Anys being a position of strength is bad for both our and their plans, and contacting them gives a valid reason for the information to spread out to the other factions. The Immaculate Order has become stronger than it has ever been in centuries, but that strength is relatively fragile and dependent on Anys. If she is exposed, or she loses too much of her strength due to the Wracking, then the Order would be relatively easy to bring down. She is currently juggling a lot of balls, so lets add some more and try to help her drop them. This is something that the Infernals would also want, in my opinion.
Using Prophet, we should first target the Order. While this might weaken the Realm, in the end, the Order is something that inevitably needs to fall, so we should start weakening it now. Afterwards, we should liason with Ayala about her plans. Using both CCS and Prophet to cause trouble for Anys would force her to deal with them rather than try and sabotage us. Frankly, if it is at all possible, I would want to use Prophet to cause problems for all projects relating to Hessiah. Having problems plague anything that Anys tries is not going to build up confidence in her, paving the foundation for when we deal with her.
Another possible move is to use the proclamation by Anys as method gaining resources and influence. WIth that glowing endorsement and recommendation by virtually the entirely of the Realm's ruling elite, it should be possible for us to pry out more resources, artifacts and influence for our use then otherwise possible.
Ambition:
As for Ambition, I prefer to keep it with us. Firstly, we have spent quite a bit of time learning its evocations, and thus losing it will be a blow to our power, especially seeing that whatever replacement we get is invariably going to be weaker than it. Furthermore, regardless of what choice wins, Any will be highly unlikely to underestimate us by a large margin. She will be planning to deal with us with the amount of strength that we showed when we killed Polegmaos. Being weaker only makes it more likely that her plans to deal with us will succeed. Even if we get WtS and use it on another artifact, we will only regain 30% to 40% of our combat effectiveness.
Furthermore, we could have used WtS on Ambition and given ourselves a larger boost. Ambition too is a pretty unique and noticeable blade. If we lend it to someone else, then Anys would almost certainly notice that we no longer have it, and have given it to someone else. There is no good reason for us to do that, so its almost certainly going to make her investigate. Furthermore, since we are not a E5, we can't use WtS on others, thus they would have to spend time learning to use the Evocations of Ambitions, thus it would take quite a while before they would really become proficient with it. That time spent mastering Ambition also means that they would be building up their competencies in other areas. I rather let our allies specialize in other areas while we take care of combat.
Charms:
From Rihaku's statements, we could buy 13 charms when we went from E3 to E4. Thus, that puts the amount of XP that we can spend at 13 x 40k = 520k XP. Currently, by getting Prophet, we should have bought 5 charms, leaving us with 320k XP worth of charms that can be bought.
In the Lore tree, going WtS would cost us 120k, while the training tree, Tireless Learner + Legendary Scholar 200k. God King's Strike can be bought for 40k from either of these two options. Celestial Circle Sorcery would cost us 100k, but the real issue is the training time. In War, there are quite a few things we can buy, but Tiger Warrior Training would cost 120k.
Personally, if its possible, I favour flash buying at least Terrestial Circle Sorcery. The main benefit of flash buying is getting access to the charm without needing training time. However, as a whole most of the charms I believe would be most useful towards Uly take quite a bit of time to show their benefits, and so might not be ideal candidates for flashbuying. Getting TCS would give us Infallible Messenger, which would be vital for allowing us to coordinate our plans with the Academy and the Infernals. And while Anys is almost certainly protected against it, if we have Infallible Messenger as a control spell, we can use Awareness Charms through them, like say, EoTUS.
Regardless of what we buy, I favour leaving 1 E5 charm slot open. The E5 charms are all very powerful and useful. However, we can buy very few of them, so we should keep one open until we are certain we need a certain E5 charm before buying it. The flexibility would make up for the lowered prowess of Uly and higher cost of the charm.