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[Exalted, ?] Most High

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Orm Embar said:
Killing all the Dragon-Blooded Elders would both weaken the Realm and weaken her, so I don't think she'd go for it, not after the Realm has lost so many of its strongest Exalts so recently.
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You still don't get what her plan actually is, despite it being spelled out in the last Quest?

The Realm is an incubator. It will need to be protected and sheltered from without while her control of the Immaculate Order and growing subversion of the other ministries of rule allows her to install Flame. Who will be breeding dozens of Dragonblooded 2.0 just as capable as him of mastering Immaculate Styles in months. When the first males reach puberty that becomes hundreds and then thousands of Dragonblooded 2.0. The old Dragonblooded Host will be obsolete. The heads of the Houses have to go anyway, but she can exploit rivalries between them to take out the biggest threat (Mnemon, hands down) and gradually subvert the weaker Houses and bribe stronger Houses (like say Cathak, with Ulyssian's head) until she is ready to move.

Really of all the people who signed that damned scroll, only Fokuf (if he isn't really a Fiend) and the Mouth of Peace might not have known it was a death sentence and been fine with it.

Diller said:
Except for a few teensy tiny detail

And what does the immaculate religion say again? Oh right "GIVE ABSOLUTELY NO QUARTER TO ANATHEMA OR YOU ARE A HERETIC."

Not having us killed as soon as "Hessiah" reappeared is going to make her look mighty suspicious once we make ourselves a hero of the realm by beating back deathlords, Fae, and a Lunar ally of the Bull of the North. A hero who was sent there because he was recognized by the 12 House Heads and the Mouth of Peace as having the favor of the Immaculate Dragons.

Ulyssian even says it's pretty much impossible to get all 12 House Heads to agree. This letter was endorsed by them and the Mouth of Peace.
This letter that says Ulyssian is and I quote "especially blessed by the Dragons. Protected by Their Grace,"

If we can turn Luseng around then that pretty much confirms to everyone that we're especially blessed and protected by the dragons. That is going to draw people to us. Because we are clearly a Savior sent by the "dragons themselves." All 12 House Heads agree on this and they never agree on anything!

Anys goes against any of that then she risks destroying the immaculate faith. Which destroys her power base completely.
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Guess who knows that 'Hesiesh' is around and pulling the strings behind the scenes? The people who signed that letter. Guess who needs to eventually be killed or supplanted for Anys Syn's ultimate plan? The people who signed that letter. The heads of the Great Houses and the Regent having the wool pulled over their eyes by an Anathema is egg on their face, right? And if Flame saw through the lies of the serpent Ulyssian where the Mouth didn't, I guess that shows just how much the Dragons favor him doesn't it?
 
Guile said:
Is Syn's plan really to decapitate all the Great Houses?

Zao too probably: if Flame is suddenly Emperor'd because hey, Shogun, the real Last Shogun is probably going to need to go.

It seems like kind of a ' cut off your nose to spite your face' kind of plan.
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"This is one of those plans where we kill everyone in the room, isn't it?"
 
Cavalier said:
Oh and she just explained the whole "Flame is going to breed a lineage of super-Dragonblooded to save Creation" to Ivory right before she showed up at Seacrown and killed Zao, right? Or was it that Pearl didn't think Odyssial needed to know that?

Whatever. Fuck it all.
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I took that to mean that we, the players, do not know the details of her endgame. Ivory isn't an idiot; of course she'd have told Zao about Flame.

That doesn't explain the specifics, or mean that she's going to decapitate the leaders of the Dragon-Blooded Host. Even if Flame could begin breeding tomorrow, it would take at least a decade before his progeny were combat-viable. Creation would have to survive in the interim, and the Realm would dissolve into a cesspit of infighting if she just assassinated everyone, even assuming she's actually capable of doing that. Her condition doesn't lend itself well to running gauntlets; the heads of the various Houses may not be Zao, but they're formidable in their own right.
 
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Orm Embar said:
Killing all the Dragon-Blooded Elders would both weaken the Realm and weaken her, so I don't think she'd go for it, not after the Realm has lost so many of its strongest Exalts so recently.
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Not to mention it would leave an immense power vaccum since you just know there must be a lot of people would be chomping at the bit to fulfill the roles. To say nothing of how incredibly suspicious it would look if Flame who would normally never become Emperor gets the posistion after everyone who couldn't challenged him is killed.

arsdraconis said:
I'd imagine it'd be a hard sell to get Flame on the throne, when the houses know for a fact that they just send the guy who's better at everything than him forever on a suicide post (and somehow actually succeeding at turning everything around?)

one of the house is going to call shenanigan if anys try for round two, especially if she's pushing for emperor flame

by having all the houses signed off on Ulyssian's posting, it's also setting up opening from which to attack Anys from, should we succeed. If anything, the house would use Ulyssian to challenge Anys' push for emperor flame if we manage to finish solving everyone's problem in Satrapy before Flame ascends and gain enough power to enforce his reign (so ~20 years for the first brood?)
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"Hessiah right after having us send that Ulyssian boy to Luseng because he personally vouched for him wants to strip him of all his resources and send him to another deathtrap despite the fact he actually handled Luseng?

Why not give him command of a Legion before doing so?

Wait wait you want an Outcaste to be emperor? The same outcaste who has been continually embarassed and overshadowed by Zao'a apprentice who again you personally told us had the favor of the Dragons and he proved it by handling Luseng? And you still don't want us to give him proper resources?

Yeah that makes complete and total sense.

Plus that's discounting people like
Mnemon who are know she's bullshiting and wants to be Empress herself. She will squeal so fucking fast unless she's silenced and of course Mnemon's sudden disappearance clearly would be suspicious or potentially cause instability.

Zao said she's risking the entire foundation of the Immaculate Philosophy and he was right. If she could just off us like it was nothing
by revealing we were Anathema then she would've instead of telling the House Heads and the Mouth of Peace to say Ulyssian was sent to a death trap since he is blessed by the dragons.

That gives us incredible PR to have that kind of recognition by the leaders of the Realm especially if we succeed as thus obviously prove we're blessed by the Dragons.
 
I suppose it could just be a coincidence that the only people who signed the oh-so damning scroll upon which all our hopes rest, and who know 'Hesiesh' has returned and vouched for Ulyssian, are people who need to be dealt with in one way or another for Resolute Flame to secure control of the Realm.

Perhaps Anys Syn's goals do not include Flame having overt rule of the Realm, although that means inefficient structures not under her thumb will persist which seems suboptimal when she is playing for these kinds of stakes; but her breeding program requires that Flame have access to enormous amounts of Dragonblooded females and various other resources. Being the Emperor is the easiest way to arrange that kind of thing and also, you know, further consolidates control of the Realm. A single unquestioned ruler who believes her unquestioningly is far more pliable than a dozen houses led by cynical elders. And underestimating her ruthlessness, audacity, or willingness to gamble for the highest stake seems to be quite unwise given recent developments.
 
Cavalier said:
Oh and she just explained the whole "Flame is going to breed a lineage of super-Dragonblooded to save Creation" to Ivory right before she showed up at Seacrown and killed Zao, right? Or was it that Pearl didn't think Odyssial needed to know that?

Whatever. Fuck it all.
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I mean IC, you guys don't know what it is. So arguments using it or planning around it, for either side, are less powerful. Also, you don't know the exact details, whether she intends for Flame to be Emperor or a stud put out to pasture, etc.
 
Diller said:
Not to mention it would leave an immense power vaccum since you just know there must be a lot of people would be chomping at the bit to fulfill the roles. To say nothing of how incredibly suspicious it would look if Flame who would normally never become Emperor gets the posistion after everyone who couldn't challenged him is killed.



"Hessiah right after having us send that Ulyssian boy to Luseng because he personally vouched for him wants to strip him of all his resources and send him to another deathtrap despite the fact he actually handled Luseng?

Why not give him command of a Legion before doing so?

Wait wait you want an Outcaste to be emperor? The same outcaste who has been continually embarassed and overshadowed by Zao'a apprentice who again you personally told us had the favor of the Dragons and he proved it by handling Luseng? And you still don't want us to give him proper resources?

Yeah that makes complete and total sense.

Plus that's discounting people like
Mnemon who are know she's bullshiting and wants to be Empress herself. She will squeal so fucking fast unless she's silenced and of course Mnemon's sudden disappearance clearly would be suspicious or potentially cause instability.

Zao said she's risking the entire foundation of the Immaculate Philosophy and he was right. If she could just off us like it was nothing
by revealing we were Anathema then she would've instead of telling the House Heads and the Mouth of Peace to say Ulyssian was sent to a death trap since he is blessed by the dragons.

That gives us incredible PR to have that kind of recognition by the leaders of the Realm especially if we succeed as thus obviously prove we're blessed by the Dragons.
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"I'm a living saint, your argument is invalid!"

#lolHesiesh
 
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Rihaku said:
I mean IC, you guys don't know what it is. So arguments using it or planning around it, for either side, are less powerful. Also, you don't know the exact details, whether she intends for Flame to be Emperor or a stud put out to pasture, etc.
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Does Pearl know that Anys Syn planned to use Resolute Flame to breed a vast legion of super-Dragonblooded to save Creation? Because while everything else is speculation, it is certainly reasonable speculation given that she has de-facto control of the Realm and needs to use the Realm to actually breed that legion of super-Dragonblooded. That the only people who know Hesiesh made them endorse Ulyssian and would thus be in a position to object if Anys Syn had him killed are also the people who need to go before Anys Syn can translate her control of the Realm's existing structures into a new regime is kind of suspicious. And her moves to date had not lacked audacity or a willingness to use brute force solutions to problems.
 
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