[Exalted, ?] Most High
- Thread starter Rihaku
- Start date
-
- Tags
- exalted (white wolf)
- Location
- Fabulously Rainbow Ireland
so he winds up having a slightly smaller stranglehold?
- Location
- Fabulously Rainbow Ireland
That just seems very inefficient when Zao can focus on that while we also work on keeping her busy with all those heretical DB's popping up and forcing her to stamp them out since she's the head of the Immaculate order now.
[X] Scarlet Flag prophecy
I don`t want the old man to die. He`s cool.
I don`t want the old man to die. He`s cool.
- Location
- Fabulously Rainbow Ireland
He's not going to DIE, he'll just have a bit less influence than his present stranglehold over the Navy.
The less influence he has, the easier it is for Anys to get rid of him. He is just a tired old man. Don`t you feel any pitty for him?
How would Zao be able to keep her busy with the Heretical Dragon Blooded. He will be busy keeping his hold on the Navy while, for all intents and purposes what the Realm views as Hessiah, is trying to pull it away from Zao's hands. With the Scarlet Flag prophecy we could relieve it and actually give Zao breathing room to start working against Anys, remember that she cannot keep the charade up for long, especially with her plans. If Zao remains strong, when it is time for Ulyssian to return to the Realm to oppose Anys we will have the full backing of the largest military force in the Realm who is under the control of a single dragon-blooded who we are viewed as the Successor to with little to no dissidents.
Choosing Heretical doesn't guarantee his death, just as Scarlet Flag doesn't guarantee his safety, but we've continually chosen options that prioritize Zao's well-being. Saving his life is a matter of stacking the odds as much as possible in favor of that outcome; this perpetuates that trend.
Personally I'm just sitting here laughing at how Rihaku keeps taunting you.
It's not guaranteed, dammit.
Van Ropen
Angry, angry about elves.
Shh, it's okay, of course it isn't.
(continues funeral preparations)
Can someone who's more mechanics savvy explain why the one per story effect of Crowned by Metis is broken enough to be restricted to once per story?
It's basically a 'get out of Initiative Crash' free card. Remember how we beat Polemgaos in the opening and utterly annihilated him? That was in part because we won Initiative; he himself comments on how the first exchange might have decided the battle. We crashed him, and death from Annihilating Stroke followed shortly thereafter. This lets us recover from utterly losing the tempo of the fight, essentially rejoining the battle, or compounding the advantage we already have.
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Rihaku
The Internet
Well, only if you have more than negative 20 or so Initiative! Uly himself can do over 250 Initiative damage, though that's mostly Ordering the Constellations. Still, I advise against going up against any Brawlers with Rampage-Berserker attack! You're still likely to win, but why take the risk??
Emerald Oracle
Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force
- Location
- The Else
Y'know, given the whole situation, I'm going to vote for the short term rather than the long term here and for the small amount of backup a friendly navy can provide. Quite aside from anything else, the Navy is the Shield of the Realm and one of the greatest opponents the Foes of Creation presently face. The longer it's strong, the longer we can put off the whole ensuing Doom of Reality.
[x] Scarlet Flag
[x] Scarlet Flag
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
I think Alectai had something used for his Empire Builder quest. I might able to search for it later, but I'm currently finishing my omake.
[X] The Grand Heretical Prophecy
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
Fanwork## 1375 words
I first thought about writing this like I usually did from Ulyssian's viewpoint, but I felt it was getting a bit too repetitive. So this time around, Zao gets to take the lead! Hopefully I've done justice to his character.
*****
The Scarlet Flag Prophecy
The populance of Seacrown were going about their daily business as usual, one of the two breaks in their normality being the gossip about the graduation of one of the Academy's most prodigious students, whose infamy had trickled down even to the common mortal population, though most of the talk about his notoriety was still contained in the ranks of the Princes of Earth.
A young Dragon-Blooded, taken in as the secret apprentice of the legendary Lung Feng Zao. Sesus Ulyssian. He, who had defeated the corrupt monk Beman without even flaring his anima, only to reveal his true heritage to defend his fellow student later on. He, who had slain all but one member of a Perfect Circle of Immaculate monks accusing him of being an Anathema, he, who had killed the hero Polemgaos just by an accident (or making it seem so), supposedly by overestimating the prowess of one of the three greatest Dragon-Blooded alive today. And now, given the "gift" of satrapial command in a position that was almost certain promise of an early demise.
The other was just small talk, more spoken among the common people, about how weather was still behaving strangely, the grey clouds stubbornly blocking the Sun from the view for yet an another day in a row.
***
Inside his office, Lung Feng Zao was gazing down from the high balcony of his office at the flow of people going about their day, while struggling to contain the urge to let his displeasure from leaking to the local weather. He had of course long ago mastered how to prevent this from happening without his conscious control, but his current problem had more to do about needing to gather the necessary willpower to stop his need to vent his frustration to something that wouldn't crumble like a house made from straws before a tornado.
Deciding that his mood wouldn't likely be getting better anytime soon, he decided to get back to work after an already too long break. Leafing through the piles of reports and orders, he morosely noted that the gains he had made with the boy to cement his authority were being circumnavigated around. Nothing blatant against him, but people not loyal to him were slowly starting climb their ranks up here and there. Not soon, but still someday in the future, Anys Syn would wrestle his control over Admiralty to herself and make her move to end threats to her rule for once and for all.
Long held bitterness rose once again inside him, but he squashed it without mercy. This was the nature of the world. Those with more power and better means held the advantage over those who didn't. Still, it was hard. He had been so close with his effort to mold the most optimal mortal he could find to become a Solar who would not be antagonist with the Realm and its people. The old Shogun knew the risks, as the boy's power would continue to grow and he would have less and less agency over him, which had been apparent from nearly the very start after his second breath.
But Ulyssian had still followed generally the path that he had laid in front of him, until that one moment of miscalculation in the tournament. Even Zao could not fault him for it, much. Polemgaos should have been able to survive in a "friendly" tournament against even one powerful as Ulyssian with the might of Solar Exaltation at his call. But the boy had overestimated his opponent and underestimated his own strength, and so the Hero of the Realm fell, and his young protege paid dearly for it. Even the useful information he and Nilul had gathered about the Infernals, their true identities and the general movements of the forces of Yozis, had only moderately balanced their loss.
With the last crippled yet still powerful Elder of the Bronze faction moving to take direct control of the Realm, his options were limited and bleak. He could not oppose her directly without starting a civil war, in which he would stand to be at distinct disadvantage. The Sidereal's move was brutish, but the brutality hid the move's efficiency, which would hold as long as she could keep u the charade. All of the Houses being united in a one front would give the Realm much needed coherence and strength in all endavours. And if she managed to hold to that brittle unity until she managed to implement her final plan...
Now, their only hope lay in Ulyssian walking out from a three way war alive. And as still himself, not as a twisted abomination beyond recognition by the forces he would face.
At some point, he felt Ivory enter the Academy grounds, stirring him from his brooding contemplation on how to stymmie the creeping influence of an another Celestial of the Stars. She quickly made her way towards his office, and entered without knocking.
"I managed to extract a package from the Ulyssian's drop-off point", she said. "I didn't have the opportunity to do more than skim the first page for an instant, but it seemed to be good news for us."
Curious about Ivory's words, Zao opened the oil-skinned package offered to him, finding papers inside which he then proceeded to spread over the existing piles of their breathren. One stood out, as the rest were covered in the small and neat handwriting of Ulyssian dotted regularly with statistics, or full of complex yet divinely elegant formulas. The small slip had only a few phrases on it.
"Teacher. I have divined a few final key insights for you to use in strengthening the Navy before all of my attention is consumed by my assignment. One of the more important events would be that a gathering of unsual number of different kinds of water elementals will be moving along the rough projected path I have included in the package. By directing them carefully with actions I have explained in detail in part seventeen of this report, one could generate paths for new temporary currents that will be throwing the usual ones to a dissarray for some time to come. Those in turn could be exploited for unheard sailing speeds, while the other players caught unaware by this will be still trying to plot out the newly changed routes they have to take.
Also, I have made a breakthrough on how to further refine the logistics of Navy, with details to follow on..."
He then proceeded to devour the contents, until Ivory's voice snapped him out of it. "Teacher? Are you smiling?" Zao turned towards his old student from Ulyssian's boon, the smile she had remarked on still on his face. It should be noted it was not a nice one. "I allow myself it on some special occasions every now and then. Because I think Ulyssian just gave us a way to continue to stay as a thorn in the side of our returned "savior" for quite some time to come. And if she makes a wrong move..."
A predatory widening of the mouth, that could in some context be called a smile, was making its way to Ivory's face too. "Oh dear. Did Anys underestimate Ulyssian again? I hope she doesn't get out of that habit anytime soon", she said.
Zao's smile didn't drop, but it became a bit more subdued after her words. "Hopefully, but we can't count on that. Even if she makes moves like she has, she is not stupid. We have to move quickly to divide her attention on two fronts, so that she can't focus all of her available resources on Ulyssian if the boy survives the initial contact with the opposing forces. The notes include more predictionism and logistical improvements. Start to familiarize the notes on predictionism, while I focus on the logistical side of things."
As they poured over the texts containing the products of a strategic mind of a Solar who was a prodigy even among the ranks of his own fellow Exalts, Zao allowed himself to feel in his heart a tiny sliver of emotion that he had almost abandoned, rising inside him like the Sun at dawn. Hope.
I first thought about writing this like I usually did from Ulyssian's viewpoint, but I felt it was getting a bit too repetitive. So this time around, Zao gets to take the lead! Hopefully I've done justice to his character.
*****
The Scarlet Flag Prophecy
The populance of Seacrown were going about their daily business as usual, one of the two breaks in their normality being the gossip about the graduation of one of the Academy's most prodigious students, whose infamy had trickled down even to the common mortal population, though most of the talk about his notoriety was still contained in the ranks of the Princes of Earth.
A young Dragon-Blooded, taken in as the secret apprentice of the legendary Lung Feng Zao. Sesus Ulyssian. He, who had defeated the corrupt monk Beman without even flaring his anima, only to reveal his true heritage to defend his fellow student later on. He, who had slain all but one member of a Perfect Circle of Immaculate monks accusing him of being an Anathema, he, who had killed the hero Polemgaos just by an accident (or making it seem so), supposedly by overestimating the prowess of one of the three greatest Dragon-Blooded alive today. And now, given the "gift" of satrapial command in a position that was almost certain promise of an early demise.
The other was just small talk, more spoken among the common people, about how weather was still behaving strangely, the grey clouds stubbornly blocking the Sun from the view for yet an another day in a row.
***
Inside his office, Lung Feng Zao was gazing down from the high balcony of his office at the flow of people going about their day, while struggling to contain the urge to let his displeasure from leaking to the local weather. He had of course long ago mastered how to prevent this from happening without his conscious control, but his current problem had more to do about needing to gather the necessary willpower to stop his need to vent his frustration to something that wouldn't crumble like a house made from straws before a tornado.
Deciding that his mood wouldn't likely be getting better anytime soon, he decided to get back to work after an already too long break. Leafing through the piles of reports and orders, he morosely noted that the gains he had made with the boy to cement his authority were being circumnavigated around. Nothing blatant against him, but people not loyal to him were slowly starting climb their ranks up here and there. Not soon, but still someday in the future, Anys Syn would wrestle his control over Admiralty to herself and make her move to end threats to her rule for once and for all.
Long held bitterness rose once again inside him, but he squashed it without mercy. This was the nature of the world. Those with more power and better means held the advantage over those who didn't. Still, it was hard. He had been so close with his effort to mold the most optimal mortal he could find to become a Solar who would not be antagonist with the Realm and its people. The old Shogun knew the risks, as the boy's power would continue to grow and he would have less and less agency over him, which had been apparent from nearly the very start after his second breath.
But Ulyssian had still followed generally the path that he had laid in front of him, until that one moment of miscalculation in the tournament. Even Zao could not fault him for it, much. Polemgaos should have been able to survive in a "friendly" tournament against even one powerful as Ulyssian with the might of Solar Exaltation at his call. But the boy had overestimated his opponent and underestimated his own strength, and so the Hero of the Realm fell, and his young protege paid dearly for it. Even the useful information he and Nilul had gathered about the Infernals, their true identities and the general movements of the forces of Yozis, had only moderately balanced their loss.
With the last crippled yet still powerful Elder of the Bronze faction moving to take direct control of the Realm, his options were limited and bleak. He could not oppose her directly without starting a civil war, in which he would stand to be at distinct disadvantage. The Sidereal's move was brutish, but the brutality hid the move's efficiency, which would hold as long as she could keep u the charade. All of the Houses being united in a one front would give the Realm much needed coherence and strength in all endavours. And if she managed to hold to that brittle unity until she managed to implement her final plan...
Now, their only hope lay in Ulyssian walking out from a three way war alive. And as still himself, not as a twisted abomination beyond recognition by the forces he would face.
At some point, he felt Ivory enter the Academy grounds, stirring him from his brooding contemplation on how to stymmie the creeping influence of an another Celestial of the Stars. She quickly made her way towards his office, and entered without knocking.
"I managed to extract a package from the Ulyssian's drop-off point", she said. "I didn't have the opportunity to do more than skim the first page for an instant, but it seemed to be good news for us."
Curious about Ivory's words, Zao opened the oil-skinned package offered to him, finding papers inside which he then proceeded to spread over the existing piles of their breathren. One stood out, as the rest were covered in the small and neat handwriting of Ulyssian dotted regularly with statistics, or full of complex yet divinely elegant formulas. The small slip had only a few phrases on it.
"Teacher. I have divined a few final key insights for you to use in strengthening the Navy before all of my attention is consumed by my assignment. One of the more important events would be that a gathering of unsual number of different kinds of water elementals will be moving along the rough projected path I have included in the package. By directing them carefully with actions I have explained in detail in part seventeen of this report, one could generate paths for new temporary currents that will be throwing the usual ones to a dissarray for some time to come. Those in turn could be exploited for unheard sailing speeds, while the other players caught unaware by this will be still trying to plot out the newly changed routes they have to take.
Also, I have made a breakthrough on how to further refine the logistics of Navy, with details to follow on..."
He then proceeded to devour the contents, until Ivory's voice snapped him out of it. "Teacher? Are you smiling?" Zao turned towards his old student from Ulyssian's boon, the smile she had remarked on still on his face. It should be noted it was not a nice one. "I allow myself it on some special occasions every now and then. Because I think Ulyssian just gave us a way to continue to stay as a thorn in the side of our returned "savior" for quite some time to come. And if she makes a wrong move..."
A predatory widening of the mouth, that could in some context be called a smile, was making its way to Ivory's face too. "Oh dear. Did Anys underestimate Ulyssian again? I hope she doesn't get out of that habit anytime soon", she said.
Zao's smile didn't drop, but it became a bit more subdued after her words. "Hopefully, but we can't count on that. Even if she makes moves like she has, she is not stupid. We have to move quickly to divide her attention on two fronts, so that she can't focus all of her available resources on Ulyssian if the boy survives the initial contact with the opposing forces. The notes include more predictionism and logistical improvements. Start to familiarize the notes on predictionism, while I focus on the logistical side of things."
As they poured over the texts containing the products of a strategic mind of a Solar who was a prodigy even among the ranks of his own fellow Exalts, Zao allowed himself to feel in his heart a tiny sliver of emotion that he had almost abandoned, rising inside him like the Sun at dawn. Hope.
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