Remove ads

[Exalted, ?] Most High

Reader mode
Rihaku said:
. You may rule only one city, but it will be the greatest city in all Creation, a city without peer. Odyssial would not accept less. Uncle Pan will not accept less (though he might have to deal)!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So we know the bare minimum that Odyssial will accept from a city he invests time into, now can we somehow match or even exceed Odyssials standards with another option?
 
Elero said:
I'm torn. All three options are very tempting. For now I think I'll go for the red option. Loyal subordinates we can't lose. More territory should also mean we're more likely to find some of Odyssial's stashes, right?
Which of those options would be best to win the Realm Civil War? Polis or Empire?

[X] The Seat of Empire
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That really depends on almost too many factors to count. The Polis normally has higher force concentration, but the leading edge of Empire, where your armies are, has sheer brunt of numbers lead by potential Celestial commanders...
 
[X] The Polis of Legend

It was between this and Empire for me. However I'm not fond of the lack of build-up that action has. The loss of celestial exalts isn't all that big a handicap I'd say, the really useful ones would be hard to handle anyway. A big flaw of Polis is our legitimacy can be revoked more readily, whereas we've already conquered an empire otherwise, however since we'll have spent more time on the satrapy that can be mitigated. Also how can I pass up the chance to delve too deeply, too greedily?
 
The only one of these I'd put slightly lower is Seat of Empire, especially given how it forces everyone to respond in kind, and Rihaku's frequently pointed out that we're only on the top of the mid tier because we've spent so much time being balanced as opposed to being combat-effective.

I like Shining Metropolis and Polis of Legend about equally though. Shining Metropolis for instance gives us the relative energy and leisure to seriously fuck up Anys Syn, while still seizing the most strategically relevant situations.
 
As much as I love dragonblooded lieutenants, we have yet to devise a good solution to the issue of Dynast loyalties. I think we should invest effort and prophecies in weakening the immaculate faith. I want to choose The Polis, but I'm worried that we'll overreach and be exposed before our power base is ready to accept a solar.

Does The Polis present the best chance of re-capturing our pals from the academy? Attachments aside, Saery and Nilul would be a massive political help, and we could get to work bringing Moon and Hero up to par.

Metropolis appeals since it plays to our strengths better than the others. Uly's a powerful combatant, but not amazing as a general. He's much better suited to protecting a perfect city than leading a conquering army. It also lets us abuse the shit out of our Lore charms, and those are just too good to pass up.
 
Alectai said:
I like Shining Metropolis and Polis of Legend about equally though. Shining Metropolis for instance gives us the relative energy and leisure to seriously fuck up Anys Syn, while still seizing the most strategically relevant situations.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So we can sit behind our shining walls and diplomatic immunity while prophecy spamming Anys until she tears her hair (or is she bald like most Immaculates, I forget) out? Sign me up.

[X] Shining Metropolis
 
Savonarola said:
[X] The Polis of Legend

I want to know what the hell's inside that mountain... other than that? Not particularly attached to the option, could go another way. I'm not sure about the Seat of Empire, though, it sounds like we're rebelling if we start conquering other Satrapies.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The Metropolis can exploit the Mountain as well, you'd just need to take an action to explore it!
 
Fumbles said:
Metropolis appeals since it plays to our strengths better than the others. Uly's a powerful combatant, but not amazing as a general. He's much better suited to protecting a perfect city than leading a conquering army. It also lets us abuse the shit out of our Lore charms, and those are just too good to pass up.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Where are you getting that from? We're a great general, much better suited to leading armies than ruling a city. War 5, yo. We're the Lord Strategos. Our soldiers think we're Sesus reborn.
 
[X] The Polis of Legend - The borders of the satrapy are well-defined and well-defensible. Its natural resources are tremendous, and underexploited. It contains the potential to become a thriving nation, an ideal realm on the face of this Creation, an invincible bulwark against all the forces that would seek to rend this world asunder. Elsewhere the Exalted may fail to rise to their Mandates; elsewhere the strength of men may falter; elsewhere, but not here. A self-contained, highly militarized nation-state with enough jade to produce a thousand years' worth of Artifacts, you will prepare Luseng to hold the line against Realm aggression or the return of the Yozis themselves. Should the enemies of your present life, or your past, come calling - you will be ready.
 
I am torn between Shining Metropolis and Polis of Legend. At present Shining Metropolis is slightly ahead in my mind because of the Crappy Rank up! They're both interesting and useful things that I want to go for, but I'm not sure which I want more!

EDIT: Though since Shining Metropolis lets the Strategy Mind be used on anything Creation wide couldn't it be used to make Luseng a Mecca for those of Supernal Skill?
 
Last edited:
Fumbles said:
I assumed the lack of war charms meant we aren't that hot as a general, relative to other exalted.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Eh, we still have War favored with a specialty, which is pretty amazing. That, on top of Hymn of the Morning and, once we hit E5, Ten Thousand Orisons... we could be more efficiently optimized for it, but it's way better than our Bureaucracy rating.
 
Savonarola said:
Eh, we still have War favored with a specialty, which is pretty amazing. That, on top of Hymn of the Morning and, once we hit E5, Ten Thousand Orisons... we could be more efficiently optimized for it, but it's way better than our Bureaucracy rating.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You do have Heaven-Turning Calculations to help for speculative Bureaucracy rolls, and Bureaucracy by its nature isn't too demanding of rolls - you make a few big ones, which fits well with Crowned by Metis.
 
Savonarola said:
Eh, we still have War favored with a specialty, which is pretty amazing. That, on top of Hymn of the Morning and, once we hit E5, Ten Thousand Orisons... we could be more efficiently optimized for it, but it's way better than our Bureaucracy rating.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmm, alrighty then! I'm still favoring Empire the least, but that does help its case.
 
Hmm... I find myself wondering about Shining Metropolis... I remember reading some very entertaining optimization-cheese once about charm combinations by which a Solar Exalt could theoretically maintain a population of some 20,000 enlightened mortals. At least in 2nd Edition it was AFAIK theoretically possible for a Solar to make that happen without having to exceed Essence 5. Do you think Ulyssian can pull that off?

And that's stictly the mortals personally enlightened by that one Solar... optimize the city state to enlighten yet more mortals, using the ones already enlightened as a cadre...

Even enlightened mortals still aren't a match for Exalted, of course. But on the other hand, neither are they mere sword fodder, and there could be a lot of them.
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top