[Exalted, ?] Most High

[a11behringer]

Vote change:
[x] Consolidate Power
[X] Govern Wisely, Govern Well x3
-[X] Bankrupt your personal reserve to allow for intermittent use of Prophecies. Greatly enhances the effectiveness of this option, especially if taken 3 or more times.
[X] Thaumaturgical Explorations

I'm still not convinced the deliberate Limit Break is a good idea, I'm not as against it as I am Sorcery, so I'll compromise.

 

[Diller]

There's another benefit to limit breaking now besides keeping our friends and people from getting the Odyissial experience which can't be mitigated by Lily on account of us not taking her to Luseng.

It replenishes Willpower which some of our more powerful Evocations use. Willpower that we just used a moderate amount of making sure we only had a minor initmacy.

 

[Emerald Oracle]

[X] Thaumaturgical Explorations
[X] Consolidate Power
[X] Govern Wisely, Govern Well
[X] Govern Wisely, Govern Well
[X] Govern Wisely, Govern Well
-[X] Bankrupt

The best of Many Worlds! General Improvements, Making the City Better, Getting the rest of the circle HERE finally! My god it's a bonanza! It even allows the limit break to be channeled in an entertaining manner! About the only issue is that it doesn't allow for Sorcery, but if we get Moon and Nilul here then Hey we'll finally have a trusted second or two to take care of the day to day stuff while Ulyssian locks himself in a closet to redefine reality at large with his brain! Then the City will be sitting pretty, our allies will be present, and Ulyssian can Train Train Train with significantly less morale effects.

 

[veekie]

This'll be yet another month of "King Sesus sets himself up in his palace and does esoteric shit" - you're starting to develop a bit of a reputation!

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Given how it turned out each time, that's by no means a bad reputation.

Being a weirdo who locks himself up to do gods know what and then comes out raining success is good!

 

[Rihaku]

Given how it turned out each time, that's by no means a bad reputation.

Being a weirdo who locks himself up to do gods know what and then comes out raining success is good!

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Except this time you'll come out and either...

1) Do nothing because you can't show any of it off!

or

2) Still take another month to do something that only a Solar Anathema could (Perform a Solar Circle Working in less than three months!)

 

[Elero]

Except this time you'll come out and either...

1) Do nothing because you can't show any of it off!

or

2) Still take another month to do something that only a Solar Anathema could (Perform a Solar Circle Working in less than three months!)

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We could come out and do some terrestrial workings. They'll be very cheap in xp and still do stuff.

 

[meianmaru]

Except this time you'll come out and either...

1) Do nothing because you can't show any of it off!

or

2) Still take another month to do something that only a Solar Anathema could (Perform a Solar Circle Working in less than three months!)

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Hmm. We could maybe mask the time it takes us to complete Workings by having public ones that would be few and with slow completion times, while in reality we have multiple secret projects taking most of our time. If we do not show what we are doing to anyone, we could declare that we are going to do something and have to spend X time on it, complete multiple Solar Circle Workings that we don't reveal, then just before the deadline complete the public one.

Of course, this limits how many large scale or otherwise obvious projects we can have underway at any given time and won't be as effective for the public opinion, but its the best idea I can come up with at the moment.

 

[mrttao]

You don't have enough XP to do so, but yes, though it wouldn't help your popularity with the populace. However, Stress does not affect already accumulated Limit. Also, it wouldn't really make Luseng much safer for Nilul and Moon!

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it doesn't?
Can you explain the difference between them?
Also, what is even accumulated limit? you wrote that we have 5 stress. IIRC at 10 stress to limit break and then it resets. I was not aware of any way to "accumulate" limit.

The hell?! Uncle Knows Better than this! He realizes that MAGIC MUST DEFEAT MAGIC! How can we make Evil Spirits Begone if we don't have Sorcerous power to make them BE gone!?

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which is why it decreases it by X points instead of automatically setting it to "hate you!". doing other things he approves it shows him we are using it "for good" so to speak and makes him like us despite being a filthy sorcerer.

 

[Diller]

Let me give the benefits of Sorcery.

When we went with Shining Metropolis, it was partially on the account of us using Sorcery to buff people. We can't
do that if we don't have sorcery.

Now some will say we can just get it later. However as I have said before there will always be another shiny that prevents us from getting sorcery. Case in point with the recent vote to get Lily over potentially getting guranteed E5 and Sorcery.

We don't know when Anys will come and even after we deal with her we're still gong to be in the shit house. Do you know know why?

Because Anys just told Hell we're back. Hell is likely going to tell the Underworld given they do have some past of working together as seen on their break in to the Jade Palace and the fact that Odyissial was partially responsible for the situation both groups are in. Given how Odyissial scared the shit out of litterally everyone, I wouldn't be suprised if Heaven was "accidentally" leaked about the fact we're back as well. So I have no doubt we're going to have a lot more people gunning for us in the future.

And there's still the issue how we haven't completely solved the issue of the fact Luseng is still surrounded by enemies and we don't know want could happen on future updates that might have us buy charms and evocations like we just did for Lily. So there's no guranteed we'll be able to save XP especially an amount that let's us get all 3 circles at once like this.

That's not's mentioning how Anys might try to mobilize the Realm against us even if it means breaking the immaculate faith.

Remember when Rihaku said that Uly and Lily together could stop even 5 realm legions? We'll guess what was a part of that equation

To be fair, you and the Lily combined, at E5 with Solar Circle Sorcery and Zao's help, plus a boosted Wake the Sleeper on her armor, would indeed be able to put up a very redoubtable resistance to Realm invasion. I'm not even sure if five Legions could break that, and the Realm would be hard pressed to mobilize five full-strength Legions given that it only has 40 to police and garrison the entire Blessed Isle and Threshold Satrapies.

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Well I guess we could use Ayala

Ayala's not Solar Circle yet, she's got a few months to go!

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Aylawithout taking around a year's time, though. That rules out all of the best effects, pretty much. Also, she wouldn't consent to do a Solar Circle Working for you without a huge and guaranteed favor.
!

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won't be able to do that for a few months which is more than ample time for Anys to use the Realm against us.

Oh yeah and Sorcery will let us buff our friends. Given the shit we're currently in and the shit coming our way, we'll want to make our friends as strong as possible as fast as possible to ensure their safety and Survival.

 

[mrttao]

The funny thing is, seeing lily might finally push moon enough to make her confess, and lily only wants to be friends anyways

 

[1986ctcel]

The funny thing is, seeing lily might finally push moon enough to make her confess, and lily only wants to be friends anyways

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And they become great friends and team up to sneak around the city at night in "costume" and FIGHT CRIME

 

[cyberswordsmen]

[X] Thaumaturgical Explorations
[X] Consolidate Power
[X] Govern Wisely, Govern Well
[X] Govern Wisely, Govern Well
[X] Govern Wisely, Govern Well
-[X] Bankrupt

Lets get the occult ranks we need in advance in preparation for sorcery later and work on governing really well this turn while dispelling our limit break that is coming up soon.

With the city in good shape and occult ranks already trained getting sorcery should be easier next turn. (maybe taking 2 actions instead of 3).

 

[Diller]

Here's more word of Author on how Sorcery could help us. Particularly to governing Luseng.

With your newfound concern for your citizens, however, Sorcery does start to look much more attractive - if you take some time to train Occult and the first Sorcery Charm, then flash-buy the next Sorcery Charm, you would be at Charm cap and able to qualify for E5. You'd also still have some flexibility in Solar XP to flash-buy spells. Then you could get started on a Working, creating an entity to either help defend or administrate Luseng - either one would free up tremendous amounts of time for you. Once you hit E5 and Solar Circle Sorcery, you can move into temporal distortion effects (though they do have drawbacks, the value of temporal distortion is almost always worth it).

For example, you could use an Ambition 3 Finesse 5 Celestial Circle Working to create a loyal, few-drawbacks equivalent of a 2CD to help govern Luseng. It would have nearly Solar-level dicepools and a panoply of Charms designed specifically to assist you, and be designed to be nearly unfailingly loyal to you. That would give you much more time to train, take personal missions, etc. And all this for a mere ~2-3 weeks of effort and 40,000 Solar XP! The only drawback is that it would only cost 30,000 with Solar Circle Sorcery, but 10k XP is a small price to pay for getting access to a 2CD-level helper at this level...

Not to mention the benefits of whichever Sorcerous spells you end up picking. Infallible Messenger, Mists of Eventide, Invulnerable Skin of Bronze... all useful and potent spells. Travel Without Distance, Ivory Orchid Pavilion, Demon of the Second Circle - the possibilities are immense.

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[mrttao]

plan: don't limit break at all:
[X] Consolidate Power
destroy our enemies, this can't wait until later.
[X] Training[-2 Stress]
lower stress from 5/10 to 3/10. Lets try to never limit break
[X] Training[-2 Stress] repeated
eliminates the stress it gains us, this option can be repeated up to 3 more time times to spend all our XP in a maximally efficient manner.

governing well is very tempting, but we already have obscenely high quality governing going on, it is merely a booster on what we already did. we need to deal with the other things first, like the traitors.
learning sorcery is extremely tempting.... and we will do it next turn after a relaxing training session this turn to avoid limit breaking at all.
thaumaturgical organization is also very tempting. and can wait

 

[Rihaku]

Also, what is even accumulated limit?

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Limit is what governs your Limit Breaks. Stress adds to Limit.

Because Anys just told Hell we're back. Hell is likely going to tell the Underworld given they do have some past of working together as seen on their break in to the Jade Palace and the fact that Odyissial was partially responsible for the situation both groups are in. Given how Odyissial scared the shit out of litterally everyone, I wouldn't be suprised if Heaven was "accidentally" leaked about the fact we're back as well. So I have no doubt we're going to have a lot more people gunning for us in the future.

Click to shrink...

Mm...

The funny thing is, seeing lily might finally push moon enough to make her confess, and lily only wants to be friends anyways

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The Lily is a potential love interest, along with Moon, Nilul, Ivory, Lea, etc. Not all potential love interests will be interested in Uly from the start, though!

governing well is very tempting, but we already have obscenely high quality governing going on, it is merely a booster on what we already did. we need to deal with the other things first, like the traitors.

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Not if you don't govern. The DBs themselves are good, but not "effectively manage a city 20x overpopulated" good. Morale will continue to deteriorate and the situation will stagnate or backslide if you don't govern by taking the Govern Well action.

 

[mrttao]

Limit is what governs your Limit Breaks. Stress adds to Limit.

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Still not entirely clear here.
Do you mean that there are two scores, one called stress and one called limit. Those two are accumulated via different means, and when the sum of limit + stress is greater than 10 then we limit break?
And we are aware of our stress but not of our limit score?

Let me give the benefits of Sorcery.

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Sorcery is a second rate semi clone of what odyssial could already do via his exalt workings. And when we learn it we would actually be channeling odyssials experience in bludgeoning reality into shape he wants by creating pseudo sorcery that doesn't actually work for others and is unnecessary hand-waving in order to do what we do. Its effect would be for uly to grab hold of ody's reality bending earlier in his development, but at a cost to their quality.

Now, if we could learn actual sorcery and properly differentiate it from what we do, that would be nice.
Or we can organize mortal/DB sorcerers without learning it ourselves

Not if you don't govern. The DBs themselves are good, but not "effectively manage a city 20x overpopulated" good. Morale will continue to deteriorate and the situation will stagnate or backslide if you don't govern by taking the Govern Well action.

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At what rate though?

 

[1986ctcel]

Still not entirely clear here.
Do you mean that there are two scores, one called stress and one called limit. Those two are accumulated via different means, and when the sum of limit + stress is greater than 10 then we limit break?
And we are aware of our stress but not of our limit score?


Sorcery is a second rate semi clone of what odyssial could already do via his exalt workings. And when we learn it we would actually be channeling odyssials experience in bludgeoning reality into shape he wants by creating pseudo sorcery that doesn't actually work for others and is unnecessary hand-waving in order to do what we do. Its effect would be for uly to grab hold of ody's reality bending earlier in his development, but at a cost to their quality.

Now, if we could learn actual sorcery and properly differentiate it from what we do, that would be nice.
Or we can organize mortal/DB sorcerers without learning it ourselves

Click to shrink...

No if we get a certain amount of Stress then we get a point of Limit which can also be gained by other means such as going against Major or Defining Intimacies. If we get to 10 Limit and a suitably dramatic time comes along then we'll Limit Break.

 

[mrttao]

No if we get a certain amount of Stress then we get a point of Limit which can also be gained by other means such as going against Major or Defining Intimacies. If we get to 10 Limit and a suitably dramatic time comes along then we'll Limit Break.

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So, does that mean there is a risk of the intentional attempt to accrue limit to liimt break on the traitors could backfire by giving us a point of limit... but not being enough to get us to actually limit break?

Also, I am already shuddering to think of how people will take it when we go all vlad the impaler on the visirs. We will make moon cry

 

[meianmaru]

I found a spell that might be quite useful and good for our PR: "Summon Elemental", which would be better named as "Create Elemental" as it allows for the creation of up to E3 Elemental out of nothing, which will be bound to the sorcerer for a year and a day or to do a certain task, just like Summon Demon of the First Circle. They dissipate after this, unless the GM deems that they have developed sufficient personality to exist even without the sorcerer's will. The ritual can be done only once a day, but in return can be cast in only four hours! Very useful for creating filler for our lack of DBs.

I admit (again) that my Exalted lore is somewhat spotty, but the Elementals are closely related to the Elemental Dragons whom the Dragon-Blooded venerate. Not only that, the spell itself can be done by communicating with those same Dragons (or by concentrating on elemental icons, etc.) and communing with them. Not sure if heresy according by the Immaculate Order, but it is probably much less disturbing to the common folk when compared to demon summoning.

And the best of all? It doesn't eat up any XP like the Workings do, sharing that part of mechanics with demon summoning spells.

EDIT: Forgot to explicitly mention that its also only a Terrestrial Circle spell, so no obvious "only the Solars can do that" -danger.

 

[wingstrike96]

[X] Thaumaturgical Explorations
[X] Consolidate Power
[X] Upon the Crown

 

[Diller]

Sorcery is a second rate semi clone of what odyssial could already do via his exalt workings. And when we learn it we would actually be channeling odyssials experience in bludgeoning reality into shape he wants by creating pseudo sorcery that doesn't actually work for others and is unnecessary hand-waving in order to do what we do. Its effect would be for uly to grab hold of ody's reality bending earlier in his development, but at a cost to their quality.

Now, if we could learn actual sorcery and properly differentiate it from what we do, that would be nice.
Or we can organize mortal/DB sorcerers without learning it ourselves

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Honestly, the downsides are barely significant compared to the TITANIC personal power boost of getting Solar Circle Sorcery. You would be one of like, ~3 Solar Circle Sorcerers in the entire world. Literally the third Solar Circle Sorcerer in the entire Creation.

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See that. We would be 3rd SCS on all of creation.

You're presently at 420,000 Normal and 472,000 Solar XP, though the Charms Flash-bought in preparation for the Lily reduce that to 260,000 Normal XP. Since Solar Circle Sorcery requires 240,000 (50 + 50 + 100 + 40) Normal and 70,000 (30 + 40) Solar XP to get, you have enough XP to get SCS.

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We have a little more than enough normal XP to get SCS. We have no clue what could happen next update so people might want to spend XP on other things meaning we wouldn't have the XP to get all 3 circles at once.

Ayala isn't a solar circle Sorceror and won't be for months. Even then her workings would take so long that we wouldn't be able to get the best benefits.

Ayala's not Solar Circle yet, she's got a few months to go!

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Ayala can't do Solar Circle Workings without taking around a year's time, though. That rules out all of the best effects, pretty much. Also, she wouldn't consent to do a Solar Circle Working for you without a huge and guaranteed favor.!

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Yes the workings will take time but the sooner we get the sooner we ca

Oh and if Anys sends the realm after us or reveals us when she comes after us we're going to want SCS.

To be fair, you and the Lily combined, at E5 with Solar Circle Sorcery and Zao's help, plus a boosted Wake the Sleeper on her armor, would indeed be able to put up a very redoubtable resistance to Realm invasion. I'm not even sure if five Legions could break that, and the Realm would be hard pressed to mobilize five full-strength Legions given that it only has 40 to police and garrison the entire Blessed Isle and Threshold Satrapies.

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In order to get the most out of Sorcery, we're going to have to learn it ourselves.

 

[Rihaku]

Ayala isn't a solar circle Sorceror and won't be for months. Even then her workings would take so long that we wouldn't be able to get the benefits.

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Once she gets Solar Circle Sorcery, she can do Solar Workings in a month - two, just like you.

Celestial Circle Sorcerers can perform Solar Sorcery, it's just that their interval is three months instead of one week. So it takes twelve times longer.

 

[Algalon]

[X] Thaumaturgical Explorations
[X] Consolidate Power
[X] Upon the Crown


We postponed sorcery for long enough. Time to get it. If we don't, then we'll never get around to doing it, as we'd constantly run into other, very important, options or shinies.

 

[Diller]

So, does that mean there is a risk of the intentional attempt to accrue limit to liimt break on the traitors could backfire by giving us a point of limit... but not being enough to get us to actually limit break?

Also, I am already shuddering to think of how people will take it when we go all vlad the impaler on the visirs. We will make moon cry

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Better her crying at the aftermath then her seeing us in limit break and/or getting potentially hurt by us in Limit Break.

Hm. I think you guys really should consider Limit Breaking here. Unless you like The Lily more than, say, Moon, Nilul, or Pearl - not to say that you'll necessarily hurt any of your closest friends during your next Limit Break, but it's a real possibility.

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I don't know about you but I really don't want to even RISK the chance of us hurting our friends in limit break. Especially since Lily won't be nearby to mitigate it.

The Lily will not be hanging around Luseng, and will neither openly constrain your range of actions nor be able to stop you if you Limit Break.

Click to shrink...

 

[mrttao]

See that. We would be 3rd SCS on all of creation.

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And yet, this did not counter anything I said.
We would still be getting a second rate copy of odyssials ability to reshape reality, being filtered through a pseudo sorcery filter, thus diminishing it
We will be getting said power much earlier than normal development of uly, but at the cost of introduction unnecessary hand waving to them and reducing their efficiency.

we would also be unable to properly use those powers without outing ourself as anathema. Which means we should prioritize solving the immaculate faith problem first before going after said sorcery. Since solving the issue of the immaculate faith immediately benefits us (can openly recruit solaroids to have DBs and solaroids fighting side by side)