[Exalted] The Dragon's Spite

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[X] Simsa - On the upper slopes of the northern side of the valley, the temple of the Maiden of the Morning, child of the Sun, laid waste to by travellers from the Realm. A goddess of the early hours of the dawn, when all is cool and quiet, forgotten in the burning heat. Said to be gentle, but with a volatile temper she inherited from Lady Sun.

Mutual enemies! Always a good foundation to work with.
 
[X] Simsa - On the upper slopes of the northern side of the valley, the temple of the Maiden of the Morning, child of the Sun, laid waste to by travellers from the Realm. A goddess of the early hours of the dawn, when all is cool and quiet, forgotten in the burning heat. Said to be gentle, but with a volatile temper she inherited from Lady Sun.
 
[X] Simsa - On the upper slopes of the northern side of the valley, the temple of the Maiden of the Morning, child of the Sun, laid waste to by travellers from the Realm. A goddess of the early hours of the dawn, when all is cool and quiet, forgotten in the burning heat. Said to be gentle, but with a volatile temper she inherited from Lady Sun.

The downside here seems pretty straightforward. This goddess is probably going to want to mess with the Realm people within the city. So far our protagonist has just been acting very, very scared when they appeared, so something that pushes her to not just hide should be fun.
This also seems pretty low-maintenance after the initial adventure. Not much convincing will be required to get people to pray to this one, not least among them Rena herself.
 
[X] Simsa - On the upper slopes of the northern side of the valley, the temple of the Maiden of the Morning, child of the Sun, laid waste to by travellers from the Realm. A goddess of the early hours of the dawn, when all is cool and quiet, forgotten in the burning heat. Said to be gentle, but with a volatile temper she inherited from Lady Sun.

I am honestly fine with any except the nameless gods.
 
[X] Lahn - On the southern side of the valley, the airy temple-conservatory of a goddess of music and dance whose sacred bird is the nightingale. Left to wither as a luxury that Cahzor could not afford. Said to be vain, and a dedicated aesthete.
I feel like this god fits us most.
 
Guys, this isn't a long-term alliance where we're necessarily planning on telling them everything. We are looking for a spirit we can use. We are going to be lying to them, just like we're lying to Blue, and stringing them along with their desperation for worship until they become inconvenient or cease to be useful. None of these options are wicked traps or certain doom, they will instead flavour what kind of spells we can Anchor in the Ally rating and how we go about things.
 
[X] Qanun - Down in one of the old business districts, the crystal spires still gleam in the sun but were sealed off. A deity of law and justice, who has no place in modern Cahzor. Said to be strict, and scrupulous in her fairness and adherence to her oaths.
 
[X] Simsa - On the upper slopes of the northern side of the valley, the temple of the Maiden of the Morning, child of the Sun, laid waste to by travellers from the Realm. A goddess of the early hours of the dawn, when all is cool and quiet, forgotten in the burning heat. Said to be gentle, but with a volatile temper she inherited from Lady Sun.

Just seems like the most fun option to me.
 
[X] Simsa - On the upper slopes of the northern side of the valley, the temple of the Maiden of the Morning, child of the Sun, laid waste to by travellers from the Realm. A goddess of the early hours of the dawn, when all is cool and quiet, forgotten in the burning heat. Said to be gentle, but with a volatile temper she inherited from Lady Sun.

All of these sound like they could be great. I am quite tempted by Lahn the Nightingale, but...money. Rena can barely afford to cater to her own expensive tastes, let alone fulfill the demands of a divine diva. Simsa should be lower-maintenance. I suppose the downside to her is that she's going to want revenge against the Realm, but we can work with that. Look at it this way:
Outcome A: Rena and Simsa successfully defeat the Dynasts in the city. The Realm now has no presence in Cahzor and Rena can interrogate them to figure out if people are still chasing her.
Outcome B: Rena and Simsa fail at defeating the Dynasts. Rena can throw Simsa under the bus and let the Dynasts blame her for the whole thing.
 
I am incredibly disappointed in all of the weak-willed cowards who don't even want to investigate forbidden occult secrets and shunned traitorous gods who would get us spurned by the jansi if they found out we were consorting with them.

I mean, guys. Come on. Forbidden occult knowledge and dark malevolent spirits who will get the righteous rulers of the world to murder us if it's found out that we have dealings with them is literally what we care to Cahzor to do. We're already riding a soul-eating fae himbo's dick on the regular! It's not like the Elemi gods are going to get us more in trouble with the Deimo than we already will be in if we're found out! And if you want the "safe" option, consider this: the other three may have people still in contact with them. Very few, but still potentially one or two. Which means people to notice us promising them all kinds of tempting things in return for help plundering Cahzor.

But the Elemi are gone. Nobody but nobody goes to that forbidden old defaced temple now. They're the secret option. The ace up our sleeve that nobody knows we have. And they'll be happy with no money spent on flattery, no assault on powerful Dynasts, no oaths to uphold laws or justice at all. Just revenge on the jansi. The weak, fat, failing jansi who we're already going to have to overthrow anyway in order to take over this pile of slag and turn it into a home worth having.

As someone who's played with him for literally eight years, I can assure you that @EarthScorpion is a malicious tricksy untrustworthy bastard of a GM who will absolutely make "fun" for us if we aren't taking enough risks, or if he gets bored, or if he thinks it will be funny. If we get ourselves into in-genre, in-character trouble by choosing a route like the forbidden gods on the basis that "if they don't want me to go there, that must mean there's something worth investigating!", it means we can control the type of trouble that we're getting into, and see it coming. And believe me, "angry jansi" is a hell of a lot better than "having to ritually murder Dynasts" or the dreadful malevolent unknown of the other two paths.

Consider that before you vote.
 
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[X] Lahn - On the southern side of the valley, the airy temple-conservatory of a goddess of music and dance whose sacred bird is the nightingale. Left to wither as a luxury that Cahzor could not afford. Said to be vain, and a dedicated aesthete.

Both of these say predictable offering desires
 
[x] The Nameless Gods of the Elemi - The family temple of a traitor jansi, defaced and left to rot by the other jansi. Declared damnatio memoraie, and never to be spoken of. But as you see it, no one will expect you to get their help. Whoever they were.
Take the unexpected route, if no one knows who they are, they're that much more valuable as an ally.
 
[x] The Nameless Gods of the Elemi - The family temple of a traitor jansi, defaced and left to rot by the other jansi. Declared damnatio memoraie, and never to be spoken of. But as you see it, no one will expect you to get their help. Whoever they were.

Oh, fine. I was considering Lahn, but I am easily swayed.
 
[x] The Nameless Gods of the Elemi - The family temple of a traitor jansi, defaced and left to rot by the other jansi. Declared damnatio memoraie, and never to be spoken of. But as you see it, no one will expect you to get their help. Whoever they were.


I was considering voting for simsa but what the heck the nameless might provide greater gain.
 
Amused Bystander said:
I was considering voting for simsa but what the heck the nameless might provide greater gain.
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It might. Then again, it might not. @Aleph, much as I do love making her suffer, is not an infallible predictor of my whims.

She's definitely right that going for the nameless gods will result in different challenges than going for "known" ones, but the relative gains might vary depending on how they're used. Legitimacy vs secrecy, making use of the jansi, the fact that having an enemy can make you friends, and so on. All fun-fun.
 
Just to make sure, there is no risk the nameless gods are actually dead/gone or so weak that they can't even power our spell, right?
 
Elero said:
Just to make sure, there is no risk the nameless gods are actually dead/gone or so weak that they can't even power our spell, right?
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There's that risk for all the gods presented here. If you wanted the certainty that the gods were well and powerful, the players should have voted for the other options where they were established to still be around. :p

I mean, that would have come with different sets of problems, but that's life in Cahzor.
 
Imrix said:
it

it outright says it can go a mile up thude

it's pretty clearly not Cirrus Skiff either, just closer to it.
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Sorry for being unclear. I was working from a "either this duck can shapeshift into people, or you're the murderer" sort of... actually, that would be possible with Lunars.

Anyway. I was being sarcastic, and noting the comparative limits of Stormwind Rider. Basically saying the platform is better for anything beyond "skim the ground" and that SWR is only OP for how many people can be brought. It didn't come through well.

EarthScorpion said:
"Not like your tone of voice suggests," Zia says, eyes narrowing slightly. "The books are clear - for my ancestors, Simsa was the goddess of the early dawn, those hours when the sun has risen but it was still cool. She's claimed as the daughter of the sun by a mortal man. Or possibly granddaughter. The genealogy is a little unclear. Regardless, she does not have the cruelty of Lady Sun herself."
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I'm now confused.
They know about the UCS, right? I can understand the desert-people not liking the sun, or having alternate deities as interpreted, but Exalted isn't a place where mortals make up gods, its a place where mortals worship the gods who are there (and who may be raksha or demons). And also, the sun is a battlestation/god-king. I know the solars are regarded as anathema, and sorcery and other things have confused stories, and knowledge of the flames of Malfeas aren't public, and demon summoning is viewed as more dangerous than it is...

But this? This stretches my suspension of disbelief, somehow. If "Lady Sun" is an interpretation of Sol Invictus, ok, but... we've never seen that. At all. So now, I AM CONFUSED.

Aleph said:
I mean, guys. Come on. Forbidden occult knowledge and dark malevolent spirits who will get the righteous rulers of the world to murder us if it's found out that we have dealings with them is literally what we care to Cahzor to do.
...
It's not like the Elemi gods are going to get us more in trouble with the Deimo than we already will be in if we're found out! And if you want the "safe" option, consider this: the other three may have people still in contact with them. Very few, but still potentially one or two. Which means people to notice us promising them all kinds of tempting things in return for help plundering Cahzor.
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I will take your experience with ES into account. "Meira" is still Rena, who showed great interest in the last one in-story.

Of course, this is SV. He might have booby-trapped the mystery option for the lolz.

[ ] Qanun - Down in one of the old business districts, the crystal spires still gleam in the sun but were sealed off. A deity of law and justice, who has no place in modern Cahzor. Said to be strict, and scrupulous in her fairness and adherence to her oaths.
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I like the Crystal Spires, and she'd probably look good as an ally. Plus, she'll hold to her oaths. Definitely Rena's specialty... but she holds to Oaths, not her word. I don't think she'd make oaths of no harm as casually as Blue. And she may hate us for being a soul-eating monster.
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[ ] Simsa - On the upper slopes of the northern side of the valley, the temple of the Maiden of the Morning, child of the Sun, laid waste to by travellers from the Realm. A goddess of the early hours of the dawn, when all is cool and quiet, forgotten in the burning heat. Said to be gentle, but with a volatile temper she inherited from Lady Sun.
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Ehhh... no. Just no. We have fae, we aren't going to a sun-deity.
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[ ] Lahn - On the southern side of the valley, the airy temple-conservatory of a goddess of music and dance whose sacred bird is the nightingale. Left to wither as a luxury that Cahzor could not afford. Said to be vain, and a dedicated aesthete.
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... I know Veekie is voting for this, but why?
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[X] The Nameless Gods of the Elemi - The family temple of a traitor jansi, defaced and left to rot by the other jansi. Declared damnatio memoraie, and never to be spoken of. But as you see it, no one will expect you to get their help. Whoever they were.
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Let's get their help! Plus, Rena was interested IN-STORY in them! That's a go sign! WE CAN GO BACK TO BEING A PROPER (NOT) EVIL SORCERESS! LET'S GO EAT SOULS AND MAKE FOUL PACTS!
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[X] The Nameless Gods of the Elemi - The family temple of a traitor jansi, defaced and left to rot by the other jansi. Declared damnatio memoraie, and never to be spoken of. But as you see it, no one will expect you to get their help. Whoever they were.

I trust @Aleph's instincts on this one.
 
[X] Lahn - On the southern side of the valley, the airy temple-conservatory of a goddess of music and dance whose sacred bird is the nightingale. Left to wither as a luxury that Cahzor could not afford. Said to be vain, and a dedicated aesthete.

Law and justice? nah
Lady who can get very angry? eh
Goddess of dancing and being sexy? YES.
Horrible forbidden secrets? ... maybe.
 
[x] The Nameless Gods of the Elemi - The family temple of a traitor jansi, defaced and left to rot by the other jansi. Declared damnatio memoraie, and never to be spoken of. But as you see it, no one will expect you to get their help. Whoever they were.
 
[x] The Nameless Gods of the Elemi - The family temple of a traitor jansi, defaced and left to rot by the other jansi. Declared damnatio memoraie, and never to be spoken of. But as you see it, no one will expect you to get their help. Whoever they were.
 
boo600 said:
They no about the UCS, right? I can understand the desert-people not liking the sun, or having alternate deities as interpreted, but Exalted isn't a place where mortals make up gods
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The UCS and co are worshipped under many names and appearances. Heck, the UCS has a dragon king form back from when his primary worshippers were dragon kings. Thinking the sun god is female is hardly an incredible divergence. (Or it is an ES thing a d the UCS is actually female because why not).
 
[X] Lahn - On the southern side of the valley, the airy temple-conservatory of a goddess of music and dance whose sacred bird is the nightingale. Left to wither as a luxury that Cahzor could not afford. Said to be vain, and a dedicated aesthete.
 
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