- Location
- Somewhere
Lealope
Not yet invincible
- Pronouns
- She/Her
They're pretty much just Imperators, but on the side of the Excrucians.
(Like Lord Entropy/coff)
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- Location
- Somewhere
What's an Imperator?
Parabola
Divided Loyalties Librarian
- Location
- The Destination of Fate
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Also a viable option! And really, like a friend of mine says, it's really just that, but we give them names like Agony or such because it makes for a good shorthand. Excrucians are just cheatsy like that.
An Imperator is a being at the highest level of reality - a god of the highest kind, to put it simply. All Imperators are in charge of (or represent) some Estates - they have, given enough time, masterful control over them, because in a sense they are those things.
They are split into seven types, each of them its own bag of worms: Angels (of both the winged and biblical kind; they hold beauty as the highest principle), Fallen Angels (same, but they revere love above all things - this led them to rebel), True Gods (alien, primordial deities intertwined with the intrinsic nature of the world), Aaron's Serpents (really fucking big snakes born from Yggdrasil, really peaceful), Lightlords (the representation of human survival and life), Darklords (the representation of human expression and freedom), and Wildlords (alien beings from beyond Creation that express absolute egocentricity and justice).
They're a complicated bunch. To elaborate on what runeblue's said, a Mimic is basically what happens when you take an Imperator, empty it out, and replace its true essence with false Estates. Inside of every Mimic is a Blasphemy of some sort - a deep and dark secret thing that expresses itself as an Imperial Miracle when they run out of Divine Health Levels (see the Mechanics post). Specifically, as an IM that unleashes something unspeakably terrible. It's... bad for everyone involved, really.
What this means in practice is that Mimics are deep cover agents (or sleeper agents, if you're more familiar with that term). They're on the side of Excrucians, but aside from this behave in all ways as Imperators. It'd be difficult to play as a Mimic because Imperators in general work on a simply different level of reality.
Anyway, since I've already talked about Deceivers and Warmains, I may as well speak of Strategists to even their odds.
As I previously mentioned, Strategists have Aspect and Treasure.
They do not have other stats, and they don't need to either, for they possess a weapon of unimaginable, endless power: The World-Breaker's Hand. It destroys things. That's it. In the short term, in a local area, it can allow them to destroy anything. Things, people's lives, or their deaths. Ideas, emotions. Someone's anger at you, the sound your feet make when walking, the brightness in a child's eyes. Poison running through your veins. Someone's quality of being your friend. Anything and everything you wish to destroy, it goes away.
It's a miraculous Gift so ridiculously powerful and versatile, that its cost would be enough to fully max out a single stat of another creature. Strategists get it for free because they're just the kind of beings that hate the world so badly, and because they're cursed. Strategists are driven from the world - the more they stay in it, the more it hurts them and creates disadvantages for them - we call this their Curse or Death. A given Strategist might be dying of old age, or bad luck, lost faith, or whatever. It makes their existence generally bad.
They are also particularly fragile, in a sense. Whenever they lose a Health Level, they lose an MP. And when they run out of MP, they lose the energy that preserves them in reality, forcibly returning to the Lands Beyond Creation. And when they've managed to recover from that, only then they are able to return to Creation, usually to find many setbacks and people more wary of them.
You all probably know Tsukihime and Shiki's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, right? It's exactly like that. I'd even say the other way around - it's Shiki that has this powerful ability, with the associated Curse that drives him from the world and makes his life suffering.
They do not have other stats, and they don't need to either, for they possess a weapon of unimaginable, endless power: The World-Breaker's Hand. It destroys things. That's it. In the short term, in a local area, it can allow them to destroy anything. Things, people's lives, or their deaths. Ideas, emotions. Someone's anger at you, the sound your feet make when walking, the brightness in a child's eyes. Poison running through your veins. Someone's quality of being your friend. Anything and everything you wish to destroy, it goes away.
It's a miraculous Gift so ridiculously powerful and versatile, that its cost would be enough to fully max out a single stat of another creature. Strategists get it for free because they're just the kind of beings that hate the world so badly, and because they're cursed. Strategists are driven from the world - the more they stay in it, the more it hurts them and creates disadvantages for them - we call this their Curse or Death. A given Strategist might be dying of old age, or bad luck, lost faith, or whatever. It makes their existence generally bad.
They are also particularly fragile, in a sense. Whenever they lose a Health Level, they lose an MP. And when they run out of MP, they lose the energy that preserves them in reality, forcibly returning to the Lands Beyond Creation. And when they've managed to recover from that, only then they are able to return to Creation, usually to find many setbacks and people more wary of them.
You all probably know Tsukihime and Shiki's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, right? It's exactly like that. I'd even say the other way around - it's Shiki that has this powerful ability, with the associated Curse that drives him from the world and makes his life suffering.
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Finally, a Nobilis quest. Yay!
[x] A Deceiver - Deceivers are the cunning and fabulous agents of the Excrucians - they who believe the world as a whole is a lie, but love the truth underneath. They twist Creation against itself to break it, creating contradictions and lies to tear it at its seams.
I wonder if Jenna's ever going to release a Strategist or Warmain book.
[x] A Deceiver - Deceivers are the cunning and fabulous agents of the Excrucians - they who believe the world as a whole is a lie, but love the truth underneath. They twist Creation against itself to break it, creating contradictions and lies to tear it at its seams.
I wonder if Jenna's ever going to release a Strategist or Warmain book.
She's planning on it! A bunch of other stuff is coming first, I think.
Edit: Actually, given the timeframe of this interview she might be working on the Warmain book right now! Magical Bears in the Context of Contemporary Political Theory did just come out.
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- Location
- United States
[x] A Strategist, tainted with wickedness and poisoned by the world, with unfortunate tendencies to miss important things while we're out vacationing in the metaphorical tropics, possibly with an aesthetically modded World-Breaker's Hand for that extra touch.
[x] A Deceiver - Deceivers are the cunning and fabulous agents of the Excrucians - they who believe the world as a whole is a lie, but love the truth underneath. They twist Creation against itself to break it, creating contradictions and lies to tear it at its seams.
I read the Deceiver book so I'm more confident in choosing that.
Ah, Nobilis be nice to finally see a game in action.
I always get Estate and Persona mixed up.
Excrucians are an fascinating bunch, its interesting to note from the lore in the book that some of them are friends with Nobles.
They're not all "Everything must cease!"
Some would likely spend a fair amount of time trying to convince you why "Everything should cease." while helping you change a tire or accompanying you to the movies.
I read the Deceiver book so I'm more confident in choosing that.
Ah, Nobilis be nice to finally see a game in action.
I always get Estate and Persona mixed up.
Excrucians are an fascinating bunch, its interesting to note from the lore in the book that some of them are friends with Nobles.
They're not all "Everything must cease!"
Some would likely spend a fair amount of time trying to convince you why "Everything should cease." while helping you change a tire or accompanying you to the movies.
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- Location
- United States
There are some that could run some terrifyingly effective blogs, in my experience.
[x] A Deceiver - Deceivers are the cunning and fabulous agents of the Excrucians - they who believe the world as a whole is a lie, but love the truth underneath. They twist Creation against itself to break it, creating contradictions and lies to tear it at its seams.
Or trying to get a date with you.
Character Creation (2)
Parabola
Divided Loyalties Librarian
- Location
- The Destination of Fate
- Pronouns
- She/Her
That's right, you're a Deceiver - a messenger of the void to end reality, a card-carrying villain out to end the world's lies, to reveal the True Thing beneath. This is what you are. Reality is full of holes, approximations, contradictions. It's a lie, no way around it. We could speak without end about the world's internal flaws and why it we shall end it, but...
None of these things necessarily mean that you absolutely hate the world, however. Even among Deceivers there are many differences between themselves. Particularly in dealing with this world that opposes you, and its inhabitants.
So tell me, what is your demeanor? Your attitude in general, towards those of Creation? Are you...
[] Elemental and Untroubled - You don't take it personally. You're like still water, or like a burning fire. Light as the wind, or unstoppable like the face of death. You don't apologize. The hawk does not get angry at the rabbit for running away, and the sniper does not resent the other side for also having guns. So neither will you get perturbed as they fight you.
- [] (Write-in) What role do you assume for yourself?
[] Uncoiling, Hunting, the Storm Arising - You're something stirring in the depths, only just starting your terrible ascent. You're a legend in the making, an unstoppable power. Do you plan to shatter continents and worlds, or swallow Imperators whole? Whatever it is, it's only just starting, and when you are done, you will catch the world in your storm.
- [] (Write-in) What is your plan?
[] So Full of Feelings for Them - Look at them. They fight so hard, and for what? For being trapped in hell. For the chains around their necks. For their suffering and pains they'll fight with all their might. How could you not love that, even a little? So you respect them. Maybe not really? But at least you're sincere about trying.
- [] (Write-in) In what way do you care about your enemies?
[] All About the Crazy Mind Games - You're all about the world being a lie. You're a radical skeptic, a sincere Buddhist; a post-modernist critic or a transformational leader. It's not about any moral or military argument. You make up logical puzzles, raise unanswered questions, and explore that which cannot be explained, particularly when problems arise from something and not from nothing.
- [] (Write-in) What is your take on reality being a lie?
None of these things necessarily mean that you absolutely hate the world, however. Even among Deceivers there are many differences between themselves. Particularly in dealing with this world that opposes you, and its inhabitants.
So tell me, what is your demeanor? Your attitude in general, towards those of Creation? Are you...
[] Elemental and Untroubled - You don't take it personally. You're like still water, or like a burning fire. Light as the wind, or unstoppable like the face of death. You don't apologize. The hawk does not get angry at the rabbit for running away, and the sniper does not resent the other side for also having guns. So neither will you get perturbed as they fight you.
- [] (Write-in) What role do you assume for yourself?
[] Uncoiling, Hunting, the Storm Arising - You're something stirring in the depths, only just starting your terrible ascent. You're a legend in the making, an unstoppable power. Do you plan to shatter continents and worlds, or swallow Imperators whole? Whatever it is, it's only just starting, and when you are done, you will catch the world in your storm.
- [] (Write-in) What is your plan?
[] So Full of Feelings for Them - Look at them. They fight so hard, and for what? For being trapped in hell. For the chains around their necks. For their suffering and pains they'll fight with all their might. How could you not love that, even a little? So you respect them. Maybe not really? But at least you're sincere about trying.
- [] (Write-in) In what way do you care about your enemies?
[] All About the Crazy Mind Games - You're all about the world being a lie. You're a radical skeptic, a sincere Buddhist; a post-modernist critic or a transformational leader. It's not about any moral or military argument. You make up logical puzzles, raise unanswered questions, and explore that which cannot be explained, particularly when problems arise from something and not from nothing.
- [] (Write-in) What is your take on reality being a lie?
Deceivers win by a few votes over Strategists! Could have gone either way.
Given that there's a whole book out on Deceivers, I'm basically going over a simplified version of character creation. After this vote will be probably the most important part of the whole process: choosing our Pseudo-Estate.
Given that there's a whole book out on Deceivers, I'm basically going over a simplified version of character creation. After this vote will be probably the most important part of the whole process: choosing our Pseudo-Estate.
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[X] So Full of Feelings for Them - Look at them. They fight so hard, and for what? For being trapped in hell. For the chains around their necks. For their suffering and pains they'll fight with all their might. How could you not love that, even a little? So you respect them. Maybe not really? But at least you're sincere about trying. In what way do you care about your enemies?
"Perhaps it is your flesh the inhibits you from accepting the truth? Or is it your hope, your love... your mind? How much must I take away before you to finally understand?"
Excrucians are the ultimate Yandere.
"Perhaps it is your flesh the inhibits you from accepting the truth? Or is it your hope, your love... your mind? How much must I take away before you to finally understand?"
Excrucians are the ultimate Yandere.
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[X] All About the Crazy Mind Games
-[X] Everything is socially constructed based on relational context. Everything. Creation is like two mirrors pointed at each other, and you're the one to drop a candle in-between, so that all may realize the structure of the trap.
Parabola, you might want to explain the Prosaic/Mythic divide so we can acknowledge that fake things like physics are even faker than most other things.
-[X] Everything is socially constructed based on relational context. Everything. Creation is like two mirrors pointed at each other, and you're the one to drop a candle in-between, so that all may realize the structure of the trap.
Parabola, you might want to explain the Prosaic/Mythic divide so we can acknowledge that fake things like physics are even faker than most other things.
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[X] So Full of Feelings for Them - Look at them. They fight so hard, and for what? For being trapped in hell. For the chains around their necks. For their suffering and pains they'll fight with all their might. How could you not love that, even a little? So you respect them. Maybe not really? But at least you're sincere about trying. In what way do you care about your enemies?
Lealope
Not yet invincible
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] So Full of Feelings for Them - Look at them. They fight so hard, and for what? For being trapped in hell. For the chains around their necks. For their suffering and pains they'll fight with all their might. How could you not love that, even a little? So you respect them. Maybe not really? But at least you're sincere about trying. In what way do you care about your enemies?
-[X] You love them deeply and truly. You love them all, even when they hurt you. You know that, once you've torn away all the horrid lies and corruption that riddles them from that wicked world, they'll love you too. You'll save them, no matter what they do.
-[X] You love them deeply and truly. You love them all, even when they hurt you. You know that, once you've torn away all the horrid lies and corruption that riddles them from that wicked world, they'll love you too. You'll save them, no matter what they do.
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Parabola
Divided Loyalties Librarian
- Location
- The Destination of Fate
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A very good point.
We shall now tell a story about how the ordinary world came to be. The world of Nobilis is one of absolute fantasy, an animistic world where all things have an individual spirit and will of their own, from your car to your shadow, sunlight. Whatever. This is known as the Mythic World, and it lives up to its name.
But once upon a time, the angel Za'afiel was exiled to Earth. This was back in the day of the dinosaurs, before Adam and Eve moved there. Za'afiel tried to understand the beauty of the planet, he really did, but it was futile for him. For a being that had spent all its existence in Heaven, the Brightest Realm, it was just too ugly for him. And he had been growing frustrated, when, well, a peaceful herbivore decided to do a natural biological function near or on him.
So Za'afiel smote the Earth in rage, and rained down fire and calamity upon the dinosaurs. The Earth, hurt deeply by this in its living spirit, tried to defend itself instinctively. It made up a fantasy of an ordinary world, one without magic and miracles, without talking beasts or karma, one that cannot deserve K/T extinction events, because 'there's no such thing as deserving'. It made up our world, and it keeps us sane. Known as the Prosaic World, it tells us of science and physics, of the alignment of the stars, of the beginning of the world due to the Big Bang. But it's a lie, really. It's real in a sense, but it's a lie superimposed over the truth of the Mythic reality.
The model of the Prosaic Reality is constantly maintained whenever someone does a miracle in the world - this was easy thousands of years ago, but as the model grew more complex, it became more difficult to keep consistent. Nowadays, if you show an innocent mortal a direct miracle, they'll go mad from the revelation (a syndrome known as dementia animus), because although the Mythic is an accurate perspective of the world for the beings of Creation, it's not a functional one.
From a Deceiver's perspective, the Prosaic world is just extra false, another layer to the all-encompassing Lie. Some of its things like Physics may have Estates, but they only really apply to its world. Outside of the Earth's bubble, they do not really apply unless someone decides to make it so. There might also be some fringe cases in Estates like, say, Gravity.
But once upon a time, the angel Za'afiel was exiled to Earth. This was back in the day of the dinosaurs, before Adam and Eve moved there. Za'afiel tried to understand the beauty of the planet, he really did, but it was futile for him. For a being that had spent all its existence in Heaven, the Brightest Realm, it was just too ugly for him. And he had been growing frustrated, when, well, a peaceful herbivore decided to do a natural biological function near or on him.
So Za'afiel smote the Earth in rage, and rained down fire and calamity upon the dinosaurs. The Earth, hurt deeply by this in its living spirit, tried to defend itself instinctively. It made up a fantasy of an ordinary world, one without magic and miracles, without talking beasts or karma, one that cannot deserve K/T extinction events, because 'there's no such thing as deserving'. It made up our world, and it keeps us sane. Known as the Prosaic World, it tells us of science and physics, of the alignment of the stars, of the beginning of the world due to the Big Bang. But it's a lie, really. It's real in a sense, but it's a lie superimposed over the truth of the Mythic reality.
The model of the Prosaic Reality is constantly maintained whenever someone does a miracle in the world - this was easy thousands of years ago, but as the model grew more complex, it became more difficult to keep consistent. Nowadays, if you show an innocent mortal a direct miracle, they'll go mad from the revelation (a syndrome known as dementia animus), because although the Mythic is an accurate perspective of the world for the beings of Creation, it's not a functional one.
From a Deceiver's perspective, the Prosaic world is just extra false, another layer to the all-encompassing Lie. Some of its things like Physics may have Estates, but they only really apply to its world. Outside of the Earth's bubble, they do not really apply unless someone decides to make it so. There might also be some fringe cases in Estates like, say, Gravity.
It's also worth noting that mortals will rationalize your miracles away.
You can use a miracle to blot out the sun but modern science will just change to support the spontaneous eclipse in the eyes of a mortal.
("Eclipse? Of there's an eclipse today we predicted it years ago!")
I remember the third edition changed it up so that humans suffering dementia animus got transported away and healed in the Locust Court before being put back right where/when they previously were.
You can use a miracle to blot out the sun but modern science will just change to support the spontaneous eclipse in the eyes of a mortal.
("Eclipse? Of there's an eclipse today we predicted it years ago!")
Is that going to be in this one?
I remember the third edition changed it up so that humans suffering dementia animus got transported away and healed in the Locust Court before being put back right where/when they previously were.
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Parabola
Divided Loyalties Librarian
- Location
- The Destination of Fate
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Not always, but sometimes that does happen. And yes, 3e is kinder to mortals in allowing them a method to heal themselves instead of being permanently insane. It's not a perfect system but it works for some.
[X] Elemental and Untroubled - You don't take it personally. You're like still water, or like a burning fire. Light as the wind, or unstoppable like the face of death. You don't apologize. The hawk does not get angry at the rabbit for running away, and the sniper does not resent the other side for also having guns. So neither will you get perturbed as they fight you.
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- Location
- United States
[x] Uncoiling, Hunting, the Storm Arising - You're something stirring in the depths, only just starting your terrible ascent. You're a legend in the making, an unstoppable power. Do you plan to shatter continents and worlds, or swallow Imperators whole? Whatever it is, it's only just starting, and when you are done, you will catch the world in your storm.
We shall be a dread, terrible thing, the coming storm and the navigator of legend. We will set the scene for our glorious reckoning, and yet-
legend has a way of entangling you with the world.
We shall be a dread, terrible thing, the coming storm and the navigator of legend. We will set the scene for our glorious reckoning, and yet-
legend has a way of entangling you with the world.
- Location
- homestuck
[X] So Full of Feelings for Them - Look at them. They fight so hard, and for what? For being trapped in hell. For the chains around their necks. For their suffering and pains they'll fight with all their might. How could you not love that, even a little? So you respect them. Maybe not really? But at least you're sincere about trying. In what way do you care about your enemies?
-[X] You love them deeply and truly. You love them all, even when they hurt you. You know that, once you've torn away all the horrid lies and corruption that riddles them from that wicked world, they'll love you too. You'll save them, no matter what they do.
*enables*
-[X] You love them deeply and truly. You love them all, even when they hurt you. You know that, once you've torn away all the horrid lies and corruption that riddles them from that wicked world, they'll love you too. You'll save them, no matter what they do.
*enables*
[X] So Full of Feelings for Them - Look at them. They fight so hard, and for what? For being trapped in hell. For the chains around their necks. For their suffering and pains they'll fight with all their might. How could you not love that, even a little? So you respect them. Maybe not really? But at least you're sincere about trying. In what way do you care about your enemies?
-[X] You love them deeply and truly. You love them all, even when they hurt you. You know that, once you've torn away all the horrid lies and corruption that riddles them from that wicked world, they'll love you too. You'll save them, no matter what they do.
-[X] You love them deeply and truly. You love them all, even when they hurt you. You know that, once you've torn away all the horrid lies and corruption that riddles them from that wicked world, they'll love you too. You'll save them, no matter what they do.
Moral Pstate Description
Parabola
Divided Loyalties Librarian
- Location
- The Destination of Fate
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You who are a Deceiver, are more than full of feelings for the people of Creation. You love them fully, and you'll fight to set them free, because you know that once you tear apart this bulwark of lies, they'll love you back. At least, that's the plan. But the important thing is, you're here to be a savior of people. Doubtlessly, being emotionally involved might cause some problems in the long run, but that's nothing with someone with the determination to see this through, right? Right.
Now, on to the Pseudo-Estate, possibly the most important part about yourself. For practical purposes, two things define them: their alignment or moral quality, and a functional description. This vote is for the former, in what terms we speak of it: Something good or bad, something created or discovered.
Your Pstate is...
[] A Marvelous Artifice - Your Pstate is something intentionally built. Something you made yourself, probably edging more towards the complicated than the simple; something more intellectual than emotional, likely. It's also something good, or at least described in positive terms. Not a murder, an execution. Not a lie, a story.
[] A Pretty Truth - Your Pstate is something found. Something you encountered or felt. Certainly something more emotional than intellectual, simpler than it is complicated. Something expressed in good terms, too. Something happy and encouraging, like a nice emotion.
[] A Sorrowful Thing - As with A Pretty Truth, your Pstate is something discovered. But as a natural contrast, it is something bad, or at least described in negative terms. Something wicked or regretful, like a dark memory.
[] A Despicable Construction - As with A Marvelous Artifice, your Pstate is something made. But it expresses something dark as well - usually something wicked or wrong. Even if it isn't negative, it might use naturally dubious terminology. Not explanations, but frantic excuses. Not a testimony, but a legal fiction.
We're not going to decide just yet what kind of truth or creation the Pstate will involve just yet, that would just splinter the votes too much. That'll wait until after deciding the Pstate's functional description.
Now, on to the Pseudo-Estate, possibly the most important part about yourself. For practical purposes, two things define them: their alignment or moral quality, and a functional description. This vote is for the former, in what terms we speak of it: Something good or bad, something created or discovered.
Your Pstate is...
[] A Marvelous Artifice - Your Pstate is something intentionally built. Something you made yourself, probably edging more towards the complicated than the simple; something more intellectual than emotional, likely. It's also something good, or at least described in positive terms. Not a murder, an execution. Not a lie, a story.
[] A Pretty Truth - Your Pstate is something found. Something you encountered or felt. Certainly something more emotional than intellectual, simpler than it is complicated. Something expressed in good terms, too. Something happy and encouraging, like a nice emotion.
[] A Sorrowful Thing - As with A Pretty Truth, your Pstate is something discovered. But as a natural contrast, it is something bad, or at least described in negative terms. Something wicked or regretful, like a dark memory.
[] A Despicable Construction - As with A Marvelous Artifice, your Pstate is something made. But it expresses something dark as well - usually something wicked or wrong. Even if it isn't negative, it might use naturally dubious terminology. Not explanations, but frantic excuses. Not a testimony, but a legal fiction.
We're not going to decide just yet what kind of truth or creation the Pstate will involve just yet, that would just splinter the votes too much. That'll wait until after deciding the Pstate's functional description.
[X] A Sorrowful Thing - As with A Pretty Truth, your Pstate is something discovered. But as a natural contrast, it is something bad, or at least described in negative terms. Something wicked or regretful, like a dark memory.