Salty
Shadow Cabal Assumptor Supreme
- Location
- Sun, Moon, Talia
- Pronouns
- I/Me
And I suppose it's just coincidence that his name is an imperfect anagram of "media"?
General Exalted Thread
... yes. Yes, it is just a coincidence. You might have a case if it was a perfect anagram, but... yes. It's a coincidence.
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
whoops
Pretty darned cool though. The sort of thing I might use to recommend Exalted to people.
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
Okay, what happened? What's so bad about the Return of the Scarlet Empress?
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Literally everything.
I want to write something up, but instead I'll summon someone who can phrase it better, and has done so before:
@Aleph I summon thee!
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Do you know anything about RotSE? If you don't we could be here all evening
notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
Well there's that part where some subset of the Infernals manage to successfully ambush and kill all the Sidereals at once...
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Or that part where Infernals act like suicidal mooks...
Or the bit where the grand plan to kill the Sidereals relies on Sidereals forgetting they have Duck Fate and Avoidance Kata.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Or the bit where there are supposedly Akuma that know Adamant Circle Sorcery numbering in the double digits.
Dynamesmouse
Bzzzzzz
Or the Bit where the Scarlet Empress sold her soul to The Ebon Dragon.
A lot of hamfisted 'reveals,' like Ophilis Ses the lone Snakeman Solar Exalt being outed as a secret Infernal plant, or literally everyone being handed idiot balls up-to and including an Infernal diplomatic delegation being invited into Autochthonia and somehow never being subject to any high-level security checks which would detect their Yozi-nature despite shacking up in a city-form Elder Alchemical.
Its a total shitshow from start to finish, no one comes out of it looking good, not even the PC party.
notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
And the part where they decided that sending the First and Forsaken Lion to 1v1 the Sun was a good tactic...
"Fite me you shiney fuck!" - FaFL, probably.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Or that part where a bunch of Infernals totally solo the Sun inside Yu-Shan, not even taking into account the six other Incarnae in the same room.
Well see the trick was that they gathered all the Sidereals in one place and so their Great Curse made them all herp the derp.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I do like one thing about the Autochthonia part though. The fact that the book points out that the Infernals and their Charms don't really sway any Autochthonian mortals to their cause because the Patropolis can just go "sigh not again" and help the mortals with it's Charms,
Though granted, the correct Autochthonian response after the first time the Patropolis would have to do this would be an Alchemical death squad that murdered the Infernals in their sleep but still.
Naturally, because Sidereals are idiots that lose any kind of intelligence when they so much as dare think of making a plan together in larger groups than five.
Which is of course why the Sidereals of the First Age lobbied that the size of a Circle be standardized to five and that exceeding this would require paying a fine.
Darmani
Cast in the name of Pod, Ye Go Ninty
- Location
- Lansing
I love that when a super hax group of even MORE high priority winners (backed by a group that in their own book was stymying and confusing the Sidereals and that they had NO intel on) ganks them people go NO WAI
But that being the standard operating mode to the point you have to actively assure it won't happen if the players are nice to their God ST and his Ten Commandents, the Social Contract, that's fine.
Really the irony/fate of it makes too much sense for a book about the demons of hell and their disorder coming to heaven to take their last defenders (I also note killing the UCS obviously a nonissue)
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Infernals + Akuma attack:
Infernals THE NEFARIOUS FORCES OF EVIL: "WE ARE ATTACKING YOU!"
Sidereals: "No you're not. Duck Fate, Avoidance Kata."
TNFOE: "BUT WE HAVE A SPELL THAT BREAKS PRIMACY OF DEFENSE OVER IT'S KNEE NEENER NEENER!"
You can totally do a situation where the Infernals murder some Sidereals, but the Sidereals possess a Charmset that make them incredibly good at being shadowy masters and leaders of conspiracies, making them really good at running away to approach a problem from another side. If you want to fight the Sidereals, you'll need to whittle them down and hurt them by hurting their assets in Creation instead of trying for badly written dramatic irony that doesn't actually work.
I believe that @Aleph and @EarthScorpion have made very long posts about this before.
Sidereals: "No you're not. Duck Fate, Avoidance Kata."
TNFOE: "BUT WE HAVE A SPELL THAT BREAKS PRIMACY OF DEFENSE OVER IT'S KNEE NEENER NEENER!"
You can totally do a situation where the Infernals murder some Sidereals, but the Sidereals possess a Charmset that make them incredibly good at being shadowy masters and leaders of conspiracies, making them really good at running away to approach a problem from another side. If you want to fight the Sidereals, you'll need to whittle them down and hurt them by hurting their assets in Creation instead of trying for badly written dramatic irony that doesn't actually work.
I believe that @Aleph and @EarthScorpion have made very long posts about this before.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
If you're seriously going to do an apocalyptic Creation takeover scenario and need the Sidereals out of the way, don't contrive some dumb way to kill them all at once.
Have the coordinated attack be against their assets, their contact networks, their bases. Maybe you're invading Heaven, or sabotaging the Gates, or causing some kind of wall between worlds somehow. You destroy the ability of Sidereals to act as one unified body with worldwide intel, and suddenly Sidereals are playing in a different genre, the burn-notice spy thriller where everyone is scattered across the world and they don't know who to trust.
That's new gameplay. That's giving Sid players a cool scenario to play in rather than shafting them for whichever splat is the new hotness today.
Also yes, the Sidereals are so elusive as people and organization that "taking over Heaven" is the prerequisite to destroy their organization, rather than the other way around. Another thing RotSE got wrong.
Have the coordinated attack be against their assets, their contact networks, their bases. Maybe you're invading Heaven, or sabotaging the Gates, or causing some kind of wall between worlds somehow. You destroy the ability of Sidereals to act as one unified body with worldwide intel, and suddenly Sidereals are playing in a different genre, the burn-notice spy thriller where everyone is scattered across the world and they don't know who to trust.
That's new gameplay. That's giving Sid players a cool scenario to play in rather than shafting them for whichever splat is the new hotness today.
Also yes, the Sidereals are so elusive as people and organization that "taking over Heaven" is the prerequisite to destroy their organization, rather than the other way around. Another thing RotSE got wrong.
They'd have to actually get that far, because by-default every single Infernal in existence has something somewhat demonic lurking about them even before Permanent Charms stack more weirdness on there. Which means every single one of them will be wearing some form of magical disguise or another. As soon as someone, anyone, capable of sensing foreign Essence signatures picks up on that, in the suspicious density that an entire crew of Infernals would require, the jig is totally up and the autocrossbows come out.
Walking in the front door like you own the place is the most incompetent plan in the world for any Infernal incursion attempt, but somehow the defenders are even more buffoonish than that.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Like, imagine this:
Some Third Circle: "Okay, you are Infernals, we want you to go make a suicidal attack on Heaven on a force about the size of 90-100 Exalted, some of these were alive back during the First Age, and most of them are able to hold their own in combat, they have a monopoly on the most deadly fighting styles in existence and their leader can kill everyone in the same room as him by moving his hand. They are more experienced than you, they have more backing than you, most of them are sorcerers or martial artists and you are assaulting them on home ground.
Without backup."
Infernals: "lol"
Some Third Circle: "Okay, you are Infernals, we want you to go make a suicidal attack on Heaven on a force about the size of 90-100 Exalted, some of these were alive back during the First Age, and most of them are able to hold their own in combat, they have a monopoly on the most deadly fighting styles in existence and their leader can kill everyone in the same room as him by moving his hand. They are more experienced than you, they have more backing than you, most of them are sorcerers or martial artists and you are assaulting them on home ground.
Without backup."
Infernals: "lol"
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, keep in mind that RotSE is an official 2e products, so it uses canon Infernals. That this wouldn't make any sense for any sensible depiction of Infernals doesn't matter, since these Infernals were never sensible
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, keep in mind that RotSE is an official 2e products, so it uses canon Infernals. That this wouldn't make any sense for any sensible depiction of Infernals doesn't matter, since these Infernals were never sensible
Oh right I get that.
But why don't they get murdered casually? I mean, the Sidereals don't strictly need to go "we were never here", when they sit on literally every advantage that they could want to sit on.
notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
Sidereals may be arguably the weakest combatants among the Celestials, but remember that a) they outnumber Infernals twice over, and b) they have numerous Elders using Scroll of the Monk SMA.