It's so much hard work being the only decent person in the party.
General Exalted Thread
It's so much hard work being the only decent person in the party.
TenfoldShields
Lounging on a Hoard of Words
- Pronouns
- He/Him
excuse you i am a goddamn make-a-wish foundation in human form
i am nothing but decency
HamSandLich
MEAT WIZARD
- Location
- Somewhere in NOVA, possibly, maybe, presumably
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The Court of Pale Jade
Contrary to Realm propaganda, not all dynasts obey the strictures of the Immaculate Texts, especially in this debased era. The intrigues of the Scarlet Dynasty are such that some can linger long after all the conspirators have died. Many of these arrogant and power-hungry shades try to make their way into the gentry of Stygia or the fortresses of the Deathlords. Some manage to find what they seek, but many are ensnared in the schemes of beings far older and more experienced in the art of intrigue than they ever were as living dynasts. The wiser(or less brave) among them know not to make for the Underworld's black heart, but to recreate a dark kingdom of their own.
From illicit funeral offerings, the clandestine prayers of descendants, and their own sacred memory these dynastic shades have built the Court of Pale Jade. It is a palatial complex, a manse-city inspired by the architecture of dynastic estates throughout the Realm's history. Its walls are manned by effigies of Imperial Legionnaires and its corridors tended to by half-sapient memories of servitors. Its sprawling gardens are blanketed in preternatural silence and its archives filled with endless stacks of mouldering silk scrolls. Dynasts serve tea in cups of bone to their many times great-grandmothers and undead patrician bureaucrats share wine with their own assassins. In its opulent halls and hidden rooms, the Courtiers of Pale Jade plot and betray each other as they will, free from the suffocating oversight of the Scarlet Empress.
The Court of Pale Jade has existed in one form or another since the first century of the Scarlet Empress' rule. Its earliest courtiers were the ghosts of bureaucrats and late Shogunate Gens who survived the Contagion but not the subtle purges of the Empress. Later members of the court were drawn from the Great Houses, Patricians, and even peasants. Rank in life does not translate to rank in the Court (though knowledge of etiquette does help); former House Matriarchs have be demoted to minor functionaries while mere slaves have risen to the elite echelons of the court. Demotions in rank are not always punishments either, many a dynastic ghost has found a more fulfilling afterlife as an eccentric court poet or painter rather than one of the undead nobles of the court, adopting the Custom of Masks and renouncing their old identities. New arrivals are a constant source of interest to the members of the Court, every one an influx of news to form the center of a new conspiracy. The newly dead are brought before a tribunal of their elders, who judge them and assign a rank based on their performance and their own whims. After that, they are left to their own devices, often snatched up by one conspiracy or another.
The Courtiers of Pale Jade engage in a strange approximation (some would say parody) of dynastic life. Many cunning dynasts have arranged their own secret funerals years in advance, so the halls of the court brim with grave goods and wealth(though they lack many of the more esoteric goods that can be found throughout the Underworld). They rest on cushions of spidersilk and drink wine brewed from the pomegranates of the Underworld. They conduct ceremonies that are twisted recollections of Realm and Shogunate customs, touched by innovations that the living Dynasty would consider blasphemous or bizarre. Some worship the Dragons as the Antitheses, some out of genuine faith, others as a willing mockery of the Immaculate Order. The powerful among them demand worship from the lesser, while the least of them scheme to rise to the top. Some have exchanged places in a centuries spanning cycle of ascent and downfall. Yawning corridors are filled with tapestries depicting the glories of the Courtiers, triumphs in life and death. Some of their practices, like the Ivory Stave Dance, have long been forgotten by modern dynasts, while others, such as the Feast of Spider Lillies, have drifted so far from their source that they're alien to the living.
Beyond the Court's walls lie rolling hills and farmland, some of it genuinely tended to by the ghosts of peasants and contagion dead, but much of it a facade conjured up by the collective memory of the courtiers. Resembling a mythologized version of the Blessed Isle, the countryside is scenic and engaging, each vista breathtaking and each horror worthy of legend. Courtiers and effigies patrol the idyllic roads more for the experience of lording over peasants than any real business. All in all, the court holds about as much land as an average Realm Dominion, enough to sate the pretensions of the courtiers, who see themselves as the final Great House. Bandits sometimes take up residence in the hills, and the court makes sport of hunting them down, only to release them from its dungeons decades later. The courtiers send expeditions of heroes to bring back treasures and luxuries to the Court, they lack the power to conquer the Underworld as they did with Creation, so they extract token obeisance from minor afterlives. The Courtiers are more concerned with their own intrigues than conquest, so the meagre tribute is enough for them.
The Court is far from monolithic or stagnant, power cliques and cabals influence every major event and many minor ones. The Bloodless Dragon Throne, an osseous reflection of the Imperial Throne, has been held by countless personages: the ghost of one of the Empress' lovers, an outcaste general and her unliving lieutenants, the bastard son of an Immaculate Monk, and a child-shade of murky lineage account for some of the more influential rulers. Some claimants are deposed and devoured, but many abdicate for one reason or another. The ghosts of the court value the throne not for the power behind it but for what it represents, the closest thing to the fulfillment of their living ambitions. Many who have attained the throne immediately decide to move on after their coronation, whether that means submitting to Lethe, going out into the greater Underworld, or simply going Away.
Intrigues and Mysteries
The Court of Pale Jade has been a modest power in the Underworld throughout its existence, strong enough to defend itself from minor threats but too unimportant to attract the attention of larger powers. The Great Houses rarely allow powerful artifacts to be buried with their scions, so the grave goods of the Court are well made but not especially potent. The Immaculate Order heavily censors information on the Underworld, so many dynasts enter the afterlife less prepared and informed than they could be. Stygia other powers are millennia older than the court and hold far more territory and influence. The Court of Pale Jade's primary appeal is the facsimile of dynastic life, meaning it tends to attract shades interested in that niche, turning inward to its intrigues rather than expanding beyond its borders. Despite this, the Time of Tumult has affected the intrigues of the Court greatly. Outcaste officers, executed on trumped up charges, dream of grand military conquests of the lands of the dead. Angry ghosts of the Empress' children await the death of Ragara, eager to savor the ten-thousand heart-cracking horrors they will doubtless inflict upon his soul. Some Iselsi Dead still aid their living relatives in pursuit of revenge. Ghostly kinships quest for in search of the Empress' higher soul, some to elevate her to the Bloodless Dragon Throne, others to have her stand trial for her countless sins against her own blood. With the Immaculate Order as unstable as it is and civil war on the horizon, some courtiers dream of establishing ancestor cults on the Blessed Isle.
Throughout its existence, the Court has maintained a minor heretical cult among the upper classes of the Scarlet Realm, The Citizens of The Pale Jade Palace. The Immaculate Order has cracked down on it many times, but the allure of a lavish afterlife appeals to many patricians and dynasts, so it inevitably survives such purges. The Citizens of the Pale Jade Palace are coordinated by the Courtiers of Pale Jade themselves, so the discovery of one heretic rarely implicates more than a few others. Among the thousand thousand corruptions of the Great Houses and Thousand Scales, the Citizens are easy to miss. Merchants, Patricians, and Dynasts embezzle funds not towards their households, but towards clandestine offerings to the Court of Pale Jade and their own future ghosts.
Though many of the shades of the Court aren't entirely lucid, they still hold lifetimes of experience regarding the Realm and the Scarlet Dynasty. Enterprising individuals can find secrets that the Dynasts took to their graves, such as the locations of hidden weapon caches and manses, compromising information on living Dynasts, and insights into the obscure mechanisms of the Great Houses, the Thousand Scales, and Immaculate Order. Many come from now fallen Great Houses, and are privy to knowledge that can no longer be found in Creation.
Carnelian Dragonfly, a powerful courtier, has discovered a route in the Labyrinth leading to a wing of the Imperial Palace. Brave courtiers sometimes venture into the wing, to meddle in the intrigues of the living or simply to observe. A betting pool has formed around predicting the assassination of imperial officials, with some ghosts taking steps to ensure that their bet pays off.
In this inauspicious time, fear breeds heresy and fanaticism. The Shepherds of Sextes Jylis, an extremist clique in the Immaculate Order, have made it their business to not only admonish ghosts in Creation, but in the Underworld itself. They venture forth into minor shadowlands to deliver violent invective upon the undead, heedless(or rather, ignorant) of the dangers that lie deeper within the Underworld. Among their targets are the shades of the Court of Pale Jade, for their very existence offends the Perfected Hierarchy.
The Shattered Skull Sisterhood, a clique of militant Tepet ghosts, has received an influx of new members following the Battle of Futile Blood. They pull strings to launch incursions at Icewalker tribes from the North's many shadowlands, while the ghosts of Cathak and Sesus descent take precautions against the slain soldiers' retribution.
The Slender Ledgers, a cabal of bureaucrats, have discovered a hidden vault in a wing of the palace. Entombed within were several perfectly preserved corpses, coveted vessels for nemissaries. The Ledgers now jockey among themselves for access to the vessels, for they possess strange powers when worn and provide such detailed sensation that they almost feel like being alive again.
The Court has long been acquainted with the chernozem. The Chosen of the Dark Mother often serve as messengers for the court or as outright agents in the lands of the living. Allied Liminals can make use of the Court's modest influence throughout the underworld, so long as they do the Courtiers' bidding. Some have greatly affected the history of the court, acting as champions and executioners. A Breath Aspect Liminal, Duke Xiyou, even holds the position of Captain of the Northern Palace Guard. The Duke gives his aid to younger Liminals, loaning out effigies and artifacts in service of the Dark Mother.
The courtiers have recently heard tell of the Deathknights. Ancient shikari and glory-hounds venture forth from the Court's palace-complex to challenge the Lawgivers of the Abyss, while perfumed socialites seek to curry favor with the Abyssals and their Deathlord masters. The Ledaal Dead are desperate to tell their living relatives of their discoveries regarding the Chosen of the Inverse Sun, but they fear the Shadow Crusade, knowing firsthand how the house deals with blasphemies such as them.
Contrary to Realm propaganda, not all dynasts obey the strictures of the Immaculate Texts, especially in this debased era. The intrigues of the Scarlet Dynasty are such that some can linger long after all the conspirators have died. Many of these arrogant and power-hungry shades try to make their way into the gentry of Stygia or the fortresses of the Deathlords. Some manage to find what they seek, but many are ensnared in the schemes of beings far older and more experienced in the art of intrigue than they ever were as living dynasts. The wiser(or less brave) among them know not to make for the Underworld's black heart, but to recreate a dark kingdom of their own.
From illicit funeral offerings, the clandestine prayers of descendants, and their own sacred memory these dynastic shades have built the Court of Pale Jade. It is a palatial complex, a manse-city inspired by the architecture of dynastic estates throughout the Realm's history. Its walls are manned by effigies of Imperial Legionnaires and its corridors tended to by half-sapient memories of servitors. Its sprawling gardens are blanketed in preternatural silence and its archives filled with endless stacks of mouldering silk scrolls. Dynasts serve tea in cups of bone to their many times great-grandmothers and undead patrician bureaucrats share wine with their own assassins. In its opulent halls and hidden rooms, the Courtiers of Pale Jade plot and betray each other as they will, free from the suffocating oversight of the Scarlet Empress.
The Court of Pale Jade has existed in one form or another since the first century of the Scarlet Empress' rule. Its earliest courtiers were the ghosts of bureaucrats and late Shogunate Gens who survived the Contagion but not the subtle purges of the Empress. Later members of the court were drawn from the Great Houses, Patricians, and even peasants. Rank in life does not translate to rank in the Court (though knowledge of etiquette does help); former House Matriarchs have be demoted to minor functionaries while mere slaves have risen to the elite echelons of the court. Demotions in rank are not always punishments either, many a dynastic ghost has found a more fulfilling afterlife as an eccentric court poet or painter rather than one of the undead nobles of the court, adopting the Custom of Masks and renouncing their old identities. New arrivals are a constant source of interest to the members of the Court, every one an influx of news to form the center of a new conspiracy. The newly dead are brought before a tribunal of their elders, who judge them and assign a rank based on their performance and their own whims. After that, they are left to their own devices, often snatched up by one conspiracy or another.
The Courtiers of Pale Jade engage in a strange approximation (some would say parody) of dynastic life. Many cunning dynasts have arranged their own secret funerals years in advance, so the halls of the court brim with grave goods and wealth(though they lack many of the more esoteric goods that can be found throughout the Underworld). They rest on cushions of spidersilk and drink wine brewed from the pomegranates of the Underworld. They conduct ceremonies that are twisted recollections of Realm and Shogunate customs, touched by innovations that the living Dynasty would consider blasphemous or bizarre. Some worship the Dragons as the Antitheses, some out of genuine faith, others as a willing mockery of the Immaculate Order. The powerful among them demand worship from the lesser, while the least of them scheme to rise to the top. Some have exchanged places in a centuries spanning cycle of ascent and downfall. Yawning corridors are filled with tapestries depicting the glories of the Courtiers, triumphs in life and death. Some of their practices, like the Ivory Stave Dance, have long been forgotten by modern dynasts, while others, such as the Feast of Spider Lillies, have drifted so far from their source that they're alien to the living.
Beyond the Court's walls lie rolling hills and farmland, some of it genuinely tended to by the ghosts of peasants and contagion dead, but much of it a facade conjured up by the collective memory of the courtiers. Resembling a mythologized version of the Blessed Isle, the countryside is scenic and engaging, each vista breathtaking and each horror worthy of legend. Courtiers and effigies patrol the idyllic roads more for the experience of lording over peasants than any real business. All in all, the court holds about as much land as an average Realm Dominion, enough to sate the pretensions of the courtiers, who see themselves as the final Great House. Bandits sometimes take up residence in the hills, and the court makes sport of hunting them down, only to release them from its dungeons decades later. The courtiers send expeditions of heroes to bring back treasures and luxuries to the Court, they lack the power to conquer the Underworld as they did with Creation, so they extract token obeisance from minor afterlives. The Courtiers are more concerned with their own intrigues than conquest, so the meagre tribute is enough for them.
The Court is far from monolithic or stagnant, power cliques and cabals influence every major event and many minor ones. The Bloodless Dragon Throne, an osseous reflection of the Imperial Throne, has been held by countless personages: the ghost of one of the Empress' lovers, an outcaste general and her unliving lieutenants, the bastard son of an Immaculate Monk, and a child-shade of murky lineage account for some of the more influential rulers. Some claimants are deposed and devoured, but many abdicate for one reason or another. The ghosts of the court value the throne not for the power behind it but for what it represents, the closest thing to the fulfillment of their living ambitions. Many who have attained the throne immediately decide to move on after their coronation, whether that means submitting to Lethe, going out into the greater Underworld, or simply going Away.
Intrigues and Mysteries
The Court of Pale Jade has been a modest power in the Underworld throughout its existence, strong enough to defend itself from minor threats but too unimportant to attract the attention of larger powers. The Great Houses rarely allow powerful artifacts to be buried with their scions, so the grave goods of the Court are well made but not especially potent. The Immaculate Order heavily censors information on the Underworld, so many dynasts enter the afterlife less prepared and informed than they could be. Stygia other powers are millennia older than the court and hold far more territory and influence. The Court of Pale Jade's primary appeal is the facsimile of dynastic life, meaning it tends to attract shades interested in that niche, turning inward to its intrigues rather than expanding beyond its borders. Despite this, the Time of Tumult has affected the intrigues of the Court greatly. Outcaste officers, executed on trumped up charges, dream of grand military conquests of the lands of the dead. Angry ghosts of the Empress' children await the death of Ragara, eager to savor the ten-thousand heart-cracking horrors they will doubtless inflict upon his soul. Some Iselsi Dead still aid their living relatives in pursuit of revenge. Ghostly kinships quest for in search of the Empress' higher soul, some to elevate her to the Bloodless Dragon Throne, others to have her stand trial for her countless sins against her own blood. With the Immaculate Order as unstable as it is and civil war on the horizon, some courtiers dream of establishing ancestor cults on the Blessed Isle.
Throughout its existence, the Court has maintained a minor heretical cult among the upper classes of the Scarlet Realm, The Citizens of The Pale Jade Palace. The Immaculate Order has cracked down on it many times, but the allure of a lavish afterlife appeals to many patricians and dynasts, so it inevitably survives such purges. The Citizens of the Pale Jade Palace are coordinated by the Courtiers of Pale Jade themselves, so the discovery of one heretic rarely implicates more than a few others. Among the thousand thousand corruptions of the Great Houses and Thousand Scales, the Citizens are easy to miss. Merchants, Patricians, and Dynasts embezzle funds not towards their households, but towards clandestine offerings to the Court of Pale Jade and their own future ghosts.
Though many of the shades of the Court aren't entirely lucid, they still hold lifetimes of experience regarding the Realm and the Scarlet Dynasty. Enterprising individuals can find secrets that the Dynasts took to their graves, such as the locations of hidden weapon caches and manses, compromising information on living Dynasts, and insights into the obscure mechanisms of the Great Houses, the Thousand Scales, and Immaculate Order. Many come from now fallen Great Houses, and are privy to knowledge that can no longer be found in Creation.
Carnelian Dragonfly, a powerful courtier, has discovered a route in the Labyrinth leading to a wing of the Imperial Palace. Brave courtiers sometimes venture into the wing, to meddle in the intrigues of the living or simply to observe. A betting pool has formed around predicting the assassination of imperial officials, with some ghosts taking steps to ensure that their bet pays off.
In this inauspicious time, fear breeds heresy and fanaticism. The Shepherds of Sextes Jylis, an extremist clique in the Immaculate Order, have made it their business to not only admonish ghosts in Creation, but in the Underworld itself. They venture forth into minor shadowlands to deliver violent invective upon the undead, heedless(or rather, ignorant) of the dangers that lie deeper within the Underworld. Among their targets are the shades of the Court of Pale Jade, for their very existence offends the Perfected Hierarchy.
The Shattered Skull Sisterhood, a clique of militant Tepet ghosts, has received an influx of new members following the Battle of Futile Blood. They pull strings to launch incursions at Icewalker tribes from the North's many shadowlands, while the ghosts of Cathak and Sesus descent take precautions against the slain soldiers' retribution.
The Slender Ledgers, a cabal of bureaucrats, have discovered a hidden vault in a wing of the palace. Entombed within were several perfectly preserved corpses, coveted vessels for nemissaries. The Ledgers now jockey among themselves for access to the vessels, for they possess strange powers when worn and provide such detailed sensation that they almost feel like being alive again.
The Court has long been acquainted with the chernozem. The Chosen of the Dark Mother often serve as messengers for the court or as outright agents in the lands of the living. Allied Liminals can make use of the Court's modest influence throughout the underworld, so long as they do the Courtiers' bidding. Some have greatly affected the history of the court, acting as champions and executioners. A Breath Aspect Liminal, Duke Xiyou, even holds the position of Captain of the Northern Palace Guard. The Duke gives his aid to younger Liminals, loaning out effigies and artifacts in service of the Dark Mother.
The courtiers have recently heard tell of the Deathknights. Ancient shikari and glory-hounds venture forth from the Court's palace-complex to challenge the Lawgivers of the Abyss, while perfumed socialites seek to curry favor with the Abyssals and their Deathlord masters. The Ledaal Dead are desperate to tell their living relatives of their discoveries regarding the Chosen of the Inverse Sun, but they fear the Shadow Crusade, knowing firsthand how the house deals with blasphemies such as them.
Last edited:
MiracleGrow
Miracles for only $19.99 [They/Them]
- Location
- DOOR STUCK DOOR STUCK PLEASE I BEG U
Okay found a better way to say why I fucking hate PVP social stuff. It causes the heavy social characters turn into these massive agency leeches that suck away the motivations, emotions, and goals of all the other players into their vision. I now follow the idea of sense motivation and smelling out intimacies is okay when it comes to player to player. But to actually change the minds than roleplay is 100% required and is only done through roleplay. No dice will be used to decide if your character suddenly decides to abandon everything they care for.
This is also a problem in some ways with npc's. I just reduce the strength of socialize overall but give much larger boosts through stunts than normal in social situations to encourage people to go hard on actually roleplaying the argument out.
This is also a problem in some ways with npc's. I just reduce the strength of socialize overall but give much larger boosts through stunts than normal in social situations to encourage people to go hard on actually roleplaying the argument out.
- Location
- Singapore
Something I realised.
.....a computer is complex. Intricate. Difficult to build. Extremely powerful, and extremely useful.
Sounds like a major or even a superior project.
But everyone has one. Everyone uses one, either in their pockets or in their bags. We have entire rooms filled with them, devoted for students to learn to use. We have entire landfills of them because they weren't worth repairing, because they have become so cheap.
Does that mean that from the perspective of current day Creation, we're a civilization that pumps out major-to-superior projects and artifice like people pump out spears?
edit: think about it. Great Solar wands (a thing that's been spoken of in this thread before). pumped out in their tens of thousands. Flying and thinking machines, used so thoughtlessly that their appearance doesn't bring any remark. Automatons for boring and tedious housework.
The Egyptian Heaven had automatons for drudgery and housework. Aren't we kinda the same?
.....a computer is complex. Intricate. Difficult to build. Extremely powerful, and extremely useful.
Sounds like a major or even a superior project.
But everyone has one. Everyone uses one, either in their pockets or in their bags. We have entire rooms filled with them, devoted for students to learn to use. We have entire landfills of them because they weren't worth repairing, because they have become so cheap.
Does that mean that from the perspective of current day Creation, we're a civilization that pumps out major-to-superior projects and artifice like people pump out spears?
edit: think about it. Great Solar wands (a thing that's been spoken of in this thread before). pumped out in their tens of thousands. Flying and thinking machines, used so thoughtlessly that their appearance doesn't bring any remark. Automatons for boring and tedious housework.
The Egyptian Heaven had automatons for drudgery and housework. Aren't we kinda the same?
Last edited:
- Location
- my house
Tech A can't really be compared to tech B. We can make computers but not warstriders or artifact sword or collars of cleansing. Our tech based are simply to different to be comparedSomething I realised.
.....a computer is complex. Intricate. Difficult to build. Extremely powerful, and extremely useful.
Sounds like a major or even a superior project.
But everyone has one. Everyone uses one, either in their pockets or in their bags. We have entire rooms filled with them, devoted for students to learn to use. We have entire landfills of them because they weren't worth repairing, because they have become so cheap.
Does that mean that from the perspective of current day Creation, we're a civilization that pumps out major-to-superior projects and artifice like people pump out spears?
edit: think about it. Great Solar wands (a thing that's been spoken of in this thread before). pumped out in their tens of thousands. Flying and thinking machines, used so thoughtlessly that their appearance doesn't bring any remark. Automatons for boring and tedious housework.
The Egyptian Heaven had automatons for drudgery and housework. Aren't we kinda the same?
- Location
- Singapore
..... I disagree.
I think we can compare. And I think that we can say that, on the whole, our stuff is better. You know, what with having more people having plumbing and vaccines and not dying horribly.
Kalzky
The Patron Saint Of Thowing Stuff In The Sun
- Location
- MI
On the downside, we don't have giant mecha.
- Location
- Singapore
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
Comparing those to warstriders is like comparing me to Hercules.
Either way the comparison doesn't hold up, because Exalted's crafting system isn't meant to be able to interface with anything like modern production methods at all. It is the mythic smith, drawing blueprints and forging singular implements of unique wonder. Or singular meals of unique wonder, whatever. If anything, I'd make it a perfectly mundane bureaucracy project to set up the supply and production lines for the components of a PC.
You know, if one were to translate Exalted to a more modern context.
Either way the comparison doesn't hold up, because Exalted's crafting system isn't meant to be able to interface with anything like modern production methods at all. It is the mythic smith, drawing blueprints and forging singular implements of unique wonder. Or singular meals of unique wonder, whatever. If anything, I'd make it a perfectly mundane bureaucracy project to set up the supply and production lines for the components of a PC.
You know, if one were to translate Exalted to a more modern context.
- Location
- Singapore
'Tis was a joke.
Yes, alright, fine. But I'm talking about, say, modern Earth to canon Creation.
Kalzky
The Patron Saint Of Thowing Stuff In The Sun
- Location
- MI
Those are small mecha, yes.
- Location
- Singapore
If we had the power and will to do so, we will build bigger ones.
Besides, I'm more concentrating on things on the ground. How many people have food security? How many people have homelessness? How many people with untreated diseases? I think here and now are better than canon creation.
- Location
- my house
A. No, we wouldn't. The laws of reality make mecha poor things to build.
B. Why? What gives you the right to say those things are better? I personally feel that the only true measure of the technological advancement of a species is how many hamsters it has bred to be forty feet tall and then shrunk via lasers
- Location
- Singapore
Know what?
Fuck it.
You won.
I'm too tired to deal with this shit.
- Location
- my house
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__mnn__images__2010__06__CoastalRedwoodsNationalPark-d0af750f27d64e439e5e978b8026821c.jpg)
Coast Redwoods: Majestic Giants Benefit All Humankind
Ancient trees suck moisture out of fog and support minivan-sized ecosystems. They deserve our respect and protection.
Redwood trees have small lakes and topsoil in their crowns apparently. So you can have a forest or farms on top of your forest
Giygas
Cutest Sawk i could find. Lucario is a nice extra.
The main difference is that our Physic make making "Mundane" but high level stuff easier. Also having the Exalted around is kinda bad for the common mortal, given that they can bootstrap tecnology far beyond the current tecnology level. Who knows, maybe by using the same Tools of the Tools chain that brought us here the same level of stuff could be done by the common mortal.Something I realised.
.....a computer is complex. Intricate. Difficult to build. Extremely powerful, and extremely useful.
Sounds like a major or even a superior project.
But everyone has one. Everyone uses one, either in their pockets or in their bags. We have entire rooms filled with them, devoted for students to learn to use. We have entire landfills of them because they weren't worth repairing, because they have become so cheap.
Does that mean that from the perspective of current day Creation, we're a civilization that pumps out major-to-superior projects and artifice like people pump out spears?
edit: think about it. Great Solar wands (a thing that's been spoken of in this thread before). pumped out in their tens of thousands. Flying and thinking machines, used so thoughtlessly that their appearance doesn't bring any remark. Automatons for boring and tedious housework.
The Egyptian Heaven had automatons for drudgery and housework. Aren't we kinda the same?
Not the same kind of stuff, but the same level of stuff. Of course, it would need for everything to not try to eat the common mortal, which is kinda bad when you want to actually advance tecnology and not make whatever to survive better.
I had a discussion related to this with a friend a few days ago regarding light switches. Specifically if they would ever have existed in Creation. We ended up getting into the weeds of genre aesthetics and the first-gen of Twilights being former DK slaves and all that. Our conclusion was: yes, but they would be very different. This leaves out a lot of the conversation, but some of the points that stood out:
The Chosen could very well have invented the smart home before the light switch. Invisible bound spirits, manses, awakened/empowered god of the home, sorcerous workings, etc. This is impractical to implement for every mortal but means that the upper tier of innovators have a solution to the problem of getting light when you want it.
Later generations of Exalted would have been mortals under the rule of the Chosen. So they might have an awareness of the lives of mortals other than crushing slavery or the heights of luxury.
Given how animistic the setting is, and the fact that electricity probably doesn't work the same way it does in our world, we surmised that a lot of "advanced" "tech" would be magical in its origin. So the "light switch" might be a statue of the little god whose belly you rub to provide prayer either as instruction or power to get the light.
As a corollary to the above, that commodification of wonders may have led to an age of "materialism" and irreverence near the end of the high First Age. The Exalted looking into how to proliferate these "light switches" would have worked out the minimum, most efficient prayer necessary to get the effect. So rather than profuse prayers of thanksgiving in thanks for driving back the night you get grumbled annoyance at having to make eight clockwise rubs when you stub your toe at night. Applied over multiple industries and a lot of important gods who are getting more prayer in an absolute sense might be unhappy with the quality and prestige thereof. Perhaps providing another straw on the yeddim's back leading to the Usurpation. That is, the proto-bronze could have pitched something along the lines of "Sure, a lot of lights will get broken, but people will still need lights and this will remind them how precious and important they are." to get the god of light/artificial light/lightswitches on their side.
Or a crystal that naturally sheds light and is "turned off" by putting a shutter over it, or a type of bioluminescent animal kept on/near the ceiling that lights up when commanded to.
I proposed things like that, but they weren't direct enough light switch analogs for what my friend wanted.
While I understand and share the frustration, 2E's abuse of the concept is not the same thing as the concept being flawed. Some people are attached to the idea and it doesn't have to imply panpsychism. In the actual conversation I had with my friend about the little statue lightswitch, it was the theoretical god of artificial lighting (who got her start as the patron of fires people lit at night to keep away the dark) who was being worshiped rather than a little god inside the statue or some such.
Last edited:
- Location
- Ottawa
What your friend wants is bad.
Direct analogues are the main thing you need to avoid when you're writing magitech.
Direct analogues are the main thing you need to avoid when you're writing magitech.
I will be sure to let her know what she finds fun is wrong.
We weren't doing it for a game. We were having a theoretical discussion about the existence of light switches in Exalted. You could as well have lamps filled with oil that have a little valve and call it a light switch analog but that misses the point of what we were talking about.
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
The direct analogues rule is generally a sensible one, but by god noone will stop me having clap-on lights in my manse.
Salty
Shadow Cabal Assumptor Supreme
- Location
- Sun, Moon, Talia
- Pronouns
- I/Me
I mean really, if your ominous temple doesn't dramatically light up at the appropriate moment, why do you even have it?