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General Exalted Thread

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Aleph said:
That means the hungry ghost of such an individual will be more powerful, and may have a few themed powers. But the po is the seat of power. That's where the Enlightenment goes, no matter what it is.
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Incidentally, this means the idea that you give more powerful people more lavish funerals in Creation is not a kleptocratic abuse but is instead a good social adaptation.

After all, a mortal's hungry ghost can be dealt with by a trained exorcist. It's an annoyance, but it can be handled. By contrast, the outcaste dragonblood prince of a threshold nation might leave a hungry ghost that can't be stopped by anyone local. Thus, building them a big pyramid is a sound investment, if it stops their monstrous ghost from appearing at the feast after their successor is crowned and laying waste to the place.

That sort of thing really puts people off their food.
 
Would I be correct in guessing that the defense measures of Solar Tombs and other things that might be containing very high end Hungry Ghosts are geared as much towards keeping things IN as keeping things out?
 
pheonix89 said:
Would I be correct in guessing that the defense measures of Solar Tombs and other things that might be containing very high end Hungry Ghosts are geared as much towards keeping things IN as keeping things out?
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There's a reason that the only (apparent) way in or out of the central chamber in Yamal's tomb was a long corridor that threw unblockable undodgeable Perfect-or-die murderlight at anything that tried to pass through it.

... I mean, I guess there was probably a password, but Keris didn't know it.
 
Aleph said:
... I mean, I guess there was probably a password, but Keris didn't know it.
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Actually, no, there wasn't.

That kind of defence is set up so the only thing that can break in is a Celestial who presumably thinks it's important enough to risk waking two high Enlightenment yidaks. Therefore a password is a weakness, while that kind of defence can be beaten by Celestial brute force. Hence, once it's turned on, the only way past is to do what Keris did and run through the killing light while perfecting it each tick.

It's a way of testing that you're combat-ready enough to fight the hungry ghosts in question. If the killing light kills you, you weren't prepared for the hungry ghosts and thus it's done its job.
 
EarthScorpion said:
Actually, no, there wasn't.

That kind of defence is set up so the only thing that can break in is a Celestial who presumably thinks it's important enough to risk waking two high Enlightenment yidaks. Therefore a password is a weakness, while that kind of defence can be beaten by Celestial brute force. Hence, once it's turned on, the only way past is to do what Keris did and run through the killing light while perfecting it each tick.

It's a way of testing that you're combat-ready enough to fight the hungry ghosts in question. If the killing light kills you, you weren't prepared for the hungry ghosts and thus it's done its job.
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So is it considered a bug or a feature when the only reason a Celestial couldn't kill the ghost was because the light mote tapped them?
 
runeblue360 said:
So is it considered a bug or a feature when the only reason a Celestial couldn't kill the ghost was because the light mote tapped them?
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A prepared Celestial would have a movement speed charm that would let them spend less time being irradiated, as well as Perfect defences to let them survive being irradiated.
 
EarthScorpion said:
If a little killing trap like that was enough to mote tap you, you weren't ready to face the yidaks of an Enlightenment 9 Lunar and an Enlightenment 9 Solar. Your death lies on your own head.
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That, and with the mote reactor hack ES is using, exalts don't really get mote tapped when they're plumbing the depths of an ancient tomb, far beyond the eyes of anyone who might witness their bonfire animas.
 
EarthScorpion said:
By our intent, there is no way. Death is the great leveller. It doesn't matter that you were an elder exalt in life. That was power granted by the super weapon which had gone on to another host, and borne by your Po which retains it. You're just a pale mockery of the person made of memories and echoes.
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Clearly, then, we must kill everyone, so we can finally have democratic traditions in our new post-human universe, where everyone is truly equal.
 
Scia said:
"Mister president, what is your reaction to the accusation that necromancers are influencing the voting process in a undully way?"
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"The Ebon Office is happy to announce that we have taken affirmative action to hire an Abyssal Exalt who will track down such power-hungry defilers of the democratic process and justly execute them."
 
Aleph said:
"The Ebon Office is happy to announce that we have taken affirmative action to hire an Abyssal Exalt who will track down such power-hungry defilers of the democratic process and justly execute them."
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Honestly if you're going with the Regular World being very Chinese-inspired, you could have the Underworld be much more Greco-Roman, emphasis on the 'Greco.' Ghosts make people more equal and can't Exalt, so you could have working democratic traditions and all. The Deathlords might so distant that they really only care as long as you pay your death-taxes and all. It'd be interesting to have an undead civilization which at least on the surface may look more appealing than the world of the living.

If only because you can make R2P Abyssal, who wants to kill everyone and make them into ghosts because it's more humane.
 
MJ12 Commando said:
Honestly if you're going with the Regular World being very Chinese-inspired, you could have the Underworld be much more Greco-Roman, emphasis on the 'Greco.' Ghosts make people more equal and can't Exalt, so you could have working democratic traditions and all. The Deathlords might so distant that they really only care as long as you pay your death-taxes and all. It'd be interesting to have an undead civilization which at least on the surface may look more appealing than the world of the living.

If only because you can make R2P Abyssal, who wants to kill everyone and make them into ghosts because it's more humane.
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The death-taxes thing made me think of a slight twist on this: the ghosts are, natively, very Greece, but the Deathlords are Persia, Macedon, Rome - all hegemonizing forces attempting to rule over them. (And you can easily add in Egypt; the cultural trappings match too well not to.)

edit: and yeah I know that the Macedonians saw themselves as Greek but they were at least for a while perceived as outsiders by the rest of the Greeks
 
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MJ12 Commando said:
Honestly if you're going with the Regular World being very Chinese-inspired, you could have the Underworld be much more Greco-Roman, emphasis on the 'Greco.' Ghosts make people more equal and can't Exalt, so you could have working democratic traditions and all. The Deathlords might so distant that they really only care as long as you pay your death-taxes and all. It'd be interesting to have an undead civilization which at least on the surface may look more appealing than the world of the living.

If only because you can make R2P Abyssal, who wants to kill everyone and make them into ghosts because it's more humane.
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I don't know, I've always preferred Russian and Slavic areas for death related stuff. Everyone is serfs, the mythology is perfect for it, easy Hussar analogs, so on and so forth.
 
Mutton said:
I don't know, I've always preferred Russian and Slavic areas for death related stuff. Everyone is serfs, the mythology is perfect for it, easy Hussar analogs, so on and so forth.
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The Slavic myths of the underworld and reincarnation seem way too different from Creation's. At least the stuff I remember from my school years.
 
... now I kind of want to see the hungry ghost of a powerful Dragonblooded ruler in the Outer Threshold smash its way back into the palace under the cover of night and block up all the windows of the throne room and seat itself in the throne, then basically demand people keep worshipping it and bringing it food and treasure and so on. The new mortal successor to the throne obviously gets slaughtered the minute he walks into the room. Someone tries trapping it in the room with lines of pure salt and gets horribly murdered when it notices them doing it (and let's not even go into what happens to the guard who tries unblocking the windows), so they basically try desperately to keep it happy while sending out messages begging for an exorcist or Exalt during daylight hours when it stays lurking in the shadowy throneroom on a darkened throne.
 
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