Remove ads

General Exalted Thread

Reader mode
Aleph said:
... 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.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
you realise you brought it on yourself if @EarthScorpion does that now, right?
 
Look, Keris at this point would turn an E6 Dragonblooded hungry ghost into mince. She's a lot more experienced than she was when she took on Rosseah's yidak in the Tomb of Singing Blades, and that was an E9 Lunar with several grave good Artifacts fused into its corpus.

No, this is far more likely to happen to her daughter, when she grows up and goes out adventuring with an E3-5 party of her, Sasi's daughter, a couple of young Dragonblooded friends and an elemental ally.

Aiko: "Okay. Rain, you surround the building with freshwater, make sure it can't escape. I'll prepare the Kiss of Mela outside the circle while Kali goes in and chases the thing out. Boys, as soon as it clears the doors, jump it and catch it in your anima flux. Agreed?"
Kali: "Why am I always the one who goes in first?"
Aiko: "One, you take after your mother and would do so anyway. Two, our best chance of ending this quickly is by jumping it with two sources of anima flux, and I'm better at fighting from a distance, which leaves you the odd one out. And three, you're probably the fastest one here in your other forms. Oh, and four, you're really, really good at annoying things, so you're probably the best choice for getting it to chase you."
Kali: "Hmm. Good points all. Okay then; I'm in command for this one."
 
Aleph said:
... 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.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I had other things to do goddammit.
 
So I was thinking about the discussion a little while ago about Seat of Power Shintai and being able to turn into your own soul, which got me wondering about jouten. Multiple souls are one of the neatest aspects of Primordials, which Infernals share in (mostly due to fanwork), what about multiple bodies? Obviously it'd be harder to balance since the souls are initially locked inside the Devil-Domain, but that just needs a little tweaking.

My initial thoughts are to have it be linked to (Yozi) Body Unity, since the base effects of that charm are pretty lackluster and "Body Unity" sounds a lot like keeping multiple bodies at once. Maybe upon learning that charm, you can construct a secondary body using Revlid's mutation system (or some other way, but Revlid's is the most straightforward) by converting your current character sheet to XP and point-buying. You could create a strong body that doesn't have access to many charms, the opposite, or anything inbetween. Sharing the same mote-pool, Willpower and Limit might be a good start at balance, since if you brought both bodies into combat with an exalted you'd just have to pay motes for each body's actions instead of getting a 2 for 1 deal. And the death of any one jouten could carry significant penalties: One of the custom charms for Mardukth is Magnificent Sirrush Unity Shintai, which effectively does this by fusing your soul with an animal and letting you use both bodies. Upon either bodies' death, you lose a permanent dot of Essence.

Maybe you could multi-purchase Body Unity to create additional jouten according to the (Yozi)'s themes, so you could have some variety if you buy from different ones. And since it starts at E5, balancing the power isn't too difficult since powerlevels start getting crazy for everyone at that point.

So, something like this:

(Yozi) Body-Unity
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 5; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: First (Yozi) Excellency

The minds of the fallen masters of Creation are far too complex to contain within a single soul. Likewise, they wield far too much power to contain within a single body. Thus they extrude numerous jouten with which they exert their will and experience their prison, constrained as it is. Sufficiently puissant Infernals can mimic this strange grandeur; in an agonizing ritual lasting 25 hours, the Infernal peels their physical essence in half, using each piece as a template to link a new pattern to their soul. Upon learning this charm, calculate the total experience the Infernal has, free and spent. From this pool, generate a body with attributes, abilities, charms, knacks and any abilities you wish the body to have, so long as the body qualifies for them (Revlid's Mutation System is suggested). Upon completion of the ritual, both of the Infernal's bodies solidify and become real (or become immaterial if that is the Infernal's natural state), each reduced to their Incapacitated health levels. From this point on, the Infernal's player controls both bodies; they share the same mote-pool, virtue channels, willpower track and limit track, but may operate independently at any distance and across multiple realms of existence. These jouten share the same mind; any information that one knows is known by all. This communication cannot be interrupted as long as the bodies in question belong to the Infernal. If any of the Infernal's jouten should die, he continues to live in the surviving bodies, but loses a dot of permanent essence. If his essence rating should drop below the minimum required for this charm, he is incapable of spawning new bodies until he reaches the minimum again. If all his jouten are slain, he dies as normal.

Thoughts?
 
Last edited:
Aleph said:
Aiko: "One, you take after your mother and would do so anyway. Two, our best chance of ending this quickly is by jumping it with two sources of anima flux
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
"Hey, just checking about that anima flux thing; ghosts can't wear Artifact armor, right?"
"I... don't... think so?"
"Guys I don't want to ruin the mood but I'm pretty sure that's a grand daiklave he's waving at us."
"...ABORT"


Skarbimir Rignys
Wolf-Prince of White Barrows​


In the Far North there is an oral tale carried far and wide, sometimes recited as a tale of woe and horror, sometimes as one of brave deeds and just revenge, sometimes as one of a tragic fall. It is known as the Dit of the Wolf-Prince, and it has the rare honor that the legendary figure that is its hero and villain at once still exists - though he no longer lives.

Skarbimir Rignys, the Wolf-Prince of White Barrows, rules in the Far North from a bloodied throne in a room without windows. Once he was handsome in his old age; but now bristling black fur covers his skin, his protruding mouth is full of shining white fangs, and his hands end in wicked talons. He stands seven feet tall, thick muscles contained in an armor of stained and cracked white jade; he is a hungry ghost, and the lord of all he surveys; his split gaze, one eye blue and one eye gold, pierces the darkness. A pack of lesser po lounge at the feet of his throne, their human forms twisted into grotesque bestial shapes, streaked black and white, mouths always stained red.

The Wolf-Prince speaks in a dual-toned voice, his sentences sharp and authoritative, if occasionally punctuated by odd growling. He was once a mighty general, but in death he favors commanding small packs of monsters broken in to his will which soften his opponents for him. In battle, he relies on the power of his jade grand daiklave, Falling Sky, and his mighty armor, the Broken Tower. Only when the overpowering smell of blood and his own pulsing anger overwhelm him does he take the form of the Frost-Crowned Hunger, a gigantic wolf-beast of stone and iron, holding his daiklave in his maw. In this shape he slays armies. Whatever his form, it is rumored that he is invincible; for in a twisted mockery of his once-Exalted nature the Wolf-Prince draws power from the very stones of the earth, seeming to heal all wounds.

*​


It is rare for the Outcastes of the Thresholds to ever live as long as their kindred on the Blessed Isle, or ever to reach such peaks of enlightenment and power. Savants among the Dynasts nod sagely when attributing it to their weak breeding and their faltering bloodlines, but the truth of the matter is perhaps more in the violent lives these lone Exalts often lead - few of them die of old age, and most in fact fall in their formative years, rarely even a hundred years old.

Skarbimir Rignys was cast of another iron. This Aspect of Earth was prince in the outer reaches of the North, in the kingdom of White Barrows, and he ruled for three centuries through the slings and arrows of countless wars, rebellions and famines. In his final years the old prince bore the scars of spears, flames, and the dreaded weeping sickness that had made him half-blind - and yet still he easily was stronger than a hundred men.

It was neither age nor blades that defeated the old Dragon, however; it was base treachery. Generation after generation of his sons and daughters had been raised under him, and the further descended they were the less loyalty they had to their old ancestor and the more they resented his insistence on outliving them - on never giving up his throne. And so it was that his twin children, son and daughter, hatched a plot to end his reign; knowing they could never defeat him in battle they instead join him on a far hunt out in the coldest snow - there they poisoned his food and drink, took his clothing while he slept, set fire to his tent and rode off, leaving him stranded, wounded and sick. He could have survived all this, and he could have survived the blizzard that came after; but he could not survive all at once and the wolves that hounded him. He died in the snow, and the beasts tore apart his body.

With three days of walk before reaching his capital, the twins thought themselves safe of his ghost. They had not expected it to be of such cunning - the wrathful shade of Skarbimir hunted for three nights, diving under the snow every day to avoid the sun, and on the third night its higher soul departed it, leaving only wrath and hate. When it reached its old palace on a moonless night, it slinked in the shadows, covered the windows of his throne room with great thick curtains, and sat on a throne made red-slick with the blood of the guards he slaughtered to sate his hunger.

When the treacherous twins entered the room come morning, they found a gruesome fate, as did the royal exorcist when he tried to confine the beast in the throne room with salt lines, as did the guards who made a valiant, desperate effort to tear the curtains. These unfortunate souls are now the twisted ghosts that lounge at their master's feet, obeying him as would a pack of hounds. Now Skarbimir was bloated on blood and Essence, and his wrath abated for a while. This is when the most terrible truth about him was revealed - that this hungry ghost was born of an Exalt so old and mighty that it had retained an almost human intellect - if disturbingly savage and predatory in nature.

Since then, the Wolf-Prince has reasserted his rule over White Barrows. The windows of his throne room were bricked over, and new advisors were found. Reckless hunters were sent to find his corpse and brought it back; now Skarbimir wears his jade weapons, relics of great power, and he carries his own skull at his waist. During the day he rules in his court, receiving any who dare brave his presence - and granting his respect and favor to those among the common people who dare to face the legend in his own lair. During the night he roams his capital, sniffing out dissent and feasting on the blood and flesh of prisoners and rebels.

The Wolf-Prince is a ghost of incredible power, but in his state he has lost much of his administrative acumen and his patience. He must surround himself with competent advisors to hope maintain his kingdom in a proper state, but finds it hard to endure their requests and complaints. He must rely on an animal insight into group dynamics to play on their own passions to pit them against each other, lest one of these men who can go out during the day steal his power from under him. This has rendered his kingdom unstable, which in turns makes the Prince angrier. He seeks a way to solve this problem - and a mystic, renegade of the ancestor cult, has of late convinced him that he could solve his temperament problems by finding his higher soul in the Underworld and devouring it whole. But Skarbimir fears the Great Below; he would rather send someone find his other half for him.
 
Last edited:
Sucal said:
Oh so it was meant to be Artorias, disappointing then
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's not really. I don't generally make my characters "Literally This Character From Another Franchise In Exalted," because it's a huge waste of effort. If people want to make Exalted Artorias they can just do that, it's easier than making a thinly-veiled rip-off that's hundreds of words long.

But I do rob concepts and aesthetics. I had Artorias in mind when borrowing a few aspects of this guy, and he turns into undead!elemental!Sif.

But he's not Artorias, he's Skarbimir Rignys, the Wolf-Prince.

He almost was Literally Potema The Wolf-Queen of Solitude though, you dodged that bullet.
 
Last edited:
Considering the lore and enlightenment of the Solar kings of old (or any powerful Exalts at all), I find it difficult to believe that most of them were not aware that they can end up as powerless hun ghosts upon death. How many of them actually takes action to preempt this fate? Either by ensuring their soul pass into Lethe (using sorcery or artifacts or having minions to do so) or leaving means to empower their post-death self?

Stuff like necromantically binding a ghost kingdom to serve and worship them so as to have an existing seat of power awaiting them in the underworld, powerful workings and artifacts that stitch their hun and po together upon death or building massive automated prayer-complexes that is triggered to activate by a dead man's switch to start sending massive amounts of essence to a newborn ghost? Does this make sense as something that can happen in Creation or is it not even a thing at all?
 
Alasnuyo said:
Stuff like necromantically binding a ghost kingdom to serve and worship them so as to have an existing seat of power awaiting them in the underworld, powerful workings and artifacts that stitch their hun and po together upon death or building massive automated prayer-complexes that is triggered to activate by a dead man's switch to start sending massive amounts of essence to a newborn ghost? Does this make sense as something that can happen in Creation or is it not even a thing at all?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Considering the Canon Underworld is boring as shit, anything that makes it more interesting can only be a good thing. Though honestly, I'd prefer if there was more of a dead Lunar presence in the underworld, the dead elders of the silver pact spending some time advising those that came before them and occasionally guiding them on quests to necrotic power.
 
Alasnuyo said:
Considering the lore and enlightenment of the Solar kings of old (or any powerful Exalts at all), I find it difficult to believe that most of them were not aware that they can end up as powerless hun ghosts upon death. How many of them actually takes action to preempt this fate? Either by ensuring their soul pass into Lethe (using sorcery or artifacts or having minions to do so) or leaving means to empower their post-death self?

Stuff like necromantically binding a ghost kingdom to serve and worship them so as to have an existing seat of power awaiting them in the underworld, powerful workings and artifacts that stitch their hun and po together upon death or building massive automated prayer-complexes that is triggered to activate by a dead man's switch to start sending massive amounts of essence to a newborn ghost? Does this make sense as something that can happen in Creation or is it not even a thing at all?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well, Legend Lives On and Unending March work for the Solar's P'o. I suppose some homebrew variant might exist for Hun.
 
Alasnuyo said:
Considering the lore and enlightenment of the Solar kings of old (or any powerful Exalts at all), I find it difficult to believe that most of them were not aware that they can end up as powerless hun ghosts upon death. How many of them actually takes action to preempt this fate? Either by ensuring their soul pass into Lethe (using sorcery or artifacts or having minions to do so) or leaving means to empower their post-death self?

Stuff like necromantically binding a ghost kingdom to serve and worship them so as to have an existing seat of power awaiting them in the underworld, powerful workings and artifacts that stitch their hun and po together upon death or building massive automated prayer-complexes that is triggered to activate by a dead man's switch to start sending massive amounts of essence to a newborn ghost? Does this make sense as something that can happen in Creation or is it not even a thing at all?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's not actually my read on it that the ghosts of Exalts end up powerless, I am 90% sure that this is a fanon thing. I don't recall seeing that anywhere in the actual books. Where are you getting this from? Also, I think most Exalts aren't gonna be planning 'empower my ghost' so much as 'never die'.
 
Fenrir555 said:
It's not actually my read on it that the ghosts of Exalts end up powerless, I am 90% sure that this is a fanon thing. I don't recall seeing that anywhere in the actual books. Where are you getting this from? Also, I think most Exalts aren't gonna be planning 'empower my ghost' so much as 'never die'.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
By canon they don't end up exactly powerless; they keep their Essence rating and traits. It's just that they've got nothing to do with them, because they lose all their Charms and Celestial Martial Arts and Sorcery, which is a clear majority of what Exalts will spend their time learning.
 
Imrix said:
By canon they don't end up exactly powerless; they keep their Essence rating and traits. It's just that they've got nothing to do with them, because they lose all their Charms and Celestial Martial Arts and Sorcery, which is a clear majority of what Exalts will spend their time learning.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Right, I think that's rather a big difference from powerless. They're not Exalts anymore. They're the mighty ghosts of beings who were once Exalts. I would be having them manifesting arcanoi reminescent of the Charms they had in life. This is, admittedly, as much fanon as 'powerless', as I don't think this was ever spelled out either. But generally speaking, I think the ghost of a mighty Exalt is going to be super powerful and super crazy. And a high-Essence one is gonna be able to get back their Martial Arts pretty quick, IMO.
 
And speaking of Keris and her children, we have Kerisgame 55! In which Keris fails to keep her mouth shut, bonds with Calesco at the cost of putting her on the outs with nearly all her other souls, finally finishes the owlrider project and finally gets her ship!

And then promptly gets landed with a great big honking problem, which I was the one to suggest via the time-honoured tactic of - say it with me now - Making Problems For Myself So ES Doesn't Have To.

I'll be rejiggering a few bits of Keris's character sheet in light of this, including - when I get around to it - updating her appearance and creating a "Followers" section above her Territories that will have brief notes on the important named characters who are loyal to her, such as Darling Yellow (and by extension the misbegotten), Kuha, Yelm/Shan/Piu, the Paricehet, etcetera.

Bonus bits!
EarthScorpion: Heh. So Keris has in fact decided that the owl riders will be her daughters. Oh, Keris. You're just acquiring family.
Aleph: She is going to have so much explaining to do to Sasi.
EarthScorpion: Huh. That means Kuha is now Beloved, since she's now a descendant and she has an intimacy of loyalty to Keris.
Aleph: Keris: *idea strikes* 'Aha! I know! I'll send Sasi an Infallible Messenger when I get back to Creation, so that I can break things to her gently and a bit at a time instead of her seeing the scars and the tongue and everything all at once!'
Keris: *casts Infallible Messenger*
Keris: "... ... ..."
Keris: "..."
Keris: "... ... ... ..."
Keris: 'Shit.'
Calesco: "First of all, you are an idiot."
Calesco: "Second, I'll take the message."​
EarthScorpion: See, that was actually deliberate with the way Calesco's charm is made. : D
...
EarthScorpion: Oh, Keris. Doing that to stop Lilunu from being hurt more won you quite a few Calesco points.
EarthScorpion: ... also lost you Echo points.
Aleph: : (
EarthScorpion: Echo revealed that she really is Haneyl's half sister. She covers up things she doesn't want to feel by getting angry.
Aleph: Oh, Echo.
EarthScorpion: At least she can control that - she's choosing to get angry. She really doesn't like being scared. And Echo is terrified of the Csend and scared of her other mother up close, even if she likes quite a bit of her from a long way away. She's clever enough to have put together what the Csend attitude really says about Big Mama.
...
EarthScorpion: So, yeah. Adorjan-mama's presents for her daughters.
EarthScorpion: The knife is basically the subtle knife.
Aleph: Indeed. Örömi Windcutter. Echo can cut her way into places and dreams unless they're higher-Enlightenment than she is.
EarthScorpion: The sash is the mark of a messenger and makes it hard for people to attack Calesco when she's carrying a message, because it's made of Keris tongue and voice and thus scares away people with Ill intent. Basically like that eclipse anima power, except more Adorjani.
Aleph: Ooo, nice.
EarthScorpion: It's not always a sash - Calesco can find that she can make it any obvious red marker she can wear. She might make it as a scarf or even a full red robe made of muscle and tendons and blood. It has to be Obvious, though, for it to have effect.
Aleph: Gotcha. Oh Calesco. You so creepy.
EarthScorpion: Calesco, sigh, might well choose to wear it as a red veil. Echo notes it's good that her little sister is wearing more colour. Oh! She should make it into ribbons and wear it around her wings! Her wings are so pretty!
EarthScorpion: ... oh goddamnit Haneyl. She's going to get in a mood about people who aren't her getting presents. On top of everything else.
EarthScorpion: ... sigh This is why she goes to steal from the snake. Haneyl, you really are Keris' daughter sometimes.
Aleph: Calesco: "If you want a present from a titan like that, you are welcome to stand in the presence of one and ask for it."
Aleph: Echo is probably going to show up near her and sulkily declare that she's helping blow back the fog. And that Calesco is stupid.
Aleph: ... there may be some ranting.
EarthScorpion: Oh, sisterly bonding. It may well be some of the best they have ever got on.
Aleph: Hmm. Speaking of, I should also at least touch on Keris tracking her other two kids back down, and having that talk with Dulmea.
EarthScorpion: Hmm. Well, Haneyl is hiding and will probably need to be lured out. And Rathan got so scared he's taken his moon and hidden it in the ocean so on top of everything else, it's dark in the domain.
Aleph: Oh, Rathan. : (
Aleph: ... heh. Keris is going to search the Marsh for a while, but Echo is smarter, and finds her right away, because she knows where to look and just goes straight to Haneyl's tree.
Aleph: ... and then, sigh, cuts her way into the mini-sanctum inside it so that she can rant. Oh, Haneyl. You're being very dryady and staying inside your tree where it's safe, fused with it and only poking your head out as if the wood is water.
EarthScorpion: Heh. This probably means Keris won't be a Malfeas-centric GSP, since spending too long in Malfeas risks Adorjan showing up.
Aleph: ... heh. Amusingly, her Gales are fine there, because they don't feel very Adorjani at all, really. No more so than an Adorjani demon. It's only the Exalt that risks attracting attention.
EarthScorpion: Heh. Will she make one a manse mistress to do things there?
Aleph: Yes. Hmm. Can she summon her Gales in the manner of a demon?
EarthScorpion: Keris? Probably in the same way you can summon Adorjan's, yeah, since our ones are all akuma.
Aleph: Cool. That's useful. Hmm. Though this means she'll need to learn that spell to summon only the image of a demon prince if she wants to get Lilunu as a reliable Mentor.
Aleph: ... oh Keris. If that spell works on Lilunu, it means she can give Lilunu glimpses of Creation.
Aleph: Keris: "I can show you the world~ Shining shimmering splendiiiiiid~"
EarthScorpion: Summoning the image of a demon is probably one circle lower than summoning it
Aleph: ... interesting. Lilunu's souls, I wonder.
EarthScorpion: I want DBs consorting with the image of a 2CD, and Raksi to negotiate with Third Circles that way.
...
EarthScorpion: Echo points out that she can talk to everyone like in Echoese, not just people who know Old Realm. Clearly Keris is just stupid because even a szelkerub can talk properly like this.
EarthScorpion: Calesco: "Goodness. You're really putting effort into holding this grudge for several scenes."
Aleph: Oh, Echo.
EarthScorpion: Echo shows that she wrote it on the ribbons on her wrist, so she wouldn't forget no matter what.
Calesco: "Won't it come out next time you wash?"
Calesco: "..."
Calesco: "... how do you wash? Do you wash?"​
Aleph: ... sigh. I suspect she may wash in the dust-rivers of the Ruin.
Aleph: Which do actually do a pretty good job of it - they're so fine that they basically act like a dry liquid, and have an effect similar to how you can polish metal with sand.
EarthScorpion: Heh. Echo dust bathes. Rathan... uh, has a little boy's attitude to it, but swims a lot so it tends to work out okay. Haneyl has... sigh, invented pitcher plants that boil their prey alive, so just makes the pitcher plant not heat the water up so much when she wants to have a bath. And Calesco... hmm. Does she not care about her personal appearance and so lets herself get filthy, or does she just lie that she's not dirty and thus doesn't get dirty?
EarthScorpion: Oh, and of course, Dulmea has a grand fancy bath she made for herself, which sometimes she forces any of the children to wash in if she feels they're not clean enough.
Aleph: Calesco... the latter, I think. Sigh. Effortless beauty, as befits the predator trap/seductress she'll grow up into. When the lie gets dirty she just renews it, and her real body basically can't get dirty because it's so tied to painful purity that things just sort of slough off it. She can't mask it with dirt or grime, only her lies.
EarthScorpion: Sigh. Rathan, when he gets dirty manages to just look roguishly handsome and when he gets sweaty it's an attractive manly thing.
Aleph: dammit rathan
EarthScorpion: Oh, Haneyl. Here's a point where Keris' Sasi-admiration clashes with Haneyl's base nature. Because Haneyl is at heart a thing of muddy swamps and blood, but by choice and preference she likes being clean. Even if that means she's had to invent platform shoes for walking in mud, or just has servants carry her.
...
Aleph: Hmm. Actually, hah. Keris can probably have a session of making things right with her souls and tie that into raising her Id. Yeah, heh. It's on her way back across Cecelyne, which means that a) she has a while to track down Rathan and Haneyl and talk to Dulmea about Adorjan's attentions, and b) her shiny new ship will be in her soul, which means the po will make rumblings towards it, which will spark Keris (after Dulmea warns her that it's been restless) to sail it out to the edge of the Domain and have a confrontation wherein they come to peace over it.
Aleph: ... sigh. This is going to basically end in bribery. Keris mollifies it by going "okay, I'll pass a decree, and have the Empire pay tribute to you to indulge my whims. In return, you be less grabby about letting me borrow things, and I keep the ship because I can use it better. Deal?"
Aleph: And then she returns and lays down the Festivals of the Serpent King.
EarthScorpion: Sigh. It's also restless because she's 'frustrated'.
...
EarthScorpion: Hmm. I've been thinking about the owlrider procedure.
EarthScorpion: I'm not sure it's really thaum-doable by mortals - it's a bit too radical. Like, I can totally see thaum to get a single mutation, but this is a total restructuring.
Aleph: Yes, that's why Testolagh is going to use demon alchemists until Keris can make an Artifact that does it automatically.
EarthScorpion: So maybe what Keris should do here is make enough doses for her new race here, and take them back.
Aleph: Hmm. Or that, yes.
EarthScorpion: After all, she has much better tools here.
Aleph: Possibly both, then. She'll prepare an upfront bunch, and also give him the ritual.
EarthScorpion: This would replace the last phase with a mass production phase where she gets some biiiiiiig cauldron and starts making it in larger amounts, heh.
...
Aleph: So Keris has given Lilunu a TRANSCENDENT WONDER OF THE HIGH FIRST AGE as a present.
Aleph: Specifically, a set of what are essentially multiple-use multi-sensory luxury Artifact 1 bath bombs.
Aleph: For when your bathing experience needs to be absolutely exquisite to every sense you possess and some you didn't realise you had.
Aleph: (You do not even want to know how many exotic ingredients went into them.)
Aleph: (It would make most crafters in the Age of Sorrows cry.)
Shyft: Pff
Shyft: Are they consumable, Aleph? Or reusable?
Aleph: Multiple-use but consumable. That is, they don't last forever, but there's a box of them and you get multiple baths out of each one.
Shyft: yeah, that'd make 2nd agers cry
Aleph: Yes. Yes it would. Especially since they have, like, multiple rare ingredients from the four corners of Creation going into them, in a way that's only possible with a Creation-wide infrastructure.
Aleph: If Keris actually understood the level of civilisation needed to mass-produce these things, she would be green with envy.
...
EarthScorpion: 5xp, Eloquence in Unspoken Words given free as a basically-end-of-arc reward.
Aleph: Yaaay~
Aleph: And Keris has a cunning solution for her lack of sailing knowhow!
Aleph: Actually Keris has two cunning solutions for this. The first being "brute force it with magic", because Keris is teriblu, and the second being "hang on, wasn't Yelm learning about vehicles?" because Keris is teriblu.
Aleph: (Yelm, showing uncanny foresight, will pretty much take one look and go "hell no I can't sail that thing". But she will probably take the kids back with her.)
EarthScorpion: ... she could just spend some xp on it, you know. : p
Aleph: Yes, I intend to once I get some training time and tutelage.
Aleph: Speaking of which! Other purchases! Can I now add Hungry Devil-Weed Growth to my character sheet?
EarthScorpion: She can certainly learn it in the time when she's preparing provisions and setting up the gardens.
Aleph: I already spent the xp for it a couple of sessions ago, it's just been a matter of training time.
Aleph: And I am also spending 9mxp to raise Keris to the lofty heights of Cognition 3.
EarthScorpion: Yes. she's certainly been doing a lot of thinkin'.
...
EarthScorpion: Oh, Keris. Her most truly effective schmoozing of an Unquestionable has been basically accidental and mostly caused by her and Lilunu nerding out about art.
Aleph: : D
Aleph: Also getting mutually maimed by a Primordial.
EarthScorpion: Sigh. When she can summon her souls, they'll probably go and love-bomb Lilunu between them and give her lots of hugs.
Aleph: Also lots and lots of art.
EarthScorpion: (Then Lilunu and Calesco go into a back room and Lilunu emerges dabbing at her eyes having had a cry and Calesco refuses to talk about what they talked about.)
Aleph: <3
EarthScorpion: ... oh, Calesco, you're a bit of a masochist. And you encourage that in Keris. If she's taking pain rather than other people, you reward her with love.
EarthScorpion: And suddenly we've found one of the clash points between Echo and Calesco. Echo hates it when Keris gets hurt or makes herself suffer for the sake of others.
Aleph: Oh, Echo. : (
EarthScorpion: She's the Joyful Wind, and thus gets angry when Keris makes herself deliberately not-joyful. Also, she likes mama's voice and she really likes the bits when she gets to talk herself, so giving up talking is alien to her.
Aleph: Hmm. Well, she probably won't see any problems with doing it for, like, one scene. To pass information to Sasi without people overhearing, etc. And may in fact find that amusing, because people are silly and Keris is talking to Sasi right there and they're not noticing, hee~
EarthScorpion: Oh, choosing not to talk for a little bit, she finds that amusing. But losing the capacity to talk pushes her buttons.
...
Aleph: Heh. So, heh, her souls have been doing their own month-long downtime projects:
DULMEA: ??? (currently unknown)​
ECHO: Spending successes on clinging to her "anger at Keris" Principle. Dammit Echo, you could be doing nearly anything and you do this?​
RATHAN: Building an elite honour guard of soldiers to protect him.​
HANEYL: Hiding in her tree and plotting to steal from the po.​
CALESCO: Delivering a message to Sasi, also plotting to steal from the po.​
EarthScorpion: Oh, and Calesco has full tar-cherubs now
Aleph: Yay!
EarthScorpion: ... huh. Calesco and Haneyl may also encounter the first fog-cherubs
EarthScorpion: (they're almost certainly ex-szelkeruby)
EarthScorpion: (they may try to pounce them)
EarthScorpion: (it will end painfully)
Aleph: Fog-cherub: *screeches, jumps at them*
Aleph: Calesco: *elbows it in the teeth*
Aleph: It will end in a scuffle as Calesco goes "don't set it on fire you'll give us away!"
EarthScorpion: ... goddamnit Calesco, stop hitting people in the groin
EarthScorpion: Calesco: "I'm just punching or kicking them in the Valour."
EarthScorpion: Oh dear. It is possible that some of what Dulmea is doing is working with Echo to stay angry.
Aleph: Oh, Dulmea.
Aleph: ... huh.
Aleph: "Because Mama scares people, Echo gestures meanly."
Aleph: ... which one is she referring to there? Both? Probably both.
EarthScorpion: BOTH OF THEM. But Keris here, because she usually refers to Adorjan as Other Mama or Big Mama.
...
Aleph: Heh. Does Calesco disappear for ten days whenever she carries a dream across the Desert?
EarthScorpion: Hmm. Only if you choose to do it that way, as a fluff thing. She can just shoot messages at people. At least once she gets a way of doing that.
Aleph: Hmm. Yeah. But this one I think she did, because she was delivering it in person.
EarthScorpion: Oh, Calesco. Isn't it funny that the Adorjani souls are the ones who've found ways to slip out of her?
EarthScorpion: Haneyl: *JEALOUS*
Aleph: Keris: "Wait, what?"
Keris: "You crossed the- how? What? How?"​
Calesco: "I flew over the Cloud Wall."​
Keris: "You what."​
Calesco: "I flew over it. If you keep going high enough, it gets so dark that you can't see anything, and then you see stars and silver sands far below."​
Keris: "..."​
Keris: "I am pretty sure that's cheating."​
Calesco: "Look, just because you never thought of it..."​
...
Aleph: Sigh. That pink-and-white anyaglo Keris uses as her favoured steed has... hah! She's totally used her time with Keris (and Rounen) to learn how to "speak", by watching the Paricehet and going "hey, I can do that with ribbons!" and developing the ability to shape ribbons into words.
Aleph: That is to say, she has subtitles, if she needs them.
EarthScorpion: Heh. Not one of Keris' little girls is pink-obsessed
Aleph: Echo is on average pink-obsessed. That is to say, she loves red and she loves white and occasionally they get mixed up and come out pink.
EarthScorpion: ... actually, the pinkest one is Rathan
[14:09:29] Aleph: Yes, I was going to say. He quite likes his rosy pinkish hues.
EarthScorpion: It is, he argues, a manly colour. Like blood.
EarthScorpion: It would have been very easy for Calesco to take the form of being Rat's daughter, you realise
Aleph: Yes. But she chose Ogi for the form of her lie-appearance, because Ogi was far weaker than Keris, and had no defence against the way she hurt her. And she hurt Rat in an attempt at sparing him greater pain, but she hurt Ogi because she didn't care enough to see what she was doing to her.
EarthScorpion: Yes, but the thing I was about to say is that it would have made her even more goth.
Aleph: Hah. Yes. Yes it would.
...
Aleph: ... wait
Aleph: Ahahahaha
Aleph: "The tea is awful. Not only is it watery and weak, but the honey is bitter. And she can taste it."
Aleph: Calescoooooo
Aleph: You realise what she's going to do, right?
EarthScorpion: Always try to get Haneyl to make the tea?
Aleph: No. She's going to invent coffee from first principles. Black beans growing amidst the tarpits.
EarthScorpion: Yes, but she's still going to be bad at preparing it. Calesco is bad at cooking.
Aleph: Well yes. But come on, she's totally going to come up with a drink where the bitterness is the point. And which her honey goes really well with.
Aleph: Dulmea: *vague disapproval*
Aleph: Haneyl: *immediately steals*
EarthScorpion: Haneyl: *improves*
Aleph: And thus did Haneyl invent the mocha. The mocha bean, in fact.
Aleph: Keris: "... hang on, but..."
Haneyl: "I crossbred a coffee bean and a chocolate bean. Obviously."​
Keris: "... I don't think it works like that."​
Haneyl: "Well it did!"​
...
Aleph: Well~
Aleph: The good news is, she finally has her refurbished ship!
Raum: yays
Aleph: ... the intentionally bad news is that the Unquestionable have decided they don't entirely trust an erratic and horrifically lethal Exalt unsupervised with one of the most powerful ships in Creation as a mobile powerbase.
Raum: not yays
Aleph: So they have generously decided to consecrate it as a temple to the All-Makers and have a priest of Cecelyne in residence, to oversee the worship of any demons she summons to crew it and to make sure it stays out of the hands of the traitor gods and the vile Dead.
Aleph: That is to say, unofficially, Keris has a priest of Cecelyne onboard to keep an eye on her.
Raum: Well then.
Raum: That sounds like a fun plot point.
Raum: Now they can proselytize to the prayer batteries from the safe of the Mobile Oppression Palace.
Aleph: Oh yeah. Very much so. It's going to be one of the three "minibosses" of her ship.
Aleph: In the sense that if you were a heroic young DB circle attacking the demon pirate empress's flagship, there would be three miniboss fights and then the Demon Empress herself.
Aleph: So there's going to be the Helmsman, the First Mate and the Priest.
Aleph: ... it will also occasionally come up from the shrine and execute one of her crew for breaking the laws of the Endless Desert.
Raum: yays
Raum: Nothing like arbitrary, sometimes nonsensical executions at random times for morale.
Aleph: Keris: "... you couldn't have waited until after he'd finished loading the ship?"
Priest: "No."
Keris: "Well I hope you're going to finish doing his job for hi-"
Priest: *has already turned and left*
Keris: "... really hate that thing." ¬_¬​
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Fenrir555 said:
Right, I think that's rather a big difference from powerless. They're not Exalts anymore. They're the mighty ghosts of beings who were once Exalts.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well, no, because mighty ghosts are the centuries-old monsters of the Neverborn's nightmare-realm with powerful Arcanoi to back up their traits. Fresh ghosts, even Exalted ones, don't get that.
I would be having them manifesting arcanoi reminescent of the Charms they had in life. This is, admittedly, as much fanon as 'powerless', as I don't think this was ever spelled out either. But generally speaking, I think the ghost of a mighty Exalt is going to be super powerful and super crazy. And a high-Essence one is gonna be able to get back their Martial Arts pretty quick, IMO.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
'Kay. Out of interest, why? Because from my perspective, they're not Exalted anymore. They don't have any narrative right to that kind of power. They're dead.

I mean, there are ghosts of mighty exalts who are super powerful and super crazy. They're the ones who denied Lethe and were consumed with bitterness at how weak and inconsequential they were compared to their former selves, and spent decades or centuries scratching and clawing for every scrap of forbidden power they could lay hands on to unlive a shadow of their old glory. Many of them failed in this quest, because they were weak and inconsequential compared to their former selves, but others succeeded.
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top