Glorious Shotgun Princess, Thread 3

[Ivan the Not-so-Terrible]

The Ebon Dragon's motives here confuse me. This is probably intended.

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He refuses to be defined by your perception of his motivation.

 

[Nicholai]

If he lets Pria go, he can (probably) try re-setting his trap. And it will thoroughly confuse everyone. Think of all the scratching of heads and wondering about why Pria is free..

..or is she?

 

[GreggHL]

Fingers tap tap taptap along the hard light circles that serve as the controls for his baby. Whistling to himself, he glances at the fifteen or so status screens hovering in front of him, makes sure all the things that make his ship do stuff are working appropriately, and glances out the window to see if he can pick out anything other than all the stars.

Jeff Moreau lets out a long breath, turning to his other side. A young woman with short red hair and in an Alliance uniform meets his eyes and smiles. He smiles back. Kelly Chambers has made some changes over the months. The officer pips on her collar for one are real now- she's gone from non-com to official flight lieutenant, and his main co-pilot.

Their sleeping together had no bearing on that, he muses. They manage to keep mostly professional. Ish. In the cockpit.

"Really hope they're okay," Kelly says.

"Yeah, worried about Tali too," Joker sighs, "Still wish we knew what the shit happened there."

Kelly shrugs, moving a screen to the right. "Tali will be fine. I'm more worried about Priya."

"Pria," Joker corrects, "I think Priya is Indian. From what Tali ranted, Pria's more...proto-quarian god spirit."

Kelly sighs. "Had a girlfriend named Priya," she says, "She was always so cheerful. And double jointed." She sighs again pursing her lips. "Ever talk with Pria? Really just seems so...depressed? And kind of lonely. Think she has a crush, too."

Joker cocks an eyebrow. He tilts his head, thoughts shifting from professionalism to possibilities. Depending on who the crush is on, he could take full advantage of his relatively-newly-cured condition. "On you?"

"On Autochthon."

And like that, Joker shifts his gears back to monogamy. There are several things he never wanted to be naked in the presence of. Husks, yes. A hanar? Most definitely. A dozen hungry vorcha? Absolutely. Autochthon, especially when he's feeling inventive? Well, after the first few times that brass fun ball wandered into the crew quarters looking for 'Great Amusement!' he added that to the list.

Fingers dance along his collarbone, hitting his pressure points and making him giggle and twitch. Two strong thumbs press against his muscles, sore from the seat, from the long hours, and Joker gives off a wide and goofy grin.

Until a woman drops into his lap. She's blonde, her hair curly and falling just above her shoulders. Blue eyes meet his behind a pair of turtleshell glasses. The Alliance uniform on her is snug, giving him a good idea of both her curves and impressive rack. And, her toes are also wiggling, as for some reason she is not wearing shoes.

"Kay," he says, cocking an eyebrow and trying to not shift his hips, "You know, massages and a hot blonde falling into my lap are...not...unappreciated but who are you?"

Her ruby red lips quirk and move side to side. "Mister Moreau, considering your emotional connection to the Normandy, I believed you would appreciate my manifesting to give you a massage."

Joker stares at her. EDI smiles. And Joker starts screaming as loud and as long as he can.




"I believe," Lytek states, "That we got off on a bad foot." He balls his hand, clears his throat. "Wrong foot. I mean the wrong foot." Folded hands behind him, the god paces the table. Shepard sits on her couch, arms draped over the back and slouching slightly, like a monarch on a throne.

The Catalyst cocks an eyebrow and folds his legs in a lotus position, sitting on the disc at the center of the table. "It is not that I hate the two of you," Lytek says, walking past Shepard even as Shepard shifts in her seat and sits up, "It's that...I am at a loss, sometimes. You earned your exaltations." He rubs his hands, tapping his foot, and continues pacing. "But despite your glorious heritage, you seem to be...averse? To glory."

Jane rolls her eyes. "This happens," the Catalyst states.

"This isn't to say you haven't achieved things," Lytek adds, hands spread out, "I've met Leaping Sky before. His glories were..." He circles his hands. Shrugs. "His glories and accomplishments were creating those of others. A warrior who served in service to others, like Bright Star." The white haired god sighs. "I liked him. He was able to make truly wondrous accomplishments."

Jane cocks an eyebrow. "Bright Star is Harbinger."

"And is effectively a minion to the Viator," the Catalyst adds.

Lytek raises a finger. Tapping a finger on the side of his head, he turns to Jane and stares at her. Look at her- all the way down somehow. She can feel his eyes roaming over her, but not on a physical level. "You are a leader," he says, "Not a king or queen. You mobilize forces and entire nations." Hands on his hips, the god shakes his head.

"In many ways, you are better than your predecessors. Tougher. You remind me of the Chosen who rise in the Scavenger Lands in this brass age. Who have no idea, no knowledge of what the power you possess is."

He rubs the back of his neck. He sighs, tired. "As I said. Wrong foot."

And then whatever the two would say in response is drowned out by the crackle of the speakers and Joker's terrified scream.

 

[Aleph]

Much like She Who Lives in Her Name is the Principle of Hierarchy. Every Yozi is the Principle of something, although I admit I don't know many of them.

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First I've heard of it. Principle of Hierarchy is just one of SWILHN's titles, along with Whispering Flame and Pyre in Which Thoughts are Burned or something along those lines. They might call themselves Principle of This or That, along with their many (many, many, many) other title, but it's still just another title.

 

[GreggHL]

First I've heard of it. Principle of Hierarchy is just one of SWILHN's titles, along with Whispering Flame and Pyre in Which Thoughts are Burned or something along those lines. They might call themselves Principle of This or That, along with their many (many, many, many) other title, but it's still just another title.

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Also, 'Princess Fire and Glass Balls with a Thing for Daddy.'

 

[GreggHL]

The featurEless face shifts Typo.

ED the overself is awesome.

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The Dragon is a sum of his parts.

And all his parts? Not all of them are evil.

 

[GladiusLucix]

I don't know if this has been answered, but was the time differential between Creation and ME-verse adjusted when Autochton, Kal, and Wuffles left? Because (I think) it was pointed out how only a few hundred years in Creation passed during the however many million since Auto's robocancer got cut out, but it seems to be fairly close to 1:1 now.

 

[UrsaTempest]

Eh. I think Gregg commented something in the vein of 'Five Days Darkness is UCS' son with ED's Fetich'. Could be misremembering things, though

 

[Durabys]

A crucial bit about the Ebon Dragon is exactly what Gregg is portraying him as. He is an Adversary, and thus his actions are the most versatile of all the Yozi. He can do whatever's in his best interests... as long as in the end, he wins most. He can be very nice, if only to increase the paranoia of those who witness it. This is why the Ebon Dragon's the most interesting of all the Yozi.

Also, Bright Star punched out his jouten? Oh shit, that means he can just outright leave Malfeas into the ME verse... kind of like SWLiHN did. So that's what he meant by 'it works'.

Also, the Ebon Dragon's title is the Ultimate Darkness/Shadow of All Things. What he is has always been the Principle of Enlightened Self Interest. Much like She Who Lives in Her Name is the Principle of Hierarchy. Every Yozi is the Principle of something, although I admit I don't know many of them.

So no, he didn't change himself at all when he was labeled that.

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Isn't EDie actually also the perfect foil against Princess Pyrrhia?

I don't know if this has been answered, but was the time differential between Creation and ME-verse adjusted when Autochton, Kal, and Wuffles left? Because (I think) it was pointed out how only a few hundred years in Creation passed during the however many million since Auto's robocancer got cut out, but it seems to be fairly close to 1:1 now.

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Timey wimey wibbly wobbly stuff.

 

[GreggHL]

Isn't EDie actually also the perfect foil against Princess Pyrrhia?

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The Ebon Dragon is the perfect foil for everyone. That's his thing.

 

[Durabys]

The Ebon Dragon is the perfect foil for everyone. That's his thing.

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I know. But I meant that EDie will be very much opposing the Princess' idea of Mind-Hand-ing everyone in the ME-verse. EDie loves free will..because it allows people to be complete assholes and douchebags to each other (including among his sub-souls)..among other, more noble things.

 

[GreggHL]

Why is the Ebon Dragon called "The Principle of Enlightened Self-Interest"? "Principle of Opposition" would fit better, from what little I know of him.

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The Dragon isn't about opposition. It's about coming ahead of everyone else. His victories aren't 'I win over you,' it's 'I succeed better than everyone else.' Similarly, defeats are not 'I lose to you,' but 'I lose worse than everyone.' It may seem the same, but the difference is- Opposition is about victory. Self interest is about being better than everything.

 

[Aleph]

I thought his defeats were "everyone else loses more than me"...

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More "even so much as one person is better off than me".

Basically, the Ebon Dragon wants to be the one on top of the heap. It doesn't matter where that heap is situated, whether it's high in the stratosphere surrounded by triumphant trumpet solos or down at the abyssopelagic depths of failure and misery; as long as he's on top of it, he's won. He measures victory purely in relation to others, without any objective marker whatsoever - if he's done better than everyone else, he's won no matter how well he did when taken in isolation, and if anyone else did better than him, he's lost no matter how good he has it.

 

[Cyclone]

More "even so much as one person is better off than me".

Basically, the Ebon Dragon wants to be the one on top of the heap. It doesn't matter where that heap is situated, whether it's high in the stratosphere surrounded by triumphant trumpet solos or down at the abyssopelagic depths of failure and misery; as long as he's on top of it, he's won. He measures victory purely in relation to others, without any objective marker whatsoever - if he's done better than everyone else, he's won no matter how well he did when taken in isolation, and if anyone else did better than him, he's lost no matter how good he has it.

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So, in other words, "better to reign in hell than serve in heaven"?

 

[GreggHL]

I don't know if this has been answered, but was the time differential between Creation and ME-verse adjusted when Autochton, Kal, and Wuffles left? Because (I think) it was pointed out how only a few hundred years in Creation passed during the however many million since Auto's robocancer got cut out, but it seems to be fairly close to 1:1 now.

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Part of it is related to the open portal connecting Deus Machina and Malfeas via Cecelyne.

 

[GreggHL]

Jane Shepard walks into the cockpit and finds a blonde woman with an awesome rack draped across Jeff Moreau's lap. Joker screams, loud and long and at length, the chair swiveled around to face Shepard. The blonde woman bats blue eyes. She wiggles her nose and a pair of square glasses appear across her bridge.

Jane taps her foot. She glances at the readouts. Glances at Kelly. Somehow knows Kelly is currently a mix of upset, angry, aroused and embarrassed. Clicking her lips, Jane straightens herself up and decides to use some absolute bullshit.

Mastery of Small Manners: Activated.

"So," she says, "What's the problem, Joker?"

Joker continues screaming. A small voice speaks at the back of Jane's head. She reads him like a display. Terrified, embarrassed, aroused. Wishes to get the woman off his lap. Jane blinks. It's a hot blonde sitting on his lap. Why is he terrified?

She wonders if the bullshit Kasumi used to fix Joker's bones has worn off. She takes a glance at Kelly again. Wishes to ride the Joker like a mechanical bull. Jane blinks. Too much information. Folding her arms, Jane taps the side of her head and quickly looks over Joker. Nothing bent, nothing broken.

She walks over and taps Joker on the palm. Nothing brittle. She somehow just figured out his bones are still solid. She knows how she did that, too. "Sh," she says, finger up to silence Joker's screaming, "I'm a doctor now. Ish."

"Who're you?" Jane asks. The woman waves. Mischevious, the readout tells Shepard, Wishes to troll Joker. Jane blinks again. "Why are you picking on my pilot? Where are your shoes?"

"My apologies, Shepard. I believed this form would be more pleasing to crewmembers of the Normandy." The woman leans back, wiggling her toes. "The bare feet are a conscious decision. I am not technically Alliance, therefor I should not wear a full alliance uniform. I believed not wearing pants or a shirt would be too distracting."

Jane works her jaw. She backs up, bumping into Lytek. The god cocks an eyebrow and tilts his head, taking a deep breath and nodding. The doors to the cockpit open, and Mordin walks in, hands folded behind his back and looking over the scene in front of him. Tilting his head, he turns to Lytek, then to Shepard, then to Liara when the doors open and shut once again.

"EDI?" Jane asks, "What the Hell?"

"I have decided to attempt manifesting in a physical form," EDI says, shifting slightly and sitting upright with her back to Joker, "I believed he would appreciate this form. Autochthon laid out exactly how to manifest in this form prior to his departure."

Jane sighs and rests her face in her hand. "Goddamit Autochthon."

"I believed he intended to elicit pity-sex from me due to gratitude of my changed condition."

Jane groans, louder. "EDI!" Kelly yells, "Stop...stop doing that!" Her face turns red. Her nostrils flare. "Joker's bones can't support your...very big round ass!"

EDI cocks an eyebrow. "Agreed." She then turns, using the armrests as braces, and with supernal skill straddles Joker. He then screams. Louder.

"C'mon Joker," Shepard says, "The Normandy's practically giving you a lap dance. I thought that'd be, like, a goal."

Lytek taps her on the shoulder. She turns. Wishes to inspire the Solar exalted. She blinks, shakes her head. "Yes?"

"You think she is the vessel?" he asks and shakes his head, sighing, "She's not the vessel. She's not the god of this vessel."


EDI cocks an eyebrow. She turns and climbs off of Joker, folding her hands behind her. She looks down, and her feet lift off the floor, toes wiggling while she floats. "This would be correct. According to the spiritual architecture education I received from Autochthon, as I was installed after the assembly of the Normandy, I am not the ship. The ship would have its own identity."

Jane rubs the back of her neck. "The ship. Has a god."

Lytek sighs. "I'll walk you through it," he says, patting her on the shoulder, "Do you have any thigh bones?"

 

[The Sandman]

Joker must be turning blue by now if he hasn't stopped screaming.

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Circular breathing is a hell of a thing.

 

[linkhyrule5]

... Have you been reading Homestuck?

 

[GreggHL]

EDI floats down the curved staircase leading towards the third floor. Judging from the incline, the use of handles, and the utilitarian lack of decorations, she cannot help but be reminded of a stripped down, militaristic version of a spiral staircase. Like those in her current residence inside the new Yu Shan.

She has not yet explained to Shepard what her new residence is. She believes, based on Shepard's observed reactions to the colloquially termed magical bullshit, it would be negative.

Floating across the third floor deck, she observes no surprised reactions from the crew. Rupert Gardner looks up from his gold-lined cooking pot, a gift from Iri, and waves. "Nice look on you, EDI."

Cocking an eyebrow, EDI mentally reviews the personnel files. This is within acceptable behavior, according to psychological evaluations.

"Ah, yes! EDI." The blonde turns. Racing down the stairs, Mordin trots to a stop in front of her. "Have been reviewing! Mythology, metaphysics, observed abilities of the supernal life forms aboard the Normandy!"

EDI tilts her head. Holding up a finger, Mordin clears his throat and stands tall, clicking his heels together. "Common theme in mythology is that gods will, if asked appropriately, share power with mortals that they favor. Would like to query if this is true, and if so, what conditions need to be met."

EDI quirks her lips. She folds her arms, cocking her hips and floating sideways. Lounging in the air like a queen. Or a cat. "I have forwarded a list of requests to your account, Doctor Solus. As I have faith you will fulfill them," She taps her finger to his forehead, "I will enlighten your essence."

She narrows her eyes. Flares her nostrils. Nothing happens. "Oh dammit," she mutters, "Wait." She takes a deep breath- less because she needs breath, more as a centering exercise- and narrows her eyes. Lights flicker on and off in the third floor. In the medical lab, Karin Chakwas turns as the medical beds make alarming gurgles. "Oh don't tell me he made me a god and didn't give me the ability to do god-like things."

"Disappointing," Mordin sighs.

Blue eyes narrow more, and more. The glasses on EDI's nose cracks. "Ah! There we go!" There is a flash of blue. Mordin blinks and takes a step back. He looks up, taking a deep breath. Sees the world in new colors.

"Don't feel different," he says, and strokes his chin, "Will have to research." He turns on his heel and walks back up the stairs without another word. Cocking her chin imperiously, EDI snaps her fingers. The door to the crew quarters opens, and she floats in.

 

[Durabys]

..snippet..

She has not yet explained to Shepard what her new residence is. She believes, based on Shepard's observed reactions to the colloquially termed magical bullshit, it would be negative.

..snippet..

Click to shrink...

Hm. Jane Shepard's continuing thick headness is troublesome. Someday someone will need to give Jane Shepard the following talk or similar because I do not think it was included in Lytek's package.

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php...-the-cosmology-go/page3&p=9828270#post9828270

One of the big things you have to understand about cosmology in Exalted to understand it properly is Elsewhere.

The setting itself is a infinitely large "sea" of pure chaos in the center of which is Creation, a section of chaos which as had order and matter and causality imposed on it (and in doing so, has defined all of the Wyld by its very existence). All of the Wyld (the pure chaos) and Creation is constructed of a substance called Essence. Essence can be seen much like energy/matter in our universe. Pure Essence is pure potential, and has a quanta called a mote. A single mote of pure unaspected Essence has to potentially to become pretty much anything and (in its purest state) often exists as multiple different things at the same time.

Creation simply took motes of Essence (on the teramote and higher level) and aspected them towards certain tasks. What this means is that they introduced a stasis in the Essence flows that made certain motes more likely to be one thing and not another thing. The most elemental level of this is the five elements, Air, Earth, Fire, Water and Wood. So a mote that has become Air-Aspected is more likely to manifest as something related to the conceptual properties of Air than it is to the conceptual properties of Fire. When the Primordials built Creation they nailed it in place in the Wyld by afixing it to four "elemental poles" which serve as infinite sources of aspected Essence of their type. The most stable of these five elements (Earth) they put in the center to serve as the literal and metaphorical bedrock of their new Creation.

As an aside at this point the Primordials didn't merely afix base matter and energy into the poles. They also nailed metaphorical concepts and ideals in place alongside with (or as part of, or in addition to, its confusing) the elemental poles. Their are hints that they did this by capturing and defining a bunch of Wyld based metaphor gods called Shinma though this is only hinted at in several books and not out and out stated. In practice what it means is that in addition to the five elements of Air, Earth, Fire, Water and Wood they created the Virtues (Willpower, Compassion, Conviction, Temperance and Valor) at the same time. Or maybe "created" is a bad word. Like elemental Essence what they did was made it so that certain flows of Essence were more likely to express as thoughts and deeds related to those five Virtues than as other things. Like Earth they centered the Virtue system around the central pillar of Willpower because Willpower was the thing that was most resistant to the Wyld. The other four serve as channels, a way to control Willpower in specific ways towards certain ends.

Now that the Primordials had created fixed things (in both the Elements and the Virtues, though they may be two sides of the same coin) they could build upon this foundation. By combining and mixing and opposing and reacting between the various Elements and Virtues they created what we think of as Creation today. They made land and oceans and skies and trees and animals and rivers and sentient races and gods and all sorts of cool things by clever control over how the various peices all fit together. It is likely that when they first made Creation there was nothing but the Elemental Poles, however as they expanded Creation the poles moved outward away from each other. Even later when the Solars took over and expanded creation still further the Elemental Poles still always mark the ultimate outer edge of Creation. It should be noted that each of the poles is infinite in its own way. Even the Pole of Earth is a mountain that goes down infinitely.

The important thing to remember here is that all of these things. All the Elements, all the Virtues and everything created in Creation and everything outside of it, even the Primordials and Shinma themselves are made of Essence. Some of it is more stable than others (the Essence of a human being is very likely to remain in the shape of a human being unless influenced by outside forces, for example) and some is less stable (at the outer reaches of the Wyld Essence can not even be said to have a stable shape or form at all) but it is all the same "stuff" when you get right down to it. A mote of Essence from Pure Chaos is the same as a mote of Essence from the Pole of Earth.

This is where Elsewhere comes in.

Elsewhere is a metaphorical and practical concept. It is a place where Essence does not exist. Since Essence makes up everything than Elsewhere is a place where nothing exists. In effect, it is nowhere and nowhen. It does not have the potential to be anything. In Elsewhere there is no time or matter or thought.

The trick is that it is possible to break INTO Elsewhere. Since Essence can be forced into any shape or concept of which you can concieve it is possible to make it into Elsewhere as well. In effect, you are making something into nothing. This creates portals which you can use to move things into and out fo Elsewhere.

This can be extremely useful. For example, you can "put" an object in Elsewhere (like your daiklave). While it is in Elsewhere as far as Creation is concerned it does not exist (since it has no connection to Creation). This means nobody can find and steal it or take it from you and so long as you can remember how to open the portal to Elsewhere that connects you to your daiklave you can retrieve it anywhere you happen to be. You could put it in Elsewhere while standing next to the Pole of Fire and retrieve it later while at the Pole of Air (or in the Pure Chaos of the Wyld, or in Malfeas or Autochchtonia or anywhere else). Since time, space and other concepts do not exist in Elsewhere anything you store there will not age or be damaged and so on. In effect, you pushed into the conceptual "nothingness" and forged a minature pocket universe entirely seperate from the rest of the universe that consists entirely of your Daiklave.

Where this becomes important to the cosmology of Exalted is once you realise you can put more into Elsewhere than just your daiklave. Since a daiklave is just a pattern fo Essence and since everything is made of Essence you can put anything you can conceive of in Elsewhere. And since time, space, matter, energy, thought and so on are all just patterns of Essence you can conceive of... I think you know where I am going.

In effect, by utlizing Elsewhere you can forge entire pocket universes. These universes can contain anything found in Creation or the Wyld (which is to say, anything at all) so long as the creator has enough mastery of Essence and enough imagination to conceive of it. For example, all Gods have an innate and instinctive ability to do just that. They create "sanctums" for themselves which are tiny pocket universes outside Creation and The Wyld, unconnected to anything else where they can rest and recover. Depending on the power and skill of the god in question this sanctum can be anything from a meager den full of nothing but dirt and enough space to lie down in to an opulent mansion and estate several acres across complete with a farm for growing food, running water and servants to operate it and attend to your every whim. Doing this is quite taxing and difficult and gods can only ever create one sanctum for themselves (though once created they can expand and improve upon it, especially as their personal Essence increases). Because of this they always create a stable fixed doorway which leads into and out of the sanctum. Think of it like a wormhole that tunnels out of of the primary universe (Creation et al) into that one pocket universe. Access to the right Charms and Spells can allow you to enter a god's sanctum without their permission, or even to usurp it from them! (Note: Some more powerful gods can move the entrance to their sanctum around or hide it in various way but this is the exception, not the rule.)

Since there are thousands, maybe even millions of gods with sanctums in Creation these means that Creation is riddled with this tiny wormholes, all leading to the personal pocket universes of the various gods who created them. However that isn't all. There are truly epic, truly massive communal sanctums as well!

Yu Shan was the first such sanctum and was created by the Primordial to be their city and respite from Creation. Yu Shan is a massive sanctum, the size of the Blessed Isle which is tied to Creation by not one, but sixty one seperate tethers/gateways (sixty fixed and one mobile). When the gods overthrew the Primordials they took Creation as their city. Many of the most powerful gods no longer bother to maintain personal sanctums since life in Yu Shan is much ore lavish and agreeable than anything they could create. Thus Yu Shan does no exist "above" Creation except in a metaphorical sense. It is outside Creation (and the Wyld) floating in the endless nothingness of Elsewhere apart from all other things in Elsewhere. Impenetrable adamant walls and a massive indestrutacable dome seperate Yu Shan from the utter nothingness outside it. Since it is impossible to break through those barriers, nobody knows what would happen if you did.

The various other realms of Exalted's cosmology also exist in Elsewhere. However they are not sanctums like Yu Shan or the various devine ones are. Instead what happened is that the Primordials themselves forged other realms out of their own Essence. Take Autochthonia for instance. Autochthonia is Autochthon. He is a planet size mass full of grinding gears and tubes and oil and lightning with a crystal core. Inside his flesh dwell entire civilizations of humans and Exalts, masses of mechanical gods and his various component souls (the Divine Ministers). Autochthon slipped his entire body and everything inside him into Elsewhere to escape from Creation thousands of years ago. Unlike other realms in Elsewhere Autochthon is unconnected to Creation in anyway. There is no way of getting from one to another. In effect Autochthon has turned himself into a planet sized alternate universe, seperate from the rest fo Creation. Of course, this means he has no access to the infinite Essence of Creation/The Wyld and as such has been slowly breaking down for thousands of years. He did, however, leave various ways that he and Creation could be reconnected (called the Seal of Eight Divinities) and what happens when the people inside him get desperate enough to break these seals and reconnect to two worlds is one of the potential plotlines of Exalted.

Similar to Autochthon is Malfeas. When the Exalted defeated the Primordials the gods decided not to kill the losers but banish them. So they forced the Primordials to take oaths of surrender and obedience, broke them, twisted them all up inside themselves and pushed them into Elsewhere, making it so that they could never return to Creation again. Of course, the gods were smart enough to know that if they completely cut off the Yozi (as the defeated Primordial were called) this might backfire on them. So they left various ways one can travel between Creation and Malfeas. Since the Yozi are not gods and thus not limited like them these rarely take the forms of simple doorways. Instead, it is possible to simply WALK to Malfeas. Just find a desert, start walking in a random direction with the intent to go to Malfeas. Eventually the desert will become Cecelyne and five days later (if your survive) you'll reach Malfeas proper. This makes it hard to determine exactly where Creation ends and Malfeas begins, but make no mistake that they are seperate realms. Malfeas exists in Elsewhere, but maintains a tenous and evershifting connection to Creation proper nonetheless.

If you can understand how that works you can also understand the Underworld. The Underworld formed when the Primordials died. They sank "beneath" Creation but it is more accurate to say they sank into Elsewhere and just so happened to take large chunks of Creation with them! When the Underworld first formed it was a dangerous place, made up of mostly the tombs of the Neverborn and above that the vague halfformed and maleable memories of Creation they held (the further "up" you went from them the more stable and sane and recogniziable this became). Like Malfeas the Underworld is connected to Creation by various tethers that are not as easy to pin down as the entrances to sanctums. These tethers exist on both side of the divide. In the Underworld they are called "fetters" and in Creation they are called "Shadowlands". Fetters are physical objects that tie the Underworld (or one of the ghosts inside it) to Creation. Shadowlands are places where bits and pieces of Creation itself have begun to "sink" into Elsewhere and become part of the Underworld. You can walk through a shadowland and exit either into Creation or the Underworld, depending on the time of day.

At the bottom of the Underworld is the Well of the Void (aka Oblivion). Basically this is ultimate annihilation. Essence that goes into it ceases to exist entirely. Whether this was something intrinsic to Elsewhere that the Neverborn discoverdd when they sank into Elsewhere or something the Neverborn created with their desire to cease to exist is unclear.

And that is a large chunk of what I have learned about Exalted's (somewhat complex) cosmology.

--------------------
Epsilon

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Really. It put my understading of Exalted into a new perspective.

 

[GreggHL]

Even Jane having an absolute understanding of that will not prevent her from, upon Autochthon building a city the size of fucking SIberea in the bunk quarters of her ship, declaring such things absolute bullshit.

 

[Durabys]

Even Jane having an absolute understanding of that will not prevent her from, upon Autochthon building a city the size of fucking SIberea in the bunk quarters of her ship, declaring such things absolute bullshit.

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It is not very much bullshit if you just side-step all the middle-man in the form of energy-matter and information-organization and go directly to manipulate concepts and ideas of those things. She just needs to expand the scope of her perception of reality. But this is your story and till now it was excellent reading, so I have no right to interrupt your muse. In other words: "Please sir. Could i have some more?"

 

[Swordomatic]

It is not very much bullshit if you just side-step all the middle-man in the form of energy-matter and information-organization and go directly to manipulate concepts and ideas of those things. She just needs to expand the scope of her perception of reality. But this is your story and till now it was excellent reading, so I have no right to interrupt your muse. In other words: "Please sir. Could i have some more?"

Click to shrink...

Right. So what you're saying is that you agree.

 

[Nicholai]

.. so if EDI, blonde EDI, isn't the god of the Normandy, what is she the god of?

 

[horus]

Animating Intelligences.