So, seeing as I am very much a noob with Dresden Lore. Can any of you more knowledgeable tell me what sort of threats and magical effects we might encounter/fight against in the foreseeable future? Much like the "Breaking against unwanted oaths", I can try and find us Charms that may help us defend against those someday.
I know Odin exists he's also Santa Claus I don't know if this is before or after the vampire thing where I think the red court had like a blood connection or some shit with Molly which might be a good reason in general to take 'Freedom lets go' though I'm not sure about this.
Assumedly all other mythologies exist as well
@Jack vile Ripper do you happen to know off hand what the charm options are for name related effects like given in the crown of flames?
For the purposes of DF your true name, which is your full given name as you would say it, is a serious amount of leverage to have over someone.
It's a bit harder to get than looking them up in a phone book, for mortals the easiest way is to get them to introduce themselves, but once they have it a good caster can use it for divination and what exalted would class as shaping effects.
It's not worth giving up the other crowns for, but if there's a lesser charm that'd let us disrupt someone casting a ritual using Molly's name it's be worth putting on the list of basic defenses.
I assume if we were a solar at some point we'd probably be able to 1v1 medb and win however far into the future that would be given that I remember something about solars killing some of the yozis
Yeah, Mab is good but she isn't omnipotent. I don't know where she'd sit in the exalted divine power scale, but it's significantly further down the list than the primordials that a well developed Solar can throw down with.
That said, it's probably a bad idea to kill certain categories of being unless you really know what's going on.
Some things, like the demigod+ rulers of the red court are mortal enough that their responsibilities are only related to their freaky vampire autocracy. So killing them creates a power vacuum, but doesn't break anything metaphysically important.
The faerie courts however, are part of a system that protects reality from horrific mind bending monsters from outside of creation. They're also tied so intrinsically to the mortal world that power shifts between summer and winter effect global climate.
If you kill Mab you'd basically be putting the earth into an oven to bake and inviting shoggoths over for dinner.
Proper dragons also fall into this category for DF. You can kill the little ones without necessarily breaking anything, but the big ones are responsible for a vaguely defined but important part of creation.
They can't visit the mortal world not because they're too weak to part the veil, but because they'd break things just existing in it. Butcher describes it in a WoG as them doing something like coughing in the real world warping things like neo in the matrix.
So no dragon/god slaying unless we have an intern lined up to take over for them.
It's not worth giving up the other crowns for, but if there's a lesser charm that'd let us disrupt someone casting a ritual using Molly's name it's be worth putting on the list of basic defenses.
Hmm, I guess. I'm just surprised that it is that high. The greatest city of the early medieval ages, Constantinople at its height, has 7 for its Gauntlet and Shroud rating. To pass 8 right off the bat is gonna be a difficult one...
I think you've been spoiled by the expectation that exalts will (almost) always be the most powerful thing in the room. This is Arctis Tor, the heart of power for one of the most powerful beings in creation. The fact that we have a number at all is surprising.
[X] The Crown of Eyes [X] The Crown of Flames
This is better than Anduriel's shadow trick, and that's worth Molly's weight in gold.
I think you've been spoiled by the expectation that exalts will (almost) always be the most powerful thing in the room. This is Arctis Tor, the heart of power for one of the most powerful beings in creation. The fact that we have a number at all is surprising.
The number is normally 12, which a high enough powered exalt with ancient sorcery can break, the reason it is 8 now is as I said because there has just been an attack and Throrned Namshiel isn't what you would call considerate on the way out.
@Jack vile Ripper do you happen to know off hand what the charm options are for name related effects like given in the crown of flames?
For the purposes of DF your true name, which is your full given name as you would say it, is a serious amount of leverage to have over someone.
It's a bit harder to get than looking them up in a phone book, for mortals the easiest way is to get them to introduce themselves, but once they have it a good caster can use it for divination and what exalted would class as shaping effects.
It's not worth giving up the other crowns for, but if there's a lesser charm that'd let us disrupt someone casting a ritual using Molly's name it's be worth putting on the list of basic defenses.
Yeah, Mab is good but she isn't omnipotent. I don't know where she'd sit in the exalted divine power scale, but it's significantly further down the list than the primordials that a well developed Solar can throw down with.
That said, it's probably a bad idea to kill certain categories of being unless you really know what's going on.
Some things, like the demigod+ rulers of the red court are mortal enough that their responsibilities are only related to their freaky vampire autocracy. So killing them creates a power vacuum, but doesn't break anything metaphysically important.
The faerie courts however, are part of a system that protects reality from horrific mind bending monsters from outside of creation. They're also tied so intrinsically to the mortal world that power shifts between summer and winter effect global climate.
If you kill Mab you'd basically be putting the earth into an oven to bake and inviting shoggoths over for dinner.
Proper dragons also fall into this category for DF. You can kill the little ones without necessarily breaking anything, but the big ones are responsible for a vaguely defined but important part of creation.
They can't visit the mortal world not because they're too weak to part the veil, but because they'd break things just existing in it. Butcher describes it in a WoG as them doing something like coughing in the real world warping things like neo in the matrix.
So no dragon/god slaying unless we have an intern lined up to take over for them.
I mean eh... make your own Abyssal Exaltation? Throwing your name into Oblivion is a significant part of how those work, you probably should not do it until you know a lot more about how souls and the exaltation works.
That is true. When the Empyreal Chaos, Holy Tyrant Theion took the field, Exalted died by the hundreds fighting him. Of course, it being Theion himself, I was not surprised. There are 50 Primordials against 700 Celestials and Hundreds of Thousands of Dragons. And still, it was a close War, neither side gaining significant advantage over the other.
Only when the Sun was captured and beguiled the Primordials, letting the Exalted Host march into Heaven and slaughter the Architects of Creation did the turn of War truly pivot towards the Exalted.
Wow, sorry folks. But name related effects are the sort of things Abyssals and Sidereals are good at. Not Infernals. Because Abyssals discards their name upon Exalting and Sidereals can just bullshit reality to believe they didn't exist in the first place.
But for Infernals though.... Hmm, Ego-Infused Pattern Primacy works by making whatever Shaping Effect that is inflicting her to be broken off. It isn't permanent mind you (that goes to the Abyssals and Sidereals). Alternatively, we can use this:
Impervious Primacy Mantle (•••)
The Infernal refuses, with utter and immovable implacability, to permit any force in the cosmos to gainsay her will.
System: Any attempt to cause or force the Infernal to betray, undermine, or abandon her Intimacies automatically fails. Furthermore, she may reflexively spend 1 Essence or 1 Willpower to become immune to all thought and emotion-altering magic for the rest of the scene.
It's even combat applicable with a little bit of thaumaturgy. We'd need to be careful not to waste it, but asking for a being's true name in the middle of a fight would let us use DF magic to okay some nasty tricks on it. Stuff like forcing it to show up in a summoning circle, to obey orders if we're well prepared enough, and apply various sorts of curses. All of which are ridiculously hard to ward against for DF magical entities.
That sort of ability instantly makes Molly very, very, dangerous to mess with. Even if she can't take you in a fight, it'd be entirely within her power to pluck your name from the wind and sell it to any adversary of yours who can. Effectively getting paid for screwing over her own opponents.
The exalts offed the guys on top, but the gods from the unconquered sun down were still around to do their jobs.
I wasn't saying we couldn't kill that sort of being eventually, or that we shouldn't if it's needed. Just that sometimes it isn't immediately apparent what someone's real job is and that we should clean up after ourselves if/when Molly is capable of making that sort of mess.
Killing Mab without being willing to take over her shifts would be irresponsible.
Asking for a beings true name will not work, because you would not hear it in its own voice you would just know it in full as the universe bows to your dread mandate. A True Name is an intimate thing and the Crown of Eyes is all encompassing and objective.
Asking for a beings true name will not work, because you would not hear it in its own voice you would just know it in full as the universe bows to your dread mandate. A True Name is an intimate thing and the Crown of Eyes is all encompassing and objective.
Wait what? Hold on, common parlance please. Are you saying we can't just ask a being's True Name (with Capitals for importance), only the name that they used on their daily lives or every name that they have ever had in their lives?
If only we were Abyssal or Sidereal. Then we can just shield away against any mind-affecting magic for all eternity, instead of just one scene.
Guess we just have to tank whatever is coming our way. And we have a lot of Soak Charms for it.
Wait what? Hold on, common parlance please. Are you saying we can't just ask a being's True Name (with Capitals for importance), only the name that they used on their daily lives or every name that they have ever had in their lives?
You would get their full true name, for any information gathering purposes that would be all you need to identify them, but you would not be able to bind by it since you did not hear it from them, you read it in Ye Old Legacy Cosmic Phone Book that almost no one even knows is there.
Wait what? Hold on, common parlance please. Are you saying we can't just ask a being's True Name (with Capitals for importance), only the name that they used on their daily lives or every name that they have ever had in their lives?
I think it's more the fact that the true name doesn't work unless given by the owner willingly, like you could probably mind control someone to give their full name however this is unwilling and therefore meaningless metaphysically. I suppose it would be the willing act that gives it metaphysical legitimacy.
Unless it's not that at all and I'm just plain incorrect.
Hmm, well since it doesn't mean squat if the person in question doesn't speak of their True Name, then I'm gonna choose the Crown that allows us to punish those that spoke of our name.
I had forgotten about what each did and just realised that The Crown of World allows us to no sell the veil if we wanted to escape though The Crown of Flames is also nice since I assume if we give someone our name and they use it to bullshit with us we can just smite them though depending on the person doing it they might just be able to tank it.
Ah, we don't even need the Crown of the World. Lowering the local Gauntlet to escape can be done in less reality-corroding ways. We have a Charm for that.
Ephemeral Abrasion Curse (•)
Summoning the voracious hunger of the Hell of Burrowing Maggots and casting it against the skin of the universe, the Infernal weakens the barriers between worlds. This Charm's activation is accompanied by a faint chewing sound with no apparent source.
System: The Infernal spends a moment concentrating and then rolls Manipulation + Occult against difficulty 6. Each success lowers the local Shroud or Gauntlet rating by one level for the next (Essence rating) days.
The Crown of Flames is also nice since I assume if we give someone our name and they use it to bullshit with us we can just smite them though depending on the person doing it they might just be able to tank it.
This is a very valid risk, yes. The next best thing that we can do is to use Life-Denying Curse so that they can't just heal it as fast.
Life-Denying Curse (••••)
The Infernal blesses her enemies with futility, denying them the ability to recover from whatever torments she chooses to inflict upon them. System: The Infernal reflexively spends 1 Essence upon inflicting damage to an enemy. For the rest of the scene, the target is incapable of healing any damage or removing any inflicted curses, mutilations, derangements, or other such effects. For example, if afflicted with Golden Years Tarnished Black, she could not spend Willpower during the scene to reclaim the joy in her memories. Anyone killed while under the effects of this Charm finds their soul immediately banished to suffer for all eternity in Kakuri. Condemning a supernatural being in this fashion "rolls back" the number of times the Infernal is considered to have attempted to don her Shintai form during the current story by one, reducing its cost or difficulty accordingly (to a minimum of Essence 2, Willpower 2, and no roll requirement), so long as that being isn't a creature of darkness. The Infernal may alternately pay 2 Essence when activating this Charm to cause its effects to linger for her Essence rating in days.
Signature Effect: The 1 Essence effect of Life-Denying Curse drops to a cost of 0 Essence while the Infernal wears her Shintai form.
Question The Crown of Glory what are its limits could one could just go around collecting new armor and weapons forever.
True names are what you personally consider your full and complete name and title. Harry gets around giving his first and last name mostly by just privately putting importance on his middle names, thou it still bits him on occasion. Mind mortals change so fast that even their full name becomes unreliable after a month, and useless after a year.
Yes, though you only need one set of armor and weapon at a time, you might as well use the rest to make an army of dark spirits, that is traditional for Infernals at least. Vast palaces filled with countless servants are a close second.
Definitely want the Crown of Glory for sure then. Dresden files is stuffed full of minor things that can be converted into servants. And Minions are definitely something you really need a lot of in Dresden Files.
Definitely want the Crown of Glory for sure then. Dresden files is stuffed full of minor things that can be converted into servants. And Minions are definitely something you really need a lot of in Dresden Files.
if you want Minions, you just need the Charm Demonic Primacy of Essence. Its effect is that lower tier evil spirits than you now bow in supplication at the sight of you. And there are seldom few that are more higher tier than an Infernal Exalted.
if you want Minions, you just need the Charm Demonic Primacy of Essence. Its effect is that lower tier evil spirits than you now bow in supplication at the sight of you. And there are seldom few that are more higher tier than an Infernal Exalted.
That only makes them acknowledge the infernal authority which while great is lesser then the Crown of Glory, which allows you to covert them into actual loyal minions. The Crown of Glory and Demonic Primancy of Essence would actually combo really well allowing us to quickly gain vast armies of lesser beings.
Mab one of the most powerful and knowledgeable beings gets a lot of information from controlling the lesser fey to report what they see and hear to her. Those 2 together allow us to take over the information network of the supernatural.
But for Infernals though.... Hmm, Ego-Infused Pattern Primacy works by making whatever Shaping Effect that is inflicting her to be broken off. It isn't permanent mind you (that goes to the Abyssals and Sidereals). Alternatively, we can use this:
