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Memento Mori (Exalted/40k)

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Point of order, you can interact with mortals without them dying, you just can't be treated like one of them. The old you is dead, the new you is their vengeful spirit, don't forget it.
 
I actually love this, and despite voting for the other, can say this is just as good, if not better. that said,
[X] The Ghost of Atlantea
or
[X] The Gunslinger of Atlantea
 
MrRageQuit said:
Next lore post, @Maugan Ra.

Gunmetal City

Gunmetal City is built into the crater of Mount Thollos, an immense volcano on the north coast. Given the limits placed by the crater, the city is built upward, the spire made of sky-piercing towers constantly being scrubbed clean by hordes of servants. Clean air is the privilege of nobility, the richest outright importing fresh air from other worlds for their mansions.

The middle hive here is completely defined by the gargantuan foundries churning out an incessant flood of weapons and munitions crucial to Imperial war efforts. The Infernis, the under-hive equivalent, is consumed by unbearable heat, and spouts of lava and toxic gas from Mount Thollos. The gangers of Infernis have nothing to live for other than dominating other gangs, and these well-armed maniacs produce the best soldiers in the PDF and tithed Imperial Guard regiments.

Bloody Lucre

In theory, business in Gunmetal City is straightforward. There are contracts with private buyers, direct purchases by Battlefleet Calixis and the Departmento Munitorum, and the biggest prize: consignments to the Administratum as part of the tithe. The producers deliver directly to the Administratum on behalf of the Lord Governor, and the Lord Governor reimburses them in turn. The "Exactors" (as the Administratum adepts are called for their suspiciously precise numbers) make sure everything is running smoothly and publish the next set of quotas at the proper time. The Mechanicus oversee the machines in every foundry and tightly control the dispensation of archprints and rites of forging.

In practice, people will do near anything to get those commissions. Bribery, intimidation, sabotage, and assassinations are rife. The Arbites don't care about what the nobles do to each other, but come down with maximum force and zero subtlety on corruption in the Adeptus or anything that could threaten the tithe.

Fane-ing Sympathy

The fanes are loose cartel-combines that control much of weapon production, theirs is an elective cross-class membership offering protection to their members. Metallicans may shift their allegiances between fanes or the lesser forges, but never do so lightly. Every fane boasts its temple of arms, with altars and reliquaries containing legendary weapons and archetype-models. They provide a modicum of stability, protecting their members, yet they too are regular players in the trade-wars that consume the city.

Examples:

The Fane of Doru: While possessing a great deal of money and resources, the fane of Doru garners little respect or influence among its peers. Regarded by the rest as "artless panel beaters and skulking cowards," Doru is seen as little more than a front for the Skaelen-Har Hegemony (one of the Great Houses), and they face an uphill struggle to consolidate or expand their power in the hive. They are continuously beset on all sides by backstabbing and petty indignities. In terms of arms, the Doru is largely limited to the mass-production of PDF patterns, generic spares and ammo.

The Forge of Fykos: Perhaps the most famous and wealthy of the Metallican independents, the Fykos dynasty has supplied the elite of the Calixis Sector with the most potent and exclusive of hunting weapons and arms for centuries. Many on Gunmetal regard them as dangerously arrogant and insufferably effete.

The Forge of Khayer-Addin: The family of Khayer-Addin are reputedly of fallen Rogue Trader stock and their family forge has provided master-gunsmiths for five generations. They specialise in one-off commissions, duelling pieces and a variety of artfully disguised guns and blades. To the Scintillan nobility, a Khayer-Addin weapon is a highly desirable item, often an exquisite and ornate work of art whose lethality is rarely exceeded.

The Fane of Orthlack: Allied to the ascendant power of House Hax of Sibellus, the Fane of Orthlack hold the ironclad contracts to arm the Scintillan Magistratum and the enforcer cadres of many other worlds. Old, powerful and influential, the Orthlack are among the most conservative of the great fanes and arguably the strongest.

The Fane of Takara: A rising power, the Takara are creators of superior las weapons of all types. They have strong Cult Mechanicus ties and recently fought off a takeover by the Fane of Doru, forcing a radical reassessment of their power and influence by others in the Metallican hierarchy.

The Fane of Westingkrup: A powerful and aggressive fane, and one with a long history of survival despite the odds, Westingkrup specialises in revolvers, hand cannon, shotguns and other "low tech/high-quality" arms with a just reputation for crafting robust, no-nonsense weapons. Westingkrup is also infamous for the number of regulators and gunslingers it routinely employs and its willingness to go to war over the slightest provocation.
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While I do appreciate these posts and will look at thread marking them when I get back home after work, I would generally prefer it if you didn't copy/paste sections of the rule books - the example fanes are all from a sidebar in the Inquisitor's Handbook, for example.
 
[X] The Silver Bullet Upon Which Is Written Atlantia
[X] The Last and First Gunslinger of Atlantia
[X] The Bullet For Paradise
 
[X] The Silver Bullet Upon Which Is Written Atlantia
[X] The Last and First Gunslinger of Atlantia
 
[X] Dead Man's Trigger
[X] Cry Out For Repentance And Be Damned Nonetheless
 
Fayhem said:
It's one of the limit break consequences, IIRC. Gimme a sec and I'll check my book again though.

Edit: Hmm, I'm not finding it, actually. I distinctly remember it coming up in an Abyssal quest @VagueZ was running, but maybe that was actually homebrew? Regardless of whether there's a specific mechanic that directly imposes death, it doesn't change the fact that Lyra becoming a part of our "life" again would be greatly to her detriment per the QM's post I quoted though.
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This is something that's an edition difference, not homebrew. I hadn't gotten back into 3e yet when I outlined that quest (it's the complete one linked in my signature), and 3e/Essence Abyssals were still years in the future, so much of the quest was written with second edition assumptions in place, because that was what I knew and had on hand to reference. Second edition Exalted has more aggressively punishing Limit Breaks for Abyssals, including "mortals you have a positive relationship to just die". Current edition Abyssals lack this because... it was too aggressively punishing. It strongly discouraged Abyssals from trying to make connections with mortals. It cut off drama, instead of enhancing it, because players of Abyssal characters were incentivized to not care too much about mortals, so their loss wasn't as poignant as hoped for.

Now instead of just straight killing the mortal, we have problems that the Abyssal can hustle around to try to solve and protect their favored mortals, because they don't drop dead but instead will be threatened deeply by earthquakes and zombie hordes... and trying to save them can cause a dramatic feedback loop where you regain Limit that was spent. Lose Limit by causing these calamities, then gain Limit by saving your dearest companions from the problems your powers caused, so now you need to cause new calamities to shed this Limit...

It's not an impossible spiral, since you can get out of it without cheesing things, but rather a good tool for drama as you struggle against your nature to try to save what's meaningful to your character. That's basically how Maugan Ra wrote up this version of Abyssals, too: those close to you don't die of no cause by Abyssal nature, but rather they'll spend their lives trying for your greater good.
 
[X] The Bullet From Paradise

I do like The Last and First, however the intentional breaking reversal of the common "First and Last" phrase sticks in my head so it doesn't roll off the tongue that well.
 
Maugan Ra said:
While I do appreciate these posts and will look at thread marking them when I get back home after work, I would generally prefer it if you didn't copy/paste sections of the rule books - the example fanes are all from a sidebar in the Inquisitor's Handbook, for example.
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For the most part, I'm not copy/pasting, I'm compiling and summarizing - but I understand and will comply with your request going forward.
 
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  • Voting
    • Scheduled vote count started by Maugan Ra on May 12, 2024 at 4:05 PM, finished with 126 posts and 67 votes.
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  • Voting
    • Hm. Shame the two basically identical names didn't get combined, but that's a bit of an audible.

    Plus the winner has a balanced mix of both western and Xania influences, so it's all good.
     
    I would have liked our name to be a more universally recognizable reference so that we don't run into anyone offworld taking "Atlantia" as being just another placename in a galaxy full of them, but hell, we're an Exalted - maybe our legend will spread fast enough and in enough detail that problem will solve itself. We can hope.
     
    [X] Silence Clad in Ashen Dust
    [X] The Dirge of Fire and Gunsmoke

    I like these two. 'Silence' or 'Dirge' both make usable shorthand or introductory names, which from my personal experience, is important with florid Abyssal titles.

    Edit: Oops, too late!
     
    Last edited:
    Dammit too late. Would have gone for any of the following:
    [] The Last and First Gunslinger of Atlantia
    [] Dirge of Fire and Laslight
    [] Corpsemaker
    - Short. Sweet. To the point.
    [] A Bullet For Tommorow
    [] The Message Given in Gunsmoke and Dilated Laspacks
    - an allusion to the aftermath of violence, and sneaking in a spicy pillow/swelling battery reference. Suffers a bit due to our protagonist not (yet) giving an air of science in his register.

    Abyssal names really pull the creativity out.
     
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