Path of the Immeasurable Swarm [Worm/Cradle]

Eithan was apparently waiting exactly right at the edge of Taylor's range before sprinting as fast as he can to get to the room when the affirmation was given. I assume he certainly could've lip-read things, but also he seems to be somewhat attempting to respect them, so I dunno.
He definitely lip read after the gold asked them and then started sprinting. But before that I doubt he would be able to. Maybe Claudia or Emriss could but not Eithan as an Archlord.
 
Yeah, kind of annoying. Fixed it by replacing the I with a lowercase L.
I'm not sure if it'll work on this forum, but on some other forums I've found you can also break the tag by putting a different tag inside it. I'm just going to use a screenshot to display it, because that's just the easiest thing:



If it works the same here, that meaningless bolding will break the Information tag. Do it very last thing, though, because SV might strip out the tag while you edit other things.
 
Looks like Taylor is also thinking about how she might have to push to Monarch to win this. However that would mean she'd have to ascend very soon after doing so and she doesn't want to leave Mercy (and the others) behind.
Obviously manifesting the Arrow (or Bow) Icon would be great for Mercy using the prototypes, but it would also be nice if they could manage to get a Herald on their team, since right now they are very heavily weighted to Sages with Yerin manifesting an Icon rather than merging with her Blood Shadow to become a Herald.
 
Looks like Taylor is also thinking about how she might have to push to Monarch to win this. However that would mean she'd have to ascend very soon after doing so and she doesn't want to leave Mercy (and the others) behind.
I don't think thats the case. She could master a dreadgod as an Overlord. When she becomes Archglord she will not only recover but also become able to wield more of QA's Authority than ever before, just by having that Crown Icon as well as experience.
The new Goalpost will be Taylor Mindblasting Monarchs, and Mercy using PseudoPenances to merc them. Personal hope - Please please please Mercy become a Sage!!! Mercy will have so easy road to Herald that it's a shame for her to struggle to get an Icon as Herald...
 
Eithan was apparently waiting exactly right at the edge of Taylor's range before sprinting as fast as he can to get to the room when the affirmation was given. I assume he certainly could've lip-read things, but also he seems to be somewhat attempting to respect them, so I dunno.
That was after the gold knocked and they opened the door, presumably dropping the security they had placed on the room for their talk.
 
(has not read anything of cradle except this story)
Yes Ethan. Keep dropping clues that whatever you are is manipulating events and toying with people to get some nebulous outcome while refusing to play straight with anyone as you clearly see them all as beneath you. You better hope your the Contessa of this setting or your going to end up like Alexandria.
Even then, you probably won't get away clean when Taylor finally takes exception with you.
 
(has not read anything of cradle except this story)
Yes Ethan. Keep dropping clues that whatever you are is manipulating events and toying with people to get some nebulous outcome while refusing to play straight with anyone as you clearly see them all as beneath you. You better hope your the Contessa of this setting or your going to end up like Alexandria.
Even then, you probably won't get away clean when Taylor finally takes exception with you.

Seriously don't read this if you think you will read the books yourself it has late series and ending spoilers.
Eithan IS Ozmanthus Aurelius, also known as Ozriel. His talent in the Sacred Arts is transcendent, his talent with the way equally so. His precognition even sealed is ridiculous. He is at minimum as good as every Abidan Judge in their field of expertise except Suriel the Healer/Phoenix. Healing is his one deficiency. He connected to the Broom Icon just to show that he could. He is the missing 8th Abidan Judge, who found a macguffin and used it to go incognito on Cradle. His scythe revolutionized heavenly operating procedures and enabled the clean annihilation of corrupted iterations without any risk of corruption spreading though the shards. But being the Abidan's cleaner took a psychological toll on him. The Abidan tried having people intervene who aren't constrained by the non-interference clause of the Eledari Pact but the first two groups they raised to do this all went mad/got corrupted. Eithan is looking for talented people to ascend with to start a round 3(This round 3 is sometimes referred to as the Reapers). He also wants talented people to ascend with because it's lonely at the top. So basically exactly what Ozmanthus was talking about in the marble he showed Taylor. Lindon, Yerin, and crew are all Reapers after they ascend and I'm sure Eithan also considers Taylor worthy talent.
 
Looks like Taylor is also thinking about how she might have to push to Monarch to win this. However that would mean she'd have to ascend very soon after doing so and she doesn't want to leave Mercy (and the others) behind.
Obviously manifesting the Arrow (or Bow) Icon would be great for Mercy using the prototypes, but it would also be nice if they could manage to get a Herald on their team, since right now they are very heavily weighted to Sages with Yerin manifesting an Icon rather than merging with her Blood Shadow to become a Herald.
I don't think thats the case. She could master a dreadgod as an Overlord. When she becomes Archglord she will not only recover but also become able to wield more of QA's Authority than ever before, just by having that Crown Icon as well as experience.
The new Goalpost will be Taylor Mindblasting Monarchs, and Mercy using PseudoPenances to merc them. Personal hope - Please please please Mercy become a Sage!!! Mercy will have so easy road to Herald that it's a shame for her to struggle to get an Icon as Herald...
If she figured out a way to become Archlord, get access to her Oracle and Crown Icons and use QA safely she could manage. But using QA safely as a Sage is the hard part. Plus it's likely her Herald stuff will be tied into QA for better and worse.

I think Taylor will eventually become a Monarch but will leave Cradle with Mercy and Mirara, and likely bring Grace along for the ride. I do think that Charity will stick around long enough to stabiliz things and then bounce to becasue she honestly wouldn't want to be in charge long term and she'd likely want to reunite with her family.

(has not read anything of cradle except this story)
Yes Ethan. Keep dropping clues that whatever you are is manipulating events and toying with people to get some nebulous outcome while refusing to play straight with anyone as you clearly see them all as beneath you. You better hope your the Contessa of this setting or your going to end up like Alexandria.
Even then, you probably won't get away clean when Taylor finally takes exception with you.
Eithan isn't the Alexandria or Contessa of Cradle. He's the Scion of Cradle and per Word of God could likely fold Scion in half. But the share the same depression weakness.

Seriously don't read this if you think you will read the books yourself it has late series and ending spoilers.
Eithan IS Ozmanthus Aurelius, also known as Ozriel. His talent in the Sacred Arts is transcendent, his talent with the way equally so. His precognition even sealed is ridiculous. He is at minimum as good as every Abidan Judge in their field of expertise except Suriel the Healer/Phoenix. Healing is his one deficiency. He connected to the Broom Icon just to show that he could. He is the missing 8th Abidan Judge, who found a macguffin and used it to go incognito on Cradle. His scythe revolutionized heavenly operating procedures and enabled the clean annihilation of corrupted iterations without any risk of corruption spreading though the shards. But being the Abidan's cleaner took a psychological toll on him. The Abidan tried having people intervene who aren't constrained by the non-interference clause of the Eledari Pact but the first two groups they raised to do this all went mad/got corrupted. Eithan is looking for talented people to ascend with to start a round 3(This round 3 is sometimes referred to as the Reapers). He also wants talented people to ascend with because it's lonely at the top. So basically exactly what Ozmanthus was talking about in the marble he showed Taylor. Lindon, Yerin, and crew are all Reapers after they ascend and I'm sure Eithan also considers Taylor worthy talent.
Eithan's issues have issues, like to the degree he's the one dude we know for sure that beats Taylor's issues especially a Taylor with therapy and a found family.

Taylor and Mercy are looking like really great recruits for the Reapers. Taylor because she's a fantastic paperwork minion, intelligence and intrigue agent and has a talent for social stuff that Lindon and Yerin have lacking. Mercy is a ball of concentrated sunshine that is an absolute monster of talent, Eithan sees a lot of himself in her and respects her morals and character.
 
He acts like… Like everything is a game. A game he wants to win, maybe, but still ultimately something he's doing for his own amusement rather than a matter of life and death.
I'd been wondering about why Taylor reacted so differently to him than to a certain other know-it-all smartass mastermind type, and I think this is a big part of it. Lisa shared Eithan's habit of acting like a jackass for her own amusement, but Taylor knew her well enough to see that behind the facade, she was burning the candle at both ends because of how seriously she took her responsibilities. With Eithan, she has no way of knowing if he refrained from telling her about the Penance prototype sooner because he knew he'd need it when a situation like this came up or because he thought preventing the whole multi-monarch battle by letting Malice use it to assassinate Shen would have been boring.
 
I'd been wondering about why Taylor reacted so differently to him than to a certain other know-it-all smartass mastermind type, and I think this is a big part of it. Lisa shared Eithan's habit of acting like a jackass for her own amusement, but Taylor knew her well enough to see that behind the facade, she was burning the candle at both ends because of how seriously she took her responsibilities. With Eithan, she has no way of knowing if he refrained from telling her about the Penance prototype sooner because he knew he'd need it when a situation like this came up or because he thought preventing the whole multi-monarch battle by letting Malice use it to assassinate Shen would have been boring.
I think it's also that Eithan very rarely "turns it off", so to speak. Lisa rarely "Tattletales" her teammates. She does sometimes lie or manipulate them (mostly for Coil reasons), but she doesn't do the "smug know-it-all bitch" routine on them.

Eithan, with the exception of like one scene in Wintersteel (right before facing Miara) is almost always Eithaning.
 
Potentially worrying thought I just had: if the effect of Penance is unique in such a way that killing a Dreadgod with it doesn't have the usual side effect of making the others stronger, does that also mean that killing a Monarch with it won't make them weaker? Because it's not like the protagonists could go back later and kill him again the old fashioned way if that turns out to be the case.
 
Potentially worrying thought I just had: if the effect of Penance is unique in such a way that killing a Dreadgod with it doesn't have the usual side effect of making the others stronger, does that also mean that killing a Monarch with it won't make them weaker? Because it's not like the protagonists could go back later and kill him again the old fashioned way if that turns out to be the case.
The reason it interacted with a Dreadgod that way is because it killed them so thoroughly.

Presumably, a Monarch killed by the same level of effect, means there is never going to be a later.
 
Potentially worrying thought I just had: if the effect of Penance is unique in such a way that killing a Dreadgod with it doesn't have the usual side effect of making the others stronger, does that also mean that killing a Monarch with it won't make them weaker? Because it's not like the protagonists could go back later and kill him again the old fashioned way if that turns out to be the case.
It shouldn't work that way. The dreadgods releasing their hunger aura is an on death trigger which Penance bypassed by killing them thoroughly enough.

The monarchs adding hunger aura is a passive effect caused by them existing. The hunger aura stops flowing if they aren't around for any reason, if they're killed, if they ascend, if they somehow were able to revert their advancement and drop down to herald or sage.
 
Potentially worrying thought I just had: if the effect of Penance is unique in such a way that killing a Dreadgod with it doesn't have the usual side effect of making the others stronger, does that also mean that killing a Monarch with it won't make them weaker? Because it's not like the protagonists could go back later and kill him again the old fashioned way if that turns out to be the case.
Dreadgods are balloons of Hunger Madra. Killing them normally pops the balloon and spills Hunger Madra free to fuel other balloons. Penance not only kills the balloon but also Madra inside. Monarchs are sources of Hunger Madra, no matter how hard they die they stop producing Hunger Madra
 
I do wonder how things may or may not go according to plan. Obviously, it would be great if everything involving the grand-oath-array works out and Mercy, Taylor, and probably Yerin and Lindon are able to power up to full-sage/herald level in the hyperbolic time chamber before entering the labyrinth to fight the enemy sages/heralds who have already gone in, but I can't imagine it will be that simple.
 
I do wonder how things may or may not go according to plan. Obviously, it would be great if everything involving the grand-oath-array works out and Mercy, Taylor, and probably Yerin and Lindon are able to power up to full-sage/herald level in the hyperbolic time chamber before entering the labyrinth to fight the enemy sages/heralds who have already gone in, but I can't imagine it will be that simple.
I think the struggle will be getting the Grand Oath Array.

So basically, now is the time for a heist.
 
Speaking of the Labyrinth, do you think Taylor's Devouring Swarm technique could be modified into a Hunger technique? I'm sure Hera could be convinced to handle the memories, and her Jade Cycling technique could be adjusted to handle the rest, since it's already designed to control Madra.
 
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