At least this time none of them were babies
Path of the Immeasurable Swarm [Worm/Cradle]
- Thread starter derivativeoflife
- Start date
- Crossover
- Pronouns
- he him
I wonder if the moon sage was trying to build a connection to the crown icon (or something similar if a bit more religious). This fic takes the reasonable position that's it's all but impossible for a non monarch to get one due to how power and authority pool in cradle but making yourself a divine and unquestionable figure to everyone under your power might be enough to work towards it.
- Location
- Earth
From canon we know that most Sages and most Heralds know the theory of how to become the other. The issue is that its hard. Doing either one puts you as rarer than one in a billion - especially for Sage where from memory there's less than a 100 across all of Cradle (or something to that effect), Heralds are slightly more common as it requires no extra insight / wisdom compared to Archlord, just the guts and power to fuse with your own remnant.
Doing both is even harder because they are in some ways antithetical to each other at least if you do it one way around. From memory Sage -> Herald/Monarch is the hardest as well because every "power up" the Sage gets also powers up the Remnant they need to fuse with to reach Herald/Monarch.
So, she presumably knows how to do it, especially if she knows of the outside world and Monarchs. She just doesn't want to - if she became a Monarch as she is now she'd go from being a large fish in a small pond to a large fish in a cage match filled with tigers.
Unless you're someone like Mercy and your Remnant likes you well enough to merge willingly
So the secret is not to be an ambitious, power hungry, ruthless, asshole, so you don't need to fight yourself
Of course... on Cradle people like that are rarer than Heralds
I'd argue that it is less "on Cradle" and more "among sacred artists", it's not like the place has a "selfishness virus" in the air, but rather the culture surrounding the sacred arts seems to select in favour of them more often than not.
- Location
- Earth
Wasn't it Yerrin/Ruby that did that? Or did Mercy also pull it off at the end I forget?
Aspriles
Again I say unto thee; bite me.
- Location
- Eugene, OR
Both.
Yerin and Ruby did the metaphorical equivalent of clasping forearms looking into each other's eyes and proclaiming, "Let's get this bitch!"
Mercy's Remnant the other hand, took one look at her and gasped, "Uwuwaa I luv you! 🥰" While Mercy returned " Aww I love you too!!" ❤ Then they hugged and a bright rainbow light decended upon them as they proclaimed themselves bestest friends forever!
Meanwhile everyone else watching were like: "The fuck? Other people have died trying to do this!"
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- Location
- My house, probably
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Skill issue
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Evil Atlas
Inspector of Details
- Location
- Denial
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Oof. As much as Taylor tries not to damage things too much, you can really see why grey ops like this one require hard hearts. I can't imagine everyone in that tower got out before it collapsed, and who knows how sympathetic that one minion she shot might have been under other circumstances. And then there's Sang-Jun at the end. A lot more lives are riding on Taylor succeeding, but it still hurts.
I love how you can tell what Taylor's invested in earlier in the chapter just from how much attention the narration pays to things. As soon as the narration follows Dae-Jung out of the archive, you know Taylor has absolutely added "rescue these poor bullied kids" to her quest list even though she's provided no commentary whatsoever.
I love how you can tell what Taylor's invested in earlier in the chapter just from how much attention the narration pays to things. As soon as the narration follows Dae-Jung out of the archive, you know Taylor has absolutely added "rescue these poor bullied kids" to her quest list even though she's provided no commentary whatsoever.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
When a character is omniscient (but needs to pay attention), you can get a lot of characterization from what they think is important!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Also @derivativeoflife I think the arc name is messed up? The previous chapter is Event Horizon but you labeled this one Eclipse.
Dang, this lady really has gotten high on her own supply if she genuinely believes she would stand a chance against Northstrider.
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- Location
- western US
honestly, these events might scare/anger her enough to take the risk;
Taylor left evidence that *something* scrab-related went down and while the sage woulden't know right now what happened....I suspect she's going to be on the hunt for information and eventually will realize that Taylor was involved (its not like many people use scrabs, and taylor/northstrider are unlikely to be teamed atm)---and then realize that northstrider was a fake.
I could see her showing up as a stooge as a plot-relevant moment--possibly at a moment that will necessitate taylor ascending a stage.
Heck, I suspect shes going to get help getting her feet under her from the main villian and he will use her as a tactically useful missle (with a well-placed lie to make her chances seem better then they are).
Also, can't wait for Mercy to ascend---taylor can't outshine her for narrative reasons, so we know it won't happen till Mercy does.
edit: reading from the posts about how Remnants work; rather curious to see how things go down with taylor and for that matter, QA.
Are they seperate enough to have their own distinct Remnants? will QA somehow *BE* taylor's remnant? IDK
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- Location
- Argentina
The Moon Sage got fucked and not the way she wanted. 😀
- Location
- USA
In a straight fight she'd get her butt kicked, but she's not quite as delusional as it seems.
This fic (and canon, to a lesser degree) have shown that fighting advanced sacred artists is a lot like fighting a Tinker -- give them prep time and fight them in their lair, and you're in for a bad time. Having a bunch of stockpiled weapons and defenses can tilt the fight in your favor.
Not quite a Monarch can just authority away whatever the sage tries to do, to fight a Monarch with lower level sacred artists you'd need 1 herald to fight hem physically and I'd say 3 sages to fight the authority.
Well, up to a point, yes. But we've seen the limits of that with Moongrave, a capital city which Malice has been funneling the resources of half a continent into for four-hundred years, and can, in the absence of a monarch... stand up to Sesh for about an hour.
Preparation is worth something, but it's very rarely a substitute for advancement on its own.
It really does depend on if she stops lashing out blindly and starts using her head.
While Taylor's illusion of Northstrider may have been able to replicate the feel of his madra, it can't replicate the spiritual pressure of a monarch, which is what eventually clued in the sage to the fact that Northstrider wasn't actually there(and may have given her a false impression of his initial strength, which would partly explain her bravado). Has she ever actually seen monarchs or dreadgods fight?
I think the cult comparison Taylor made is apt, the Moon Sage has isolated herself in her commune and ignores the global community at large. Her own number two archlord doesn't know the Akura have a second sage or that Malice is dead, which itself speaks to an extreme isolationism and ignorance of current events, since Taylor isn't a shut in like her, but has been a significant factor in monarch politics for over a year now.
Is it possible that she could go:
- Huh, maybe Northstrider was never there?
- Only an Archlord/Sage/Herald/Monarch could have pulled this off.
- I should investigate the global community to see if there are any sages or archlords that use scarabs
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By most standards, a Sage is a major, major threat. Taylor can't really fight her directly.
By the standards of what Taylor's having to deal with at the moment? She's only going to make things maybe 1% worse.
If she tried to fight Charity or the sage of the frozen sword on their ground, she's not going to achieve much. She might end up a distraction at some inopportune time, but that would take some luck on her part.
By the standards of what Taylor's having to deal with at the moment? She's only going to make things maybe 1% worse.
If she tried to fight Charity or the sage of the frozen sword on their ground, she's not going to achieve much. She might end up a distraction at some inopportune time, but that would take some luck on her part.
Boy, Taylor gonna have a lot of trouble with it if she tries to go for Monarch. Though she has a side grade in QA to achieve similar level of power even if temporary.
Because I'm not sure who you need to call to fight Taylor's remnant in a battle of wills to succeed without leaving half your intestines on the ground and still failing. Since remnant will sooner expire into oblivion than lose.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
The only way for Taylor to fuse with her remnant tbh will be for it to be the only way to save those she cares about. In that they will be utterly united, and that will likely be enough.
Nice! cant wait until the nest one
If you want her to remain at all relevant in the end-game?
Yes.