[X] Plan Public Works
-[X] Write-In: Use Husband-Seducing Demon Dance and put excess to work on public works. Ask advisors what works are most needed (probably revitalizing trade routes, farm labor).
While I appreciate the effort, you are not required to write the Charm names in gold.
Vote called, Plan Public Works it is, update should be up after my Shadowrun game this evening. Next problem: What advisors? There will be a number of quick and dirty substitutes to pick from, several of which will lead to their own problems down the line.
[X] Plan Public Works
-[X] Write-In: Use Husband-Seducing Demon Dance and put excess to work on public works. Ask advisors what works are most needed (probably revitalizing trade routes, farm labor).
With the Tyrant and his inner circle dead, no longer receiving reports or sending orders, and quite a few more underlings having deserted from the palace, there's plenty of abandoned writing implements to be found on empty desks. (Another thing to handle eventually.) You pick an appropriately high-quality brush and ink and start thinking about how best to order the six Talons present in the city to come here and present themselves immediately. Going around the city as you are now, radiant like the Sun, would probably attract too many passers-by, or scare them off, or both, so it'll have to be letters. But how to phrase them? Commanding, threatening, friendly or mercenary all seem to have their pitfalls... ah. Surprising, that'll do it.
Letter-Within-a-Letter Technique!
On each of six near-identical letters, you open not with your introduction but with some empty complimentary language, 'to the eminent Talonlord of the 2nd, may you die surrounded by many children, may your deeds be recorded in the annals of Heaven', et cetera, then segue into some generic observations regarding their service, some words on your own speech to the populace earlier in the day, and finally close with a subtle and precisely targeted insinuation that each Talonlord should gather his soldiers to make haste to the Flower Courtyard of the palace, emphasised with the suggestions that the others will be there and are already in motion. By the time the recipients get to the end of the message and realize the insinuation, they'll be halfway to internalizing it already.
The whole thing is of course written with in flawless calligraphy. Any beginner can make swift strokes, and a careful scribe can make confident strokes, but it takes a sage to do both at once. The very shape of the characters further cements the importance of paying attention to the letters. In this terrible world you have created a small thing of beauty among the necessary things, and that is worth being grateful for.
Prakash flinches when you approach him. Much like Ranjit, he's seemingly growing more afraid of you over time. Strange. Still, he knows the palace and the city better than you, and he assures you he can find messengers to deliver your letters with haste, so you let him handle that. Meanwhile you go back to the Tyrant's personal room to loot the fine sitar there, and practice with it until the soldiers start arriving.
Respect-Commanding Attitude!
Then, shining with the light of the Sun, you step onto a pedestal and begin to sing and play and dance for them. Your fingers caress the strings of the sitar, coaxing forth beautiful music worthy of the Cerulean Lute in the Celestial City. You move with beauty and grace and power, projecting an aura of perfection to all who see you, demanding their complete attention.
Husband-Seducing Demon Dance!
First you sing an adaptation of a common folk tale, of a young boy who went to ask the North Wind for help paying his starving family's taxes, calculated to tear down what loyalty the soldiers might have had to the Tyrant and his regime of plunder. Then you start to segue into a song of optimism, of promise for the future, if the soldiers will follow you instead.
"Anathema!" someone interrupts. "Thief! Demon!" Well, it had to happen eventually. The monks of the Immaculate Order teach that Solars are thieves who have stolen their power from the Sun to use it for wicked ends, and thus you ought to be slain. It's not surprising that some of the soldiers would follow the Immaculate Faith, recognize what you're doing, and try to heckle you.
You continue playing over the interruption, singing of the new dawn rising over Ulsan. A second soldier joins the first. There's widespread angry muttering in the crowd watching you. But you've used this Charm before, you're confident you'll win practically all of them over. And then, you realize with a start, the angry muttering is from those you have won over. One of them knifes the first heckler, and the floodgates open to a rash of stabbings. In seconds, both the hecklers lie dead on the floor.
You have won the devotion of the army, so fervent they'll murder their fellows for insulting you.
Now to put them to more productive uses. "Prakash?" you call, stepping out of the courtyard and putting down the sitar.
"Yes, Mighty One?"
"What's left of the... ah... outer council? The lower ministers, the upper bureaucracy, or whatever the Tyrant called the equivalent? The seconds and retainers to his inner circle of vicious dogs?"
"Nothing, Mighty One!" Prakash cries in anguish, and prostrates himself on the floor before you. "They have all fled!"
Well, that's a nuisance. "Did they say anything about why they fled or where they were going? I might want to find some of them, I have use for them."
"Mighty One, I am afraid I only spoke to the Lower Minister of the Harbor and his wife, and he said only that they were fleeing the city lest you would might them and slay them too."
"Oh. What had they done?"
Still grovelling, Prakash answers face-down as though he's talking to the floor. "Mighty One, I am sadly not conversant with the activities of the Ministers of the Harbor. I was only an assistant to the Ministers of the Palace."
From what you learned when first coming here, the Tyrant's inner council, the Grand Vizier and the Upper Ministers and the General and several others, were all complicit in his wicked rule. All had blood on their hands, and were high and recognized enough that any could have formed a nucleus of objection to your takeover. It seemed right at the time to kill them all and shatter any potential resistance before it could form, or before they could flee and escape justice. Still, with the shattering and fleeing propagating this far down, perhaps there was a better way to go about it.
"Prakash, what fraction of the palace staff remains, overall? Is there anyone you would suggest for promotion?"
"Mighty One, I think less than one-fifth remain, and the most senior remaining is Chanda, the head cook. She has some experience ruling the lesser servants. Does that please Your Excellency?"
It does not, but you fear Prakash might flee the palace too if he even thinks your displeasure is directed at him, so you merely answer "Thank you." before considering your options. Right now you just want to be done with the soldiers and go smash something. You were originally hoping you could fob their assignment off on someone who knew what kind of public works projects were needed to make up for what the soldiers had destroyed. You would have settled for someone who knew about a useful kind of public works. You've got a head cook, apparently. But you can't manage everything yourself, both because you don't have the time and because you'll go mad from it. You'll give the orders, and let someone else implement the details.
Now, a head cook has to know about large amounts of raw food coming in to the palace in general, which probably means she knows something about the overall state of the farms and supply chains, which hopefully means Chanda would be be able to assign soldiers to useful farm labor given time to speak to relevant people who know other people. Maybe.
[] Give the soldiers a general order to go do public works projects and find useful labor to do on their own initiative.
[] Promote one of the Talonlords to General and give him temporary responsibility for public works.
[] Promote Head Cook Chanda and give her temporary responsibility for public works.
[] Promote the distressed Prakash and give him temporary responsibility for public works.
[] Promote the lowest-ranking servant still in the palace and give them temporary responsibility for public works.
[] Find a farmer on the way to the bridge and give them temporary responsibility for public works.
[] Go to the largest nearby building and draft-promote its owner or manager with temporary responsibility for public works.
[] Go to the nearest construction site and give its head architect temporary responsibility for public works.
[] Write-in: someone else to hand this over to?
(Votes to micromanage the soldiers right now will be ignored. The next update will get to the barrier-bridge voted on earlier, regardless of who is chosen.)
Sorry about the late update, I put unreasonably many words into an irrelevant calligraphy tangent in the first pass and spent some time cutting it down to size.
[X] Promote the distressed Prakash and give him temporary responsibility for public works.
He showed up, so he gets the promotion. Either he fills up the vacancies with his family and cronies or he fills up the vacancies with his enemies or enemies of the previous regime. Let's see how he performs.
Speaking of which, we probably can fill our administration with the prisoners in the dungeons anyways. They were too important to kill and dangerous to let go right?
We need all of them, I think. The Head Cook, Prakash, one of the Talonlords, a farmer, manager, and head architect individually don't know everything about the realm, but combined have a good chance to have enough perspectives on what's going on.
The problem is, getting them may count as micromanaging? Or is that just meant to say we can't manage the public works ourselves, @Exmorri?
...
...
Edit: rereading, I think the intent is just that we're not supposed to manage public works ourselves, so this should be okay. (Update: it is)
However, if I'm wrong the vote will be ignored. If that's the case, I'll try to tag voters to let them know (assuming I'm online in time).
Proposal
Have to recruit in a minimally disruptive way. If we can't go ourselves, send soldiers to look intimidating (but we don't want the bad rep of actual violence). Rarer recruits should be done personally; the soldiers can do the rest.
Form a committee to draft a preliminary plan, and suggest trusted replacements as permanent members. Prakash will most likely take final responsibility, but if someone more qualified wants the job, we'll get that during tonight's report.
[X] Plan Prakash Heads Draft Committee
-[X] Draft possible recruits into one-day committee. The ones we can recruit ourselves, do so before leaving (prioritize building owner/manager and head architect). Send 1-2 soldiers to draft the rest, explaining in full detail. Soldiers are not to actually use violence; try somewhere else if necessary.
-[X] Committee will draft initial plan for public works, and suggest future recruits for this department
-[X] Prakash has full discretion over the committee and in implementing the plan
-[X] Report to us by tonight (or before, if we're needed)
You have to hand it off for now. Handing it off to a committee of multiple people is fine. Your proposal is acceptable, though it might not be implemented to the letter. IC: Vagaries of chance and all that, OOC: I don't want to hold votes for every little detail if a quibble comes up.
Now, this quest is meant to be about things falling apart, but I'm trying to balance the degree of aggravation to be felt mostly by the protagonist character, not the voters, so I'll try to give a bit more general answer to what I think is your underlying query:
There is no 'right' response. There is no secret good ending that you need to look for. It won't be your fault if you vote for the 'wrong' thing and things go badly, because they are going to go badly anyway. Vote for the kind of going badly you think it'll be entertaining to see, like delegating the charge of an unpaid zealot army to a committee of relative strangers who have very little committee experience.
For example, the Tyrant's early-stage fuckups started driving a lot of important people to leave, so the Tyrant doubled down later on by holding people hostage to stop their families leaving, which kept people present in the short term but resulted in further destabilization in the long term. A lot of those people are thinking "oh, the new boss murdered the old boss, this is getting worse all the time" and now they'll want to leave even more once the hostages are released. (I figure SV is probably nice enough to vote to release the hostages once that issue makes its way up the priority list.) Being nice in this case will result in people leaving.
Oh, I didn't actually have a hidden query, but that's still good insight. Rest assured, I have been expecting things to go wrong for some time now, but it's still interesting to get details for why that may be.
...we're going to end up mind-controlling everyone, aren't we?
[x] Write-in: Promote the most dangerous prisoner to head the public works (with the warning that they were already caught), and promote Prakash to head of HR. 🕺
Oh my, this quest is ripe for "poor decisions" tag.
Best to do the most disruptive things early, like executions, so that it's not seen as the future standard way of doing things. Executing the officers for example, and then dismissing the soldiers with a firm warning "find honest work" would probably have kept most of them from turning to banditry.
But instead now we have to deal with figuring out what to do with them...
I think we have to hope for "least destructive" rather than "best performance" in which case I agree that a committee is the best plan. Mediocrity would be a nice event. However, I feel we should give some direction on who is to be on this committee, more than the current plan at least.
I think the following are the ones likely to be the least destructive. If I had to choose one I'd bet on the farmer having the best common sense. At least the food supply would not be damaged...
Any way, I propose the following committee:
[X] Plan: Committee with farmers and architects
-[X] Promote the distressed Prakash and give him temporary charimanship of the committee for public works.
-[X] Promote Head Cook Chanda and give her temporary membership in the committee for public works.
-[X] Find a farmer on the way to the bridge and give them temporary membership in the committee for public works.
-[X] Go to the nearest construction site and give its head architect temporary membership in the committee for public works.
-[X] Go to the largest nearby building and draft-promote its owner or manager with temporary responsibility for public works.
-[X] Public Works Committee is to establish goals and plans for use of the army to build public works that will benefit the city and surrounding areas. Repairs of damaged or destroyed infrastructure would be a good start. Contact McSunnyface if there is a need for additional supplies or resources.
--[X] Prakash will give the orders from the committee to the army to implement.
--[X] The Public Works Committee may also propose the addition of more members to the Public Works Committee. If any of the Public Work Committee wish to not be on the committee they must find and propose a suitable replacement (subject to approval by either ourself or Prakash) before retiring.
--[X] After today, the committee will meet at least once a week.
--[X] Prakash will report progress daily to us. The entire committee will report to us after the weekly meeting.
There, hopefully that won't be too horrible. And by establishing that they can retire and stop working for us if they want as long as they find a replacement will hopefully ease concerns about working for us. Maybe even start to establish some self government again.
@Elder Haman Make sure they give regular reports (because I'm fairly sure they'd normally avoid reporting out of fear).
--[] The Public Works Committee may also propose the addition of more members to the Public Works Committee. If any of the Public Work Committee wish to not be on the committee Prakash (or, if you prefer, we ourselves)must approve their replacement before they retire
otherwise they'll just pass it on to some rando and flee.
I'm also leery at the permanent disruption of their jobs (mine was a one-day committee). But well, no solution is going to be perfect, so I'm approval voting yours'.
@Elder Haman Make sure they give regular reports (because I'm fairly sure they'd normally avoid reporting out of fear).
--[] The Public Works Committee may also propose the addition of more members to the Public Works Committee. If any of the Public Work Committee wish to not be on the committee Prakash (or, if you prefer, we ourselves)must approve their replacement before they retire
otherwise they'll just pass it on to some rando and flee.
I'm also leery at the permanent disruption of their jobs (mine was a one-day committee). But well, no solution is going to be perfect, so I'm approval voting yours'.
We need daily reports (from Prakash, not necessarily the rest of the committee), at least at this early stage. We can't afford for something to go wrong for a week and not find out until then. OOC: that's a progress report every 2-4 updates, which is reasonable.
Separately, it's not clear to the committee how disruptive the committee is meant to be. Is it a full-time job, a once-a-week job? It sounds like your intent is once-a-week meetings (and if they want to come more often, that's also allowed), so should directly tell them that.
Summary of suggestions:
--[] After today, the committee will meet at least once a week.
--[] Prakash will report progress daily to us. The entire committee will report to us after the weekly meeting.
We need daily reports (from Prakash, not necessarily the rest of the committee), at least at this early stage. We can't afford for something to go wrong for a week and not find out until then. OOC: that's a progress report every 2-4 updates, which is reasonable.
Separately, it's not clear to the committee how disruptive the committee is meant to be. Is it a full-time job, a once-a-week job? It sounds like your intent is once-a-week meetings (and if they want to come more often, that's also allowed), so should directly tell them that.
Summary of suggestions:
--[] After today, the committee will meet at least once a week.
--[] Prakash will report progress daily to us. The entire committee will report to us after the weekly meeting.
I don't think the first addition is necessary, as being appointed chairman clearly implies he's in charge of the committee, and I feel like one of the main reasons for a committee is to spread the responsibility around so that we avoid the worst case scenarios for public works, so adding a change that gives Prakash sole authority undermines that goal.
The second change isn't something I considered, but now that you raised I think we ought to leave it as is for now, and see what happens. Giving some flexibility for members always being present or not would be preferable as long as that isn't abused, so let's wait and see if that flexibility is abused before we decide to take it away.
I don't think the first addition is necessary, as being appointed chairman clearly implies he's in charge of the committee, and I feel like one of the main reasons for a committee is to spread the responsibility around so that we avoid the worst case scenarios for public works, so adding a change that gives Prakash sole authority undermines that goal.
My concern is that the committee is meant "to establish goals and plans" but no one is tasked with the actual implementation. (The committee plans; someone needs to execute the plans, manage the details and inevitable issues.) Either Prakash or one of the talonlords should be heading this task; IMO preferably the non-zealot who's being indirectly advised by other committee members.
(The committee also only meets for sure once a week, so having them manage the precise details won't work. I agree that they're there to make plans for the country's broad needs and rein things in if they go wrong, but they're also a bit disconnected from the day-to-day due to having other jobs.)
The entire committee reports to us once a week, so if Prakash is doing badly they will (hopefully) let us know. But someone needs to point and give actual orders, or the army won't move.
I feel like one of the main reasons for a committee is to spread the responsibility around so that we avoid the worst case scenarios for public works, so adding a change that gives Prakash sole authority undermines that goal.
My concern is that the committee is meant "to establish goals and plans" but no one is tasked with the actual implementation. [...] But someone needs to point and give actual orders, or the army won't move.
My concern is that the committee is meant "to establish goals and plans" but no one is tasked with the actual implementation. (The committee plans; someone needs to execute the plans, manage the details and inevitable issues.) Either Prakash or one of the talonlords should be heading this task; IMO preferably the non-zealot who's being indirectly advised by other committee members.
(The committee also only meets for sure once a week, so having them manage the precise details won't work. I agree that they're there to make plans for the country's broad needs and rein things in if they go wrong, but they're also a bit disconnected from the day-to-day due to having other jobs.)
The entire committee reports to us once a week, so if Prakash is doing badly they will (hopefully) let us know. But someone needs to point and give actual orders, or the army won't move.
--[ ] Prakash will give the orders from the committee to the army to implement.
Should address your concern, but without saying "you are in charge of public works."
Honestly, I'm expecting it to all be a mess no matter what we do, I'm just trying to avoid someone building themselves something that makes the situation worse. After all the main purpose is to keep the army busy instead of robbing people, so some inefficiency is acceptable. As long as we can avoid actual harm from the public works I'll be satisfied.
It addresses my major concern (which was that no one was actually executing the plan); thanks.
Things will definitely be a mess no matter what. With the current version: Prakash will relay the weekly plan/adjustments for sure, and then get daily updates from the army because we asked for them. If we're lucky, he'll act of his own initiative "wait, that wasn't our intent, go adjust this". If he's spineless, the army leaders will de facto be in charge.
(I consider the latter a bit more likely, but not a certainty. But, either way, we'll get the report of things going awry. Also, this version puts the poor man under less pressure, so he's more likely to stay around.)
Progress is slowly being made on organizing people
[X] Plan: Committee with farmers and architects
-[X] Promote the distressed Prakash and give him temporary charimanship of the committee for public works.
-[X] Promote Head Cook Chanda and give her temporary membership in the committee for public works.
-[X] Find a farmer on the way to the bridge and give them temporary membership in the committee for public works.
-[X] Go to the nearest construction site and give its head architect temporary membership in the committee for public works.
-[X] Go to the largest nearby building and draft-promote its owner or manager with temporary responsibility for public works.
-[X] Public Works Committee is to establish goals and plans for use of the army to build public works that will benefit the city and surrounding areas. Repairs of damaged or destroyed infrastructure would be a good start. Contact McSunnyface if there is a need for additional supplies or resources.
--[X] The Public Works Committee may also propose the addition of more members to the Public Works Committee. If any of the Public Work Committee wish to not be on the committee they must find and propose a suitable replacement (subject to approval by either ourself or Prakash) before retiring.
--[X] After today, the committee will meet at least once a week.
--[X] Prakash will report progress daily to us. The entire committee will report to us after the weekly meeting.
After considering the matter of whom to hand the soldiers over to for the time being, you eventually settle on a compromise: a committee of every relevant party at hand and some more you'll scrounge up, in the hope that the value of their combined knowledge will exceed the friction of getting them to cooperate. Prakash will lead it initially to give the group some direction, and so that they don't end up being a bunch of squabbling peers all saying "why should I listen to you?" to one another. You grasp him firmly by the hand, whisper an instruction to follow your lead and not grovel for a minute, and pull him with you back into the courtyard. He trembles as you present him in front of several hundred armed men and two warm corpses.
Underling-Promoting Touch!
Still holding him discreetly in place with one hand, you touch your other hand on his forehead and ignite a golden light on his brow. "Prakash, I name you Interim Minister of Construction. Soldiers of Ulsan, this man speaks with my voice. Heed his commands."
One of the soldiers has the bright idea to kneel, which is rapidly imitated by the rest of them. Prakash's expression morphs from fearful to baffled as the light you've given him sinks into his forehead.
"At the command of the Tyrant, you have destroyed much. Now it is time to rebuild!" you announce loudly to the gathered soldiers. "Now it is time to put your strength to use for better causes. For those who are cold, you will fell wood. For those who sleep in the streets, you will build houses. That which the Tyrant has neglected in Ulsan, that which has fallen into disrepair, you will restore. Minister Prakash and his aides will direct you once they have opportunity to confer. You may advise him if he sees fit to ask you. When your comrades return from the field, you will pass on this message to them. So be it!"
As the army of newly converted zealots cheers for you, you turn to Prakash and quietly give him some advice. "Promote Chanda to help you first. I'll send you a few other people who know about construction and such. Then get the army on public works by the end of the day. Choose any project, as long as they're working. Idle warriors turn easily to cruelty."
He stares blankly at you, trying to process what's just happened.
"Are you looking at Mount Tai? Or perhaps Mount Metagalapa?" you ask with a smile.
He opens his mouth to speak, closes it again, opens it again, blinks several times, and eventually mutters "If it be your will." in a quiet voice.
"Good man. Now, remember I said Interim Minister. If you find you like the post, I can make it permanent; otherwise you can nominate a replacement once things get less hectic. So can the others on the committee. But right now there's a hundred things to do in Ulsan and I can't do them all myself. Good luck, and remember: you have my authority for this." You tap him on the head, where the light has by now faded and sunk into his flesh to empower his voice.
There's still a lot to be done. Sun's spear, you haven't even finished doing what needs to be done the army, what with the two Talons who were out of the city today, and Prakash is no doubt going to have difficulties of his own. But at least the soldiers are pointed in a better direction than banditry, and you can get to the next of many urgent tasks: tearing down the barrier-bridge that is both symbol and literal tool of oppression. Well, just as soon as you find Prakash those extra people you promised.
Lightning Speed!
You do not have the time or patience for great subtlety about this. Some other day, you might perhaps have interviewed candidates, vetted them properly, and even held written examinations. Today, you dash out of the palace at superhuman speed, find a construction site you saw from the balcony, and ask for its foreman. With some fast talking and a few silver coins, Nikhil is intimidated into heading to the palace to help Prakash organize soldiers into much larger construction teams. On the way to the bridge, you enter the largest building you see and ask who's in charge here. Priestess Jyoti of the temple of Venus is similarly drafted to the committee being formed, and finally a farmer named Tushar.
Now it's time to deal with the bridge.
The city of Ulsan has two large bridges crossing the river within city limits, called simply the Old Bridge and the New Bridge. The Tyrant's Bridge is some distance downstream and smaller than either of them, for enabling soldiers to cross the river was only an incidental purpose of its construction. Its important feature is the portcullises that project downwards from the arches of its structure, blocking river travel. The body of the bridge has several large winches set into it for retracting these. Right now, they are all lowered. Packing one's family aboard a cheap boat and fleeing downstream was the easiest way to escape Ulsan quickly and with all one's heavy belongings, so of course the Tyrant wasn't having any of that and probably spent more money constructing the bridge than he could hope to retain by it.
Today, it falls.
This is an experimental characterisation/character generation vote coming in late. How does your protagonist destroy the bridge? The might of a Solar is overwhelming against mortals and their works; any choice is guaranteed success, so vote for whatever you want to see. The italic explanation does not need to be included in the vote.
[] Charm: Increasing Strength Exercise The essence of the Sun suffuses the immortal bodies of the Chosen. This Charm vastly increases overall strength, allowing one to deliver powerful blows, as well as tear apart structures, lift and throw enormous chunks of rock, and clear the bridge out as though it were so much cardboard.
[] Charm: Shattering Grasp To the greatest craftsmen of Creation belongs also the mastery of unmaking. This Charm gives a Solar supernatural ability to detect and exploit the flaws in any object or structure, enabling its destruction by precisely placed assault on the correct points, rather than overwhelming use of force.
[] Charm: Glorious Solar Saber The Lawgivers need never go unarmed. This Charm forms Solar Essence into a razor-edge daiklave of hard light. It deals aggravated damage to Creatures of Darkness, and is otherwise an artifact weapon every bit as deadly as a regular daiklave. When dismissed at the end of battle, it dissipates harmlessly.
[] Martial Arts: Solar Hero Style The instinctive battle-art of bare-handed Solars, forged at the dawn of the world so the first Chosen would have the might to challenge titans. When the strike of a Solar Hero impacts a world-monster enclosing a civilization of demons, the strike says: No, you move.
[] Martial Arts: Snake Style The snake is evasive, perceptive, and swift to strike with deadly venom. Emulating these principles, the practitioners of Snake Style have developed many powerful martial arts Charms. The technique of the Armor-Penetrating Fang Strike in particular is known for its broad applicability, rending wood and metal and stone with ease.
[] Artifact Weapon: Daiklave (Orichalcum) The orichalcum daiklave is the iconic weapon of the Solar Exalted, a sword around five foot long and half a foot wide. Elderly Solars, knowing their end was soon to come and what would happen next, sometimes prepared their own shrine-tombs containing tablets describing the previous incarnation's deeds and armament for the next incarnation's deeds.
[] Artifact Weapon: Daiklave (Jade) The daiklave is the iconic weapon of other Exalted too, and the Terrestrial Exalted commonly make theirs out of jade. Many of them follow the Immaculate Faith, which teaches them to hunt and kill the Solars wherever they may be found. Hardly a year goes by without a Solar or Terrestrial looting the body of the other, somewhere in the world.
[] Artifact Weapon: Powerbow Powerbows are to mundane bows as daiklaves are to mundane swords. Crafted from five magical metals, it is only the infusion of Essence in weapon and wielder that allows powerbows to bend. Mortals thus find these weapons useless, but Exalts can fire them with power comparable to a ballista.
[] Artifact Weapon: Grand Goremaul The artifact form of the sledgehammer, this is the largest and least subtle of the common artifact designs. It becomes lighter when infused with Essence, but only to the wielder. Some say it is still impractically large and slow, but none can deny the devastating impact it delivers.
There will be a number of quick and dirty substitutes to pick from, several of which will lead to their own problems down the line. 
Oh my, this quest is ripe for "poor decisions" tag.
