Remove ads

The Last Daughter -- Dragon-Blooded Sorcery School Quest

Reader mode
[X] [Storyline] Flame and Frost

The power differential seems a tad high with Maia, especially with her social difficulties. Seems more like she needs a good friend than a partner.
 
[X] [Goal] A heart that hides the deepest dark
All aboard the angst train.
[X] [Storyline] Flame and Frost
I would love some more Amiti.
 
[x] [Goal] Swords and Heartache
[x] [Storyline] Metal Honing Stone
[X] [Storyline] Flame and Frost
 
[x] [Goal] A courtship of Dragons
[x] [Goal] Swords and Heartache
[x] [Storyline] Metal Honing Stone

Ambraea with either DCP or Sola has a clash of commanding personalities. I find both options there more interesting than Maia.

And our Simendor has been ignored for too long.
 
Gazetteer said:
Apart from ordinary gossip, Ambraea taking up with an Exalted patrician girl will not be viewed as particularly remarkable. Maia's family isn't powerful enough to cause serious complications in their own right. Maia becoming involved with the Empress's daughter, even as part of a secondary school romance, will be considerably more noteworthy piece of gossip among the Patriciate.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
CatOnTheWeb said:
That's what life as a member of House Iselsi is like. But I think he's also trying to say 'don't forget what you are (an assassin's blade who exists to serve the Empress over everyone else) because no one who finds out will.'
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmm. Wouldn't the attention from the other Patriciate make assassinhood harder?
 
No. Useful connections to the Dynasty are desirable. Her family would encourage the association when they found out.

It'd also just be really juicy gossip, though.
 
[x] [Goal] A heart that hides the deepest dark
[x] [Goal] Swords and Heartache
[x] [Storyline] Metal Honing Stone

LET'S GOOOOOO, RIVALRY.
 
I think Maia is the option I find most interesting for a romance plot because it positions Ambraea between Maia and the rest of the Kinship what with her not being part of the Vendetta, so imma go with that.

[X] [Goal] A heart that hides the deepest dark
[X] [Storyline] Metal Honing Stone

Also, Simendor are stupid extra so I wanna see more of that.
 
[x] [Goal] A heart that hides the deepest dark
[x] [Goal] Swords and Heartache
[x] [Storyline] Flame and Frost
 
[X] [Goal] A heart that hides the deepest dark

Mmh, I'm actually not super interested in any of the romance options, tbh...
I enjoy the friendship dynamics with both Sola and Maia, but just isn't very interested in a romance with either (not sure why, tbh, mostly a matter of general feeling)
Diamond is just off-putting for me in that regard, with the alien morality and skewed power dynamics

[X] [Storyline] Metal Honing Stone
 
[X] [Goal] A courtship of Dragons
I find inhuman s more interesting.
But mostly I want Maia to stay a friend. I don't want to muddy that dynamic.
 
Gazetteer said:
You're having a hard time paying much attention to the walls with Vahelo walking so deliberately ahead of you, however.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
lmao, "hate to see you go, love to watch you lead the way" huh
Gazetteer said:
"Please, the ceremony is over. And from some of the stories I've heard of Matriarch Sesus, she was no stranger to a good time. But, if you feel differently, I am of course ready to receive instruction from my spiritual better." Vahelo's full lips curve up into a smirk that you desperately want to kiss off of her face.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
VAHELO BRAT MODE: ENGAGED
TOP HER Y/N?
Y
Gazetteer said:
"If you feel my knowledge of spiritual matters is inadequate, then... then I am ready to receive your instruction." Maia tries to keep the misgiving she feels from reaching her voice.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oh, we've got mirroring!
Gazetteer said:
She does her best to go to that cold, hard, unflinching place she finds in training sometimes; that she found when those elementals had been swarming toward Ambraea.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ayyy. Maia best girl.
Gazetteer said:
She accepts, wincing in pain as she straightens. All she can think is how much she wishes she were back at the Heptagram: At least one person there isn't an enemy, after all.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oof. Yeah, Maia clearly does not have a good dynamic with her family if she views spending time with them as being among exclusively enemies. And given the treatment here, I get that. I really hope we get the chance to be there for her at some point.
Gazetteer said:
Sola accepts it, noting that she hasn't actually disagreed. There are countless ways to kill a large number of people with sorcery. Blasting them with fire or flaying them with razor-winged butterflies — Ambraea would be a terror, if properly utilised, with that mass petrification spell she'd picked up. But all the mass death magic in the world doesn't count for a thing if you and your troops are bogged down in mud, two days' slog away from where you need to be.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Heh. How's the aphorism go? "Captains talk tactics, colonels talk strategy, and generals talk logistics."
Gazetteer said:
Sola felt an already familiar surge of power as she took the sword back. Her sword back. "Thank you, mother," she says, inclining her head.

"Make yourself worthy of that blade, Daughter," Usala says, "in every way you can. We will see what you have accomplished with it in five years' time."

Sola feels a flash of intense gratitude. "I intend to exceed your expectations, Mother," she says.

For the first time, Usala smiles at Sola. Barely a twitch of her lip. "See that you do."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
And here we're contrasting a healthy family dynamic with the toxic family dynamic of poor Maia.
Gazetteer said:
The gemlord, Diamond-Cut Perfection, had been over two-thousand years old. It had grown beneath this isle, undisturbed since before the Contagion, before even the Dragon-Blooded had cast down their old enemies and taken control of the Blessed Isle and everything that surrounds it. Its thoughts had been cold and slow and deliberate, a creature of infinite patience and precious few emotions. Cruel in the way a rockslide could be cruel — through sheer indifference.

Perfection is the same being that they always were. At the same time, though, they aren't. The draconic shape is mobile, fast when it wants to be, changeable and expressive. Seeing the sky, speaking to humans, swimming through rock and water — all this would have been utterly unthinkable for the gemlord Perfection had been. It left them feeling raw, new, unfinished, emotional, like they had in those far distant days when a single gem had coalesced from ambient Earth Essence, growing glacially out from there.

Maybe this minor water elemental, this dull little crab without even a name, on the verge of either true consciousness or death, is more relatable for Perfection than they'd like to admit.

"Or, maybe I'm just bored and lonely," they decided out loud. Both of these feelings should have been utterly alien to them. This doesn't mean it's not true.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is a really cool character note for DCP. I don't have anything to add, really, I just wanted to note that.
Gazetteer said:
"... Well, I suppose I will be here for a while longer, then," Peony says, letting the amusement enter her voice. She has a sudden, intense image of Ambraea, age twelve, so enthralled by a beautiful, laughing girl going through the hallways of the Imperial Palace that she'd walked directly into a pillar.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
LMFAO
I-is this the true power of one who has mastered the Dao of Childhood Anecdotes?!
Gazetteer said:
Peony watches him go, biting her tongue before turning back to poor Navis. He's sunk down into his chair, trying not to catch anyone's gaze. "She misses Arjuf," Peony tells him.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Peony is so good. I really like that we're getting this "ground-level" snippet of the Realm to go with all these Exalted and elementals populating the rest of the update.
Gazetteer said:
Peony's mind goes back to her mother back in the Imperial Palace, with her quiet dignity and the tinge of Seatongue colouring her speech even after two decades in the Realm. The mon of the Imperial Household branded onto her neck. "These things always come down to knowing the moods of who you serve, darling; like reading the weather on the horizon before you set sail. But lady Ambraea is an agreeable girl — it's how I raised her. And you're a citizen, and you have your rights. Just stay my smart girl, and it will all be fine."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I also appreciate the quiet inclusions that show the reality that the Realm's impact can be less than kind and less than fair to many of its subjects, and that people find their own ways to keep on living and being people under it all.
Gazetteer said:
Maia's family isn't powerful enough to cause serious complications in their own right.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ah... well... this is in-character analysis, right?
Randino Treviani said:
Also, who do we think Maia's brother from the immaculate order is talking about?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Her and the Exalted she's getting (in his view) too buddy-buddy with, since House Iselsi has a great big Vengeance Boner for basically everybody else. Possibly her and Ambraea in particular.
Randino Treviani said:
Okay, ominous. Like, seriously, if Depth is coaching Maia in being some double agent who is ultimately the enemy of everyone but Ambraea, he needs to go. Feed him to Diamond Cut Perfection, frame someone else.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think Maia's line about "at least at the Heptagram there's one person who's not an enemy" is about the fact that at the Heptagram at least she has one friend (Ambraea)... and everywhere else in the world she has none. Very pointedly including at home, with people like Depth.
BronzeTongue said:
The power differential seems a tad high with Maia, especially with her social difficulties. Seems more like she needs a good friend than a partner.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Eh, our "power base" (such as it is) is pretty much just our personal connection to Big Red which history has shown can be a rather tenuous and easily revoked thread, and even that's going to go down the drain when she does in a few years. And when all the shit goes down, I want to steal Maia away to Prasad with us, because that's practically the one place in Creation she could actually go to where she might be able to get away from her toxic, loveless family and the pointless vendetta they want her to spend her life on.

Anyway, votes now.

[x] [Goal] A heart that hides the deepest dark

Maia best girl. Best. Girl.

[X] [Storyline] Metal Honing Stone

DEIZA TIME DEIZA TIME DEIZA TIME
IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING
 
Remove ads
Fayhem said:
Possibly her and Ambraea in particular.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So, a thing with Ambraea and any purely hypothetical and uncomfirmed Iselsis in her life is that the Iselsi Vendetta is for all the extant Great Houses and their scions. The older nine -- Cathak, Cynis, Ledaal, Mnemon, Nellens, Peleps, Ragara, Sesus, and Tepet -- directly participated in the destruction of House Iselsi over the course of its long, slow public humiliation. V'neef was created well after Iselsi was struck from the rolls of the Great Houses, but House V'neef did very directly benefit from Iselsi's fall by being given a lot of their old shit directly. So, they're also included.

Ambraea is not a part of or directly affiliated with any Great House, and if she were to, say, found her own, it would not necessarily be automatically included (although it might count anyway based on whoever she marries. What's left of House Iselsi is basically a death cult of trained killers fixated on past wrongs).
 
Last edited:
Timeline
  • Informational
    • Gazetteer said:
    Sola will still be in school when the campaign against the Bull of the North occurs.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    To expand on this, here's a real quick and dirty timeline of relevant dates for this quest, bearing in mind that Ambraea's closest friends are all also in her year and are a very similar age to her:

    RY 643: House Iselsi attempts to assassinate the Empress, the slow process of dismantling Iselsi begins

    RY 740: Iselsi is completely stricken from the Imperial Ledgers and ceases to be a Great House

    RY 743: Ambraea is born

    RY 754: The Ascension of House V'neef

    RY 758: Ambraea's first year at the Heptagram begins. The Prasadi tanist goes missing while on a sailing trip (The tanist is the designated successor to the rani-satrap and future ruler of Prasad)

    RY 759: Ambraea's second year at the Heptagram begins.

    RY 760: Ambraea's third year at the Heptagram begins.

    RY 761: Ambraea's fourth year at the Heptagram begins.

    RY 762: Ambraea's fifth year at the Heptagram begins. The Realm comes into conflict with the Bull of the North's empire, eventually resulting in the Tepet Legions being dispatched to crush it.

    RY 763: Ambraea's sixth year at the Heptagram begins. The Empress vanishes during Calibration. An unprecedented uptick in the appearance of Solar Anathema begins.

    RY 764: Ambraea's seventh and final year at the Heptagram begins. Thorns is sacked by ghosts and Anathema or something, probably not super relevant to this quest

    RY 765: Ambraea is due to graduate this year. The Tepet Legions are almost completely destroyed, the Council of the Empty Throne occurs, the Imperial Legions are divided up amongst the Great Houses.

    RY 768: Default canonical "start date" from which official Exalted material is written.

    RY 772: The throne is officially declared vacant per the terms of the Council of the Empty Throne. If a civil war has not already began, it will at this point.
     
    Last edited:
  • Informational
    • Surely none of these impending events will meaningfully impact Ambraea's life. Graduating right when House Tepet gets blasted into space and the Realm begins gearing up for civil war is fine. Totally fine.
     
    Gazetteer said:
    To expand on this, here's a real quick and dirty timeline of relevant dates for this quest, bearing in mind that Ambraea's closest friends are all also in her year and are a very similar age to her:

    RY 643: House Iselsi attempts to assassinate the Empress, the slow process of dismantling Iselsi begins

    RY 740: Iselsi is completely stricken from the Imperial Ledgers and ceases to be a Great House

    RY 743: Ambraea is born

    RY 754: The Ascension of House V'neef

    RY 758: Ambraea's first year at the Heptagram begins. The Prasadi tanist goes missing while on a sailing trip (The tanist is the designated successor to the rani-satrap and future ruler of Prasad)

    RY 759: Ambraea's second year at the Heptagram begins.

    RY 760: Ambraea's third year at the Heptagram begins. You are here.

    RY 761: Ambraea's fourth year at the Heptagram begins.

    RY 762: Ambraea's fifth year at the Heptagram begins. The Realm comes into conflict with the Bull of the North's empire, eventually resulting in the Tepet Legions being dispatched to crush it.

    RY 763: Ambraea's sixth year at the Heptagram begins. The Empress vanishes during Calibration. An unprecedented uptick in the appearance of Solar Anathema begins.

    RY 764: Ambraea's seventh and final year at the Heptagram begins. Thorns is sacked by ghosts and Anathema or something, probably not super relevant to this quest

    RY 765: Ambraea is due to graduate this year. The Tepet Legions are almost completely destroyed, the Council of the Empty Throne occurs, the Imperial Legions are divided up amongst the Great Houses.

    RY 768: Default canonical "start date" from which official Exalted material is written.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Always appreciate a look at the situation and relevant lore. Can we get this made into an information tab?

    So, who of significance can we befriend who isn't an enemy of the Iselsi remnants? Do our Prasadi relatives count?
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top