Which is why we should've invested in additional effects for our red kill juice, to make it significantly harder to no-sell, instead of investing in something that gets no-sold by high constitution/regen anyways, swording things harder. Even if something has the constitution/regen to no-sell the corrosive effect, it wouldn't necessarily be able to no-sell a Yoki Leech/Control Node effect, for example.
Which is why we should've invested in additional effects for our red kill juice, to make it significantly harder to no-sell, instead of investing in something that gets no-sold by high constitution/regen anyways, swording things harder. Even if something has the constitution/regen to no-sell the corrosive effect, it wouldn't necessarily be able to no-sell a Yoki Leech/Control Node effect, for example.
Very true, probably would be better to get something like crystalized blood, or the one that allowed us to remote control our blood. Has the author stated if we would be able to learn the whole dust bone bit? I like the idea of turning even our broken/discarded bone swords into effective weaponry.
Very true, probably would be better to get something like crystalized blood, or the one that allowed us to remote control our blood. Has the author stated if we would be able to learn the whole dust bone bit? I like the idea of turning even our broken/discarded bone swords into effective weaponry.
We can pick up stuff we've missed, but i'm not sure whether that's included in or against the whole 'one new power per arc' that the GM mentioned was the goal, pacing-wise.
[X][CONSTITUTION] Physical Resilience
-[X][RESILENCE] Hardened Physiology
[X][CONTROL] Bone Smith
-[X][SMITH] Honed Edge
Sprinting headlong through the vaguely familiar landscape, you can feel a smile tugging at the corner of your lips as your senses hone in on the concentration of Yoki Energy in the distance. You want to describe it as a kind of peculiar scent that reminds you of rotting meat or a sickly sweet taste in your mouth makes your entire body tingle and shudder in anticipation, driving you forward with greater and greater urgency and desire. You can feel the sun-bleached rocky terrain shatter beneath the force of your bare feet, the jagged and hot stone shards failing to leave so much as a single blemish on your pale skin as you dash faster than most Humans can perceptive through the ruined settlement. You have never been to this part of the island before and this is all a rather novel experience for you, especially since it will herald a new, and hopefully better, phase in your life, but those thoughts are barely on your mind as you race past abandoned farmsteads into the deserted ruins of the town proper. Far behind you, you can sense the presence of your fellow Trainees struggling to keep up with your unrelenting pace, so, with a snare of annoyance, you leverage your enhanced physiology to the limit and put on another burst speed to widen the gap between you and the others as you rapidly close in on your prey.
This will be your hunt and you will not allow the others to steal what is rightfully yours.
At this distance, you can finally identify enough subtle differences in the scent and the different textures they leave in the back of your mouth to identify a dozen signatures moving haphazardly toward you, completely unaware of their imminent demise due to your masterful suppression of your own Yoki signature. A small part of you, so weak and pathetic that you do not even bother to acknowledge it any longer, notes that there are actually more Yoma in this pack than there are Trainees in this final trial, but that realization only widens your smile as you shudder in anticipation of the impending bloodshed. This is what you were created for and you have trained and bleed in preparation for this very moment for three years, so you intend to draw out it out and savor it as long as you can before your new toys break.
Spotting a half-collapsed two-story building, a tavern if you had to guess, between you and your prey, you can only wet your lips in anticipation as an idea occurs to you. Where is the fun in this if the prey never even realizes its imminent demise?
Tightening your grip on the handle of your blade hard enough that a part of you worries you might crash the handle, you use your momentum to dash up a diagonal support beam that had collapsed against the side of the wall and leverage your inhuman agility to leap up onto the top of the building through a hole in the ceiling. The stench of the prey is almost overwhelming now and you can feel your heart hammering so violently that it is starting to agitate the crude metal clumps holding your chest together, but you can hardly focus on anything except the corrosive blood pumping through your veins and the sight of the unsuspecting prey right below you. You take a moment to savor the pleasant sensation of the wind blowing through your hair and the warmth of the sun on your face, before you allow gravity to take over and bring you down toward the prey.
Pulling your blade back in powerful two-handed grip, you wait until you are practically right on top of the large Yoma in the center of the pack before you finally drop your Yoki suppression and allow a mere ten percent of your demonic power to flood your body. To its credit, the Yoma jerks its head up to look at you instantly, but that is as far as it gets before you swing your blade downward toward its head, leveraging your full weight and the momentum of your fall behind the blow. You hardly feel any resistance in your arms as the strange metal cleaves clean through the monster's skull, down through its ribcage and out through its groin in an instant, while you land gracefully in a crouching position to bask in the incredibly afterglow of your first kill.
For a moment, not a single being in that square moves such as a sound, a deathly silence that can only be found in this desolate ruin that serves as the Organizations main combat training ground, but, as always, nothing good ever lasts, especially in regards to you, as the neatly bisected Yoma finally crumples to the ground, its internal organs spilling out in a flood of purple gore. The sight of their pack alpha splitting apart vertically down the middle jolts the other Yoma out of their shocked stupor. The two closest to you rear back to their hideous faces to howl in rage at the thought of what they likely assumed would be easy prey turning the tables on this so thoroughly as you just did, but you are already moving to your next target. A single dash brings you face to face with the second Yoma, taking a moment in bask in the that intoxicating scent of its fear as its yellow eyes widen in shock before you swing your sword upward with one hand, twisting your torso around to build momentum. The swing instantly disembowels the creature and continues upward to split its skull apart, but you do not even wait for the gore to rapture out of its body this time before you are already moving to the next target.
"You little-...!" The creature barely has time to screech in a combination of fear and hatred before you swing your blade around in a lazy arc that neatly separates its disgusting head from its shoulders. Using the momentum of the swing, you twirl on your toes to face the nearest group of Yoma and to put a spin on your blade right as you hurl it at the pack with so much force that it appears as circular blur even to your inhuman perception. The rotating blade bisects two Yoma right at the waist before curving around slightly toward the right to imbed itself into the chest of the third Yoma with enough force to hurl the massive creature backward and impale it into the stone wall behind it.
You can sense the six surviving Yoma moving to surround you and, at this distance with your Yoki Energy pulsing through your veins, the stench alone is almost overwhelming, but you barely pay them any attention as the Yoki-saturated adrenaline floods your bloodstream, making you shiver and pant in barely contained excitement. You had been worried that your first kill would not live up to expectation and that you will be left completely unsatisfied with the experience, that you had suffered for three long, miserable years and lost your Humanity for nothing. You were so nervous and glittery that your attacks were barely above flailing about with a blade. You wanted the experience to last longer, but, one moment you were enjoying yourself and the next moment, it was already over. Now, you are covered in disgusting purple Yoma gore and the smell is so absolutely nauseating that all you desire in this moment is some water clean yourself up with and some perfume to mask the stench.
"You'll pay for that, bitch," one of the Yoma vows menacingly as he and his packmates prepare to attack, but none of them has the courage to make the first move, even though you are unarmed and your attention is currently focused on a smear of purple blood on your hand as you rub your index finger against your thumb to feel the texture of the blood. On a morbid and likely Yoki-addled whim, you rise your finger to your lips and touch it to the tip of your tongue, only to immediately gag and spit out the disgusting substance. You are not quite sure what you were expecting the blood of a man-eating monster to taste like, but, in hindsight, you admit you should have known that it would not be pleasant on the taste buds.
"Die, you bitch! Die!"
Were those few seconds of excitement worth three years of pain? In all honesty, you are not quite sure. You enjoyed it, of course, but now that it is over, you find yourself feeling empty and strangely indifferent to the prospect of further bloodshed as the Yoma on your left unleashes a bestial roar that barely sends a tingle down your spine as it charges at you to avenge its packmates. The creature is fast compared to a Human and it closes the distance between you in the blink of an eye, but, compared to you, it is still pathetically slow and its frenzied rush make it painfully predictable, even without your Yoki senses. You watch idly as the hideous creature rears its right arm back, intent on skewering you on its claws, while you close your eyes and take one final shuddering breath before springing back into action.
Twisting your torso out of the way, while, at the same time, grabbing the Yoma's outstretch arm, you pull the creature off-balance as it stumbles past you, its sickly yellow eyes wide with so much fear that it sends your heart flattering. One stomp to the lower leg makes the creature collapse to the ground and, before it can get back up, you plant your knee on its back and reach down to grab it by the back of its head as you channel enough Yoki Energy down your arm to make your knees go weak for a moment. An instant later, a long spike of bone erupts from your palm and punches through the back of the creature's skull and out the front with a crunch that sends shivers down your spine. A part of you would like nothing more than to close your eyes and bask in the moment, but, unfortunately, the other Yoma take this opportunity to rush you as a group. Pushing yourself into a roll, you duck under the first sweep and form another bone spike in your other hand. Using the momentum of your evasion, you drag both bone spikes down the creature's chest to disembowel it and then smoothly roll forward back onto your feet to avoid the torrent of gore as the creature collapses to the ground.
The four surviving Yoma hesitate at the sight of you so quickly dispatching their kin, but while you want to close your eyes and simply enjoy the moment a little longer, you can sense the other Trainees finally closing in on your private dance, which means you have to finish quickly if you want to finish at all. Growling in frustration, you raise your arms and aim the bone spikes at the two Yoma rearing to charge you before channeling a surge of Yoki Energy down your arms, while doing your best to keep yours arms from trembling at the incredible sensation of power rushing through your flesh, sending tiny jolts through your body as a pressure builds up in your wrists, until everything reaches a boiling point and spills over in a rush that leaves you dazed and weak on your feet. With a violent surge of Yoki Energy, the two bone spikes rip themselves out of your wrists in a shower of your disgusting reddish-pink blood and accelerate straight into your targets. The one on the right takes the bolt straight through its left eye, the force of the impact blowing out the back of its skull, while the other spike sears off half the face of its compatriot, who immediately collapses to the ground, howling and writhing in agony as its brain begins to fall out of its skull in half-dissolved pieces.
Panting and swaying on your feet, you channel some more Yoki Energy through your mangled hands to mend the raptured flesh, letting out a shuddering sigh as the cooling energy washes down your arms and dulls the throbbing pain as the flesh begins to flow like clay back into its original condition. After a few seconds, you experimentally flex your hands to work out the pins and needles, noting that it is still a bit sensitive and jittery, before finally turning your attention to the last two surviving Yoma.
"N-now, wait a minute! You don't have to kill us!" One of the creatures pleads in that awful distorted voice as it slowly backs away from you, no doubt attempting to distract you while its sole surviving packmate attempts to maneuver behind you for one last desperate gambit. You consider your options for a moment, before you decide to play along as you close your eyes and inhale deeply, savoring the intoxicating scent of their fear that reminds you vaguely of that bitter sweet aroma of your family's wine cellar. You release the shuddering breath you had been holding as the creature behind you finally makes its move, but allow it to get close enough without reacting to give the illusion that it had caught you unaware, before you finally make surge into action.
Stepping backward, you brace your bare feet against the cobblestone ground as best as you can, while you ram your shoulder directly into the creature's chest, sending its outstretch claws passing harmless by on either side of your head. The creature's sheer size and the different in mass between you is actually greater than you anticipated, but angling your stance slightly to balance yourself, you can feel your heels crushing through the stone pavement. This close, you can feel its hot and humid breath blowing into your face, smothering you in that disgusting sickly sweet scent of rotting meat. Your maneuver might have caught the creature unprepared, but you know that it is still a deadly monster that can easily tear you apart should it, somehow, regain the upper hand, which means you will have to act fast before it recovers.
With only the two Yoma left and the other Trainees still some ways off, you take a brief moment to consider how you want to approach this. You could generate another bone spike to impale it, but then a much more interesting idea that brings a smile to your face begins to form you in your mind. Rearing your right arm back, you channel more Yoki Energy through your body, enough that you can feel your face beginning to distort as your teeth file into fangs that prick the inside your mouth. You let out a trembling gasp of exhilaration as you ram your arm directly into the creature's chest with enough force to shatter its ribcage and, if you so desired, punch through out of its back, but you have another target. The creature lets out a strange whine like a wounded animal, too stunned to even react properly as you probe around in its chest cavity for an embarrassing amount of time before you finally find its heart. Gazing up into its terrified, yellow eyes, you can let out a childish giggle as you place your left hand gently onto its shoulder as though you were sharing an intimate dance before you tighten your grip on its heart, savoring the feeling of it struggling to continue pumping blood through the creature's body and sending the Yoma into violent convulsions as purple blood begins to gush out of its mouth onto your uniform, much to your consternation.
It takes the creature a rather long time to figure out what you intend to do, but, eventually, you finally see understanding dawn in it as its eyes widen in horror and it tries to speak, no doubt to plead for its life, only for more blood to spill out of its mouth and the only sound it manages to make are wet gurgling. In one violent motion, you pull your right arm along with its heart out of its chest with another eruption of purple gore that further stains your uniform. The Yoma gives one last pathetic whine before it crumbles to the ground, but you hardly even notice, too surprised and fascinated as you were by the fact that the heart is still beating weakly, even though you always thought that was nothing more than a myth created by the troubadours for dramatic effect. You watch in morbid fascination for several long seconds, before you finally lose interest and begin tightening your grip on the dying organ, until it raptures with a satisfying pop before casually tossing it away to focus on the last remaining Yoma.
"W-wait, just stop! L-Let's just talk about this!" The creature begs frantically as it backs away from you, but quickly finds its back up against the wall of a building. "I'll leave! I swear! You'll never see me again! I'll...I'll only eat bandits from now on! Please!"
You briefly halt your advance as you consider how you wish to proceed with this final creature. Ripping the heart out of its compatriot was satisfying, to be certain, but you want to do something truly memorable to mark this momentous occasion and, after a moment of consideration, you can realize there is indeed something else you can try, even if it might be rather excessive for opponents of this caliber. The Yoma appears to relax slightly on the false assumption that you might actually be amicable to its absurd request, but you quickly put an end to that hope as you reach behind you to the back of your neck and channel your Yoki Energy directly done your spine, causing waves of intense sensations that almost turn your legs to jelly as a you let out an husky groan. You can feel your spine reshaping and extending, pushing itself out of your body as your hand takes hold of the notched segment of bone protruding from the back of your neck, while your entire body convulses as the nerves in your back detach from the excised piece of your spine. Biting down on your lower lips hard enough to pierce even your hardened skin to stop yourself from screaming, you can taste the slightly acidic coppery texture of your own blood as you finally pull the massive shard of bone from your back in an eruption of gore and pain that sends you down to one knee, panting in a mixture of pain and the wonderful afterglow of channeling so much of your Yoki Energy, and forcing you to lean on the blood-soaked segmented blade of bone for support.
"What the hell are you, you freak?!" The Yoma blurts out in a combination of shock and horror as you push yourself back onto your feet with little assistance from your spine-sword before you start to leisurely make your way toward your last prey with an almost serene smile on your face as you idly daydream over all the ways you can make this occasion truly a day to cherish for the rest of your likely short life.
Recognizing the end is near, the last Yoma unleashes a fearsome roar before charging you in a head-on feint, dashing to your left off-hand side at the last moment, which, to be fair, is rather clever and it might have caught a Warrior unaware, but you react instantly, your blade itself moving in perfect harmony with your body, and neatly part the creature's outstretched limb from its body with one smooth swing, before, using the momentum, you twirl around on your toes and use the return stroke to separate the creature's other arm as well. The Yoma screeches, not in pain, to your surprise, but in anger as it slowly sinks to its knees, while purple blood sprays out from its two severed limbs like geysers.
"And you call us the monsters," the creature spits outs with a barking laugh as it defiantly looks you in the eyes. "Look at you! You're even less of a human than I am, witch."
You react to that accusation as though you had been slapped by an Awakened Being, your grip on your blade wavering slightly and, suddenly, all that power and strength you felt just moments before is replaced with nothing, except a horrible emptiness and fear that you have not felt since before you were implanted with Yoma flesh. Glancing down at your blade, you have to resist the urge to vomit as you finally appear to notice the horrific absurdity of using a part of your spine, still soaked in that disgustingly familiar shade of pink blood, as a weapon. You can feel a wetness rolling down your cheeks as the piece of sculpted bone slips from your fingers and you begin to back away from it in mounting horror.
Wiping at your eyes for a moment to clear the moisture, you let out a startled scream as you realize the Yoma you had disarmed as moments ago is suddenly right in front of you. In a blind panic, you try to dash backward to create some distance, but your eyes widen in shock as you realize that your body refuses to respond and all you manage to accomplish is trip over yourself and fall to the bloodstained pavement. You can feel an moment of intense vertigo as the entire world seems to collapse around and, in an instant, the abandoned town is gone, replaced by that same accursed cabin on that accursed ship that led you to this fate. Glancing down frantically, you realize that, instead of the black fabric of your uniform, you are now dressed in that same childish night dress you wore that night, but, more shockingly, is the fact that your body appears to have regressed back to your prepubescent form, even though the wound on your chest remains, with that your sickly pink blood leaking out and staining the white fabric of your dress. Desperately, you reach out with your Yoki senses in the hopes that the other Trainees will arrive to aid you, but, to your mounting horror, the only Yoki signature you can sense at all is a vaguely familiar signature whose identity slips just out of reach directly behind the door of your cabin.
You try to desperately search for a weapon or to summon more of your bone constructs, but while you can still feel the Yoki energy in your body, it refuses to respond to your desperate commands. You are so lost in your panicking state that you only notice the Yoki signature slam against the flimsy door when it explodes into splinters that rake across your vulnerable flesh. You scream in fear and pain as the wood fragments covers your body in shallow cuts, but your attention is locked on the menacing figure standing in the doorway.
"I-I am not afraid of you," you attempt to say, but your words come out as nothing more than the terrified mutterings of a child instead of a Warrior of the Organization.
"You cannot fool me, little girl," a silky, feminine, but strangely distorted voice replies and, to your horror, you recognize it as at the same instant a hideously deformed creature wearing a twisted version of your own face crawls through the doorway, so massive that it has to lower its upper torso down simply to pass through.
"This is a dream, this is not real," you insist repeatedly as you shut your eyes and clutch your knees to your chest so hard that you can feel the metal staples on chest tearing through your weak human flesh. "This is not real. This is not real."
"This is, indeed, a dream," the Awakened Being acknowledges with a chuck that finds shivers down your spine. Her voice...your voice is so close now that it feels as though she is whispering into your ear. "But, I can assure you, this is very real," your Awakened persona hisses menacingly as she circles around you, even though your back was up against the hull of the ship just an instant ago, but now you realize that you no longer even feel the undulation of the ship or hear the waves break on the hull of the ship. "You must be at least somewhat curious, surely?" The creature coos into your other ear, right before you almost jump in panic as a slender claw traces around the edge of the stigma on your neck. "How long do you intend to continue this charade? My only desire is for you to be happy. Allow me to help you."
"I would rather die than become an abomination like you," you hiss, with strength and courage that surprises even you.
The creature merely scoffs in amusement as its claw slips beneath the crude metal staple before tearing through the stitches and drawing a pained whimper from you as the wound begins to open and blood begins to flow freely down your chest. "What do you know of death, little girl?" She asks softly, right in front of your face with her frigid breath sending goosebumps down your body, before she releases a resigned sigh. "For someone so sheltered from death all her life, you truly have a bizarre obsession with pursuing something you know so little about. Did you not enjoy butchering those monsters just moments ago?"
You are about to open your mouth to retort, but a spindly, chitinous finger presses gently on your lips to hush you before you can tell the creature exactly what you think of her sickeningly distorted memory of your final trial.
"And remember, I am just an aspect of your own mind," the creature reminds you, her voice tinged with cruel amusement. "So, in a way, lying to me is effectively the same as lying to yourself, would you not agree?"
"Enough of this," you grind out, using your anger and hatred to mask your fear, even as you jerk your face away from the creature's touch and hug your legs to your chest with more force to stop yourself from trembling. "I have no desire to hear any more of your prattle."
Despite how foolish it would appear, for a moment, as the silence drags on and the creature's finger continues to play with the gaping wound in your neck, you fear that she was intent on keeping you trapped in this dream to torment you as she pleased. Such a thing is impossible for a normal Human, of course, but you have not the faintest idea whether this creature is merely a simple nightmare conjured up by your traumatized mind or an actual manifestation of your Yoma half with a will of its own and control over your dreams.
"Oh, very well, if you insist," the creature responds with a mocking pout, while you release a shuddering breath you had been holding and allow your shoulders to slump slightly in relief, but, to your growing concern, you realize that the creature's finger is still embedded in your most vulnerable area. "I have no doubt you will come to appreciate yourself in time and I am nothing if not patient," she whispers playfully into your ear, before the temperature suddenly plunges and you find yourself shivering, your usual ability to regulate your own body temperature among one of the many abilities you are denied in this dream. "Remember Ariella, it only takes one moment of weakness and, since our kind no longer fear the passage of time, you will have many opportunities to change your mind."
You are about to retort, when, without warning, the creature suddenly rakes its claw right down the open wound on your chest, instantly ripping apart every stitch and staple holding your body together. The pain is so sudden and intense that you do not even have time to scream before your lungs and your other organs are tumbling out of your body. In a panicked frenzy, you finally open your eyes and try to hold your chest cavity closed, but a part of you knows that is a futile gesture as you quickly begin to loose sensations, first in your fingers and then spreading inward from your limbs. You can see darkness spreading closing in on your vision as you begin to bleed out and the last thing you see before it all goes black is your disgusting pink blood.
You suddenly jolt awake with a strangled cry, only managing to not scream through experience accumulated over three years of similarly horrible dreams. You immediately try to reach up to your neck to inspect your stigma and to confirm to yourself that what you just experienced was, in fact, merely a nightmare and not something more sinister, but you freeze in terror when you realize that your limbs are entangled at your sides. In a panic, you try to look around to see what it is binding you, but your breath catches in your throat and a terrible sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach as you recognize the strange undulations of your environment and the briny scent of the ocean. Flailing about desperately to free your limbs, you only manage to free your arms after rolling yourself off of the raised platform you were sleeping on onto the disgusting moldy and dank deck with a pained grunt, especially when you feel one of the stitches keeping your chest wound closed snap from all the struggling and a trickle of blood begins to stain the inside of your uniform. Before you can recover and inspect your surroundings, however, something dark suddenly obscures your vision an instant before it envelopes your entire face, plunging your world into darkness once again.
Near panicking, you reach up and pull the strangely familiar soft, black sheet of fabric away from your face and hold it up against the light of a nearby lantern, before you finally release the breath you had been holding shakily as you recognize what you are holding and which you were tangled up in just moments before.
"Bad dream?"
With a sigh of relief and more than a little embarrassment, you ball up your cape, which you had repurposed into a thin blanket, before lazily tossing it back onto the stack of wooden crates arranged to form a stiff and extremely uncomfortable bed that can at least keep your body dry when the lower decks take on water. Pushing yourself back onto your makeshift sleeping platform with a miserable groan, you glance over at your traveling companion before you begin to gingerly probe the torn stitching on your neck and upper chest.
"Yes," you admit softly, wincing in pain when your finger makes contact with the sensitive raw flesh before pulling your hand out to see it covered in a thin layer of your reddish-pink blood.
Louise does not respond to that as she returns to...whatever it is that occupies her attention as she sits on her own makeshift bed with her knees cradled against her chest and her chin resting against her knees. From this angle, her long, blonde bangs that usually obscures the left side of her face also prevents you from seeing the rest of her face. Of course, since the other girl appears incapable of making any expression beyond her usual look of detached indifference, you doubt you are missing much in the way of vital social cues. Besides the Number Five Warrior of the Organization, you have the distinct privilege of sharing this luxurious voyage with four other newly anointed Warriors. Louise herself aside, the other girls that you recognize from your class are Cerise, the current Number Twenty-Four Warrior of the Organization, whom you would best describe as a girl of dubious moral character with an abrasive attitude, and Solange, the current Number Thirteen Warrior of the Organization, a demure former Novitiate of the Church who prefers to spend her free time alone in prayer. The other two girls are close friends who shared the same cell, but you know little about them other than that the more friendly and cheerful of the two is Sophie, the new Warrior Number Thirty, while her more introverted friend is Renee, the new Warrior Number Twenty-Seven.
Based on what little information you were able to wrangle out of the Organization Administrator who bestowed upon you your new engraved blade and uniform before directing you toward this absolutely lovely little boat, the Organization organizes the distribution of Warriors into fifteen Regions, each corresponding to one the major states on the continent, and each Region is further divided into a number of Territories based on the number of active Warriors in that Region. In order to ensure proper distribution of resources, the nine most powerful and populous Territories each have one Single-Digit Warrior assigned to them at all times along with varying numbers of lower-ranked Warriors in support. Of your current traveling companions, only Solange and Sophie will accompany you the entire the way on foot to your assigned Territory, while the others will follow Louise to an adjunct Territory.
Article:
You had hoped that you would be assigned to home nation of Bortisia, but, to your disappoint, if not surprise, the Organization chose, instead to assign you to:
[ ] the Conlelian Theocracy
Ironically, the Conlelian Theocracy is neither Conlelian or an actual theocracy. After the collapse of the Coviatean Empire, the military-governors who administrated the region waged war against each other and after the Imperial Legions they commanded were wiped out in the first battles of the war, they began to recruit local barbarian tribes to bolster their forces. By the time the Conlelians finally managed to win the war, it was controlled by a barbarian warlord leading a barbarian military with a barbarian tribal assembly masquerading as an Imperial Senate, while the last members of the Conlelian family had become prisoners in their own estate with the heiress forced to bear the warlord's child. In a bid to gain legitimacy and allies against regional rivals, the Conlelian Emperor converted to the faith of the Twin Goddesses and allied himself with the Holy City in exchange for recognition as the rightful Emperor of the Conlelian Theocracy. Despite this veneer of civility, however, modern Conlelia remains largely agrarian with the majority of the population living in the same tribal villages as their ancestors did, now ruled over by tribal chiefs uplifted into nobility, who, in turn, collect taxes in much the same way they used to offer tribute to their local barbarian warlord in the past.
The majority of the Conlelian population residues in the northern plains and coastline, while the southern half is an inhospitable desert with only small oasis settlements scattered along trade routes that have largely been abandoned after the fall of the Coviatean Empire. Due to the lack of a reliable central government, settlements must collect enough coin to pay for the service of a Warrior themselves, while the poor to nonexistent infrastructure and lack of communications between communities means that entire isolated villages can be depopulated before a Warrior can even respond, especially if the village is located in the southern regions. Due to the low population density and lack of organized resistance, the Yoma in this region rarely operate in packs and powerful Awakened Beings typically seek out more populated feeding grounds, but the slow response time means that many Yoma live long enough to become Voracious Eaters and it is a popular feeding ground for weak Awakened Beings that wish to avoid drawing the attention of the Organization. Bandit activity in the region is also extremely prevalent and entire villages are known to raid caravans and rival settlements for wealth and slaves.
[X] the Caleninian Empire
The Caleninian Empire is the self-proclaimed true successor state to the Coviatean Empire despite holding none of its former core provinces or royal bloodlines. Caleninia was a frontier colony of the First Empire populated mostly by retired Legionnaires given owner of a piece of arable land as part of their pension. When the First Empire fell, the military-governor of the region, a popular military commander whose post was seen as political exile to prevent her from threatening the growing power of the Senate, rallied many of the surviving Legions to her faction, declared herself the Caleninian Empress and began to annex former Imperial territory by force. By the time of her death and the ascension of her son to the throne, the Caleninian Empire had grown from a single providence to ruling over the entirety of the First Empire's western territories. Warfare between the Second Empire and the other successor states continues to this day, but centuries of nonstop warfare has depleted the Imperial Legions and left its western borders unsecured, allowing the rival Kingdom of Linonia to seize vast swathes of the its northwestern territories. The conflicts were paused, however, when the Abyssal Queen Delphine emerged in the Linonian Channel, devoured the entire Linonian invasion fleet and devastated both coastlines with powerful storms and tidal waves.
While Caleninia was spared from the worst of the Abyssal Queen's wrath, the damage to its coastal settlements and the loss of its northern territories have resulted in a refugee crisis and worsening food shortage as residents flee southeast toward the core provinces. The Second Empire and its military-governors historically pay for the services of Warriors, but the recent chaos has drained the Imperial treasury, leaving local settlements to bear the costs with promises of future compensation after the crisis is resolved. As supplies dwindled and order breaks down, banditry has become widespread as desperate refugees raid undefended settlements and refugee camps for supplies. The refugee crisis also also strained the infrastructure of the Second Empire to the breaking point, with roads clogged with destitute refugees and ocean travel all but impossible, making it difficult for the Imperial Legion and Warriors to respond to the increasing reports of aggressive Yoma herds migrating into the region, wiping out entire towns and even attacking Legion garrisons. The presence of the Abyssal Queen has displaced many of the Awakened Beings from their traditional feeding grounds, but it has also attracted the attention of powerful Awakened Beings who seek to serve or challenge the former Number One Warrior of the Organization.
[ ] the Kingdom of Lacrirori
The Kingdom of Lacrirori is the youngest state on the continent, formed from territories liberated from the Second Empire by the crusaders who answered the call to arms of the Archbishop of Lontium to defend the Church of the Twin Goddesses from the invaders, who had refused to acknowledge the supreme authority of the Goddesses and the Church. Motivated by a combination of faith, fealty and greed, landless knights and mercenaries flocked to the Crusade in the hopes of winning glory and land in the first holy war since the Blessed Crusade that established the mighty crusader kingdoms in the east during the height of the First Empire. On the plains of the former Imperial heartlands, the crusader heavy cavalry routed the Caleninian Legions and founded the feudal Kingdom of Lacrirori with the blessing of the Church. In the aftermath of the Abyssal Queen's emergence, many Barons and knights now argued that the disaster was divine punishment and began to call for a new crusade against the Second Empire. The Queen has so far declined to request the blessing of the Church for such an endeavor, but the scale of military buildup means that conflict is all but inevitable.
Lacrirori society is modeled entirely on the feudal systems of vassalage found in the eastern crusader states with most of the population tied to estates controlled by knights, who, in turn, swear oaths of fealty to the barons and, ultimately, the Queen of Lacrirori herself. While every Lacrirori settlement is centered around either a knightly manor or the castle of a baron, the lords of these estates rarely pay much heed to the villages they control beyond ensuring that all tithes are paid. Given the extreme hardships faced by most peasants, banditry has become a way of life for a significant portion of the population, making travel between settlements a dangerous preposition and requiring merchants to travel in large, heavily guarded caravans. Due to the extreme influence of the Church, the code of chivalry all knights and barons swear to uphold forbids them from consorting with the Organization and Warriors, which means that each impoverished village plagued by Yoma must secretly gather enough coin to hire the services of a Warrior, without alerting their lord to her presence. Due to the abundance of prey and the difficulty in hiring a Warrior, Yoma in this region, ironically, follow a similar system of vassalage with small packs of Yoma led by Voracious Eaters, who, in turn, rely on the protection of a weak Awakened Being to defend their feeding grounds from rival packs and foolish knights.
[ ] the Principality of Thexum
The Principality of Thexum is a realm you are quite familiar with as a semi-autonomous state with a long and convoluted history with your native Kingdom of Bortisia. As with all the eastern crusader states, Thexum began as a duchy of Bortisia, but rather than break away through force of arms like the Kingdom of Dubrina to its north did, the ruling Princess of Thexum still swears fealty to the King of Bortisia. The situation is complicated, however, by an convoluted web of familial ties and oaths of fealty that also binds it to the King of Dubrina, making Thexum a proxy battlefield for the two main rival crusader kingdoms. The current Prince of Thexum is the brother of the King of Bortisia and actually a distant relative of your own family, making the Principality a firm ally of Bortisia, but his daughter's position as heir-apparent is challenged by her aunt, who is currently married to the Crown-Prince of Dubrina. At the time you were forcibly recruited by the Organization, Bortisia and Dubrina were in the midst of a military buildup in preparation for the inevitable civil war to determine which heir will rule the Principality.
Thexum is a prosperous realm and much more centrally-organized than the other crusader kingdoms due to much of its land being directly administered by the Prince of Thexum, while barons and landed knights control only their own properties without the authority to administrator justice or levy troops. Due to the well-organized and funded local governments, each settlement pays for the services of Warriors through its own treasury, while the well-maintained road network allows for a Warrior to quickly respond to any request. The lack of financial animosity and the interconnectivity of settlements means that Warriors tend to experience less hostility compared to other regions, but this environment tends to quickly weed out incompetent or weak Yoma, leading to powerful and cunning Voracious Eaters and Awakened Beings experienced in evading Warriors, either by migrating from settlement to settlement or even working together with Human brigands for mutual protection against local militias and Warriors.
so by the sound of it, we have Easy Mode, Hard Mode, Stealth Mode, and Character Development Mode, in roughly that order.
Thexum certainly sounds interesting, but Voracious Eaters and Awakened Beings experienced in evading Warriors is troublesome since our perception's only so-so. I think Calenian would be my choice, because difficult opponents and what sounds like the Final Boss? The Theocracy doesn't interest me at all, and while Lacrirori sounds like a good place for a former noble while also avoiding the political biases of 'hey, i have relatives in Thexum', the anti-Warrior/anti-Organization outlook nips that in the bud. Which is a shame, considering that the circles of nobility without blood ties might've served as a way to keep ourselves mentally stable.
Frankly i can't see the org sending us to Thexum
too close to home
Combined with us having the number 5 with us? If the Org follows the rules of the10th always at home base and the 1st with a stupidly wide troubleshooter range, it means they'll need a lot more guns here for dealing with it all.
Combined with us having the number 5 with us? If the Org follows the rules of the10th always at home base and the 1st with a stupidly wide troubleshooter range, it means they'll need a lot more guns here for dealing with it all.
If you pick Thexun, Louise actually going to Dubrina, the rival kingdom to the north. Also, you'll note that the Number 10 is the only option from the first character creation that isn't on the boat with you. The Number 1 is stationed at the Republic in the middle of the continent, which is basically the Byzantine Empire of the setting. The Number 2 is stationed at the Drulatutian League, the country to its west. The Number 3 is stationed on the Linonian Isles. The Number Fourth is Bortisia, your home country.
If we want to increase armor penetration, doubling down on blood coating our disposable super bone sword and maybe grabbing crystalized blood would probably play nicer, unless we can grab vibro-razor shards or something silly.
[X] the Kingdom of Lacrirori
I like the sort of tension of being a devout follower of the Twin Goddesses, in a devout society of the Twin Goddesses, that not only doesn't really treat her well as a result of being a warrior, but doesn't particularly address the evil that she exists to fight. It feels like it would do the most to develop her personal beliefs, and at the end of the day- that's going to be her greatest asset in resisting her own temptations in addition to being a neat story.
If you pick Thexun, Louise actually going to Dubrina, the rival kingdom to the north. Also, you'll note that the Number 10 is the only option from the first character creation that isn't on the boat with you. The Number 1 is stationed at the Republic in the middle of the continent, which is basically the Byzantine Empire of the setting. The Number 2 is stationed at the Drulatutian League, the country to its west. The Number 3 is stationed on the Linonian Isles. The Number Fourth is Bortisia, your home country.
Fair enough. Still too close to home for me to not think the Organization has ulterior motives to our posting there. Probably bad ones given well.... the source material.
If we want to increase armor penetration, doubling down on blood coating our disposable super bone sword and maybe grabbing crystalized blood would probably play nicer, unless we can grab vibro-razor shards or something silly.
If we can get crystalline blood and razor wings we have a damn nasty set up for most range and encounters., as the crystalline blood boost armor penetration and corrosiveness, and the razor wings allow us to apply shards en masse that now have AP and DoT, combined with the sword? Ouch.
[X] the Kingdom of Lacrirori
I really don't think we're built to withstand a hard mode currently so I think this one is the best one that does provide good experience/training opportunities also but not impossibly hard. It's better to train against weaker awakened then diving right into the hardest ones if you ask me.
Honestly, I'm just hoping we eventually get blood and wings like in the Crystal Wing vote, since the imagery is so cool and would no doubt serve to make us iconic as a claymore (as opposed to just wielding a bone sword).
