Behold my legal acumen!
Tell us a few details and we'll help. You can spoiler-text bits if you don't want players to learn of them in advance.
Alright, I don't really think that any of my player base browses these forums, so there shouldn't be a need for spoiler text. Unh, might want to brace yourselves, this could be rather large.
It's RY 766, the Empress is gone, the world has been introduced to the Mask of Winters, and the Creation continues to be a hard place to endure. Yet endure it does, and while there is strife under the surface, things appear to have reached a relative calm.
Appearances are always deceiving. —-
The game would start somewhere in the East, perhaps the P Cs might try and reclaim Denandsor, or try to make a living in Nexus while not bringing the ire of the The Emissary or any other particularly powerful entities.
Soon enough however, rumours begin to circulate that some force, be it an individual or group, has been targeting stores of unrefined magical materials. Even Lookshy, which many consider would be suicidally foolhardy to steal from, hasn't been safe from the rash of disturbances.
Upon investigating the situation, the P Cs will one way or another run into a couple of strange things: the first will be a group of Infernals, although they won't know that at the time, even if they do engage in combat. They won't remain ignorant for long though, thanks to the intervention of a strange and disquieting individual who seems to have a vested interest in this whole affair: Meticulous Owl.
Endless-Faced Spite seems quite eager to share his knowledge of this strange new type of celestial exalt with the party. If pressed he'll make the excuse that he's acting on behalf of his liege who shall remain nameless. Owl is quick to point the finger at the Infernals for all the recent problems in the region though, while propping himself up as someone who has the will to act, but not the means.
From there, the plot only thickens, and things get much, much worse than anyone could ever imagine.
—-
What eventually comes to light is that the Realm isn't the only place going to war. As it turns out there's about to be a clash of titanic proportions, that being the fact that the Yozi's and the Neverborn are going to war... against each other.
As it so turns out the raids in Creation for magical materials have been perpetrated by a group of Abyssals, lead by Meticulous Owl who for the sake of this game, has Whispers N/A meaning that he understands the Neverborn perfectly. This little quirk explains his insanity. But getting back to the point.
- The magical materials being gathered are an attempt by the Neverborn to build different versions of Monstrances of Celestial Portion. These ones being specifically for Third Circle demons.
- I'm playing off the idea here that the Neverborn are crazy, but don't want to enter Oblivion, rather, all they've been trying to do through roundabout means is restore themselves to their former glory as Primordials. These new Monstrances are what the Neverborn believe will be the things to do just that.
- The Yozi's have had an uneasy alliance with their cousins, but don't really care for them since they represent what the Yozi's could become. When word of the Neverborn's plan surfaces, the Yozi's declare this to be war.
Each side has a set of specific goals:
- The Neverborn want to build these devices, and then capture enough component souls from the Yozi's to undergo the ritual that will hopefully bring them back to life, not as Yozi's, but complete Primordials. This ritual will also likely turn any Yozi whose souls are used into a Neverborn.
- The Yozi's want the Neverborn dead, thrown into Oblivion so as not to risk a potential fruition of this plan.
So, where do the P Cs come in regarding all of this? Simple, both the Infernals and the Abyssals want to recruit them. Strange times make for strange bedfellows, and although it irks both sides to consider asking the Solars for help, they also know what untainted Sun Children are truly capable of, given enough time and motivation.
- The Yozi's might offer to return the tainted Infernal Exaltations provided the mission to purge the Neverborn is successful, as well as give a general effort to "behave" a little more in terms of trying to escape. Can they be trusted? Who's to say?
- The Neverborn drop hints about The Great Curse, and a possible revocation of it. They also claim that after becoming Primordials that they'd be willing to give oaths to leave Creation for the depths of the Wyld to start again, never to return (in secret they perhaps hope that oaths made as Neverborn won't hold as resurrected Primordials)
Of course, the P Cs are free to choose either side, or even no side but their own, perhaps electing to try the impossible and destroy both sides while hoping that Creation doesn't break under the strain of having all of its old masters unceremoniously dumped into the Void to never return.
- Once the P Cs learn of just what's at stake, the threat becomes Creation wide. The Neverborn never did make surrender oaths after all, and if even one or two managed to return to life somehow, it would mean a new Primordial War would begin, except this time with a scattered and weakened Exalted host
- The Eye of Autocthon might come into play, with some of its reality warping powers proving useful to Owl in terms of breaking reality enough to get this to work to begin with
- The Yozi's Sacheverell and Oramus might come into play here, with a sliver of their unique natures being an important part of magic that would make these Greater Monstrances actually be able to work
- Both sides have feasible points, sorta. The Neverborn, if they are being completely honest, just want the chance to start out over somewhere (it would be with great reluctance if the Oaths hold, but they know better than to push their luck twice over). The Yozi's also know about ways to revoke the Great Curse, and might be willing to make greater sacrifices because stewing in a prison is better than being an undead monster
That's basically what I've sussed out so far.
Godof Awesome: ILU long tiem for this.
Platonically and from a distance, but even so.
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I would Take a Third Option whereas everybody wins. Damn it, I'm a Solar, I can figure out a way to get the Neverborn's machine to work and make it work for the Yozi too, making them full Primordials once more as long as they all take the oath to GTFO of Creation.
edited 21st Jun '11 10:13:30 AM by GodofAwesome
Aye, that's a possibility as well. In the end though it won't be my decision to make, it will be the players who decide whether or not one side wins, both sides win, or everyone loses.
I'm interested in knowing if the premise is solid, or if anything seems rather outlandish. Also if there's any suggestions as to what could be added or taken away.
R Po L, the Darkmyst servers, possibly the Nightstar servers, here of all places
Okay.
Preamble: I'm currently mired in the planning stages of a Gurren Lagann x Exalted Amalgam Universe fanfic that, at current rate of completion, will be finished around 2062. While most of what's come out of these sessions has been over-the-top nonsense involving large explosions, Zenith Caste Kamina, giant robots having a Western-style showdown, and the first-ever Quad Giga Drill Break, one thing that's come out of these planning stages was a new kind of Elite Mook for the Deathlord of your choice to unleash. (I'm using the Lion, because of the Autochthonian connection, but I could also see the Dowager, the Black Heron, Eye and Seven, the Silver Prince, an original Deathlord or the Walker using them, depending on where the Alchemicals break through in your campaign.)
Scyldars*
When a captured Locust was taken before the Lion, the Deathlord saw the potential instantly. Despite the wide use of necrotech in the Deathlords' armies, it was rarely applied at significant levels below the scale of warstriders due to the power of experienced Exalted at destroying legions of the undead. Necrotech was provided to Abyssals, not unleashed on its own.
Despite his martial focus, the Lion is no technophobe. Rather than trust an Abyssal with so much power, the Lion took care of the vivisection himself. While his experiments in creating his own Alchemicals failed, he found another way.
Since that time, his agents (Exalted and otherwise) have been retrieving Dragon-Blooded outcastes from around the South. Unbeknownst even to most of his deathknights, the Lion has perfected a technique to chain the soul and power of a Terrestrial Exalt within their body even after death, using soulsteel to bind the spirit. The result, known as a "scyldar", has most of the mystical power of the Terrestrial it was in life, any elemental effect is warped to match the corpse-element - water becomes blood, fire a flickering green pyre flame, and air a ghost-cold wind. Physically, a scyldar resembles a corpse with soulsteel armour grafted on. Usually, the face is replaced with a blank and featureless visor, although some elite designs ("prime scyldars") have been sculpted with a skull or other design. The result isn't as powerful as an Abyssal, but it makes a powerful shock trooper that can still be steered by necromancy - for the soul is more of a battery than a guiding system.
Mechanically, I'd treat them as Terrestrials, except that they favour soulsteel instead of jade and can only be disarmed with a stunt, since all their weapons are grafted to their arms. They may have access to a few Alchemical Charms, or at least reasonable facsimiles thereof.
Any suggestions?
edited 25th Jul '11 10:21:14 PM by CountDorku
The Note of Autochthon
The days before leaving for Elsewhere, Autochthon stopped for a moment and realized their was a lot of crap that has been left unknown that before he went he should get off his chest; the nature of the Great Curse, Nox and lots of other important secret things he was in a position to know but everyone else short of Jupiter was left in the dark. The sort of things he should have taken care off before if he ever was and not leave to the last minute. But this is Autocthon we're talking about so he wrote a frikking note.
The nature of that note is uncertain except it was very likely penned in Old Realm and the power it granted any who read it to override any geas to forget the information that lay within which they would pass on to any they told. Of course, he meant for that note to be left in plain view of everybody, as in all of Creation, to be so projected as soon as he took off by another artifact in which the Note was safely tucked inside. Since it would be projected all over Creation, Autocthon didn't bother to put it anywhere they could physically find it and consequentaly when the Projector Across Creation failed the Note was forever lost.
Of course Autochthon didn't tell anyone about it so Nara-O knows. The God of Secrets Only One Person Knows simply doesn't know the contents of the Note since the information on it is known by a few or where it is hidden so a few servants were involved in the installation of the Projector and the Note in their hiding place without being told of the nature of what they handled. But it is out there somewhere, possibly hidden in plain sight. A good place to start would be the Sword of Creation, also known as the Realm's Defense Grid now, made to look like as a part of the rest of super weapon but then it's up to the Storyteller. The information it would grant can be anything the ST wants although the nature of the Great Curse is most likely to be on there. Whatever it is, it would be a great boon to whoever found it.
I think Primordials might be immune to Nara-O's talents. The Incarnae certainly are, otherwise he wouldn't be tempted to raid Jupiter's library. Of course, your Creation may vary. That aside, I like the idea very much.
On another note, I like to think that the Sword of Creation has other settings that allow it to access Autochthonian elements and other fundamental forces (Solar, underworld, wyld and so on energies), but for whatever reason they haven't worked since the Usurpation. Does the Eye of Autochthon hold the secret?
edited 11th Aug '11 12:28:46 AM by CountDorku
I would imagine immunity to Nara-O's talent is something you 'turn on' and since the Note wasn't supposed to be a secret Autocthon didn't bother.
Paraspites The Petty Spite of the Yozi
Not actually daemons of the Yozi, they are a result of their bitter curses against the Exalted before their imprisonment. They are mosquitoes that have been imbued with the petty spite of the Yozi. They specifically target the Exalted but they do not spread some infernal disease or significanly incapitate or harm the Exalted in any way. They itch. They give the Exalted mosquito bites, horrible, itchy, mosquito bites that cannot be ignored. The Solar of the First Age could not wipe them out and neither could Autochton or The Unconquered Sun. They are the enduring hatred of the Yozi upon Creation no matter the success of the Reclamation, petty as it is.
