New Empress, New Emissary, and New Lookshy

Recently, in my campaign, my players managed to not only beat down Octavian, kill Mnemon while she was in Nexus, kill Mnemon's Sidereal husband, they destroyed the Mask of Winters once and for all, and put the Walker in Darkness out of the picture for a long, long time.  The simple explaination of how is that stunts provide you with unlimited motes and willpower, and as long as you're really, really badass, you pretty much won't die.  Now I'm not saying they made it easy, but they made it.

Basically, I was asking for some ideas for things that could go right or wrong.  The entire battle took place in Nexus, which is basically half burned to the ground with the Lookshy Remnant forces, the Realm Occupation forces, the Mask's undead army, and the Walker's invisible automata army having all fought there.  One of my player's character is a Night Caste Solar who recently inherited the roll of Emissary.  The original Emissary, I've said, was an Eclipse Caste Solar who recieved help from the Sun King Seneschals.  He was their greatest secret, a Solar from the first age.  Well, he's dead now, and now my player has the job.  He works with Five Days Darkness for mutual benefit, and wants to sack the Council of Entities and have Five Days Darkness take over their job.  Ideas?

Lookshy was destroyed, soulbreaker orbed into a shadowland, and taken over by the Walker.  One of my character is a Dawn Caste Solar who used to be a high ranking Lookshy general, even though he was only human.  Now, he's the Chumyo, being the strongest warrior and the only one who could gather their remnant forces.  He swore to push the Realm's occupation force out of the Scavenger lands, and get revenge on the Mask.  Now he has.  His goal is to reestablish the city.  He has a slew of artifacts, including Skywolf, but his forces took drastic losses fighting the Mask.  Ideas?

Lastly, Mnemon had hold of her mother's prized possession, the Mantle of Brigid.  Well, Mnemon isn't gonna be needing it anymore.  One of my players is an Eclipse Caste Solar.  So, now that he has his hands on the Mantle, and Mnemon out of the way, he intends on using a certain sympathetic Dragon-Blooded he knows.  He wants to make her into the next Empress, by getting access to the Imperial Manse (shouldn't be hard with the Heart of the Realm and a full Solar circle, right?) and manipulate her.  Unfortunately, she's a lowly Essence 2 Wood Aspect from House V'neef, only 17 years of age.  Ideas?

Nexus is burnt.

Lookshy is destroyed.

So what Council? Why an Emissary? And how to rebuild Lookshy?



This sounds like a great time for an exodus - the way that Great Forks was founded by 3 gods from 3 distinct peoples looking for a home.  Except you seem to have 3 Solar Exalts with 3 distinct goals that you can merge together.

The Mask is dead?  Does this mean that Thorns still stands?  You could legitimately liberate the city - and maybe execute the locals if they're recalcitrant or whatever.  Your Lookshy guy could build a new military-city, right on the shores to the Realm, pillaging unused munitions and basically building some sort of armada or whatever.  The advantage of using Thorns is the same reason that Lookshy used to hate it - it's close, and the Dragon-Blooded & later a Deathlord claimed it.  Now the Deathlord is dead, the Dragon-Blooded have no solid hold, and it's the closest thing to home.  You can also use it to attack further South, where the Realm has tributary states like in Harborhead (where a lot of pro-war locals are suppressed by the Terrestrials).


Emissary and Five Days Darkness?  Be Emissary of this new city - Nexus is also dead, so why stress it?  And while Thorns is not as "on the river" as Nexus, it's actually quite nice - you're in the inland-sea, with much better access to far away lands (as opposed to just a big river).  If you're Solars become a naval might, then they can effectively cut off the Realm from the ocean in the future, long before they can get into the river.  (All the benefits of being a port city, except you got a much larger access to the sea.....  I'd rather have a city on a beach than on the Danube. 

Plus there's that giant behemoth under water who shattered the Jade Prison.  Throw that at them.  Plus Thorns might still rebel against you - that's another challenge if you want it. 

Not sure what to do about the weak girl.  The Eclipse has a powerful artifact and a puppet I suppose?  Go deal with that Goddess of Lost Things and trade the Mantle for something else.  The Mantle is priceless but really a Solar doesn't need it - so you can get another priceless artifact in exchange. 


Alternatively, rebuild in Nexus.  The city of Hollow is supposed to be deep inside, so maybe with all the "flesh" of Nexus burnt off, they can rebuild on the "bones" of Hollow and uncover some other first-age horrors.

Hell, for killing a Deathlord, you should have curious Sidereals all over this trying to figure out "how".  And gods!  Throw in some strange double-sided ones.  Like Gods for narcotics - things like cocaine that can have negative effects (addiction, heart attack, etc) but that also have benefits (adrenaline w/o fear, better focus, strength) and see how various double-sided Gods offer their services.  Imagine a cocaine-god who offers to make his soldiers fight better; or a Neomah (a sex demon basically) who can help you craft superior children but there's a small chance they come out tainted.  Five Days Darkness should be able to get you guys all sorts of illicit and rare contacts that might be similarly ostracized in heaven.

I like the idea of taking back Thorns and using the inland-sea.  It especially works since the Dawn Caste Chumyo's hometown was Thorns.  I think that the Solars all wanted to spread out and have their own turf, since they like their space.  I forgot to mention that the Eclipse Caste has a kingdom of his own that he bascially conquered with social Charms. 

As for the Sidereals, the Night Caste Emissary gets off easy since I said that the Emissary's mask had the power to conceal you from the Loom of Fate.  That doesn't mean that the Chumyo and Eclipse get off that easy...

The Sidereals may be awesome, but the Solars are awesome 2.0.  That's how they killed the Mask.  I was considering giving my characters a timeskip of several years to cool off after the huge climax.

I'm interested in hearing about what they could do using Thorns as a powerbase, and also interested in the city of Hollow under Nexus and what they could do if they tried to rebuild that city.

bOne possible problem with Hollow is a bit of a hint that it might be cursed?  Some ugly disease or death-taint lurking in its depths since the Usurpation or Contagion.  It's part of the reason the rivers are so filthy and why Nexus is so attractive a spot - imagine a huge trade-center, with foreigners and visitors and caravans, spreading whatever disease you have.   One of my favorite plots (stolen from Warcraft III) is when the grain shipments have a disease that turns you into a zombie - so that not only are entire cities infected after eating, but you have the heroic paladin butchering people just incase they'll turn (to ensure he isn't overwhelmed by a zombie horde).
There's a bit of a reference in DotFA of Hollow I think, regarding how they try to dam up the river or something for something. >_> My memory is shoddy.  But really, you have free reign.  A previous ST used it as a sort of city-under-the-city.  But anywho, you have the Walker around, so you could always throw him as the new threat to the city. 

Alternatively, build up the "dark" references intentionally.  Nexus in ashes, Hollow has a dark history, a deathlord died, he has Five Days Darkness as an ally?  Rebuild the city, but perhaps as a haven for the ostracized, the condemned, the outcaste.  There are such folk in every city so you could collect people to your whim.  Just remember Nexus used to be a trade hub - what would "New Hollow" be known for?  Five Days Darkness is not a corrupt god, but he could certainly find such.  Will you deal with Amoth, the city destroyer, who might be attracted by Nexus' destruction and wishes to destroy Hollow too?  Would you summon other entities to aid you? 
I've always been fond of demons, and the whole Neomah - they would make excellent midwives if you don't have medics and doctors for pregnant women, they make excellent concubines (which if the men can "let loose" on them, you could probably keep the rape stats non-existent), and the Neomah can even help you craft special babies.  They also spin entire towers out of their mouths....... so imagine Neomah towers, throughout the old city, serving as supports for other structures and centers of procreation. ;)  You get my idea.  The player might find all the dark allies they want and you figure out later what problem to make from there.



Thorns has an excellent spot - it exists where the Realm first tried invading the Scavenger Lands I think.  Dealing with Harborhead to the South would kick the Realm out and get the attentions of Ahlat, who might provide other blessings to the warfront.  In general, it's a good location.  You'll have deeper ports for larger warships, you're farther from Walker, you have a Dragon-Blooded population that still lives there (although you'd need to convert them).




And  I remain clueless on the Eclipse.

If they all want to start kingdom's, that's cool - just try to map out how they interrelate to one another.  It should be feasible for them to have access to each other if they need aid. 



There was a game in which we had a Solar from Thorns (wanted to kill Mask), a Dawn MAist (who wanted to crush the Immaculates for dishonoring his Sifu), a Solar ex-Dynast who wanted to return to rebuild the Realm, and a couple others.  We all had different goals.  But we found a way to combine it such that it seemed the Realm was our first target - me crushing Immaculates and the others socializing.  And then we'd return with expendable Terrestrials to weaken the Mask until we could smite him.

So..... let your PCs grow - but really, why do they still stay together?  I'd try to sort something to keep them unified.  Even if they build different kingdoms, maybe 1 central neutral-zone.  Or later on you throw a cataclysm at them all, making their 3 peoples leave and join into 1 new place ala Great Forks.  Or something.


Hell, Hollow has a bad rep.  Maybe it was carved out of a defeated Primordial - hollowed out, literally.  <_<  Let him build a city that will stand up and walk again if he fixes the geomancy in order to build manses and such. >_< Just an idea.

Sacheverell:

Hell, Hollow has a bad rep.  Maybe it was carved out of a defeated Primordial - hollowed out, literally.  <_<  Let him build a city that will stand up and walk again if he fixes the geomancy in order to build manses and such. >_< Just an idea.

Genius.  I knew I looked for ideas in the right place! 

So let me ask a few more questions.  I'm bad with Primordials.  The scope of their existence and physical bodies is hard for me to work with.  Could you give me some ideas for a hollowed out Primordial?  I love the idea, but I could never focus long enough to develop it myself.

I should also probably mention some more detail about the characters.  The series started in Nexus, as all the characters lived there in the beginning.  Shit happened, and it forced them together and eventually having to leave.  They would seperate after every big "mission" they did, but eventually someone would have to call on the others for help again, and the gang would get back together.  When we played, usually I'd do four or five sessions as a group, then let them split up and run one or two solo sessions for each of them, so they could develop their characters away from everyone else, maybe learn a few tricks or something.  However, I'd always tie them back in somehow.  Anyways, this story arch (the first, since we only started playing six or eight months ago) ended when they invaded a Realm controlled Nexus.  In my English studies, I've become obsessed with literary techniques.  There are only two stories in the entire world: "man leaves town" and "man comes back to town".  For the first story arch, I've brought things full circle with them leaving and returning to their home town, even though it now lies in ruins.

The Night Caste Emissary inherited his position, taking the place of a First Age Solar who was guarded for centuries by the Sun King Seneschals.  His Lunar mate (and assistant, assigned by the Seneschals) is Heysha Black Asp (since the player absolutely loved her).  After the player lost a bet with me, I said that she wouldn't have sex with his characterunless they were married (marriage can be more frightening than Deathlords at times).  Now that they've won Nexus, he said he'll tie the knot.  His eventual goal is to obliterate the Realm.  In his early days as a Solar, he was captured by a secretive part of the Immaculate Order who experimented on him, to better understand the nature of the Anathema.  To escape, he signed a deal with Five Days Darkness.  From then on, they'd work as partners to accomplish their goals.  So to destroy the Realm, he wants to build a small army of Essence-users: the fastest way he thought to do this would be breeding with Heysha, giving her quick gestation or something, and have her lay lots of eggs (weird, I know).  Now that you've mentioned Neomah...I'm wondering if there are even more possibilities.  So far, I have nothing planned for him to do.

The Dawn Caste Chumyo basically lost his high position when he became a Solar.  He's the oldest character, in his late fourties instead of early twenties (or younger) like the rest.  When Lookshy was attacked by the Mask of Winters, he rallied the troops when their current command was killed, and lead them in guerilla warfare against the Mask and the Realm.  The power of the Gunzosha warriors, as well as an invention of "battlestriders", or cheap warstridesr that can be piloted by mortals", lead him to an eventual victory.  My idea is for another former member of Lookshy, having held an equal rank or so, returning as a Slayer Caste Infernal, and challenging the Solar Chumyo's rule.  He'll have Gunzosha as well, but instead of implants that shorten lifespan, his will be mutated by the Yozis, and to combat the battlestriders, he'll have his own mortal piloted hellstriders.  He'll try and swell his small group with demons and convert members of the Solar's army to his own.  Of course, those with honor will stay loyal, but that isn't everybody.  Eventually, Lookshy's remnant forces, the last defenders of the Scavanger Lands, will be split in civil war.  The Solar's ultimate goal is to spread Lookshy far and wide, to not just be a city that defends the Scavenger Lands, but a powerful force that defends all of Creation. 

Now the Eclipse Caste is interesting.  Long story short, he used social Charms to marry a princess and become king of a small country in the Scavenger Lands.  This was just to have a powerbase.  Traveling with him is a proto-Primordial (I'll just skip how she came into the picture).  Though she takes the shape of a mortal girl, she is much, much more.  He wants to destroy the world as is, not willing to work to pick up the pieces, and wants to do so by killing Gaia (and the Realm, while he's at it), and having his new Primordial take over the attunement of Creation.  She does, as a sidenote, refuse to be called a "Primordial", as she asserts that those were ancient beings who died off for the most part.  She sees herself as something new.  The reason she isn't fully developed is because she doesn't yet have a Primordial body or component souls - but she will.  I have some ideas in store for him, but like I said earlier, I can't for the life of me design Primordials.  It would be great if you could give me some ideas of what she could turn into...so far I've only hinted at her being an incarnation of "rebirth", but anything would do, realy.

Just for reference, they're all pretty powerful.  They did kill the Mask of Winters after all.

I love Exalted - it's the only game I have to stop a second and think to realize how normal some characters are. ;) lol

Night Caste:  So Solar Exalts, the Terrestrials decide to pick this one apart instead of kill it outright, and somewhere in between Five Days Darkness shows up and offers a bargain he can't refuse.  Sweet.  Hates the bastards who did that to him though.
Dawn Caste: Older soldier who wants his old home honored.
Eclipse Caste: The bastard married a princess - but did this give him automatic power?  And who's the Proto-Primordial, and who is the Terrestrial he wants to place on the throne?  Of all of them, the Eclipse "worries" me alone.



Dawn -  with only a fledgling force left, and they'll split too, and Lookshy itself destined to fall one day (at least in the books), I find his goal plausible but unlikely.  However, Lookshy does have several manuals on combat (both for war and individual combat).  Gunzosha combat armor even has a series of books, all semi-occult, that I think are used so that Gunzosha can awaken their Essence and learn a few wonders exclusive to them.
My point?  Lookshy might be in ruins, but you could always let him salvage books - very valuable books - that allow mortals under him to learn all sorts of neat things.  Yes, he's a Solar - he doesn't need books.  And he has War charms that also make his underlings good.  But the ability to educate mortals as something more offers him a chance at putting together a new army.

He needs to decide what he defends against.   Money and military go together.  Is he freely getting involved in every fight, or only those he considers unjust?  And if unjust, how does he determine it?  If he speaks.....Flametongue, I speak Flametongue, but my rivals -  who I am destroying - speak something else, then I could easily feed him skewed information against the other side, get me?  And militaries cost money.  Is he a mercenarial group (literally, professional soldiers who go to place fulfilling contracts) or is he aiming for a multinational deal (the collective safety of various political groups).
Other issues.  The US has officers rotate stations every 2 to 4 years - this prevents anyone from being at a base too long and building up a powerbase that could be bad for us.  Constantly changing, you're less likely to become attached to someone and fail to rat them out.  So have him consider this.  Where are his soldiers from and how does he manage them - if he's "nice" to let them live in home-cities, what happens if one of them decides "my loyalty to Sijan is greater than my loyalty to him" and shares military-knowledge with the general Sijani populace, get me?

His goals are very "realistic".  And while it seems Lookshy fell (right?) he could definetly honor its memory by rebuilding a military corps. in its image.   The same way that every city usually has a "market" or "temple" you might make it a standard where multiple cities have a "Lookshy Section" of town for special troops.




Night - Wants to destroy the Realm?  Again, combining with the Dawn feels perfect - Gunzosha, with essence-usage, would make a fierce army indeed. 
But lets say he wants his own project - you know what the most obscene yet valid (by the rules) combination is?  A Ghost-Blooded Beast-Man Terrestrial. He's have to share his wife around a bit though. ;) Have her impregnate some Terrestrials (or, better, have her get pregnant by a Terrestrial and then lay 1,000 eggs or something)  - the 1st generation of children will either be Terrestrial Exalts, Lunar Half-Caste Beastmen, or Terrestrial Beastmen. 
The ones we want are the Terrestrial Beastmen - they exist in the Wyld book and others, especially where Lunars and Terrestrials work together, as nothing forbids a Terrestrial Exalt to be half-beast.  Once you have a solid breeding stock of these, have the females mate with ghosts - for Ghost-Blooded Beast-Men Terrestrials.

Sounds silly, but hell, that's the most laid-up thing you can breed easily I think.  As long as they do not have the "Awakened Essence" Merit before they Exalt, your Ghost-Blooded Beastmen can undergo Terrestrial Exaltation without penalty.  So why all the trouble?

Because now you have Terrestrial Exalts.  But you can add in Ghost-Blooded Merits that make you all sorts of a crazy killer.  And you have the mutations that Beastmen have - some of the really crazy ones include super-hard armored skin, quills, fire-breathing, poison-touch, etc.  Get where I'm going?  Individually they're all neat, but you can layer and layer these things.  Go make yourself some 4-legged, 4-armed, web-spinning, entropy-bringing martial-artists or something.  Go crazy.  If ghosts are too hard, then have Five Days Darkness provide the seed, and create some custom merits for his kiddies.

And if you have the Neomah aid you, they can do all sorts of crazy shit crafting babies, even crafting unlikely combinations (like 2 fathers having a daughter). 

I'll get to the Hollow thing next.

Eclipse - Dunno. >_< That Proto-Primordial thing is what I'm unsure what to do with.

So!

Hollow.   Primordials are all sorts of crazy shit - and we're suggested a dead one, literally hollowed out.  One way to visualize a Primordial is geographically.  The Green Sun is Malfeas' Heart.  One of Autochton's war-souls is Autochton's Immune-System, with his Organ-Continents shifting here and there.  The sub-souls can also manifest as demenses - the Dragon-Kings saw entities living beneath.  Hence Jacinth, the demon, when summoned always creates a Tower that counts as a Manse; Amelion, another demon, always creates a Manse; geographic-demons are a lot more like demenses, giant natural phenomena - if you didn't know Munaxes was a demon, I'd say his description of being a chasm and blah blah blah would make a great and esoteric demense.

But we know we can destroy a demense and a manse.  We also know there are tombs to these critters.  We know Autochton can be killed by literally ruining his sacred geomancy, messing up his factory-organs and all that.  Do you see where I'm going with this?

There was another city in DotFA built by Exalts with parts of a slain Primordial.  Hollow could be another.  Stagnant areas where Essence does not flow - you cannot regenerate Peripheral Essence here, for example.  Rivers that became toxic and into swamps;earth that is brittle; invent a concept and then ruin it.  Then your Night needs to fix it to get the old city "running again" - but if he goes too far, maybe he unleashes some ancient horror, half-alive.  Maybe you can youtube it, "Evangelion" when "EVA-01" breaks free of its armor.  It looks like they've been piloting warstriders the entire series, when several episodes in one of them gets its arm ripped off and goes berzerk......and eats.....the heart of a slain 'angel'.  And then regrows its lost arm, without the armor, revealing human flesh beneath.
You could even deliberately mislead.  You might have giant occult "restraints" that keep the cripple or dead Primordial trapped - and let the Night believe that these restraints are crippling the Essence flows, and that removing it would fix everything. ; )

Also remember that if he breeds an army of anything, they need homes - and this will affect geomancy.  Neomah also spin brass towers out of their mouths, and if you lay them up in the city, it might also affect things.  Be creative.  If I wanted it to "stand up" human-like, I'd have the Neomah "brass towers" look like quills on its skin and stuff.

Everything depends on how you want to build it.  If his goal is to destroy the Realm, go join the Dawn in building a military wonder.  If his goal is to breed essence users, summon Neomah and make some really scientific mixes until you get the right one.  If his goal is to resurrect the city, get some geomancers.  The order he does it matters a bit.  Breeding first, then military, then geomancy might result in having strange babies (got half-spider babes? they will build homes way different than a half-snake for instance), military (new military devices that match their specific skills - wings, fangs, whatever make a difference!)....and so Hollow's geomancy might be warped by demon-taint and military-structures into a giant warlike behemoth-thing.  Or fix Hollow first, it runs fine, then, etc etc.

Eclipse - Dunno since the books are pretty ambigious.  Thus far, the Unshaped resemble powerful demons - they have component-parts in their own fashion, and one popular theory is that a Primordial is the collection of multiple Unshaped in a similar fashion.  Imagine it like the Wyld is a jar full of M&Ms.....but gradually, the colors can collect themselves.  So if blue finds other blue it unites under an Unshaped, and if multiple blue Unshaped join you get a blue Primordial. 

So don't feel bad about not defining her - just define her!  Start amassing souls and concepts.  Maybe consume some Fair Folk (who are the most varied).  Consume some elementals (to form more landscape and environmental stuff).  Consume gods (to incorporate their ideas).  For example!
I might try to incorporate a.....police officer, Endowing her into a God (or spirit of mine) because I find her dedication useful to me.  I add a God of Justice, as well as a Bloody Hand (God of Murder), and a couple other odd Gods.  I'll throw in a Fire-Elemental, the God of a specific jail, etc, etc.  Maybe I have a Daiklaive, so I add its Least God too.

The more I add, the more I define or reinforce myself.  We do this every day - we are different things to different people.  Instead of Sachs (the sales person) or Sachs (the gamer) I'm building the concept of Sachs (the legalist).  When Malfeas whips out Ligier (the Green Sun) I whip out (xxxx) the Impregnable Prison.  When Ligier whips out Gervesin (a Spear), then (xxxx) whips out (yyyyy) (my old Daiklaive).  Do you see where I'm trying to take it?  A collection of landscapes, souls, stories, concepts, ideas...... your little girl needs to grow. And there are more mundane things too, but try to keep it related somehow.  Sand isn't important to Cecelyne as a concept, but deserts (for desolation) and grains of sand (for patience, time, building slowly) are.  Thing of indirect symbols for what you got going.  Ever notice that Munaxes looks like a giant chasm (a rip in the earth) and most of his component souls indirectly or unintentionall harm the earth? It's not blatantly spelled out, but its indirect.

Stuff.