Keychain of Creation 3: Not-a-Keyblade Understanding & Falafel-is-Awesome Prana Combo

[Aquillion]

It just occurs to me -- does she get Resonance for acknowledging that what he was going to say was her name?

If she'd said "that's not my name anymore", she would have been fine, but she clearly referred to it as "my name", which is a big no-no. Even if he didn't finish saying it, she was claiming her mortal name as her own -- that gives her resonance.

[Indon]

We knew he had Investigation from when we found out he had Judge's Ear Technique.

Oh yeah, charms.

[Revlid]

It just occurs to me -- does she get Resonance for acknowledging that what he was going to say was her name?

If she'd said "that's not my name anymore", she would have been fine, but she clearly referred to it as "my name", which is a big no-no. Even if he didn't finish saying it, she was claiming her mortal name as her own -- that gives her resonance.

Secret's more immediate concerns aside, I'm pretty sure Keychain is running off lax Resonance houserules in order to better facilitate the mixed party.

Unrelated - while reading up on Lunars, I came across an interesting question, partially inspired by the Bond discussion earlier in this thread: Do Chimerae retain their Solar Bonds?

If so, could a Solar with sufficient Social Charms (and presumably the Moon&Sun and Soul-Spanning Charms) keep it under control? Seems like it would be an interesting lackey/pet for an amorally dainty Solar lady.
And then she uses Invoking the Chimera's Coils andohgodthere'stwoofthem

[horngeek]

Unrelated - while reading up on Lunars, I came across an interesting question, partially inspired by the Bond discussion earlier in this thread: Do Chimerae retain their Solar Bonds?

Presumably, yes. Even though they've lost their minds and sanity to the Wyld, the Bond is carried by the Exaltation, and therefore is not affected.

If so, could a Solar with sufficient Social Charms (and presumably the Moon&Sun and Soul-Spanning Charms) keep it under control? Seems like it would be an interesting lackey/pet for an amorally dainty Solar lady.
And then she uses Invoking the Chimera's Coils andohgodthere'stwoofthem

No. A Chimera is in permanent Limit Break, and therefore, stuff like this... doesn't have much effect.

[Arcanoi]

Secret's more immediate concerns aside, I'm pretty sure Keychain is running off lax Resonance houserules in order to better facilitate the mixed party.

Unrelated - while reading up on Lunars, I came across an interesting question, partially inspired by the Bond discussion earlier in this thread: Do Chimerae retain their Solar Bonds?

If so, could a Solar with sufficient Social Charms (and presumably the Moon&Sun and Soul-Spanning Charms) keep it under control? Seems like it would be an interesting lackey/pet for an amorally dainty Solar lady.
And then she uses Invoking the Chimera's Coils andohgodthere'stwoofthem

This ain't covered much, but I'd say it would be ST call. It's probably possible. Depending on the Chimera's Limit Break, you could probably use such charms to force the Chimera into partially controlled.

[Revlid]

So, probably a job for a custom Charm for a villain, then. Silver Beast on Golden Chain, perhaps. Something that puts the Lunar Mate more under their Solar's control for each point of Permanent Limit they have.

Thanks for the advice!

[Jukashi]

This ain't covered much, but I'd say it would be ST call. It's probably possible. Depending on the Chimera's Limit Break, you could probably use such charms to force the Chimera into partially controlled.

It's iffy. Recent Errata suggested that Limit was always there (just without the Curse part) as an in-built way to resist mental influence. On the other hand, Solars have a Charm to make them more mentally invulnerable while in limit break, so that implies there are some vulnerabilities normally.

However, a Limit Breaking Lunar is essentially an animal. Your ST might just say that a Solar's social power is based off inspiration, smooth talk, cunning language and the call to ideals, all of which would have no importance to a beast. You could use survival or ride Charms, maybe, but they're not designed for the purpose.

[The Demented One]

So, probably a job for a custom Charm for a villain, then. Silver Beast on Golden Chain, perhaps. Something that puts the Lunar Mate more under their Solar's control for each point of Permanent Limit they have.

Thanks for the advice!

Too specific for Solar Charms. A Solar wouldn't have a charm to mind control his Chimera mate, he'd just have mind control.

[spectralphoenix]

Too specific for Solar Charms. A Solar wouldn't have a charm to mind control his Chimera mate, he'd just have mind control.

I think it's reasonable - the Solar-Lunar bond is a defining aspect of Solar Exaltation (though perhaps moreso for Lunar Exaltation.) If it's power you're concerned about, maybe the charm could also let you force the Lunar into a rage that grants combat bonuses or something.

[Sojiko]

Misho: Continuing to prove he has points in everything. Outstanding use of the Investigation skill!

Breaking news! A Twlight has points in the Investigation ability!

[Sojiko]

I think it's reasonable - the Solar-Lunar bond is a defining aspect of Solar Exaltation (though perhaps moreso for Lunar Exaltation.) If it's power you're concerned about, maybe the charm could also let you force the Lunar into a rage that grants combat bonuses or something.

That's wrong, actually. It is only a part of the Lunar exaltation.

[Tavar]

As a mechanical effect, perhaps, but the link is to one individual Solar Shard, and the bond between them is a major part of the games lore.

[Revlid]

Too specific for Solar Charms. A Solar wouldn't have a charm to mind control his Chimera mate, he'd just have mind control.

Really? General mind-control is the same thing/will work on a bonded chimeric exalt? Seems to me like it'd be the natural charm for the Eclipse Solar to develop herself upon discovering that what had been her faithful-if=none-too-bright muscle in a past life had turned into a furry shoggoth - a method of control, something no current charm really offers, but that Sun&Moon and Soul-Spanning offer starting points toward.

Whether it's a pavlovian illusion linked through their bond, or a method of controlling/altering what Limit Break the Chimera is afflicted by from moment-to-moment, or just focusing the Whipped Dog limit break exclusively on her, there's got to be a way to do it, and the reward is a suitably nasty Dragon (perhaps literally).

[The Demented One]

a method of control, something no current charm really offers, but that Sun&Moon and Soul-Spanning offer starting points toward.

Sun and Moon Method illustrates one of the few areas where Solar Charms can specialize–when it comes to dealing with their Lunar mates. Even then, it's not an area I think they should be heavily specialized in, and I wouldn't go as far as "controlling Lunar chimera." Strikes me as too limited. If a Solar wants to control his chimera mate, that's what things like Worshipful Lackey Acquisition, Husband-Seducing Demon Dance, and Memory-Reweaving Discipline are for.

[Revlid]

Sun and Moon Method illustrates one of the few areas where Solar Charms can specialize–when it comes to dealing with their Lunar mates. Even then, it's not an area I think they should be heavily specialized in, and I wouldn't go as far as "controlling Lunar chimera." Strikes me as too limited. If a Solar wants to control his chimera mate, that's what things like Worshipful Lackey Acquisition, Husband-Seducing Demon Dance, and Memory-Reweaving Discipline are for.

Fair enough, I just wasn't sure if those would work so well on a Chimera.

Hell with it. I'm going to be the ST, I'll just rule that the Lunar Bond and two related charms allow them to work.

EDIT: Wow, Misho is scary.
Nothing that Rouen doesn't deserve, though (being a ghost in Skullstone is reason enough for suspicion. His daughter being a reluctant Abyssal just cements that).

[Weimann]

The Thrice-Radiant! Squee!

The fourth panel is wonderful. not only is the Past Lives aspect of Exalted one I like a lot, but I also a m fond of that paticular kind of imagery you used just there: it conveys a depth, power or determination behind the action in an awesome way.

As much as Marena is social specialist, I'd say her forte is Performance and Socialize, possibly with a Charisma-specialization in Seduction, while Misho has Presence 5.

Edit: And possibly Presence Specialisation: Teaching 3, and got off a damn good stunt.

[Gez]

What are Rouen's reasons? Maybe Secret will think to ask him this, in addition to the other stuff Misho asks.

[Xelloss]

What are Rouen's reasons?

IMO, not having your identity destroyed by the Celestial Soul Blender™ is enough as a reason.

[Gez]

IMO, not having your identity destroyed by the Celestial Soul Blender™ is enough as a reason.

I don't think that's the case here.

Rouen says "what gives you the right to decide when", not "what gives you the right to decide if" -- so he's not objecting to be recycled some day, he's objecting to be recycled now.

[Leliel]

And in any case, this is a perfect example of someone who knows about the Deathlords having Compassion 5.

"I know this is tough for you, but the longer you don't go into Lethe, the higher the chances that some Abyssal is going to (A), turn you into a nephwrack, (B), forge you into soulsteel, or (C) sacrifice you to power Necromancy. All of which are far less bad then if you simply chose amnesia and were reincarnated."

[Revlid]

And in any case, this is a perfect example of someone who knows about the Deathlords having Compassion 5.

"I know this is tough for you, but the longer you don't go into Lethe, the higher the chances that some Abyssal is going to (A), turn you into a nephwrack, (B), forge you into soulsteel, or (C) sacrifice you to power Necromancy. All of which are far less bad then if you simply chose amnesia and were reincarnated."

It's also a perfect example of how Creation sucks. When the most Compassionate thing a person can do for your soul is give it amnesia and send it into a new body... You know it's time to jump universes.

[Ganurath]

I'd prefer to attune to a certain sort of 5-dot Earth Manse, thanks. That, or get a sword blade from Misho. I've noticed that the whole "afterlife" thing is only an issue if you die.

As for the comic itself... Accursed weekday cliffhanger! Well played, Jukashi, you have kept me on the edge of my seat.

[lord_khaine]

And in any case, this is a perfect example of someone who knows about the Deathlords having Compassion 5.

"I know this is tough for you, but the longer you don't go into Lethe, the higher the chances that some Abyssal is going to (A), turn you into a nephwrack, (B), forge you into soulsteel, or (C) sacrifice you to power Necromancy. All of which are far less bad then if you simply chose amnesia and were reincarnated."

But is Misho not all in all pretty ignorant of the Deathlord? at the start of the comic he wasnt even aware of the details regarding Death knights.

[Aquillion]

Also, remember, Misho says "...where he should go." The implication I get from this is that he's making a moral judgment here -- he feels that the underworld is an abomination and, by extension, ghosts are abominations and ought to return to lithe.

To be fair, there's some support for this in the setting -- at least enough that he can believe that without being a monster. But ghosts are also people, so it does kind of feel like he's forcing his morality on the man using brute strength.

[Tavar]

Well, compassion doesn't mean he's good. It just means that he cares about others, but one way for that to display itself is for him to do something that someone doesn't like "for their own good".

[Jukashi]

Ya just gotta remember that there is no universal good or evil in Exalted. Closest thing to definitive, external-morality good would be the will of Sol Invictus, but really he's just the world's biggest Bro and has been making mistakes. Closest thing to cosmic evil is the Ebon Dragon and the Neverborn, the first being little more than a moustache-twirling Richard* dastardly dragon with a severe mental illness, and the second being totally and justifiably insane through little fault of their own. Heck, they probably wouldn't be doing anything if First Age Exalts hadn't gone down and broken into their dreams so they could beat necromancy out of them.

Actually, pretty much everything bad in the setting is the Exalted's fault. Not only did they wake the Neverborn, but they could have just banished the pre-Yozis rather than cripple and imprison them. Negotiation, after just one or two deaths/yozi-ings could have had the primordials just leave to make a new world rather than kill so many of them. The gods did want to humiliate their former masters, but the Exalts could have stood up to them.

Anyway; although I created the main characters to be the sort of protagonists you can root for, they're not necessarily designed to be the definitive Good Guys.

*Darn censor won't let me say a relatively common diminutive. What if I wanted to talk about that book with the whale?

[Ganurath]

Actually, pretty much everything bad in the setting is the Exalted's fault. Not only did they wake the Neverborn, but they could have just banished the pre-Yozis rather than cripple and imprison them. Negotiation, after just one or two deaths/yozi-ings could have had the primordials just leave to make a new world rather than kill so many of them. The gods did want to humiliate their former masters, but the Exalts could have stood up to them.

I blame Desus. He probably masterminded the negociations to torture and mutilate the Primordials.

[MReav]

Actually, pretty much everything bad in the setting is the Exalted's fault. Not only did they wake the Neverborn, but they could have just banished the pre-Yozis rather than cripple and imprison them. Negotiation, after just one or two deaths/yozi-ings could have had the primordials just leave to make a new world rather than kill so many of them. The gods did want to humiliate their former masters, but the Exalts could have stood up to them.

I would say everything that's wrong in the setting now is the Exalted's fault. From what I understand, the Primordials were pretty big jerks in prehistory, which is why the Incarnae, humanity and Autochton felt like doing what they did was necessary.

[Tavar]

Also, from the Exalted discussion in the gaming forum, intact the primordials could have possibly made a way to get out of their predicament. That's what made them so dangerous. Crippled, though, they can't.

[Jukashi]

I would say everything that's wrong in the setting now is the Exalted's fault. From what I understand, the Primordials were pretty big jerks in prehistory, which is why the Incarnae, humanity and Autochton felt like doing what they did was necessary.

They were, really, but it's not exactly their fault. For all their power and intelligence, primordials are in some ways more limited than mortal humans. Acts such as killing oneself or one's offpsring are against a human being's nature, but it is possible for a sane human to do these things if given sufficient cause; primordials, though, seem completely incapable of going against their base natures.

The Ebon Dragon, for example, has to be villainous. He could never have been anything else, and things like heroism or self-sacrifice are things he literally can never do. He knows they exist, he knows the manner in which such ideals are followed; he even had a hand in creating them. But they are about as applicable to his own way of thinking as notions of human rights are to a brick.

Also, from the Exalted discussion in the gaming forum, intact the primordials could have possibly made a way to get out of their predicament. That's what made them so dangerous. Crippled, though, they can't.

Hmm. Does that mean it's possible for Gaia to bust the Yozis out? Maybe even to "heal" them? If any prim could do that, it'd probably be her.