Keychain of Creation IV: The Lore Thing

[spectralphoenix]

Well, presumably beating up on Oliphem at least happened early on, because IIRC the Lintha were nearly wiped out shortly after the end of the Primordial War.

[Leliel]

Actually, beating up Oliphem had a point (the defeat of a rather nasty race of Primordial worshipers, the Lintha), and what TV Tropes didn't mention was that sucker-punching him is exactly what an Eclipse like Desus is supposed to do (ie, outsmart their adversaries and leave them slowly realizing they just signed over all their executive power over Creation to their subordinates). It's that he double-crossed Oliphem under the pretenses of a ceasefire, then lied about it to the other Solars.

The real inhumanity came later. One imagines the busted "Solar Monitor Panel" in the Daystar (basically the Unconquered Sun's pet starship) became that way when Sol Invictus threw one of his Godspears at Desus' image.

EDIT: See Ink Monkeys for an explanation.

[Green Bean]

Also, the books mention that even a low essence Solar crafter could have fixed up Oliphem if they'd ever felt like it. So it isn't like Desus deliberately crippled the poor guy forever.

[The Rose Dragon]

One imagines the busted "Solar Monitor Panel" in the Daystar (basically the Unconquered Sun's pet starship) became that way when Sol Invictus threw one of his Godspears at Desus' image.

There is only one Godspear.

[Kyeudo]

There is only one Godspear.

There's two. One's just the main cannon on the Five Metal Shrike.

[The Rose Dragon]

There's two. One's just the main cannon on the Five Metal Shrike.

Rephrasal: there is only one Godspear that the Unconquered Sun wields.

[Mewtarthio]

There is only one Godspear.

He used Unimpeachable Word of the God-King Transcends All Grammar to refer to it in the plural. He's allowed to do that, you know.

[Lix Lorn]

I kinda get the idea that Exalted is a leetle silly. XP

[Coidzor]

Beyond the Impossible, IIRC, is(was?) the defining design principle.

[horngeek]

I kinda get the idea that Exalted is a leetle silly. XP

Here's a good quote to sum the situation of Solar PCs up in a standard game:

Exalted is a game where one of your main antagonists is Death, Creator of the Underworld. Except there's several of him, probally six or seven. Oh, and he's got 13 dread henchmen, one of whom was probally you at some point in time. Also, Hell has a personal grudge against you this time. Did I mention Magical America regularly trains and sends ninjas out for you personally? Ninjas specially trained in asskicking? Which, if they won't work, they keep giant robotic suits of armor on reserve for. Oh, and the Transformers have united under Omicron, and are invading. The Jedi have corrupted Heaven and usurped your rightful place as the Masters of Everything. Your ex-wife just dropped by, and she's a two thousand year old shapechaning maneating monser now, interested in maybe going on a date next Thursday. Your best friend from your last life and while growing up now seeks to cover all the lands of Middle Earth in darkness, if he can just find this damn ring. And your God has the world's biggest crackhabit, and needs some serious rehab.

I also like this one:

The whole idea is that there isn't just one cosmic force about to destroy Creation, there's a whole bunch of cosmic (and not-so-cosmic) forces that are all about to destroy Creation. Between declining empires of elemental supermen, zombie hordes, vengeful elder ghosts, dead primal gods, imprisoned demon-Titans, Cthulhu elves, Satanic pirates, necrophagic dinosaur-men, miscellaneous ancient artifact-slash-WMDs, international mercantile conspiracies, curse-addled reality ninjas, Conan-wannabe werewolves, assorted Godzilla-knockoffs, well-meaning but terminally misguided anime heroes, mutants up the wazoo, and the Machine God and his Aztec Cyborgs�, Creation is about ten seconds away from getting gang-banged to death by every epic-fantasy clichi in the book all at once.

[The_Snark]

It can be as silly or serious as you like. I think most people prefer a mix of the two- I've always had a soft spot for stories that can switch back and forth between humor and drama.

Warning: may cause mood whiplash. If oscillations occur more than five times in a scene, contact your local Twilight.

Edit- this comic is a good example, now that I think about it. There's humor, and there's not-humor, and the story would be missing something if it dropped either one.

[horngeek]

It can be as silly or serious as you like. I think most people prefer a mix of the two- I've always had a soft spot for stories that can switch back and forth between humor and drama.

Warning: may cause mood whiplash.

Indeed. There's a lot of humor that you can have in the setting, but the fact is that Creation sucks for anything that doesn't have supernatural powers, and many things that do.

I mean, there's a high chance that some Dragon-Blooded will decide he likes your stuff and just takes it, because its his right. And if you complain, he just has you executed.

Or, some Lunar Anathema might decide to come your way next on their civilisation-destroying crusade and burn your village to the ground.

Or the Solar Anathema might come, convince you all to follow him in his cause- at which point you'll likely be killed when the Wyld Hunt comes after the Solar.

Or, the Abyssal Exalted will come and kill you and put your soul in their latest weapon.

Or the Infernal Exalted will make your home their next place to turn into a mimicry of Hell. *shudder*

Or the Fair Folk will come and steal your dreams and other unthinkable things.

Or you get enslaved by the Guild.

Really, being a mortal sucks.

Creation's a fun setting to play in, but I wouldn't want to live there.

[The Rose Dragon]

Alternatively, a spirit will impregnate you because you have really cute nostrils / remind him of his erstwhile wife while he was alive / because some sorcerer ordered him to.

[kamikasei]

It's an interesting question whether the average mortal in Creation is really all that much worse off within his lifetime than the average person in real human history (excepting the various supernatural fates worse than death possible within Creation).

[The Rose Dragon]

It's an interesting question whether the average mortal in Creation is really all that much worse off within his lifetime than the average person in real human history (excepting the various supernatural fates worse than death possible within Creation).

In real history, your landlord, his many servants and his even more numerous enemies did not have supernatural powers that exceeded all your hopes of matching. In Exalted, they have all those powers plus everything expected from a real history person.

[Yuki Akuma]

In real history, your landlord, his many servants and his even more numerous enemies did not have supernatural powers that exceeded all your hopes of matching. In Exalted, they have all those powers plus everything expected from a real history person.

And compared to common folk, there aren't that many of them. A mortal can go his entire life never meeting a Terrestrial.

[Doran]

Jukashi, would you please mind changing your RSS so that when you upload the placeholder it doesn't trigger it - only when you upload the actual comic?

[Morty]

In real history, your landlord, his many servants and his even more numerous enemies did not have supernatural powers that exceeded all your hopes of matching. In Exalted, they have all those powers plus everything expected from a real history person.

Indeed. That, and a European commoner up to 20th century would be often prevented from achieving his or her full potential by social norms et cetera. In Creation, it seems that if you're a mortal, you might as well give up anyway, since no matter what you do, you're never going to get close to the Exalts, which is kinda discouraging.
Mind you, I don't actually play Exalted, I just did some research after reading KoC and seeing it discussed on forums.

[horngeek]

In Creation, it seems that if you're a mortal, you might as well give up anyway, since no matter what you do, you're never going to get close to the Exalts, which is kinda discouraging.

Unless, of course, you attract an Exaltation of your own. Which is rare. There are rules for playing Heroic Mortals, and that can be an interesting game, though.

As I said before: fun to play games about, but I would never want to live there.

And the whole point of the Thousand Streams River (which Marena talks about a bit in the comic) is to make it so the Exalted are no longer nessesary, because mortals will be able to take care of themselves.

Then there's Autocthon, where the Exalted serve mortals, not lead them. In fact, the Alchemical Exalted can't be made without mortal input.

[Yuki Akuma]

Mortals can also become Enlightened, which, if they're dedicated, can put them on an equal footing with a very young Exalt. And it can also lead to them attaining godhood.

[The Rose Dragon]

Then there's Autocthon, where the Exalted serve mortals, not lead them. In fact, the Alchemical Exalted can't be made without mortal input.

Autochthon. There are two h letters in Autochthon.

Also, not only can Alchemicals not be made without mortals, they also cannot evolve without mortals. Sure, they can improve their Abilities, Virtues and Willpower, but their Attributes, Charms and Essence is completely dependent on mortal labor.

[golentan]

And compared to common folk, there aren't that many of them. A mortal can go his entire life never meeting a Terrestrial.

That actually bothers me a bit. I think it's in MoEP: Terrestrials? But somewhere they mention the spontaneous exaltation rate for lost eggs as 1/5000, higher in population centers. Now, sure. A fiftieth of a percent isn't very much, but I'd still expect good sized towns to regularly see dragonbloods, given how long they stick around when they do appear and assuming any sort of regular trade. And there should be a lot more of them than 30,000 in the world, in a lot more positions of power. Halta alone has a population enough to provide for a few thousand lost eggs.

So where are all the dragonbloods?

Yeah, I realize someone just didn't square their numbers with the rest of the team. But the given values still seem pretty pathetic.

As for the mortals in creation vs. earth?

I don't know. I'd ask myself: Would I rather live in a nightmare world where my life expectancy is about 65 years and where about 1000 beings of incredible intelligence have the capacity to wipe out life as we know it if they really work hard at it unopposed by other similarly powered beings? And where natural disasters can frequently be averted by prayer. As opposed to our world, which could be wiped out by I don't know how many beings of questionable intelligence and natural disasters just happen. And in this nightmare world, agriculture easily yields enough to support a post agrarian society all of which without the need for an industrial revolution and all of the associated make-work and wage slavery that I associate with my everyday life?

And I frequently find myself saying yes. Yes, that does sound at the very least no worse than the world I currently enjoy. I feel I would be willing to risk the expected 7 years of my life to live in such a world, particularly given that death presents with at least the possibility of further options to pursue and magic powers.

[Rimblah]

The Blade of Vitality has some aspects about which I am curious;

Why does it negate the powers of the underworld instead of Saturn, if it is focused against natural death?

Can it, in fact, defeat the limit upon a Sidereal's life?

If a deathlord used it, wouldn't that sort of fortify them against the connection to the Neverborn which actually empowers them? Seems like a steep price.


...as you can see, I've registered entirely to post these questions! It is possible that they weigh too heavily on my mind.

[Ignition]

I'm willing to bet it's not all that powerful. Or if it is, it hasn't fully retained those abilities, or at least, it needs a manual to make full use of them - and that manual's lost in a dozen pieces strewn across Creation, thus necessitating another MacGuffin plot

Odds are Misho will figure it out just in time to save the day, or it will turn out to be a broken piece of crap with the batteries run dry.

[Lix Lorn]

I'm willing to bet it's not all that powerful. Or if it is, it hasn't fully retained those abilities, or at least, it needs a manual to make full use of them - and that manual's lost in a dozen pieces strewn across Creation, thus necessitating another MacGuffin plot

Odds are Misho will figure it out just in time to save the day, or it will turn out to be a broken piece of crap with the batteries run dry.

I think it's gonna have Misho's memories stored within it.

[golentan]

I think it's gonna have Misho's memories stored within it.

Yeah. I was actually wondering if Misho (current incarnation, pre-amnesia) had followed his memories to it on a tomb raiding expedition, it recognized his exaltation, and "restored him to full vigor" resulting in the misho we know and love.

[Lix Lorn]

Ooh, that makes sense too...

[The Rose Dragon]

That actually bothers me a bit. I think it's in MoEP: Terrestrials? But somewhere they mention the spontaneous exaltation rate for lost eggs as 1/5000, higher in population centers. Now, sure. A fiftieth of a percent isn't very much, but I'd still expect good sized towns to regularly see dragonbloods, given how long they stick around when they do appear and assuming any sort of regular trade. And there should be a lot more of them than 30,000 in the world, in a lot more positions of power. Halta alone has a population enough to provide for a few thousand lost eggs.

So where are all the dragonbloods?

After the Great Contagion, there were fewer than 10000 Terrestrials in all of Creation for the first time during Creation's post-Exalted history. Many of these were in turn lost during the Balorian Crusade. There simply wasn't enough breeding stock to raise the numbers quickly enough. Most of those Dragon-blooded outcastes are the result of two unlikely bloodlines mixing to create a very weak Terrestrial, and most of the actual Dragon-blooded do not breed with mortals as much as they used to to gain back their former glory.

[golentan]

After the Great Contagion, there were fewer than 10000 Terrestrials in all of Creation for the first time during Creation's post-Exalted history. Many of these were in turn lost during the Balorian Crusade. There simply wasn't enough breeding stock to raise the numbers quickly enough. Most of those Dragon-blooded outcastes are the result of two unlikely bloodlines mixing to create a very weak Terrestrial, and most of the actual Dragon-blooded do not breed with mortals as much as they used to to gain back their former glory.

Yeah, but the rate is still stated as 1/5000 spontaneous. Creation has a population of what, 2 billion minimum? That's... four hundred thousand dragonbloods, theoretically. At the lower end of given, it's 200,000. Of which 30,000 are officially accounted for/acknowledged to exist. Maybe they dropped a zero, and it's one in 50,000 to a hundred thousand, but that still means that almost all of the official terrestrial population should be outcastes. Maybe they're only counting the realm and the threshold in the official figures. I don't know. But it's weird.

[Coidzor]

I guess they really wanted you to have some wiggle room when it came to Dragonblood antagonists and protagonists and side characters.