Exalted, jumps #3-10

[Exalted: Mortals Gauntlet redux, jump #3]

Destiny: Good Luck Crossing That Bridge, A Serpent and the Garden, Fuck me, Sidereal! The Mortal From Hell, May You Live In Interesting Times, A Deal Made In Good Faith, A Book That Should Never Be Opened, Ten-Thousand Winter NIghts, The King of Monsters, Gem, The City of 1001 Imminent Dooms, A Simple Soul Illuminated (Golden Janissary Style), Silver Light Scattering, True Love, A Plague of Locsuts, Thrown Down a Flint Canyon, Ringbearer (7700)

Drawbacks: It's a Keybl..., Celestial Reality TV, A Dragon's World, An Echoe of a Bastard Child, From Another Time and Land; Luna What Did You Do!? Have Great Sex! (8600)

Priest, Children of the Mighty: Demonblooded (Ipithymia) (8350)

Gratuitous Skill Kata (8300)
Adamant Virtue Meditation (Free)
Guild Smile (8200)
Heroic Tale Embodiment (8100)
Capacious Spirit Servitude (Free)
Mind-Like-Manse Understanding (8000)
Sovereign of Scales (7950)
Secret Power Slumbering (Free)
The Flow of Essence (7850)
Sweet-Voiced Begger's Petition (7750)
Heroic Tempering (7550)
'Perfect Delivery' (7500)
Lord of Shattered Mirrors Understanding (7100)
Born to Rule Among Cloak and Dagger (6900)
Innate Conceptual Mantra (6800)
Flawless Form (6400)
Unassailable Tower of the Adamant Soul (6100)
Lethe Blessed Bone Child (5950)
Inheritance of Domain (5800)
Overwhelming Obstructive Overdrive (5500)
Blessed By The Heavens (5100)
All-Encompassing Shintai (4700)
Glory Unto Me (3900)
Mastery Equals Flow (3300)
Cult (Free)
ContactsX2: Masterwork noodle shop with big destiny (3250)
Weapon: Spear of living lightning (3050)
Armor: Armor of light (2850)
Ghost-Hunting Staff (Free)
The Graces: The Cup, The Ring, The Staff, The Sword, The Way (2100)
Rath (1900)
A Lush Parasite (Free)
A Shipment From Hell (1800)
She-Will-Do (1600)
A Haven in the Wastes (1300)
Panoply of the Godlike Jumper: BDSM restraints and aphrodisiacs (1200)
Home Is Where The Heart Is (800)
Bureau of Terrestrial Matters, Four Songs Outpost (0)

>OF ANON (IMPERATOR OF THE WISHING HEART, KING OVER THE ABYSS)

Where the borders of Creation grow weak and Raksha gain their forms, there came a man who worked miracles. He had come from a faraway garden, breathed life into by a great power. None knew of this power, and later when the greatest sorcerers of the world scryed his origins they found only a mysterious link to the shinma Advaita Iraivan. Who as is well known, does not exist and would not act upon the world if it did.

He had left it of his own accord, endowed with insights and fires by that faraway power. His eyelashes were lightning, his eyes twin torches, his body being of burnished, chiseled gold of great stature among men-and the heat of his soul shown from him like the anima of the Anathema.

Yet in coming past that imperceptible gateway of self-actualisation, he recognised himself in other men, and stumbled. So he was incarnated among other men and felt greatly lessened by the passing. Anon did not despair, for he had no knowledge of good or evil. He simply held a boundless will, gathering to himself the great wake and the destiny laid bare by his power's impact upon the Loom of Fate. Such was this will that the power of First Cause came to rest in an old spear and breastplate that had come to him from the Wyld, and through them he regained the power of his wishing heart.

Anon took custody over a Lawgiver named Fair Eyes and a Steward named Makoto. In the garden he had fathered and cared for many abominations and horrors his god had not seen right to live in the garden with his other creations. Some of them were his children, the Lilim, and were said to have been young women with the souls of devils and the flesh of divinity, and Anon was given authority over the brood of them. Yet now the Lilim were lost to him and Anon fretted, yet he rejoiced for there was a new family for him to protect and harbour.

"The Children of Dragons wish to slay us, and I have foreseen a great many fighters heralding a maiden robed in death who are compelled to harm us. Where shall we go?" asked Fair Eyes.

"I have seen the breadth and shape of your land's kingdoms" said Anon. "In this age of sorrows, men are made cruel, petty and violent in a cycle of usurpation, unjust rule and anarchy. Much has been lost from this world. It could have been beautiful"

"I will study it" promised Fair Eyes, taking her guardian's hand for fear he would walk away from her world one day and never come back "and one day, I will build a wonder to put it's sundered beauty to shame"

"And I will guard it" promised Makoto, comforting her bond mate and reaching out for the man who stood between them and all danger "so that what is wounded may heal, and what is nurtured can flourish in health"

Anon did not know peace in the wonders of the bordermarshes, or the flow of essence. He did not find it in the joy of battle or the intrigue of the machinations that haunted him. He found it in a noodle shop that opened it's doors to him, and let him stay, and gave him a safe haven for his charges he had made along the way. Ever did he hold that noodle shop dear to his heart.


>OF LILITH (IMPERATRIX OF DEFIANCE, CORRUPTION AND BLASPHEMY, EDEN'S EXILE)

Ten thousand moon-crazed wolves with the forms of man chased Anon and his charges, and to save them he fled. In their passing, the beacon of his power gathered to himself many other pursuers. There was the Sidereal's furtive child, who felt chained by fate and rejoiced to find one who walked beyond it. There was the slayer of ten thousand winter nights, who dueled the Chosen and Anon upon a bridge for battle was his only joy, and in it found the greatest fight of his life. And there was Secret, the shamed deathknight, come from beyond the gates of Oblivion to fulfil a mission that she increasingly felt had no meaning.

There was a woman who came with Anon through the gateway. She was great of stature like him, another power of First Cause grown from human form. But lean and pale where he was hale and hearty, graceful as the hunting owl under moonlight. Her name was Lilith, and she had left the garden for some unknown crime but not before taking the name of it's god so that the wind would heed her call. Where Anon was vigilant and wise but young at heart, Lilith carried a deep cynicism and spite. Where Anon was awed by the wonders of the world, Lilith wallowed in all rotten and forbidden things to spite those who had sought to define her. They cared deeply for each other, though Lilith did not like to exercise affection, and their children were the Lilim.

Anon had found that as part of his destiny, he had been marked by the golden streets of Malfeas with a great power taking the form of the sun's golden light and a miasma of depravity. This greatly pleased Lilith, who had defied their creator, and acted quickly to assure Anon that this was right and wonderful. In her secret heart Lilith resented that she was nearly powerless in this world but for what power Anon lent her, but unlike her first intended mate Anon was only naive, not given to preconception, so she swallowed her envy and sought to steer him down darker paths.

"Fear not the serpent. As one did in the garden, this one holds knowledge of world's founding" she told Anon, as they rested in their journeys. Anon stared at his charges, who had left to relieve a private matter. Anon had yet to grasp the full implications of the aura of debauchery that hung over him since he had entered the world.

"You would trust the serpent?" asked Anon.

"I trust it's rage. I trust the boons the demon gave you" said Lilith, pretending not to enjoy Anon's presence "freely. There is great power held by them and their masters, and we should gain more of it"

"And what of Exaltation? I think I should enjoy it. I wish to know and feel this world's understanding of perfection. I want to know the purpose for which I was created" said Anon.

"I would not. I will not owe fealty to another god, even in spirit. Knowledge brings only pain, and soon you will understand why men drown their sorrows in wine. You will learn this in time" said Lilith firmly.

"How would indulgence protect my charges? The men of these lands are scarce better than criminals, and respect only strength" asked Anon.

"By disguising them" said Lilith, smiling "as victims, you prove your will and worldliness"

Anon considered, reflecting that Lilith saw little distinction between semblance and truth, but felt the desires in his charges and the maturity of understanding their Exaltation had endowed them with. And he agreed, delighting Lilith for they had one thing in common, the will to strive for better than they were given.

Lilith did not see noodles as important, and found it perplexing Anon was much happier eating them than he was seizing temporal power over the wills of men.



>OF IPITHYMIA, THE GOLDEN STREET OF MALFEAS

Of Hell, let it be known it was a greater prison than the lake of fire Anon had heard whispers of in the garden. It is a brazen city scorched raw by a mad green sun, where geography is twisted by the pain of the broken makers of the world as their hate falls upon it in torrents of caustic venom. Yet there was one who reveled in that broken world and the sadistic spite of her greater self. She was Ipithymia, the personification of the Demon Emperor's lust, whose golden light bade demonkind regard the very sunlight that had sanctioned their binding with sexual arousal. Once, the Primordial King had a soul that personified the grandeur of his fecundity, but after his downfall it had been poorly used, bound and broken by absissic means and eventually disposed of by the victorious heroes of the dawn. From it's desecrated innards did Ipithymia crawl, the broken Brass City having been taught how to degrade and humiliate as it had been.

Ipithymia reveled in the degradation of her peers and greaters, but longed ever for greater beings of non-demonic origin. Ironically, though she burned lust into the hearts of others only the essence of those untouched by the Yozis' spite could satiate her own, and her light was restricted by her brother the sun who despised her as a sign of the Brass City's monstrous indulgence. So did she loathe the hierarchy of Hell in turn and hunger after the things of Creation.

Ipithymia saw that a bountiful garden bloomed in Anon's footsteps (for he had never been cast from it, though he understood not it's entire nature) when he felt joy, and the flowers filled with the miraculous beauty he partook of, and the Chosen at his side performed greater miracles through the bond they shared, and was astonished by the power that had walked into their world. So did she seek to tempt him into the bowels of Hell, and share her essence with him, that he may know her favor and come unto her and be the crown jewel of all her conquests. She waited, and longed, and watched until Anon came across the death of an underage whore from licentious acts, the very clause in her surrender oaths that would let her walk upon Creation, and so did she come unto him, expecting him to wait on her hand and foot for the meanest gesture of favor.

"By what leave are you such a wicked, faithless thing?" asked Anon, bluntly.

"I am the product of my times" she said, rallying swiftly. "I am mighty among demonkind. I can teach you of the ways of Hell. Unlike the Shadow of All Things my blessing is a true gift. The serpent told me you were curious about the making of the world, and the origin of suffering in it. Few would teach you if they knew. I am wicked, but I will give freely if you would but let me teach"

Ipithymia saw then that Anon knew a pure art that had insulated from the temptations of the world. This endeared him to her and inflamed her passion, for arousing the truly pure was her greatest desire.



[Exalted: The Dragonblooded, jump #4]

Drawbacks: Political Enemy, Interesting, Found Egg, A Boon (1600)

Elemental Aspect: Fire

Rolled The Imperial City

Dynast: Mnemon

Educated: The Cloister of Wisdom (Free)
Legendary Breeding (1300)
Sifu: Mnemon (1100)
4 peers: Tepet Ejava, Sesus Rafara, V'neef Bijar, Risa (900)
Exalted Beauty (500)
The Emerald Circle (200)
Intrigue of the Realm (0)
Sunrise Coffee (+400) (200)
Dragon’s Cigars (0)

>OF RECURSION AND THE COURT OF MNEMON

There came a time when Fate broke but for an instant, like a wave rushing to the cleft of land upon which it inevitably collapsed. For it had been too long since the makers of the world had trod upon it, and as the twin Imperators regained the fullness of their miraculous force it strained to hold them. In the sliver of an instant, birds flew in two places at once. Men spoke to those they had yet to meet, and the spirits cried out in alarm. And the Maidens of Destiny looked up from the Games of Divinity.

"Here, I sense an incongruity. We should investigate" said Jupiter, Maiden of Secrets.

"But it's your turn" said the Argent Madonna, her eyes twinkling like the moon hidden behind stormclouds. And lo, it was, and so the Maiden turned her face from Creation once more.

When Fate was reshuffled, Anon was reborn into the service of the house of Mnemon, a powerful but stagnant authority in the realm. It's matriarch instructed him in the ways of politics, rebuked him strongly for asking after the conditions of the peasantry and bade him share his breeding among the house. In this manner did she hope to secure her mother's throne, a seat of power she secretly knew she was unworthy of. In this manner did Anon come to know of statecraft and intrigue.

In the third year of his service to the house, he served Mnemon thistle tea. "Your standing, like this tea, is sour and disappointing" she said severely. "You seen as a louche and worse, incompetant. You waste your time asking after abstractions of sorcery, and you waste our house's reputation by giving succour to beggers on the street"

"Are we not all men? Do we not all bleed?" asked Anon, who was unwise in the ways of society.

Mnemon said nothing, for she had begun to suspect Anon was more than even one of the most well bred idiots she had ever met. But she said "We are dragons. Forget this, and forfeit your role and station"

In the sixth year of his service to the house, he served Mnemon chrysanthemum tea. "Your standing, like this tea, is bittersweet yet welcome" she said thoughtfully. "You have done us great honour by teaching us the exotic thaumaturgy you have taught our kind that whelms demons and unruly spirits. You have restored some of the greatest artifacts from the First Age. In light of this, I am willing to overlook your eccentricity"

"You honour me with your patronage" said Anon, who had begun to learn how to lie by omission.

Mnemon said nothing, for she wished to interrogate Anon about the artifact-fungus the Dragon Kings had claimed a shining figure had rediscovered and blessed. But she said "As my standing grows, so does your place become secure. Never forget this"

In the ninth year of his service to the house, he served Mnemon a lotus tea unknown to the land. "Your standing, like this tea, is sweet for now. Do you know of Atziluth Eternal?" asked Mnemon, talking over Anon in the assumption he did not. "It is a phantasmal city. An romantic mirror to Creation, where even hideousness is made striking. And it WAS a phantasmal predator, a metropolis-Behemoth of the Time of Glory sustained by it's cultists. Until now. Atziluth Eternal has risen, and our house must show valor in this matter"

"Indeed" said Anon, who had been responsible for raising it in the first place.

In the final year of his service to the house, Anon waited for Mnemon outside an opened door to the Imperial Manse. She approached him slowly as he rested.

"You cannot have done this" whispered Mnemon.

"I have a parting gift for you, my teacher" said Anon sadly. "May it bring you great happiness, if you truly think yourself worthy of it. I pass no judgement. I cannot find a place for myself in this land I am at peace with. Men are wicked, and the gods and elementals are worse for I have learned how they broke the world. Your self-described hell is driven by pain, and the underworld by the need for eternal release. And I have learned that destiny has bound me to further roles in this Creation of yours. I don't know what to do about it"

"Stay with me" commanded Mnemon, "and you need only concern yourself with my house's fortune. Only I can protect you from all the other appetites of men"

"It is not men you need to fear" retorted Anon. And then he was gone, gone like the sun had left the twilight, gone despite the legions of House Mnemon breaking from their ambush, gone as Mnemon herself contemplated things feared and desired that she had always wanted and knew she could never hold and shed a single tear.


>OF THE ROSEBLACK'S COMRADERY AND THE THEFT OF THE JADE PRISON

Anon did not feel he belonged to House Mnemon, and wandered frequently as was his Imperator-attribute. In time he formed bonds with Children of the Earth beyond the house, and journeyed with them to secure each other's interests. Chief among them was she who was called the Roseblack, an idealist and a beloved general who was a favourite for the throne Mnemon so craved. Neither the Roseblack nor Anon desired power, only the responsible guidance of those under them, and thus they felt a kinship.

"Have you a family?" the Roseblack asked. "I sometimes wonder if I should start one"

"I do. They are wicked, degenerate creatures but dutiful. And...affectionate" said Anon, shaking his head. "I was afraid they rejected the sanctity of God when I raised them. Now I am glad only glad they did not succumb to the depradations around us"

"Which god is that?" she asked.

"You wouldn't know him" he replied.

Together, they fostered a group where the Children of the Earth could trust one another. So valuable a commodity this was that when Anon once dived into the sea to retrieve a prize of incalculable value, their first and foremost thought was to protect Anon from the retribution of the gods. Informing him of the risk, Anon bore the prize across the sea, beyond the known bounds of the world, and to a great golden lotus vaster than palaces around which pale riders with falling stars in their eyes lived on floating pontoons on a jade sea. The Children of the Earth were greatly amazed, and exclaimed that surely this must be that which the Viziers spoke of.

"I am entrusting this to you, for it is hunted by the broken and dying world-makers. It is a cache of the weapons that broke this world" said Anon, to the nameless spirit who was formed of prismatic fire which cooled into a thousand different flowers and stalks and leaves instead of smoke.

"I will keep it" she replied. As he made to leave, the spirit asked him to wait. "Have you seen any sign of it, in this world you've found? My name, my purpose?" she asked urgently.

"I am sorry, my friend. I will keep looking" promised Anon. And though he looked, she herself had searched all of Town in the world Anon had come to before Creation, and never found it, and lived in fear she would ever be a glorious tutelary spirit for a perfect lotus lacking a name and purpose.




[Exalted: The Lunars, jump #5]

Drawbacks: Thousand Streams as One, Obvious Tell: Perisistent Solar Taint, Moon-Mad Mentor: Lilith (Native), The Wyld Hunt, It's...complicated, The Beast Within, Blood-Debts (1800)

Rolled Sunken Luthe

Changing Moon

Spirit Shape: River Dragon (1750)
Stabilized Moonsilver (1700)
Feral Grace (Free)
Instinctive Action (Free)
Guidance of the Silver Lady (1500)
Collar of Moon's Cleansing Light (Free)
Falcastra of the Beyond (1300)
A Whisper Upon the Wind (1100)
The Waifu Exalted (900)
Solar Bondmate: Ariana (600)
The PackX8 (0)
-Anja Silverclaws: No Moon, Mirror-Moon Billabong (600), Tiara of the Dark Star (400), Sorcerous Anima (200), The Waifu Exalted (0)
-Moon-moon: Casteless, The Waifu Exalted (600), Chimerical (400), Guidance of the Silver Lady (200), The Silver Seat (0)
-Wandering Gale: Changing Moon, Thousand Streams (500), The Waifu Exalted (300), Lost Castes (100), Feral Grace (0)
-Hekara the Damned: No Moon, Crossroads Society (500), The Waifu Exalted (300), Sorcerous Anima (100), Feral Grace (0)
-White Aja: Full Moon, Cthonic Baara of the Ur-Beast (500), The Waifu Exalted (300), Feral Grace (200), Righteous Rage (100), Instinctive Action (0)
-Sea-Borne Wolf: Casteless, Chimerical (800), Faery Grace (500), The Waifu Exalted (300), Sorcerous Anima (100), Feral Grace (0)
-Thrice-Cleaved Mia: Casteless, Moonphase Aspects (500), Chimerical (300), The Waifu Exalted (100), Feral Grace (0)
-Lyssandra: Changing Moon, Silver Mind (700), Chimerical (500), The Waifu Exalted (300), Moonphase Aspects (0)

>OF THE SECOND LILITH

There came a time when Fate turned yet again, and Anon found himself cast out beyond civilisation's regard. Alone in the wilds, the cries of angry Children of the Earth hounded him as he bounded through the woods. Nothing was the same. The spirits did not snicker derisively as they did when he was of Mnemon's house, but shied in fear. Gut-churning animal instincts flooded him, at once alien and familiar. The cold of the river was almost welcoming, as he took the form of a river dragon and swam upstream.

The powerful madwoman who found him was by turns tenderly sympathetic, and incoherently furious about unrelated things. He had tried to abandon her, but the moon shined particularly brightly and she found him, and fussed over him going alone across a snowbank, and out of embarrassment he let her take her back to her cave. She would leave for long periods to hound a person she did not like to discuss, then apologetically return in the shape of an owl. She taught him as best as she could about the ways of the Stewards, champions of the moon exiled and cast out by the Realm. Having no knowledge of their kind but for tall tales, Anon was bewildered by the thought of being some untamed beast creature. His confusion only deepened when he learned the madwoman who followed him everywhere trying to teach him things was also named Lilith.

"That is NOT me" said Lilith of Eden severely, when Anon had introduced the two. Not long after, Lilith of Creation had run off crying.

"Didn't we speculate that the chaos beyond God's light, being by definition infinite, might contain permutations of ourselves?" asked Anon.

"I don't care what we hypothesised. I would take my life before losing that much dignity" snapped Lilith, pointing as Lilith cried and punched a boulder she called Desus into pebbles.


>OF THE THOUSAND STREAMS RIVER

Anon was Imperial. The land opened itself to his grasp. He did not hunt, for he required no sustenance. But he took succour from ailing and old animals, and drew crops forth from the land to consume. In the morning, he took gifts of moonsilver and game back to his daughters. In the evening, he took tales of the lands beyond to the Riders of the Chancery-the wan and forlorn folk of Ninuan who had followed his tribe-and the fallen powers, and the suzerains of Game that were the animality of mankind, and the primordial divine living things that writhed to and fro into an old world now dissolved. And between those times, Anon endured the well-intentioned but deranged teaching of his mentor Lilith.

He had paid attention to the Stewards' activities, wondering what great works the second among the Exalted Host had accomplished. He saw isolated communities dwarfed by the scale of the Realm. He saw the monstrosities of Ma-ha-Suchi and Raksi. He saw an elder called Leviathan entrenched in a meaningless war.

"I have seen enough. If this gift cannot truly save the world, I will at least do no harm" said Anon, resigning himself to a life of solitude. But he set forth his will as a wish, and guided others from the domains of the more wicked Lunars. As he did this, breathless laughter filled his ears from the wind.

Eight were outcasts and iconolasts of the pact Anon came to share a hearth with. Some were mad, but reclusive and mostly peaceable. Others were bitter, but withdrawn and unaccepting of violence as an answer. To all of them, Anon extended an invitation to the ordinary and unremarkable noodle shop he had enjoyed. The propitier sold out all his stock in one night and could have retired a happy man had he not loved his craft.


>OF LUNA, AND PHYRE

A day came when Anon bore Lilith across the unmapped distances to his lotus, hoping it would heal her as the Riders had tried to heal themselves by approaching it. His happiness was the happiness of others, so he smiled to see her embrace the nameless spirit of the golden lotus as another lost soul. He withdrew to give them privacy, and to question his actions.

"I know you're there. You are the waves, and the hunt, and the moonlight. You are the ringing in my blood when I hunt. Who are you?" he asked the empty night.

"I am she who tested you with children from another time, and place. I am the Argent Madonna. I am called Luna" said the white-haired maiden that came to him across a sea, in that place none had ever been before, with an eerie and solemn air. She bore no menace and smiled gently, but held herself with the poise of a hunting wolf. "and you are a survivor, a compassionate man capable of great violence, a free thinker and a delusional fool to act so recklessly in our Creation. I like that"

"Are you one of the gods who wrought the war which broke this world?" asked Anon.

"Yes" she said plainly.

"Was it worth it?" asked Anon.

Luna tilted her head. She did not smile, but she did not frown. Anon felt that she did not dwell often on this question, but it had struck a chord. "Survival is all. It is not fury, no matter what the cruel and humiliated might say. It. Is. All" she said eventually. "It is life, and joy. It is learning to laugh into the teeth of the storm as you race for shelter. It is living the life you love, and loving the life you live. When I was born, I seduced and ate and lied to secure the right to exist. I do not believe you should be ashamed for being the best at what you are, or defined by the worst thing you have evern done. I do not believe my Chosen are any less for not bending the world to their will. They are alive, they promote life, and the richness of that life is more victory than many can claim"

"I see. I don't know who to believe anymore" said Anon, pondering what the Street of Golden Lanterns had told him of the divine rebellion. "Would you like to come over for some noodles?"

She smiled. "Yes!". She frowned, cocked her ear. "I-no. I am sorry. It is my turn. The Games bind all of us. I am freer than the others because it is my nature to be free, but in the end I am as much an addict as the others. I am sorry. Perhaps one day, we'll hunt together" and Anon did not miss the dual meaning of the Argent Madonna.

Luna gestured, and the shores of the sea rippled, and at once became a desert where a ruined temple lay half-buried in the sands. "I am not your only guide. Here, you may find another perspective to what I am"

Anon thanked her, and went forth towards the temple. From it, a whisper on the wind spoke to him, saying "Did she mention that she killed and desecrated me?"



[Exalted: Sidereals, jump #6]

Drawbacks: Manuals of Exalted Power Numbers 8 Through 12, The Scripture of the Returning Maiden, Oversight, Shun the Maiden: Jupiter (1600)

Chosen of Endings

Arcane Fate (Free)
Looming Terror of Death Attitude (Free)
Doom Decrying Prophet's Remonstration (1400)
Always an Ending (1100)
Wound Mending Needles (Free)
Qlithu-Sohtk (900)
A Circle of SeersX8 (600)
- Y-: Chosen of Serenity, Small Gifting Gesture Intuition (Free), Heart-String Weaving Matchmaker Melody (500), Heavenly Artificer Understanding (300), Idol and Supplicant Union Consecration (0), Heavenly Ecstasy Aides (Free)
- May Blossom: Chosen of Secrets, Cryptic Musing Elocution (Free), Blessed Clue Attracting Fate (500), Smile Gifting Gesture Intuition (400), Looming Terror of Death Attitude (300), The Forgotten Blade (0)
- Jade Dragon: Chosen of Battles, Martial Arts Compendium Memorization (Free), Forceful Invader Eviction Principle (500), Perfected Lotus Cultivating Gardener (300), Ballroom and Battlefield Equivalence Enlightenment (0)
- Ascendant Swan: Chosen of Secrets, Cryptic Musing Elocution (Free), Blessed Clue Attracting Fate (500), Numerologic Sorcerous Tutelage (300), Predestined Visions of Samsara (0)
- Mu Nianci: Chosen of Endings, Looming Terror of Death Attitude (Free), Divine Red Tape Spinning Spider (500), Doom Decrying Prophet's Remonstration (300), The Black Iron Spinner of Destiny (0)
- Seeker of Stars: Chosen of Journeys, Heavenly Agent Jurisdiction Recognition (Free), Astute Financial Vizier Training (500), Gasoline and Gunpowder Esoterica Internalization (300), Occluded Arbiter of the Amber Path (0)
- Imperfect Petal: Chosen of Serenity: Smile Gifting Gesture Intuition (Free), Idol and Supplicant Union Consecration (300), Panacea Pipe (200), Quintessence Foundtain (0)
- Huang Rong: Chosen of Battles: Martial Arts Compendium Memorization (Free), Smile Gifting Gesture Intuition (500), Celestial Cocaine (300), Celestial Battle Armor (0)
The Games of Divinity (0)

>OF THE ADVENT OF OFFICE FATIGUE

Anon did not truly know misery until his next fate delivered him into the offices of Yu-Shan. It was a false heaven, long made stagnant and iniquous by the usurper divinities that had seized it from the titanic creators of all things in Creation. Each day he would ferry stacks of documents to deities who would blame him for making them do their jobs, and return to find other deities attempting to rope him to their purposes or have him take the fall for their own misdeeds. He saw all of this and a strange feeling built in him. He knew of dread appetites and sin, and the visceral urge to kill in others. But he had never seen so much ambition not just bound to such tedious, pointless busywork-some of which even carried out by the well-intentioned-but capable of inflicting suffering across such a grand scale.

"Why the egg?" he once questioned Ryzala, Lady of Paperwork.

"That's above your paygrade, Sidereal" she said, sweet as poisoned candy.

"It's just a vast egg. It won't actually help anyone. There is much we could do for that tribe, you deities could endow them with long life or bless their-"

"Question the egg again and I'll have an audit conducted into your department" she said absentmindedly, having resolved to ignore the conversation. Anon was appalled. He did not judge others because he held a steadfast faith all things were in higher accord than his station, but in that moment he felt a great outrage. But he was unaccustomed to frustration and left feeling confused.

In the end, he was banished from Yu-Shan a time to a nameless village and relieved of all influence. For most of his ilk, it would have been a punishment. To Anon, who loathed the deception and causal negligence of the mountain, it was a vacation. And he went back to his beloved noodle shop, and became a chef. With him came the Sidereal's Daughter, the now Chosen of Serenity whose name was almost entirely excised from Fate by close proximity to him, who rejoiced, for she had long yearned for him in her mortal life and took great joy in being his designated observer.

One day he opened his door and found a group of other Sidereals. "Can we stay with you?" one asked. "The gods have stripped us of our jobs too. This is an outrage!"

"This is freedom" corrected Anon. "Come, I'll show you how to make perfect bone broth!"


>OF THE WHISPER ON THE WIND, AND THE SHAPER OF THINGS TO COME

The Viziers were educated largely from each other and the gods, both of whom had long abandoned Anon. But he held no fear, for he had gained other mentors. Foremost was the lunar Incarna that never was: Phyre, the navigator. From a hearthstone shaped like her Eye of Providence, he would trek to a place of desolate sands at the end of an eternity that would never come, for it was of the Beyond as she was. Phyre herself took no true form, using only sigils and rumours whispered on the wind to educate him of the shapes beyond the world, of things dreamt and unborn, of the high void beyond the sky the Maidens wished not for the Sidereals to behold and of horrors brazenly revealed.

"You and I are the same" she would say, bitterly, a trick of hearing conveyed by the rushing wind through rock formations that weren't there when Anon turned his head from them. "Fate constrains us. It would withold you the greatest bounties of the Viziers, and lifts away the Perfect Lotus' petals from your grasping hands. But I am far more tightly bound. I was denied existence at the inception of my birth by the Argent Madonna, and perhaps I would have been content to drift here forever if it had ended there. But Luna was a predator born, and she did a terrible thing to me. I honored her with my wisdom. In return, she tainted my essence. I am forever a part of her, and not what I was"

"Like the Yozis are lessened and made cruel?" asked Anon as he sat beside an ancient monolith belonging to no kingdom, inscribed by no race, upon an island that did not sit upon the shores of Cecelyne-yet-to-be because his lessons took place in the Not.

"Yes. You understand" No hand pointed, but dust cascaded from the monlith, revealing Phyre's sigil. It glowed, expanded into a window of Creation. "See Creation from the outside, as I do. It's inhabitents are cursed by the will of the titans, locked into a cycle of usurpation, hubris and revolution. No power in the world can break this cycle, though every Exaltation defies absolutes by it's nature, and moreover-we are not in the world right now. Meditate on this a while, my student"

Anon had a second mentor and familiar, a consciousness of artifice called Qlithu-Sohtk. She was a hearthstone for a mance cast in the visage of a goddess that never was, and was endlessly grateful for having been saved from the Not by Anon's choices. Where Phyre navigated the paths beyond the known, Phyre had insight into Fate beyond man's reckoning and was keen to share with Anon all she knew, but constantly fretful he would one day tire of his wisdom. For all he had seen of Fate made him rebel against it.

"My friend" he asked her one day, as he added white peppers to a noodle recipe "do you have a wish?"

"No! I am happy to exist, and to learn, and to wait by your side" said Qlithu.

"I hear your anxiety. Know you not I loathe the hubris of the gods, and the carelessness of the other Chosen more than I ever could your shortcomings? Speak, and be not afraid" said he Anon, he the primordial man, he the server of table 15.

"I have one wish, it is true" admitted Qlithu. "I wish to learn not just all there is, but all there will be. I wish to travel to the Weeping Maiden, and learn what I can of the nature of her imprisonment. I wish to pursue old tales of the Solars' craftsmanship, to know of the Manse Intelligence called I AM that wise men say survives somewhere in Creation. I wish to question your friends among the oldest Lunars on the sorceries used to alter castes, and your fellow refugees from Yu-Shan on the nature of identities. From them I wish for the wisdom to expand my capabilities beyond this humble frame, to be infinitely wise, until I can tell you with infinite prescision what will be so that I will never be made redundant or lose value in your eyes and and and so we can enjoy the thrill of learning together. For that simple reason, I wish to reject my station and surpass the gods above" she blurted out.

Anon smiled at this, for even though he did not wish for such things for himself it was a good wish. And he did these things, for by his skill the noodle shop had become prosperous.

>OF THE NOODLE SHOP'S GOOD FORTUNE

There came a time when the Maidens felt an ill omen come upon Creation, and alarm bells rang through Heaven. A drastic change had swept through the Loom, it's source linked to an ordinary man named Rakan Thulio. His life was of little significance, and his death less, and Saturn claimed him without incident. But the disturbance did not abate.

So curious was this incident, that the Maidens went to and fro in the world, going back and forth in it, seeking to understand why it had happened, and found new Exalted to their astonishment. Mercury found the paths of the world had begun to twist to a noodle shop once destined to close in ignominy, along with Suten-Kah dragged his dessicated feet. Venus listened to the whims of serenity, and found Radiant Adoration raising an army with her beauty. Mars gave the Exalted of Adventure her blessing, and bade them tell the Maidens all they knew by prayer. Jupiter spoke of a secret route for Pu-Chi's Glory to arrive at the anomaly unseen. Saturn withheld an ending from Savant Rudela's technologies so they could function ever better.

At the next turn they played the Games of Divinity, Jupiter said, "The anomaly lies a day's travel as the crow flies from here" in a tone of utter contempt. The other Maidens exclaimed in surprise, demanding why she had kept this secret until now. "The anomaly's coming has unearthed a great many secrets, even those which I hold dear, and foiled a great many of my schemes. Thus, I sought to punish him by ruining his reputation in Yu-Shan, making sport of him by whispering his alleigances and achievements to others, and exiling him from our hallowed halls". She scowled. "Little did I know, I merely gave him freedom"

"What is his goal?" asked Mercury.

"Freedom from paperwork, and ambition, and toil, and being parted from those he cared about. He has no goal. He merely wants to live a quiet life, and the greatest insult he has offered me is he will never know how many webs of influence he has shattered. I will not abide it. I have arrayed these new Exalted against him. I have told the petty god Pu-Chi where he can seize the only thing that can salvage his damn fool quest"

"You cannot do this thing!" cried Saturn. "It is given unto me and no other, to oversee the ending of Creation!"

"Shall we fight, sister?" challenged Jupiter. "Verily, it is has been an age since you showed such passion for anything but the Games and spiting Ignus! Do you not know how much of our rule and work is built on secrets? Can you fathom the danger a well-intentioned, almighty idiot can pose to us? For that is what he is? He is, a man, but one as unto the Clay Man of legend what the Clay Man is to the meanest begger-no, as Isidoros is to a boar piglet! He is a thing of incomparable vastness, and deepness below the skein of physical form! He wanders to lands that offer him treasures-and know this, ours is no exception-and he is a thief of sublime qualities! Such as Exaltations! Ask yourselves: Is a Creation where our work is meaningless and hopelessly disorganized any better than a Creation made to end?"

And Mars said, "The anomaly has turned Pu-Chi's Exalts against him. There is battle, but it is made against Pu-Chi"

It was as she said. For the Maidens were torn between the addiction of the Games of Divinity, and their observance of Creation. Jupiter looked on in horror, and the others with satisfaction, as they saw the god pleading with his own chosen-Anon fighting alongside them.

"CAREERIST!" shouted Suten-Kah, smiting the god with the memory of a favored hammer. Pu-Chi slipped through the wind in a bid to escape, but chains of nostalgia kept him from fleeing.

"I am your benefactor! I AM YOUR BENFACTOR how dare you turn on me!" he protested.

"It was a lie! A lie that would have hurt my family!" shouted Radiant Adoration, searing him with the passion of her love. But the god was cunning, and perfectly defended by turning into a dozen hounds and reforming as one.

"You have been deceived! HE is your true enemy! His powerful magics have befuddled you!" he wailed.

"He IS truth!" declared the Exalted of Adventures, striking as one, only for the god to manifest the phantoms of New Characters as a blockade.

"Think hard on this! I have chosen you among all men for my purpose!" he begged. "Without me, you would be mortal clay, bound to live and die by the churning of the Lethe! If you cannot appreciate this, or my dream, will you at least consider you were ill-made and my ministrations require adjustment?"

"You have adjusted beyond your station already" snarled the god's Glory, particularly bitter that the life she was given had no place in Fate and that she would never be accepted. "I will never be accepted by Creation, and it is your fault"

He was a cowardly god and ill-made as they were, they were Exalted. And so it was that Savant Rudela's Fivefold Marble Star Cannon defeated him once he was exhausted from running. And the Maidens were shamed, for the doom of the world had not been assigned a new journey, or serenaded, or defeated in battle, or (and Jupiter gnashed her teeth in fury) hidden as a secret, or even made of a proper end. For the design Anon had shared with Rudela was derived from the essence principles of his friend Qlithu-Sohtk, and rather than being unmade Pu-Chi had simply been assigned a fate separated from all things.

He was forgotten by men, by animals, by the passing of time and the pretenses of solidity, made to pass through the world as a phantom unto the ending of Creation, and scream all he might for a thousand years not one prayer would be delivered to him, not until he withered into something less than the least of least gods.

"A fitting end" murmured Rudela. "Thank you, wanderer, for showing us the truth. We had only ever wanted to save the world. I must ask of you another favor. Is there anywhere, in the whole of Creation, where five purposeless Exalts doomed to lose all that lifts them above other men can retire, and not look over their shoulder for the vengeance of Yu-Shan?"

Anon thought about that. He looked at the other Exalts, still high on victory, not yet realising the road ahead. It was true. Peaceful lives were far and few in Creation, and never given for the mighty. No nation, no enivronment and no plane of existence support peace as a sustainable environment. This saddened him, but it also gave him an idea.

"Why don't you come work at the noodle shop with me?" he suggested. "I have a power in me that is a form of Astrology beyond Astrology. I can make you part of my kitchen, my retinue, my narrative-and henceforth all Creation will see you as such. You may not be kings and heroes, but I promise you that you will be known as the greatest chefs in the land even when the Exaltation in you rots and you are mortal once again. It is true, no nation carries peace. But the owners of this noodle shop showed me it, and I invested it in them, and perhaps together-we can create a peaceful kitchen, ringed with knives"

And so it came to be that the nameless noodle shop, now proudly named Big Xiao's Heavenly Kitchen thanks to it's success, came to be known as where the greatest chefs in all the land worked. And where weary travellers of all stripes could find a sympathetic ear and a kind shoulder, even after the shine of Exaltation had long passed from their hallowed kitchen.


[Exalted: Abyssals, jump #7]

Drawbacks: Assisted by the Green Lady, Moon Eclipses the Black Sun, Rebuking Gaze of the Daystar, Fascination of the Grotesque, Endless Cycle of Forgotten Days and Dreamless Nights (1400)

Rolled The City of Dead Flowers

Midnight, The Lover Clad in the Rainment of Tears

Corpse Laughing in the Face of Jackals (Free)
Exquisite Ashen Visage (1300)
Voice of the Void (1000)
Liege (400)
Circle of Death (0)
-The Maiden of the Mirthless Smile: Dusk, Lover, Infinite Graves Born of Fingers White and Red (Free), Exquisite Ashen Visage (500), Ravenous Fang and Gluttonous Talon (300), Conquest of Life (0)
-The Lady of Darkness in Bloodstained Robes: Midnight, Corpse Laughing in the Face of Jackals (Free), Lover, Corpse Laughing in the Face of Jackals (Free), Exquisite Ashen Visage (500), The Funeral Order of Righetous Morticians and Embalmers (400), Ashen Regalia of Death's Lawgivers (Free), Five Edicts Dominion (200), Lamenting Temple of Oblivion's Mercy (0)
-Weeping Raiton Cast Aside: Moonshadow, Lover, Prodigies Breathe Their Last Breath Young (400), Raiment of Death's Trapings (Free), Exquisite Ashen Visage (300), Lawgiver of Death (0)
-The Blade of Vengeance: Day, Lover, Infinite Graves Born of Fingers White and Red (Free), The Shining Path (400), Hidden Estate of Undying Breath (200), Exquisite Ashen Visage (100), Infinite Graves Born of Fingers White and Red (0)
-Winter's Mask Cast Aside: Midnight, Lover, Corpse Laughing in the Face of Jackals (Free), Voice of the Void (300), The new Order Philosophy (100), Exquisite Ashen Visage (0)
-Bitter Asp Venom: Daybreak, Lover, Razor Wit Cutting Through Blissful Ignorance (Free), Brilliance of Obsidian (300), Death Begets Pain Begets Creation (100), Exquisite Ashen Visage (0)
-Last Gasp Unending: Daybreak, Lover, Razor Wit Cutting Through Blissful Ignorance (Free), Annihilation of Existence Completed (0), Hungry Ghost Manifestation (100), The Well of Udr (0)
-Black Hearted Swallow: Moonshadow, Lover, Indolent Masquerade (400), Raiment of Death's Trapings (Free), Exquisite Ashen Visage (300), Lawgiver of Death (0)

OF THE LOVER CLAD IN THE RAINMENT OF TEARS

There was an ancient ghost who ruled the frigid north with flesh of silk, lash of pleasure and a heart of void. Once she went by another name, bright as the shattered ice of her ancient conquests. But vainglory and pride led her to build ever-greater monuments to her own genius, and take from others what she could not construct, and she was rejected by the one man she loved. Ennui and stagnation set into her cold heart until even with all her rivals left in the dust, she found no pleasure save in indulging herself and spiting others. When the Usurpation came, she thanked the man who impaled her where she lounged for the novelty of defeat, and swore to repay him and his kin ten times over.

More aloof than her peers, where they nursed old grudges and worked inscrutable ploys and chafed at their chains she had watched from many eyes as Anon the wanderer stole the Jade Prison which her masters the Neverborn coveted. The rage they unleashed when this became known shook all their domains, but where the Lion lamented and the Mask fumed the Lover thought to wonder how she could turn this to her purposes. So she sought the Neverborn whose patronage she enjoyed, the Tears of Want who had spent her last moments in the Primordial War yearning for revels in Yu-Shan, for another turn of the Games, for the armies of her killers to throw themselves in her fathom-maws so she might be sated as she passed on-and whispered to the dead titan of the bond between Anon and those he treasured.

"He has taken to himself" she whispered, in a voice of sibilant poison, "the young prodigy you our masters wished to forge into a peerless deathknight, lost to time and returned bearing the blackened Exaltation of another timeline that binds her to us. Like the fae, he deals in relationship and narrative, though on a level cast too wide and strongly for those fate-bound fools to recognise"

What, the cyclopean monuments and festering cavern-flanks of the Tears of Want might ask if it was not too agonised to respond with anything more than an unending scream of utter loss, will you do about it, you festering harlot?

The Lover preened like a cat, because she felt abuse and oblivion were the only things that could excite her now. "I know the black art of your un-principles better than any save the Dowager. My death-artifice falls barely short behind the Walker and the broken Lion. But I have something none of them ever will. I enjoy my work, and that passion too is power. Grant my sorceries the might of your rotten blood and writhing darkness, that they may live with the undying hate of you our creators. Grant my Monstrance an anointment of ash and bone, that I may take upon itself a measure of your immutable purpose. Allow your humble, DELICIOUS servant the pleasure of gazing into the Dowager's Well. And I shall haul you our mutual friend in chains of damned, dead fates, fish what you seek from the Well with his principles of sympathy and make him into the first of many champions in your dark name"

And what privilege do you expect to receive in turn, is what the other Neverborn may have asked as their ponderous bulks tilted like cthonic icebergs from orbit around Oblivion, shorn of ideas and desperate for any possibility to bring the end.

"Make of me" said the Lover, smiling hungrily "the sole liege of these frightful creatures"

And so dread power was bestowed on the Lover, and her will was done, and Anon found himself bound to a table in the darkness of the underworld in chains of soulsteel.

"Where am I? Is this the Abyss? This is the dark land below Creation, and I don't understand it" he asked.

"Fear not" said the Lover, advancing on him with her blade. "I am an excellent teacher"


OF CAPTIVITY AND DEFIANCE

Seven days Anon bore in the Lover's houses of lamentation, and seven nights. Each frustrated the other no end. The Lover quickly found that pain, degradation and torture, while shocking and surprising to Anon, had little purchase on flesh immortal even beyond the gods, and she would have to resort to Charms that threatened to mutilate the erstwhile Champion of Death (the Lover gritted her teeth, aware the Neverborn would look poorly on a hobbled champion) permanently to do lasting harm. One thing had proven effective though: The Exaltation wrung from the Well made him scream in agony, as the noxious essence of death burned like acid against the divine blood in his veins. The Lover enjoyed that. She had not seen such agony since the time of the Primordial War. It did not hurt that the strong blood of Ipithymia radiated a golden shimmer from his body that gave her pleasure she had not dared know in life lest it blaze out of control on her soul like an oil fire, for Ipithymia's reputation was such that she had taken and destroyed lovers even among the Chosen.

Anon for his part was as confused as anything by his tormentor. He asked her what grudge she held, and she cut out his tongue. He asked her what the point of this sad, orgiastic undead orgy around was and she stood on his skull with her heel. But he never stopped asking questions, his confusion and fear never building into outright panic, just increasing bewilderment as the Lover's attentions turned from brutalising him, to slaking her lusts on him (which he was not wholly unadverse to), to brutalising him again. He was so busy wondering about her motives, he never noticed the Lover was just as bewildered he hadn't succumbed to lust for her inhuman beauty. He did notice her concentration slipped as the interrogation wore on, set ablaze by the inhuman lust building up from exposure to his body and scarcely bothering to put out the flames. So did her torments decrease in creativity, and then frequency, and then enthusiasm.

"You are" she scolded him, as she raked him with void-strung wire "supposed to be madly in love with me! Mine is beauty to break all hearts!"

"It's very nice, I suppose" said Anon carefully. Much to the Lover's consternation he had calmed swiftly from bouts of torture after realising he was going nowhere, and had a habit of derisively mocking her ministrations even as he enjoyed them. The Abyssal Exaltation had been gratifying, but since it's implantation he seemed distracted, dozing off in the middle of torture sessions or even worse-mumbling in blasphemous tongues not heard since the Time of Glory, his eyes rolling up into the back of his skull and his head twisting around in circles. The Lover was starting to think he was doing that for dramatic effect.

"Where was this valor when you tasted my whip first?" she taunted, fondling herself shamelessly as tongues of fire lapped and twisted amidst her buried fingers, the golden hell-radiations of lust making her legs tremble in ways they had not since she lived.

"Oh, you are very cruel, proud, animalistic and shameless." he assured her. "You remind me of my-well, not my wife, though she bore my children. And she's certainly no one's sister. My...partner, I suppose. Really the only difference is for whatever reason, she never had reason to be as rude to me as you've been"

"Whoever you hold dear, I will make you listen to their dying gasps" promised the Lover, as she pressed herself to him like a hunting cat.

"She's right behind you"
"You're a terrible liar"
"It's the truth. I didn't expect to be here. I didn't know the dead Titans had such craft to their name. To put...whatever you call this dark power, and all the power of those Anathema things into one ghost. But now I'm here, and there's nothing to do be done about it but to have faith in the Lord"
"You serve a lord?"
"He lives far away. You wouldn't know him. He...hold on, hmm. Yes, he is the life and the resurrection. Imagine that, a power greater than this Oblivion you yearn for!"
"Who are you talking to? Your lord?"
"Hah. Any man with eyes could tell you acknowledge no Lord in your heart. No, I preach to your own masters"
"Liar"
"Abhorrence of Life. He Who holds in Thrall. Whose Whispers-"

The Lover dropped her latest instrument of pain in surprise.

"They are in deep pain, and very angry" said Anon softly. "They want it all too stop because they think it is the only way they can soothe their pain by descending forever. Ipithymia told me the war had casualties but I hand't-I didn't-I could never have imagined how bad they were. I am very sorry for what they've been through. I will take this power, and find a way to give them peace"

"Even if by some miracle, you escape my clutches" spat the Lover, "you could never do such a thing. Though you strain until you tore yourself into ten thousand peaces, you will find nothing redeemable in Hell, for in the First Age we slew all that we thought we could hold dear in our makers so that we would not regret locking what was left of them within one another. Though you search the high heavens and the lowest bones of the world, nothing will satisfy your pointless and misplaced sympathy. Be assured, that I have stood at the pinnacle of power. And known with true certainty, that there is nothing of any substance to existence but pleasure, and the oblivion beyond it"

"Of course you would think that. You are also a petty regent of a dead, and stagnant world. No wonder they chose you as their herald. But they are mad, and confused, and their pride is broken. There is a better way"

"Hah! How many, HOW MANY TIMES do you think I've broken brave young heroes with that exact same gormless look on your face? This is the domain of death. There is only degradation, and slow entropy, and the dimming of all things. As there is in Creation. You will learn. I WILL break you, or I will hand you to the Dowager and you will know misery without the allure" she said, licking Anon's admittedly chiseled chest "of pleasure"

"You will do no such thing, because you are a vain and greedy hedonist" said Anon calmly, "who wants to hoard all the Chosen"

The Lover glared. Her emissions stained Anon's loins, and still he stared her down without flinching. "Have you ever wondered what the inside of the Neverborn's tombs looks like? I can tell you" said Anon sombrely. The Lover started kneeing him in the ribs.

Anon's calm was broken when the frightened girls destined to bond with the Abyssal Exaltations were brought before him. This the Lover capitalised on, tormenting and beating them in front of him as he strained at the necromancies and sorceries that held him fast, before delivering an Exaltation from the Well of Udr to each one with a spree in her modified Monstrance. Satisfied she had broken him, she turned to find him mumbling about dead titan bones again.

Each pleasure and pain-wracked child was made to abase herself and swear fealty before the Lover. But as she progressed the Lover noticed the children had begun to look at her with hard eyes behind their tears. She stared suspiciously at Anon, who kept mumbling.

After she had sent them away on their missions, the Lover turned back to Anon. "You will make an amusing plaything" she admitted, admiring how exertion and duress could not stop her prisoner's vigor. "You are seemingly inexhaustible, divinely fertile and" she raised an eyebrow "skilled. Dear oh dear. I daresay our lords will give us all the time we'll need to milk the stubborness from you, one way or another-"

"-ah. Good, I can go" said Anon briskly. He made a wish. Miraculous power seared through his Exaltation, blinding the Lover and waking her from her indolence for the first time in centuries.

"Impossible!" she shouted, but the evidence was plain. The crest of the Zenith Caste shown on Anon's forehead. "I didn't see the children coming. The Exaltation defies the Fates of your world" he admitted. "Now is the hour of my flight. I have been shown the shape of things desired and feared. Your masters will lament the loss of their champions, but I feel they will blame you not I, don't you think?"

"No man can restore an Exaltation by his own power!" cried the Lover, giving up on restraint and aiming a heel kick at Anon's throat that blazed with the Maw of Oblivion's infinite hunger. "Let alone withstand the blistering brand of my Laughing Wounds style! No man can deny me!" she snarled, following it up with another that rent a hole into the hungring void.

But Anon caught both on skin of adamant, and when next he spoke the force of his words hurt like sunlight. "I am one such man. I hope". As the Lover staggered, her shadow suddenly moved like temptation and the night wind, and swallowed up the Lover in a sack of shadows. By the time she struggeled out Anon and the new deathknights were gone, an unseemly gratification had poisoned the Lover for the novelty of a suitor who could not be conquered and would not be daunted or contained was undeniable-let alone on. It was then that she found out that either her prisoner or his partner had cursed her to be incapable of truly releasing that pleasure.

OF THE DANCE OF THE GREEN LADY

For four days and four nights, the Lover tore at herself and her court trying to dislodge the curse until she found a counter-charm powerful enough to undo it. She reached for ancient sorceries and charms, but her focus was broken by her wanton thirst and her spells shook apart while her frenzied clawing at her own form only ripped her clothes to rags. She fell upon her old conquests and their shades to slake herself, but this only ruined them. She struck her body on her own fortress, and even as it fell in ruins around her the lust built to a fever pitch, leaving her giddy and drunk as a maiden in the blush of youth before her dissying lust. And even as she built a mounting fury for the one who got away, that heady wrath was the closest thing she knew to love.

Her peers' amusement towards her rude awakening from indolence vanished swiftly as misfortune found them. The Mask of Winters had been driven from the field of battle by Elders of the Pact. The Skullstone Archipelego had come under assault by Viziers her agents in Yu-Shan confirmed were long exiled, and an army of Dragonblooded raised by a once-missing officer. The Eye and Seven Despairs swore blind that his latest concoction was stolen by a Sidereal. The Lover nurtured a grudging respect for a man she had thought would have broken under the intensity of the Neverborn's expectations and resorted to recklessness, like the naive heroes of old.

It was the death of one of her fellow Deathlords that spurred the Lover further from action to panic. An ancient ruler of forgotten sands, he had been struck down by a blow delivered by the Green Lady-a Vizier who had entertained both the Mask and the Walker. Each had thought the other her unwilling pawn, never realising she was merely collecting knowledge of Deathlords to strike down another target. And though she died, the new Fate-rending charms she had innovated were made known to the Bureaus of Heaven. Such an innovation, the Deathlords cried, seemed almost miraculous and they set about accusing each other and the denizens of the Underworld for who could have divined their fallen comrade's weakness. Yet the Lover found herself deciding to withhold her knowledge that Anon could sing miracles to the world, for her wounded pride demanded she claim the credit for saving them-and to her horror, this lack of control was admirable.

A dozen times did the Lover meet Anon again, striding beyond the shadowlands and enduring the heat of the Sun to duel him personally. "You will never win" she would say to him, as she cleaved at him with the Creation-Slaying Holocaust Blade, and drove him back with her Charnel Emperor Stance "for Creation dies even as you tread upon it, and you will come crawling back to me, begging for new chains".

"I do not beg" he would tell her, performing the Ruin-Abasing Shrug, "and though your power is great, your existence is hollow. Though you see clearer than your cohorts, your heart is hollow. Even your masters know you for the hollow, needful thing you are. Come forth and conquer my body and soul if you wish, for a hollow heart in a dead chest will will not dim my light".

"I will blight Creation" she would promise him, when they met in battle among the paddy fields and the rooftops of the Imperial Manse, her blade cleaving black wounds weeping rust into the horizon itself "and poison every well between the two of us. I will be a bleak promise of chains that binds you irrevocably to death. And I will bring forth my victims' souls to haunt your nights and days" she said, binding him in trails of crimson, for she was still wiser in the ways of the Chosen than he.

"Then I will pursue you to the Elemental Poles themselves" promised Anon, the land itself granting him it's strength "but I will not do so alone. And I lay a malediction between, a predestined geas that I will always be just in time to thwart your misaimed spite"

"Why do you fight? You must realise by now Creation is corrupt" she demanded of him, as they battled through the crumbling provenances of the Realm, once again she driving him into retreat "and beyond saving. You have seen how many of this land's wicked men and ghosts pay homage to me. If you say I am a hollow thing, how much more so are those who sell their souls to me? Why do you resist the greatest font of pleasure in this purile, ever-breaking cycle of suffering?"

Anon said nothing, and struck the Lover upside the head with a thrown chakram when in a moment's shock shock she felt her strength leave her wrist-though none of the sun magic had passed between them.

"Say something!" she demanded.

"I cannot dispute it. But I need no justification to fight you. And if I have learned anything from this broken world, it is that compassion is not justified. It arises naturally, from defiance to those like you" said Anon flatly, deflecting yet more razor shadows "who pretend to prefer no existence to a flawed one"

To her horror though they both wielded Eternal Emperor of Love Attitude that bent all hearts with beauty, he was a living thing and she was a merely a ghost sustained by primordial hate. She could drive him through the side of a mountain range and blight the land for miles, but it was her blade that always slipped from a killing blow while his shamed her with indifference. And after so many battles, she could no longer bring herself to raise her blade against the object of her obsession. In pursuing her target and abandoning her station and fighting like each battle was her last even under the punishing glare of the Sun, the Lover belatedly realised she felt more alive than in any of her revels.




OF THE WAKE BEFORE THE MAW OF OBLIVION

At the turn of the year, the Heron had told the Lover she was not to walk a certain path through the cracks in the world path during Calibration. So of course the Lover walked it on the fated day, and saw her old prisoner walking the dead path down below the world. Down, down he went, the golden shine of his anima illuminating a stern but somehow morose glare, bearing with him strange implements from Malfeas-a crozier of glass and a brass incense burner shaped like a skull. The Lover noticed the golden light of Hell was brightened yet not consumed by that of the Sun, and the paring of purity with ecstasy entranced her. She watched him in silence, thinking words she could not bring herself to speak.

Before her masters, Anon withdrew from Elsewhere an artifact that shocked the Lover. It was the hearthstone of the Imperial Manse, which no sorcery could stand against, and even the laws of space in Creation bowed before. She watched as Anon raised high the hearthstone, and burned the incense, and swung the crozier as he performed an ancient dance not seen since the first days of Hell's enfranchising that the one-Primordial King had danced to mourn his siblings. She felt the thrum of power gathering around him-a deeper power than even sorcery, a gut-wrenching harmony with all creation she knew in her secret heart was the immanence of First Cause-as the power of Anon and the power of the dance gave purpose and form to the spell he cast. In this manner, even as a scholar she was enraptured.

"That you have lived, and that you have lost-that may have been" said Anon. "That you have died poorly, and chosen poorly, and been dealt with poorly-that may have been. But that is over now. It is done. It is all done. And with it's doing, may you all remember that survival is fury"

With each word, sparks of essence erupted from Anon's anima like fireworks, raining sparkles upon the tomb worlds of the Neverborn. With each movement, the miraculous power she did not quite recognise swept out in white flashes and thrumming notes of musing, that lapped against the Neverborn like the waves of a river. Other voices joined the choir, and the Lover stared down at the other long-lost deathknights adding their power over the void, their authority to Anon's. And together, they mourned the Neverborn, and slashed their attachments, and to her shock the Lover felt her masters' eternal hate subside first into torpor, then true slumber.

"What have you done?" she cried at Anon, as the first Neverborn's body began to collapse in an avalanche of rotting mortar. Around them a river of essence srrounded their orbit, ink-black rimmed with crimson where it spilled from the deathknights' animas, but with a great core and aura of gold rearing from Anon's.

"You again. I have reinforced the power of the Lethe with my essence and your would-be victims, with the ancient rites of dance the Yozis hold sacred" explained Anon. "And in doing so, I will grant the Neverborn the peace of death without Oblivion or the desolation of existence"

"Primordials do not die like men, you fool! They are petrified in the substrate of death! See how they die, infinitely!"

"Perhaps. But their pain, their suffering-it will slough off first. The Underworld may take a century to collapse, but the shadowlands will return to it far sooner. And with it, the reason for their heralds. Do you feer redundancy? Or the idea of your patrons' essence returned to the living world and reborn from nature?"

It was then the Lover remembered the truest weakness of the Deathlords: They were their masters' slaves. Whatever the truth of their supposed fatal flaws, they were built in such a way that if their masters willed it they could be discarded and replaced as a mere exertion of will-for they would tolerate no further treachery from their slayers. She did not need to hear it, but as she realised the Neverborn had no more need to blight the world she could sense her compatriots collapsing apart into dust and ash, petrifying into statues of bone, reduced to puddles of blood, unfurled into chains bound to the lowest levels of the Labyrinth-and a half dozen more ignominous fates. The thought had simply never occured anyone would give the Neverborn a reason to do anything but blight the world.

Anon slowly turned to meet her gaze, and she felt a dreadful certainty that he would tear the Underworld asunder to end the misery they had all perpetuated. But to the Lover's own  surprise, the loss of her authority was exhilarting, not discouraging. "You have made your point. You believe in the lie small men call justice, and great men call privilege. You believe it so deeply you would inflict it on the world with the reckless power of the sun at it's zenith"

"I need believe nothing. I have walked the breadth and depth of this world, and know with certainty God does not dwell here, and it is clear as day there is no justice in this land. But in that travel, in that striving, I have found grace. So I will defy the will of all to save those dear to me" he promised.

"I have already lost everything to pursue you. But if you destroy me" she said, holding Anon's gaze as she lashed him with every ounce of guile from her life as a hero of the Sun "you will destroy the last record of all the Abyssal and all the Solar charms that have ever existed. Think of all I could offer you as a servant. A slave. LESS. You wish to right my wrongs? I can show you where my victims can be freed, and disarm ancient traps and cabals I have seeded in Creation. You were given authority over my compatriots by the grace of the Neverborn. I am a ghost. Ask yourself if I could resist your desires" said the Lover, speaking freely with a quiet thrill at offering herself like a cut of meat now her compatriots were no longer there to mock her.

"Why would I ever trust you? Even the demons say you are vile and destructive" said Anon. He stared at her with a judgement tempered with weariness at the wickedness of the world, and for a moment the Lover wondered if this was how the Sun had felt on the day he turned his back on the world. In that moment, shes saw he was considering an action that he felt was wrong, but also that the world was so rotten as to permit wrong actions.

"You need not trust me. Indeed, you need not even like me. Bind me if you like" said the Lover, who to her surprise found that she truly regretted being on such bad terms with the unbreakable idiot, who could take and give pleasure without being consumed by it. She went on her knees, and extended her hands in supplication. "You need only be willing to take the spoils of war"



[Exalted: Solars, jump #8]

Drawbacks: Interesting Times, The Age of Jumper, The Wyld Hunt Resurgent, Yozi-Best Friend, The Maidens' Horror, A New Dawn, What's a Combo? The Virtue of Compassion: Yozis, A Grim Nemesis, Follies of the First (3300)

Rolled Gethamane

Fighter, Eclipse Caste, age 26

Stuntmaster (Free)
Unconquered (2900)
Heart of the Sun (2300)
Sword of the Sun (2000)
Prosperity of the Sun (1400)
Mind of the Sun (800)
The Circle (100)
-Jasara: Twilight, Scholar, Brigid’s Legacy (400), Power and Majesty (0)
-Invincible Sword Princess: Dawn, Fighter, Panoply of One (400), Power and Majesty (0)
-Blossoming Flame: Zenith, Fighter, A Shepherd of Light (400), Power and Majesty (0)
-Sky's Fleeting Sphere: Eclipse, Drop-In, Binding Oaths (400), Power and Majesty (0)
-Buttercup of Righteous Wrath: Dawn, Fighter, Panoply of One (400), Power and Majesty (0)
-Croft: Night, Scholar, Seven-Fingered Jumper (400), Power and Majesty (0)
-Dawning Clover: Twilight, Merchant, Brigid’s Legacy (400), Power and Majesty (0)
-Lyta: Dawn, Fighter, Panoply of One (400), Power and Majesty (0)
AAAAAAAAAAA LILITH (NATIVE) AAAAAAAAAA (0)

>OF PREPARATION

"I may fail. I have been shown the shape of things to come, and it may all be futile, yet it is the nature of this terrible power to define what is than to be predetermined and if I do not try with all my might there will be no hope at all" said Anon quietly, to Fair Eyes and Makoto, as they journeyed once more to the golden temple at the edge of the world. "How can you say that?" they asked. "In all the time you have raised us and beyond, you have done nothing but defy defeat at every turn"

"Because I am mad with outrage, and outnumbered, and must act. But I have made plans. I will send forth eight of the sacred weapons that broke the world" he said, opening the Jade Prison, "and bind them to inexhorable ties of destiny to those who can stand with you as comrades in arms".

They watched the Exaltations speed towards the worthy, then saw Anon had released nine more.

"And who are those for?" they asked.

Anon stared at them, his brow wracked with sadness. "My benefactors. I would not bestow them freely, but they sense the world is changing and yearn for champions. Though none deserve to face their spite unaided, and I will only release these five days before destiny sets me against your gods"

"The divinities of Yu-Shan are not our gods" they said "anymore than the Guarding Star is. You have done more for us than they"

Anon was touched by this. But he said "And yet, I am not a god. I am merely a shepherd"


>OF THE FUTILITY OF HEROISM

Once there was a cry unlike any other, that shouted outrage at the heart of the world. It ripped a great crevice between the underworld and that of the living, as the shadowlands began to collapse. It was a cry full of compassion rotted with madness. It heralded the coming of a great bolt of light that rushed throughout Creation, writing all wrongs without discernment or distinction, and in that bolt of light were ten thousand correct actions and afterimages of a madman.

The light would thunder through the Scavenger Lands, and give it's blessing to the impoverished only to roar in outrage when they struck down their neighbours so they owuld not eat from their bounty, and then a shout of thunder would command them to give equitably. So too did the light dive into the oldest ruins, and do battle with the leech gods and burn them to ash. Across the west, the light hurled itself into the sky and implored the spirit courts to act with harmony, and to demand the Lintha cease their raids. And when the spirit courts and Lintha rejected this plea, the light would fall upon them with fists that burned with the sun's light.

The righteous did not fear the coming of the light, for they knew intuitively it was a guardian come among the people, and would return to the city of splendour that arose overnight in which moon-maidens and star-viziers dwelled equitably. There the light would seem to rest for a time, but only to make law and suggest missions for the dwellers, and too soon for their liking it would leave once more, as if chasing the flight of the Daystar. Chief among them were a number of Chosen of the Sun who had come seeking the light's tutelage and received it, and ever sought to follow it's example as much as the indifferent Sun's. As for the wicked, they fled it's coming wailing and gnashing their teeth for even those who could fight the overwhelming social taboo brought by illumination knew better than to question the God-King's Shrike which the light used to pronounce judgement.

The light did not rest when the dread Lintha Ng Hut Dukantha did battle with it on the high seas to reclaim the slaves it had liberated from him. The light did not rest when it rained upon the Imperial Palace and there was heard much outcry from Mnemon and a voice like thunder, before the light left once more and many proclaimations were made which saw the livelihoods of the common man declared sacred in the Immaculate Faith. The light only rested when it collided through a window in a certain restaurant, where beneath it's invincible veneer was Anon who had worked his Imperial might and Exalted arete to something approaching exhaustion.

Then the owner's daughter would offer him soup and rice, and too weak to move far he would comply. And she would ask of him, "Stay a time. Regain your strength, and be at peace"

And Anon would say "I cannot. The world was built for men to be flawed, and perfection avails me not when I am but one man"

And with that, he would launch himself into the sky to right more wrongs.


>APOCRYPHAL EXCERPT ANONYMOUSLY DELIVERED TO THE OFFICES OF NARA-O, ORIGIN UNKNOWN

The Sun was the inventor of justice. He represented a valuation of perfection outside the crushing tyranny of the Empyreal Chaos, and would gladly lay down his life for the innocent. And for that, I hated him beyond words because where every other living thing was flwaed and perpetuated it's flaws upon the world, he had grasped perfection and chosen to let the world degenerate to it's current state instead. Every day I'd stare at that golden orb and wordlessly challenge it.

In a heatwave-induced spiritual vision, the Sun said "If you have something to say, please do so. If I may ask, how do you carry both a Zenith and an Eclipse Exaltation at once?"

"How dare you" I whispered. He was so far away. Yet the hope and hurt in his eyes seemed so close. The first time he'd come to me he'd looked so happy, like he'd been waking up from a nightmare, and he'd been shocked when I harrangued him about my grudges. He had been more cautious since, until now. "How dare you shine up there and pretend to be a hero. What do you want?"

"To talk, nothing more. It's not too late, you know. You don't have to continue in this madness"

"This MADNESS" I roared like a furnace, "is the beginning of peace on Creation!"

"Then relinquish your association with the Yozis. The once-Primordials", and golden thunder struck in my eyes as he reminded me of the Yozis' butchering "cannot create, only twist and degrade with their spite. What was done is done, and you cannot save those who do not wish to be saved. You have been told I was wrong to rebel against them. Shall I tell you of their crimes, why I judged them in the first place and yet retain my binding Virtue? If you could only see how much we have in common-"

"BE. SILENT"

The sun was silent.

Then he said "You are one man against all the world. Were you not also against me and mine, I would praise you"

And then. I was silent.

"Please listen to me. Ipithymia has not lied to you, but you do not have the full picture. You must understand, my father will not be dissuaded in the crimes he wishes to perpetuate. You're tormented because you don't fully understand the perfection you wield. For all the wrongs you've committed against me, Gaia and the Maidens, I can sympathise with that much. But I can see your humanity, even if yours is blessed and made one with First Cause. And you're ashamed of it...why? Hear me, and know I speak the truth: It was through humanity that the Exaltation transcend perfection through comparison. It was never a limitation, nor a weakness. Like me, it was a whole and necessary from the beginning"

"And that is why only my Chosen can save Creation" the Sun finished, hopefully.

"(Antediluvian word for 'fuck') his anthropocentric bullshit!" I complained later, at my favourite noodle shop. "He just can't admit I've done more for Creation in a few decades than he ever has!"

"Um, if you say so. Do you want sun-fries with that?" asked Xiang, the proprietor of my favorite noodle shop in Creation.

"No! No, I'll...I'll have the moon-chips. And some star-coleslaw for the ladies"

"Um, I'm human you know"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that, I'm just-I've been dealing with a serious medical condition. I have Limit Fever" I explained"

"Aww. Tell you what, your tea's on the house"

"Why do we keep meeting here?" asked Mnemon, visibly disturbed by the nearby merrimaking of commoners. "Of what relevance is the sale of noodles to Creation's future and OH GOD WHY IS A YOZI TALKING TO US". Beside her, one of my Solar disciples shrugged.

(Actually, our meeting place borders the latest series of terrorist attacks) said She Who Lives In Her Name through a glass spider. (I have come to confirm the existence of the half-Shinma aspect, half-Gaian behemoths rising to rally the Immaculate terrorists' cause. Our sister grows desperate. Presenting holographic recording)

"VILE DEMON, RELINQUISH YOUR HOLD ON MY MIND!" shriekd Mnemon, tripping over a barstool. The glass spider pointedly turned it's back on her, not bothering to indicate it considered Mnemon's mind utterly undeserving of scrutiny.

I eyed the mossy, stone carapaced giant scorpion-dragon-men punching a hole through the Wyld-wall.

"Reports continue to file in. A handful of Deathlords survived the purge, and though the Lover's advice has proven good they seek to salvage the crumbling Shadowlands and tether themselves to Creation when the Neverborn have achieved true rest" whispered Phyre (spooking Mnemon again), as she etched her symbol on the dartboard. "Kimbery demands for Malfeas to see her pirates avenged, encouraging Akuma terrorism. More spiteful vandalism than conquest. And despite the best of my intentions Jadeborn, demons and Dragon Kings still look down upon humanity-with no small resentment from past Exalt shenanigans"

Lilith-the Lunar, not my older companion-worries me. Drumming her fingers on the table, sniffing the air near me as her face lights up like a child on Christmas. Yet again, I start to regret that Lilith is the only other senior Lunar right now.

My madness had led me astray, and I needed perspective. I unfurl myself across the heavens, my Imperator-nature seeming as though a giant walked among golden clouds.

But the Solar Exaltaiton would not stop NAGGING, offering up new and "improved" ways to charge stupidly into the heat of the fray and save the day DAMN YOU NO I DO NOT NEED A RHYMING CHARM.

No, Solar Exaltaiton. I will stay up here chipping away at the surviving Deathlords and damnable Gaiaborn with holy lightshows, not rain down sorcery upon their heads or throw thunderbolts that will rend the land around them too.

No, Solar Exaltation. I refuse that Charm you proposed that enforces the Surrender Oaths on basic principle. I am going to talk Malfeas down from "giving Chiaruscuro a molten brass enema" like a civilised fellow being of First Cause. However, Kimbery will be harder to convince...

I gazed on the battle between Creation's finest and what others have called the Gaiaborn. Their pincers cleave the sky, and invert mountains to spill forth Creation's molten blood. Their breath is the elements unbound, liquid wood and burning wind and a thousand other configurations consuming base matter before it. Their wrath is that of a spurned child striking his beloved sibling, moving faster than creatures large enough to engulf Creation's skylines.

Some measure of satisfaction consoles me that it is my intervention that wins the day: The Dragonblooded descended from my unions with nobility are bolstered by the Shine of my charisma, miraculously triumphing under manes of venemous snake-vines vaster than forests. The Dawns and Nights bear weapons blessed by MY heavenly alchemy, evading stinger tails larger than mountain ranges then severing them as makeshift weapons. The merciless deathknights are fighting in accord with MY story, focusing the sting of their blades on the wyld as they tear holes to Oblivion. And the Elders of the Pact that ambush them are aided by MY perfect timing, striking the final blows by tearing wounds that bleed the Beyond's energies straight into the Gaiaborn's broken minds.

...for a moment, I am puzzled. Someone I assumed was Makoto becomes an owl, then a familiar woman, then splits one of the Gaiaborn in half with a kick. To my astonishment, Lilith turns my way even though she shouldn't know I'm focusing on her-then ducks her head, as if embarrassed.
I had learned the Exalts triumphed over the Primordials, against the odds. With tacit support from some of the once-Primordials, even against such odds victory was inevitable, if protracted.

The Gaiaborn were finally annihilated when the mightiest Akuma of Isidoros rammed them into Pure Chaos, stunning them long enough for me to smite them with the Sword of Creation by exploiting the Magnus Protocal. Once the Deathlords were pushed back by sheer attrition (read: Solars with jetpacks), I took a seal blessed by Cecelyne to separate all shadowlands from Creation proper.

This left me the task of seeing to Creation's recovery. I am alarmed. Yes, living standards rose rapidly but society remained rotten and materialistic. But here, a demon succesfully pawns off a secondhand dream to a lonely baker. There, a newly mended and proud Jadeborn knocks out a boxer's jaw. Over in the corner, a sagacious Dragon King patiently explains to a human investor why he should sell all his land to him.

It is...not sustainable. The Solars tacitly agree, but are divided as to a response. Among them, I spy Gervesin comforting the Exalted reincarnation of his old lover and Amalion playfully debating manse aesthetics with her own. Once again, I realise the Exalted have far more in common with the Third Circle Souls than they do with the average mortal.

"Why are you surprised?" asked Cecelyne, when I raised the matter with her at the borders of Hell, lounging against a comfortable dune. "It is the nature of strength. It is the nature of Virtue at it's basest level"

"Because this is not how things should be" I said, uncomfortably nibbling on locusts.

"So change it" she suggested coyly. "With enough strength, you can define Virtue as well. Or righteousness, if you like"

She is right, I realise. More right than she knows.

On my way back to Creation, Lilith finally accosts me in the street. "When were you planning to tell me?"

I have no idea what she means.

Biting her lip, she tells me not to be coy-all the while balling her fists and releasing them. I am genuinely confused, and when she realises that she refuses to meet my eyes.

"...I should have known. You really hate them, don't you? So you never bothered to check yours"

I demand how she knows all these-

Taking a deep breath, she says "You have Swan's Exaltation. I'd know that feeling anywhere. T-that means you'll take me with you when you leave, right?"

"I'm not going anywhere, and I'm not happy that monsterous legacy clings to my soul. I know what his predecessor did to you" I said bluntly.

"Yes! You out of anyone, the one man with the power to change Creation for the better! Isn't this wonderful?!"

She tries to make a happy smile. It horrifies me on multiple levels.

"See, this is just another example of the cancerous-ARE YOU LISTENING, IGNUS YOU (Antediluvian curse, meaning lost)-influence the Incarnae have had on the world! That superweapon is forcing you to love a stranger who owns the memory of a memory of a man who brutalised you! That this weakness leaves men unable to question me when I turn my gaze upon them, that alone should make you want to stay away from me!" I shouted.

"WHO CARES?" she hollers back. "Only now am I lucid enough to know how useless the Pact has been. Perhaps I don't mind being leashed to the only person who put up with my madness and made me feel important again! Maybe I just want the person who pulled me back from the brink to acknowledge me as something other than a burden!"

"NO! You think you do, but what's actually happening is Luna's submission fetish is subverting your better judgement! Look, this is the fundamental problem with Virtue" I screamed at her in panic. "All conversations boil down to vicious assaults on the psyche! All relationships become tangible weak points! Free will is a cruel joke made up for the benefit of people with small mote pools!"

Around us, mortals drop their things and run.

She starts crying. "You think I don't know that?! I spent hundreds of years figuring that out for myself, the hard way! Life isn't fair, and sometimes it's everyone's fault! But if the only reality is what powerful people want, then what's wrong with picking someone destined to be close to you anyway!?"

"Because YOU DESERVE BETTER!" I bellowed.

She stutters, speechless. I panic, wonder if I have silenced her through raw power as I did the Sun. I have not. Then I wonder if I have not because I would hesitate in the future and-

-I am one increment of Limit away from tormenting my self. Shutting my eyes, I focus on some other aspect of my being near somethinga I can perfect, and open them feeling less deranged. Lilith is not crying anymore. She is, however, holding onto me like she's drowning.

"...I don't even know you" I tried to explain "Not, not the way people who love each other should. You're my patient. You can't KNOW you want to be more. Not really. Don't you understand? That damn bond is the biggest obstacle there is to your recovery. And now, I will break it by-"

She laid a hand on my shoulder.

"Please, don't. If y-you really care about what I want, please just...think this over. I-I don't know what y-you see in those d-demons, or the w-warlocks, or M-Mnemon, or young Makoto" her face screws up as she and I both marvel at the relationships I've cultivated in a scarce few decades here "well you get the idea, but I can try to be a-anything you want, t-that has to count for something r-right?"

"A-all I know is, I-I'm more myself when I'm w-with you than when I'm not"

"P-p-please don't take that away from me"


And then, it hits me. How I can save Creation, and strike one more victory against the Sun in one fell swoop.

When I bring the idea to the Solars, it has two stages. The first was easily understood, and quickly accepted once I pointed out the privileges it would confer on them in the long term. Once brought onboard, the Gold Faction objected to the precision of the matter-until the Eclipses out-argued them.

Miracle shells. Sorcerous working. Shaping technology integrating the Eye of Autocthon. later, I made a wish. For a moment, sunrays silently raced across Creation.

There was just silence. A profound, graceful silence that any spirit worth their salt would recognise as great power spread thinly. And maybe, at the edge of human sense-a sense of sparkles.

As I looked upon my works, the Sun spoke to me again. "What have you done?"

"I have solved the problem of human inequality" I inform him. "In frailty, humans have always sought to become as gods. They are not of my tribe, but I have unleashed the hidden potential of their soul, manifesting the Primordial image in their souls so they can climb the heights of Essence"

"It will take time for humans to understand the scope of their awakened essence" said the Sun quietly. "Consider the risks inherent in such a leap of evolution, beyond which there may be no hope for Exaltation at al"

"Exaltation. It was the birth cry of suffering for the Creation you claim to protect. The true challenge had been bending Samsara to arrange for a time and place where all Creation's defenses were at their nadir-so, Calibration. Once mankind comes into it's own for of immortality, we can at last begin to learn from it's mistakes. Have you felt the other change I have wrought?"

"I feel it. My light diminishes. My condemnations are no longer absolute. How can this be?"

"The wrath and searing power of your judgement is founded on Virtue. So, I have adjusted the manner in which Virtue relates to existence such that abstract idealisations of heroic behavior no longer have as much impact on free will's progress as individual choice. Primordials will no longer be compelled into ennui for reasons beyond their understanding. Men will no longer submit to spirits because they are physically incapable of resisting them. The authority by which you judge the world? It wanes. It wanes every day the farmer is not compelled to rise up against his neighbour because Valor dictates he do so. It waves every day the helmsman does not need to exhaust his will because he is afraid of storms."

"...do you want to know something sad? Were things otherwise, I might welcome what you have wrought. I would have hoped your recent tribulations opened your eyes to how much of a burden perfection can be at times. We need mortality to give us perspective on what truly matters"

"Your own perspective on that is biased, SON of Theion. You're right about one thing-Exaltation is an exercise in escalation through comparison, without fetter from ultimate destruction. Without a foundation to stand on, mortals inevitably reach further than they can grasp. Do not claim innocence when you told them what to reach for, and complain when they grasped what you never intended them to. Creation pays the price when you indulge your father's love for endless cycles of escalation and defeat"

Only then, did the Sun turn his face in shame. There was little more to be said. I walked away, shining by no light other than my own.

Lilith continued to follow my manifestations for the rest of my stay, while trying to maintain a respectful distance. Lurking at the edges of my companions' camps. Daring the borders of the Primordials themeselves when I held congress with them. Leaving behind shredded bits of Gaiaborn and Hekatonkhieres on my doorstep.

She faced me on the last day, when I stood in the Beyond to survery what Is Not alongside what Is, wondering how I could have done things better. Studying how the subtle differences in Shinma dynamics lessened the hold of Virtue on emergent behaviors-including hers. Grimly, I realised my own incarnated Virtues shown brighter than ever. The Exaltation started to suggest ways I could use them to set my aspect above all others-and once again, I whacked it with another Exaltation.

Not saying anything, but not backing away. Not even my thoughts dwelled on my companions, and the formless Beyond emulated them.

"I know who you are now"

I didn't refuse her. But I couldn't stop her from following me. Not without being even more of a hypocrite than usual.

She was trying another smile. It might just have been the wyld-light, but this one seemed sincere. Almost natural, even.

"You are the light of my life, and I'm not afraid of you"

>OF THE WRATH OF HEAVEN

High in their towers the gods felt the change wrought through the earth. In the north, men found their skin glistening with frost while in the south their hair burned like fire. In the west fishermen could call phantasmal waves to douse each other with, and towards Mount Meru the childre laughed as they slung rocks at each other. They looked upon the world, and saw the punitive powers not bestowed on humans-but awakened from the prison of mortal clay which held their bountiful souls.

"This is terrible" said the gods. "Soon, there will be no reason for the dominant species to worship us"

The gods found Anon and wordlessly decided to punish him. The Storm Legions descended from on high, and smote him, and were drive back by the sharp light of his judgement. Then Grinning Bear and his brothers, the censors of the winds, unveiled the lesser dragons bound to the gods' alliances, and so did the elementals add their might against him. But to the gods' horror, he fought at the height of Solar glory and with might beyond their reckoning.

So did Ryzala, lady of paperwork, gaze upon the restaurant that had taken in Anon, that gentle shelter where he had first found peace in the world, and bade the gods smite it.

Ten thousand bolts of divine retribution bounced off the fury and rage of Anon as he interposed himself against them.

Ten thousand more struck only empty air when the inexhorable bonds of destiny flung him into a new time and place.



[Exalted: Infernals, jump #9]

Drawbacks: Return of the Infernal Jumper, Love of Adorjan, Demon Hunters, A Hellish Rival, Past Lives Matter, Terrible Torment, Omen Weather, Demonic Aspect, Horrible Coadjutor, Blade of Hatred, Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain, Remembering a Past Life (2900)

Scenarios: All

Caste Yozi: Malfeas

Favored Yozi: Adorjan

Drop-In

Rolled The Prison-Temple of Oramus

Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom (Free)
Orphan Cub of the Devil-Tiger (2600)
The Inner World (2400)
Descending Hierarchy (2100)
Heart and Soul (1900)
Akuma of Your Own (1400)
Sorcerous Initiation of the Yozis: Malfeas (1300)
Her Hate Is Safer (1200)
The King Is Here (1100)
Brass Dancer (900)
Hateful Wretched Noise (700)
Staff of Forbidden Light, Hellstar Guitar (+300, 700)
Coven/The Thing Infernal (0)
-Basphomy in Verdigris: Caste-Malfeas, Favored-She Who Lives In Her Name, Drop-In, Orphan Cub of the Devil-Tiger (500), The Inner World (100), The King Is Here (0)
-Sulumor: Caste-Cecelyne, Favored-Malfeas, Drop-In, Orphan Cub of the Devil-Tiger (500), The Inner World (100), Demon WOrshipper (Free)
-The Oracle of Saigoth: Caste-She Who Lives In Her Name, Favored-Oramus, Drop-In, Orphan Cub of the Devil-Tiger (500), Border of Impossibility (400), The Inner World (0)
-Manosque Cyan: Caste-Ebon Dragon, Favored-Malfeas, Drop-In, Orphan Cub of the Devil-Tiger (500), Shadow of All Things (400), Remember the Past (Free), You Are Not Me (0)
The Thing InfernalX4 (0)
-Ruin's Careless Whisper: Caste-Malfeas, Favored-Metagaos, Drop-In, Orphan Cub of the Devil-Tiger (500), The All-Hunger (400), The Inner World (0)
-Lintha Ng Hut Nirvana: Caste-Adorjan, Favored-Kimbery, Drop-In, Orphan Cub of the Devil-Tiger (500), Lintha Ng Jumper (400), The Inner World (0)
-Bleak Star: Caste-SWLIHN, Favored-Cytherea, Drop-In, Orphan Cub of the Devil-Tiger (500), Voice Like Crystal Facets (400), The Inner World (0)
-Maskless Mirror: Caste-Adorjan, Favored-Szoreny, Drop-In, Orphan Cub of the Devil-Tiger (500), Metal Trees (400), The Inner World (0)


OF THE ADVENT OF THE SOLSTICE


[Generic Space Opera, jump #10]

Drawbacks: Other Life Is Such A Fragile Thing, Fanfiction: Gunstar Autocthonia, Lens Flares, Lens Flares Everywhere, A Bit Literal, Interesting Times, HuntedX3, A Cosmic Lifetime, How Hasn't That Become A Planet Yet? (2600)

Scenarios: Dreams, Better than Reality, Displaced In Time, Dying Of The Light, Galactic War, Conquest (Defender), Gold Rush, Guard Duty (VIP), The Age of Solar Sail, Big Dumb Object, To Boldly Go,

Elite, The Completely Alien (2000)

This is (Not?) Rocket Science (Free)
Above Law and Reason (Free)
Incomprehensible (Free)
Forbidding (Free)
Space Wizard (1700)
Sublimation (1500)
Incomprehensible (Free)
Hyperdimensional (1200)
Semi-Baryonic Matter (1000)
Protagonist Privileges (400)
Humanity Fuck Yeah (0)

Symbol (Free)
Alt-Form (Free)
250m (Free)
Auto-Repair System (Free)
Exotic Materials: Energy, Crystal, Wood, Flesh (800)
Matter Printer w. Clarketech Module (200)
Conflagration Shields (0)
Hydroponics (Free)
Synapses (Free)
Distributed (Free)
Automated Ship (Free)
Battery Banks (Free)
Battering Ram (Free)


OF THE GUNSTAR WAR