Random ATTS QM Ramblings #2

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LOTS OF SHIT ABOUT ALTERNATIVE PC OPTIONS
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>>>How exactly would Majesty [skill for other PC options] work?

It gives you a bonus when trying to make others subordinate to you. You'll note that Dios and Malior don't have Charisma, so they'd be at a disadvantage when trying to negotiate - but Majesty would give them bonuses if they're actively trying to command the loyalty or subservience of others. Like when Tal turned the tables on Maria during their negotiations.

>>>Tal is the only one with leadership

Yeah, because none of [the other PC options] are proper commanders. That's why they all have summons and the like - they can make plans, convince their commanders to get the troops going etc (if they have actual troops) but they'd be rubbish at motivating and leading overworld minions or summons that need motivation.

>>> What would you say that is the biggest plus for each protag? (for example best summoner)

Karrem was the best summoner - they're all very powerful and he would have no limits on using them wherever he wants. All super easy to replace too, so losses wouldn't matter. His biggest weakness is that he has no way to strengthen or empower others - Tal has runes, Malior has artificing, Dios has Conjuration.

Dios is the all-rounder. He's powerful, has ways of dealing with any threat, very hardy, good summons, can buff people supporting him, fantastic negotiation skills (through Majesty) and can blend in. His downside is both that he doesn't truly excel at things but that he's also the one who will be most easily noticed - dragons are piss easy to sense and he is famous (also those who wish him ill are more active).

Malior is the most individually powerful. He uses astral power (natural advantage over most other magicks), his exceptional at all forms of combat and can teleport and do other crazy shit with his wings. His weakness were his summons, which aren't terribly versatile or (for constructs) are less powerful.

Tal has the most versatility and is, in some ways, less balanced with infernals as his summons. Fury Manip would make him excellent at dealing with others and infernal sorcery gives him a crazy good edge and level of versatility. Downside is that he has more enemies than everybody else combined and that his infernal nature (if uncovered) can explode in his face.

>>>> Conjuration doesn't empower others according to that character sheet...

'allows you to efficiently conjure weapons and attacks'. Those weapons are temporary, but they can last a while and be used by others. You don't have to Gate of Babylon people with your magically conjured halberds and swords.

>>> >more enemies than everybody else combined kek

Let me put it this way: all the enemies of the other characters? Well, they'll be Rys' enemies if they find out about him. Dios had Sylvian plus Saareg (as the off-enemy); Karrem had Taira plus the other binders of the Imperial Court; Malior has Azrael plus Saareg (again, off-enemy). Saareg (angelic revenant using astral power) is potentially the only way that won't care about Rys but he'll fight you if Azrael does.

>>> Dammit Saareg why do you hate everyone?

It's more that he mostly just works for others. He doesn't care overly much about stuff himself, so it's really about others rousing the fluffball of death into doing something.

>>> Wow. I hope our heroes and infernal sorcery end up being as good as you say

Well, if things go really south you have more options because of your infernal contacts. Fury Manip could also give you a massive edge - either use it on the locals for an edge, or get it high enough to use on some of the stronger enemies.

Of course, it's also potentially a reason to play things safer. Hence why it's a way to balance out the fact Rys can potentially be overpowered.

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LORE INFO ABOUT DIVINE RACES
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>>> Oh, I misunderstood it then. So, are angels the most advanced divine race in the field of IT, with their remote access knowledge base?

Well, one could argue that the angels are just very advanced automatons and the archangels sapient AIs with free will but pre-encoded goals in life so probably. The Angelic Library (which isn't its real name) being a remote access knowledge base is a happy accident for Heaven. Angels can access it because of their connection to the Sword of Order (an Item of Power that embodies the concept of order) happens to be intrinsically linked to the library (as it automatically records all activities undertaken by angels, which are then collated in the library).

Basically, Heaven made a piece of conceptual spyware in the form of a sword and the angels can hijack the spyware's link to the library to access Heaven's knowledge (or at least, the knowledge that the sword is linked to). So their most complex thing is something they didn't even mean to create.

Mind you, their dimensional links to Heaven (which can be created by conceptual magicks of mortals) are very complex, as are the astral projector arrays they used to ensure that angels can recuperate energy out in the field (they're basically an artificial source that then beams astral energy out to angels within range). So yeah, they were a pretty complex race.

>>> Can mortal go to Heaven or Hell? What would happen if one tried to go through the portal? Would he lose one's soul while entering Hell, or everything else except one's soul while entering Heaven?

You just normally can't enter Hell if you have a soul or Heaven if you have magical essence. They do have a material realm but their local planes only intersect with either the greater magical plane or the greater astral plane (where this world intersects with both, as do almost all worlds). So Heaven has a material plane and a local astral plane, but no local magical plane; and Hell has a material plane and a local magical plane, but no local astral plane.

The only ways around this are to somehow link your essence or soul to your body through the opposing plane, and you have to do this without blowing yourself to pieces. Most transfer methods to Heaven or Hell would just prevent you from entering otherwise, although a couple would result on your being decoupling and then your body just dies (as humans can't really work without both essence and a soul).

>>> That means angels can't invade Hell, and infernals can't invade Heaven. But that's not the case with Heaven and Pandemonium, is it?

Nope, although the dangers of beings made of astral energy entering a realm that is diametrically opposed to their own nature is great enough that it's still a huge endeavor. It's a similar deal with Hell and Hades (the reaper's home realm), as Hell embodies Life and Hades death. The Emergence is at least partly related to these realms wanting a battleground that wasn't effectively uninhabitable to the would-be-conqueror.

>>> Hell embodies Life? I wonder if Raphael is a secret admirer of infernals.

Hah, no. Raphael is Life through the prism of Order - the continuation of things through some order or flow of things. Hell is just Life, the continuation of everything. To Raphael, Hell is too stagnant - they continue some particularly old things but at the expense of everything young, which results in them squashing the natural flow of things. The only archangel who probably appreciated the way the infernals did things was Myrael, because he only cares about the order and stability they impose rather than all of the other aspects.

Althoguh the archangels are still people, so they can hold personal views as well. Raph's is probably pretty dim as all he see was all the lives they took away under Kushan.

>>> What Kind of technology does rys remember from the infernal empire era?

Transport and weapons would be the big ones. The Empire had a crazy logistics set-up, mass teleportation, mass broadcasting (kind of similar to radio but more expensive and shorter range), probably a magical train of sorts between major cities for large cargo. He wouldn't know much about the industry tech, but that would be very production-line heavy (conveyor belts and the like) - the dwarves are probably the closest to replicating that now in their absolutely massive forges.

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DISCUSSION OF HAVING ACOLYTES OR CHILDREN
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>>> How good of a infernal summoning teacher is rys?

A great one, but only if the person he's teaching can access the same level of power he can tap into through the many holes in his soul. Don't expect to teach randos how to summon more than a few greater demons, but you could invest in an apprentice (in fact, there's already been a couple hinted at in the factions page).

>>> I'm kind of tempted to pull a Kushan here. We have years to bid our time. So why not build up a group of infernal summoning acolytes? To back us.

Well, you could if you really wanted to.

>>> I'm very tempted. Mostly because as is we are the only real infernal summoner in our faction. So having a group of 2-3 who can summon knowledge devils or extra noble demons from their own reserves could prove pretty useful.

You'd probably have to be a hard bastard if you started gathering many summoners (even if you contract them). Aside from their own ambitions, infernals are good at starting shit. Rys probably killed a lot of dumb fools in his time.

>>> Yeah so far I'm thinking at max 3. More likely two if we do this. We don't need huge numbers so much as decently skilled apprentices. Possibly taught from birth about infernals and how their magic works. The main thing I see is we are probably going to be here for decades. So we kind of have the time to plan very long term.

Ah, well, you've got more choices if you're willing to work from a very young age with people or even have people brought into the world for a specific reason.

>>> Hah. To be honest ever since you mentioned that rys could have children but that his magic would overpower even a dragons. I have thought about maybe in a decade seeing if we can't make an infernal summoning heir ourselves. For no other reason then curiosity on what the fuck any children of his would look like.

That's also a feasible option, although your choice of mother would also be very important. It can't be an infernal, as they are literally incapable of conception. You also wouldn't have too many penalties for pissing about for ten years or so, to be honest. Things will change but you'll be able to handle them and heat will die down over time.

>>> It sounds like fun, but we'll see if we even get that far into the plot. Rys probably needs to conquer the archipelago now or something before it's safe to just pause for a decade.

Well, outright stopping for a full decade would be problematic unless you were in a secure position but spacing things out over a long period of time not so much. Heck, having a strong political position alone could make a decade-long pause stable enough. Rys is used to working his plans over long periods of time

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ALSIA COMMENTS
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>>> is she going to be another protege? Seems like she's better material than Vallen in that we don't really need to figure out how to give her a power boost like him

Vallen is your exceptionally talented administrator rather than a protege. Alsia could be a regent-type character or somebody you bring in closer, as she has significant combat potential (and is already probably around Fara's level, but without the experience).

>>> (I am super stoked about actually having a combat magister hero unit since we've never had one of those in previous incarnations of this quest and I remember them being super beast. They're the "send those dudes in to alpha strike headshot the enemy hero units and fuck everything up" hero class, right?

Combat magisters are basically mages who focused their crazy bullshit in one particular field. As a result, they're super specialized - like the dude who could cause things to explode by punching them (that Grigor killed) and the mass summoner from AEQ. Alsia has the power and talent to be one, but probably hasn't specialized yet.

>>> hmmm. So if we want to really bring her in, we have to do that therapy thing we've been doing with Fara with her and still do her right by her people. Shouldn't be super hard since keeping her people happy means reinforcing a part of our own power base anyways and we have no reason to shit all over them

If you want to waifu her, you can get close to her like that. If you don't, then just make sure her people are properly taken care of and that she'll have time to do other things to help you.

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HAREM/WAIFU SHIT
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>>> everyone is ignoring the titty-monster

Well, Maria was one of the characters I actually expected to either die in this starting arc or get relegated to the background. She overlaps with Vallen too much in the admin role (for the long-term) and her benefits aren't enormous. I was surprised that people immediately sided with her, without even scoping out other offers.

>>> 4 seems like the harem limit to stop the bloat. I'm pretty sure most anons like them enough anyway to waifu all of them. At least, I like 'em all enough to waifu all of them. Alsia and Fara best waifus

On the (comment-breaking) topic of the number of waifu candidates, it won't stop at 4 but I probably will be more judicious about sidelining characters that aren't of interest to people or overlap with others. They'll still be there, but won't be a default option for many scenes (and there might be a smut scene at some point regardless). From my point of view, I would mostly focus on limiting the primary cast. Maria is probably the female character in the most danger of being sidelined right now, once additional candidates come up.

Also, harem vote will likely come up shortly after I return (not guaranteed, but I feel things are getting close to that point). This is mostly because if, say, Fara was up for grabs then there's likely to be people who would only support her if there was a harem so that needs to be resolved first. If that vote somehow goes to shit, I'll probably just default to harem because it's less likely to shit up other things (even if it results in less depth of the relationship with a single character) and its not the focus of the quest.

>>> Honestly for me I don't really mind harem. I just mostly want more solo focus once in a while on one girl at a time. AEQ had a bad habit of scene whiplash where there would be one thread with 4-5 different scenes for differing ones. So there never was any real good focus. Which made it feel more flat.

Yeah, hence why my plan is to limit it to about 3-4 actual waifus and sideline the others, instead of trying to manage way more.

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OTHER RANDOM SHIT
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>>> Aspie how about this achievement "You dun goofed: attract the attention of Azrael, Taira and Sylvian at the same time"

The achievement name would be "Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru", and that's precisely why it's not going to be an achievement (except if the quest bad ends because of it).

>>> I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to survive it. We'll just need to figure out how to get Ariel and Big mal into the world is all.

Neither of them would react to something that crazy - both archdevils are very much wary of ever being in a weakened state, as they both have trump cards that could let them strike at the opponent if such an opportunity was raised.

Fury 4/5 could maybe give you the slightest of chances, alongside having a powerful demon lord, Krisanem, a havoc fox or two and probably even the Darus twins. Without Fury at a high enough level, you'd struggle to deal with Syl when she starts throwing her reserves at you.

>>> Note to self. Obtain an anti-dragonic attack or weapon.

The main problem with older dragons (ones over 50-60 years old) is that you have to avoid ever getting into a battle of attrition. They generate massive amounts of magical energy constantly, so they don't exactly tire, and they have reserves that let them call on absolutely crazy power at the drop of a hat if necessary (balanced by the fact that it takes ages to build them up - a proper dragon battle can take years to decades to recover the energy from, or even a century or more if it's a true slugfest).

Hitting hard and fast, preferably before they realize how dangerous you really are and start tapping their reserves, is the best approach. You can also constantly wear them down over time, by forcing them to repeatedly tap their reserves, but you also need to not get nuked yourself. Finally, you can get them to withdraw if they don't want to use their reserves but can't hurt you without. Make it too costly to keep fighting.

>>> Wouldn't flow manipulation help a lot as well? They can toss all the power they want at you and it wouldn't matter if they can't hit you.

Yeah, that helps with the second tactic. Although it's still dangerous as dragons can fuck with the flow of the magic if they actually know how, messing with it pretty badly.

>>> Can Rys use his energy drain gift to deny dragon's massive energy reserves? Btw, why isn't Rys' energy drain gift on upgrades sheet?

It'll stay dormant unless you use a skill supplement on Leech Vitality. You would probably have access to a minor version of it from higher levels of infernal sorcery or from breaking a 3rd seal conduit.

And it wouldn't be powerful enough to greatly affect an adult dragon although it would be good for Rys' reserves.

>>> This reminds me. Would the fluffy tails village at Avolar act to defend the city if it was under attack?

If you just randomly attacked it? Yeah. They wouldn't be hard to sideline politically, given it's a village of a foreign power.

>>> Yeah. I'm mostly trying to figure out how to take their land without getting Fara's sister involved.

Sisters. She has two up north, plus a niece.

>>> Since Rys can theoretically use Evocation and has access to (comparatively to humans) massive magical reserves, does that mean he could cast evocation spells on steroids through brute forcing with energy instead of smart efficiency? Or is his energy too infernal in nature?

Infernal energy can't be used for evocation, as evocation needs to use native/local magical energy (due to the way it's effectively directing other magical energy to do your bidding). Rys does have a lot of energy otherwise, but he has the evocation talent of a 5 or 6 year old child at best right now.

>>> Alright so we can't do much to disrupt their trade as they have little of it, no hand rubbing for me. With other powers wary of trading with them they'll be hard pressed to trade for any supplies we sabotage at least, maybe do something to hurt their harvest?

Well, they almost certainly have a big smuggling operation despite everything else. They need to get those mage supplies somehow, and it can't all be via the labyrinth.

>>> How prevalent is actually smuggling and piracy in this setting?

Probably a fair bit with the archipelago, not to mention the fact there are several powers that all trade between the two continents that wouldn't hesitate to commission some privateers.

>>> hmmmm. So rumor among the kinadain is that introducing magic creates fucked up otherkin with demonic features, which sorta sounds like how you create black tailed foxes I think? Or they're possibly descended from demons/demonic monsters?

Black tailed foxes are related to the energy they absorb in their first year of life (although I don't think Fara would know this, it's probably in Baro's repository of knowledge). If their energy intake is substantially different to a normal Pharosian intake should be, they get black tails. That's why most Gauron foxes are black tailed. This is similar, but relates more to the way Kinadain fundamentally exist as a bizarre human-hybrid.

>>> we can talk to one of our knowledge/info devils to find out more about otherkin right?

Sure, if they know much about them. That would have been where an archipelago expert would be more useful.

>>> would thier be any point in this being done at some point? Create a consensual binding contract of some sort that represents their relationship and binds her to you for life so there is less chance of her slipping up while keeping her a confidante

[Amelia] would already have a contract the prevents her from spilling your secrets (bog-standard for a servant). It's just that she hasn't worked around it.

>>> How do things even go in hell? Do demons/devils procreate via sex? Is gender arbitrary? Presumably they're similar enough to Gauron which is why Rys getting stuck with Amelia was funny to them. Does Amelia also have functioning ladyparts? I don't actually think I the answers to these questions

Physical sex is purely for pleasure. Procreation is done through a magical ritual - one of the infernals refers to 'fathers' IIRC. Sexual preference is still a thing in Hell. Amelia is a woman with an add-on.

>>> Is [Amelia] an abberation or what

Yes. There's a chance for any devil to be 'different'. It's why unique devils are a thing. Amelia is just semi-unique, with her human form being different to the otherwise standardised form of Lilim. It's not that strange, except that she's a Lilim and half the point of them is being hot women who bang people to heal them.

>>> That said does Amelia have to use her add on to make her healing more effective or not?

No. She's still a better healer than other Lilim (due to age, experience and training) without going to the extreme. Of course, that doesn't mean it won't be uncomfortable anyway.

>>> So infernals have a ritual that spawns kid(s) do they care for them at all, or are they on their own?

Nope. Grigor got booted into the army at six. Infernals are raised communally - they're of majority at 5yo, but can stay in communal centres until about 16.

>>> Would it be possible for us to still let adventurers settle in and have small towns? I honestly don't feel like that's a bad idea as long as they know who's in charge. Though we do likely have to work on our army before letting retired badasses live in our territory.

You'd probably want to keep them under control more. The problem with them wasn't that they were local lords, but that they tended to seize power by force - effectively stealing the land and dues from the locals.

>> Extra QM Thing

Also, fun fact for people who remember the background of AEQ regarding Darlesia (which I only know because I've been redoing the faction map of Gauron). As this quest takes place in 1923PC, Darlesia's campaign of expansion into the region where AEQ starts has failed probably some six months earlier. As a result, the region that Compagnon would have originally seized (Avinou, to the east of Termina) once Termina withdraws from its conquests is... probably not going to be seized by Compagnon because you're beating the shit of of them here.

So congrats, you've done at least one thing that makes it impossible for something in AEQ to happen (Compagnon caused some of your 'rival' factions to be weaker than otherwise in it). If AEQ could actually be canon in any way with all the other shit that had changed.