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[espritdecalmar]

Ah, this might be a little awkward. Il faut que je sois diplomatique.

So, in the core book, we are presented with four Heroes: one is an ex-military (no political stance is mentioned, but perhaps one is implied), one is a conservative Christian, one is a fedora-wearing m'lady type (to be honest I kind of cringed at the first read-through of this one, but I've come to understand what's going on there), and the last is a teen girl in a coma (again, no politics involved, and she is probably the most sympathetic of the bunch). Conquering Heroes adds obviously many more of all kinds of...

[espritdecalmar]

I forget exactly when I came out as gay. It must have been around 15 or so. Maybe 16. The specifics don't matter. What matters is that I was once threatened with murder. Quite literally. Another teenage boy, in the backyard of his uncle's place, as we sat at a picnic bench, after what was for him an experimental forcement, brandished a camping hatchet in my direction and declared, with all the force that someone of a certain youthful age and presumptuous lower-middle-class social standing in America can, that, if I ever told anyone what had just happened between us, he would kill me.
...

[espritdecalmar]

I once joked on Twitter, back when I had a Twitter, back before I had come to the realization that voluntarily trapping myself in the salle du panoptique with a cacophony of omnipresent always-on hot takes was driving me both figuratively and literally insane, that if some aggressively coiffed gang of neo-Nazis tried to American History X me, I would probably just atonally recite a bunch of marine biology facts at them.

Anyway today I'm going to talk about squids.

As you probably know (but just in case you don't), squids are cephalopods, a class of marine mollusks which...

[espritdecalmar]

When casting Sever Oaths to negate a supernatural agreement, who is the target of the spell? For instance, if a mage wanted to undo a statement Sealed by a changeling, would they cast it on the person whose words were Sealed, or the changeling who made the Sealing?

[espritdecalmar]

So, today I'll talk about the Tidal Auspices.
Like Uratha, weresquids possess an Auspice, determined by the tidal conditions present at the site of their First Change. (Nota bene that this means that two weresquids who undergo the Change at the same time in two different parts of the world might have different Auspices--such is the sloshy way of the sea.)
Auspice refines the approach that a weresquid takes to the hunt. The Kun-shulor don't consider their Auspices as set roles the same way the Uratha do, but more as a grouping of abilities, natures, and approaches that can be understood...

[espritdecalmar]

Many years ago, Jhonen Vasquez did a comic about a guy obsessed with vampires, to the point of desperately desiring to become one. One night, he gets his opportunity, and jumps on it without hesitance. The twist, though, is that, where the protagonist expected to become some sexy Dracula-type lord of the night, he instead wound up looking more like a more hideous Count Orlock.

So part of the choice here would depend on how much control one has over the specifics of one's monstrosity. If I were a vampire, I'd hope to be a Daeva or Mekhet rather than Nosferatu (though I'd choose the...

[espritdecalmar]

Well, the Player's Guide gives an example of a Soul Pact in the form of someone jokingly writing "IOU: One soul" on a bar napkin in exchange for a drink, so intent on the mortal's part doesn't matter as much as consent does.

I think whether or not it's easy to trick someone into signing away their soul depends on with whom one is bargaining. It's perfectly in theme with Demon for most mortals in the modern, Western, secular world not to really think about their soul as something that exists or matters (because of course what really matters is having a steady job and a good...

[espritdecalmar]

Oh, I should probably talk a bit first about a part I'm excising from earlier editions of this idea. (I meant to post this yesterday but decided to get drunk instead.)

I shall be omitting the mind flayer references present in my previous attempt at the weresquids. There are several justifications going into this decision: The most surface-level is that, since I plan to sell the final PDF on Storyteller's Vault, I would like to avoid Wizards of the Coast's copyright lawyers, as the Illithids are not Open License.

Secondly, I felt that the brain-eating angle was a somewhat...

[espritdecalmar]

I've really liked the Carnons ever since I first read Circle of the Crone. I'm glad to see them get a 2nd Edition update.

[espritdecalmar]

Hello again,

Today, I'll talk some about where weresquids come from, as well as what makes the template distinct from traditional werewolves.

The potential for becoming a weresquid seems to lie not in the blood, but in the mind. What connects individuals fated to join the Kun-shulor remains unclear, though a few patterns tend to emerge: Some possess a degree of psychic sensitivity or minor talent; a number have a deep curiosity and a near-insatiable desire to grasp the ineffable; more than a few already hold some connection to the sea, making their living as fishers or...

[espritdecalmar]

So, how about those updated Keepers of the Covenant? What a doozy of an initiation Attainment.

[espritdecalmar]

Thank you both. Pertaining to your question, I think there will be some Lovecraftiana in parts (especially with Cthulhu imagery), but it won't be the only influence by far because 1) Lovecraft has kind of oversaturated a lot of fantasy/horror/sci-fi media, so I'd like to do some that deviates from that; and 2) as I've gotten older, my relationship to and feelings about H.P.'s work has grown complex, considering everything he was (very overtly) about....

[espritdecalmar]

Hello,

Several years ago I posted a thread on this forum with an idea I head for a cephalopod-based alternative to the Uratha. Ever since the Storyteller's Vault opened up to Chronicles of Darkness material, I have toyed with the idea of compiling, retooling, and publishing the Kun-Shulor as a Werewolf supplement, which is hopefully something a handful of people would find interesting.

To that end, I thought I would start a thread of essentially Open Development blogs on the weresquids, where I can share my thoughts, work through my ideas, and perhaps even get feedback....