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[Saur Ops Specialist]

All of my animosity and confusion is quite genuine. All the references still don't line up in my point of view, and likely still wouldn't even if a bunch of people didn't name a fan project "Terrible Argent Witches" after razzing on me, personally, in threads about various Lunar topics such as the spirit shape back in 2012. Well, the insults were a bit more serious than that, but I would have left it there, had Revlid not decided back after new year's 2015 to revisit many of the same topics in a couple of attack posts on the GITP mega thread because I dared to voice issues with TAW....

[Saur Ops Specialist]

Along with nearly all of the Occult Charms, particularly the ones dealing with spirits. One even manifests every allied spirit if the roll has exactly three 6s, which seems right on the nose with a steely gauntlet. Or the Brawl Charm that pulls out someone's heart, presumably to sacrifice to the Unconquered Sun. Also, any Charms that conjure up magical objects or mounts. Sail also seems like it has a lot of weirdness in it, especially when it allows you to speak in strange maritime tongues or claim ships mystically as your own. Craft also whips up Artifacts in little time at all, which is probably...

[Saur Ops Specialist]

You can probably get a much more concise set of Charms out of animal-related shapeshifting than from being proscribed, too. It's also not like the other Exalted that the Immaculates hate don't hit the "witch" buttons in strong thematic ways in their own respective rights. Solar-ish Exalted in particular have higher tiers of sorcery to call upon, and they're an "old evil" sealed away and then broken free, like they're the Dragon-Blooded's collective Bandora/Rita Repulsa. The Getimians are also probably going to have a fair bit of witch cred for being part of a war on heaven...

[Saur Ops Specialist]

It still seems functionally identical to sorcery in general, but with shaping rituals that the authorities don't like. Any Exalted, hence, could be witches; it doesn't seem a thing that can be used to define any one type of hero....

[Saur Ops Specialist]

Given that, it doesn't seem to be nailing much down for the Lunars, thematically speaking. It's like describing a Naruto character as a ninja. The series is lousy with shinobi of all types and conceivable power types. It's like saying that the No Moons are the Exalted Lunars, in a way, and that kind of loose, symbolic association feels way closer to Sidereals using a Resplendent Destiny of the Sorcerer than it does divine predators/carnivores (still not sure which parts of either are playing into the Lunar themes, but it's probably a better topic discussion)....

[Saur Ops Specialist]

Does "witchy" even mean anything anymore? I still don't get a clear image of what it's supposed to mean, and given the process association of "witch = magic-user", it conjures to mind a kind of grab bag of effects without much of a theme.



Raw, perhaps? The core book also used the term "unfinished", which can have a neat double-meaning of not just being raw, but also perpetually-changing.



That reminds me of my great loathing of the expanded mortal chargen chapter of Scroll of Heroes. Associate Full Moons and...

[Saur Ops Specialist]

No, it assumes that writing can only accomplish what the words say. You dedicate your word count to punching down, and you dwell on it in-character without concern for how others read it, and you reap the end results. You can't declare yourself to be punk and assume that everything will magically be punk; you actually have to write to the sensibilities and dedicate word count to the ideals, or it's just a cynically-applied label with acquiescence underneath its skin....

[Saur Ops Specialist]

That's part of the problem - his views haven't changed. The world has, and lots of other people realized that they needed a course correction in life. Seeing someone steadfastly refuse to make that correction is not laudable, in much the same way that seeing someone ram, full speed and head-on, into another car on the road is not laudable. In fact, it is worthy of condemnation. It's very easy to overdo irreverence and end up in pointless, self-indulgent cruelty if you're part of a group in power. To be true to punk, you'll want to assault the power, not the people struggling under its weight...