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[Blaque]

Battlegroups are kind of terrible as the only thing you fight. Their point is to somewhat replicate the extras system of previous editions as well as to eat their mass combat rules. These systems supplemented serious opponents, and I think they should as result include someting like a competent commander, or some champions about. They supplement things, they probably shouldn't be the core of things....

[Blaque]

I think that you not being able to tell the difference or kind of getting into the basic "it's long' sort of is missing why scythes, spears and polearms are there, swords are not. Bare hands is a side effect, but since it's not a weapon style, but a style with thematics that have thematic weapons to it, there it is. Righteous Devil and Nightingale are exlusively armed because you just can't do what they are doing without the weapons of those styles. But while White Reaper can be done unarmed, doesn't ultimately mean any ol' long weapon fits. You seem to be thinking:

This style...

[Blaque]

Because swords don't elicit the same imagery of scything that giant reaping scythes do?

[Blaque]

White Reaper's thematic is about scything people down like so much wheat. It's about...reaping. It's a scythe style that happens to tangently let you use spears and lances. I think that what the style's themes are influence the weapons, again, not the weapons determine teh style....

[Blaque]

Reading Shadow of the Torturer, I think going for a MA just for the wapon alone is a bit kind of cart pulling the horse. RDS is a fireand style, but I think it's first thing is that it's about being some gunslinger or Soloman Kane style thing, which happens to be supported by the use of firearms-like weaponry. So what culturally, thematically, or genrewise, do you want out of a dude with a great sword that isn't just using a great sword real good. RDS does stuff with the weapon, sure, but it is in the sense of also being about judgement, being righteous and scaring people.

I bring...

[Blaque]

This kind of is again, dependent on particular source and such. Remember the original write-up of the Ebon Dragon isn't so much about being a dick, for instnace, as it being well...the shadow of every thing who has ever lived, who loves doomed things, destinies that will change the world, dark secrets, and by his nature wants to test the prison. The big thing is that the original creators of everything were well, big. Transcendence is not necesarily even beautiful. Folks I think kind of get caught up in this Abrahamic idea that your gods being powerful by defininition means they are also beautiful/something...

[Blaque]

I had as a weird bit a bunch of cultist alchemists in a game I ran who had managed to obtain access to the Bridge to Nowhere talked about in a bit of fluff in Compass: Autochthonia. They used it to talk through what htey saw as a manifestation of the Great Maker, but in reality they were talking with Viator of Nullspace and his souls (I treadted him as a soul of Autochthon for that particular game). They were developing methods to bring the Void into Creaton and machines that transformed elementals into Autochthonian elementals but at a cost of sending them crazy and giving making them gremlins....

[Blaque]

"Surviving records indicate the existence of at least 23 Yozis in the Malfean prison. Others may exist of whom no records remain. ..."
Just noting that we don't know if we have half of them....

[Blaque]

- Color art and an option for more color art in supplements. Basically keep the color art train rolling there.

- Cloth map of the Realm.

- Reissue of the map of Creation for folks who were not able to get it the first KS.

- DB-styled screen.

Those are what come to mind immediately at least....

[Blaque]

I have less issues withw ordcount on the Deathlors per se more than a few other issues:

1) They generally arew ritten as kind of hard to use even for the mentor role. The First and Forsaken Lion, Eye and Seven Despairs, the Black Heron, and the Dowager are all pretty much pointless for most groups since they either have very singular Exalts already described, or barely want anything to do with them. When you have nine characters and nearly half of them really aren't useful for your mentor role, this is kind of an issue.

2) Deathlords themselves were written as so singularly...

[Blaque]

I don't have the quote here, but the one from Savant & Sorcerer on this more or less said that even suicide won't get you out. Someting to textant that "Even if Ligier were slain, he would live on in some form as a Red Star" or something like that. The very core and soul of the Yozis are bound, such that they have no way to ever get out of Hell short of annihilation as I gather....

[Blaque]

This is the importrant part worth remembering too. It's also remembering that Mafleas to some extent shows a bit of the Greek mythos take of Taurtarus. Or recently as I am reading Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, any variety of monstr or potential enemy of the gods like giants or Fenris Wolf. Gods and humans are pretty prone to overly cruel and long-term ass-biting things like that....

[Blaque]

And those who did might have had a bit of a diminishing returns factor going on. The first ones created the Underworld. Wasn't clear that any additional ones did much that they couldn't deal with that later....

[Blaque]

I'd actually argue in this case it was Jenna Moran going purple prose leading up to the next part which talked more about demon binding and such. It's less "WHy is this the case?" and trying to explain that, and thinking, "This would be a cool reason for why sorcery works" is probably the train of logic she had, even if had a bit "explaining too much" consequences....

[Blaque]

Mutilation specifically being part of their binding was a 2e thing, again. So that helps in context a bit. Mind, in 1e there is stilla bit where they were made to build the prison so it's still not pleasant for them there.

As to why not just shunt them into elsewhere forever, Savant & Sorcerer had probably the best line on the topic:

The gods would have loved nothing more than to lock the Yozis away in a closed universe, a prison of geometric perfection that would – from Creation’s perspective, -- no longer exist, where every path from outward looped back inward...

[Blaque]

Not anywhere I ever saw in writing. There was a night sky for the moon and stars to show up in afterall....

[Blaque]

I agree. It's also kind of more consistent with other stuff too. Killing an Exigent doesn't make the god come back. Locking the Solars away didn't make the Sun suddenly more involved. And as you note, wiping out hte DBs is in itself a feat worth noting, but which itself only means the Host is smaller and the Dragons still lessened....

[Blaque]

As for memories and Exaltations being events, not things, I think there's a bit as noted where they can be both too. I think there's a bit with "legacy" with Exaltations. There's not some object about that is the Exaltation that first was Raiya Aru that got handed over to Onca Kesha the Jaguar Queen, which now rests in Cathay Red Dragon of Lao. But there is something about each of their individual Exaltations that's tied in a way that probably sint' goign to be descirbed, which kind of has this feel of being part of a legacy or a line of succession to me. I think thinking of Exaltations...

[Blaque]

Knowing Lee's stuff more, would this be like what? The Sea People's city in Delirium's Mistress or a city full of Zorayases?...

[Blaque]

The anatomy of Dragon Kings feels appropriate to bring up too, since without being sapient, I kind of always assumed stalkers look more or less like brighty colored but surprisingly dexterous theropods than they loo like humans. Art is a bit inconsistent but I think that much of the time it's pretty hard to mistake a Dragon King for a beastfolk....