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[Sunder the Gold]

You can't learn Changing Phases Transformation without changing your first Hybrid Form.

You have to buy Changing Phases Transformation a second time to change an alternate Hybrid Form gained through Shifting Beast Nature. You can't use the first purchase to change an alternate form gained through Shifting Beast Nature....

[Sunder the Gold]

Speaking of gifts, how about Heart-Affirming Tribute for making discount, mortal-useable artifacts out of nothing more than your heartfelt gratitude?

[Sunder the Gold]

I love the Universal Charms. We don't have the full view, yet, but even the incomplete picture looks great. I didn't even imagine that Many-Faced Moon Transformation would be a Universal Charm, but it's so much better than making it an Appearance or Manipulation Charm. It's not a "Changing Moon" Charm, it's a "Lunar" Charm like I never fully understood I wanted!

My one complaint is that I can't apply the first purchase of Changing Phases Transformation to my second Hybrid Body Transformation; I have to modify the first Hybrid shape in order to modify the second,...

[Sunder the Gold]

Meanwhile, you have Americans, who are also descended from British colonists, and so have a different opinion on European colonization of the New World than the Native Americans do, even though the American colonists came to hate the British empire enough to fight a war for independence. Then the United States of America later ignored its founding principles and became an imperial colonizing force against the remaining Native Americans, and probably also the people living around what would become the Panama Canal.

Every country that could behave imperially HAS committed the sins of...

[Sunder the Gold]

What BrilliantRain and The Wizard of Oz said.

Imperialism is slavery. It is one man breaking into his neighbor's house and taking anything he wants, and the neighbor can't stop him because the thief is better at violence. "You work, and I eat," as Abraham Lincoln defined slavery and tyranny.

The Scarlet Dynasty doesn't have to be an empire. Instead of devoting resources to building and maintaining a war machine for conquering and occupying its neighbors, it could focus those resources on building its own assets, and then trading those assets to its neighbors...

[Sunder the Gold]

If an empire wasn’t a baby eating machine, then it wouldn’t be an empire.

You’re effectively complaining that we’re calling a system of hereditary rulership with just one ruler at a time a “monarchy”. That is what the word means. Words mean things.

Grass is grass; it is a plant that consumes light and water to grow. That is how plants work, and Creation is not meant to be so fantastic that plants work any differently.

So too empires. An empire which does not operate or behave like an empire would need to be called something else, appropriate to...

[Sunder the Gold]

So if you don't want to reveal your nature as a Lunar, you're effectively making a bargain action where you say, "I'll do this thing for you which you consider so valuable that you might theoretically be willing to share your face, but as far as I'm telling you, I'm doing it for free or for much less than what you're offering (or I'm asking) for a reward.

"So, you can probably figure out that you're agreeing to a deal that's too good to be true, but you can't see what strings are attached.

"Also, you don't actually need to know that the task is serious...

[Sunder the Gold]

It was originally unintentional, but when I saw it, I left it like that deliberately....

[Sunder the Gold]

HBT used to be Instant in duration, but this labels it Indefinite.

Is this deliberate? It's the difference between losing 4 motes and committing 4 motes.

[Sunder the Gold]

The Scarlet Dynasty COULD have defeated the Lunar Exalted by now (or at least done far better at fighting them), if the Scarlet Empress hadn't been so obsessed with making sure she was never replaced. The first priority of the Scarlet Empire was keeping the Scarlet Empress in power. Conquering the world and killing Anathema were only methods to achieve that goal, rather than the primary goals themselves, and so were not pursued as efficiently as possible.

Had she built a system where the Dragon-Blooded could more effectively rule themselves even without her, she likely wouldn't have...

[Sunder the Gold]

I like Silver Ripple Mirage. "Fuck past Editions; the Lunar Exalted are the children of Luna herself, and their Charmset is going to reflect that".

I like Debt of Borrowed Skin, but don't feel it is clearly written.

How can the target feel the favor is worth their face AND whatever they're paying if they don't know their face is on the table?

Does the target need to know that the task is serious or life-defining for the Lunar?

Can the Lunar use this Charm in response to someone successfully influencing her with a bargain action?...

[Sunder the Gold]

Levels of monstrosity:

"I eat babies to survive; their suffering is irrelevant to me."

"I eat babies for fun; their suffering is the entire point."

"I eat babies just to fuck with people; their suffering is simultaneously irrelevant to me AND the entire point."

[Sunder the Gold]

I think the important, true, enduring elements of the “barbarian” aesthetic are coming through in the Silver Pact even with the rejection of “barbarism” as a concept outside of dehumanizing political labeling.

The bartering system of trading favors, for example. Which is what the Scarlet Dynasty does all the time, of course. The difference being that the Dynasty has a shared monetary system to supplement bartering.

[Sunder the Gold]

It would probably tear open lots of Shadowlands, for one thing.

It could theoretically be major enough to stir the Five Elemental Dragons from their slumber.

It would leave Creation without a major force for order and protection against the Underworld, Wyld, stray demons, and abusive gods.

It would even kill some Lunars and family of Lunars, like Amantha Kinslayer and her Terrestrial descendants....

[Sunder the Gold]

It definitely seems like if Dragon-Blooded can speed up the steps from 4 to 2 at least once per story, Solars should too.

“Convince you of the rightness of my cause!” And all that.

[Sunder the Gold]

The boundary of monstrosity and humanity that Lunars can cross seems to apply to the perceptions of others, too.

Raksi puts on a show of being a monster, while being a much more sane and companiable creature in truth. Of course, she's still a cold-hearted monster willing to feed live babies to other Lunars as a test and distraction, but she can probably go in reverse to smooth over memories of her monstrosity with a mask of humanity.

While people can misunderstand others all on their own, Ma-Ha-Suchi might be employing deliberate subterfuge with his own followers, at...

[Sunder the Gold]

Oh, man, another PDF where all the bookmarks are automatically open.

The corebook wasn't so bad about this because at least each individual Charm didn't get its own bookmark, but the Dragon-Blooded pdf does and it makes scrolling through the bookmarks window a chore. I just want to jump to a particular Ability; I can find an individual Charm on my own.

Chapter Bookmarks should definitely start closed, though I do find it helpful to have all sub-chapter bookmarks open.

[Sunder the Gold]

I also love the fresh new look into the mindset of the Shogunate Lunars and the Contagion Lunars....

[Sunder the Gold]

I appreciate that the basic age-groups of the Lunar Exalted are finally given some real attention this time, and only an appropriate amount of it.

Taking the concept of "barbarism" out behind the shed and shooting it is also welcomed.

I love Kinslayer's idea of finding a rich asshole in the Threshold, killing them, and using their house and wealth to serve her hospitality for a meeting with other Lunars. The comedy of all these mortals mingling with Lunars unawares writes itself. Also the horror stories of mortal servants and guests wandering into the wrong...

[Sunder the Gold]

Would someone kindly remind me how to get a copy of the document? My search avails me not.

Edit

Nm, got it.