[Nexus] OOC 29: Since When Have Titles Been All That Important, Anyway?

[Morty]

To everyone currently actively involved in the Hermitage of Dalachrech infiltration/assault plot: would it be possible to speed things up a little? It seems to be taking quite a long time, and we don't seem to be much closer to being able to enact the second phase of the plan.

[AmberVael]

Do you mind elaborating a bit on graces? I think I accidentally came up with the same thing with my Tieflings...

A grace is a concept from Exalted, through which the raksha define themselves.

I'm going to assume all of the above is gibberish to you, so let me take a step back and explain better. This is pretty long, so here is a spoiler to spare people who don't want to be suffocated by wall of text.

Anyone interested in raksha and graces (or at least learning a bit more about why that crazy Genesis character likes rings so much), look here!

Spoiler

Show

In the Exalted setting, there is a very lovely world called "Creation." It looks like it follows most of the rules our world does, but it really doesn't all that much. It is in fact mostly made viable by mystical mumbo jumbo.

Creation is a location of order in the midst of primordial chaos know as the wyld. While Creation came from the wyld, the two are largely incompatible. A mortal who truly enters the wyld is torn apart, for example. Or worse. Or weirder.

Now, in the wyld are these things called raksha. Chaotic, nigh formless patterns of magic, they tend to find the stagnant rules of creation as abhorrent as a entities without emotions can find anything abhorrent. That is to say, not much, but it agitates them, and so draws a response from them more than anything else has or can. This has led to many of them entering Creation, or attempting to enter Creation. The first few raksha who dared foray into the world simply disintegrated into the fits of fancy and magic that they are.

Later raksha devised a method to grant themselves shape, constructs through which they could translate themselves into a real form that would exist and not undo itself within Creation. This method involves the creation of graces- five concepts and metaphysical icons that represent the wild patterns of the raksha and put them into terms Creation can understand and accept.

Here are the five graces:

The heart grace. The heart grace is both the simplest and most important of the graces, for it defines existence itself. It is the strength of presence and uniqueness that defines a raksha from the wild chaos around it.

The cup grace is grace of service and 'compassion,' at least such as the raksha know such a virtue. It involves recognizing one's own flaws, and your dependence on others to survive. It involves making oneself useful to others, so that you might be spared and gain aid and protection. It also involves making others dependent on you, the capability to enthrall others. A dualistic grace, it defines corrosion and stability, desire and altruism.

The ring grace is the symbol of identity and purpose. The ring is a perfect circle, a shape that has neither beginning nor end. Through the ring, one creates their own boundaries, simultaneously defining what is outside of them, what they will never do, and what is within them, their core and drive. The ring grace is the grace of creation, the expression of self brought without. With the ring, the raksha says "this is who I am, this is what separates me from all others. Through the strength of my identity I will stand eternal."

The staff grace is the grace of communication. It is both what drives raksha apart, and what pulls them together. Through the staff grace, one voices desire and principles, the philosophy through which one sees the world. In doing so, the raksha defines who stands with and apart from them. Those with a weak staff grace will be caught up in social and political tides, never sure where they stand, while the strong will define those tides, and draw others to themselves, while casting enemies away.

The sword grace is the grace of conflict and greatness. Through it one makes challenges of the world and surmounts them, defining where they stand among others. Through the sword, one claims mastery and power. With the sword, one conquers others and defends themselves.

With these five graces defined, forged both as principles that represent the strengths and character of the raksha, and as true physical objects, a raksha may gain physical form and enter creation.

[Rebonack]

I'll send Amil to the auction.

Purely for charitable reasons, of course.

>_>

<_<

She isn't rich by any means. So I think $500 sounds like a reasonable budget.

[OrchestraHc]

To everyone currently actively involved in the Hermitage of Dalachrech infiltration/assault plot: would it be possible to speed things up a little? It seems to be taking quite a long time, and we don't seem to be much closer to being able to enact the second phase of the plan.

Um. I'll try. Earl, is it okay if Happy interrupts the game with the meal? Then we can get a move on.

[Earl of Purple]

Yes, that's fine.

[horngeek]

A grace is a concept from Exalted, through which the raksha define themselves.

I'm going to assume all of the above is gibberish to you, so let me take a step back and explain better. This is pretty long, so here is a spoiler to spare people who don't want to be suffocated by wall of text.

Anyone interested in raksha and graces (or at least learning a bit more about why that crazy Genesis character likes rings so much), look here!

Spoiler

Show

In the Exalted setting, there is a very lovely world called "Creation." It looks like it follows most of the rules our world does, but it really doesn't all that much. It is in fact mostly made viable by mystical mumbo jumbo.

Creation is a location of order in the midst of primordial chaos know as the wyld. While Creation came from the wyld, the two are largely incompatible. A mortal who truly enters the wyld is torn apart, for example. Or worse. Or weirder.

Now, in the wyld are these things called raksha. Chaotic, nigh formless patterns of magic, they tend to find the stagnant rules of creation as abhorrent as a entities without emotions can find anything abhorrent. That is to say, not much, but it agitates them, and so draws a response from them more than anything else has or can. This has led to many of them entering Creation, or attempting to enter Creation. The first few raksha who dared foray into the world simply disintegrated into the fits of fancy and magic that they are.

Later raksha devised a method to grant themselves shape, constructs through which they could translate themselves into a real form that would exist and not undo itself within Creation. This method involves the creation of graces- five concepts and metaphysical icons that represent the wild patterns of the raksha and put them into terms Creation can understand and accept.

Here are the five graces:

The heart grace. The heart grace is both the simplest and most important of the graces, for it defines existence itself. It is the strength of presence and uniqueness that defines a raksha from the wild chaos around it.

The cup grace is grace of service and 'compassion,' at least such as the raksha know such a virtue. It involves recognizing one's own flaws, and your dependence on others to survive. It involves making oneself useful to others, so that you might be spared and gain aid and protection. It also involves making others dependent on you, the capability to enthrall others. A dualistic grace, it defines corrosion and stability, desire and altruism.

The ring grace is the symbol of identity and purpose. The ring is a perfect circle, a shape that has neither beginning nor end. Through the ring, one creates their own boundaries, simultaneously defining what is outside of them, what they will never do, and what is within them, their core and drive. The ring grace is the grace of creation, the expression of self brought without. With the ring, the raksha says "this is who I am, this is what separates me from all others. Through the strength of my identity I will stand eternal."

The staff grace is the grace of communication. It is both what drives raksha apart, and what pulls them together. Through the staff grace, one voices desire and principles, the philosophy through which one sees the world. In doing so, the raksha defines who stands with and apart from them. Those with a weak staff grace will be caught up in social and political tides, never sure where they stand, while the strong will define those tides, and draw others to themselves, while casting enemies away.

The sword grace is the grace of conflict and greatness. Through it one makes challenges of the world and surmounts them, defining where they stand among others. Through the sword, one claims mastery and power. With the sword, one conquers others and defends themselves.

With these five graces defined, forged both as principles that represent the strengths and character of the raksha, and as true physical objects, a raksha may gain physical form and enter creation.

I'm not that familiar with the Raksha... how much flexibility do you have in the form of the Graces?

[AmberVael]

I'm not that familiar with the Raksha... how much flexibility do you have in the form of the Graces?

Just as a note to you and those other exalted players out there, the graces very vaguely correspond to the four virtues- Cup is Compassion, Ring is Temperance, Staff is Conviction, Sword is Valor. Heart is kind of Willpower. Ish. Don't think about it too hard though, or the raksha will eat you.

Anyway! Once forged, the physical shape of a grace is pretty much set, if that's what you mean (you can reforge them, but that's about as much trouble, if not more trouble, than making it in the first place was). In terms of what range of shapes a grace can potentially take is pretty wide. A sword grace can easily manifest as any weapon, for example, or a cup can manifest as anything used for carrying or bearing (baskets, heck, maybe a palanquin if you're feeling like being interesting).

Of course, they've also got a fair bit of duality going on. When forged into grace artifacts, they can also become spells, shape changing oaths, monsters, or even places. For instance, the mysterious serpent Harnel is currently conversing with is a spear, but also a serpent.

[Earl of Purple]

Deadtime now. Goodnight, sleep tight and don't let the strigoi bite.

[Lady Serpentine]

Deadtime now, most likely until morning.

BR, I think it's your turn to post for Erin and Lellienth in HALO?

[Halae]

Singingnoodle, I hate to tell you but Magtok had a deadline set as far as cadets go in his bootcamp, and with no OOC confirmation (to my knowledge) that you were joining up, you weren't included in that, sorry.

[Hattish Thing]

Oh! Haha! Whoops. That's what you get for posting while distracted! I'll edit and delete.

[Dark Elf Bard]

I think it's ClassyCelt's turn in Cylar

[happyturtle]

Yeah, after he got more than 10 people signed up, he realized he had to stop accepting students or he'd never be able to keep up.

[Hattish Thing]

Sorry!

It looked fun.

And yes DEB it is.

[happyturtle]

There's still plenty of fun. After all, a crowd of supervillain wannabes are about to be unleashed on the Nexus. I'm sure they'll have homework assignments like "Go and rob those ugly halflings over there". *nodnod*

[InyutheBeatIs]

...

The gods and goddesses of the Nexus cannot save us now. NO ONE CAN.

[Hattish Thing]

Hey! They're actual doing a big help for AMEN...even if they only want a clone...

[Zefir]

*poks CNor to Common Street*

With money brought up, I have a question.
Do you guys often play a character for who money isn't a problem or one who watches their wallet carefully?

Well,

Andy doesn't have a normal Wallet he stores his money otherwise. Beeing paranoid he uses all he has.

Fade doesn't care about his big bag of gold coins. He just spend it as he wants.

And my other chars are wither don't have one or I haven't thought about that.

[usourselves&we]

((Huh...that was a rather underwhelming reaction to the gigantic explosion.))

Young Berserker is still really mad about almost being killed not being the one that made the giant scrap heap, but she is just not willing to mess up her time line to get that kind of revenge.

If there was a reaction to her charging CD before Magtok got there we so could have had a fight then and there, but now it will have to wait. . . is he likely to forget about that event in the next few hours of that day?

And also, explosions happen all the time when you’re a villain so that explains the lack of reaction from other people.

[happyturtle]

Willow's Salixtra's dad is a mad scientist. Her boyfriend is a mad scientist. And she's a mad scientist. Explosions are a regular part of her life.

So instead of going "Holy boop! An explosion?!" she reacts by phoning a lawyer and freezing everyone's funds, so she can get her car replaced. That's just how Rich Bitch rolls.

[Darklord Bright]

Starfish blew stuff up first. Everyone else is just copying the master.

[usourselves&we]

If left to her own devices Berserker would have had a full demolition derby and then would have blown it up with the lab equipment that was in the back, oh maybe the next car.

[Morty]

There's still plenty of fun. After all, a crowd of supervillain wannabes are about to be unleashed on the Nexus. I'm sure they'll have homework assignments like "Go and rob those ugly halflings over there". *nodnod*

They'd have to do it before Dipsnig finds them and makes them an object lesson of what happens to people who doublecross NO.

[happyturtle]

I've renamed the 'Backstories' thread to 'Stories', because it seems to fit better.

@ Zefir: I got your PM. I can't play an elder today. I'll try tonight, if I have the spoons. It'll probably be late, like around midnight or so.

Also, disco squirrel!

[Zefir]

No problem Happy, I'm happy when someone reacts to it.^^

That reminds me I should get an Assassin for that... maybe hire MURDERER for that.

[Mindfreak]

So...is MURDER still going then?
Because I totes Mcgroat have a character for it.

[Zefir]

Actually yes. For a character you have to run him by RB. Think the standards for joining have raised since the last not so well made contracts.

[Devixer]

MURDER's still chugging along (kinda.) Though yeah, the Operative's standards for hiring members have raised a little.

[Mindfreak]

Would you like to handwave him in or RP him in?

For more info, I'm talking about a Predator who believes the greatest honor is hunting other sentient beings, and if he can do it for money, that's good too.

[Devixer]

I'd much prefer he was RPed in.