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July 9th What was I thinking? A nobody learning some scraps of hidden mysteries thinks he can change the world with a few words, when he even lacks the determination to use them? I’ve not spoken to Tristan, even after he squeezed my shoulder to offer me some semblance of comfort. I’ve not spoken...
Third part of Hewson’s journal
The following text is transcribed from diaries (translated from Polish and Vak), phonographs and films created around the time of the founding of the Unflinching Order, called by some to be a successor, and by others to be a rival of the Society of Noble Endeavour and the Sovereigns of the Leashe...
The first chapter’s here
July 1st Finding a snake in London is, contrary to what one might expect, actually pretty hard. Harder than finding an employment in a steel mill, really. The man in charge told me that all I need to do is to show up and work to get a daily wage - enough to survive from day to day, really, but ...
Second part of Hewson’s journey
July 13th In her book, miss Galmier finally confirmed what Doug was saying about the powers beyond the veil of sleep. The silver dreams lead to the Mansus, the House of the Sun, the abode of the Hours. Each Hour has a color, and one or more principles, and the Unburnt God - the Forge of Days, sh...
Fourth installment of Hewson’s journey.
I figured that you can represent Cultist Simulator rituals as quest miracles. Typically, they’d be something about 30 XP, though they might also be 45 XP for major rites or 15 XP for something comparatively minor. They generally need appropriate Magical or Superior Skill or perk, though not neccessarily a Miraculous Arc.
All that being said, let’s make an example ritual.
Forge’s Redemption
This Pastoral Quest is a suitable way to justify healing a Divine Wound or getting rid of a Bond or Affliction that represents a crippling injury - such as ‘Lost an Eye in a fishing accident’ or such. To call upon the Forge of Days, you first need to gather appropriate resources - rare firewood, precious metals and alchemical ingredients, and such. This requires relatively honest work: you chop trees, you distill substances in a laboratory, you trade your skill for precious coin, and so on. It requires 35 XP (normally, it would be more, but you are employing magic)
You can gain 1 XP for this quest every 15 minutes, as you explain your actions as serving this goal:
“This will make a fine kindling for the Forge.” or
“A proper ingredient for the Rite.” or perhaps
“The Work needs a suitable furnace.”
At the Quest’s conclusion, you will have to finalize it with the Rite proper. You, or some other receipient of the Forge’s Redemption needs to be present. Others might join, to bear witness the Reforging, to provide emotional support, or simply to gawk.
Ritual: The Forge’s Redemption
The Ritual begins with a phrase:
“We call upon the Forge-of-Days...”
To which the other participants might respond to with:
“...Who ends what will not change” “...Who remakes with fire” “...Who will end all nights”
Ritual Actions:
Set fire to precious and rare woods in the furnace, or cast something flammeable into it to feed it.
Elaborate on the meanings of rare ingredients as you sprinkle them over the furnace or the receipient
React to the enormous heat, the attention of the Hours of the Forge
Narrate your fascination with the touch of Glory
Narrate your dread over the inevitable Change
Pose in an iconic, appropriate way
Utter one of those following phrases:
“Fire is the lesion in the skin of the world.“
“Fire is the winter that warms and the spring that consumes.”
“When we watch a fire, what are we watching for?”
Invoke another Ritual or a symbol of power, perhaps to steal the attention of the Hours of the Forge to summon King-Crucible (a dick move, but you do you)
After everyone acted at least once, the receipient of the Rite enters the fire. The HG narrates it’s conclusion:
“The fire burns out to embers, the sun rises, the Forge-of-Days reforged you. Emerge now, whole and perfect.”
Clear the Wound from your Divine Health level, or an Affliction/Bond from your Perks.
Yanko the Penance, a Warmain
THIS is the enemy of the world, who treats the world as his playground.
To Yanko, Creation is nothing more than a safari zone, and he’s a big game hunter - he scoffs at those puny Excrucians who resort to Abhorrent Weapons to punch a hole in the defenses of the world, finding his fists and feet, weighted down by an punitive Imperial Miracle - an old attempt to slow him down with the weight of his sins, on his march against the world - to be more than enough.
He wields the Test Overwhelming, a very simple - some say, primitive, others, primeval - expression of the Warmain philosophy. He will not test your pain thereshold, or the ability to remain yourself when transformed into your own anathema. No, he’ll simply fight you. Luckily, most of us is beneath his notice he’s not unlike a tiger that refuses to hunt mice, or an eagle that ignores houseflies. Even most Powers and Imperators are ignored by him. He wants the strongest, the most obviously dangerous - the monsters, the ogres, the giants, and the Nobilis mighty in Aspect, and against them he strives, he destroys, and, if they survive his onslaught, he takes their face.
For this reason, I refuse to make a moral judgement against him. Most Warmains I fear or hate, but Yanko... I saw him enjoy this world. He is an ogre of a man, but he eats ice cream, deigns to play with little children, and the actual damage he does to the world is... well, he WAS interested in hunting the Aaron’s Serpents, but after finding out they’re the least belligerent Ymerae out there he’d decided to chill out with them instead. What kind of a Warmain does that? He’s not well-regarded by the Excrucian Host as the result of this attitude, though sometimes they use him as some extra muscle, a proposition fraught with peril as he frequently strays off the objective, or outright ignores those he’s ought to listen.
As he ignores most magic in favour of very direct Miracles, I doubt he really has any pseudo Domain to speak off, but I think it’s something like ‘Test of Your Mettle’ or ‘Overwhelming Power’ I’ve seen him use Aspect, but, again, it might be Gifts, since I hadn’t seen him perform feats of above-average (or hell, even average) intelligence. This Miracle that weights him down, I think, he’d turned into a Treasure, which makes it a weapon rather than a liability. Ultimately, I think he’s got
Aspect 1 Domain 0 (though his natural Warmain Edge is probably as high as 2-3), and Treasure 5
With Gifts such as True Immortality, a variant on Paramount Strength and Speed to represent his overwhelming hunting prowess, and possibly Soul-Cutting Sword, though it might be a function of the Weight of His Sins.
Cultist: The Iconics
The Shining Metropolis: Associated with color Gold, with empathy and trust, with seeing the best in humanity, with reaching for unreachable ideals, building utopias and fleeting dreams. Shining Metropolis attracts cultists that believe their imperative is to build a better tomorrow, and that the esoteric lore they find is but the means to this end. They call upon the Utopian Voices, the coterie of beings of brilliance, icons of progress and perfection. Their failing is that they are blinded to the ugly reality of the world and can’t see the cogs that build their greater picture.
Vault of the Forgotten Kingdoms: Associated with color Emerald, with dead and history, with echoes surviving forever, with all things that had passed and calcified, with protection from all harm and with foundations of the common world. The Vault reaches out for the mourning, offering them cold succor, the self-defense societies that make themselves into invincible fortresses with the esoteric lore. Death cults, ancestor worshippers, but also historians interested in impossible things that were, all call upon the Whispers of the Vault, a choir of beings of quiet dignity, icons of memory and preserverance. Their failing is that they cannot move on, and that they prefer happy memories over harsh reality of todays.
The Endless Broken Circle: Associated with color Sapphire, with suffering and learning from it, with all things that hurt us in this world, with merciless passage of time and scouring of imperfections to better yourself. The Broken Circle reaches to those who passed the breaking point, who cannot suffer more, and gives them a place in the greater order. It justifies their suffering, and turns destruction into enlightment. At their best, they are stoic bodhisattvas who polish their souls into diamond, but their failing is that they can easily spiral into self-destruction. They’re calling upon the Flensed Dirges, a procession of beings stuck in a single moment of perfect suffering, sinners and saints who serve as example, a lesson and a teacher all in one.
The Orchard of Ideas: Associated with color Amethyst, with pregnancy, creation and inspiration, with all the blessed and fertile things of this world, with fragile youth and aspirations that might yet be fulfilled. Poets, painters and sculptors, writers and gardeners, and even the overly imaginative youth all partake in the fruits of the Orchard, and all seek it’s rich bounty to better their both art and themselves. They summon the Kindly Gardeners, a council of beings of artistic fury, who strike against those who would dare to snuff out the embers of creation. Their failing is that they want to move in all directions at once, when they fail to maintain their interest for long enough for it to bear fruit, it withers and blessings of the Orchard end.
Knight in Ivory Livery, Truth’s-Chevalier
A life-sized chess piece given true soul and purpose by the Imperator of Truth, the Ivory Knight is next in line in the long succession of Nobilis of Truth. The Estate itself is a big prize in the Valde Bellum, and thus is aligned heavily against the Deceivers. To grants it’s vassal some way to counteract the more powerful activities of the Enemy, it’s Imperator lended it the Seal of Truth, a golden artifact that can stamp things from a mere written statement into being with a force of an Imperial Miracle
It’s counterpart, the Ebon Knight, Sovereign of Succor, is much, much more liked at parties, and the Ivory Knight doesn’t let anyone know how much it hurts it’s bone heart. Truth is a bitter freedom, after all.
