I wouldn't have guessed that one.
I think I'm nearly done, I just need to pick my gifts. Conditional Forgiveness and Sanctified Violence are definitely top of the list, but I'm not sure what else to pick up.

Hi everyone. I'm looking forward to playing with you all.

I have to admit, at the moment I'm giving considerably more attention to aesthetics than mechanics. I probably know which gifts I'm taking but haven't given it too much specific thought.

I've picked most of my starting gifts, already. One undecided, on my end;

For the curious:

Alacrity: Walk Between The Rain
Artifice: Excellence of Artifice (Int 18), Hammerhand, Ten Thousand Tools
Night: ???
Theft: A Prowling Power

I'm not super-likely to invest in any Night gifts at present.

Short summary of what I have so far for Rashana - she's of high birth/ a family of noble standing, graduated with distinction from a Theotechnical Academy of the Arts (and might be well-known for the advanced clockwork orrary she constructed as part of her graduation project)

I am still fiddling a bit and have a fact I've not precisely pinned down, though.  She's upper class, has little contact with the undead, and while upper class, is pretty practical and down to earth, especially given the whole situation we'll end up dealing with with the Made God getting rekt :D

And for the record, I've kind of assumed a strict caste system (and the Restless would definitely be sequestered away from the high castes). Also ritual use of hallucinogens and deliriants as part of the bodhisattvas' modeling, for the rest of us unenlightened folk, how to strive toward being like Ayana and ascending to the next level of paradise where we can be with the real thing. I'm not insisting, but the opium-era buddhist Cowloon vibe seems to be working well.

La is from the lowest caste of living people, the only ones who regularly manage the Restless labor force. It's not all they do, but anyone better than them would be sullied by it. She, personally, runs a small staff of them as part of her duties tending to the needs of the Dreamers while they pursue the visions that guide their ruling.

Strict caste system works for me, so far. Unless I'm leaning into the idea  I typically don't have characters of mine use intoxicants or anything, but she might've had some at some point in her work, if it's a standard thing, but maybe part of her success is being able to make the creative connections without them.

Hit upon some ideas with the GM as well, Rashana was an individual of interest to the priesthood/ they wanted her theotechnical talent, though I'm thinking  the disaster actually occurs before she actually gets too far into that.

Oh, I imagine opium is less popular with the tech wizards.  I don't know where they rank vs. the actual priests, and I didn't want to define anything but the parts La touches directly.

Made Gods generally have a group of theotechnical priests maintaining them, so, in this particular case, there's probably a bit up there. I didn't like the idea of Rashana being a priest, but I did want to get into the technical side, and I ultimately boiled down the idea that 'they were interviewing her / aiming to recruit her to the priesthood if they could manage when everything actually crumbles' so she's very much the 'had the potential to be among them, but wasn't at the time everything collapsed' :D

I'm more than willing to try and adapt should needs be, but I've been approaching Laila as someone from a sect within the priestly caste where the prevailing doctrine is that the path to Ayana lies in seeking to reclaim memories of your past lives and through them restablish a connection built across generations, looking backward in order to move forward. While it's certainly a concept that resonates with her, and a pursuit that she's had some modest success with across the years, she's someone who's made more than a few hesitant and secretive steps outside her lane in order to do a bit of hands-on research or just get some air away from the stifling sphere she calls home.

As such I'd certainly been intending for one of her facts to stand for a connection to a group she isn't supposed to have ties to - possibly involving one of the other PCs.

---

On another note, build-wise I'm currently looking at:

Night: N/a
Passion: Banner of Passion
Sun: Body of Burning Light, Purity of Brilliant Law
Sword: Nine Iron Walls, Thirsting Razor

Would it make sense to spend my sixth point on Effort of the Word so I have a larger pool to draw on for miracles and gift upkeep or would that be a bit wasteful?

Effort is always good, Especially if you have Purity of Brilliant Law.

and Laila sounds like someone Rashana would like, though I dunno about how  she looks on the memories angle :D I canimagine her disagreeing on that point but still getting along :D

Recovering past life memories and, like, reconciling all the different perspectives on wisdom totally works with where I was going.  I like variant interpretations of a faith, anyway.  It's more realistic.  But they're all digging into something immaterial that transcends this single life.

edit: Also, as a rule, an early Effort of ________ never goes awry except in some very few builds, most kind of gimmicky.  I actually like to pick up at least two of Effort/Excellence/Influence, and I think I'll do all three for this.  La isn't supposed to be (comfortable being) showy at this stage, anyway.



So it's beginning to look a lot like:
Desire: Influence of the Word
Intoxication: Effort of the Word
Shapeshifting: Fair Mortal Mien

Night: Excellence of the Word (Wisdom), A Speaker in Dreams
This message was last edited by the player at 07:19, Tue 07 Apr 2020.

Hello everyone. I'll be joining you as of today. Word-wise I've gone with Fate, Sorcery, and Knowledge. I have some putative stuff in my character sheet regarding Gifts/Invocations but I want to give the GM an opportunity to green-light it before I say too much on that front.

All said looking forward to playing with you.

Shapeshifting is a fun word, I will say.

I'm still undecided on my last gift point. I might hold it in reserve, or pick up a point of effort - there are good things accessible to me as miracles with Theft particularly.

Looking forward to more info as this gets closer to lauch. We've got a new Archivist too, apparently. Greets.

And with the addition of the Gardener, we now have a full ensemble. I'll get the first IC post up shortly and we can get this rolling.

@Bire La

Struck upon an idea working on background notes for Rashana, curious if you're interested in getting in on this.

I don't have a spare fact to dedicate to them yet but if they survive the apocalypse, I could see using one of her next ones on the group...Had an idea for a group of 'renegade artists' (Some of whom might be theotechnical/able to make 'magical' works)  who use art both as a means of challenging the existing caste system/ pursuing the memories of their past lives. I had an idea that Rashana's skill would basically have said group (and also the theotechnical priesthood that maintain(s/ed) Amaya) to want to recruit her.

seemed like that might be up your alley? just guessing, though.

And, that said, Bio Updated. It's not a final final draft yet, I feel like there's still things left unsaid in her background and personality, and I'll probably want to touch it ALL up once I have a better feel for her in play.

Note to self: Decide on the last gift point expense (if GM doesn't mind, I might hold it and either spend it in play or just hold it for level 2)

Also worth asking @ GM - should I note any access to Wealth at start, or should I just assume 'whatever I / my family had access to is probably not accessible, regardless' - I'm fine with that, just want to confirm :D
This message was last edited by the player at 13:01, Wed 08 Apr 2020.

I'm not 100% sure what you're asking me. If you say there was an art movement opposed top the existing social order, then there was, really. I'm only trying to help stitch everyone's additions together at the edges. Or were you thinking La would be involved in it?

I'm pitching it to see if it's a thing you have interest in touching on at all. ^^; And honestly, looking for feedback overall since I have a huge amount of difficulty just declaring stuff true without at least someone giving it a glance-over conceptually.

I seem to have taken on an organizer role, huh? It's a terrible habit. At least here it's effective; you should see the mess when @ylva tried this on Elliquiy! Anyway, what she told me about the philosophy that Made Anaya, when I asked for some detail, was that it focused on rest, meditation, trance, dreams, inner and outer peace, very calm and contemplative things like that. So that's what I've been rooting all my advice in.

Okay then. Rebellious art movements are pretty common during any time of high stress in a society—a war, a crisis of leadership, major corruption, a lengthy plague, you get the idea. Sometimes visual arts, sometimes musical, sometimes dance if that's important enough to a (sub)culture's expression. Honestly, if one didn't already exist, I'm sure the current events would start one up.

If they've been going for a while in opposition to the caste system, then there has likely been unrest among the lower castes for a long time, and it has spread among the educated castes who set formal culture in the past five years. Ten at the longest; something that survives longer than that and hasn't gotten any official changes made often moves to violent conflict.

Actually, I'd go for the 5-10yr range. Recruiting a theotech engineer sounds like a move toward more overt/organized resistance to the system. I can easily see Anaya falling apart as the catalyst that both emboldened them and gave them a perfect propaganda opportunity.

But La has no part in it. She had more access to the priest caste and their radius of luxuries than the large majority of other Servants. She was doing a pretty good job of inculcating herself with the orthodox theology (a rough merger of ideas from Hinduism, buddhism, and confucianism, for now).

For context, this was my RtJ. It's basically in her paradigm even when not from her perspective:

Not so much organizer as 'I thought the idea sounded at least relevant and of interest to you based on prior stuff so I mentioned you. Sorry. ^^;

I didn't get the blurb about the base ideology, but I assembled roughly that assessment through some of what was being discussed anyway, and mostly ran with it. :D

But yeah, neat idea, I was hoping it might create some clear points where maybe there was some cross-interaction going on, but not required. Sounds good, though. Glad it makes some sense to you. I didn't really have a loose fact to spend on them right now, but I like the idea that they exist and can possibly come into play later.  I've been operating on the assumption that we're starting either 'just before' everything goes bad, or right when it does, but I don't know that for sure, either.

Here is what I have so far about the Garden-Keepers of Irohn:

Although technically a branch of the priestly caste, the Keepers served Anaya through cultivation of the natural world, teaching the young, and practicing the medical arts.  They were not a warrior caste, as there was no war, though some picked up martial arts (strifes) as a means of self-improvement.  Others sought perfection in handicrafts.  Many were counselors to the people - less focused on Anaya's worship than on the people's well-being...

One could join them from any caste.  Originally, they were focused on beneficial activities.  However, as Anaya's influence waned, many turned their focus to wealth and power.  The Keepers became a path forward for the ambitious, and some used the art of cultivation to make a tidy profit from the sale of ritual elixirs and drugs. The group is or will be split between the Purists who want to turn back to the old ways of Anaya; the Joyful, who seek wealth and worldly things; and the Newborn, a group that seeks to find a new path...

interesting, Sani.

As for my post, GM: If you need me to adjust anything, let me know. But 1000 man-hours per hour when you can rapid-craft individual-portable tools and equipment goes a long way, probably enough to get some basic fortification going on for a few city blocks?
This message was last edited by the player at 22:09, Wed 08 Apr 2020.

I'd do a reply, Sani, but I think I should encourage some of the others to speak up :)

Just waiting on a response to a PM and then I will get right to it.

I have half a post sitting on my laptop waiting for me to not be tied up in endless overtime and errands. At least I'm caught up on sleep! So it'll be quick.