Dice [Exalted] O Brave New World (OOC)

[Random Word]

For plotting, scheming, coordinating, and general shenanigans.

Sherwood Psychie Rykon jaydude D. Rex Look at me, I figured out how to post threads. For this monumental feat I award myself at least... 12 XP.

Spoiler: Stunts

Stunts will largely be adjudicated collectively. Everyone here is a great writer and roleplayer, so you can adjudicate your own minor stunts. If it adds to the scene, reveals something about your character, or adds to the setting it's an obvious shoe-in for a minor stunt. The point of stunts is to reward play that the whole table enjoys, and the forum affords us an easy mechanism for adjudicating that. Four cookies or greater on your post (For this purpose hearts, brushes, and paintings are greater than cookies. 4 because it's 2/3rds of a possible 6 participants.) gets your stunt elevated to Major, and four hearts or equivalent gets your stunt elevated to Defining. I reserve the right to hand out a Major or Defining stunt regardless of the reactions, mostly for dramatic or daring actions done in furtherance of Defining intimacies.

In combat posts can come more quickly than people can read and react to them, so I may end up adjudicating stunts by fiat more often in combat.

Spoiler: XP

How will experience work, you ask? No? You don't ask that at all because you assume I'll be handing it out? Wrong! That great and terrible responsibility falls to you. Experience comes in three flavours:

• Bounties on narrative goals. You can accept example goals I toss out, or propose your own. This is the 'main plot'. (3 Regular XP per obstacle overcome)
• Awards you give each other for helping to satisfy your Flags. These you set. This is your character's personal arc. (2 Special XP per award)
• Accepting Compels proposed by others. (2 Special XP per Compel accepted)

Spoiler: Aspects

I'm going to borrow Aspects and Compels from Fate because I think Compels are a fun way for anyone to get involved in any scene, and a good driver of tension and drama. Aspects distill your character down into a few short descriptors for other mechanics to hang off of. There are lots of those mechanics in Fate, but of them only Compels are something I think Exalted is missing. Explicitly defining your Aspects make coming up with Compels a bit easier for others - you're outlining where you want the complications and drama in your character's life to come from. In Fate these Aspects are also where you derive your strength, but I'm uncertain how that could apply to Exalted. Possibly something improving the effect of spending WP if you Invoke one of your Aspects, like Virtue Channels in 2e.

Each character has 5 Aspects and you can change them any time your character changes, just like your intimacies. You can discover NPC Aspects in the same way you discover Intimacies.

Asuna might be:

• Princess of Masks and Lies
• Compulsive Liar
• Lazy Hedonist
• Strategic Prodigy
• Sucker for a Pretty Face

Maja might be:

• Peerless Explorer
• Thrillseeker
• Will Not be Chained
• Playful Trickster
• Wracked with Self Doubt

Spoiler: Fate Points

You are the Sidereals now. Fate Points are a reward you can get for accepting Compels or an award others can give you for helping them achieve their Flags, and can be spent for a few different things:

• Like a free Declare Fact but also covering unlikely coincidences or events that could possibly transpire.
• Compelling an NPC in accordance with one of their Aspects.
• Declaring a flashback scene where you describe how you made preparations that would help you out in overcoming an obstacle.
• Avoiding death. Typically this takes the form of someone or something arriving to intervene and save you in just the nick of time.

For example, when fighting someone with the Aspect 'Invincible Sword Princess' you could spend a Fate Point to Compel the Aspect, declaring that her reputation precedes her and she's constantly dogged by challengers for her title of finest swordswoman in the South. It's unfortunate, but of course just as she was about to run you through one of those challengers shows up demanding to duel her right now and won't take no for an answer.

Fate Points can't negate or trivialize obstacles, but they can make your attempts to overcome them much more effective. Examples:

When trying to sow discord in the government of the city of Beit Alaha you could declare there was an ongoing rivalry between the Suzerain Feisal Hetshepsut and General Askari Hetshepsut. Feisal was appointed Suzerain by the Ur-Pharoah, but Askari was the first living soldier across the walls when the city was seized and has always firmly believed the city was his by rights. All they'd need is a little push to be at each other's throats...

When trying to court Sassarin support for a revolution you could declare the Sorcerer-Prince Ezmera al-Kimyai was captured when the city was seized and has been imprisoned in a tower ever since. If you could free her she would likely lend both her own personal might and her many political connections to your cause...

Have fun with them and write the story you want to read.

Spoiler: Flags

Flags are scenes you want your character to experience and events you want to see come to pass. Think of them as how you define your personal character arc. They can be very specific or very general, but it's always up to you to decide when they're satisfied. They're not guaranteed to happen, but fate will bend over backwards to give you opportunities to fulfill them, and in general I won't bother to set up any scene that doesn't either directly further a narrative goal you've chosen to fulfill, set up one of your Flags, or explore the consequences of your actions. Flags should generally specify situations rather than outcomes - outcomes are less certain than situations, but they'll still get a nudge from fate. Examples of flags:

• I want to find out exactly how far my character is willing to go to fulfill their goal of abolishing slavery.
• I want an establishing scene that sets up how much of a badass my character is (tavern brawl, bandit raid, extortion attempt, etc).
• I want an establishing scene that sets up my character as a trusted and respected mediator of disputes in the community.
• I want my character's belief that all Anathema are baby-eating monsters to be challenged.
• I want someone to threaten my character's sister so I can drop everything and go berserk on them.
• I want my character to be captured by the enemy, learn something important, and escape or be rescued by allies.
• I want my character to have a chance to show off their incredible dance skills. It doesn't have to be a dance-off with a Deathlord, but I wouldn't say no.
• I want my character to duel their nemesis over a waterfall, and have one of them fall dramatically to their 'death'.
• I want my character to have dinner with their magnificent bastard affably evil nemesis and play you know I know you know I know over fine wine.
• I want my character to meet their Abyssal Mate Husbando, get off on the wrong foot, cut that sexual tension with a Daiklave, and hate-flirt-fight until dramatically interrupted and they have to retreat.
• I want my character to discover an important secret about NPC X.
• etc etc etc

How does this relate to experience? If you judge one of your flags is satisfied then you can optionally nominate any other character who you decide significantly helped you reach that scene, or made the scene more fun for you, and award them their choice of 2 of their flavour of special XP or a Fate Point. This is entirely at your discretion, and helping you doesn't necessarily mean helping your character. If you have a Flag about wanting to fight to defend the ramparts of your city and another player obligingly brings an army to your gates that may be exactly what you wanted. It's presumed that you chose flags that are fun for you, and thus for you satisfying them is its own reward. Let everyone know when your Flags change so they and I can help fulfill them.

Again using Asuna and Maja as examples:

Spoiler: Asuna's flags might be

• I want a scene where Asuna plans and executes an important operation without anyone realizing she's behind it.
• I want a scene where Asuna confronts Manato about the dangers of his plan.
• I want a scene where Asuna learns more about Satori.
• I want Asuna's supreme confidence in her ability to manipulate people to take a serious blow when she gets steamrolled by a social Celestial. Intellectually she knows Anathema are scary but she doesn't viscerally understand it's a lot more than their ability to stab you really well. Inability to read someone else, or worse, being made to care about someone else when she doesn't know if they care about her, will really do a number on her, and possibly inspire some self reflection on her abusive behaviour. Or just make her really angry.
• I want Asuna to demonstrate her value by learning something important about one or more of the Anathema leading the invasion. Through her spy network, by personally joining the refugee stream to spy on the enemy camp, by being captured by the enemy, etc.
• I want someone to try to capture Asuna so she can exploit her carefully cultivated reputation for being personally nonthreatening to try (and quite possibly fail) to turn the tables by surprising them with White Veil and poison to capture them in turn.
• If one or more Hearthmates are killed and the city falls, I want Asuna to become the Batman terrorizing the regime in the night.
• etc

Spoiler: Maja's flags might be

• I want Maja to have a scene where she goes berserk and is horrified by the consequences, then someone comforts her or helps her come to terms with it.
• I want Maja to have a cute romantic scene with Kuiadao.
• I want a scene where Maja's rage at the Realm from her last incarnation conflicts with her empathy and fear of killing.
• I want Maja to have someone help her come to terms with her Exaltation. (Temple of one of Luna's aspects? Shahan-Ya? Something else?)
• I want Maja to have a scene where someone teaches her to act like a proper Dynast.
• I want Maja to have a scene where she tricks a group of people into thinking she's an easy mark, then learns to play - and cheat at - games of chance to take them for everything they have.
• I want Maja to have a scene where she learns to pickpocket by making a game/competition out of it with someone else.
• I want Maja to participate in a con with someone else.
• I want Maja to lead an expedition to find an important lost site and recover something of significant value either to her people or Kuiadao.
• etc

Spoiler: Compels

I think Limit is largely a failure as a mechanic for driving drama and tension in Exalted 2e/3e, as the Storyteller often has to push really hard to get players to significantly violate their intimacies, or aggressively push NPC social influence to generate consequential amounts of Limit, and Limit Breaks themselves are often too large, nebulous, and narratively cumbersome instead of being fun and dramatic. I went in search of a mechanic that could supplement it and settled on Compels from Fate Core.

At any time anyone can propose a Compel for another character. Compels add a dramatic twist to a situation that will cause problems either immediately or going forward, but they do not directly stymie or undo the successes of other players. They should directly reference some important aspect of the target character (A strong Intimacy, a Limit Trigger, or an explicitly stated Aspect are all good examples), and it's up to the player of that character to decide first if they believe the Compel fits their character and second if they accept or reject the Compel. If they determine the Compel doesn't fit their character by citing an aspect that's at least as strong as the one used to support the Compel there's no cost to decline - it simply doesn't fit the character they envisioned. If the Compel fits, then accepting yields 2 Special XP and either a Fate Point or a WP and the Compel comes to pass. To decline they must spend a Willpower or a Fate Point, and they gain three dice of Limit. For example:

• You succeed at winning over the King with your display of hunting prowess and your victory in the impromptu drinking competition you started, but you were 'Raised by Wolves', so unfortunately you do it at the expense of several powerful members of his court who you humiliated and made off-colour jokes about. The King ate it up, but you've made some powerful enemies today.
• You pick the lock and escape, but you 'Love the Finer Things in Life' and you can't resist going back for that jewelled sculpture. Now the guards are hot on your heels, and one of them got a good look at you.
• You've subdued your nemesis and secured the gem with the temple collapsing around you, but you're a 'True Hero' and you believe 'Everyone Deserves a Second Chance' so you can't just leave them there where they might die. You'll have to take them with you.
• You're a 'Lovable Rogue', so it's unfortunate but of course just as you're about to get the city god to buy into your latest con one of your old partners shows up looking to get back at you for that time you had a little bit of difficulty splitting the loot.

You can retroactively request a Self-Compel if you realize you've roleplayed yourself into a sticky situation by playing one of your character's Aspects or powerful Intimacies to the hilt. If approved you get the rewards as normal.

Spoiler: Narrative Bounties

Major narrative goals will require a certain set of obstacles be overcome, and overcoming obstacles will give everyone 3 regular XP, regardless of whether they contributed or even which side they're on. I'll post some possible goals with some mix of obvious and to-be-discovered obstacles, but you can also propose a major narrative goal. We can work together on the obstacles for your goal. Each obstacle will require a certain number of points to overcome, and how you score those points is up to you. Any player can propose how they want to make progress towards overcoming an obstacle, and I'll tell you how impactful and risky the proposal is. The more impactful the more points it will accumulate towards overcoming the obstacle. The riskier it is the graver the consequences for failure - or in some cases even for success. You can always call for a scene where you investigate one of the mystery obstacles to try to discover it.

Example Goal: Start a revolution in the city of Beit Alaha against the Ur-Pharoah's appointed Suzerain.

1. The Legions in the fields.
2. Legitimize the coup.
3. The newly established Hetshepsite nobility.
4. Control of the courthouse, granaries, Suzerain’s palace, Great Chamber, and garrisons.
5. The Ea-Abzu Sand Navy.
6. Ea-Abzu military reinforcements from upriver.
7. The Suzerain’s War Sphinxes.
8. The Pharaohnic cults and their Vessels.
9. The local aristocracy.
10. ???
11. ???

Sometimes a goal will be actively opposed. NPCs or even other players may be working to overcome obstacles that represent your advantages. In that case it might be a race to see who can fulfill their objectives first, or win a net number of objectives.

Spoiler: Conflict

Combat in Exalted 3e is big and heavy. I will never call for Join Battle unless there is something significant at stake, but you as a player can roll Join Battle any time you'd like to use the combat system to resolve something. If there's something significant at stake and you find yourself losing you can always Concede. If you Concede you've lost the conflict, the stakes go the way your opponents dictate, but you can dictate how you exit the conflict, and as it isn't a total loss you may be able to inconvenience or mitigate your opponents victory in some way. If you Concede you gain a Fate Point to help you make your comeback.

If the fight doesn't have anything major at stake and you don't want to go full on Join Battle then I may just call for a few Clash attacks or another competitive roll-off to decide who wins. Obviously if it's your Dawn against a handful of mortal thugs you simply narrate how you crush them.

Spoiler: Holding

In an effort to reduce deadlock and keep the game flowing, I'll ask that you put either Hold or Pass at the end of any post. Hold indicates you have more you want to accomplish in a scene and don't want events to move forward yet. If you don't have time to write a post or don't have anything your character wants to accomplish or establish in the scene, a post with nothing but Hold (to be filled in later) or Pass is fine. If no one has a Hold on their last post, or everyone has an explicit Pass, I'll assume it's safe to move on to the next major event or scene. If I have a Hold in a post it indicates something narratively significant is still going to happen this scene, so leaving now may cause you to be absent for something important.

 

[Random Word]

So maybe Erembour remains a creation hating demon

Spoiler: Stuff about Erembour

I'd like to point out a few things about demons. First off: As far as I'm concerned Demons don't hate Creation. They love it. It's theirs, they built it from nothing, and they didn't fuck up and accidentally build something they hated. They want it back. There are a few problems for the mortals living in Creation, though.

Firstly, they want revenge on the traitorous Gods and their Exalted servants and they're not particularly concerned with whether they destroy Creation in the process of getting said revenge, because they can just build it again if they have to, but better this time, with more blackjack and hookers.

Secondly, they don't tend to run free in Creation all at the same time, and Creation was only really held in balance by all of them exerting their natures upon it simultaneously plus the Gods patching up all the things they broke. One powerful demon free in Creation can't help but give free reign to their urges and impose their nature upon everything they can. Usually this is the part where things go seriously wrong for humans.

It is Erembour's nature to be the life of the party, but it's a really rowdy punk rock party because the darkness welcomes everyone, especially those rejected by 'civilized' society. It's a party for monsters and outcasts and iconoclasts, and someone is definitely getting stabbed to death in the mosh pit, someone will steal your wallet, someone will pull you into a powerful occult ritual and you'll have a profound spiritual experience, you'll uncover dark and terrible secrets about things you thought sacred, you'll have the most mind blowing sex you've ever had with someone you just met and might never see again, but above all you definitely won't leave the party unchanged, especially if you weren't already an outcast. She is Rage Against the Machine and she revels in the collapse of society and she wants you to revel in it too and because she wills it you'll have the best time of your life as it all burns down around you. Then the next night (or the final night, since there will be only one long night wherever she goes if she's free) she wants you to do it all again, and she gives no fucks about your hangover or your injuries. You'll pick yourself up, dust off the ashes, and find somewhere new to party so hard there's nothing but ashes left by the end.

You can see why she's a bit problematic when left to her own devices completely unchecked. She's not evil any more than any Demon is really evil, but she is extreme and alien and probably not someone you want to leave unsupervised. If Ligier is here to ensure she can't bring endless night (and how she hates him for it), and the emanantions of Cecelyne and She Who Lives in Her Name and even Kimbery are here to rigidly, brutally, lovingly, tenderly hold society together against the ravages of her celebratory destruction, then things start to balance out just a little bit. There are still local extremes where one of them focuses their attention and the others are busy elsewhere (and thus the many messes the Gods had to clean up), but on the whole the system functions.

Spoiler: Stuff about Demons in general

Another point worth making: Demonology is a much more obscure subject in 3e than it was in 2e. The name 'Yozis' as a classification, even the idea that demons are emanations of their souls, is the sort of information reserved for those with 5 dots of Occult or a specialty in Demonology. Everyone knows Demons exist, but for your average person 'Demon' is just the word for any spirit that does something that harms them, or appears frightening. The distinction between the different kinds of Spirits is mostly:

Does it do something useful for me when I pray to it? Then it must be a God. Be respectful and make offerings.
Is it inscrutable but generally ignores me and mine and goes about its odd business without harming me? Spirit, or if very well educated and seems to have elemental themes, Elemental. Avoid it like the plague, and maybe try making offerings to make sure it stays away.
Out to get me, or looks frightening? Demon. Run screaming, and definitely make offerings to try to make it stay away if you survive.
Clearly dead? Dead. If it's your ancestor, you might treat them like a God, or help them let go and reincarnate. If it isn't, it probably wants to eat you, so treat it like a Demon.

No one has summoned a Third Circle Demon into Creation since Bagrash Kol was fucking around with the Eye of Autochthon like 500 years ago. The name Erembour - let alone the Ebon Dragon - is lost to the libraries of Heaven, Hell, the Underworld, the memories of immortal beings like Gods and Fae, and the secret collections of the most powerful Sorcerers and Savants in Creation. Dynasts, as a general rule, don't travel to Malfeas very often, but they can at least summon First Circle Demons and ask them questions, so they have some limited understanding of the nature of Malfeas and its denizens in addition to the texts that survive in their best libraries and the things the Sidereals bother to teach them. They understand Malfeas in the same way you might understand the inner workings of a government if you could summon a random unimportant citizen and ask them questions. Sorcerers have a bad habit of hoarding knowledge, so even most well educated people in Creation know next to nothing about Demons except perhaps how to kill or ward off/placate some of those most frequently found in Creation. To learn the true name of a new Demon is a big deal because that opens up the possibility of summoning it, so that kind of information is jealously guarded.

Since a non favored charm costs 10 xp, would it be reasonable to trade in a slot for a starting charm for two 2dot thaumaturgy spells?

Yes, that sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

Also! Would the Resplendent Amulet that we have been using in other games be allowed here?

Probably - what's it do again? It's Sailor Moon's costume wand?

Can I use MA as the required skill for being able to purchase these Charms, or do I need to go ahead and raise up my Melee before I pick them up?

Oooh, interesting. The first of those two Charms would make a good Evocation for Beloved Adorei. The latter however is almost certain to dismay and upset her. Being banished from your side to Elsewhere would be quite the punishment, so probably not one of her Evocations. It doesn't really fit the themes of Single Point, either. For Summoning the Loyal Steel you'd need the dots of Melee, and it will probably make your sword mad at you unless you obviously need to do it, but Call the Blade you can just buy as an Evocation. Oh, but a refluff of Summoning the Loyal Steel could make a good Evocation for Beloved Adorei, having her conceal herself as something less threatening and considerably smaller instead of being banished to Elsewhere. Say she transforms into an amulet or a hair clip or something?

 

[Random Word]

John took the second breath in the back kitchen of Barker's Alley. It was a food war, a competition of pride between two professional cooks.

So the moment you Exalted half the city would of course be alerted by the iconic anima banner. You haven't abandoned your restaurant, so I think what had to have happened is a pair of Sorcerer-Princes from the Ministry of Integrity swept down minutes later Men in Black style and either bound anyone who personally witnessed you suddenly being surrounded in a burning nimbus of golden light to secrecy using Corrupted Words or engaged in some good old fashioned memory manipulation with Mists of Eventide and some dream manipulation techniques. At this point everyone knows what neighbourhood the new Solar exalted in, but not who it was. If they evacuate the neighbourhood they can later plausibly claim the Solar escaped before they could apprehend them when one of Neith's students comes knocking, and that they don't know who they are.

After damage control I imagine the agents sat down, let you finish cooking, enjoyed a superb meal, then invited you up into the tower for a chat about not what your government could do for you, but what you could do for your government, while politely alluding in roundabout manner to the consequences of not engaging enthusiastically with your civic duty.

Maybe they lean on Corrupted Words after the fact and politely allow the competition to finish first, so as not to mar your triumph?

 

[Random Word]

Hmm. Should I assume that being a Solar Exalted is frowned upon within the Principate?

Being a Solar is quite illegal, with the penalty being exile, but it's one of those really old laws that no one living has had to dust off in centuries, if ever given how rare Solars have been up to this point.
The legends say the Exigence of the Sun is like the Tetrachy's Exigence, but where their Exigence burns too brightly and consumes the bearer, the Sun's Exigence, like the sun itself, is so full of radiant glory it consumes everything its light touches. It cannot help but conquer everything it sees, and anything that won't submit will be reduced to ashes. The best solution is to hold a big feast to celebrate their ascension and then bribe them to go be someone else's problem. The average Sassarin citizen thinks of Sun-Chosen as an exciting or fascinating curiosity to be ogled and gossiped about before handing them off to a Sorcerer-Prince who can properly treat with them. Like any dangerous god or spirit, the goal is to find a way to convince them to leave you alone without angering them. They're really a human-shaped often very charming natural disaster.

With the re-emergence of the Solars, and news of Solars doing dramatic things all over Creation trickling in, the authorities in the know have dusted off the old crisis management plans for Solars and updated them. The question now is whether to disregard the old legends as mere superstition or trust them. To conceal a new Solar and try to control them, or exile them to avoid the serious risk they can't be controlled and reprisals from the Lady of the Forest should their deceit be revealed.

Your average citizen has by now heard stories about Solar conquerors like the Bull in the North and his barbarian hordes and the revolutionaries in Jiara, and these fit the legends they've always been taught.

Religious tolerance means there are a handful of Immaculate temples, but they're very much a minority faith, and the Realm is forbidden from sending Dragonblooded monks to staff them. The Immaculate missionaries have had the most success amongst the helots with both their charity work and the message that through living a virtuous life they can reincarnate to a better future.

2. How would the region view Hazels inhuman appearance? Such as their thoughts on beastmen and wyld mutants. Hazel will be bundled up regardless, to try and hide most of her features. Big floppy hat, high collared cloak, and scarf.

There are communities of Sobeki (Crocodile-people) and Wadjeti (Snake-people) who are well respected. Lion-people are most closely associated with the Raksha who stalk the dunes. They're a persistent deadly threat, but Hazel looks more like a housecat than a lion, so I think it's a bit of a tossup how people will react to her appearance. The more traumatic exposure they've had to Raksha the more likely they are to react negatively.

However you did mention her shadow taking a strange and horrifying shape. So how would that affect her as well?

Yes, Erembour will make your shadow monstrous when it's cast by the light of the Sun or Ligier, which will prompt most anyone who sees you to think you're either a spirit of some kind or a sorcerer. Sorcerers often have weird phenomena like that follow them around. I don't know how you intend to enter Achaea, but if you just walk up to the gates of a Sassarin city on foot and request entry they'll send a Sorcerer-Prince out to assess exactly what you are and what you want. If you walk up to an Ea-Abzean city they'll send a Vessel out to do the same. Handling your visa application is clearly above the pay grade of your average gate captain. Sorcerers will be received positively in Sassarin, and with some suspicion in Ea-Abzu.

If you travel by palanquin, wagon, howdah, etc then you can stay out of the light of the sun and so conceal your shadow.

Do you want to already have entered a city and established a life? Or perhaps you skipped the cities entirely and just travel through the wilderness? Once you decide where you're going and why we can either have your first scene be your arrival if it's going to be an interesting moment like applying to enter a city, or we can just skip to your destination if you'd prefer.

 

[Random Word]

I'd like to look at options outside of the principate.

Sounds good. I'm sure we can come up with something to your liking and add it in somewhere.

Using the Faqari as an example, what would the geography within the area of its influence look like? Size or scale? Architecture? I know primarily the Faqari seem to trade in valuable metals, any major crops? If it is a decent fit, it'd probably be most convenient to have Barker's Alley within their borders for getting the circle together.

The Faqari are broadly divided into nomadic and settled clans, with the former living most of their lives aboard sandships and townships, and the latter settling in the oases that dot the desert away from the floodplains. The settlements are often Petra-style, carved deep into the rocks around life-sustaining demenses, manses, or upwellings from large aquifers both natural and man made. This shields them from sandstorms and makes them easily defensible against Raksha. Open sources of water with no protection from enemies and the elements don't tend to support permanent settlements for long.

There is little room for crops, so they primarily act as trade and resupply hubs, but they also send their own expeditions out to nearby sites when they're uncovered by the shifting sands to supplement their economies, and some have turned the unique properties of the manse or demesne they're built around into a valuable industry (The famous Singing Stones of Ushan, beloved of spies, artists, and performers of all kinds; the domesticated flock of Simurgh in the Aviary of Alborz prized by connoisseurs across the South both for their meat and as luxury pets; the cleansing firewater of Bizra used both in unique spirits and the cauterizing and disinfecting of wounds and surgical implements, etc). They can also serve as shipwrights, temples, neutral meeting places between clans, and entertainment districts. The Faqari are very resourceful and inventive by necessity given the very hostile environment in which they live. They have an unusually large array of old artifacts they've put to all sorts of creative purposes to survive.

I'd say most of these settlements are not more than a few tens of thousands of people. The very largest, supported by one or several potent life giving manses or demesnes, might number several hundred thousand souls.

Oh yes, and I remember a question about languages. Predominantly Flametongue with many regional dialects. Sometimes business might be conducted in Riverspeak, Guild Cant, or even High Realm for the benefit of foreign clientele, but every local will speak at least a few flavours of Flametongue.

Without binding as if summoned. How much control does Hazel have over Erembour? And how safe is Hazel in her own head or in her dreams?

One common theme from stories like this is a mechanism to 'punish' the bound evil. You can coerce them into doing most anything you want when you absolutely need to, but the more you rely on dispensing punishment to get your way the more you sour the relationship, and the more grudging their help. Push too far and they'll rebel. Erembour is imprisoned inside you, but the ritual was never meant to seal her inside a person, and the binding is imperfect. It binds her mind (intellect, memories, etc) as much as her power, so she spends a lot of the day sleeping to husband her strength to fight the bonds when she's conscious. She doesn't enjoy thinking with a hobbled mind. Her dreams play out in your shadow, making it monstrous. While conscious, with considerable effort she can perceive and act upon the world around you. When you die she'll be sent back to Malfeas, but while you're alive she may yet figure out how to slip her bonds and go free, so she has a vested interest in keeping you alive. It is her nature as an emanation of the Ebon Dragon to escape all prisons - eventually. Nothing says she can do it quickly. This also avoids your one year time limit problem, unless you liked that aspect.

In the meantime, if you concentrate very hard you can fully bind her for a scene (at a cost of 1 WP and a -2 penalty to anything that requires concentration. That makes your shadow return to normal among other things.). You can also impose a punishment, the nature of which I can devise or you can offer suggestions, at will. Likely triggered by a spoken phrase or incantation. It's both deeply unpleasant and disruptive (super spray bottle for the cat), so it can be used to interrupt whatever she's doing. Similarly, for 1 WP you can temporarily weaken the bindings that hold her, giving her a much greater capacity to act for one scene.