The creatures that thrive the most in the Claimed Hells are sadists. There is no delusion about this. Everyone knows. But what people miss is that there are two kinds of sadists. Well, more than two, but two predominantly, determined by how they use their cruelty and why.
The first is your run-of-the-mill sadist. They are emotional. They hurt people to nourish their own feelings. They hurt people because there’s something missing in them, or becau...
2024-12-12 17:44:52 +0000 UTC
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{Fucking called it. “My daughter is prepared to deal with any adversary—” Yes. Truly. The post-divine cognitive assimilator is just any adversary. You threw your daughter at a problem that would have eaten you and the rest of Highflame even if you joined in this battle, you mongrel ape—you failed fucking abortion.
This. This is what I warned Veylis about. Tyranny is comfortable and easy when you are exalted beyond the lessers of your kind… but you quickly realize ...
2024-12-11 18:56:17 +0000 UTC
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With all things considered equal, a lonesome duelist cannot slay an army, at least not an army worth its steel. Sometimes fools will try to deny such limitations. Heroes are often just fools that succeed.
But, ah, if you wish to be a true legend, then you must forge your own miracles. You must wed opportunity with your capabilities.
Naeko, I have trained you well all these years. There are few people in the world who can match you blow-to-blow, skill-to-skill...
2024-12-10 19:06:44 +0000 UTC
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Every Guild has their own philosophy to combat, their own strengths, capabilities, logistical weaknesses, and oversights. But there is one consistency between all guilds: At the core of every army is a Godclad cadre or a Knot of golems. For all the ordinance that every battle platform can deliver. For the encompassing control that drone swarms allow and the ground, any tree can hold.
We fight over the fabric of reality. We define the laws of reality. And it is upon th...
2024-12-09 19:01:33 +0000 UTC
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What do you mean the boy is fighting Many-wed? He just got to Preceptor’s Descent. It’s barely been a day—what do you mean people are betting in his favor? And he’s finished the Lodge? Those Hollowborn fools tried to assassinate him?
I—Get Mulver down there! Now! Tell him to protect the investment at all—Ah, never mind. I’m going myself.
-Message from The Old Man, Count of Pride
II-34
Humiliation (III)
Class Level > 83
2024-12-09 10:46:29 +0000 UTC
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By the Harbinger’s cock, I think we have a new contender for Warmaster rising before us.
Do I actually think that? Motherfucker, watch my logs. When’s the last time something like this happened?
Fuck me, the Circle of Envy is going to be seething. I love to see it.
-Message Sent by Frostfinger, Correspondent for The Left-Hand Post
II-33
Humiliation (II)
Entering a fight in the Bloodgrounds was surprisingly easy. All Wei needed t...
2024-12-08 17:51:02 +0000 UTC
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Many-Wed. Now there’s a piece of work. And that’s saying something considering what I do. Selling guns is one thing, but kidnapping kids from their families and forcing them to be “bound” to you? That’s a special kind of low. Don’t matter if her Class requires it.
And then there’s what she does to them, how she tortures them with that Corrosive Song of hers…
Yeah. Can’t wait to see her get what’s coming.
-Hogslave, Knight of Gre...
2024-12-07 13:55:15 +0000 UTC
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“Came expecting a bloody grudge match that would end in heroic triumph or brutal tragedy. Ended up getting front-row seats to the birth of a new icon in the Claimed Hells.
Worth every fucking Sin.”
-Review of Night at the Bloodgrounds: Silt v Sage
II-31
Taking a Name (V)
Failed to resist (Flabbergasted) with Aspect of (Ambition)
The Sage begged. The Sage sobbed. The Sage pissed himself while clinging to Wei’...
2024-12-06 10:03:49 +0000 UTC
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In the case where victory is impossible, your duty is to make killing you very, very costly. Highflame devoted a lot of imps to seeing you all made good soldiers, so you’re not allowed to die until you inflict ten-times your loss in market value.
Is what a glassjaw would say. Orphans, I’ll put it plainly: If your death doesn’t cost the complete collapse of an enemy company, I will posthumously strike you from the record. The same applies to me as well.
-Gua...
2024-12-05 12:34:33 +0000 UTC
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Oh, wonderful. The pet gorilla is loose again. I wonder how that happened. I wonder how.
Veylis, Veylis, Veylis… Sweet, dear girl, you might have all the implants and modifications, but there’s still too much ape in you. I told you we needed to take him from the board while we could. You even had the pathborn for it. But, ah, look now. Another fucking problem. One that I will fix while my entire “extended family” attempts to kill me.
…
2024-12-04 18:58:43 +0000 UTC
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+Holy mother of fuck, it’s coming down… he’s coming down—Cease fire! Cease FUCKING FIRE! ALL GODSDAMNED UNITS, CEASEFIRE BEFORE YOU GET—+
-Last Transmission of Glaive-Commander Ikkio (Ori-Thaum) of Massist Joint-Command CYCLEBURNER
32-5
Heavy Falls the Palm (I)
—[Glaive-Captain Setsun]—
Glaive Captain Satsu always had a feeling he’d die fighting the No-Dragons at some point. It was always ...
2024-12-03 19:08:02 +0000 UTC
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A breeze this moment; a hurricane thereafter.
-Ori Proverb
32-4
Peace Unchained
—[OBSERVER DESIGNATION ENDWATCHER]—
The highest point of New Vultun came apart as if it was an erupting volcano.
The rupture came first, forming like a crack upon the surface of reality; then came the vapors, gushing through the fissures despite the rends and instability. The tapestries trembled as a heavy mist built...
2024-12-02 12:14:03 +0000 UTC
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You can expect nothing and still be disappointed.
-Ancient Evernest Proverb.
II-30
Taking a Name (IV)
Wei's transition from the viewing platform to the Midnight Sage's training ground came amidst a swell of swirling Spatial Essence.
At once, another dimension expanded before him, spilling out in a rolling tide. His Omniscience grasped the entirety of his environment. Birds chirped. A vast, open view of dense greenery, spilli...
2024-12-01 19:21:54 +0000 UTC
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There are two theaters of battle being waged at the Bloodgrounds at all times.
The first is obvious: battles between duelists, challengers, and sinners who enter the Bloodgrounds to claim glory through violence.
The other, however, is far more insidious: the benefactors and patrons who use these warriors as tools for their own ends. There is great glory in possessing a Knight with immense promise, or displaying a Prince that can flatten entire continents. But...
2024-11-30 19:34:46 +0000 UTC
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For certain worlds that exist under more freeform Systems, it’s possible to reach a point where your Essence Level goes beyond what your System can support. Usually, these Systems also have an Essence ceiling as well. This might be because the world is meant to be a tranquil world leftover by the Antediluvians or a special observation realm to see how the locals develop based on the existing limitations.
Tied to the ceiling is an Ascension ritual: A means of tr...
2024-11-29 19:06:49 +0000 UTC
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LAST CHANCE TO RESERVE A SPECIAL SEAT AT THE CHERUB’S CORPSE BLOODGROUNDS.
10 challenges set by Mallageis, Count of Envy, and only one prize. Who will claim the Mirrored Helm? Find out for yourself. Sign the contract. Join the tourney. Risk your life to build a true legend, and rise beyond your station with an artifact without peer.
Or perhaps you are more connoisseur than gladiator. If so, watch the fights, with countless preliminarie...
2024-11-28 19:07:09 +0000 UTC
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Rescue ops are surgical, dangerous, and rarely worth it. Understand that if the enemy manages to capture one of you, you are expected to engineer your own escape or remove yourself from the equation by death or nulling to ensure no information can be extracted from your Metamind.
Again, we’re Regulars, juvs. We’re the batteries used and bullets spent; made for the killing and the dying. But not nearly valuable enough to be preserved. Not the most of us, anywa...
2024-11-28 11:45:27 +0000 UTC
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Two simple rules, Veylis: Never tell someone how they should feel, and never make them feel how you do not wish them to feel. Words are tools that can be used to convey information, but information is an imperfect virus for our true intentions, and man is an animal of baser impulse before rationality.
Always.
Master this, and you can shape anyone in the direction of your choosing.
-Jaus Avandaer
32-...
2024-11-27 11:24:08 +0000 UTC
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<<Wolfkin to Mirror. Something is happening.
The Stormtree forces I have been embedded with in Tafalis have… turned on each other. Everything is collapsing. All cohesion has been lost. The Bloodthanes are trying to respond, but I think they’re getting affected as well. I suspect that there might be a lingering memetic contagion—maybe something deployed by Noloth.
Or the Burning Dr—
[Sound of metal tearing]
2024-11-26 09:32:52 +0000 UTC
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Many more chapters coming soon. Have been improving the plotting process recently. This should result in higher-paced and better-quality chapter releases.
Also, free readers will be able to the currently available chapter and also potentially participate in some future story/brainstorming sneak-peeks...
2024-11-25 17:12:41 +0000 UTC
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Here’s a statement for all you miserable half-strands down in the Warrens: Yeah, you’re a piece of shit for what you did. Yeah, you should be punished for that. But it’s alright. It’s not too late. And you can do more than just wait for death
Don’t sit around and let life fuck you. Get hard. Get hard, and be who you are. Because you might not get a chance later.
And I’m not going to bullshit you. You proba...
2024-11-25 10:25:17 +0000 UTC
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One of the best perks about the Claimed Hells is how much real estate is available. People are always dying there—always—so things get vacant a lot. Furthermore, you can exercise some pretty interesting strategies to get people to sell to you.
Which is why I strongly recommend acquiring your first unit in the Claimed Hells. Let me explain.
You don't need to be there in person. What you can do is hire a local and h...
2024-11-24 14:43:50 +0000 UTC
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Alright, I just want to know one thing. How am I supposed to sell this place? Because if I don’t, I’m going to be fused here forever! Forever! I—I got cursed into being a literal demon-gate after being accused of theft! Why did they give me community service doing this? I hate sales! I hate it! I hate it!
This place is unsellable.
Not only did it used to be the Inheritor's local branch building or whatever—not only that, but most of their families are...
2024-11-23 17:53:33 +0000 UTC
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The Claimed Hells has no law
It’s more like an interconnected set of laws put in place by the Harbinger to make sure everyone doesn’t kill each other in the Heights, a sort of détente so you see. That’s why everyone gets a personal lawyer because they’re tuned into all the changes coming down from the top.
Sure, you can spend all your time keeping up with all the legal changes and new bills being drafted from the Kings of the Circles and the Ha...
2024-11-23 15:43:01 +0000 UTC
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The Fathoms. A place of infinite possibility, opportunity… and danger.
In the pursuit of nobler goals and higher profits, it is not uncommon for problems to arise; not unforeseen for stalemates to linger; not unexpected for setbacks to befall. But for every problem is a suite of solutions, and every impediment can be cleared with the application of proper persuasion.
It is toward the ideal of service and comfort that Whisper Resolution...
2024-11-22 18:30:06 +0000 UTC
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We had no idea what the Lodge had planned. And they had no idea what the kid wanted to do. And he had no idea about the queen’s actual state, about what Mepheleon was planning to do.
Don’t know… Shadow games… All that bullshit. That’s the way of the Claimed Hells.
But I’ll tell you this much: even if I did know, there wouldn’t have been a damn thing I could have done to stop him. Not a damn thing anyone below Duke could hav...
2024-11-21 14:55:16 +0000 UTC
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Listen, I know my enemies have no idea what I’m about to do, because I have no idea what I’m about to do.
That’s why I always win. Because I’m the master of motherfuck—
-Randi “Chaos” Randoni (Crucible Razorgirl) seconds before blowing herself and 22,353 other people up with her “mini-nuke nunchucks”
31-11
Concepts of a Plan
—[Mondelles]—
It took quite a bit...
2024-11-21 10:50:39 +0000 UTC
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You know how the best shot I ever knew died? Caught a cough during a No-Dragon blitz plague. Decided to forego wearing his rig on a trip to his local grafters. Another case: Skullpop, nova Necro and trauma-sequencer extraordinaire. Got done by his own cheapness—aero fell out of the sky because the “discounted mod-jobs” he kept having his cousin do resulted in the engine being overtaxed and the front half of the vehicle being too heavy.
Shit. Closest I came ...
2024-11-20 12:23:35 +0000 UTC
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“Have you ever regretted what you've done? What you made of your citizens?”
“This is not my sin, Dreamer. This is their choice. In all lives, we face tribulation, each a trial of our own. What makes of us, what becomes of us, that is born of our choice. You are a creature that desires choice above all, don’t you?”
“Yes. But they were shaped by yours. Your seeds. In them. In their failure. Their atrocities....
2024-11-19 10:33:21 +0000 UTC
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History is a blade that cuts both ways, no matter what lies we fill our autobiographies with. No matter what adjustments are made to the texts, a tangible effect has already shaped the world, deformed it, molded it. And the thing about lies?
They clash, they separate, they fragment. Because lies are born of man and gods, and of our many liars, they have one commonality. They disagree, because the lie serves one ego.
I tell you this now, sleeper. Yes, you are ...
2024-11-18 12:01:42 +0000 UTC
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