It helps to understand the battlefield as a living thing when you are campaigning in a field. Scouts, Assassins, Thieves—these are your diag
It helps to understand the battlefield as a living thing when you are campaigning in a field.
Scouts, Assassins, Thieves—these are your diagnosticians. These are your first resorts. They are the ones you deploy to properly understand the conditions of the battlegrounds, the environment, what is hidden, and what is seen. More ...
2025-07-24 09:17:03 +0000 UTC
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I bring my wife, Zein, to diplomatic occasions because she is my finest diplomatic tool. She and Naeko are my most effective instruments, for true diplomacy always carries a final, unspoken message: accept this handshake, or it will be forced upon you in steel.
My wife has killed more people than I could count in seven lifetimes. That history lends her immense power now, in peace, because she was so brutal in war. Is this a good thing? I cannot say. All I know is that her p...
2025-07-23 19:00:08 +0000 UTC
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What happens in the Halls of Highest Power? What happens beyond Preceptor's Descent? What do the Princes, Princesses, Kings, and Queens scheme about?
Ha! Nothing! Nothing particularly interesting, my dear children. Nothing, my dear sinner. Nothing at all. Nothing to me.
Let me explain this to you. When you gain great power, you will suddenly feel a rush. A rush as you realize, "I can destroy a building." No, "I can destroy a continent." No, "I can burn a worl...
2025-07-23 18:38:08 +0000 UTC
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Let me tell you something, Sijik. I hate Roland Arrow. I hated him since the first time I laid eyes on him. I hated him when we were in the
Let me tell you something, Sijik. I hate Roland Arrow. I hated him since the first time I laid eyes on him. I hated him when we were in the same class. I hated him every time he humiliated me during sparring. He humiliated me during small group battles. He humiliated me during the mock war engagements we waged over and over again.
2025-07-23 18:06:09 +0000 UTC
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Team and armies have a breaking point, just like individual Pathbearers. That breaking point is variable. It depends on a hell of a lot of t
Team and armies have a breaking point, just like individual Pathbearers. That breaking point is variable. It depends on a hell of a lot of things, such as how long a group has known each other, how dire the situation is, if any of them are already dead, and what not.
See, a good team of Pathbearers can keep itself standing,...
2025-07-23 13:29:58 +0000 UTC
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Get up, Adam. Get up. You're not done. You're not done until you beat me. And look at me. You can do it. With your team. With the people by
Get up, Adam. Get up. You're not done. You're not done until you beat me.
And look at me. You can do it. With your team. With the people by your side, you can do it. It doesn't matter that I'm a master tier. You're an adept. Look at me. Don't look away. Never look away from your enemy.
Don’t look away. I am proud ...
2025-07-22 18:54:25 +0000 UTC
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I like to think of most Pathbearers as puzzles to solve. It's an effective way of thinking about dealing with enemies that aren’t like you.
I like to think of most Pathbearers as puzzles to solve. It's an effective way of thinking about dealing with enemies that aren’t like you. Usually, you win because you’re outright more powerful, you got a skill they can’t counter, you have a good plan or better strategy, or—and this is my favorite—you learn to use the skills you hav...
2025-07-22 12:47:44 +0000 UTC
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—Confidential— [Ambient Mana Recognized — Incoming Message from Inquisitor-Master Sijik] Oldsmith. If the situation at Gate Theborn is truly
—Confidential—
[Ambient Mana Recognized — Incoming Message from Inquisitor-Master Sijik]
Oldsmith. If the situation at Gate Theborn is truly as dire as you claim, then you have my full authority and permission to extract. Make sure the other Inquisitors are aware of this as well—and ma...
2025-07-21 18:45:45 +0000 UTC
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There is a slight benefit to living in a low-trust society. The thing about living in a low-trust society is that the people there also hate each other, so you can always rely on them to betray each other. And if you have something everyone wants, if you have something to offer that everyone needs, well, one of them might just come to you.
And another thing: consider a bastard, consider a terrible person, consider an individual who is wretched above all, yet they are self-i...
2025-07-21 16:29:50 +0000 UTC
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Deathstalker Perspicacity Pricelles 2 reporting in to Siege Force Main. Observation post SC102 at Old Santabarb reports no abnormal activity
Deathstalker Perspicacity Pricelles 2 reporting in to Siege Force Main. Observation post SC102 at Old Santabarb reports no abnormal activity. However, the Gate Theborn surface portal remains inactive. It has been approximately a full day since anyone has entered or exited said portal.
Additionally, a wing of aerial patro...
2025-07-21 09:57:16 +0000 UTC
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The way I look at revenge is the same way I look at replacing a lost limb. You lost the arm. Yeah, that happened. It's never coming back. The same arm is not coming back. You're going to need to accept that. Now, different people have different grieving processes. Also, some people don't need to grieve altogether. Some people shoot all the way to kill the bastards that took my arm, murder their families, and they're A-OK afterward. That's fine. If you're one of those people, this talk isn...
2025-07-21 03:23:31 +0000 UTC
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Scouts are the eyes, nose, tongue, ears, mouth, skin—everything that relates to the senses for an army. No scouts means that you're fighting
Scouts are the eyes, nose, tongue, ears, mouth, skin—everything that relates to the senses for an army.
No scouts means that you're fighting blind, that you're just a mass of firepower stumbling around in the general direction in which you're supposed to march. No scouts means that someone's going to slit your arteries while ...
2025-07-20 17:27:59 +0000 UTC
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You will not become a true Pathbearer if you're afraid of taking risks, if you're afraid of doing new things, if you're afraid of developing
You will not become a true Pathbearer if you're afraid of taking risks, if you're afraid of doing new things, if you're afraid of developing yourself. You cannot let yourself go stagnant. But part of that is recovery. Part of that is having new experiences. Part of that is learning new things. Talk to people. Sink into the world. Immerse yourse...
2025-07-20 13:58:34 +0000 UTC
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Sometimes, you don’t need to actually kill or hurt someone to get what you want. Sometimes, a few threats, a bit of charm, and some bribery
Sometimes, you don’t need to actually kill or hurt someone to get what you want. Sometimes, a few threats, a bit of charm, and some bribery can go a long way…
-Memoirs of a Master-Tier War Mage
III-15
Persuasion
Exalted Mother Null Mont stared at the Court Leviathan hovering just over the Abyssal Gatew...
2025-07-19 20:10:48 +0000 UTC
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It's not enough. It will never be enough. Look at me, Naeko. Gaze into my eyes and heed my words, for you know them to be true. You know them to be true, despite the pain it brings you. It will never be enough. You can continue torturing that woman like she is your personal doll, that she is your personal effigy of pain, and it will not be enough.
I'm not telling you to stop. I cannot judge you for what you have done. I do not know your pain; of all the things I know about ...
2025-07-19 15:28:48 +0000 UTC
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Your equipment is going to break. Your weapons are going to break. Your armor is going to break. This is inevitable. If you are a martial Pa
Your equipment is going to break. Your weapons are going to break. Your armor is going to break.
This is inevitable. If you are a martial Pathbearer operating in the field, you will break things. The stresses and rigors of active conflict will press your weapons and equipment to the very limit. Even Master-Tier weapons have a bre...
2025-07-19 11:40:47 +0000 UTC
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Repeat that. Say that again. Say it. Keep your straight face and say it to me. Say “someone killed an entire court of our descendants and st
Repeat that.
Say that again. Say it. Keep your straight face and say it to me.
Say “someone killed an entire court of our descendants and stole our Court Leviathan” again! Do it! Do it you rat piece of shit! You come to me on this day of siring to spit these… these festering jokes at me? These stupid, stupi...
2025-07-18 19:23:39 +0000 UTC
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Sometimes, the solution to your problem will deliver itself to your door. Well, a solution wrapped in the form of a problem, most often.
Let me tell you a story.
One time, I was supposed to escort this guy across a war-torn realm. Real shithole of the world, sub-20 levels of essence. So, everyone there was barely more than just a mundane back at home. Now, everyone there but me. That made me stick out like a sore thumb.
So, you might think this...
2025-07-18 15:14:53 +0000 UTC
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The beautiful thing about all biology is mutation; the transformation is synthesization. Everything can be something else, all can be true,
The beautiful thing about all biology is mutation; the transformation is synthesization. Everything can be something else, all can be true, and all can change. When flesh tears, it is not absolute. It can be regenerated, and yet all things have the capacity for regeneration, though some bodies need to be taught such things.
Now wa...
2025-07-17 19:01:22 +0000 UTC
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It is beautiful how the smallest thing can bring down a giant. Consider how minute a virus is, how delightful, how delicate. A slight chang
It is beautiful how the smallest thing can bring down a giant.
Consider how minute a virus is, how delightful, how delicate. A slight change in temperature could kill it so easily, a slight shift in the way your biology works might see it crushed dead by the white cells in your blood. So vulnerable, so deadly.
...
2025-07-17 12:31:40 +0000 UTC
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Thanks to the gifts offered to them by the Lineage Cores and the malleable and ever-enduring nature of their bodies, the embraced of the First Blood are unfettered from consequence, free to use their bodies as a canvas, the blood as paint, their very foundational biology as a means to discover the great mysteries of what life can be. And that is the truest gift the Lineage Core has given them: discovery without consequence. Discovery with consequences for all other people who are not them...
2025-07-16 18:41:25 +0000 UTC
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What can we say about Greatest, Prince of Pride? What can we say that doesn't end with "asshole," "bastard," "won't take no for an answer"? He can sew up his own ass—that is a skill. His asshole literally has a singularity inside of it. He has a remarkable amount of skills related to assholes. He could telekinetically move a person using their asshole, or more importantly, he could literally emerge out of your asshole. This man has an ass fixation, alright?
He technically...
2025-07-16 17:00:24 +0000 UTC
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So, here's the thing about killing Heroes. It's hard, they're very destructive, but it can be done. It can be done if you get about a hundred masters together on average. A hundred masters with a hundred varied skills, and that's usually the metric.
And it's the "varied skills" part that matters the most, for you see, if you're gonna be fighting a Hero, you don't want to be slamming into them where they're already powerful. If a Hero is fast, you're gonna want to ambush the...
2025-07-16 13:06:45 +0000 UTC
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Becoming a vampire means immortality, but it is not your immortality alone. Rather, with every lineage core spread, from those who sired vampires before you, to the one that sired you, to the one you will sire, your entire line grows stronger. Your skills collectively advance, and you can gaze through each other. You can draw upon your lesser's power and lend yours in aid to those above and those senior.
This is what the First Blood will tell you, but the First Blood lies. ...
2025-07-15 18:56:12 +0000 UTC
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And as for this next song, I call it, "There Is No End." Because there is no end. There is no end to the depravity, there is no end to the degeneracy, there is no end to the blood they will spill. Our blood, your parents' blood, your brother's blood, your children's blood. There is no end. There is no end to what they want. There is no end to their greed, their gluttony, their lust. There is no end for their desire to control every aspect of the world. There is no end to their determinati...
2025-07-15 16:34:12 +0000 UTC
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I'm starting to think that you need to be a pretty good Biomancer to achieve the best kind of cooking possible. I can't believe how effective Biomancy is at making my cooking better. I can tell the quality of meat without even really getting into the nitty-gritty shit, uh…
I don't need to cut it open, I don't need to prod it in parts, I don't need to look at it. I can just feel it. That, and I can start manipulating organic tissue. I can tell just exactly how ...
2025-07-15 09:32:21 +0000 UTC
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Mixing different ingredients and methods of preparing them also modifies the effects you can gain from a specific dish. Let’s go back to the basilisk. Because the basilisk is a pretty cool creature. Ican cook it straight and eat it straight. Usually, that’ll just kill someone who isn’t Master-Tier Toughness if I don’t prepare it right—the venom glands it has are very interesting. As is its venom projection mechanism. I got into the—
Okay. That’s for the Bioman...
2025-07-14 19:06:08 +0000 UTC
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Politics is the act of getting what you want through whatever means, including war, but whatever means without saying truly what you want. Politics is getting your enemy to betray themselves. Politics is waving a stick and going "nice doggie" at someone, and masking your insult so they don't take offense, or making your insult deliberate so they do take offense, and they come charging at you like a raging bull, lost of all sense. Politics is romance, deception, and brutality mingled into ...
2025-07-14 17:16:16 +0000 UTC
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Alright, this book of recipes is more than just about taste, ingredients, and the monsters you can kill to find them—or well, the plants and other stuff you can forage, but not as fun as monster killing anyway, at least in my opinion.
Thanks to The Chef Unwavering, what I've basically discovered is that when you prepare dishes that are made from specific creatures and… well, maybe in a variety of different ways you can get different effects, and it can be pretty interes...
2025-07-14 10:35:24 +0000 UTC
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Practically every Pathbearer knows that breaking something is easy, but building it back up, or even just making something new, is harder than hell. I appreciate this more than anyone else because even though I am a war mage, most of what I do is build, is reinforce. See, I love fortresses. I love building structures, making architecture. I would have done that as my life's dream if things didn’t go to hell. Alas, I will have to settle with the consolation prize of making the greatest f...
2025-07-13 16:16:46 +0000 UTC
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