M’kyar is a ro
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Excellent chapter @Havenstone – thank you for the gift of your storytelling, and thank you for the inspirational motivation you gave me to write by pushing this live this past weekend. 
I have a lot to digest.
Right now, I won’t say anything other than my MCs I play all will be disappointed that one of their main allies, Cerlota, wants to set off what in the XoR world is a dirty bomb in the capital city of Shayard.
Even forcing her to pledge allegiance to me as leader will not deter her, I believe. I am not sure my MCs will be able to accept her if she insists on unleashing a chaos storm into the city.
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My understanding was that the goal would be drop the city ward rather than damage the city itself. I guess it wouldn’t necessarily turn off afterwards, but we know the ward deflects the energy for the border ones. Without a doubt some collateral damage is to be expected!
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As far it goes for that, since we know Xaos Storms can’t escape earth and the wards go infinitely high and below, we could either dig a tunnel to trap the storm in and have it ricochet against the ward multiple times to weaken it without it escaping into civilians or just fly up high enough that the storm would dissolve before reaching the city below it.
I can’t imagine it would be safe to do at anywhere near ground level without a mass evacuation effort of whatever part of the city has grown up around the ward edges. Mostly just the poorest parts. Which would also ruin a bit of the surprise if you had plans for after it drops.
Also just ambush the Theurges keeping the ward up/supplying it. Multiple second or third level Kyklos Theurges should be push overs right?
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Well this seems like the best place to ask.
What kind of characters are people taking into the Stormwright Demo?
If I know what people are playing, then (time permitting), I can write a minmaxed character build that people can use for import when the time comes!
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Devout, Shayard-loving charismatic aristo with an Olynna background who becomes an eclect is my favourite kind to play, ngl. I feel there is a very poetic connection to the fact the most ‘famous’ Shayardene historical figure we know of is a warrior-Queen.
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@Havenstone
Not sure if this overlaps with previously discussed bugs, but FYI, ran into a popup error attempting to trigger the following achievement, “Unseating the Chief: Claim a mount from the nomad chieftain. (10 points)”.
(Currently playing 2 COM Aristo MC FYI) The demo freezes when I pick either “knock Kylik off first” or “pretend to attack Kylik”, and the key pattern for each error popup is that my non-Yed companion (e.g. Suzanne, Ciels) is mentioned. The problem is present on both the iPhone mobile and Macbook browser versions of the demo.
And on another note, will there be a rewind button present for the demo? (for us to playtest choices/branches more efficiently, instead of always having to restart from scratch)
I’d like to talk to you about Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
What if Cerlota herself was previously the victim of a misinformation campaign, and is now trying to atone for her past ignorance, rather than deliberately acting as a present-day source of misinformation?
After all, a large theme of XoR’s history (concerning Theurges) is about the people in charge controlling who has (and doesn’t have) access to information.
Here’s my headcanon take for why Cerlota was so late to figure out the “disillusionment-inducing duplicity”: younger Cerlota’s Theurgic career (which probably didn’t extend past Erezza’s borders) was pretty much a sheltered life (in which Ilaria, Cerlota’s boss/close friend, actively worked to keep Cerlota trapped in a worldview of “blissful ignorance”/“rose-tinted glasses”).
It’s certainly possible that Cerlota and Ilaria’s hypothetical past relationship (as close friends/colleagues) meant that Cerlota implicitly trusted Ilaria (as her main source of information on the outside world), right?
(In the same fashion that real-life, busy/stressed out people (who don’t have time/energy/interest to comprehensively read newspaper articles about politics/world events) ask their friends for the abridged, Cliff Notes versions)
But whether by accident or design, one day, Ilaria’s coverup campaign fell apart, thus leading older Cerlota to finally figure out the duplicitous nature of the organization she worked for.
Though being a mage also comes with a lot of baggage/responsibility, too!
1- E.g. Cerlota will be inclined to part ways with INT MCs who aspire to be autocrats
2- In general, MCs can have lots of stress/angst deciding whether or not they should publicize their Theurgic abilities/potential (especially when MC has a lingering fear that they will be stoned as a Goete)
3- As previously discussed on the Rebels Uprising thread, the Thaumatarchy’s paranoia (of keeping a Theurgic knowledge a secret) is enough to to restrict a Theurge’s marriage options (and have said Theurge’s relatives under constant surveillance from Kryptasts)
Or if MC shows signs of wanting to build their own post-Hegemony magocracy.
Emphasis on the Nyr part?
Wouldn’t it be interesting if it turned out that Nyryal’s pre-Hegemony pagans (prior to becoming atheistic) worshipped Lovecraftian deities? (such as Nyarlathotep)
Harkening back to a past topic (in which ROs were mentioned to be attracted to both trans/cis versions of their preferred gender), when will MC (who was born a biological male, but has now achieved a “woman on the inside all along” self-revelation, per her discussions with Jev) be able to communicate her gender change to Cerlota?
(and then as a trans woman, MC finally initiates the romance subplot with Cerlota)
Compared to Jev (potentially being MC’s Game 2 source of inspiration for declaring themself nonbinary), who might be Phaedrx’s source of inspiration for becoming NB?
Did the Floating Palace have enough Nyrish tutors for Phaedrx to be exposed to such ideas, or did Phaedrx arrive at the NB self-revelation entirely on their own efforts?
And here I thought we thought a clever Game 2 opportunity for MC to get in early contact with Phaedra. 
(prior to Phaedra’s eventual/proper debut in Game 3)
And on a separate note, has Kleitos ever sent Phaedra to Grand Shayard (and the other capitals of the non-Karagon provinces) as his ambassador?
Or does Phaedra’s role as Kleitos’ heir mean that she’s contractually (and/or magically) stuck at the Floating Palace 24/7?
Considering that there’s been previous speculation that Olynna and Phaedra are part of the same “animal welfare” Hegemony splinter faction, Olynna returning in G3 and Phaedra’s debut in G3 is most likely NOT a coincidence, right?
Hopefully, our MCs will be able to evacuate our key allies from Grand Shayard in the nick of time! It would be a terrible waste for MC to spend all that time forging partnerships in Grand Shayard here and there (only for said partnerships to suddenly/literally go up in smoke).
Having taken inspiration from @roodcross’ “Female Homelander Arrogant Aristo, 2 COM, 1 CHA”, I’m importing Carmilla Sanguinar, a “Pragmatic, Bisexual, and (Maybe?) Tomboyish Female Warlord”.who also happens to be Devout and Ruthless.
(Though in comparison to Castlevania’s Carmilla (who has zero qualms betraying and murdering her way to the very top of the vampire food chain), I would like to think that XoR Carmilla is a Noble Demon who has gradually retired her Arrogant Aristo worldview while still remaining a pragmatic antihero)
Any aspirations of one day making your MC the next “One True Queen” of Shayard? (aka signing up with the Laconniers, and then claiming you’re the “lost heiress of the de Syrnons”)
Or would you instead prefer a middleman-like arrangement? (in which your Eclect is the pope who legitimizes somebody else’s claim as the de Syrnon monarch)
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I imagine her as a figure who feels she has been ordained with the divine mission to free Shayard in the name of Xthonos, so definitely the latter. Crowning the true King/Queen in a Shayardene Codex-approved ceremony would be a dream come true.
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While defending the cave people against the reivers, I had Ciels take out their scouts, and he said he killed the two climbers trying to flank us. But when I initiated the attack anyway the climbers still showed up and ruined the defense
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IIRC the way I wrote this is that he tells the giant he killed the climbers but then privately admits to you and the village elders that they got away and may be back. I’ll see how I can improve this…
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This gave me an idea - couldn’t a trans PC consider trying to learn some of the Abhuman’s magic in an attempt to reduce their dysphoria? Possibly a stretch and likely impossible/difficult, but I’d expect there to be a way to at least consider it.
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My main is a Compassionate,Devout,
Cosmopolitan, Theurge eclect with what would be middle anarchy for game 1
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If you talk to Jev before talking to M’kyar, she says its totally doable and a trans MC quickly quashes their excitement noting they should not attempt such a change on the far side of the Ward. I suspect the MC will be pursuing that avenue if they desire bodily change though, seems the safest and quickest way.
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That is interesting, I entirely missed that.
As a side note, what was the telos of the towers surrounding Vigil? I think it mentioned they were entirely elemental earth but I can’t see what their purpose was sensed as being.
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I think the fact that they were entirely elemental earth is their telos, and that is supposed to be incredibly strange. Everything has at least some of the other elements, even if one is incredibly dominant, but the fact that the stones in the towers have none besides earth indicates that there is something unnatural about them. It’s probably also the main factor in their incredible toughness.
I asked @Havenstone some questions about this a bit earlier in the thread, but they just liked the post without answering. They are probably holding the answers to this close to their chest until G4.
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I think I’m missing something - to my understanding, through theurgy, one can observe the elemental composition of something and its purpose. Are you saying that the purpose of the towers was to be entirely elemental earth?
As a side note, I wonder if it would be possible to use magic on the Fallen Tower to see if it is exactly the same in composition and purpose as the Last Tower.
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I’m glad that Choice of Rebels is back. Right now I don’t have much time to read it but I hope to share my opinion on it at a later date. Good luck with your work.
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Good question! From my understanding, elemental composition and purpose are often related, but are not quite the same thing. Telos is a things purpose, what it wants to be, but the four elements are part of the composition of all things. An example given in the game is changing the telos of wood to that of iron. It doesn’t become iron, but it becomes iron-like, and if you change it enough and invest enough time and aether in it, it becomes indistinguishable from iron and the change is permanent.
Elements are only a part of that. In the example of a stone, earth is predominant, which is a part of its telos to be very sturdy. It has only a weak amount of fire in it, but through Theurgy you can temporarily increase the amount of fire so that it will become lighter and will float.
For the towers, the fact that they have only elemental earth and feel as if they cannot be changed in the slightest is meant to show both how incredibly durable they are, and how someone or something extremely powerful must have changed their elemental composition for that purpose.
As for the Fallen Tower and the Last Tower, it’s not stated directly, but I think the implication is very clear that they all have the same makeup, at least in terms of shape and the stone used.
Don’t know if this helps, but in Aristotelian metaphysics which we seem to be following, every natural body is composed of the conjunction of matter and “substantial form”. The latter term refers primarily to an individual entity but also secondarily to the genus or species it belongs to (ex:horse, human). See Hylomorphism
I think the telos or final cause of a thing would probably be derived from its substantial form more than its matter.
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