Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Beadle]

Yeah, Perfect World Guide puts him at Level 16/Gnosis 40 (!!!) in Graven.

Exactly. Which IIRC (and I might not - been a while since I read the rules on Gnosis) means if you’re not at least Gnosis 25 (and I believe there’s only one human at that level, which is presumably either Lucanor or Princess Betsy and her magical bullshit powers), you can’t really do a damn thing except draw his attention to you.

Ooooh, now I forget. Who?

A certain PC from your game… and something that I still owe you. *shuffles awkwardly* WILL FIX THIS EVENING

That's...interesting. Pretty darned interesting (and thinking bigly). Explain 'inner sea to the ocean' (the Inner Sea is already part of the ocean), though - I may simply be spacing on what you mean.

Sorry - I can never remember the name of the ocean between the Old and New Continent. *checks* Calistis Ocean. Basically the canal would run through Lucrecio from it's western coast to its eastern one, thereby opening up New Continent trade to the Coast of Commerce, breaking up Arlan’s near-monopoly on intercontinental trade, and putting Phaion in a stronger position, but obviously Lucanor would be getting something out of it as well - diverting a huge chunk of stuff from the New Continent through his principality so he can pluck out certain goodies as he sees fit. Phaion gains an economic edge and strengthens its position relative to Gabriel and Arlan, and also gains an ally against Dwänholf, as Lucrecio isn’t going to like its business disrupted by raids from pirate kings.

It’s all based on that thing that Lucanor, as the special little bunny he is, cleverly chose the only principality that:
a) has shores on both the Inner Sea and Calistis Ocean, thereby having uninterrupted access to the New Continent, Coast of Commerce, Varja, and even the likes of Kashmir & Baho.
b) has land borders to each of the Abel Empire (Kanon), Azur Alliance (Bellafonte), Episcopal States (Argos) and Al-Enneth (Kushistan).

Because him smart.

[Nik Hasta]

Well, he just recently wiped out around 20,000 planets with anti-matter bombs that he stole from a rival and activated. He also destroyed a planet (Granbell) himself with his Gravity Ether Gear.

Eden's Zero has really been a return to form for Mashima. I never got on with Fairy Tail for a variety of reasons but Zero is giving me big Rave Master energy.

It's just a bit darker and edgier than FT and quite a bit more creative in certain aspects. I've been enjoying it a lot.

[Sharpandpointies]

Exactly. Which IIRC (and I might not - been a while since I read the rules on Gnosis) means if you’re not at least Gnosis 25 (and I believe there’s only one human at that level, which is presumably either Lucanor or Princess Betsy and her magical bullshit powers), you can’t really do a damn thing except draw his attention to you.

Semi-close! Neither Lucanor nor Eli have gnosis 25 - that's 'spiritual being, unnatural'. Gnosis 20 is what Eli and Kisidan have. Lucanor is probably 15, like Gaul - as I recall, AS has said that there are a whopping two people with 20 in the entire world at the moment.

Granted, I'm not sure Kisidan counts as one of those 'two mortals' because he's an unnatural creature, himself. So maybe Lucanor?

Basically Gnosis 40 means 'Divine magic [though he doesn't have that level of power in his paths, sadly], control over reality, a huge bonus against lower gnosis people, and 'you can't kill me unless you have an equal gnosis or some kind of special device to do so'.' Also, as I recall, movement in and out of the wake and other such smaller things.

A certain PC from your game… and something that I still owe you. *shuffles awkwardly* WILL FIX THIS EVENING

Ah, yes - that one. When I think of THAT situation, I'm always thinking of my tabletop games (specifically the Eurakia one, because that's the one where I'm planning to use said PC). Will be happy to get her stats!

Sorry - I can never remember the name of the ocean between the Old and New Continent. *checks* Calistis Ocean. Basically the canal would run through Lucrecio from it's western coast to its eastern one, thereby opening up New Continent trade to the Coast of Commerce, breaking up Arlan’s near-monopoly on intercontinental trade, and putting Phaion in a stronger position, but obviously Lucanor would be getting something out of it as well - diverting a huge chunk of stuff from the New Continent through his principality so he can pluck out certain goodies as he sees fit. Phaion gains an economic edge and strengthens its position relative to Gabriel and Arlan, and also gains an ally against Dwänholf, as Lucrecio isn’t going to like its business disrupted by raids from pirate kings.

It’s all based on that thing that Lucanor, as the special little bunny he is, cleverly chose the only principality that:
a) has shores on both the Inner Sea and Calistis Ocean, thereby having uninterrupted access to the New Continent, Coast of Commerce, Varja, and even the likes of Kashmir & Baho.
b) has land borders to each of the Abel Empire (Kanon), Azur Alliance (Bellafonte), Episcopal States (Argos) and Al-Enneth (Kushistan).

Because him smart.

Interesting idea. I imagine it would run into issues with the other factions, of course (Abel would probably go for it, Gaul likely wouldn't because he can't control it). But as big, world-changing things (without it being some kind of huge crisis) goes, this is an impressive and ambitious project.

Right now Gabriel and, to a lesser extent, Phaion and Kanon DO trade with Eurakia - that's a thing in Gaia II - but it's mostly the WEST coast of Eurakia: Elcia (where do we think all of that Lamprydae (sp) comes from?), Spheria (aside from strained relations with Gabriel, here), and Dafne. As you note, Arlan currently has a monopoly on trade with the East coast of Eurakia (obviously - they're literally next door); it would be difficult to break that stranglehold (assuming it continues; given Arlan is one of the first battlegrounds of the war-to-come, that is by no means certain) due to the ease of trade Arlan enjoys, but not impossible.

Circumventing the pirates will help, though. Lots.

Piracy is hugely less of an issue in my tabletop game due to the Players having obliterated a gigantic swath of the pirates, the players arranging an alliance between Phaion/Gabriel/Kanon to help them in a cooperative takeover of the Eye of the Hurricane as a kind of lawful free-trade city, and Dwanholf having been...it's complicated, but suffice to say that Dwanholf is currently in a very weird place where Port Rue is firmly under the control of the PC's, the northern crime city has been taken by Samael who are somewhat allied with the goals of the PC's, Terrasanta is...well, you know, it's sealed and destroyed, and many of the independent merc companies have been put in a place where they can't really cause trouble and are decently paid for it, mostly by the merchant association of Phaion because this is a lot cheaper than dealing with losses from piracy and they can get good use out of the mercs...and the head of the only decent city in Dwanholf is, unsurprisingly, perfectly fine with all of this and willing to support it. Basically the players - who at the time were all level 8, with a bunch of level 7-8 allies (now level 9 and levels 7-9), decided 'Piracy and slavery suck, enough of this crap' and have been working their asses off to get rid of both.

Slavery is pretty rooted in some cultures, but they've made some small but definitive inroads there as well, much to my surprise (couple of cities in Kushistan). Also, the pirate-stompage and lack of Dwanholf raiding means a whole lot less slaves going to market, which is going to start being felt.

[The MunchKING]

Exactly. Which IIRC (and I might not - been a while since I read the rules on Gnosis) means if you’re not at least Gnosis 25 (and I believe there’s only one human at that level, which is presumably either Lucanor or Princess Betsy and her magical bullshit powers), you can’t really do a damn thing except draw his attention to you.

Hello! Did I just hear someone wanting 25 Gnosis and a bunch of Monster powers?

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

IIRC I'd figured out a way for Kiyren to get a high enough Gnosis... eventually, but it's been a long time since I logged into Rpol, let alone looked at all the planning I did which is... hidden away somewhere in Evernote.

And the downsides to a lot of Gnosis boosting things is pretty much always not worth it so it was always ever a "maybe".

[bruceleegreyhulk]

[Sharpandpointies]

IIRC I'd figured out a way for Kiyren to get a high enough Gnosis... eventually, but it's been a long time since I logged into Rpol, let alone looked at all the planning I did which is... hidden away somewhere in Evernote.

And the downsides to a lot of Gnosis boosting things is pretty much always not worth it so it was always ever a "maybe".

Gnosis boosting is hard, after the 'high magic' 25. Getting 25 isn't THAT hard - there are three different ways of doing that with magic, depending on whether you would like to be a magical creature, a spirit, or some kind of undead (bleah), and there's different Elan that can manage it as well. AFTER 25 is the hard - read, nigh-impossible - part. Basically, the system (especially Core Exxet rules onward) is deliberately set up so that there is no way to get oneself up to really high gnosis permanently (sure, one can mess around with nodes - assuming one can find one that doesn't have something nasty already sitting on it - creation magic, and Light/Dark, and boost oneself up - while risking frying oneself with the node - setting up ridiculous levels of Gnosis that remain in effect so long as one pays the daily price, the magic doesn't get cancelled by an outside force, and one stays near the node for the rest of one's life).

Mostly the 'so-and-so achieved ridiculous Gnosis' for in-game characters involves in-story, character-dependent gimmes (ie, one-time things or 'born from a god' or the like).

There used to be entire threads on the old Anima forums where people would try to work out how to get super-high gnosis, while everyone else pointed out the various flaws in the method. ^_^

[Miburo]

I'm sensing alot of Anima talk.

All of it goes over my head, since I keep forgetting to glance at that one book about all the crazy weapons (and the math has erased my memory).

But there is only one talk that needs to be had.

GARON. LIVE ON. FOREVER.

[Sharpandpointies]

But there is only one talk that needs to be had.

GARON. LIVE ON. FOREVER.

...Garon certainly has that reputation, and deservedly so. ^_^

[Guy1]

[Guy1]

[The MunchKING]

(sure, one can mess around with nodes - assuming one can find one that doesn't have something nasty already sitting on it - creation magic, and Light/Dark, and boost oneself up - while risking frying oneself with the node - setting up ridiculous levels of Gnosis that remain in effect so long as one pays the daily price, the magic doesn't get cancelled by an outside force, and one stays near the node for the rest of one's life).

The Daily price thing can be fixed with Eternal Magic (Creation 92) which is why I thought Taran could get away with it if he actually had Node Power. And once it's stabilized I don't think you needed to stay near the Node to maintain it. Outside forces cancelling it is still a worry, but at 45 you can Lolnope most anything that isn't in your weightclass.

[Postmania]

It's fun to hear about all these characters and remember things I had forgotten, particularly bc my most clear memories of it prior to it being brought up in this thread recently was "We screw up, big boom, Garon survives"

[Sharpandpointies]

The Daily price thing can be fixed with Eternal Magic (Creation 92) which is why I thought Taran could get away with it if he actually had Node Power. And once it's stabilized I don't think you needed to stay near the Node to maintain it. Outside forces cancelling it is still a worry, but at 45 you can Lolnope most anything that isn't in your weightclass.

I think you misunderstand (my fault, I should have clarified). It's (edit: now) a daily cost WITH Eternal magic - I'm assuming that's what people are using, because otherwise it's pointless.

See, the writer figured this one out. In Core Exxet - which is the version of the rules I use, and the currently most up-to-date version - all of the spells have been modified to have a similar setup to the ones in Arcana Exxet. No more added effects, just 'Base', 'Intermediate', 'Advanced', and 'Arcane' versions of the spell. Also, some of the spells have been changed. One of the ones that was changed the most was Light and Dark Ascension.

Now they're both just named 'Ascension', and rather than providing a bonus to Gnosis, they give a flat amount: 30, 35, 40, 45, depending on which version of the spell one casts.

ALSO...they're not Daily anymore. So basically the game designer did this to fix an exploitable loophole in the rules that was never intended.

Sorry, man; using the current version of the rules, the old 'Chimerize/Node/Ascension/Eternal Magic' is now off the table, unless one wants to pay the daily cost for it. And hang out next to the node.

Which isn't out of the question; daily cost is 'only' 45-50 for getting 40 or 45 Gnosis...but also requires an Intelligence of 18 and 20, respectively.

[Sharpandpointies]

It's fun to hear about all these characters and remember things I had forgotten, particularly bc my most clear memories of it prior to it being brought up in this thread recently was "We screw up, big boom, Garon survives"

Not entirely inaccurate... ^_^