Age of Empresses

Flagg

Flagg

The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment
The Empress, at 800+, is obviously far too old for a regular Dragon-Blooded. This could easily be written off as the result of whatever pact she made with the Ebon Dragon.


However, it seems like most of her kids live a long time too. Ragara is as old as the hills, and Mnemon is already several centuries past a DB lifespan, etc. I wonder what other reasons there might be for the longevity of the Empress and her brood?


One thought I had is that perhaps Kejak has fed them Peaches of Immortality. It would be in the interest of Creation's stability to allow the top-tier DBs to have Celestial-grade lifespans, and if anyone could pull strings to get a few of these fruits out of Yu-Shan, it's Kejak.


Any other ideas?


-S
 
Well, it's either that, or perhaps, since the Empress IS from the Shogunate days (albeit, the last days), she might have something up her sleeves. I remember reading in one of the books (either Savant and Sorcerer or Outcastes) that the DBs had some kind of longevity devices that they had internally input to the high class and rulers.


Plus, she did have a huge store of artifacts for herself. Just a guess, though I imagine being tied up with Kejak and the Gods probably had more to do with it, perhaps tweaking fate here and there along with a Peach or two to keep her very much alive and well.
 
Artifacts from the First Age troves that the DB's have raided over the years.


Artifacts that the Sidereals may have fed to her over the years.


Artifacts that the Ebon Dragon in his wooing of this salty wench over the years.


Potions, uguents, and treatments held secret on the Blessed Isle for many years, a distillation of Heavenly Might, and perhaps a little nasty Spirit Charms that drain the life from Spirits who piss off the Celestial Bureacracy.


Take your pick.
 
I would have thought that feeding Peaches of Immortality to a Dragon-Blood would cause some form of uproar?


~FC.
 
Like Kejack can't deal with a little uproar?  I'm pretty sure he'd be able to get around that.


Also, isn't there something about a Heathstone of Incomparable Health that she's got somewhere?  Wouldn't that grant her technical immortality?
 
It should be noted that DBs have to do a Stamina + Endurance roll every decade after their natural life span that caps at difficulty 5 after the first 300 or so years.


This can be modified with hearthstones (gem of incomparable wellness, gem of immortality), drugs (life extension drugs), miracles (peaches), charms (canonical spirit/demon/elemental charms that can remove age).


But what isn't mentioned is the fact that DBs can create success buying charms. Canonically, there are 3 such charms in the aspect air book.


Lore 3, essence 2, and allows success to be bought up to Ability + Specialty at a cost of 2 motes + 1 hour of work with some virtues drawbacks.


Lore 4, essence 4, to copnvert die into success instantly at 2 motes per success. The DB must then roll wits as automatic bashing damage, that is soaked as normal.


Lore 3, essence 3, to convert specialty die into successes at 3 motes per success. There is no drawback for this version.


Now, imagine Endurance charms that do the same.
 
An Essence 7, the normal max, DB can have a Stamina+Resistance+Specialty pool of 17 for resisting aging without counting Artifacts, Spirit Charms, etc.  So a DB worried about living a long time could roll an average of 8 to 9 successes to resist aging, giving them a 99% chance of resisting aging effects.  Such a DB could live, on average, eight hundred years before they die of old age.  With outside help, you could have them live halfway to forever (a Charm that would add ten dice to the aging roll would increase the chance of success to 99.99%, allowing a DB, on average, to live fifty thousand years before they die of old age).
 
(a Charm that would add ten dice to the aging roll would increase the chance of success to 99.99%' date=' allowing a DB, on average, to live fifty thousand years before they die of old age).[/quote']
Esxcept such a Charm would violate the dice-adder cap on DBs. If the DB was Essence 7, their maximum Attribute, and thus maximum Charm bonus would also be 7.


-S
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Stillborn said:
(a Charm that would add ten dice to the aging roll would increase the chance of success to 99.99%' date=' allowing a DB, on average, to live fifty thousand years before they die of old age).[/quote']
Esxcept such a Charm would violate the dice-adder cap on DBs. If the DB was Essence 7, their maximum Attribute, and thus maximum Charm bonus would also be 7.


-S
Click to expand...
Not quite. The max die adder cap for an essence 7 Dragon blooded is actually 11 if merits are used (Ability 7 + Specialties 3 + Prodigy Merit 1). Remember, the DBs do add specialties to their rolls if applicable.
Click to expand...
 
Heh... DBs are fun that way, they can a potentially high die adder cap if designed correct or in the correct situation.
 
Time in Malface


I wold Guess most likly the 2 beast of Resplendent Liquids that Manile and Coin mention that piss a drug that extents the lifespan of a Dragon Blooded (they are owned by the Bronze Faction) plus time dosn't exsist in Maface while she is there she dosn't age at all
 
If it were as simple as taking a few potions, or having an Artifact or two, don't you think EVERY Terrestrial would take advantage of it? Why wouldn't they? They'd ALL be living ridiculously long lives.


-S
 
Because the Empress is a greedy, jealous bitch, who has agents to watch out for just such things, and a Sidereal backer who might also take some exception, with functionaries who could block, slander, or limit the DB's who might try to challenge his girl, and take her goodies?


Mechanically, it's not all that hard.  In practice, you could bet that the Heptagram has agents of the Empress watching to see who is looking to develop what, and for who.  Now that she's gone...maybe these agents are starting to look around, and take their goodies as well--Oh the wacky Eye, without its main backer is having to scramble.  Give the Empress a couple of centuries of absence, and the same techniques could start showing themselves, but it's just too soon to show yet.
 
Don't forget that even if one can find a way not to age, it doesn't mean that it prevents, um, unnatural death.


 It's quite unreasonable to think that the Empress arranged for the removal of anyone who could possibly be a challenge to her. Anyone with access to quality longevity-bestowing effects would naturally be fairly high on her list.
 
Let's not forget about the advantages of distributing placebos, fakes, or Immortality serums with very specific side-effects and consequences that the Sidereals and the Empress could all live with.


OK, you've got your immortality. So long as you sign your name to everything that the Empress wants you to.  And with a single word, either spoken or read in your presence, that immortality can be revoked.  Perhaps the sub-clauses in the panacea game are omitted by the Empress or the Sidereals who are backing her...


And DB's keep pissing her off, so they get their charters revoked. Or they simply are forced to disappear after a time--they mutate horribly, become dependant on drugs and treatments, or slide into an Elemental topor that makes them more and more dependant on their Element.  Fire Aspects must bathe in fire, Water Aspects lose the ability to breathe air, Air Aspects can't tolerate the touch of the ground, and Earth Aspects must be encased in rock and soil...


If I were the Empress, I'd be sure that there were plenty of great immortality serums available, all with fine print that I could control my rivals.
 
But what would stop them from getting the real thing by themselves... no strings attached?


-S
 
A Charm that makes a Terrestrial live as long as the Empress has been able to would have to be at least Essence 6.  There aren't that many Essence 6 Dragon-Blooded, and those that do have Essence 6 might not learn the Charm.  It's all about the odds.


That's the only dependable way of reaching nigh-immortality.  Hearthstones are not only controlled, but already taken.  Do you really think that there's some Gem of Immortality or Incomparable Wellness on the Blessed Isle or on territory in the Threshold controlled by Terrestrials that hasn't been claimed, bought and is now locked up and totally out of reach for anyone else?  Hah.


As for drugs... there's only about two of the immortality drug making beasts, and one of them is owned by the Guild, the other by the Empress.  Getting it from the first source is costly, and many Dragon-Blooded don't even have those sorts of connections, and getting it from the second source is nigh impossible.


It's not that unfeasible that immortality amongst Dragon-Blooded isn't more present.  Even if they all had access to the drug, drugs only continue having the same effects if you take more and more as you become more dependant.  Eventually, the beasts aren't going to make the drug fast enough, and it's all going to come crashing down.


Anyway, that's just my point of view.
 
If you're a smart tyrant, you rig the game.  You lure your enemies into traps, both financial, spiritual, intellectual, and meta-physical, so that you always are on top. And if you're backed by a slew of Exalts who nobody ever remembers...it gets easier.  


The question is: did the Empress ever remember the folks who helped her, or does she think that she was all crafty and shifty on her own?
 
If you're a smart tyrant' date=' you rig the game.[/quote']
You keep assuming that the Empress controls all access to sources of life-extending magic. It's obvious that she doesn't. Any DB who wants tp live forever just needs to look outside the Realm if the Empress is being stingy.


-S
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Which opens them up to the mechanizations of Sidereals, Lesser Gods, Demons, the Deathlords and their agents, sharpies, grifters, and even less savory types.


If you're a smart Lunar, a very old Lunar, and you've seen the DB's already betray your lovers and partners, do you really want to let them get their hands on such things?  If you're a jealous, lesser known God, and you have a chance to get a few Exalted under your control, wouldn't you take it?  The Yozi would love to get a chance to corrupt the heck out of a few DB's just because they enjoy the hell out of it.  


While the Empress isn't the only one with access, she is still probably the one source that most of the DB's could trust not to curve their spines, turn their souls black with Taint, and damn their Houses to servitude to a power that was truly Immortal.  And now that she's gone, those powers can whisper their sweet promises to the ears of those who want to share in the power.  Her children have had access to superior techniques, but now is when they'll start to spread, and there will be some struggles over who gets access--because smart tyrants, and tyrants in training won't want a whole slew of rivals any more than the Empress did.  


Such things exist, but they're not easy to get.  Othewise, there would be more near immortal DB's, right?  You only have to supply enough reasons, and I think you can come up with enough complications to do so, or you can put a few more challengers to the Empress waiting in pockets, hiding in the Threshold, buried in the Realm in caves that are Warded heavily against intrusion.


I prefer to look at Chinese myth as an example.  Plenty of methods towards Immortality in Chinese myth, most of which either drive the practitioner mad, destroy their souls, or combinations of both.  Immortality can't be cheap, or everyone with a decent supply of jade would be.


And then you need to alter the society to take that near immortality being at least relatively common. Shifts in power, shifts in lines for inheritance--you get children who may either be ultra-loyal so that they can share in the Juice, or rebel because they know that they won't be anything other than a servant for a LONG time.
 
Immortality can't be cheap' date=' or [i']everyone[/i] with a decent supply of jade would be.
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According to Haku, it's mathematically probable that MOST DBs would live forever. It doesn't even cost money, it's just the luck of the dice.


-S
 
Potions


the book says that they only preduce enough of the drug to give to about 15% of the realms Dragon blooded and we all know that Sidereals are very practical some live longer some don't
 
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