Return of the Scarlet Empress

Master of Malfeasance

Master of Malfeasance

New Member
There is a fabulous illustration in the Dragon Blooded book which shows the Scarlet Empress being groped by the Ebon Dragon.


Cool.  I make sure I show this picture as part of a vision or foist it up on every unbidden oracle in my group every few sessions.  So far, no one has thought to heed the call or even investigate, and only once or twice have I even let on that the Scarlet Empress is missing.  


But what if the circle did take notice?  What if they never made the connection between "Damsel in distress being regularly assaulted by mean black dragon" and "The most twisted demon whore in the history of fictitious female deception, backstabbing and chicanery?"


Would the Scarlet Empress even be able to reassert control?  The trouble a circle would have to go to to pull the Ebon Dragon's greatest prize from under his nose notwithstanding, would the Realm even recognize her?  Would Chejop Kejak decide that his Scarlet Savior being borne in secret to the Imperial manse (very nearly as hard as getting her in the first place) by a gaggle of first age boogeymen (and boogeywomen since Exalted appears to be a more or less Equal Opportunity world) was just too much to handle and have her offed quietly?  


Hmmm.... Or would the Dynasty reject her outright?  Maybe she would opt to join the Solars in an attempt to get some table scraps.  I always pictured her as more dignified than that.  Maybe she would commit honorable sepukku or actually walk back into the arms of the Ebon Dragon (wouldn't THAT piss my players off) having lost her final marble...
 
Um... wait a minute. If you are using the default setting for the time period of the game, then the Empress has been missing for five years, and EVERYONE knows it.
 
Well what's the point of coming back if no one knows you're gone? Kinda takes the whole force out of it.
 
It's only my players who don't know she's gone.  The Dynasty has kept a fairly tight lid on her disappearance thus far, however, there is still a power vacuum to contend with for the remaining dynasts.
 
Your players don't know, or their characters don't know? And if your players don't know, why don't they? Because if they don't care enough to know, then what does it matter?


As for her coming back, I would imagine the first thing she would do is outright kill the person sitting on the throne in her place (can't remember his name). Then she'd kick the shit out of several people just to make sure everyone knows she's back and she is still in control. Then, she start kicking serious ass everywhere.
 
In particular case of my most recent batch of Solars, neither their players or characters know, or, if they do, they have yet to grasp the significance of such a thing.  I'm trying to get them to start going off on their own, but they remain stubbornly entrenched in the video game-esque mission-oriented format that I despise.
 
Mal--Then use the time honored trick of several story hooks.


Dangle several at once, and leave clues for some of the other hooks inside the ones they bite at. A clue here, a clue there, a reference here, a reference there. They learn more about the world, and realize that they are part of world that is doing thing, even without their direct contact.  


Keep track of events outside what they do, what the Lintha are doing, what's going on the South, and the East. Give them clues with rising prices and merchants who then explain why something suddenly jumped in price. Make the world dynamic for them, by giving them more than just missions to take on--but evolve the stories that they aren't biting at, but keep hearing about, and what effect these events can have on them. Refugees fleeing X area, because of the Locust Crusade, or trouble in Gem means that the Dragon Bloods are suddenly drying up on Firedust.
 
I, too, have toied with this idea. And my conclusion always came around to : Would it be that easy for her to walk in and take everything back like she never left? From how I see it, the only reason no one has claimed the throne is not because of Fear anymore, it's because there are too many heavy hitters trying for the same thing. I think if she came back some five or six years after her dissappearance, her children/subjects would reject her coming back. I think her spoiled rotten children would boot her back to the ebon dragon. And I don't think after five or six years of being ED's bitch she'd have enough strength to come back full force anyway. She'd have to have a lot more supporters than she seems to have. The Scarlet Society (or whatever it's called) doesn't have enough sway to turn back all her children, and their minor houses.


Just my thoughts.


For once, I agree with Jakk Bey, if you want to get away from the whole "video game" style you hate, (though I'm not sure what you mean) Try to throw some ST hint bricks. And I know it's easier said than done, but eventually even the thickest player will catch on to something. If their characters are lacking character, have them do the 20 questions from the book (I think it's 20 questions) and work off that. I find character baised plot lines are easy, and fun.


Again just my 2 cents.
 
Hmmm... it all depends on what exactly you'd like to do.


But you should bear a few things in mind... one of which is... you'll need to save/capture her.


Two, you'll need to keep her alive.... Her Redness has ALOT of enemies. A fair number of whom are her descendents...


Three, she does have this rhar rhar, thing against Anathema (aka solars / lunars).


Now, your players might not know this... but you SHOULD make clear to them that the dame they're getting sight of via their unbidden oracle IS a dragonblooded, of very high breeding.


Once you've saved her and brought her back to Creation... there are a number of things you could easily do with her regards your players... she might ally with them. In short, she'd be a 'token' dragonblooded... whose hideously old, has a number of charms and spells... and has ALOT of dirt on various powers that be in the Realm. She could in theory also get ALOT of popular support in the form of the peasents and various loyalists.


Of course, you SHOULD give your players a chance to convert her to their cause to change the world, etc.... And give her a chance to convert them to become HER followers and help her retake her throne... Hey, turnabout IS fair. ^_^


I also agree with Jakk Bey's suggestion on giving hints... and also talk to your players out of game... give a low-down about Creation, let them play 20 question... so that they can be better players who know more about the setting.
 
What happens if she comes back?
Click to expand...
Having read GoD recently, in the section on Malfeas it refers to the Ebon Dragon's marriage to her Scarletness and his plans to return to creation.


My take on all of this (especially given many of the quotes and 'flavour text' scattered throughout the source material) is that the Scarlet Empress managed to get the First Age Defence Grid active all on her lonesome, but after a while of being in control, realised she was going to die some day. In her search for immortality, she will of had access to the libraries of the slain solars, one of which may well of contained a copy of the Broken Winged Crane (as EB does state that the SE read 'their' book...). Having sold her soul to the Yozis in exchange for immortality (could be for good reasons, ie wanting to maintain the realm as stably as possible as she knows she's the best thing for it, or could be because she's uber-greedy, either way she appears to be fantastic at corrupting bureacracy and setting different factions against each other, wonder where she learned that from..).


Any way you cut it, EB called in his favour/appropriated his servant and snatched her out of creation. My feeling is that she's getting tainted and corrupted (5 years of 're-tailoring' via the akuma rules in the PG..? *shudders*) and as per the EBs words, will lead a host back from Malfeas when she does return in her Infernal, green-anima glowing glory. She might lead the way by returning to power and subverting the Realm even more, or at least as much as she can get away with before the Bronze faction realises what's going on. Maybe that's what the 'Scarlet Book of proper bearing' will actually be about, who knows?!


In regards to your players 'rescuing' her, how would they handle possibly THE most powerful infernal exalted once she's back in creation? Is the 'rescue' merely a part of the EBs plans to get his betrothed back in Creation to cause more mischief? Would the SE be glad of her temporary reprieve or would she be forced to go along with the EBs plans for all eternity?
 
I don't think that according to canon, that Big Red will be an Infernal--at least not unless somehow the Ebon Dragon was able to strip her of the Dragon Blood Exaltation--but instead, according to the rules in the PG, she should be Akuma. Maybe a powerful Akuma, but Akuma nevertheless.


As for the motives for a slow return--if you wanted to destabalize the Realm, you remove the SE, and then wait for the nasty little Dragon Bloods to eventually get into a fight over the Throne. Once the bastards get done with done stabbing each other in the back, and the dust settles a bit, and lots of DB's are dead, favors are exhausted, they've blown their load, THEN you step back in.  Hailed as a hero for returning to get rid of the usurpers, the SE is then swept in with a tide of exultation by the masses.


That's when she starts her own cult in the heart of the Realm, with the most powerful Dragon Bloods initiated into the ways of the Yozi. The Ebon Dragons servants have already prepared the way, several cells already in place between the Heptagram and in the Imperial City, and they provide a support network for Big Red.  She gets rid of her enemies, and gets a PR boost that drives families that were only on the fringe into her circle, and she gets a ton of new acolytes, on top of the sycophants that will jump at the chance to get closer to power, especially after the backstabbing of the Court--they think that they're doing what's neccessary to survive the transition, and it plays into Big Red's hands.


Mind you...you can incorporate some of this with some of the scenarios that were suggested in the Alchemicals book. The return of the SE all Akumatized, the Realm staggering after a civil war, THEN you get the Locust Crusade knocking on their doors...and you've got a Realm that is begging for the SE to save them.  And so she shall, and the Ebon Dragon offers up, through her cult, all the power that the overwhelmed and off balance Dragons will need to defeat their enemies, delivering them into the hands of the Yozi, and thanking them for the chance to debase themselves before them, to save their Realm.


You could then use the SE's return as a plot not only to deliver the Dragon Bloods, but to exact revenge on Autocthon, who needs fresh souls for the fire, and what he starts to get are a ton of Tainted souls, that work their havok from within, Yozi cults beginning in his bowels, and eventually, Auto is NOT killed--because that would only deliver a new Malfean, which the Yozi will want to avoid, but instead, a powerful ally, who isn't Bound by his own name. The Dragon Bloods are delivered into the Yozi's hands to be their catspaws, and through them and the other cults, they work on Auto--who can help shatter their bonds once and for all...
 
You could then use the SE's return as a plot not only to deliver the Dragon Bloods, but to exact revenge on Autocthon, who needs fresh souls for the fire, and what he starts to get are a ton of Tainted souls, that work their havok from within, Yozi cults beginning in his bowels, and eventually, Auto is NOT killed--because that would only deliver a new Malfean, which the Yozi will want to avoid, but instead, a powerful ally, who isn't Bound by his own name. The Dragon Bloods are delivered into the Yozi's hands to be their catspaws, and through them and the other cults, they work on Auto--who can help shatter their bonds once and for all...
Click to expand...
Wow.


That's without a doubt one of, if not THE best plans I've heard of so far for the Yozi's to break their prison. Blinding! *applauds*
 
If you're going to have ebbil, you can't be afraid to go BIG, and SMART...


Never be afraid to have villains who are smarter than the characters. The key is give them hints that they're being played, you have to give them a chance to see things for what they are--even if it's just an Intelligence+Occult roll on the side, an Awareness+Investigation check out the blue, but players hate to be outsmarted, with NO chance at seeing it.


But then again, you have to give characters enough rope to hang themselves, and with greedy players working the characters' strings, that isn't too hard.


Take a look at some of Chris Clairmonts work over the years. Here's a guy who will set up plot hooks from the very first issue of a series, and not get back to it, only just hint and dance around it for another fifty issues, by that time he's built enough further hooks to reveal the fullness of the plot, and it's been there, with plenty of warning, all through that time.


Arcs that interconnect, and build solid foundations with relationships, that's the way you build solid games. That each of these arc is building into something larger becomes apparent only after a time. Start small, then work your way up into something bigger, but that doesn't mean that you haven't been planning the something bigger for a while. Make sure that the little events that your characters are participating in are key to larger plans, cogs in wheels, and when they get powerful enough, they'll realize that they've been enmeshed the whole time. That's how you get your characters out of the 'mission' based mentality. Or rather, how you can use that mentality to grow into something bigger and better...
 
Well when she comes back and now mind you i dont know all the charms by heart or anything


but since the ED will pretty much have control over her, doesnt she have high essence Terrestrial charms that let her effect all of her descdants, which while not all of the terrestrials on the blessed isle is damn near alot them?


cause i figure she will do something like that corrupt all them offsprings
 
Well when she comes back and now mind you i dont know all the charms by heart or anything
but since the ED will pretty much have control over her, doesnt she have high essence Terrestrial charms that let her effect all of her descdants, which while not all of the terrestrials on the blessed isle is damn near alot them?


cause i figure she will do something like that corrupt all them offsprings
Click to expand...
This is one of my main concerns about this book. While I'm looking forward to it a great deal, I'm really wondering how they'll handle the Empress being able to use the Scarlet Dynasty via her Charms and still maintain the independence the Dragonblooded characters.
 
HowlingCoyote said:
This is one of my main concerns about this book. While I'm looking forward to it a great deal, I'm really wondering how they'll handle the Empress being able to use the Scarlet Dynasty via her Charms and still maintain the independence the Dragonblooded characters.
Click to expand...
Dynasty Charms can be powerful, but they aren't insuperable.
 
This is going to make it more fun to have an Infernal who wants to steal the Ebon Dragon's bride. :twisted:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 4 (members: 0, guests: 4)
Back
Top