Now I want to chime in my thoughts about the Sacrament choices.
Daughter of Axes Velvet Sacrament "Muh daughter collection!"
Personal Sacrament is unimportant compared to the the stunning argument for it above.
Done and done.
Baldomare's Sacrament: The direction and flavor seems to be around expedition/searching. This presumably would be useful for Velvet personally searching for expedition sites or perhaps a search bonus like Bladomare has. Given how Velvet has Baldomare to do that stuff for her already the sacrament has a good chance of not being that useful.
I would actually argue that while the
action to take the Sacrament is an expedition, I do not think that the mechanical and narrative benefits of the Sacrament itself would be around expeditions or searching. Beyond the Map's Edge sounds like, you know, exploring alternate histories beyond the map's edge? You can't find alternate histories on a map, after all.
Then again, the main reason why I'm against our Personal Sacrament is because of the danger of swapping into alternate histories - but I suppose that could be solved with Guard actions.
Baldomare's Sacrament: The direction and flavor seems to be around translating books. This presumably would make deciphering a lot easier. However one has to consider the current situation. Which is that Velvet is going to be feeding high level book to waifu Teresa along with having minion loyal friend Jade. There's presumably nothing stopping Velvet from having Jade take Baldomare's Sacrament and then putting her on translation duty (something useful that Velvet relies on her to do would be good for her).
I think there was a conversation about this before, that we can't 'offer' our followers Sacraments from our summons, though the details are fuzzy to me. How about this - we see what comes of gifting a Level 6 book to Baldomare first.
Biedde's Sacrament: The direction and flavor seems to be the Colonel. This presumably would grant something like Biedde's trait of gaining personal combat bonus's against a single foe upon being wounded by them. However it needs to be considered that the main theme of the Colonel is that HE WILL NOT RELEASE THOSE IN HIS SERVICE, with the hints that the Colonel is still around via Biedde's trait and is likely to be hiding in the worm museum. So complications may follow.
Can we social our own summons? Walk up to Him and go, 'hey, Biedde, wtf is your sacrament about?'. Frustrating that there is enough doubt for me to actually worry that we might get stuck under the Colonel.
The Sacrament costs 1 Mansus action and can be done with the free mansus exploration action oh also a RA. The sacrament has wider consequences as it means Silky Steam doesn't end up crying and further protects the world from the worms.
That assumes that having her friends and / or Softy suffer more wouldn't also have her cry. Protects the world from the worms? But at what cost?
Personal Sacrament: The direction and flavor seems to be around Velvet no longer being afraid (a mental condition). This presumably would fall under the theme of mental protection, especially regarding dread.
...
Let's find Neighna first.
Personal Sacrament: The direction and flavor seems to be very similar to what Cadence pulled with Velvet and Shinning. This presumably would mean our relationships with those we love and commit the sacrament with cannot be broken.
I've actually been reading this as...
maybe it's because I've read of worse, but the way that it's worded - look, there is more than one way than to have someone to be with you forever.
You eat them.
However this doesn't get us a Name as a friend, so almost certainly not going to be picked.
I've actually not considered that doing Mareinette's Sacrament would allow us to get another friend.
The Sacrament costs completing the project by reaching 300 points, applying Magic, Forge Level, Forge influence and Forge Reagents with each AP costing 50 bits. Magic 13 + Forge level 40 = 53, with Forge Reagents of 40 worth along with an available reroll it would be estimated to take 2 AP spread over two turns with a level 4 Forge influence applied on the last turn. So 93 + 133 =226, 300 - 226 = 74, so DC of 74 with 2 rolls with rerolls. For forge reagents they can be made with the free reagent creation action, either 4 level 2 reagents costing 80 bits total over 4 turns or sooner if there's the bits for level 4 reagents costing 80 bits each. Given the very disturbing lack of interest in Velvet gaining bits we're probably going to have to be cheap so a total of 180 bits (2 AP (50 bits each) and 4 level 2 reagents (20 bits each)).
We can neglect Forge for a little bit - we still have ticking time bombs of Celestia and the W*ndigos. The bits from the blackmail and the steady income from Rarity will help, but I think the largest cost is that it requires an AP.
Path "Make Silky Stream cry"
Would prefer to do the Forge personal Sacrament and summon Neighna instead.
Path "At least 20 percent cooler path that also doesn't make Silky Stream cry!"
Too many wolves. Would hurt Softy. Nah.
Finally, I'm going to ramble on a bit here about my own ideas going forward.
See, in my view - when you do a Sacrament, it's a part like
petitioning the world and the Lore to gift you an understanding, and it's a part like consolidating your own understanding to gain enlightenment over the Lore - it's like creating and making your own masterwork, in a way, like writing and defending your dissertation, or making a solidly usable sword - it certifies you as a 'master' of your craft, your Lore. And in such a way it is customized to you.
So then, doing a Name's Sacrament, it's a very intimate process (not that way, get your head out of the gutter) - that understanding becomes a part of you, you
can't go back. It solidifies and becomes one part of you. So doing a Wolf Sacrament is petitioning the Wolf to gift and curse you with a part of Himself - and as such you understand the Wolf and part of you turns into a part of Himself → like, as if we are a vessel, and you pour some stuff into it.
100ml of Velvet is 100% of Velvet, but then you pour in 10ml of Wolf and it becomes 91% original Velvet and 9% Wolf, but the vessel is still 100% Velvet! Anyway. Let's not do that.
Moving on. I am
so glad we do not have a deadline on the Worms. The fear and consequences of our own actions is far more terrifying than the eldritch threat looming in the background. Yes, we want to rush to the Glory - but the Means! The Wolf is the last choice, it's a
nuke, it's what you use when there's no other palatable option.
Using an example of a doctor who kills a patient to harvest their organs and save five others. In practice, this leads to a general loss of trust in doctors and hospitals → more loss of life. But also! Taking a Wolf Sacrament makes us more powerful, sure, but it doesn't lead us towards the Glory. It just makes us more powerful. Power. But Power doesn't open the lock on the gate.
And sure, the Wolf is less than lethal, but are they much better? It's a knock-on effect. The Mansus reflects reality and reality reflects the Mansus. It ripples. Dreams and actions ripple outwards -
our ideas ripple outwards, especially somepony already so influential like Velvet.
Guilt is one of the most important aspects - Velvet and her Quest wouldn't be as compelling a character without it. That we're stained, and are still staining ourselves. We want to do the right thing with the least amount of cost, and that desperation drives us forward, lets us innovate and be creative and drives us like rats into the corner. And the thing about power, and our powerlessness, is that power even used with benevolent intent is corrupting.
Every pool of drinkable water matters.
Every wolfberry dangling from a twig, in Texas, in January, matters. Every drop of hope we can wring out of this Quest
matters. We hope to survive the horror; the horror of living in these times. And all of these, all of these matters. The difference between sustaining life and not having enough was that small.
We become what we pretend, we are what we act as - we can't run away from ourselves. I guess that is why, even long before now, I've been searching for another way out, a gentler way out. Fuck, if we are all going to be killed by the Worms,
let them find us doing sensible and pony things - praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends about our love lives over a cuppa - not through monstrous actions.
And in another way, I'm glad that we have our family and friends as anchors. We worry about them, and we consider their feelings, and so we try our best not to affect them. Thank fuck. We would have tried so hard to do good - and then find out later we should have tried softer. We're not Cauldron, people.
Power is rarely the right tool for survival anyway. Rather we the powerless thrive on alliances, often in the form of reciprocated acts of kindness - from beehives that were not raided, birds that were not killed but set free or fed, old women who were saluted with respect. Kindness sown among the meek is harvested in crisis.
I guess that's why we're moth, huh? There is freedom in the dark; there is change. And we want to change this world to be
better. So let us seek to use our actions to sow the seed of that idea and nurture it, and only turn to self-defense when we must.
We will fuck up. We have fucked up. We will likely continue to fuck up. But dear Glory, let us have safety checks and redundancies along the way. And when we reach the Glory, when we face the final two or so updates about the
accounting of our failures and the
fruits of our successes, let us face them and overcome them with guilt and That Old Yearning to be better.
I
measure it by this way - when we have a choice, when we have the time to do so, let us make the world better instead. Because Esquestria has no means of articulating its interests, we must always think of it. I want our daughters to grow up in a better world than we had,
to be able to peek out under the shelter that we built and realize how much of a miracle it is that they can stand under the rain and not get wet.
