The creatures that thrive the most in the Claimed Hells are sadists. There is no delusion about this. Everyone knows. But what people miss is that there are two kinds of sadists. Well, more than two, but two predominantly, determined by how they use their cruelty and why.
The first is your run-of-the-mill sadist. They are emotional. They hurt people t...
2024-12-12 17:44:52 +0000 UTC View Post{Fucking called it. “My daughter is prepared to deal with any adversary—” Yes. Truly. The post-divine cognitive assimilator is just any adversary. You threw your daughter at a problem that would have eaten you and the rest of Highflame even if you joined in this battle, you mongrel ape—you failed fucking abortion.
This. This is what I warned Veylis about. Tyranny is c...
2024-12-11 18:56:17 +0000 UTC View PostWith all things considered equal, a lonesome duelist cannot slay an army, at least not an army worth its steel. Sometimes fools will try to deny such limitations. Heroes are often just fools that succeed.
But, ah, if you wish to be a true legend, then you must forge your own miracles. You must wed opportunity with your capabilities.
Naeko, I have trained you we...
2024-12-10 19:06:44 +0000 UTC View PostEvery Guild has their own philosophy to combat, their own strengths, capabilities, logistical weaknesses, and oversights. But there is one consistency between all guilds: At the core of every army is a Godclad cadre or a Knot of golems. For all the ordinance that every battle platform can deliver. For the encompassing control that drone swarms allow and the ground, any tree can hold.<...
2024-12-09 19:01:33 +0000 UTC View PostWhat do you mean the boy is fighting Many-wed? He just got to Preceptor’s Descent. It’s barely been a day—what do you mean people are betting in his favor? And he’s finished the Lodge? Those Hollowborn fools tried to assassinate him?
I—Get Mulver down there! Now! Tell him to protect the investment at all—Ah, never mind. I’m going myself.
-Message from...
2024-12-09 10:46:29 +0000 UTC View PostBy the Harbinger’s cock, I think we have a new contender for Warmaster rising before us.
Do I actually think that? Motherfucker, watch my logs. When’s the last time something like this happened?
Fuck me, the Circle of Envy is going to be seething. I love to see it.
-Message Sent by Frostfinger, Correspondent for The Left-Hand Post
II-33
Many-Wed. Now there’s a piece of work. And that’s saying something considering what I do. Selling guns is one thing, but kidnapping kids from their families and forcing them to be “bound” to you? That’s a special kind of low. Don’t matter if her Class requires it.
And then there’s what she does to them, how she tortures them with that Corrosive Song of hers… 2024-12-07 13:55:15 +0000 UTC View Post
“Came expecting a bloody grudge match that would end in heroic triumph or brutal tragedy. Ended up getting front-row seats to the birth of a new icon in the Claimed Hells.
Worth every fucking Sin.”
-Review of Night at the Bloodgrounds: Silt v Sage
II-31
Taking a Name (V)
Failed to resist (Flabbergasted) with Aspect of (Ambitio...
2024-12-06 10:03:49 +0000 UTC View PostIn the case where victory is impossible, your duty is to make killing you very, very costly. Highflame devoted a lot of imps to seeing you all made good soldiers, so you’re not allowed to die until you inflict ten-times your loss in market value.
Is what a glassjaw would say. Orphans, I’ll put it plainly: If your death doesn’t cost the complete collapse of an enemy comp...
2024-12-05 12:34:33 +0000 UTC View PostOh, wonderful. The pet gorilla is loose again. I wonder how that happened. I wonder how.
Veylis, Veylis, Veylis… Sweet, dear girl, you might have all the implants and modifications, but there’s still too much ape in you. I told you we needed to take him from the board while we could. You even had the pathborn for it. But, ah, look now. Another fucking problem. One that I ...
2024-12-04 18:58:43 +0000 UTC View Post+Holy mother of fuck, it’s coming down… he’s coming down—Cease fire! Cease FUCKING FIRE! ALL GODSDAMNED UNITS, CEASEFIRE BEFORE YOU GET—+
-Last Transmission of Glaive-Commander Ikkio (Ori-Thaum) of Massist Joint-Command CYCLEBURNER
32-5
Heavy Falls the Palm (I)
—[Glaive-Captain Setsun]—
Glaive...
2024-12-03 19:08:02 +0000 UTC View PostA breeze this moment; a hurricane thereafter.
-Ori Proverb
32-4
Peace Unchained
—[OBSERVER DESIGNATION ENDWATCHER]—
The highest point of New Vultun came apart as if it was an erupting volcano.
The rupture came first, forming like a crack upon the surface of reality; then came the vapors, gushing t...
2024-12-02 12:14:03 +0000 UTC View PostYou can expect nothing and still be disappointed.
-Ancient Evernest Proverb.
II-30
Taking a Name (IV)
Wei's transition from the viewing platform to the Midnight Sage's training ground came amidst a swell of swirling Spatial Essence.
At once, another dimension expanded before him, spilling out in a rolling tide. His Omniscience 2024-12-01 19:21:54 +0000 UTC View Post
There are two theaters of battle being waged at the Bloodgrounds at all times.
The first is obvious: battles between duelists, challengers, and sinners who enter the Bloodgrounds to claim glory through violence.
The other, however, is far more insidious: the benefactors and patrons who use these warriors as tools for their own ends. There is great glory in poss...
2024-11-30 19:34:46 +0000 UTC View PostFor certain worlds that exist under more freeform Systems, it’s possible to reach a point where your Essence Level goes beyond what your System can support. Usually, these Systems also have an Essence ceiling as well. This might be because the world is meant to be a tranquil world leftover by the Antediluvians or a special observation realm to see how the locals develop based on the exist...
2024-11-29 19:06:49 +0000 UTC View PostLAST CHANCE TO RESERVE A SPECIAL SEAT AT THE CHERUB’S CORPSE BLOODGROUNDS.
10 challenges set by Mallageis, Count of Envy, and only one prize. Who will claim the Mirrored Helm? Find out for yourself. Sign the contract. Join the tourney. Risk your life to build a true legend, and rise beyond your station with an artifact without peer.
Or p...
2024-11-28 19:07:09 +0000 UTC View PostRescue ops are surgical, dangerous, and rarely worth it. Understand that if the enemy manages to capture one of you, you are expected to engineer your own escape or remove yourself from the equation by death or nulling to ensure no information can be extracted from your Metamind.
Again, we’re Regulars, juvs. We’re the batteries used and bullets spent; made for ...
2024-11-28 11:45:27 +0000 UTC View PostTwo simple rules, Veylis: Never tell someone how they should feel, and never make them feel how you do not wish them to feel. Words are tools that can be used to convey information, but information is an imperfect virus for our true intentions, and man is an animal of baser impulse before rationality.
Always.
Master this, and you can shape...
2024-11-27 11:24:08 +0000 UTC View Post<<Wolfkin to Mirror. Something is happening.
The Stormtree forces I have been embedded with in Tafalis have… turned on each other. Everything is collapsing. All cohesion has been lost. The Bloodthanes are trying to respond, but I think they’re getting affected as well. I suspect that there might be a lingering memetic contagion—maybe something deployed by Noloth.
Many more chapters coming soon. Have been improving the plotting process recently. This should result in higher-paced and better-quality chapter releases.
Also, free readers will be able to the currently available chapter and also potentially participate in some future story/brainstorming sneak-peeks...
Here’s a statement for all you miserable half-strands down in the Warrens: Yeah, you’re a piece of shit for what you did. Yeah, you should be punished for that. But it’s alright. It’s not too late. And you can do more than just wait for death
Don’t sit around and let life fuck you. Get hard. Get hard, and be who you are. Because you might no...
2024-11-25 10:25:17 +0000 UTC View PostOne of the best perks about the Claimed Hells is how much real estate is available. People are always dying there—always—so things get vacant a lot. Furthermore, you can exercise some pretty interesting strategies to get people to sell to you.
Which is why I strongly recommend acquiring your first unit in the Claimed Hells. Let me explain. 2024-11-24 14:43:50 +0000 UTC View Post
Alright, I just want to know one thing. How am I supposed to sell this place? Because if I don’t, I’m going to be fused here forever! Forever! I—I got cursed into being a literal demon-gate after being accused of theft! Why did they give me community service doing this? I hate sales! I hate it! I hate it!
This place is unsellable.
Not only did it used to ...
2024-11-23 17:53:33 +0000 UTC View PostThe Claimed Hells has no law
It’s more like an interconnected set of laws put in place by the Harbinger to make sure everyone doesn’t kill each other in the Heights, a sort of détente so you see. That’s why everyone gets a personal lawyer because they’re tuned into all the changes coming down from the top.
Sure, you can spend all your time keepin...
2024-11-23 15:43:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe Fathoms. A place of infinite possibility, opportunity… and danger.
In the pursuit of nobler goals and higher profits, it is not uncommon for problems to arise; not unforeseen for stalemates to linger; not unexpected for setbacks to befall. But for every problem is a suite of solutions, and every impediment can be cleared with the application of proper persuas...
2024-11-22 18:30:06 +0000 UTC View PostWe had no idea what the Lodge had planned. And they had no idea what the kid wanted to do. And he had no idea about the queen’s actual state, about what Mepheleon was planning to do.
Don’t know… Shadow games… All that bullshit. That’s the way of the Claimed Hells.
But I’ll tell you this much: even if I did know, there wouldn’...
2024-11-21 14:55:16 +0000 UTC View PostListen, I know my enemies have no idea what I’m about to do, because I have no idea what I’m about to do.
That’s why I always win. Because I’m the master of motherfuck—
-Randi “Chaos” Randoni (Crucible Razorgirl) seconds before blowing herself and 22,353 other people up with her “mini-nuke nunchucks”
31-11 2024-11-21 10:50:39 +0000 UTC View Post
You know how the best shot I ever knew died? Caught a cough during a No-Dragon blitz plague. Decided to forego wearing his rig on a trip to his local grafters. Another case: Skullpop, nova Necro and trauma-sequencer extraordinaire. Got done by his own cheapness—aero fell out of the sky because the “discounted mod-jobs” he kept having his cousin do resulted in the engine being overtaxe...
2024-11-20 12:23:35 +0000 UTC View Post“Have you ever regretted what you've done? What you made of your citizens?”
“This is not my sin, Dreamer. This is their choice. In all lives, we face tribulation, each a trial of our own. What makes of us, what becomes of us, that is born of our choice. You are a creature that desires choice above all, don’t you?”
History is a blade that cuts both ways, no matter what lies we fill our autobiographies with. No matter what adjustments are made to the texts, a tangible effect has already shaped the world, deformed it, molded it. And the thing about lies?
They clash, they separate, they fragment. Because lies are born of man and gods, and of our many liars, they have one commonality. They ...
2024-11-18 12:01:42 +0000 UTC View Post