Ryan Bailey (order #2639004) 173.14.196.1 - fap.if.usp.br

Ryan Bailey (order #2639004) 1CHAPTER ONE: LIFE IN THE HIGH FIRST AGECreation’s denizens define artists’ societies after Rose PetalTea’s assertion that Exalts must be artists in all their pursuits.Even mortals sometimes group themselves into “artists’societies” now, as I AM serves to promote communicationbetween anyone with like interests.Few artists’ societies possess literal armies, but fewExalts are unskilled at combat. Many societies with Exaltedmembership are able and willing to debate philosophy andaesthetics at daiklave’s point. That artist’s societies don’tfield armies just means the Deliberative is less likely to takenotice of their shadow wars.The Violet Creation Protocol Society, or VCPS, is agroup of sorcerer-technicians seeking to create a thinkingautomaton of I AM’s stability using variants of the originalmultiple-iteration technique. They believe that I AM, thoughfully mapped, is the product of a revolutionary technique ofcrafting cognitive automata that could require another 1,000years of polish. They would much prefer to perfect traditionalthinking automaton techniques than abandon over 1,000years of evolutionary advancements in their field.While studying I AM’s transmission network, ShinAruta, a Lunar researcher for the VCPS, recently discoveredan equation suggesting that I AM’s transmission networkmight be capable of accepting one or more uploaded humansoul-pairs (both hun and po), with enough transfer accuracyto maintain the soul-pair’s memories. She’s unsure of whereto pass this information. She believes her superiors in theVCPS would be displeased to find that her attention wasdirected toward I AM’s network architecture and not atmore traditional research methods.A society of painters, the Wave Lattice promotes thestyle of painting for which it was named. (The painter holdsa brush of fine horse hair between the third and fourth fingersof the left hand and paints with pigment made only fromthe Utarimanshin Ascendant method of Wyld-shaping, mixedwith four parts distilled water for every three parts pigment.)The society’s membership believes the Wave Lattice methodof painting is superior to all others for purposes of paintingimages of waves. This society recently won a shadow war withthe rival Shale Brotherhood, which promoted a variant usingUtarimanshin Descending pigment. Wave Lattice had all theDragon-Blooded of the Shale Brotherhood assassinated and iscurrently attempting to gain access to the divine paperworkrevealing which infants the Shale Brotherhood souls werereincarnated into.A charitable society, the Children of Sextes Jylis seeksto provide medical aid to mortal civilians in war zones andin tributaries whose rulers would rather divert resources elsewhere.Founded in the early Second Deliberative Era, mostof the society’s members are Wood Aspect Dragon-Bloods.Other Exalts with an aptitude for healing and/or bureaucracyclaim membership as well.The Children of Sextes Jylis are out of favor with theDeliberative at the moment, due to the society’s oppositionto Operation Wyldhand. Now, in protest, the Solar wholeads the society has vowed to withhold aid from anyoneadversely affected by the operation.SECRET SOCIETIESMost Exalts have agendas they wish to remain hidden.These agendas often require the aid of other Exalts to carryout. A secret society can be anything from a hidden fraternityof like-minded Exalted who reminisce on importantanniversaries to a gang of hard-bitten thieves and murdererswho seek to organize their crime.Four Solars, two Lunars and three Sidereals band togetherin a secret society dedicated to mourning the passingof Sweet Citrus Crimson, a Fair Folk noble. Sweet CitrusCrimson was an anarchist who sought to destroy the Deliberativeand replace it with an altogether more chaotic formof government that he called aeiga, the specifics of whichhe never fully articulated. The nine Celestial Exalts whocompose the Sweet Citrus Crimson Memorial Society wereSweet Citrus Crimson’s executors, and he died so beautifullythat they all fell in love with him. Each now strives tomake sure Creation never forgets Sweet Citrus Crimson’slife or death. One member belongs to the Sheltered ValeGroup and inserts subtle references to the raksha in thestories he writes. Another sits on the board of directors forthe Bank of Daana’d, encoding Crimson’s name and faceinto the strings of numbers the bank weaves into the OrderConferring Trade Pattern. Every member of the Sweet CitrusCrimson Memorial Society infiltrates some other famous orvital society. The group’s ultimate goal is to find a way tobring him back to life (or reproduce him), so they may killhim and witness his death again. They remain undauntedby the impossibility of this task deters, and they’re nowexperimenting with bound unshaped raksha and the newprotoshinmaic vortex technology.Because the society infiltrates so many others, andbecause its members share information freely among eachother and keep no track of favors owed between them,each member is known separately in certain other societiesfor possessing far-reaching contacts and the ability to getthings done in unorthodox ways. A few Exalts know of thesociety’s existence as a whole, but none know its purpose,and its members are highly sought for their connections.Gold-Shadowed Arrow would not look kindly on the society’sexistence, as its members were supposed to strike the rakshafrom all histories after they killed him.An open secret, the Black Bandana is a go-betweenorganization connecting many competing martial arts societies.Through the Black Bandana, the Martial Arts Worldorganizes its wars to minimize civilian casualties. BlackBandana members are all experts at concealing their identity,and the convergence of martial arts and anonymity explainswhy most members of the Black Bandana are Sidereals. TheBlack Bandana’s usual method of operation is to find twomartial arts societies with escalating hostilities and infiltrateboth sides in the guise of mortal acolytes. The Black Bandana38