The fear of Dunyain joining the Consult was one of Kelhus's major reasons for killing his father.  We've known about this possibility since the Thousandfold Thought and it's not like Kelhus's, Moenghus's, and Maithenet's accomplishments in the Three Seas aren't a hint that the Dunyain could potentially do this to the Consult.  My question is what about the rest of the Consult.  We see two Inchoroi, one Erratic, and some Dunyain.  What about the rest of the Mangaecca?  Where is the rest of the School that is trying to cheat death?  Only one Nonman despite the number of Erratics in their service and the effectiveness of the Inverse Fire?  The Nonmen could be too damaged, by why no other humans?

Fair enough, I get the principle you're conveying.

I'd probably also suggest some kind of mechanic, call it a 'red shirt' points, to pass off attacks on the PC as having happened to some NPC hireling/follower instead. So the brutality of the attack is underlined with someone getting killed - instead of the javalin merely grazing the side of the PC's head and KOing them, spend a redshirt point and it goes through the neck of an NPC follower, leaving them thrashing on the ground grasping at the dread intrusion. Possibly redshirt points recover over time or from some game play event, while fate points don't (ala warhammer fantasy)

This is also a good choice.  Only War, the 40K RPG where you play Imperial Guard, implements both Fate Points and red shirt points with its Comrade System which bulks up the party with useful NPCs that are quick and easy to run (the mostly give bonuses to players and eat bullets) which allows an IG game to have IG grade casualties with out excessive numbers of PC deaths.  Yes, because someone will want to know, the commissar can buff the party by executing a Comrade to encourage the survivors.

Earwa is going to be a fairly lethal system, in order to accurate simulate the source material.  Depending on mechanics it will be based on, it may or may not be save or die.  Plenty of RPGs manage this.  Shadowrun (which uses karma as fate points) manages this, Warhammer has already been mentioned, and so on and so forth.  Lots of things can kill easily, even if you're a stone badass.  It's not just Chorae and Sorcerers or Sorcerers cooking people, its Cnauir ur Skeotha cutting people down or the Captain eating an arrow or some poor bastard getting in Saubon's way or dodging left when he should have gone right when the Bashrag brought the hammer down.  Whatever the system, it needs to be able to handle high lethality without excessive player death.  So yes, fate points and red shirt points are both good ideas.

I'm not even going to try.  The Darkness that Comes Before is my least favorite because so much of it is set up as opposed to pay off, but it is still great.  When the Scylvendi are undone and when the Sky Spy taunts Akka with "Chigra! Chigra Mandati!" remain two of my favorite moments. 

Quote from: Cynical Cat on July 31, 2017, 11:38:19 am

Being damned isn't the same as having the Mark.

As far as I remember Mimara always strongly connected a sorcerer's damnation with their Mark. At least that was my reading of her judgments. It always seemed very interesting to me.

The Mark is certainly a strong part of it with Akka and Cleric, but let us remember what Kelhus said about damnation and premeditation.  Serwa doesn't see most people as real and Kelhus mentioned seeing people as instruments was the path to damnation.  Serwa's likely to be extremely guilty of that.  As for Mimara seeing her as being a Ciphrang while living, that's also the territory of Cnaiur and the Captain and neither of them were sorcerers.

I'm using one of his images of Kelhus as my screen background.

Remember, artificiality doesn't affect whether or not you have a soul.  The Skin Spy who was able to work sorcery had a soul and so do a few apes and whales.  Yes, the Inchoroi had souls.  As for the number "a thousand thousand", that's simply a chronicler's way of saying "there's a fuckton of those bastards."  Numbers are really unreliable in pre modern history (and that's ignoring the arguments one can have over numbers and statistics.)

The Judging Eye doesn't see with modern, real world morality it sees with the morality of Old Testament God(s).  Women are less than men, dogs are unclean, and its moral to for powerful people to avenge wrongs done to their children with mass slaughter.  It's one of the reasons that damnation galls:  not only is the fate of most, but the judgement criteria is manifestly unjust.  Esmenet's crimes are the crimes of a prostitute, an empress, and a mother.  The second and third are probably allowable under the Tusk and as for the first, while whores are condemned in the Tusk notice who Ajokli is married to.  The rules are never the same for the mighty.

As for the Second Apocalypse, well that's the name of this board.  Is anyone really that surprised that it occurred?  The first one was survived.  All hope is not yet lost.