Alexis Kennedy's Cultist Simulator

Fallen London
401

Thinking about the whole Arthurian legend thing, I thought of another Hour that mysteriously hasn’t been touched on much.

The Witch-and-Sister is likely a reference to Morgan le Fay. Morgan was King Arthur’s sister and was also an infamous witch. Also, despite masterminding the majority of the horrible things that happened to the knights of the Round Table, she somehow managed to get away totally untouched. The Witch-and-Sister can’t be touched, remember?

As for why the Mother-of-Ants hates her/their guts, it probably has to do with their respective spheres. MoA opens the way to places for a fee, but WaS just flat out cannot be touched. Ever.

[quote=JoelMB12]But it would be incredibly dangerous to dream. I wonder why it dangerous for long to dream. If they cannot dream can they still travel MANSUS? See from the Kickstarter page it it seems to imply you can become an Hour.
edited by JoelMB12 on 2/17/2018[/quote]

The Long seem to have taken it upon themselves to hunt the Hours and their mortal servants, so it’s reasonable to assume that the Hours don’t exactly like them either, especially the Colonel. I’d think that a Long choosing to dream would essentially be the same thing as them slathering themselves in barbecue sauce, sticking an apple in their mouth, and lying down on the Red Grail’s dinner table at suppertime.

I was wondering when someone was going to bring up the Growth post. I totally missed that Parsival was mentioned there. We had so fewer pieces of this puzzle to work with before I just brushed it off with all the other things that lacked meaning without more context.

It seems more likely now that &quotParsival&quot was a mortal servant or less likely perhaps a mortal incarnation of the Grail. Since Galmier is living under a knightly pseudonym now as well, perhaps &quotknighthood&quot is a title cultists can obtain through their service to their respective Hours?

What’s also interesting about that post is it’s offhand references to the Stag Door. It’s not explained what it is exactly, but there’s something about the process of passing the door that first requires someone to pass through the White Door multiple times. Perhaps there are clues to the Riddle that can only be found on the other side? Maybe what Door you go through determines what entities you contact? Perhaps you need to first build up a tolerance to passing through the Doors, like how people trying to climb Mount Everest have to make trips up and down the mountain constantly to prepare their bodies so they don’t die from going so high all at once? Brings to mind the quote from one of the lorebooks in the game &quot35th time the bud, 36th the blossom&quot.

Also interesting to note that the Bounds are still technically part of the Mansus, but from there Parsival still needs to go through the White Door to… get into the Mansus? That’s the sort of dream logic that will drive you insane right there. Adds credence to the idea that there’s someone/something on the other side of the Door whose help you need to go any higher in the House of the Sun.

I’d also wager the Higher you go, the more costly the tolls of the Doors become. The many ways through the Wood don’t seem to cost much assuming you find them, but start you at the very bottom of the House. Also you have to walk through the Wood, which is well established as chaotic and dangerous. The White Door gets you in the middle of the House, but it takes away your voice, which would likely limit what sort of exploration and interaction you can do on the other side. The Stag Door turns you into a Know, with all the unknown benefits and drawbacks that brings. And the &quotFront Door&quot… yeesh.

402

[quote=Edward Warren]Thinking about the whole Arthurian legend thing, I thought of another Hour that mysteriously hasn’t been touched on much.

The Witch-and-Sister is likely a reference to Morgan le Fay. Morgan was King Arthur’s sister and was also an infamous witch. Also, despite masterminding the majority of the horrible things that happened to the knights of the Round Table, she somehow managed to get away totally untouched. The Witch-and-Sister can’t be touched, remember?

As for why the Mother-of-Ants hates her/their guts, it probably has to do with their respective spheres. MoA opens the way to places for a fee, but WaS just flat out cannot be touched. Ever.

[quote=JoelMB12]But it would be incredibly dangerous to dream. I wonder why it dangerous for long to dream. If they cannot dream can they still travel MANSUS? See from the Kickstarter page it it seems to imply you can become an Hour.
edited by JoelMB12 on 2/17/2018[/quote]

The Long seem to have taken it upon themselves to hunt the Hours and their mortal servants, so it’s reasonable to assume that the Hours don’t exactly like them either, especially the Colonel. I’d think that a Long choosing to dream would essentially be the same thing as them slathering themselves in barbecue sauce, sticking an apple in their mouth, and lying down on the Red Grail’s dinner table at suppertime.

I was wondering when someone was going to bring up the Growth post. I totally missed that Parsival was mentioned there. We had so fewer pieces of this puzzle to work with before I just brushed it off with all the other things that lacked meaning without more context.

It seems more likely now that &quotParsival&quot was a mortal servant or less likely perhaps a mortal incarnation of the Grail. Since Galmier is living under a knightly pseudonym now as well, perhaps &quotknighthood&quot is a title cultists can obtain through their service to their respective Hours?

What’s also interesting about that post is it’s offhand references to the Stag Door. It’s not explained what it is exactly, but there’s something about the process of passing the door that first requires someone to pass through the White Door multiple times. Perhaps there are clues to the Riddle that can only be found on the other side? Maybe what Door you go through determines what entities you contact? Perhaps you need to first build up a tolerance to passing through the Doors, like how people trying to climb Mount Everest have to make trips up and down the mountain constantly to prepare their bodies so they don’t die from going so high all at once? Brings to mind the quote from one of the lorebooks in the game &quot35th time the bud, 36th the blossom&quot.

Also interesting to note that the Bounds are still technically part of the Mansus, but from there Parsival still needs to go through the White Door to… get into the Mansus? That’s the sort of dream logic that will drive you insane right there. Adds credence to the idea that there’s someone/something on the other side of the Door whose help you need to go any higher in the House of the Sun.

I’d also wager the Higher you go, the more costly the tolls of the Doors become. The many ways through the Wood don’t seem to cost much assuming you find them, but start you at the very bottom of the House. Also you have to walk through the Wood, which is well established as chaotic and dangerous. The White Door gets you in the middle of the House, but it takes away your voice, which would likely limit what sort of exploration and interaction you can do on the other side. The Stag Door turns you into a Know, with all the unknown benefits and drawbacks that brings. And the &quotFront Door&quot… yeesh.[/quote]

How can you answer a riddle when you have no voice.

403

Excuse me, from distracting from the lore but as someone who was too late to back the kickstarter(and can’t buy from itch.io), how much will the game cost at launch(on steam)? Can I presume that the Perpetual Edition will be priced differently from what it costs now?
Anyways back to lurking.Thanks
Edit:
edited by confounding on 2/21/2018

404

[quote=confounding]Excuse me from distracting from the lore but as someone who was too late to back the kickstarter(and can’t buy from itch.io), how much will the game cost at launch(on steam)? Can I presume that the Perpetual Edition will be priced differently from what it costs now?
Anyways back to lurking.[/quote]
Perpetual Edition will be the available option for a week after launch. It will probably cost slightly more than the itch.io version, but not a huge amount. $20 at most, I would expect, but maybe less.

Also, I have received confirmation that the bit about the player being a Know and the Know being distinguished by the Secret Histories is, indeed, a leftover from the original version, and will be corrected with the Adept’s Build to fit with current canon.

405

[quote=illuminati swag (Benthic)][quote=confounding]Excuse me from distracting from the lore but as someone who was too late to back the kickstarter(and can’t buy from itch.io), how much will the game cost at launch(on steam)? Can I presume that the Perpetual Edition will be priced differently from what it costs now?
Anyways back to lurking.[/quote]
Perpetual Edition will be the available option for a week after launch. It will probably cost slightly more than the itch.io version, but not a huge amount. $20 at most, I would expect, but maybe less.

Also, I have received confirmation that the bit about the player being a Know and the Know being distinguished by the Secret Histories is, indeed, a leftover from the original version, and will be corrected with the Adept’s Build to fit with current canon.[/quote]
That was bothering me for ages!

406

Huuuuuge drop of game stuff on Twitter today! Lots of information on potential followers. This one in particular caught my eye.

[spoiler]


Twitter text: saliba, by contrast, is taking very particular notice of your face, your clothes, the way you check your watch, so the Family can find you the moment he’s out.[/spoiler]
And judging by his affiliation with the god of blood. If this guy isn’t some sort of vampire, I’ll eat my left foot (which would no doubt please The Great Mother immensely).
edited by Edward Warren on 2/22/2018

407

Well, it’s nice to know that none of your recruits could well be more formidable than you, and scheming to absorb your tender cultlet into their own (that said, I hope this game takes the same firm line on vampires that FL does on Batman). Late Edit: alas, it seems I was wrong, based on the new Grail card. Bloody vampires. I like the Magna Mater dumplings, though. And the pomegranates. I don’t think I’ll be trying the canapés:

More findings from Cultist Simulator: Down the Wikihole:

‘Megalesian’/‘Mountain-Mother’

From vol. 3 of The Orchid Transfigurations:

&quotA long dialogue between the Mountain-Mother and the Vigilant Storm describes the ways in which both mountains and storms end, and the protections they use against those ends.”

&quot’But we must use the knife,’ said the Lion-Throned One, ‘the noose, the flame, the Waking Word, against those who have passed the Three-Valved Door. And so none may pass: that is our Law, and the Law of the Sun.’&quot

In Classical mythology, the title ‘Mountain-Mother’ already has a holder, Cybele.

Cybele is usually shown seated on a lion throne, and is ancient: it’s a fair guess that the 8000-year-old cat-enthroned goddess of prehistoric Çatalhöyük could be her. Much later, she became the Roman goddess of city walls – they imported her during the desperate times of Second Punic War, when Hannibal nearly finished them off. The word ‘Megalesian’ refers to Cybele’s Roman rites.

But confusingly, ‘A Megalesian Incantation’ is Grail Lore, with the associated notion in the Orchid Transfigurations that the Mountain-Mother is ancient enough to be midwife at the birth of another Hour:

‘Seek the Cup in the birthing-bed,’ the Pine-Knight is told. The Midwife at the birthing-bed, to his amazement, is the Mountain-Mother. In a fit of awe, he both gelds and flays himself. The Vigilant Storm bursts joyfully from the remains.’

There is nothing in the current list of Hours that I can definitely match with the ‘Mountain-Mother’, except that she probably can’t be the Red Grail for the reasons above. Cybele is sometimes associated with axes – like every third or fourth ancient deity, really.

The ‘Vigilant Storm’ is another difficulty. The Thunderskin already has one alias – The Heart Relentless – and an overlapping origin-myth involving a flayed skin. But all three could very conceivably be the same Hour, especially as the Thunderskin’s card is so storm-ridden.

‘Iguvine’ – refers to only one thing: the Iguvine tablets, seven cast-bronze slabs embossed with instructions for performing sacrifices, in one of the many extinct languages related to Latin. They were dug up in the C15 and originally, there were nine – I wonder where the missing ones are?

Even by early Roman times, few scholars could properly read any of these languages. I thought the match must be exact when I found that ‘Iguvine’ (probably Umbrian, since ancient Iguvium/modern Gubbio is located in Umbria) has links to the notion of Thunder:

The Umbrian people are thought the oldest in Italy; they are believed to have been called Ombrii (here, &quotthe people of the thunderstorm,&quot after ὅμβρος, &quotthunderstorm&quot) by the Greeks because they survived the deluge (literally &quotthe inundation of the lands by thunderstorms, imbribus).

But again, the Iguvine Rite is Knock lore, not Heart lore. So perhaps things aren’t quite as obsessively historically-connected as all that.

‘Fucine’ – I don’t think ‘Fucine’ quite refers to a real-life language, but it’s pretty close to being Marsian (which has a name confusingly redolent of Little Green Men, as good a reason as any for not using it). The Marsi were a pre-Roman tribe whose territory contained the Fucine Lake, home of the Witch-and-Sister in CS, and of the cult of the snake-goddess Angitia in the real world, and of another bronze tablet which our forbears seem to have casually dropped here and there like old copies of Metro.

‘Intercalate’ – others have already mentioned this, but it has a very specific meaning: to insert additional days into a calendar. ‘Give us back our 11 days’ proto-urban-legends aside, the days just get re-numbered. Unless you are mates with something called The Forge of Days, perhaps.

One more picture: the Twin Goddess of Çatalhöyük, who like its big-cat-enthroned Lady is about 8000 years old. Not that I suppose this strange conjoined figurine is the prototype of the in-game Witch-and-Sister, but it does show that it’s hard to be 100% original where weird iconography is concerned:

One link for Anne Auclair, whom sadly we cannot yet recruit in-game:

the Suppression Bureau of 186BC. Now I’ve seen the Red Grail card, maybe those early Romans had a point.

408

Well, it’s nice to know that none of your recruits could well be more formidable than you, and scheming to absorb your tender cultlet into their own (that said, I hope this game takes the same firm line on vampires that FL does on Batman). Late Edit: alas, it seems I was wrong, based on the new Grail card. Bloody vampires. I like the Magna Mater dumplings, though. And the pomegranates. I don’t think I’ll be trying the canapés:

More findings from Cultist Simulator: Down the Wikihole:

‘Megalesian’/‘Mountain-Mother’

From vol. 3 of The Orchid Transfigurations:

&quotA long dialogue between the Mountain-Mother and the Vigilant Storm describes the ways in which both mountains and storms end, and the protections they use against those ends.”

&quot’But we must use the knife,’ said the Lion-Throned One, ‘the noose, the flame, the Waking Word, against those who have passed the Three-Valved Door. And so none may pass: that is our Law, and the Law of the Sun.’&quot

In Classical mythology, the title ‘Mountain-Mother’ already has a holder, Cybele.

Cybele is usually shown seated on a lion throne, and is ancient: it’s a fair guess that the 8000-year-old cat-enthroned goddess of prehistoric Çatalhöyük could be her. Much later, she became the Roman goddess of city walls – they imported her during the desperate times of Second Punic War, when Hannibal nearly finished them off. The word ‘Megalesian’ refers to Cybele’s Roman rites.

But confusingly, ‘A Megalesian Incantation’ is Grail Lore, with the associated notion in the Orchid Transfigurations that the Mountain-Mother is ancient enough to be midwife at the birth of another Hour:

‘Seek the Cup in the birthing-bed,’ the Pine-Knight is told. The Midwife at the birthing-bed, to his amazement, is the Mountain-Mother. In a fit of awe, he both gelds and flays himself. The Vigilant Storm bursts joyfully from the remains.’

There is nothing in the current list of Hours that I can definitely match with the ‘Mountain-Mother’, except that she probably can’t be the Red Grail for the reasons above. Cybele is sometimes associated with axes – like every third or fourth ancient deity, really.

The ‘Vigilant Storm’ is another difficulty. The Thunderskin already has one alias – The Heart Relentless – and an overlapping origin-myth involving a flayed skin. But all three could very conceivably be the same Hour, especially as the Thunderskin’s card is so storm-ridden.

‘Iguvine’ – refers to only one thing: the Iguvine tablets, seven cast-bronze slabs embossed with instructions for performing sacrifices, in one of the many extinct languages related to Latin. They were dug up in the C15 and originally, there were nine – I wonder where the missing ones are?

Even by early Roman times, few scholars could properly read any of these languages. I thought the match must be exact when I found that ‘Iguvine’ (probably Umbrian, since ancient Iguvium/modern Gubbio is located in Umbria) has links to the notion of Thunder:

The Umbrian people are thought the oldest in Italy; they are believed to have been called Ombrii (here, &quotthe people of the thunderstorm,&quot after ὅμβρος, &quotthunderstorm&quot) by the Greeks because they survived the deluge (literally &quotthe inundation of the lands by thunderstorms, imbribus).

But again, the Iguvine Rite is Knock lore, not Heart lore. So perhaps things aren’t quite as obsessively historically-connected as all that.

‘Fucine’ – I don’t think ‘Fucine’ quite refers to a real-life language, but it’s pretty close to being Marsian (which has a name confusingly redolent of Little Green Men, as good a reason as any for not using it). The Marsi were a pre-Roman tribe whose territory contained the Fucine Lake, home of the Witch-and-Sister in CS, and of the cult of the snake-goddess Angitia in the real world, and of another bronze tablet which our forbears seem to have casually dropped here and there like old copies of Metro.

‘Intercalate’ – others have already mentioned this, but it has a very specific meaning: to insert additional days into a calendar. ‘Give us back our 11 days’ proto-urban-legends aside, the days just get re-numbered. Unless you are mates with something called The Forge of Days, perhaps.

One more picture: the Twin Goddess of Çatalhöyük, who like its big-cat-enthroned Lady is about 8000 years old. Not that I suppose this strange conjoined figurine is the prototype of the in-game Witch-and-Sister, but it does show that it’s hard to be 100% original where weird iconography is concerned:

One link for Anne Auclair, whom sadly we cannot yet recruit in-game:

the Suppression Bureau of 186BC. Now I’ve seen the Red Grail card, maybe those early Romans had a point.[/quote]
I hate to be that guy but is he eating a phallus? If so it’s still appropriate.

409

Oh-ho!

Even besides the fact The Red Grail is my favorite Hour, this card has got to be my favorite of the lot so far. I love everything about this card. Like Alexis said on twitter, the longer you look at it, the more horrible it gets (in a good way). So much symbolism even in such a confined space, such vibrancy even with a limited range of color! It’s literally quite a feast for the eyes.

I particularly love how overall the card almost seems to be telling a story with it’s use of depth and limited color scheme. The further into the image we go, the clearer it becomes this isn’t just a portrayal of an Hour. No, it’s also an illustration of a descent into madness.

Between its rich use of reds and position in the forefront, the tempting feast is the first thing the viewer sees when they look at the card. At first glance, all is warm and inviting, and it’s tempting to imagine oneself indulging in the spread. This is probably the same thing a beginner occultist might imagine when they first learn of The Grail as well. They imagine the otherworldly power and riches they stand to gain from embarking down this this most foolish of roads. And the patronage of a god whose rites revolve around hunger and feasting does sound appealing… if one doesn’t dwell too long on the deeper implications of such powerful desires.

Next we have the two figures directly behind the feast. The deep darkness of their silhouettes draws the eye, and makes them clearly stand out against the background. These two figures symbolizee those who are just beginning or perhaps middling in their rites to the Grail. Seemingly unaware or disinterested in the reality of what’s going on around them, they focus solely on satisfying their desires. They eat and drink with wild abandon. It is at this point however the appetites likely set in. For the Grail isn’t just the god of feasting, oh no. It is lust, an endless and ever deepening appetite that can never truly be sated. Surely such a god wouldn’t be satisfied for long with the indulgence of simple food and drink. Hungers deepen, appetites grow evermore depraved and perverted, and there is an all-pervading need for more…

Finally, we have the late or perhaps final stage of Grail madness. Hidden almost in plain sight by use of shadow and light and faded colors, these figures almost seem to fade into the background. Against the vibrance of the rest of the card, it’s almost a conscious effort at first to look at the background and see what exactly is going on. Here we have the grim reality of the Grail, an existence defined solely by hunger taken to its logical conclusion. Here we have people attacking and eating each other in a vampiric display of cannibalism and brutality. All that seems to matter is the satisfaction of these ever deepening desires, that only seem to grow more twisted the further in we go.

And over it all, we have The Face. The disembodies head of a woman is floating over the whole scene. A crown like the lips of a cup adorns her head, and mountains, forests, lions, and waves can be seen in her hair. Her hair seems to arc over and envelop the whole scene, and despite seeming to be in the background a steam of blood from her mouth reaches into the foreground the fill the red cup on the table. There’s some nice symbolism in the cup as well, as it casts a long shadow over the rest of the room despite its size, again drawing the eye inexorably through the scene up back towards The Face. This whole section just shows how the Grail’s influence permeates everything going in on this scene. It isn’t just depraved hungers, it is all hunger.

It’s art like this that really gets me sucked into these projects. You can’t help but appreciate the amount of detail that the artists put into this work, and you can’t help but catch some of that enthusiasm yourself. And I’m just scratching the surface of the symbolism here. I didn’t intend this post to be so long, but the more I wrote I just felt this need to continue, and even now I don’t feel quite done if anyone else wants to chime in.

…May The White take you, I can’t unsee it now!

It was clearly a hook in one of the early sketches, I’d presume they dulled it and changed it’s overall shape to make the Grail=Hook=Eye comparison less obvious. And yes, I can’t help but feel it’s grossly appropriate if this was intentional.

Ah, Great Mother. How you both attract and repulse me so…

410

[quote=Vexpont]‘Iguvine’ – refers to only one thing: the Iguvine tablets, seven cast-bronze slabs embossed with instructions for performing sacrifices, in one of the many extinct languages related to Latin. They were dug up in the C15 and originally, there were nine – I wonder where the missing ones are?

Even by early Roman times, few scholars could properly read any of these languages. I thought the match must be exact when I found that ‘Iguvine’ (probably Umbrian, since ancient Iguvium/modern Gubbio is located in Umbria) has links to the notion of Thunder:

The Umbrian people are thought the oldest in Italy; they are believed to have been called Ombrii (here, &quotthe people of the thunderstorm,&quot after ὅμβρος, &quotthunderstorm&quot) by the Greeks because they survived the deluge (literally &quotthe inundation of the lands by thunderstorms, imbribus).

But again, the Iguvine Rite is Knock lore, not Heart lore. So perhaps things aren’t quite as obsessively historically-connected as all that.[/quote]There’s something to be said about how the Knock principle is generally associated with peeling back the skin of the world (which is in turn governed by the Heart principle and the Thunderskin) to unlock greater mysteries and how that might be mirrored by Ombrii being survivors of a thunderstorm-caused (again, Thunderskin) natural disaster.

Both can be interpreted as a fight against aspects of the Hour and winning: Either by unlocking the Rites needed to open Doors into the Mansus or living through a nation-defining deluge.

411

Hey everyone, the Adept’s Build is scheduled for release next week ^_^

Also, the Society of Midnight has been changed to the Society of the Holy Wound, which is &quotdedicated to the Hours which open doors.” Not surprising, as the Hour of Midnight was later determined to be the Moth, which didn’t really fit Knock when it was already the defining Hour of the Wood.

Interestingly, I stumbled onto the following Knock prayer due to what is probably a bug with the Disciple promotion process:

'To she who was flesh, I offer my wounds. To she who was stone, I offer this moment, where my old self divides from my new. To she who came from Light, I offer my secrets. The door is opened.”

A whole lot of goddesses. The first one is obviously the Mother of Ants. I’m pretty confident that the second one is the Twins (it’s not just the division of two selves that gives it away, but also “pearl, coral, amber” - stone). The third goddess though is a complete mystery, one of the many Hours we have yet to learn about.

Lastly, here’s a compilation of the last week’s worth of screenshots, with some added comments (by me). Most of the art is placeholder, but the writing is great.

[spoiler]The path of the Wood is really metal; it brings to mind a sort of bizarro Buddhism, where you obliterate yourself by removing everything except your deepest, most destructive desires and cravings. You cut away everything that prevents you from throwing yourself into the flame.

So the Lionsmith is one of the youngest Hours (perhaps the youngest, period), while the Colonel is among the most ancient. There are two things to take away from this. First, the Edge has not always been defined by an unrelenting civil war – as with the Sun’s Division, this is a relatively recent occurrence. Second, the conflict in the Edge has elements of a generational struggle, with one of the oldest Hours and his Names pitted against one of the youngest Hours and his Names. I also wonder if this war is being fought for a higher purpose than deciding who dominates, Colonel or Lionsmith. Does the conflict have any larger implications for the structure and governing of the House?

1026×631 81.2 KB

1024×584 82.9 KB

1013×602 77.7 KB

There was a headquarters mechanic in the pre-Alpha, requiring your cult to find a home before it could do certain things. That mechanic was absent from the Alpha and has been so far absent from the Beta, but it seems set to make a comeback in the Adepts build.

758×373 29 KB

The various ins and outs of managing your followers are becoming clear. While all followers are capable of performing any given occult task, some followers are far better suited to certain tasks than others owing to their respective governing principles. If you want an assassination or a burglary, you’d have the highest chance of success sending a cunning follower – which means someone aligned with the Edge. If you need to lure more people to your cult, then a follower with a charismatic and enticing presence is what is called for – and the Grail is the principle of seductive traps. Followers will also assist you when performing rituals – if a ritual, say, called for a level 4 Moth and you happen to have Porter as a Disciple, you could get the requisite Moth power through having Porter assist you, willingly or otherwise.

1422×824 95.1 KB

Power can come from artifacts, ingredients, lore, influences, followers, and daemons – what seems most important is that you get the principles and numerical quantities right.

More books!

1000×200 47.3 KB

[/spoiler]
edited by Anne Auclair on 2/24/2018

412

The Adept’s Build is going to have a lot of new cultists. Here’s a few of them ^_^

I think Violent easily eclipses Tristan for the title of creepiest Cultist - though Saliba is a close second and may yet surpass her.
.
edited by Anne Auclair on 2/24/2018

413

Just going to point out this cultist who’s hiding behind the token window in a couple of screenshots.

Given that she is called &quota Reshaper&quot, I’m guessing she’s a 3rd level follower, like Violet’s final form, or Renira, and has the principle of the Forge.
edited by PsychicNRG on 2/24/2018

414

&quotThe Fourth Mark is the light that is found in the eyes, but it is very subtle. Most can see it only when the lamps are extinguished or the night is very dark; although when I open my eyes very wide, more light leaks out. I am growing thinner.&quot

Got to admit, having your eyes glow sounds pretty cool.

415

Me this time tomorrow:

Two suppression bureau agents sitting at a park bench.

Suppression Bureau agent 1: Oi, mate. There’s this guy going around town lately. Started a dinner club called &quotThe Society of the Bloody Cup&quot. I heard he’s been going around talking about &quotthe coming of a higher power&quot… Think we should investigate him?

Edward Warren: runs by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lct6x-XqWrw

Agent 2: pauses, pulls out and counts a wad of cash Nnnnoopppe.

416

The Adept’s Build has been released on Steam and itch! Patch notes here.
The ones that aren’t bug-fixes are in the spoiler below.

[ul][li]Followers can be promoted further than before, and to unique Aspect-based specialisms;

[/li][li]The Society of St Hydra reveres all Aspects and none;
[/li][li]Influences, ingredients and tools are now in-game, allowing you to create all 10 possible Rites, and giving you a mountain of lore to mine at the foot of the Wood;
[/li][li]Summon a dozen different eldritch creatures to defeat Investigators and destroy Evidence; [although until the Explorer’s Build drops next month, you may find it difficult to gather everything you need.]
[/li][li]Dozens of new lore fragments implemented. If you find the right ones, research can take you all the way;
[/li][li]Appetites/end game magic are implemented, allowing you to follow the paths of Power, Sensation or Enlightenment (some at unspeakable cost);
[/li][li]You can now use Talk to send Followers to snatch strangers from the street, work for hire, burglarise the rich, and other dastardly deeds;
[/li][li]New music in-game, including end-game music, impending doom music and additional background music;
[/li][li]New art in-game, including unique art for all Lore fragments, Lore articles, ascensions, cults, evidence, prisoners, influences, ingredients, Rites, language scholarship, tools and creatures;
[/li][li]New NPCs: introducing Auclair, Cat, Elridge, Laidlaw, Porter, Renira, Saliba, Slee, Sylvia, Valciane, Violet, Ysabet, DCI Hat and Mr Policeman;
[/li][li]Revamped title screen;
[/li][li]Shinies! (particle effects, soft lighting on verbs and smoky animation when tokens disappear now in);
[/li][li]Player options are now in-game, including music/sfx volume sliders, windows duration settings, and an all-important bird/worm distinction; [NB: not currently saved between sessions]
[/li][li]Updated inspection windows UI;
[/li][li]When you’ve exhausted Morland’s Shop, you know about it;
[/li][/ul]

I’m interested as to what the bird/worm distinction does. Preliminary experimentation doesn’t show any changes, but this is early in a new save so I wouldn’t necessarily expect anything.
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/26/2018

417

Does anyone have a clue how to get any of the rituals? Studying each piece of lore alone does nothing for me, and when I combine lore I either get nothing or a slightly better single piece of lore that does nothing for me. Help?

418

You’ll need some Forge to do it, I think.

419

Using two of the identical lore type will always get you the next higher upgrade to that Lore type, instead of a ritual. (There were a few certain other combos which also gave you an upgraded Lore, previously - for example Watchman’s Secret with either Barber’s Warning or Locksmith’s Secret would give you a Mansus-Glimpse, same as studying two Watchman’s Secrets.) While the details of which Lore gets you a ritual might have changed, what with the addition of many new rituals, each time it’s involved a combination of two different types of Lore.

420

I made a google doc with the text for all the followers. It’s currently got all Acquaintance and Believer descriptions, as well as Disciple texts for Moth Followers. The doc is open to editing, so feel free to fill in any missing info.

EDIT: Now includes Disciples and Skintwisters.
edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 2/27/2018