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Behold my true power and despair!
Just have Smoking Aces on the telly as I type this up. It is quite weird that USA would choose to "premiere" it for the first time at 11pm. But its still odd to to see Jack, Richard, and Keamy from Lost in this, all with weird mustaches.
Finally finished reading through MoEP: Infernals. Some other stuff I left out in the undead vs demon comparison:
Striders!- After the Usurpation, the majority of Royal warstriders were lost. And even the mighty Realm only has common and noble warstriders. Lookshy does have several noble warstriders, as well as a few of the mighty royal warstriders, though only one of those is Jade. Two are Orichalcum, which Lookshy is only holding on to so the recently exalted Solars can't get their hands on them. And the last, a Soulsteel one, is actually a trojan horse The Lover let get captured. Not only does it contain a couple of vials of a virulent plague hidden within, that she hopes Lookshy engineers will accidentally unleash in their attempts to reverse-engineer it, but every single piece contains a hungry ghost hibernating within, that the Lover hopes to release at an opportune moment to devastate the city with a surprise attack. But all in all, the methods of building noble and royal warstriders have been long lost to the ages.
The Underworld has no such problem. The Deathlords (heck, and other souls who died in the First Age) fully remember such techniques. So they have no shortage of Soulsteel warstriders of the noble and royal variety. Additionally, they also have bonestriders, which are a less resilient but less cumbersome than the metal warstriders found in the overworld and easier to mass produce. Additionally, being made of corpse-stuff, Nemissaries are totally able to possess them!
The demon world on the other hand, has Hellstriders. Created of a skeleton of hellish metals and 5 demons to make its "flesh", these gestalts are actually more powerful than your typical warstrider. The first circle versions are built from the souls of 5 first circle demons, possessing attributes of each. They're comparable to a common warstrider, but they also have some of the charms of the demons that it was forged from. Second circles are built from a second circle demon and four first circles and are comparable to a noble warstrider, though with their access to charms, they're closer to a royal. Finally, there's the third circle, forged from four second circle demons with an actual third circle demon at its heart. Obviously, a yozi is very reluctant to sacrifice a third circle soul in such a matter, but these things are few and far between. These are even more powerful than the royal warstriders, with power comparable to the third circle demon that its made of!
Now, what makes these hellstriders so much more powerful than warstriders are not only do they make the demon charms of the demons that comprise it available to their pilots, the pilot can telepathically send it off to fight on its own while he handles his own business. Even crazier, these things can suffer limit, as well as limit breaks, at which point they go berserk and start slaughtering enemies mercilessly (think Neon Genesis Evangelion when Shinji lost control of his unit).
Backing- as said before, Infernals and Abyssals have the backing of a powerful yozi or deathlord, ready to lavish equipment, troops, and what have you on them. Though, the Yozi seem more generous, with GSPs getting 1 level of backing, influence, and cult for free in addition to their normal stuff.
Anyways, there are only 100 or so Abyssals, the number the Deathlords were able to retrieve from the Jade Prison. But they're also able to capture current solar exaltations and trap them in a Monstrance of Celestial Portion to corrupt them into new Abyssals. There are only 50 GSPs total though, and unlike the Deathlords, they have no way to corrupt Solars into more. (Luckily, the Deathlords can't "corrupt" GSPs into Abyssals) Also, GSP and DKs' exaltations don't float off free upon their host's death like that of the Solars. DK exaltations return to their Monstrance, whereas GSP exaltations return to the Phylactery Womb, the Scarlett Empress' youngest daughter, sacrificed to the Yozis to become a horrid thing.
Again, stat wise, Solars, DKs, and GSPs are the same, and their charms are comparable. In addition to the backing though, Abyssals can get Whispers, wherein a Neverborn whispers maddening things that provide insight and help with matters they find at hand. While helpful, these are dark, horrid, insane ramblings that slowly turn the listener insane.
Yozis on the other hand, have something similar, but different. When the Ebon Dragon came up with the method of turning solar exaltations into the Green Sun Princes, he thought it would be such a waste to erase the memories of the exalt's past lives and all those experiences. So, GSPs have a unique background available called past life. Now, this doesn't give them access to all their past lives, but the memories of the host prior to the exaltation's imprisonment in the Jade prison, as Lytek was unable to remove them beforehand. Game mechanics wise, the player and ST agree on a "past Solar life" that the GSP used to be, with a certain skill set that can provide useful bonuses in certain situations. These benefits come at a cost though- there is a chance this past life can awaken and temporarily take over. And it would be none too pleased that it has been turned into a creature evil, and while it has control would rebel against the GSPs Yozi master. There's also the savant background, which is "safer", just providing flashes of the GSP's first age memories, giving him or her bonuses to use technology of that previous age.
Additionally, there's the unwoven coadjutor, the "soul" of the demon that carried the exaltation to the mortal that accepted it and combined with said mortal in the Chrysalis Grotesque (the cocoon in which the mortal "exalts" into a GSP). Its like having a helper in one's head providing useful information and a heightened sense of awareness.
The Akuma- while the Yozis have no way of making new GSPs, they can still offer their power to other exalts (again, except for Abyssals, b/c they don't want to poach them away from the Neverborn and get into conflict with their fallen brethren) in exchange for their souls. In some ways, these Akuma are more powerful than the GSPs. After all, they get to keep their powers of their native exalt type, plus they get access to the infernal charms of their patron (unlike GSPs, they can only get the charms of their patron), as well as any demon charms their patron knows (which the GSPs don't get access to).
Additionally, the Yozi can "rewrite" them as they see fit (OOC wise, in a way the player and ST agree), trading anything (attributes, skills, charms, etc) for their xp equivalent to buy points in other things. Plus, they get a whole bunch of extra xp points up front to buy stuff. Now, this is front loaded, and the player does have to pay off this xp with xp they earn later. But rather than having to save xp and spending it to get more powerful later, they get that power up front. They can also get extra xp buy getting deformities. And in addition to spending xp on the usual stuff (charms, raising atts, skills, and other stuff). They can also spend them on mutations much like the wyld-touched and lunars get, with the benefits those mutations entail.
Now, all this power comes at a price. Unlike the GSPs, the Akuma have no free will, and are a slave to their Yozi master's will. Now, this doesn't make them a mindless automaton unable to do anything else but further master's agenda. But, they're kept on a tighter leash than the GSPs. They can't go against that urge, and unlike the urges of the GSPs, its immutable. (Or rather, the Yozi has to redo the akuma creation process all over again to change it, which means spending all that essence and willpower again, which is a hassle, but for the Akuma, its worse, as its not exactly a painless process, so they have to go through all the suffering of the transformation all over again) So, their master must be careful how they word that urge, as once it becomes impossible, they're basically stuck and slowly go mad.
Additionally, being a slave to the Yozi, they are bound by the same rules as the Yozi. As such, they're subject to the same sanctions put upon the Yozis after they were usurped by the solars and the gods. So, while they can arguably have more power than some GSPs (depending on the type of exalt they are), they're also less free in what they can do, which is why its the Green Sun Princes who are the favored champions of the Yozi.
Oh, and while the DB do have access to the more powerful Infernal charms, they can only use the whole "any number of reflexive charms per action" trick with their terrestrial charms. So its not like they can do a bunch of infernal reflexive charms per turn, they're still limited to only the one unless they make a combo.
Misc: Abyssals do have that pesky issue of not being able to respire essence in creation, though at least they can regain it by going all vampire on people (or with the ravening mouth charms to modify their attacks) and have to do the whole dress in trappings of death or infuse themselves with necrotic essence to not get the minuses for operating in creation.
Infernals have no such issue, able to respire essence in creation quite freely. They don't have a magical material though. There are Malfean materials that Infernal artifacts are made of that are strong as the 5 magical materials, but don't provide bonuses like they do. Well, it would be more accurate to say they both do and don't have a magical material. Artifacts of the magical materials can be "baptized" with the stuff of hell, allowing the infernal to attune to the artifact as normal. So, in that way, they can use any sort of artifact just fine, as long as they corrupt it.
Finally finished reading through MoEP: Infernals. Some other stuff I left out in the undead vs demon comparison:
Striders!- After the Usurpation, the majority of Royal warstriders were lost. And even the mighty Realm only has common and noble warstriders. Lookshy does have several noble warstriders, as well as a few of the mighty royal warstriders, though only one of those is Jade. Two are Orichalcum, which Lookshy is only holding on to so the recently exalted Solars can't get their hands on them. And the last, a Soulsteel one, is actually a trojan horse The Lover let get captured. Not only does it contain a couple of vials of a virulent plague hidden within, that she hopes Lookshy engineers will accidentally unleash in their attempts to reverse-engineer it, but every single piece contains a hungry ghost hibernating within, that the Lover hopes to release at an opportune moment to devastate the city with a surprise attack. But all in all, the methods of building noble and royal warstriders have been long lost to the ages.
The Underworld has no such problem. The Deathlords (heck, and other souls who died in the First Age) fully remember such techniques. So they have no shortage of Soulsteel warstriders of the noble and royal variety. Additionally, they also have bonestriders, which are a less resilient but less cumbersome than the metal warstriders found in the overworld and easier to mass produce. Additionally, being made of corpse-stuff, Nemissaries are totally able to possess them!
The demon world on the other hand, has Hellstriders. Created of a skeleton of hellish metals and 5 demons to make its "flesh", these gestalts are actually more powerful than your typical warstrider. The first circle versions are built from the souls of 5 first circle demons, possessing attributes of each. They're comparable to a common warstrider, but they also have some of the charms of the demons that it was forged from. Second circles are built from a second circle demon and four first circles and are comparable to a noble warstrider, though with their access to charms, they're closer to a royal. Finally, there's the third circle, forged from four second circle demons with an actual third circle demon at its heart. Obviously, a yozi is very reluctant to sacrifice a third circle soul in such a matter, but these things are few and far between. These are even more powerful than the royal warstriders, with power comparable to the third circle demon that its made of!
Now, what makes these hellstriders so much more powerful than warstriders are not only do they make the demon charms of the demons that comprise it available to their pilots, the pilot can telepathically send it off to fight on its own while he handles his own business. Even crazier, these things can suffer limit, as well as limit breaks, at which point they go berserk and start slaughtering enemies mercilessly (think Neon Genesis Evangelion when Shinji lost control of his unit).
Backing- as said before, Infernals and Abyssals have the backing of a powerful yozi or deathlord, ready to lavish equipment, troops, and what have you on them. Though, the Yozi seem more generous, with GSPs getting 1 level of backing, influence, and cult for free in addition to their normal stuff.
Anyways, there are only 100 or so Abyssals, the number the Deathlords were able to retrieve from the Jade Prison. But they're also able to capture current solar exaltations and trap them in a Monstrance of Celestial Portion to corrupt them into new Abyssals. There are only 50 GSPs total though, and unlike the Deathlords, they have no way to corrupt Solars into more. (Luckily, the Deathlords can't "corrupt" GSPs into Abyssals) Also, GSP and DKs' exaltations don't float off free upon their host's death like that of the Solars. DK exaltations return to their Monstrance, whereas GSP exaltations return to the Phylactery Womb, the Scarlett Empress' youngest daughter, sacrificed to the Yozis to become a horrid thing.
Again, stat wise, Solars, DKs, and GSPs are the same, and their charms are comparable. In addition to the backing though, Abyssals can get Whispers, wherein a Neverborn whispers maddening things that provide insight and help with matters they find at hand. While helpful, these are dark, horrid, insane ramblings that slowly turn the listener insane.
Yozis on the other hand, have something similar, but different. When the Ebon Dragon came up with the method of turning solar exaltations into the Green Sun Princes, he thought it would be such a waste to erase the memories of the exalt's past lives and all those experiences. So, GSPs have a unique background available called past life. Now, this doesn't give them access to all their past lives, but the memories of the host prior to the exaltation's imprisonment in the Jade prison, as Lytek was unable to remove them beforehand. Game mechanics wise, the player and ST agree on a "past Solar life" that the GSP used to be, with a certain skill set that can provide useful bonuses in certain situations. These benefits come at a cost though- there is a chance this past life can awaken and temporarily take over. And it would be none too pleased that it has been turned into a creature evil, and while it has control would rebel against the GSPs Yozi master. There's also the savant background, which is "safer", just providing flashes of the GSP's first age memories, giving him or her bonuses to use technology of that previous age.
Additionally, there's the unwoven coadjutor, the "soul" of the demon that carried the exaltation to the mortal that accepted it and combined with said mortal in the Chrysalis Grotesque (the cocoon in which the mortal "exalts" into a GSP). Its like having a helper in one's head providing useful information and a heightened sense of awareness.
The Akuma- while the Yozis have no way of making new GSPs, they can still offer their power to other exalts (again, except for Abyssals, b/c they don't want to poach them away from the Neverborn and get into conflict with their fallen brethren) in exchange for their souls. In some ways, these Akuma are more powerful than the GSPs. After all, they get to keep their powers of their native exalt type, plus they get access to the infernal charms of their patron (unlike GSPs, they can only get the charms of their patron), as well as any demon charms their patron knows (which the GSPs don't get access to).
Additionally, the Yozi can "rewrite" them as they see fit (OOC wise, in a way the player and ST agree), trading anything (attributes, skills, charms, etc) for their xp equivalent to buy points in other things. Plus, they get a whole bunch of extra xp points up front to buy stuff. Now, this is front loaded, and the player does have to pay off this xp with xp they earn later. But rather than having to save xp and spending it to get more powerful later, they get that power up front. They can also get extra xp buy getting deformities. And in addition to spending xp on the usual stuff (charms, raising atts, skills, and other stuff). They can also spend them on mutations much like the wyld-touched and lunars get, with the benefits those mutations entail.
Now, all this power comes at a price. Unlike the GSPs, the Akuma have no free will, and are a slave to their Yozi master's will. Now, this doesn't make them a mindless automaton unable to do anything else but further master's agenda. But, they're kept on a tighter leash than the GSPs. They can't go against that urge, and unlike the urges of the GSPs, its immutable. (Or rather, the Yozi has to redo the akuma creation process all over again to change it, which means spending all that essence and willpower again, which is a hassle, but for the Akuma, its worse, as its not exactly a painless process, so they have to go through all the suffering of the transformation all over again) So, their master must be careful how they word that urge, as once it becomes impossible, they're basically stuck and slowly go mad.
Additionally, being a slave to the Yozi, they are bound by the same rules as the Yozi. As such, they're subject to the same sanctions put upon the Yozis after they were usurped by the solars and the gods. So, while they can arguably have more power than some GSPs (depending on the type of exalt they are), they're also less free in what they can do, which is why its the Green Sun Princes who are the favored champions of the Yozi.
Oh, and while the DB do have access to the more powerful Infernal charms, they can only use the whole "any number of reflexive charms per action" trick with their terrestrial charms. So its not like they can do a bunch of infernal reflexive charms per turn, they're still limited to only the one unless they make a combo.
Misc: Abyssals do have that pesky issue of not being able to respire essence in creation, though at least they can regain it by going all vampire on people (or with the ravening mouth charms to modify their attacks) and have to do the whole dress in trappings of death or infuse themselves with necrotic essence to not get the minuses for operating in creation.
Infernals have no such issue, able to respire essence in creation quite freely. They don't have a magical material though. There are Malfean materials that Infernal artifacts are made of that are strong as the 5 magical materials, but don't provide bonuses like they do. Well, it would be more accurate to say they both do and don't have a magical material. Artifacts of the magical materials can be "baptized" with the stuff of hell, allowing the infernal to attune to the artifact as normal. So, in that way, they can use any sort of artifact just fine, as long as they corrupt it.