Revision as of 09:02, 3 April 2010

Great Curse

These are just a couple of ideas I've come up with as to why Lytek and MoSec haven't said or done anything in regards to the Curse. Feel free to add your own.

• It's actually not just Lytek and MoSec that know; all of the Incarna know. They also know the only way to cure it-- to somehow deliver the Games to the Malfeans. (This is why the Curse hasn't been lifted yet.) -dg

• MoSec discovered the curse when it was first lain, having recognized the threads of the curse in the Loom as the Gods were weaving their protections against any post-mortuum curses that the Malfaens would lay. However, she knows that there's nothing to be done about it until the story has run it's course. She's still trying to find out what that means, if the story has more than one possible ending, and perhaps which of those endings is most beneficial to Yu-Shan. (CrownedSun)

• MoSec is keeping quiet about the curse because she knows that this will cause the Yozis to stick their heads out so far that they can be chopped off. She takes the long view here. (Senji)

• MoSec and Lytek *have* done something about the curse: for example, they've allowed the Abyssal Exalted to happen and continue, in the hopes that dunking a Solar into the Abyss and pulling it out again cleanses it of the Curse. Alternately, they've allowed the Empress, their carefully crafted eugenically perfect Terrestrial, to be accidentally-on-purpose kidnapped into Malfeas. When the Ebon Dragon marries her, she'll then be able to lift the Curse -- if she still wants to. (BTS)

• The Curse isn't really on the Exalted, not directly. It is a curse upon the Celestial Incarna themselves, that they shall be betrayed as they betrayed the Primordials. The Exalted are simply the tools by which the punishment shall be meted out. MoSec and the rest of the Celestial Incarna know that the Curse is inescapable, so they're just frittering away the lonely hours by playing the GoD. That way they don't have to think about their inevitable doom. (Quendalon)

• Lytek does not know MoSec knows; he has not told anyone simply because he doesn't want the tainted shards to somehow lower his position in the beaureau even further. -dg

• Lytek hasn't said anything to anyone else because dealing with matters pertaining to Exaltation is his job, and he's either too proud to ask for help, or he's a small-minded bureaucrat who's incapable of responding outside of normal channels when faced with a Serious Problem. (Raindoll)

• Lytek doesn't do anything about the Curse because the power of the Exalted soul-shards that he handles has long since burned away his mind and free will, and he's little more than a divine automaton interested only in tending his lovelies. He's very upset about the Curse, but doesn't have the capacity for creative thought to actually devise a strategy to correct it. --MF

• MoSec has placed a powerful Geas on Lytek not to tell anyone; she's working on ways to possibly manipulate the Exalts by using the Curse. -dg

• MoSec is in the midst of selling Yu-Shan out to the Yozi, and figures not letting anyone else know about the Curse provides her with a smokescreen with all the gods, spirits and the Exalted rushing around doing damage to the cosmos and unraveling the Yozi's prison. (Patkin}

• MoSec doesn't really know about the Great Curse. Her role as Maiden of Secrets just means it's rattling around her skull, and even she can't put two and two together. She knows something's there, so she just looks smug and all-knowing. (Patkin)

• MoSec doesn't do anything because she's inscrutable and mysteeerious. (Raindoll)

• Lytek does not really see the problem of the Curse; he sees the imperfections and flaws the Great Curse puts on the shards as what makes them beautiful. (Patkin)

• MoSec doesn't do anything about the Curse because her addiction to the Games of Divinity is really as bad as we all joke: she just doesn't care. (Raindoll)

• The only way to break the curse lies outside of fate and beyond the abilities of MoSec or Lytec to affect. (BogMod)

• The Malfeans lie outside of fate, and the Curse is (was; think of the Malfeans leaving bits of themselves behind rather than a link or a tie) part of them as much as it is part of the shards. This blurring of fate and mixing of life and death is what has changed the nature of the game; it allows the Celestial Exalts to act outside of Fate, or, more accurately, it has changed the way Fate works in general, such that the choices of an individual might not necissarily be foreordained. It's what primarily muddies the Sidereals' astrology (specifically, the Sidereal curse muddies Sidereal astrology, because they cannot accept that things are outside of Fate- this would be admitting they cannot aspire to omnicience- and so try to fit things into neat divisions that don't exist). MoSec can't fix it because her plots don't turn out the way she intends in regard to it (and perhaps she suffers from some of her servants' hubris), and Lytek can't fix it because he simply lacks the ability to sever the Curse without destroying the Essence. $.02 &Arafelis

• Because the Sidereal Exalted will never accept that the great curse exists, due to their Great Curse. They will forget about it, and the bureaus of heaven will grind to a halt due to the fact that half of its servants are unable to see reality the way that all the others do. -- (SandJack)

• The Maiden of Secrets and Lytek can't do anything about the Curse because that would have to involve the power of multiple Celestial gods, and the trouble is, if the Exalted loose the trust of Heaven, Heaven looses the only real tool it still has for keeping the world from falling completely apart. So, they sit on the secret, and wait and hope a useful solution will present itself. -Seraph

• Lytek doesn't tell anyone else about the Curse because he's afraid. He was afraid when the Solars were in power that if he spoke up, the source of his power would be eliminated as a threat to the Gods; he's afraid now because he's *sure* it will happen, and he's had enough the first time around. The Maiden of Secrets isn't speaking because it's not her nature to say these things outloud- and because she wants the Exalts to try and solve the problem. The Gods *can't*, because it would involve in some way directly confronting the Malfeans, who are, even in death, wardred against the powers of the Gods. -- (IsawaBrian)

• Some aspect of the Great Curse guarantees its own secrecy. The Maiden of Secrets is so overwhelmed by the pride of the Great Curse that she cannot see her own faults. The Unconquered Sun is similarly affected by some kind of dissociative Limit Break. --TedPro

• The Maiden of Secrets may never tell another being anything. It is not in her nature. The Great Curse is but one of her many secrets. -MeiRen
• The Maiden of Secrets wants the world to end. -MeiRen
• It is a condition of the Great Curse that the Exalted never believe it exists. As such, Lytek and the Maiden of Secrets must manuveur very carefully, attempting to solve the curse without letting any Exalts think they're crazy. -MeiRen
• In a similar vein, the MoSec gains power from secrets, and the Great Curse is a very deep and powerful secret, and is thus a great source of her power. If she reveals the Great Curse it ceases to be a secret and a great portion of her celestial income goes phhht! --Prions

• The Great Curse made it into the spark of Exaltation with the connivance of Autochthon himself, who permits it as a grand experiment - will the Celestial Exalted become capable of removing their own flaws? If they can, then his pride as their "inventor" will be satisfied. If they cannot, he already has their replacements (the Alchemicals) waiting in the wings. Lytek is his willing servant and accomplice in Heaven, and what the Maiden of Secrets knows about removing the Curse is what prevents her from speaking. -- BillGarrett

• Actually, Lytek *is* doing something. He cleans the shards a little each time they come around. Basicly, an exalted 'works through' a bit of the curse every time they reincarnate. How much is related how long they lived.(Because the old life gets 'washed off', and with it, some of the curse). The Solars were pretty old when the Upsurpation happened, so the Second Age version of the Solar curse is much less severe. This is what transformed them from raving tyrants to flawed potential heros. Due to having the most severe version, the Solars also tend to work through it the quickest. The Terrestrial and Siderial versions work a little differently however.
• The Terrestrial version is diluted through breeding(successive generations are weaker), which is why it's now mostly harmless. The worst case left by far was the Scarlet Empress herself, but she's gone now...
• The Siderial version doesn't really get less severe, it just requires a larger group. Unfortunatly, since they tend to live the longest, they've made the least progress in ridding themselves of it. Also, the way theirs works, it will mostly just cease to be a problem when the size reaches a critical threshold.
• This drives MoSec crazy, she can't do anything because her chosen are totally tied up, and she's afraid that if the Exalted find out, they will try to fix it and cause more damage. So she just hopes creation lasts long enough all the Exalted to work through it. (FlowsLikeBits)

• Lytek and MoSec do 'nothing' because in reality, there -is- no 'great curse'. The Exalted go slightly crazy in a myriad of different ways because mortal souls cannot fully controll the fragments of Divine Thought that filter out of the shard, and they allways will. 'Enlightened madness' is simply part of the price one pays for power - The only possible cure to the 'great curse' would be to stop being Exalted.

• Eventually, MoSec knows that the souls of the celestial exalted will 'learn' how to handle the divine virtues and instincts of their shards more compentently. This will take many lifetimes of reincarnation, however, which is one reason why the celestial Incarna allowed the Solars to be killed, as the solars have the potential to create charms of immortality.
• In reality, Lytek -is- doing something - he's stopped 'trimming' the past lives of various shards completely, allowing fragments of memory and techniques to leak into the new lives, in the hopes that the memory of past techniques of self controll and of past failures will speed up the Celestials Learning process.
• The real problem is that the Yozi have a backdoor into the planning and prophecy functions of the Loom and are using it to warp Sidereal Astrological prediction and turn the Exalted against each other in order to bring about the destruction of creation. MoSec knows that -something- is jacking with the Sidereal prophesies, and the maidens as a whole are deliberately provokeing agents from outside fate in an attempt to figure out who is doing it. - Gamlain

• Lytek and the MoSec have told people about it. In particular, since the Gods are bound by their creation-oaths to not go against the Malfeans, there's only one group of beings that could get rid of the curse - the Solars. Last time Lytek and the MoSec got together with the Solars to have a chat about it, there was an ... incident, and a few years later, the MoSec helped incite the Usurpation. Can we say "Someone has a grudge"? More to the point, they've tried to get the Solars to help, but the Solars keep going too crazy just before they get enough power to finally get rid of the curse. - GregLink

• Lytec and MoSec both understand the great curse, and know exactly how to cure it. It wouldn't even be particularly hard. The Celestial Incarna weren't stupid, while they were planning on overthrowing the Primordials, they realized that if they won, the Yozi's would throw nasty curses at them. Thus they created the Exalted, both as soldiers, and as shields. The Incarna could lift the Great Curse pretty easily. Doing so, however would allow the Great Curse to hit the Celestial Incarna themselves. Lytec hasn't told the Exalted because to tell the Exalted that they are essentially mystical bullet shields for the most powerful Gods in Creation is a great way to get oneself killed. Lytec is instead trying to find a way to cause the curse itself to dissipate, which is impossible unless the Yozi's will it gone (which they are...obviously...not going to do)