"I'm saving them for Primos Melee, since they don't have access to the buffing options of Powered," I went on, throwing cold water on his thoughts. And it was true. Powered could easily buff up higher than a 33, and many of them would easily kit out higher than a 33 once their Gear was more settled, and physical Stat-enhancing stuff was more common.

                "Sixty of them?" he asked, stunned.

                "I'm planning on starting a Primos Allegiance," I said calmly.

                Now his eyes got really strange. "An Allegiance? How, Sama? You can't use Allegiance magic…"

                My Skinplate had retracted to its ceremonial armor form, meaning bare midriff, armored skirt, and greaves. I calmly tapped the glowing Tat-belt around my waist. "Duty and Loyalty still work as fine for us as our Faith does to the gods we choose. I may not be able to feed it into an Obelisk like you, but as long as I can tie an Oath to an item, I can accept followers. And now I can."

                "But… the communication, the /tell network… how can you possibly compete?" he asked, still dumbfounded I was going to do something like that.

                "Don't recognize the Tats?" I just asked him, keeping about my work as he shifted position to follow me around the dead Titan.

                He took a better look at them. A Manticore Belt was one part, my Arakne Arms another. The brown-gray lines of the scar-like Tats were spaced in between the Runes that were also there, and glowing a golden light at odds with Soul Magic. He frowned, looked closer.

                "That's… Abyssal?" he asked slowly.

                "Correct."

                His breath hissed out slowly. "Succubi Marks?" he asked slowly, giving me a very sharp look.

                I laughed under my breath. "Obviously, you aren't looking hard enough."

                He flushed, frowned, then blinked, and started putting his Lore Ranks to actual work. "They're… golden. They should be green-black, or reddish-black…"

                "Exactamundo."

                "Which makes them… what?"

                I smiled winningly, which probably didn't look all that reassuring given my looks. "They are Blessings, powered by Soul… and a whole lot of dead succubi."

                He blinked at me. "How the Hells did you manage to get-" he glanced at my waist again, it was considerably more attention-getting then my Branded face, "-nine of those things to stick on you? And what do you mean by Blessings?"

                "I have a Diamond Vajra, monkeybrains. My Soul is harder than yours by an unbelievable degree. You get more than one Mark, it wipes the other one off your fine liquiform Powered Soul. I get one, it has to be carved into me in the first place. I don't lose it just because another one gets carved in."

                His breath hissed out. "No shit. I didn't… damn, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone else with a Diamond Vajra…" Hence, his unfamiliarity, then? Don’t talk about macro club...

                "Well, I wasn't the first to get one, because no Title came with it. So, someone else got it first, and just shut up about it. Void would be my guess."

                "So… you've got all nine of the standard succubi Buffs?" His face had a really weird expression.

                "Noooooo. I've got all nine of the standard lilitu Buffs," I drawled with an eye roll.

                He actually flinched. "You're… not serious?..."

                "Am!" I replied winningly, starting my carving on the shinbone.

                "+4 to all Stats. +20' land speed. +3 Nat AC. +4 Charisma checks to opposite sex." He listed them out, gaping at me.

                "Technically, the last is 'potential sexual partners, dependent on taste'." I hooked my waist just so, and he swallowed and looked away abruptly. Make that Concentration check to subdue an instantaneous physical reaction there, laddie-boy...

                "Ah, as awesome as that is, I don't see what it has to do with an Allegiance?"

                "Oh, well, I can carve them onto others."

                "You can carve them on others," he echoed slowly, his eyes growing wider. "You… ohSweetSylunecanIhaveone?" he asked eagerly, almost drooling. A stacking +4 bonus was a big thing!

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                "No. I have to carve it into your soul. You wanna tell me what kind of medium water is for carving?"

                His mouth flapped a couple times, slammed shut. He looked monstrously unhappy, like someone had waved his favorite candy in front of his nose and snatched it away as he tried to bite it. "That is so gods-damned unfair. You mean you can give away permanent Stat buffs, but only to Primos?"

                "Got it in one, genius." Cut-cut, slice-slice, peel-peel. "And it is technically a Tat magical item, in its own way. So, it can be suppressed with a Dispel effect, suppressed in an A-M zone, and even scarred away and removed with the appropriate Skills."

                He sighed at his vanished carrot. "Okay, even more awesome, you can bribe Primos with them. What does that have to do with an Allegiance?"

                I turned my head to look at him, and he flushed. "Argos, exercise your brain for once, will you?"

                He waffled for a moment, then stifled any distractions and actually Thought for a full minute, staring at me, wondering what he'd missed. He almost jumped when he got it, and burst into some colorful swearing in six languages.

                "Succubi Marks allow telepathic contact with their Marked, extending even across the Veil. You and your Marked will be able to talk with one another mentally!"

                "And technically they'll suffer a severe penalty to their saves and I can bypass their magic resistance if I cast enchantments, charms, and glamours on them through the Link." I pursed my lips. "Just shuckie-darn, eh?"

                Because naturally I couldn’t do any of that.

                He hit his forehead, thinking about all that. "So… damn, okay, you have the qualifications to be a Monarch," he admitted. "But without Casters…?"

                "Oh, we'll need Divine Casters, have no doubt. And likely they'll have exclusive access to the Faith of a Primos Allegiance." His eye twitched. Yeah, like that wouldn't tempt the Divine to no end, not that they were ignoring the Primos now. It would also bind those Priests strongly to their faithful. Only their affiliated Devoted would be able to Cast on them without worrying about Forsaken resistance. It was a big thing.

                He hemmed and hawed and thought about it. "You know, you might have had more success if you had started this movement a few months ago. Pretty much all the Primos are sworn under Monarchs now."

                "Their loss, not mine. Do I look like I'm penalized for not having Vassals?"

                "Uh, no."

                "And I don't mean to be crass, but if a bunch of Primos want to be released from their Vows to serve under one of their own, how many Monarchs are going to try and stop them?"

                His mouth clamped shut. As I expected, he probably had shit for Primos Vassals. Probably foisted them off on the first guy who didn't mind doing governance so he could be about doing Important Things and such.

                He watched me carving too-dense meat away from too-strong bone for another silent minute. "I think you should talk to Aelryinth."

                "Yeah? Why's that?"

                "Well, because he's my Monarch, for starters." I paused, and looked over at him. "Yeah, no lie. He's… he's Rank M." His expression said he still had a hard time believing it.

                "Really. Well, color me impressed. I didn't think anyone maxed out Sustaining to that degree."

                His expression twisted again, his hand went to the Ring on his finger. Oh, ho. "You… are Sustained?" Incredulous note in his voice.

                "Diamond Vajra."

                He threw up his hands, almost dropping his Staff. "Dammit! Is, like, every high Level Primos from the Game Sustained?"

                I tilted my head. "Kingman, yeah. Sole, yeah. Briggs, yeah. Seven Dragons, yeah. Me, yeah. Void, probably. Bulwark, no clue, but probably."

                He stared at me, looking terribly frustrated. "Why didn't any of you talk about it?" he protested wildly.

                "First rule of Macro club, you don't talk about Macro club." His mouth opened, shut, and then he groaned again, looking at his hand. "He's figured out how to make more of those Rings, aye?" Argos just nodded in reply. "He was the first of us, and Powered. Naturally he got to exploit it in ways we simply couldn't. Just the easy ability to flit back and forth between Leveling locations and hunt down Karma would give him a massive edge in Karma gains."

                He sighed, shaking his head. "How long did you have yours?" he asked.

                "About four years." He pursed his lips, thinking. "Karma-wise, it didn't do much for me. What it really helped with was training hours. Doubling training and crafting time is huge for Forsaken."

                "Casters do rep counts, Dragons cultivate, Forsaken train." He waved his hand as he recited the mantra, sighing. "Aelryinth has the single largest population of Primos combatants alive under his Banner. He was the only one to bring them in to a massive degree early in the Marches, and pretty much all those who fought have transferred to his Banner and Camp Huron in the Thumb of Michigan. He has been adding to their numbers repeatedly and sending them out to grind Levels, grow the Name of their Weapons, and blood them in combat.

                "If you want to build a Primos Allegiance, they would likely be the best place to start. But you'll likely end up going under the Ringlord to do it."

                "The Powered are going to rule the world anyways, so that's no big thing. At least he's been trying to help the Primos, that's a good sign." I doth approveth oft him, verily.

                "He's Heavenbound, among other things," sighed Argos. "Despite my misgivings, I don't regret giving him my Oath at all."

                "Not a bad endorsement from the biggest Monarch of the game," I noted. "We'll do lunch sometime."

                He quirked a smile despite himself. "You ever meet him ingame?"

                "He was with a group going to Coralost for the Fire Ritual Quest. Didn't have to bail them out, so they did okay. Unlike a certain someone who just had to attempt the Sepulcher of Shadows."

                He let out an exaggerated cough. "Well, to be fair, that had to be the hardest dungeon in the game. Even the approach was that devastating!"