[Brujah]

Does Death itself cast a Shadow?

And if so, is it afraid of it?


A raspy sound begins when the silence ends. A broken laugh from a bent form. Inky blackness oozing over onyx stones.

"You would stand in my way?"

The voice is soft like crushed velvet, yet full and confident. Soft as a whisper, yet it fills the stony alcove, easily heard by the ancient Jaghut sitting with its back against the smooth stones that make up the archway.

"I prefer sitting over standing these days."

The one who spoke first takes a step forward, idly tapping a cane held lazily in his left hand. The supple leather used to fashion gloved hands squeak in protest. The Jaghut finds it odd that the cadence of cane on stone sounds familiar.

The cane strikes a loose stone before coming to a stop.
"Sit or stand," the shadowy man says as his eyes slowly trace the archway. "Choices. This path or another. "

The tapping starts anew and the man laments. " These are luxuries I do not have. There is but one path. All the roads of my life have intertwined." Another heavy thud as he strikes the ground for emphasis. "To bring me here. Now."

The Jaghut hadn't said a word in response, only listened as the man approached, but he lifted his arm, pointing back behind the man. "You have the choice to go back."

The slender man was clothed in many layers. His eyes were hidden beneath a heavy shroud, but they flashed a moment of sadness as he responded. " There is no going back. Alas, there is no choice. My path lies not behind me, but behind you. I will enter whether you sit or stand. "

"On second thought, I think I will stand."

The Jaghut slowly rises. The cloaked figure slowly strides forward.

[Brujah]

Previous results:

Shadowthrone vs Quick Ben
Shadowthrone - 26
Quick Ben - 13


Hood vs Gothos
Hood - 24
Gothos - 23
Ties. - 10

Hood vs Karsa
Hood - 35
Karsa - 4

Hood vs Dassem
Hood - 18
Dassem - 7



Shadowthrone easily beat a very powerful opponent in Quick Ben by getting twice as many votes.

Hood meets his equal in Gothos, then goes on to more than double up against a top 10 opponent, Dassem Ultor, as well as totally destroying Karsa, another very formidable opponent.


Under the current results, Hood is a top 5 opponent. Shadowthrone, with his defeat of Quick Ben, is also establishing himself as a top tier opponent. Only Rake and Draconus are currently higher than Hood(at this time). This match will go a long way in determining where Shadowthrone falls on the hierarchy.

[Brujah]

30 views without voting. Vote, people. Only takes a literal second.

I'm honestly fairly curious as to how this one will turn out.

I went ahead and voted Shadowthrone, but I'm not sure. Shadowthrone holds his cards close to his chest, which is an expression meaning he doesn't go about showing the extent of his powers. He prefers to maintain a semblance of mystery. However, as the mortal Kellanved, he was already extremely powerful. I figure the true extent of his power lies somewhere between above average and one of the most powerful 'gods', in comparison.
The only significant event from the books that makes me doubt his power is the comment he makes to Cotillion when Cotillion asks what he thinks would have happened had Dassem felt he was being deceived by Cotillion and himself. He says something along the lines of 'He'd have killed us both.' Not entirely sure how serious , how literal he was being.

And Dassem is an extremely powerful character himself, but having Shadowthrone fall below Dassem on our scale would be very, very disappointing because with Shadowthrone having beaten Quick Ben, we would end up with Dassem > Shadowthrone > Quick Ben, and I'm not yet ready to concede Dassem over Quick Ben just yet. Especially without their own match.

I'm hoping the results lend to our ranking Shadowthrone as a top tier figure. I'm interested in surmising Shadowthrone being the power in Shadow(Kurald Emurlahn) along the same lines as say Rake is to Darkness(Kurald Galain). Yet not necessarily quite as powerful of Rake, of course.

He commands the Hounds of Shadow. This would play out significantly in his favor in this match up.

[Trull's son]

Had to go with Shadowthrone on this one. Two potentially massive powers against one another makes it a battle of wits as much as anything. I'm not sure Hood demonstrated anything close to Shadowthrone level of genius throughout the series. Hopefully we get a better understanding of Hood's capabilities in the new trilogy.

[Brujah]

At the moment, it's fairly close (7 to 5, Shadowthrone). Virtual tie.

If they stay close enough for the tie, we would have these temporary placements.



Tier 1: Rake, Draconus, Edgewalker, Osseric
Tier 2: Hood, Gothos, Shadowthrone
Tier 3: Quick Ben
Tier 4: Dassem
Tier 5:


Quick Ben and Dassem could end up swapping tiers, or both being on tier 3, depending on how their current pairing ends. For now, Quick Ben is leading Dassem 5 to 2. It's still too early for both polls. At least 20 votes are needed to start coming to some conclusion, although I'd prefer twice that if possible.

[Brujah]

It appears as if Hood has moved far ahead of Shadowthrone, doubling his vote count in fact.

On one hand, 7 votes isn't a lot, but compared to 7 it is quite enough to speak volumes.

These polls have been up for a while, so I doubt a large influx of new votes is forthcoming, therefore we have Hood above Shadowthrone.

Tough one.

[The Hust Legion]

do we know enough about edge walker to make him tier one? and osseric can't be above hood surely. i think hood is more draconus rake level than anyone else. and in terms of hierarchy between shadow throne and hood. i think shadow throne is a lot more intelligent but pure power terms hood comes out on top everytime.

[Brujah]

 The Hust Legion, on 16 March 2015 - 04:38 PM, said:

do we know enough about edge walker to make him tier one? and osseric can't be above hood surely. i think hood is more draconus rake level than anyone else. and in terms of hierarchy between shadow throne and hood. i think shadow throne is a lot more intelligent but pure power terms hood comes out on top everytime.

No, I don't think we do know enough about Edgewalker, but I based these temporary tier rankings on the results of some other polls. First I'd like to clear up the temporary part. These are fluid comparisons based on the opinions of just people who voted on this forum. That's why I named it Democratic. New polls could change individual characters or entire tiers. This was just where things are based solely on results from all the current Democratic poll results.

One poll ranked Edgewalker equal to Osseric. Most of the forum agreed that based on the books, Rake and Osseric are extremely close to being equals. Another poll ranked Rake slightly above Draconus, but not enough to split their tier rankings. Therefore we were left with Draconus = Rake = Osseric = Edgewalker. Personally, I've been looking at it like this.

Rake is the top dog of the Warren of Darkness, Kurald Galain. Osseric is the same for Kurald Thyrllan/Liosan. So I've been assuming Edgewalker is the same for what's left of Kurald Emurlahn, even with Shadowthrone using it for home base. But that's just my theory and the way I'm able to justify it in my mind.

Now, as far as Hood not being on the top tier with them, I believe it hinges on the fact that Rake cut Hood's head off, although this could have been part of The Plan, and Hood sacrificed himself to enter Draginpur.

If nothing else, I'll have another poll where either Hood or Gothos faces Draconus or Rake. So unless you believe Hood and Gothos, who are already ranked equal and move tiers as a package deal, are equal to or above the likes of Rake and Draconus, then I'm ok with the current tiers. But if it comes down to it, Hood and Gothos could end up on tier one with Rake and Draconus. But that would be one hell of a tier. I'd prefer to have at least some difference in tier ranks among this 6, but I have to go with the poll results.

Hood and Gothos could end up swapping places with Osseric and Edgewalker, but I don't have the results to justify any changes to the current tier rankings until future poll results or more posts with reasons for a change backed by events from the books are made.