Wouldn’t say that devils have a loose connection, just that it is a fluid one, it seems to change rather than be static and set in stone. They are genderfluid. Angels seem to have a firm grasp of their inherent identity, even if it’s not in line with their rules and social expectations. White Chain clearly identifies as female, even when she is actively repressing herself like she does now. The same goes for other angels we’ve met. Whether they are repressing themselves or not, they all seem to be gender diverse in some way or another beneath the surface.
She climbs so quickly from pitiful azure to haughty crimson! Is it that Ciocie lacks this proper fury, that she has remained in her lesser form for so long? Or is there some other aspect to a devil’s legend that keeps her mask so stale?
O Father of Corpses, do not be unkind to Ciocie
AMBITION drives a flame to fan itself to greater heights
But Ciocie does not wish to become what she once was.
A DEVIL without AMBITION. Such a wondrous thing.
Gundhram the Reader, Belligerent Knight and Amateur Historian
It’s the case of Cio lacking the will to do so in the first place. The core of who Ciocie Cioelle Estrella von Maximus the Third IS is a deliberate rejection of who Yabalchoath was. We have seen how she dreads becoming Yabalchoath again. So much so that she abstained from mere thievery, put that little part of herself in a box in the hope that she would never touch it or think of it again, for fear that it would bring HER back.
Shaving off names and scrabbling to grasp more power is a bit too close to what Yabalchoath would do out of hand for her comfort. Cio has walked that road, she remembers where it led to, and she does not want to risk again becoming that kind of abomination. Something so warped and bloated with its own indulgent cruelty and virulent decadence that it could turn the stomach of a DEVIL.
Gundhram the Reader, Belligerent Knight and Amateur Historian
Also, Ciocie Cioelle Estrella von Maximus the Third is a Storyteller. The author of an exquisitely detailed and embellished meta-historical fanfiction that serves as the key chronicle of the Successor King’s rise to power, no less. I have no doubt that she loves writing with every fiber of her being, and Blue Devils are well-known for their affinity with words and stories and lying. For for one such as her, being an Imp is a pleasant state of affairs. And there’s no real promise for her that a Red Cio would keep or remember those skills with such an extreme shift to a far more choleric state of being…
This is the first time I’ve ever seen a devil move up their chromatic hierarchy and I have to say, I still REALLY don’t understand the process.
As far as I can tell, it involves the exercise of willpower. Of course this is true of every possible and impossible action that one can take; so… eh?
In any case, Princess Jack Moonshine is looking well in Crimson. The sight of this beauty and carnage does well to remind me why the War Devils are my favorite amongst the White Daughters of Yis. May she reach heaven through violence, and crush the enemies arrayed before her.
Rip and tear, ye once known as Valdok, RIP AND TEAR!
Gundhram the Reader, Belligerent Knight and Amateur Historian
Mine own scholarship, small though it be, leads me to believe that one with the right power can also induce such movement. Much as dear All-Ys-Un did to old Vladok when she recast him all in azure, I believe she could, if she but knew the way, do the same for any devil by Cutting away their superfluous names. I was not previously aware that such movement could be self-induced, in fact; I believed it was necessary to seek a practitioner of the Art who could be fooled or cajoled into bestowing a new name.
Seems like we will find out later. After all Vladok was clearly male devil, then diminished into Princess who was clearly female. What is sure, devils sex/gender isn’t a static thing at least when it comes to them becoming greater/lesser beings in the hierarchy of things.
I’d imagine that the masks would have come from the same source, or were made by the same being, or in a similar design. In some sense, all devils are siblings, as they are all shaped out of the Black Flame.
The same way they can be grandparent and grandson – it’s entirely out of history and sense of kinship. This has been explained before, I just don’t remember where.
Remember Cio had multiple limbs at one point? and even as a little imp he was refered to as ‘grandpa’ by the other red. For the most part I think they are super mutable
Cio’s multiple limbs were a consequence of the Coat of Arms, which she has wore only a couple times, and last I checked keeps safely tucked away inside that Geas Knight’s head.
Devils are amorphous masses of hot black flame being human-made masks, so such things are of no real importance. A devil’s gender is pretty much just whatever they currently look like.
Huh… I never got the impression that Grandad Princess was female or even feminine. But S/He clearly has some coverage on the nippular area… so may be something to this. Heck, now I’ll have to go back and read / look more closely.
I don’t think devils have “biology” in any meaningful sense. I got the impression that the masks just twist the hot black flame in to some form that can maintain a crude parody of biological function without worrying too much about the details. They almost certainly don’t have a biological sex, and gender is likely a matter of the expectations placed on them by the culture they find themselves in combined with personal inclination and preference. Certainly we’ve seen devils that have so little resemblance to humans or servants that assigning them a gender is mere projection, while others ape the body shape, dress, and mannerisms of one or another gender. Ciocie, by her own words, is ‘pretending to be a little woman”, while Oscar’s swaggering machismo reproduces a sort of masculine gangster’s identity.
That said, as Ciocie so painfully has reminded us, the Devil’s are *not* human. Ciocie’s morality and compassion seem to be things she has to construct and maintain with deliberate effort, patterns she has woven in her own mind rather than arising naturally as they might in a human. Oscar and most of the other demon’s have no such pretense of human softness. Gender would likely be the same sort of thing; Something the devils put on for fun or for utilities sake, or perhaps just to build a stable and coherent identity after they are crudely ripped forth from the hot and undifferentiated flame.
We can’t just shorten it to “Princess Jack Moonshine” seeing people write out the full thing in the comments to say something dominative in comparison to her name following was what I lived for
in some small way.
I do note that she doesn’t seem to have enough names for a red — consider, if she loses one for each level, she’d come up short when she regains ebon status. Of course, one could still be private, not revealed to our chronicler.
Hey now! im gay for this buff devil!
Yeah, I’m gay for her too
hey hey, I know not who er what we’re lazy eye side-winkin fer but I don’t wantsum lone-in-a-cold!
hey hey, I know not who er what we’re lazy eye side-winkin fer but I don’t wantsum lone-in-a-cold!
It seems that devils have an even looser connection to gender than angels.
I think it’s linked to name? “Princess” is a title only a woman can possess, thus “grandad” became “grandma” to better fit the new name.
No, hold on. It’s the mask.
Grandad broke his wrinkly ol’ mask, then Alison gave him the face of a lovely young maiden. Form followed suit.
Wouldn’t say that devils have a loose connection, just that it is a fluid one, it seems to change rather than be static and set in stone. They are genderfluid. Angels seem to have a firm grasp of their inherent identity, even if it’s not in line with their rules and social expectations. White Chain clearly identifies as female, even when she is actively repressing herself like she does now. The same goes for other angels we’ve met. Whether they are repressing themselves or not, they all seem to be gender diverse in some way or another beneath the surface.
Someone’s getting shitcanned when Mammon notices the gross loss of sangromantic liquid stock during next quarters financial review, ia ia…
Someone’s going to get shitcanned when we get to next quarters review of sangromantic liquid stock, ia ia…
These two names project very different mental images.
She climbs so quickly from pitiful azure to haughty crimson! Is it that Ciocie lacks this proper fury, that she has remained in her lesser form for so long? Or is there some other aspect to a devil’s legend that keeps her mask so stale?
O Father of Corpses, do not be unkind to Ciocie
AMBITION drives a flame to fan itself to greater heights
But Ciocie does not wish to become what she once was.
A DEVIL without AMBITION. Such a wondrous thing.
It’s the case of Cio lacking the will to do so in the first place. The core of who Ciocie Cioelle Estrella von Maximus the Third IS is a deliberate rejection of who Yabalchoath was. We have seen how she dreads becoming Yabalchoath again. So much so that she abstained from mere thievery, put that little part of herself in a box in the hope that she would never touch it or think of it again, for fear that it would bring HER back.
Shaving off names and scrabbling to grasp more power is a bit too close to what Yabalchoath would do out of hand for her comfort. Cio has walked that road, she remembers where it led to, and she does not want to risk again becoming that kind of abomination. Something so warped and bloated with its own indulgent cruelty and virulent decadence that it could turn the stomach of a DEVIL.
Also, Ciocie Cioelle Estrella von Maximus the Third is a Storyteller. The author of an exquisitely detailed and embellished meta-historical fanfiction that serves as the key chronicle of the Successor King’s rise to power, no less. I have no doubt that she loves writing with every fiber of her being, and Blue Devils are well-known for their affinity with words and stories and lying. For for one such as her, being an Imp is a pleasant state of affairs. And there’s no real promise for her that a Red Cio would keep or remember those skills with such an extreme shift to a far more choleric state of being…
Princess’ power level is inversely related to how close they are to losing
The Inverse Princess Effectiveness Principle
Enjoy your field promotions!
…While they last.
Welp.
Guess I’m not entirely straight after all.
You’re going straight to hell, then.
After the buff stuff.
I’ll give Princess your number.
;D
Always a good day to learn more about oneself, doubly so when the cause of that learning is buff devil-women inflicting terrible violence.
Shame about his parka. Then again, it did already have some blood on it.
Rise, Princess! RISE!
Hmmm…
This is the first time I’ve ever seen a devil move up their chromatic hierarchy and I have to say, I still REALLY don’t understand the process.
As far as I can tell, it involves the exercise of willpower. Of course this is true of every possible and impossible action that one can take; so… eh?
In any case, Princess Jack Moonshine is looking well in Crimson. The sight of this beauty and carnage does well to remind me why the War Devils are my favorite amongst the White Daughters of Yis. May she reach heaven through violence, and crush the enemies arrayed before her.
Rip and tear, ye once known as Valdok, RIP AND TEAR!
Never mind the first half! The wisdom of Yis Voya has scourged my ignorance asunder.
Mine own scholarship, small though it be, leads me to believe that one with the right power can also induce such movement. Much as dear All-Ys-Un did to old Vladok when she recast him all in azure, I believe she could, if she but knew the way, do the same for any devil by Cutting away their superfluous names. I was not previously aware that such movement could be self-induced, in fact; I believed it was necessary to seek a practitioner of the Art who could be fooled or cajoled into bestowing a new name.
The countdown begins
one million and one down? a few billion to go
PRINCESS SMASH!
+1
Majestic in wrath
Expended and soft
The colour of the cloth.
This must be the work of…
A N E N E M Y S T A N D
Oh my God…
I’ve been told killing is like riding a bicycle: you never truly forget.
Also: squeaky horns, while non-essential, do serve to enhance the experience.
Are they still female?
Demon biology was never my strongest subject…
Seems like we will find out later. After all Vladok was clearly male devil, then diminished into Princess who was clearly female. What is sure, devils sex/gender isn’t a static thing at least when it comes to them becoming greater/lesser beings in the hierarchy of things.
I’m still waiting for someone to explain how devils can be siblings.
I’d imagine that the masks would have come from the same source, or were made by the same being, or in a similar design. In some sense, all devils are siblings, as they are all shaped out of the Black Flame.
The same way they can be grandparent and grandson – it’s entirely out of history and sense of kinship. This has been explained before, I just don’t remember where.
Remember Cio had multiple limbs at one point? and even as a little imp he was refered to as ‘grandpa’ by the other red. For the most part I think they are super mutable
Such is the nature of the Hot Black Flame. Chaos given form. A lovely paradox.
Cio’s multiple limbs were a consequence of the Coat of Arms, which she has wore only a couple times, and last I checked keeps safely tucked away inside that Geas Knight’s head.
Devils are amorphous masses of hot black flame being human-made masks, so such things are of no real importance. A devil’s gender is pretty much just whatever they currently look like.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Also…does not this new form, while as muscular as any Amazon, have breasts, a svelte shred-cloth bikini bottom, and a “clearly female” face?
I didn’t read too much into the face because, yknow demons, but the other two factors influenced my judgement on the matter.
Secondary and primary sexual characteristics do seem to come with this form.
Princess was “clearly female??” Um…
Huh… I never got the impression that Grandad Princess was female or even feminine. But S/He clearly has some coverage on the nippular area… so may be something to this. Heck, now I’ll have to go back and read / look more closely.
Eyeballs! They’re not just for angels anymore 😉
I don’t think devils have “biology” in any meaningful sense. I got the impression that the masks just twist the hot black flame in to some form that can maintain a crude parody of biological function without worrying too much about the details. They almost certainly don’t have a biological sex, and gender is likely a matter of the expectations placed on them by the culture they find themselves in combined with personal inclination and preference. Certainly we’ve seen devils that have so little resemblance to humans or servants that assigning them a gender is mere projection, while others ape the body shape, dress, and mannerisms of one or another gender. Ciocie, by her own words, is ‘pretending to be a little woman”, while Oscar’s swaggering machismo reproduces a sort of masculine gangster’s identity.
That said, as Ciocie so painfully has reminded us, the Devil’s are *not* human. Ciocie’s morality and compassion seem to be things she has to construct and maintain with deliberate effort, patterns she has woven in her own mind rather than arising naturally as they might in a human. Oscar and most of the other demon’s have no such pretense of human softness. Gender would likely be the same sort of thing; Something the devils put on for fun or for utilities sake, or perhaps just to build a stable and coherent identity after they are crudely ripped forth from the hot and undifferentiated flame.
Chchchchchanges
Question is: Can Cio do that too?
The question to ask is not if she can, but if she will.
More important question, would she want to?
princess is lookin pretty swole
We can’t just shorten it to “Princess Jack Moonshine” seeing people write out the full thing in the comments to say something dominative in comparison to her name following was what I lived for
in some small way.
I do note that she doesn’t seem to have enough names for a red — consider, if she loses one for each level, she’d come up short when she regains ebon status. Of course, one could still be private, not revealed to our chronicler.
Well, that escalated quickly.
To be fair, I’m not surprised; that imp was getting darker and larger from the time it was born.
Also, I do hope this does not harm the value of my Mammonite bonds.
Oh, I wouldn’t worry. They’ve only slaughtered a paltry few dozen priests. *there are more.*
You die, and we all move up in rank
Beautiful reference!
Now might be a good time for Allison to start remembering those names… that she came up with at semi-random… during a bout of heavy drinking.
Or just get ready to cut them down. She’s gotta be her (or at least the aspect of her with a talent for killing) after all.