On Friday, Omicron bemoaned the lack of usable Sidereal Martial Arts for his character. As he's a pretty cool guy, I wrote him one over the weekend. Figured I might as well post it here, since he's happy with it. He suggested the name, and it had the conditions "should be relatively short", "should have few effects requiring commitment, because I am already buff-heavy" and "if you could give me some way of dealing with having too many scenelongs, that would be great". It totally ignores the mechanics of sutras, because they're utterly rank, my own fix would have doubled the workload, and Omicron was using another fix already in place. No fluff, since his character will be the one inventing it... so I suppose you get to pester him for the backstory, as it happens!
Some of you may also ask "but Revlid, doesn't this Style cover more or less the same ground as Obsidian Shards of Infinity?"
You are correct! However, rather than reference that Style, which would have forced me to dig out my copy of Scroll of the Monk and caused me to laugh until I wept stomach acid, I decided to just write this from scratch on the assumption that Obsidian Shards didn't exist.
MARBLE LIGHTHOUSE OF POSSIBILITIES STYLE
New Keyword!
Mist: A devotee of the Marble Lighthouse learns to tear openings into the space between worlds, causing the fog of possibilities to flood through and pollute all they touch with uncertainty. Effects with this keyword are Obvious, and alter the user's memories, leaving them convinced that the effects are a natural result of events that never actually took place. A Mist effect that allowed the Exalt to teleport would cause them to remember somehow reaching that location on their own, for example. These altered memories cannot be resisted; they are part of the Charm's cost, though the Exalt may experience flashes of the "actual" chain of events as they become relevant, at her player's discretion. The specifics are up to their player, and may also include changes to the character's appearance – perhaps the path they "took" to reach the tower involved them ditching their jacket, or receiving a cut, or even doing their hair in a different style that morning. These changes should generally be cosmetic. Similarly, the false memories are not intended to provide the Exalt with meaningful information of the sort that should normally require an Investigation roll - the truths of other worlds are not necessarily those of this one).
Student's Sutra of Variation: Once, there was a muddled maiden...
INSIGHT INTO UNCRESTED WAVES
Cost: 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 or 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Mist
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
...who wanted to see the world.
The Exalt passes her hands before her eyes, anima-light glaring from between her fingers as she scours lives unlived. Activating this Charm, the Sidereal trades any of his current specialties for an equal number of different ones, in any of his Abilities. He also gains (Essence) dots of free Martial Arts specialties. These changes and free dots last only for this Charm's duration, and are accompanied by memories that bear out the training and labour that would normally have been required to achieve them. The usual limit on how many dice can be added to a roll by specialties still applies, but not the limit on how many specialties a given Ability can support at once.
These skills are called to the Exalt across the moat of realities by strong attachment. If the Sidereal's player chooses, she may gain a intimacy stemming from the memories, which fades when this Charm ends, the sentiment becoming disassociated. Until then, any stunt which plays off the intimacy in question increases its rating by one, as though it resonated with the Sidereal's Motivation.
AN OAR FOR ODD TIDES
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 or 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Mist
Duration: One tick
Prerequisite Charms: Insight into Uncrested Waves
Time and again, she came to crossroads
Even those who do not row the boat of history must acknowledge the labours of its oarsmen and trimmers. To each ship, to each wave, to each ocean, a different set of tools is needed. An implausible weapon suddenly shimmers into existence in the Sidereal's grip for this Charm's duration, as a Mist effect which convinces her she was always wielding it. It is always a form weapon for this Style, but depending on its appearance might be treated as a form weapon for others, or serve as a tool for other purposes. It has the same traits as her basic unarmed attacks, except that it lacks the Natural tag, and may inflict lethal damage. Additionally, it gains (Martial Arts + Lore) points which can be spent on the traits below:
• Spending one point allows the Exalt to increase the weapon's Damage by one, or its Range by one yard. It also allows her to add Reach, Thrust, or Disarming to the attack (similar tags are at the Storyteller's discretion).
• Spending two points allows the Exalt to increase the attack's Accuracy or Overwhelming values by one.
• The Exalt can add mundane poison to the attack by spending a number of points equal to its Toxicity.
She can also use this Charm in Step 2 of any attack targeting her, briefly altering the attack in question (even fists become wounded or withered) as a Shaping Mist effect. In this case, the Charm's effects are reversed, allowing her to reduce or remove traits at the same cost. She cannot reduce a weapon's minimum damage below one in this way.
While in Marble Lighthouse of Possibilities Form, the Sidereal can extend this Charm's duration indefinitely, keeping hold of the weapon for as long as she pleases.
NAVIGATING DISTANT FOG
Cost: 2m (+1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Mist
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Insight into Uncrested Waves
and couldn't decide which path was best
Ships pass in the night. The Vizier is not so blind, and turns her shining gaze on the wake of a path not taken. The Sidereal is lost in a sudden rush of shimmering fog, and re-emerges somewhere else as a Mist effect, remembering only a natural journey which led her there. Her destination must be within her current move distance (ignoring any external negative modifiers, and including mounts or vehicles), but is measured from where she started this tick rather than her current location, and ignores obstacles of all kinds, whether barriers, hazards, open space, etc – she remembers moving through an open path that inexplicably vanishes when she emerges from the sudden fog. This Charm can be used in Step 9 of any attack that targets the Sidereal as a special counterattack, though she still suffers the usual damage.
Spending one Willpower allows the Sidereal to increase the distance she can be transported by a factor of up to (Essence), which moves the point from which she measures her journey backward by an equal number of ticks.
PASSING-THE-TORCH DEFENCE
Cost: 12m (+1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 8)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Mist
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Countless Broken Ships, Navigating Distant Fog
She climbed atop a shining tower,
What does it matter if a choice made a thousand times leads to nine-hundred and ninety-nine deaths? You are the one that survived, looking down at myriad dead fools. The next choice awaits. The Sidereal activates this Charm in Step 8 of any attack, causing it to kill her. She dies even if the attack was non-lethal, the victim of unlikely and exacerbating misfortune. At the end of the tick, the she emerges into the world somewhere within (Martial Arts + Lore + Essence) yards, alive and well and with all her possessions, as a Mist effect that leaves her without memories of her death. Her corpse remains, and examination reveals it to be genuine (for it is), though perfect examination can detect minor oddities that suggest the death might have been induced by something other than the attack. All the Sidereal's possessions are "duplicated" by this effect, though magical objects on the corpse degrade into indistinguishable mundane versions of themselves at the moment of her death.
This Charm's cost is increased by one point of Willpower for every time it has been previously used this scene, as the pressure of finding an unslain self rises. This is considered a unique Flaw of Invulnerability.
MARBLE LIGHTHOUSE OF POSSIBILITIES FORM
Cost: 8m (1m); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Form-type, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Passing-the-Torch Defence
and saw herself at every destination.
The cosmos is an ocean of stars, cousin-worlds churning against and around one other. The Sidereal slices a kata that looses Mist into the world through her anima, becoming the centre of a scintillating cloud with a radius of up to ([Martial Arts + Lore x 2]) yards – she may reflexively expand or contract it as she pleases, once per action. Light refracts and sound echoes strangely in the fog, corner-of-the-eye glimpses and half-heard snatches of other places, so similar and yet so different to this one. This inflicts a -1 external penalty to all sense-based rolls within its radius, which the Exalt herself ignores. She can selectively grant others this clarity at no cost, her anima cutting through the fog as a sweeping searchlight that those she does not wish to benefit can perceive, but not comprehend.
The Sidereal is the blinding heart of this swirling reality-haar, her every breath accompanied by dozens of overlapping afterimages reflecting the immediate choices she didn't make. This confusing display increases the fog's penalty by one when interacting with the Sidereal in any way. More importantly, it allows her to spend a single mote when taking any action, to resolve it as though she were anywhere else within the fog. One of her afterimages briefly resolves into a solid form before sinking back beneath the depths of her true history, relaying its memories to her. She herself does not actually move, so movement cannot be enhanced in this way.
UNKNOWN BOARDING TACTICS
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 or 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Mist
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Marble Lighthouse of Possibilities Form
Elder Sutra of Variation: The maiden wondered what to do next,
It is said that every movement should lead to three more, but this is just the limit of an imagination without illumination. The Sidereal swirls apart in a flurry of Mist that reforms just as quickly, adopting tactics she scorned but elsewhere. She may instantly deactivate any other Charms she currently has active. She then activates any number of other Charms she knows, at no mote cost, as though they were Reflexive and Combo-OK. The total mote cost of these new Charms cannot exceed the total cost of the deactivated Charms. As a Mist effect, she remembers having always maintained these stances and enchantments.
TIDE-SPANNING SEMAPHORE ILLUMINATION
Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Overdrive
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Unknown Boarding Tactics
only to find that she'd already done it
The seas of possibility are formless, dotted by islands that are consumed and revealed at the water's whim. In a dark and clouded sky, it is the lighthouse that grants it a polestar. The Sidereal targets a single character she has an intimacy toward, tying them together across realities with a prismatic tether. She gains an empty Overdrive pool capable of holding five motes, to which she adds a single offensive mote every time she uses Navigating Distant Fog or Passing-the-Torch Defence to emerge within their engagement range, or takes an action through Marble Lighthouse of Possibilities Form that directly interacts with them. The memories produced by these Mist effects must emphasise or relate to the nature of that intimacy, a commonality across iterations.
TO FLY THE SHINING FLAG
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Unknown Boarding Tactics
long ago, in a thousand different ways.
The lighthouse shows the path to harbour, no matter from where the ship set sail. The Sidereal brings his hands together into the window-mudra before sweeping them apart into the spotlight-stance, casting a flurry of Mist somewhere into the vicinity. It dissolves to reveal someone that doesn't belong, a character from a world not so far removed. The player chooses the general theme of this character, explaining how they are appropriate to the scene in question - they might be a Circlemate who never joined up with the group or a demon summoned and bound by another version of the character - but the Storyteller dictates the specifics.
Whoever they are, they are motivated to aid the character and follow their general direction, and are roughly equivalent to a one-dot Ally. They fade when this Charm ends, returning to their own world. The same Ally cannot be called more than once.
BLACK OCEAN STILLNESS ATEMI
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Reflexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Illusion, Shaping, Mist
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: To Fly the Shining Flag, Tide-Spanning Semaphore Illumination
Despairing, she threw herself from the tower
The lighthouse guides ships through treacherous waters, and so knows death like fire knows cold. Its lone blinding eye pierces the abyssal waters, to cast light on the wrecks of ironbottom sound. This Charm can be used in Step 10 of any attack that killed its target, enveloping the Exalt and her victim in a swirl of impenetrable glittering Mist for less than a moment. Within this shroud, time flows oddly – the two find themselves stranded in a mockery of another point in the latter's history that the Sidereal is aware of (even only in theory, such as "at birth"). They are alone, or else those around them are hollow stand-ins, and together act out another, entirely inevitable death under the universal sign of Saturn. Then the Mist disperses, and the Sidereal is alone.
Only the Sidereal remembers her victim as they were. All other characters recall that they died at the point where the Sidereal acted out their death, in just that manner. All their memories of interaction past that point are edited suitably, replacing the victim with other characters or serendipity. Physical evidence is similarly altered as a Shaping effect, signatures and portraits shifting to the most suitable other candidates. Characters with an intimacy toward the victim can resist this Illusion for one scene by spending a point of Willpower, and reject it entirely for one year after spending five. Perfect investigation effects provoke a roll-off against the Shaping effect, picking up minor-but-suspicious incongruities that suggest the interference of a foreign history, with success allowing them to determine the truth of that particular instance.
The Sidereal can activate this Charm in Step 10 of any attack that killed her, playing it out in reverse, choosing the time and place of her apparent death.
TEN THOUSAND CONSTANT VARIABLES
Cost: 55m, 5wp, 5hl, 5vc (any); Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6; Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Mist
Duration: Calibration
Prerequisite Charms: Black Ocean Stillness Atemi
and stayed on its balcony.
The torch of the lighthouse spins and shines, casting the primordial chaos of the ocean into bright, fleeting definition. The tower is left in darkness. It exists for others, unable to illuminate its own form. The final technique of this Style violates that principle, and so can be used only once per year, as a dramatic action taking up all of Calibration. The Sidereal casts open the Mists and hurls herself into them, vanishing from the world. Who can say what occurs there? When she returns, she is not the same. She has the same experience point total, and is still a Sidereal of the same House. Beyond that, her remembered history, motives, race, gender, magic, equipment, etc, can be as different as her player pleases. She is completely rebuilt, the fleeting déjà-vu imposed by the Mist keyword her only definite tie to this world.
This Charm radically alters the nature of the character – and with it, the game – and so, as with all Essence 6+ effects, players should make sure their group is comfortable with their use of it.
