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General Exalted Thread

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Awww, I was going to do a "kiss" charm for Adjoran.

I think my still-baking ideas went something alog the lines of:

- Breathtaking Maneuver (because making figurative things literal is how infernal charms roll)

Allows an infernal to steal the breath of someone, including by using a kiss.
Haven't though through the exact mechanics yet. Probably something different from the voice stealing mechanic.


- Breathless Anticipation Acceleration.

While actively denying someone else breath (whether through previous charm or one of the martial arts that do that), the infernal counts as moving at maximum velocity.

(The image I have here is of a scourge imprisoned in a cell too small for her to build up speed for the "run through walls charm" normally - so instead, she snogs a guard and uses his breath to propel herself through the wall. Yes, River Song was the inspiration here)

Dunno if that's mechanically competent tho.
 
Chloe Sullivan said:
Awww, I was going to do a "kiss" charm for Adjoran.

I think my still-baking ideas went something alog the lines of:

- Breathtaking Maneuver (because making figurative things literal is how infernal charms roll)

Allows an infernal to steal the breath of someone, including by using a kiss.
Haven't though through the exact mechanics yet. Probably something different from the voice stealing mechanic.
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Maybe cause the target to start suffering suffocation(rules for that is on Core 130)?

Though, it would probably need some kind of counter or method of blocking other than "Don't smooch the Scourge." Maybe the effect counts as a Crippling effect or something?
 
Sucal said:
Does that mean she should have ice based charms that shear away emotional attachments in the user?
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No, Adorjan isn't ice. Adorjan has plenty of passion, she doesn't do cold detatchment. She'll kill you, it'll break her heart to hurt you, but in the end, it's all for the best, and when she's done she forgets you ever existed.

azoicennead said:
Alright, please explain how it's broken.
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If you have more motes than your opponent, you are winning. Having more motes is how you win. If you break mote economy, you break the game.
 
So, a while back Aleph did a write-up for a Third Circle Demon that I thought followed a pretty good format - Third Circle, a few Second Circles, two First Circles each, with every level of write-ups getting more and more concise. A good combination of in-game usability and insight into the Unquestionable's character. So I did the same thing with a soul of Elloge that's been kicking around my head for years. And thanks to @Aleph for coming up with the basic concepts behind the Axhastos and Avrals.

Punsovi, the House With Two Doors
Demon of the Third Circle
Fourth Soul of the Sphere of Speech
The dwellings of Demon City span an incredible variety. Hollow halls of ornate brass and cyclopean basalt swell up from the Emperor of Hell's crippled flesh, inhabited by demon squatters in their thousands. Tents of sun-treated alien skin flap in the whispering winds of the Silver Desert, strapped to the backs of great howdah beasts with countless legs. Treehouses are worked into the glass trunks of the Mirror Forest with hot iron and bellows, linked by living rope bridges woven from dozing serpent-devils. The manses of infernal nobility rise from those places sacred to demons, wells of bitter power that flow from their imprisoned, monstrous gods.

Famed even among these uncountables is Punsovi, the House With Two Doors. Always a sprawling household of austere design and pale materials, the specifics of the House's blueprints change monthly, along with her location. At times she is a many-winged mansion in the modern Imperial style, at others a marvellous tower of otherworldly stone surrounded by immaculate gardens, at others a crumbling old castle - but each month she freely spools out limbs of unused architecture and wanders to new grounds, where she lays down new foundations, reknits her structure and attracts a fresh swathe of groundskeepers and staff from the local nameless masses.

Few of these demon hirelings last until the House moves again - she is not a kind master.

In person, the House's appearance is less changeable. A slender woman with astonishingly pale and knife-sharp features, her hair styled and grey, clad in a fine dress of faded, cold colours; light blues and dull purples. Her expression is always clearly and tightly controlled, suited for elegance rather than emotion - she smiles because she is supposed to smile, or sneers because it is expected, or glares because one of her standing should do so. Whether anything real exists behind this mask of propriety and china-flesh is a mystery.

From the moment she digs in her roots to the hour she leaves, the House With Two Doors plays host to party after party. Quiet dinners with a few Citizens or grand balls that last days, every guest is hand-picked by Punsovi. She may hire a troupe of accomplished gilmyne dancers or order the construction of an artful chalcanth fountain, but the true entertainment of each gathering is provided by those she invites. Their dramas and gossip and romances and plots are what lend spice to the evening (insofar as such a time exists in a realm of eternal green sun), and she knows them all from the moment they set foot within her halls, whispers and mutters carried to her down hidden passages.

Even those who know this seldom ignore her invitations. First, because to do so would be to invite the scorn of a high lady of Hell. Second, because Punsovi cares little for the substance of her guest's hidden drives, only that they are acted upon. The passage of dance, conversation and food is artfully directed to maximum effect. Secret lovers find themselves given a moment alone in silent corridors, while bitter rivals find their fellow guests parting to open a space just at the moment when quiet glares erupt into demands for satisfaction. The House With Two Doors hosts an arena for culmination, and smiles passionlessly as she descends the stairs into riots and rejoicing.

Punsovi sets the rules of such soirees as it amuses her, though she bows to the laws and taboos of the region within which she currently dwells - in this, she is all but alone among the Unquestionable. Those who please her while adhering to that party's code will often receive her patronage - a rich gift, a whispered piece of advice, or a future invitation when it would most aid them. Similar largesse awaits those servants who survive their tenure with the House. Her punishments are less equitable. Neither those guests who violate the rules of her hospitality (however strange), nor those servants who fail to uphold the elegance of a given gala are even seen within the House again. The guests are politely ejected. The servants simply vanish.

Their fate is to pass through the House's second door. The first is plain to see - it stands at the front of the House, proudly lacquered in pale blue jade, scaled to suit the crowd it must accept. Within the House, there are no other doors. Archways cleverly aligned to offer privacy from sight and hearing, yes - curtains of etched beads that shimmer in the actinic light of vitriol-lamps, yes - subtle portals through which servants may pass unseen, yes - but not a single door. Nothing that can be locked or barred or hidden behind.

Save one.

This other door crouches in the corner of some appendicital corridor or down a lightless stairway with no banister or in the roof of what was thought to be the highest attic. It is squat and stained, blistered and peeling red wood set with a battered brass handle and heavy - but unused - locks. Behind it lie those parts of Punsovi that she has not woven out into her current structure… and those she never will. A mad jumble of architecture and furniture is lit by broken lamps and painted in the viscera of those banished there, the only sound the mutters and screams of its permanent inhabitant - Kervoni, the twin sister of the House's passionless mistress.

Her dress is a ragged, vibrant red, her wild hair is the colour of sunlight, and her nails are long and jagged. Where Punsovi's pale skin and sharp bones suggest refinement and cosmetics, her sister's bring to mind starvation and days spent in windowless isolation. Where Punsovi's eyes glitter like rubies, giving nothing away, her sister's burn like crucibles of boiling blood. Where Punsovi's teeth are polished and delicate white triangles, her sister's are sharp-edged wedges, stained and gnashing.

Kervoni's expression contorts with her passions, set in hatred or wonder or fear or envy or lust or admiration, and she acts on these emotions as they arrive, hunting and welcoming and torturing and celebrating and eating and mimicking and raping those who visit her. She is fast and terrifyingly strong, with little inclination or ability to moderate herself to account for weaker bodies, and her strange corridors adapt to her whims, offering the perfect setting for a chase or duel or light conversation. Those within her domain are nothing but toys for her to satisfy herself, who may escape only if they are extremely clever and lucky.

Truly, none could suggest a family resemblance.

The House With Two Doors is called forth by great sorcerers for her mastery of intrigue. She has a natural understanding of architecture and aesthetic, but is not herself a builder or artist - rather, those who seek her bargain for secrets, guidance, or her subtle, distant mastery of society's flow. The existence of Kervoni is a secret that Punsovi keeps close to her heart - she is unable to harm those who have met her sister, and will offer carefully-considered bribes for their silence.

Sometimes, when one of noble blood is not invited to a momentous celebration, Punsovi will enter into Creation through a hidden door and offer them the secrets they need to attend in grand and stirring fashion. At other times, someone will dance or preen within a great house that has been abandoned for at least a hundred years, causing a nearby door to open - just once - into the halls of the House With Two Doors. Any mortals who stumble through must prove themselves worthy guests, or else be conscripted into the staff.

Mimaji, the Maiden of Many Faces
Demon of the Second Circle
Expressive Soul of the House With Two Doors
The Maiden of Many Faces has the stature of a child, an androgynous olive-skinned figure with a single rope-like braid of hair in five coloured strands. Though she usually goes naked, this affords little titillation to any onlookers, as her body is utterly featureless, without mark or curve. Even her face is a blank sheet, so when she wishes to communicate, she must snatch one of the forty masks that stud her braid and hold it to her face, speaking through jade lips. Each mask has its own voice, but she cannot simply choose between them - they reflect her current state, without bias or reserve.

Each of Mimaji's masks reflects either the ascending or descending form of the four true virtues commonly identified in First Age philosophy, and is carved from one of the five natural colours of jade, reflecting which of Creation's astrological houses it is attuned to. Her mask of Descending Temperance in Secrets, for instance, is a black jade circle set with inhumanly furrowed brows and an eager, inquiring lilt in its gravelly voice, reflecting those times when curiosity is paramount among her thoughts. She lives for an audience, and often stages her own vivacious theatrical performances within Malfeas, or hijacks the ceremonies of others.

Mimaji is most commonly summoned for her dances and monologues, which allow her to carve her current mask onto the souls of those caught up in them. Those who know the trick to it can instead bind her solely for the loan of a mask - she herself is bound within the face of their choice, bestowing the powers of that mask - and its pure, unreserved emotion - on the binder for as long as he wears her. Sometimes Mimaji will slip into Creation through the proceedings of a great masquerade, leaving only after she has seized centre-stage.

Kamerista, the Avocet Attendant
Demon of the Second Circle
Warden Soul of the House With Two Doors
A severe, pointy woman, Kamerista's legs are stilt-thin and many-jointed, allowing her to stand tall as a small house when not crouching. Her limbs are skeletal, their movement tick-tocking like a clock's mechanisms, exposed and polished bone honed to elongated razors at the fingers and toes. Despite this, she moves with silence and total elegance, a delicacy in her movements that allows her to tweak the finest mechanisms without leaving a scratch or move through a tight-packed crowd in a single flowing movement.

She demands similar elegance from others, round black eyes seeking out every weakness and fault, white-painted lips peeling back in reprimand. The sleeves of her high-class servant's garb conceal countless tools for instruction and education, corporal and otherwise. The flash of her immaculate black-and-white stripes through a corridor or past a window causes breath to hitch in the throats of servants and slaves, lest their conduct be found offensively wanting. Even her masters must meet her standards of presentation, though the corrections they receive are somewhat gentler - at least, at first.

The Avocet Attendant serves as her progenitor's housekeeper, whipping into shape those hirelings brought on for the House's latest party, and tends to be summoned in a similar capacity. Under her stern eye and cold monosyllabic instruction, beasts are trained into fine servants, children transform into killers without compare, and gabbling lunatics can become an elite diplomatic corps. She is best-known to those sorcerers in need of exquisite servants, though Kamerista's tutelage instils her pupils with strict and exacting pride in their duties. She can be released into Creation when a slave with no practical worth is purchased at great price, whereupon she offers the skills to justify their new master's troubles.

Velonnis Mos, the Pin Whisperer
Demon of the Second Circle
Reflective Soul of the House With Two Doors
Velonnis Mos has the appearance of a wild man, broad-shouldered and clad in shimmering rags, grinning broadly or howling like a child as the mood takes him. His body is covered in thick bristles with a greater resemblance to copper wire than hair, and his nails and teeth are thin copper needles. He moves like an ape, knuckling on all fours as often as he walks, but is always faster than his gait suggests. He leads a posse of significant undesirables in his wanderings from district to district, exiles or fallen citizens or blasphemous sublimati, gathered under the banner of his dubious protection, their ranks changing with each casualty or recruitment.

Though he often seems to be simply stirring up trouble for the Hell of it, Mos' favoured past-time is the extraction of secrets. He sniffs out rumour and scandal like a bloodhound - albeit one skilled in casual torture - and not only finds where the bodies are hidden, but strings them up for all to see. The accumulated secrets he's uncovered through the centuries would be enough to blackmail his way into owning a whole layer of Malfeas, if he weren't compulsively driven to expose them in great public displays. He's only known to hold his tongue when it offers opportunities for further mayhem.

Sorcerers call on Mos for the secrets of other, perhaps greater demons, or to air the dirty laundry of their enemies. He can also be used to simply incite madness in choice targets, for his needle nails and teeth can tear away the mores of mortals and lesser spirits. These restraints become the rags he drapes about himself, while the victim is left to indulge in their every secret desire, however awful or mundane. Canny summoners will also seek out and bind the Pin Whisperer's current roster of companions, for they often follow him into Creation, unbound and ready for mischief. Mos himself can breach Malfeas whenever a high priest manages to secretly violate the laws of their god.

Versokiin, the Tealeaf Lovers
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of the Pin Whisperer
A versoki is born whenever the Pin Whisperer tosses one of his needles to the ground - generally while picking his teeth clean after a meal. The needle lodges in the ground as a seed, and soon sprouts into a sweet-scented and sprawling bush of copper wire. Though they thrive in the wild, their aromatic and aesthetic qualities often see the versokiin permitted to take root in the gardens of great demons. Here, their growth is checked by regular groomings, performed by menials wearing facemasks of wet leather to block the plant's scent - the pollen of a tealeaf lover is intoxicating, and draws the weak-willed closer and closer. Soon, they are tangled inescapably in a prison of bliss and knotted copper wire, and become the plant-demon's food. As a result, a versokiin hedge also serves as a security system.

Versokiin who grow large enough acquire a measure of mobility, able to unroot themselves and contract their branches into copper-wire sculptures. These alluring, shining things can move under their own power, the better to attract and envelop prey, and some can even talk, expressing their mocking, slothful nature. Few tealeaf lovers reach this point, though, as most are deliberately cultivated. Certain sodalities know how to preserve and distil their pollen-saturated wires, which produce an addictively blissful sensation when chewed or stewed into tea.

Fylakae, the Panda Dragons
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of the Avocet Attendant
Named after the same black-and-white bears that inspired the common djalan slur, the panda dragons are far shaggier and more heavily muscled than their namesakes, with a longer snout and only two legs. A fylaka's forelegs are thick and powerful, with long black claws, but at the back their body trails into a long, thick tail, like a white-furred snake. They tend to bind their limbs and tail with hoops of etched metal, as braces and weapons, for the panda dragons are martial artists almost without exception, practicing the katas of Hell in their dreams.

This is a great deal of time to spend practicing, for the fylakae also suffer from chronic narcolepsy, and spend most of their time slumbering, spewing breaths of thick steam from their fanged mouth. Those who wish to avoid their casually violent attention are advised to wait for them to fall asleep and begin their slumbering routines. A fylaka can wind its way into Creation whenever a spirit bound to guard a place abandons its post - the demon will replace them and curl up to sleep, killing them if they return.

Avrals, the Face-Grubs
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of the Maiden of Many Faces
Squat myriapods roughly the size of fat housecats, avrals hunt mainly by way of silent stealth and sudden leaps like an uncoiled spring. Their target, always, is the face of another living creature, which they numb and digest over the course of a minute. Hardier specimens can survive this treatment, but are left with the disgusting, melted remains of a visage. The avral simply moves on, bearing the consumed face somewhere on its carapace. Demon mask-makers sometimes make use of them as raw materials, but the true value of a face-grub is made apparent when it reaches maturity. At this point its body cracks apart, stiff with stolen faces, and it emerges as a slender insect-creature.

A mature avral's wings are beautiful things of coloured lacquer, capable of folding across thousands of creases to form exact replicas of the faces it devoured in its youth. Though face-flies can deceive or intimidate others on their own behalf, they most often find employ as the living masks of other demons, who use them for disguises, perfect poker faces, or simply amusements at a masquerade. A sorcerously-enforced order can impose early maturity on an avral, allowing summoners to steal their rival's faces before immediately developing them into a usable mask.

Krimenoi, the Servants Hidden in Ether
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of the Avocet Attendant
Though known throughout Malfeas and the myths of Creation as "invisible servants", a krimenos is really more like a hive of insects. A totem-like shell serves as the central body for each krimenos, which extends hundreds of invisible, independent hand-bodies throughout its territory to impose order, organizing objects ranging from furniture to motes of dust. Unfortunately, the demon's usefulness as a housekeeper is limited by its idiosyncrasy - each krimenus has its own set of mad, fussy little preferences and compulsions that turn living with one into an exercise in frustration. Food is cleared away before it is eaten, furniture is stacked while in use, and documents suffer a sorting system derived from a byzantine sense of aesthetics.

For this reason, feral krimenoi are treated as pests to be rooted out - or at least tamed into pursuing a form of order less antagonistic to the household's actual owners. At least one sodality exists to cultivate long rows of servant-shells in damp warehouses, painting their invisible hands with ink to identify which does what. Those who fail to follow their desired order are tormented until their behaviour improves, until they can be confidently sold on. Krimenoi can escape into Creation when a mortal's domicile is overrun with filth, and they make offerings to have it cleaned on their behalf.

Saetae, the Jesters Who Do Not Laugh
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of the Maiden of Many Faces
Though they stand like men, the saetae are rodent-like in form, and stand hunched and broad. Their fur is pure white, and stiffens into a mane of long bristles along their back, fanning out around their neck to give their eyeless faces a round, owl-like appearance. Proud of their appearance, the laughless jesters scrape together pale robes to match their fur, and treat their wide faces as a canvas, on which elaborate patterns are dyed and painted to reflect their status and history. Though blind and mute, their sense of smell is absolutely extraordinary and extends into the past, allowing them to sniff out forgotten events and act them out in miming displays.

Most often, the saetae are employed as court jesters to remind their masters of great victories and particularly entertaining executions… and to sniff out any trace of double-dealings by their guests. Sorcerers will sometimes summon them to better understand a scene of unknown chaos, or for their services as body-artists and hairdressers, a skill these demons are lesser known for. A saeta will sometimes appear in Creation when a mortal of low birth commits a crime so skillfully that no evidence can be found.

Axhastos, the Singing Serpents
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of the Pin Whisperer
Spawned from the rags that Velonnis Mos discards when he is done with them, the axhastos are ethereal snakes that slither through the air, marked only by the shimmering of their highly reflective scales, much sought-after by Hell's tanners. Malfeas has many lightless places where they might be camouflaged, but the singing serpents also love heat and moisture, and so their most common habitat is the innards of other, unfortunate demons. A typical singing serpent therefore insinuates itself into a living body, blinding a likely candidate with a flash of scale-light before choking them into unconsciousness and forcing its way down its throat. Once there, it digs in the edges of its scales, causing periodic coughing fits in its host.

This is not the most noticeable symptom - the demon's presence filters every word that leaves its host's mouth, instead drawing out one of their secrets. A speaker who wishes only to comment on the weather finds himself admitting to murder, or his distaste for the current fashion of footwear. Only silence or complete openness can thwart this strange babble, and true mutes irritate the axhastos to the point that it may leave after no less than five days. A singing serpent may escape into Creation whenever someone gives a speech full of lies on the eve of war, seeking residence in the speaker's throat that very night. Sorcerers summon these demons as interrogators, commanding them down the throats of captive enemies - even a scream is speech enough to spill a secret.
 
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Revlid said:
So, a while back Aleph did a write-up for a Third Circle Demon that I thought followed a pretty good format - Third Circle, three Second Circles, six First Circles, each level of write-ups getting smaller and smaller. A good combination of in-game usability and insight into the Unquestionable's character. So I did the same thing with a soul of Elloge that's been kicking around my head for years. And thanks to @Aleph for coming up with the basic concepts behind the Axhastos and Avrals.

Punsovi, the House With Two Doors
Demon of the Third Circle
Fourth Soul of the Sphere of Speech
The dwellings of Demon City span an incredible variety. Hollow halls of ornate brass and cyclopean basalt swell up from the Emperor of Hell's crippled flesh, inhabited by demon squatters in their thousands. Tents of sun-treated alien skin flap in the whispering winds of the Silver Desert, strapped to the backs of great howdah beasts with countless legs. Treehouses are worked into the glass trunks of the Mirror Forest with hot iron and billows, linked by living rope bridges woven from dozing serpents. The manses of infernal nobility rise from those places sacred to demons, wells of bitter power that flow from their imprisoned, monstrous gods.

Famed even among these uncountables is Punsovi, the House With Two Doors. Always a sprawling household of austere design and pale materials, the specifics of the House's blueprints change monthly, along with her location. At times she is a many-winged mansion in the modern Imperial style, at others a marvellous tower of otherworldly stone surrounded by immaculate gardens, at others a crumbling old castle - but each month she freely spools out limbs of unused architecture and wanders to new grounds, where she lays down new foundations, reknits her structure and attracts a fresh swathe of groundskeepers and staff from the local nameless masses.

Few of these demon hirelings last until the House moves again - she is not a kind master.

In person, the House's appearance is less changeable. A slender woman with astonishingly pale and knife-sharp features, her hair styled and grey, clad in a fine dress of faded, cold colours; light blues and dull purples. Her expression is always clearly and tightly controlled, suited for elegance rather than emotion - she smiles because she is supposed to smile, or sneers because it is expected, or glares because one of her standing should do so. Whether anything real exists behind this mask of propriety and china-flesh is a mystery.

From the moment she digs in her roots to the hour she leaves, the House With Two Doors plays host to party after party. Quiet dinners with a few Citizens or grand balls that last days, every guest is hand-picked by Punsovi. She may hire a troupe of accomplished gilmyne dancers or order the construction of an artful chalcanth fountain, but the true entertainment of each evening is provided by those she invites. Their dramas and gossip and romances and plots are what lend spice to the evening (insofar as such a time exists in a realm of eternal green sun), and she knows them all from the moment they set foot within her halls, whispers and mutters carried to her down hidden passages.

Even those who know this seldom ignore her invitations. First, because to do so would be to invite the scorn of a high lady of Hell. Second, because Punsovi cares little for the substance of her guest's hidden drives, only that they are acted upon. The passage of dance, conversation and food is artfully directed to maximum effect. Secret lovers find themselves given a moment alone in silent corridors, while bitter rivals find their fellow guests parting to open a space just at the moment when quiet glares erupt into demands for satisfaction. The House With Two Doors hosts an arena for culmination, and smiles passionlessly as she descends the stairs into riots and rejoicing.

Punsovi sets the rules of such soirees as it amuses her, though she bows to the laws and taboos of the region within which she currently dwells - in this, she is all but alone among the Unquestionable. Those who please her while adhering to that party's code will often receive her patronage - a rich gift, a whispered piece of advice, or a future invitation when it would most aid them. Similar largesse awaits those servants who survive their tenure with the House. Her punishments are less equitable. Neither those guests who violate the rules of her hospitality (however strange), nor those servants who fail to uphold the elegance of a given gala are even seen within the House again. The guests are politely ejected. The servants simply vanish.

Their fate is to pass through the House's second door. The first is plain to see - it stands at the front of the House, proudly lacquered in pale blue jade, scaled to suit the crowd it must accept. Within the House, there are no other doors. Archways cleverly aligned to offer privacy from sight and hearing, yes - curtains of etched beads that shimmer in the actinic light of vitriol-lamps, yes - subtle portals through which servants may pass unseen, yes - but not a single door. Nothing that can be locked or barred or hidden behind.

Save one.

This other door crouches in the corner of some appendicital corridor or down a lightless stairway with no banister or in the roof of what was thought to be the highest attic. It is squat and stained, blistered and peeling red wood set with a battered brass handle and heavy - but unused - locks. Behind it lies those parts of Punsovi that she has not woven out into her current structure… and those she never will. A mad jumble of architecture and furniture is lit by broken lamps and painted in the viscera of those banished there, the only sound the mutters and screams of its permanent inhabitant - Kervoni, the twin sister of the House's passionless mistress.

Her dress is a ragged, vibrant red, her wild hair is the colour of sunlight, and her nails are long and jagged. Where Punsovi's pale skin and sharp bones suggest refinement and cosmetics, her sister's bring to mind starvation and days spent in windowless isolation. Where Punsovi's eyes glitter like rubies, giving nothing away, her sister's burn like crucibles of boiling blood. Where Punsovi's teeth are polished and delicate white triangles, her sister's are sharp-edged wedges, stained and gnashing.

Kervoni's expression contorts with her passions, set in hatred or wonder or fear or envy or lust or admiration, and she acts on these emotions as they arrive, hunting and welcoming and torturing and celebrating and eating and mimicking and raping those who visit her. She is fast and terrifyingly strong, with little inclination or ability to moderate herself to account for weaker bodies, and her strange corridors adapt to her whims, offering the perfect setting for a chase or duel or light conversation. Those within her domain are nothing but toys for her to satisfy herself, who may escape only if they are extremely clever and lucky.

Truly, none could suggest a family resemblance.

The House With Two Doors is called forth by great sorcerers for her mastery of intrigue. She has a natural understanding of architecture and aesthetic, but is not herself a builder or artist - rather, those who seek her bargain for secrets, guidance, or her subtle, distant mastery of society's flow. The existence of Kervoni is a secret that Punsovi keeps close to her heart - she is unable to harm those who have met her sister, and will offer carefully-considered bribes for their silence.

Sometimes, when one of noble blood is not invited to a momentous celebration, Punsovi will enter into Creation through a hidden door and offer them the secrets they need to attend in grand and stirring fashion. At other times, someone will dance or preen within a great house that has been abandoned for at least a hundred years, causing a nearby door to open - just once - into the halls of the House With Two Doors. Any mortals who stumble through must prove themselves worthy guests, or else be conscripted into the staff.

Mimaji, the Maiden of Many Faces
Demon of the Second Circle
Expressive Soul of the House With Two Doors
The Maiden of Many Faces has the stature of a child, an androgynous olive-skinned figure with a single rope-like braid of hair in five coloured strands. Though she usually goes naked, this affords little titillation to any onlookers, as her body is utterly featureless, without mark or curve. Even her face is a blank sheet, so when she wishes to communicate, she must snatch one of the forty masks that stud her braid and hold it to her face, speaking through jade lips. Each mask has its own voice, but she cannot simply choose between them - they reflect her current state, without bias or reserve.

Each of Mimaji's masks reflects either the ascending or descending form of the four true virtues commonly identified in First Age philosophy, and is carved from one of the five natural colours of jade, reflecting which of Creation's astrological houses it is attuned to. Her mask of Descending Temperance in Secrets, for instance, is a black jade circle set with inhumanly furrowed brows and an eager, inquiring lilt in its gravelly voice, reflecting those times when curiosity is paramount among her thoughts. She lives for an audience, and often stages her own vivacious theatrical performances within Malfeas, or hijacks the ceremonies of others.

Mimaji is most commonly summoned for her dances and monologues, which allow her to carve her current mask onto the souls of those caught up in them. Those who know the trick to it can instead bind her solely for the loan of a mask - she herself is bound within the face of their choice, bestowing the powers of that mask - and its pure, unreserved emotion - on the binder for as long as he wears her. Sometimes Mimaji will slip into Creation through the proceedings of a great masquerade, leaving only after she has seized centre-stage.

Kamerista, the Avocet Attendant
Demon of the Second Circle
Warden Soul of the House With Two Doors
A severe, pointy woman, Kamerista's legs are stilt-thin and many-jointed, allowing her to stand tall as a small house when not crouching. Her limbs are skeletal, their movement tick-tocking like a clock's mechanisms, exposed and polished bone honed to elongated razors at the fingers and toes. Despite this, she moves with silence and total elegance, a delicacy in her movements that allows her to tweak the finest mechanisms without leaving a scratch or move through a tight-packed crowd in a single flowing movement.

She demands similar elegance from others, round black eyes seeking out every weakness and fault, white-painted lips peeling back in reprimand. The sleeves of her high-class servant's garb conceal countless tools for instruction and education, corporal and otherwise. The flash of her immaculate black-and-white stripes through a corridor or past a window causes breath to hitch in the throats of servants and slaves, lest their conduct be found offensively wanting. Even her masters must meet her standards of presentation, though the corrections they receive are somewhat gentler - at least, at first.

The Avocet Attendant serves as her progenitor's housekeeper, whipping into shape those hirelings brought on for the House's latest party, and tends to be summoned in a similar capacity. Under her stern eye and cold monosyllabic instruction, beasts are trained into fine servants, children transform into killers without compare, and gabbling lunatics can become an elite diplomatic corps. She is best-known to those sorcerers in need of exquisite servants, though Kamerista's tutelage instils her pupils with strict and exacting pride in their duties. She can be released into Creation when a slave with no practical worth is purchased at great price, whereupon she offers the skills to justify their new master's troubles.

Velonnis Mos, the Pin Whisperer
Demon of the Second Circle
Reflective Soul of the House With Two Doors
Velonnis Mos has the appearance of a wild man, broad-shouldered and clad in shimmering rags, grinning broadly or howling like a child as the mood takes him. His body is covered in thick bristles with a greater resemblance to copper wire than hair, and his nails and teeth are thin copper needles. He moves like an ape, knuckling on all fours as often as he walks, but is always faster than his gait suggests. He leads a posse of significant undesirables in his wanderings from district to district, exiles or fallen citizens or blasphemous sublimati, gathered under the banner of his dubious protection, their ranks changing with each casualty or recruitment.

Though he often seems to be simply stirring up trouble for the Hell of it, Mos' favoured past-time is the extraction of secrets. He sniffs out rumour and scandal like a bloodhound - albeit one skilled in casual torture - and not only finds where the bodies are hidden, but strings them up for all to see. The accumulated secrets he's uncovered through the centuries would be enough to blackmail his way into owning a whole layer of Malfeas, if he weren't compulsively driven to expose them in great public displays. He's only known to hold his tongue when it offers opportunities for further mayhem.

Sorcerers call on Mos for the secrets of other, perhaps greater demons, or to air the dirty laundry of their enemies. He can also be used to simply incite madness in choice targets, for his needle nails and teeth can tear away the mores of mortals and lesser spirits. These restraints become the rags he drapes about himself, while the victim is left to indulge in their every secret desire, however awful or mundane. Canny summoners will also seek out and bind the Pin Whisperer's current roster of companions, for they often follow him into Creation, unbound and ready for mischief. Mos himself can breach Malfeas whenever a high priest manages to secretly violate the laws of their god.

Versokiin, the Tealeaf Lovers
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of the Pin Whisperer
A versoki is born whenever the Pin Whisperer tosses one of his needles to the ground - generally while picking his teeth clean after a meal. The needle lodges in the ground as a seed, and soon sprouts into a sweet-scented and sprawling bush of copper wire. Though thrive in the wild, their aromatic and aesthetic qualities often see the versokiin permitted to take root in the gardens of great demons. Here, their growth is checked by regular groomings, performed by menials in facemasks of wet leather to block the scent - the pollen of a tealeaf lover is intoxicating, and draws the weak-willed closer and closer. Soon, they are tangled inescapably in a prison of bliss and knotted copper wire, and become the plant-demon's food. As a result, a versokiin hedge also serves as a security system.

Versokiin who grow large enough acquire a measure of mobility, able to unroot themselves and contract their branches into copper-wire sculptures. These alluring, shining things can move under their own power, the better to attract and envelop prey, and some can even talk, expressing their mocking, slothful nature. Few tealeaf lovers reach this point, though, as most are deliberately cultivated. Certain sodalities know how to preserve and distil their pollen-saturated wires, which produce an addictively blissful sensation when chewed or stewed into tea.

Fylakae, the Panda Dragons
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of the Avocet Attendant
Named after the same black-and-white bears that inspired the common djalan slur, the panda dragons are far shaggier and more heavily muscled than their namesakes, with a longer snout and only two legs. A fylaka's forelegs are thick and powerful, with long black claws, but at the back their body trails into a long, thick tail, like a white-furred snake. They tend to bind their limbs and tail with hoops of etched metal, as braces and weapons, for the panda dragons are martial artists almost without exception, practicing the katas of Hell in their dreams.

This is a great deal of time to spend practicing, for the fylakae also suffer from chronic narcolepsy, and spend most of their time slumbering, spewing breaths of thick steam from their fanged mouth. They can use this steam to project their senses into the world while they slumber, but this cuts into their training dream-time, and so those who wish to avoid their casually violent attention is to wait for them to fall asleep. A fylaka can wind its way into Creation whenever a spirit bound to guard a place abandons its post - the demon will replace them and curl up to sleep, killing them if they return.

Avrals, the Face-Grubs
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of the Maiden of Many Faces
Squat myriapods roughly the size of fat housecats, avrals hunt mainly by way of silent stealth and sudden leaps like an uncoiled spring. Their target, always, is the face of another living creature, which they numb and digest over the course of a minute. Hardier specimens can survive this treatment, but are left with the disgusting, melted remains of a visage. The avral simply moves on, bearing the consumed face somewhere on its carapace. Demon mask-makers sometimes make use of them as raw materials, but the true value of a face-grub is made apparent when it reaches maturity. At this point its body cracks apart, stiff with stolen faces, and it emerges as a slender insect-creature.

A mature avral's wings are beautiful things of coloured lacquer, capable of folding across thousands of creases to form exact replicas of the faces it devoured in its youth. Though face-flies can deceive or intimidate others on their own behalf, they most often find employ as the living masks of other demons, who use them for disguises, perfect poker faces, or simply amusements at a masquerade. A sorcerously-enforced order can impose early maturity on an avral, allowing summoners to steal their rival's faces before immediately developing them into a usable mask.

Krimenoi, the Servants Hidden in Ether
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of the Avocet Attendant
Though known throughout Malfeas and the myths of Creation as "invisible servants", the krimenoi are really more like hives of insects. A tiny shell serves as the central body for each krimenus, which extends hundreds of invisible, independent hand-bodies throughout its territory to impose order, organizing objects ranging from furniture to motes of dust. Unfortunately, the demon's usefulness as a housekeeper is limited by its idiosyncrasy - each krimenus has its own set of mad, fussy little preferences and compulsions that turn living with one into an exercise in frustration. Food is cleared away before it is eaten, furniture is stacked while in use, and documents suffer a sorting system derived from a byzantine sense of aesthetics.

For this reason, feral krimenoi are treated as pests to be rooted out - or at least tamed into pursuing a form of order less antagonistic to the household's actual owners. At least one sodality exists to cultivate long rows of servant-shells in damp warehouses, painting their invisible hands with ink to identify which does what. Those who fail to follow their desired order are tormented until their behaviour improves, until they can be confidently sold on. Krimenoi can escape into Creation when a mortal's domicile is overrun with filth, and they make offerings to have it cleaned on their behalf.

Saetae, the Jesters Who Do Not Laugh
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of the Maiden of Many Faces
Though they stand like men, the saetae are rodent-like in form, and stand hunched and broad. Their fur is pure white, and stiffens into a mane of long bristles along their back, fanning out around their neck to give their eyeless faces a round, owl-like appearance. Proud of their appearance, the laughless jesters scrape together pale robes to match their fur, and treat their wide faces as a canvas, on which elaborate patterns are dyed and painted to reflect their status and history. Though blind and mute, their sense of smell is absolutely extraordinary and extends into the past, allowing them to sniff out forgotten events and act them out in miming displays.

Most often, the saetae are employed as court jesters to remind their masters of great victories and particularly entertaining executions… and to sniff out any trace of double-dealings by their guests. Sorcerers will sometimes summon them to better understand a scene of unknown chaos, or for their services as body-artists and hairdressers, a skill these demons are lesser known for. A saeta will sometimes appear in Creation when a mortal of low birth commits a crime so skillfully that no evidence can be found.

Axhastos, the Singing Serpents
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of the Pin Whisperer
Spawned from the rags that Velonnis Mos discards when he is done with them, the axhastos are ethereal snakes that slither through the air, marked only by the shimmering of their highly reflective scales, much sought-after by Hell's tanners. Malfeas has many lightless places where they might be camouflaged, but the singing serpents also love heat and moisture, and so their most common habitat is the innards of other, unfortunate demons. A typical singing serpent therefore insinuates itself into a living body, blinding a likely candidate with a flash of scale-light before choking them into unconsciousness and forcing its way down its throat. Once there, it digs in the edges of its scales, causing periodic coughing fits in its host.

This is not the most noticeable symptom - the demon's presence filters every word that leaves its host's mouth, instead drawing out one of their secrets. A speaker who wishes only to comment on the weather finds himself admitting to murder, or his distaste for the current fashion of footwear. Only silence or complete openness can thwart this strange babble, and true mutes irritate the axhastos to the point that it may leave after no less than five days. A singing serpent may escape into Creation whenever someone gives a speech full of lies on the eve of war, seeking residence in the speaker's throat that very night. Sorcerers summon these demons as interrogators, commanding them down the throats of captive enemies - even a scream is speech enough to spill a secret.
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Revlid, you should have split this post into 3 or more parts, so I can like it more.

What's your thought process when you start making demons?
 
So, I've been reading through the entirety of TAW for the first time, and it brought up some questions.

How do you determine the virtues of a Lunatic Familiar? I assume you use the attributes of the base animal, and the essence and charms are explained, but I don't see anything about the virtues.

Does the rule in Roll of Divinity that when something advances, the stats based on it should advance using the part of the formula based on that number, even if the spirit wasn't following the formula previously, hold true for familiars? That is to say, if Cult or a Virtue goes up, does the familiar get more Attribute points and Charms?

If that rule does hold true, can the extra charms be anything the spirit qualifies for, such as Martial Arts or Charms it has access to from other sources? On that note, is it possible to learn Charms from MOEP:Lunars that do not have equivalents in TAW?
 
Dynamesmouse said:
What's your thought process when you start making demons?
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Writing demons...

With a Third Circle, you want it to reflect or channel some aspect of its originating Yozi, preferably in such a fashion that they don't just look like a mini-Yozi. You also want a cool, impressive world-form appropriate to its nature. The Second Circle needs to be similarly related to its Third Circle. You've got the "type" of Soul as a guide here - Reflective, Messenger, etc. First Circles don't need to reflect anything, really, but generally have some sort of aesthetic link due to the narrative of how they're created.

All Circles of demons need to be a bit weird, a bit alien. That's essentially what they are - aliens, as opposed to the Miyazaki-style spirits you see in Creation's native spirits. They're bioengineered weirdos, and like the rest of Malfeas tend to lean closer to sci-fi through a fantasy lens than pure fantasy. When demons heal, for example, they don't lay on hands, they do weird off-putting biological stuff. They're not necessarily inimical, but boy are they strange.

All demons also need a purpose - they exist, in-game, to be summoned. Why would anyone want to summon them? Hopping Puppeteers steal children, why would you risk having them around? Because they're really awesome builders. Demons are tools, slave labour. This is easiest to communicate with First Circles, the majority of whom are explicitly designed for some purpose or other.

beowolf said:
How do you determine the virtues of a Lunatic Familiar? I assume you use the attributes of the base animal, and the essence and charms are explained, but I don't see anything about the virtues.
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Well, it's not like they're necessary minimae for Spirit Charms, and they don't factor into calculating the Essence pool... so, whatever, really? I think some animals have Virtues suggested in their statblocks, but in the absence of that I guess I'd suggest you give them (Familiar) dots (on top of the starting four), spread around as you please.
 
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Becoming the Devil-Tyrant Avatar
Cost: —; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Obvious, Desecration
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Devil-Tyrant Avatar Shintai

Malfeas doesn't need a moment to prepare himself for war. He is always ready, and so are those to learn the ways of the Devil-Tyrant Avatar.

This charm upgrades Devil-Tyrant Avatar Shintai in the following ways. First, that charm's cost decreases to a flat 10 motes and its duration increases to indefinite. In addition, the warlock may commit 1m reflexively every time her DVs refresh in order to gain Essence mutations from the pool provided by "By Rage Recast". These mutations bypass the normal Desecration rules. As a final benefit, if the Infernal ever gains any effect that renders any of her mutations redundant, she may replace those mutations over the course of a hour of meditation.

How do you feel about this charm?
 
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Sweet crap, no!

Like, there is no call to actually upgrade DTA. Whatsoever.
 
I -like- Devil Tyrant Avatar Shintai, and I am seconding the Sweet Motherfuck No sentiment. DTA is already balls to the wall insane, there is NO need to go further.
 
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Imma third it.

Devil Tyrant Avatar Shintai is already one of the most beastly combat buffs. It doesn't need to be any stronger.
 
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Revlid said:
Well, it's not like they're necessary minimae for Spirit Charms, and they don't factor into calculating the Essence pool... so, whatever, really? I think some animals have Virtues suggested in their statblocks, but in the absence of that I guess I'd suggest you give them (Familiar) dots (on top of the starting four), spread around as you please.
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While that works fine as an answer to my first question, it ignores my later ones, one of which in particular makes Virtues relevant. I wanted to know if the rule in the Roll of Divinity, that increased virtues or cult after character creation will change the attributes and charms of the spirit as though it had followed the original formula, applies to familiars. If it does, that make virtues relevant, because if they can be increased, such as with Mind-Knife Sacrament, that would boost the familiar, making it more potent. One of my other questions was if the familiar could take martial arts charms when it gained new ones. I know normal spirits can, though I'm not sure if they can learn them with their spirit charm slots, or they have to buy them with xp separately.

Even if that rule doesn't hold true, virtues are still relevant anyway, because several of the charms have effects based on specific virtues, whether having them in the dice pool, or giving effects an number of times equal to one of them.
 
beowolf said:
While that works fine as an answer to my first question, it ignores my later ones, one of which in particular makes Virtues relevant.
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Ignore Scroll of Glorious Divinity advancement and creation rules - they're not Familiar rules.
Familiars can learn Martial Arts if it makes sense, but they're not interchangeable with Spirit Charms, no. I say this as someone who doesn't use Martial Arts Charms to begin with - as an ST, I would limit them to appropriate animal styles unless a really good pitch was made.
Spirit Charms are suggestions and templates rather than definitive articles. You should be free to modify them if their application of Virtues doesn't suit the specific narrative of how you're using them - if your lizard-familiar tears off its tail to form a false clone of itself with Host of Spirits, that could probably key off Stamina rather than Conviction, for instance.
 
Noticed something: as written, the Abyssal Mirror of Chaos Repelling Pattern shuts down all shaping in it's radius, instead of actually "mirroring what CRP does, except underworld".

Is this just poor editing on their part, or does the charm actually anti-shaping? Because in the later case... ouch.
 
Chloe Sullivan said:
Noticed something: as written, the Abyssal Mirror of Chaos Repelling Pattern shuts down all shaping in it's radius, instead of actually "mirroring what CRP does, except underworld".

Is this just poor editing on their part, or does the charm actually anti-shaping? Because in the later case... ouch.
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Yes. Abyssal Charms come in two flavours:

Completely and hilariously weaker versions of Solar Charms,
Completely and hilariously stronger version of Solar Charms,
 
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