General Exalted Thread

[EarthScorpion]

So, we've seen quite a lot of @Aleph's Keris and her soul pantheon, but Keris is not the default for an Infernal using the soul pantheon rules I've devised. She's effectively devoted vast amounts of time into working on her pantheon, and spends hours daily meditating to interact with her souls, keeping them friendly and well-inclined to her. Amusingly, since what Keris is doing is mechanically meditation, the time she puts into playing with her souls is actually a form of personal therapy little different than the time that an Immaculate monk spends meditating to control his desires and focus his mind. What Keris does by focussing on her desires and her wants and her drives and getting them to play nicely together and not pull each other's hair is effectively time spent getting her mind and her desires in order.

Most Infernals are not going to spend so much time focussing on their own psychological stability, and so their soul pantheons are going to be rather less cooperative and useful. They're also going to be more "classically" demonic - which is to say, they're not going to all be little (sometimes) adorable (usually) bratty children and are instead going to resemble normal Exalted demons more.

As an example, here's what Sasi's nascent soul pantheon looks like. Which says rather more about her than she'd like others to know.

The Blasphemer in Gold, the Seat of Sin
Second Soul of Lady Sasimana
The po soul of Nemone Sasimana has supped upon the succor of the Yozis, and has bloated in ways the souls of men were not meant to. Now, when the Blasphemer in Gold manifests within her soul-world it is a creature out of the night-terrors of Immaculate children. Pale skinned and grey-haired, like its greater self, it drapes itself in tattered golden robes and wears a demonic mask. Upon the forehead of the living mask is painted a sun, which is sometimes yellow and sometimes green. Its hands and feet have long, claw-like fingernails that are often caked with blood, and serve to contrast its lush female form.

The Seat of Sin is a cowardly creature that flees from strength but viciously attacks weakness. It is not clever, but it has a certain base cunning that makes it dangerous for a thing that otherwise resembles a beast. The other souls fear it, for it will attack them seemingly at random and lose interest only when they beg for mercy. At other times the Blasphemer in Gold will simply stalk the soul-world, seeking out its favoured vices - and to that end, the other souls leave offerings to it which seem to sate its envy and greed.

Mu Nenra, the Guide to Lady Sasimana
Fourth Soul of Lady Sasimana
Once an agata champion whose jousting and philosophy alike won him glory and repute in the fighting arenas of Malfeas, Mu Nenra was taken by the Priests of Cecelyne after he slew the centipede behemoth Valak before an audience of ten thousand. Such skill drew the eyes of the Unquestionable and so he was made a coadjutor. The Yozi essence has twisted him, and though he remains a beautiful wasp, he has shrunk to the size of a large dog and is now formed of milk-white stone.

Mu Nenra is a poorly suited coadjutor for Lady Sasimana. Though his philosophy is occasionally of interest to her, the vainglorious champion made a poor impression on a manipulative socialite - and worse, she does not respect him as a 'mere' first circle demon. He is sometimes of use for she appreciates someone to bounce ideas off of, but he has little influence over her actions. Moreover, with the genesis of her other souls his influence has dwindled even further and now he fears what may happen, trapped within a tiny world with five other souls - and her monstrous po.

Kalaska, the Princess of Law
Fifth Soul of Lady Sasimana
Within the darkness of Sasimana's soul there is a cave-shrine made of blue glass and engraved with endless laws. There dwells Kalaska, the Princess of Law, who has the seeming of a young girl of perhaps eight or nine years of age. She looks much like her greater self, though her eyes are a bright blue and under silver robes she wears ill-fitting armour made from the same glass as her shrine. When Kalaska speaks, her word becomes law. As a result, she says little save when she is scared, though she is not quiet and hums and sings meaningless songs. When she wishes to communicate without passing judgement, she creates blue glass tablets that hold the words she cannot say.

For all her imperious nature, fear holds Kalaska closely. Only within her place of law is she safe - if she leaves it, her armour cracks and splinters. Unexpected changes inflict pain on her, and sometimes the cracks spread from her armour to her flesh. She hates to accept the influence of others, and will cite her endless made-up laws and rules whenever she perceives a threat. Around her, criminals and oathbreakers find that they suffer the symptoms of hay fever, for the miniscule fragments of glass that sliver from her pale hair seek out those who show no respect for their own words. She has made herself a little desert fox-akuma from the sand that coats the floor of her cave, and she loves the creature dearly. It advances ahead of her and trails in her wake, for it has several bodies - though one can usually be found in her arms. She is somewhat neglected by her greater self and bullied by the other souls, especially La and the po who will threaten her beloved pet to get her to comply.

Seresa, the Mother of Shadows
Sixth Soul of Lady Sasimana
Though the true form of Seresa is an obviously female shadow-figure, she looks as she wishes. Her favoured form is a curvaceous woman in her early thirties, with dusky features and long hair the deep blue-black of the sky after sunset. She is frequently pregnant with The Things That Dwell In Shadows, though such pregnancies last but a single night. Her growing brood swarms around her, playing the stolen reflections of musical instruments and accompanying her in her gentle songs. Her touch leaves an oily residue and around her fires burn black, casting darkness rather than illumination.

Seresa is a mother figure and a seductress in equal amounts. Among the Mother of Shadows' many indulgences are compassion and love, and she is the kindest of Sasimana's souls - though sometimes she is too lost in decadence to make time for others. Within her quarters wine runs freely and narcotic smoke boils and churns. She is always prepared to console anyone who seeks her out, though her consolations often involve drowning the mind in drugs and pleasures than resolving its issues.

Marenolo, the Pivot of Understanding
Seventh Soul of Lady Sasimana
A male figure made from luminous colourless crystal from whose shoulders a hundred hands of light sprout, Marenolo is a scholar and a gentleman. His vast and cool intellect devours the warmth from his surroundings, and so water freezes and identical snowflakes fall from the sky around him. The Pivot of Understanding is himself blind, but that means nothing to him for with his countless hands he feels and examines the world around him, and so knows it intimately. His cave is where Sasimana stores her notebooks and own work on sorcery, and he is her archivist and scribe. Despite his blindness he produces elaborately illustrated work, though his concept of beauty more relates to the geometric patterns of the ink than the landscapes of Creation.

Marenolo's curiosity knows no bounds. Sasimana has already made the private decision that he will never be allowed to roam free within Malfeas, for he would no doubt swiftly be thrown into the sky by Orabilis. The restrictions on the Green Sun Princes leave him surly and rebellious, and he whispers to his greater self, tempting her to indulge her own curiosity in things better left untouched.

Moneha, the Eagle and the Spider
Eight Soul of Lady Sasimana
Moneha has two bodies, and both are Moneha at once. One is a woman with the head of an eagle, while the other is a spider the size of a cat with a woman's head. The spider is fair-featured and beautiful in a Realm way, with scarlet hair and sharp teeth. She offers deals, information, and other such aids. The eagle comes for those who break the terms the spider dictates, and those who fall under her power are swallowed whole. Oaths and promises are Moneha's business, though she considers herself above such deals and always makes sure to leave her a way to back out of any arrangement. When she is nearby, spiders and birds make common cause and the arachnids weave their webs around nests to keep them safe from insects.

The Eagle and the Spider respects nothing that she cannot own; not her greater self, nor the Unquestionables, nor even the Yozis. She cannot offer her aid freely and her tongues burn red-hot if she would try. When Sasimana would deal with her, she must come with bribes and payment - and this she does reliably. Hence, despite her lack of respect Moneha does have a certain fondness for her greater self and bargains more kindly than she would with another. Still, Moneha would ensnare the world if she had the means and Sasimana is always cautious around her, for they know each other as mother and daughter.

La, the Apostate Dragon
Ninth Soul of Lady Sasimana
Bald-headed, orange-robed and whippet-thin, La could almost be an Immaculate priest. Then the onlooker looks into his slitted eyes and sees the texts praising the Yozis tattooed across his skin and hears his squirming words which call men to cast down the gods and realise the nature of this apostate. He is as yet immature and cannot assume his full draconic form, but what men assume are his robes are instead his wings and he hides his claws beneath gloves. La reshapes the world with his words, twisting it in countless small ways. Men become cliches of themselves, and his blood spawns malformed mockeries. When he preaches, the text crawls across the pages in nearby books, and clothes reweave themselves to fashions more pleasing to the Yozis. His very presence is a blasphemy to Heaven, and gods find his touch burns like acid.

Within his shrine-cave, La works on revising the Immaculate Texts. He believes that the truth is concealed within them, an unknowing prophecy buried deep by the Sidereals who wrote them, and that in truth their tales of the past of Creation - ruled by demon-worshipping Anathema - are instead tales of the world to come. He sees a glorious future ahead, and presses Sasimana to make it a reality. One day she will be an Anathematic demon-queen, vizier of the Yozis, ruling Creation in their name. His forked tongue spills words about her revenge that will be complete when the faith of the Realm is turned to the Yozis and the Dragonblooded kneel before her.

 

[Aleph]

Can you elaborate? Might want to use it for any homebrewed Exalted games.

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If you're not playing an Infernal, there's not much point, since they're the only ones with non-Ability or -Attribute based Charms, and this hack basically rips the Attribute/Ability system already in place to shreds and replaces it with something sleeker.

But if you want it anyway, we compressed the 9 Attributes and 25 Abilities down into a much more sensible 5/15 (which also makes it easy to set the relative xp costs - which are flat, same amount per dot no matter which one you're buying - to raise them. Attributes are 9xp, Abilities are 3xp. Styles are 2xp per dot.)

Attribute-wise, we fused Strength and Dexterity into Physique, since you actually kind of have to have muscle strength in order to move fast. Stamina, a bit of Strength and some of nWoD's Resolve became Endurance. Cognition is basically Intelligence with a bits of Wits. Reaction is a mixture of Wits, Perception and some social stuff - how well you notice things, how well you think on your feet, etc. You make Reaction+Awareness rolls, and it's also a social skill, since social interactions require fast reactions and subtle cues. The distinction between Charisma and Manipulation was basically meaningless, especially since real socialites use both, so we fused them into Persuasion; the "talking people into doing what you want" skill. If you have something against lying, that's just a roleplay thing. This also balanced them fairly well and meant that there wasn't really a god-stat in the sense that Dex was.

Ability-wise, we fused the Dawn skills into Command, Melee and Ranged - Command being leadership; arraying troops and training warriors and leading men into battle. The Zenith skills fused Survival and Resistance - which was basically "Stamina; the Attribute" - expanded Performance to be artistic expression in general, from poetry to painting to dance, and mostly folded Integrity into Presence; leaving them with Expression, Presence and Survival. We were doing this with an eye to how each Caste acted in the war, so we decided that if Dawns were leading men on the front lines and Zeniths were the standard-bearers bolstering morale among the troops; Twilights were the strategists and generals pouring over maps in big tents or at HQ. Investigation is much the same as always; Lore is general "humanities" knowledge, has taken quite a bit from Linguistics in literacy, "how you sound in writing" and the like, and is also what you use for planning campaigns and other "long-term strategy" stuff (shorter-term tactics in a single battle or for on-the-spot leadership of a small squad towards a set objective would be Command). If Lore is the humanities - geography, history, classics, etc; then Occult is the sciences, and has swallowed Craft and Medicine - the blacksmith of a village is, after all, a little bit magical, and sciences in Creation are closely linked to Essence and least gods and so on. Night-wise, Athletics has swallowed Dodge, Awareness is much the same, and Stealth and Larceny have been fused into a general skulduggery skill; Subterfuge. Lastly, the Eclipse abilities for the Exalts who managed the logistics and supply trains of the Primordial War armies; they have Bureaucracy, Socialise has become Politics, and Ride and Sail are fused into Travel.

To compensate for how the Abilities are wider in scope, mortals are limited to buying 2 dots in an Ability has a whole - 3 for truly exceptional heroic mortals - and use the Style system to specialise in specific subsets of a skill - a blacksmith would have maybe one dot in Occult and then two more in Iron-Handed Labourer style. This keeps their dice pools about the same, but means that they're far tighter; thematically - you don't have omnitactical combat hydras, you have a Realm Dynast who's been taught the spear, the sword and the longbow. Or your doctor doesn't have a massive breadth of medical know-how on everything ailment-related, but is a damn good surgeon due to Sawbones Form. Enlightened characters can buy Abilities all the way up to 5; as their holistic understanding of a skill is greatly aided by perception and comprehension of the Essence of all things.

 

[Aleph]

Though it might not actually be as focused on swording as you think. Like, of all of the skills a soldier needs, close combat is certainly one of them, but I could imagine parts of a style dealing with how to scrounge up food on campaign or pack your tent, or march a whole day and not fall down, or any number of a dozen things, I suppose!

Click to shrink...

Scavenging Soldier Style (Melee/Survival)
Many men find their calling in baking bread or weaving wool. But some pursue careers in killing, and become mercenaries or troopers under a general's banner. This style is used in the Scavenger Lands by men of the military who spend their lives in service; following the orders of their commanding officers, marching where they are sent and killing who they are told to alongside their fellows. Few who learn this Style are enthusiastic about their work, for the glory of war wears off quickly at the sight of a battlefield. Instead, they focus on survival and the day-to-day routine of life in the army - and on the next paycheck coming their way. When used for combat, this style is compatible with armour and is generally used with the spear or short sword, though other variants exist.
1: +1 to enduring forced marches, heavy armour and other similar exertions.
2: +1 to laying hands on adequate food and shelter in the field.
3: -1 Difficulty to quickly staunch battlefield wounds.

Speaking of Enlightenment, are there any Infernals running around in Kerisgame at Enlightenment 10? Would the Unquestionable regard such a being as a threat? I get the feeling that the coadjutors are meant to stop things like that. Though I guess anybody who gained that level of spiritual growth is probably shanked or suppressing their power.

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Probably a few by now. Sasi's not far off it (if indeed she isn't there already), and she's one of the older ones. And no, you don't shank your best tools. The coadjutor limits them spiritually, and they're still subservient to the Althing - on the level of a peer, not an Unquestionable.

(That said, they absolutely do make the Unquestionable nervous. Which is why you aren't going to see said Unquestionable doing something as dumb as shanking such an Infernal, which would turn the GSPs against them en masse.)

 

[EarthScorpion]

...and now I'm curious what Sasi's looks like as a point of comparison. But yeah, that all makes sense, and gives me ideas of how I might build a few of my own characters using these systems.

Click to shrink...

Article:

Face-of-Pasiap Style (Presence, Expression)
"These are the markers of beauty for those blessed by the Earth Dragon: a triangular face with a stubborn jawline that reminds us of the beauty of Mt Meru, a statuesque build that is solid and not excessively slender, and skin that is cool to the touch. The hair should be naturally straight - waviness indicates too much sympathy with water or wood. The eyes may either resemble precious gems, or be the colour of stone. In both sexes, the shoulders should be broad as to carry their responsibilities; in a woman, so should the hips. The nature of such a child well-suits command, so teach them to be as unyielding as granite when all else is uncertain and lesser men will obey them without doubt."

1: +1 to social rolls against characters native to cultures whose aesthetic values were set by the Realm.
2: +1 to appearing calm and unflappable during times of crisis
3: When giving orders to characters loyal to the Face-of-Pasiap, treat the loyalty Principle as being one level higher.

Note that it's not exactly an "appearance" Style, though your looks are a major bit of it. Look at the bonuses: they're "the Realm has been culturally imperialistic and told you that people who look like this are attractive", "they raised me to not show my feelings because I'm expected to be calm at all times" and "because of how I look and how I was trained, I'm very good at giving orders to people who are already loyal to me". Characters who have the looks, but don't have the training can only get one dot in this Style. And that's true for a lot of "appearance" Styles - they're still Styles which are trained things, so you need to know how to use your looks too.

 

[Revlid]

Hum, so, to address that, since I was mentioned...

In past editions, elementals didn't really have a well-defined place. Demons were more interesting as summoned tools, and had clearer design precepts which meant they received a disproportionate amount of homebrew - as a minion spell compared to Demon of the First Circle, Summon Elemental leaned entirely on the fact that hey hey hey maybe you can summon the Kukla lol. Ghosts weren't great, but they were still more interesting as reflections of humanity and a parallel civilization (in the Underworld). Even things like youkai and oni mainly had their concept-space janked by Raksha. Gods filled most of the other narrative slots for spirits, and to make matters worse their Terrestrial/Celestial split managed to be more interesting than the God/Elemental split. Elementals were effectively "spirits you can mostly summon that basically act like gods I guess". This was true even in-universe, where they aped the Bureaucracy of Gods without anyone - even the writers - really seeming to know or care why.

If anyone can tell me off the top of their head whether the Dogs Of Broken Earth were elementals or terrestrial gods, will call them a liar who had the relevant pdf open on their computer.

Even their history was garbled and unintuitive - there had been five Great Elementals, who weren't related to the five other giant elemental spirits, who'd been murdered by the Primordials. Their fragments turned into Elementals, who had nothing to do with any of the other Elemental-type characters, but gradually transformed into Elemental Dragons - who, again, had nothing to do with the, uh, Elemental Dragons. Then they bummed around and acted like sort of gods, but not really.

So Elementals were one of the things that definitely needed a change in 3e, even if they were less visible in their awfulness than some others.

-------

My take on their new direction was initially inspired by Autochthonian Elementals, which have a more distinct role within their own setting, but quickly became its own thing more aimed at the Firebird sequence in Fantasia, with a touch of Pokemon, Princess Mononoke, and Reus. The idea, essentially, was that Elementals have always existed, as natural instruments of Creation's elemental homeostasis.

They're the immune system of the dragonlines, spawning en-masse in the wake of major elemental shifts, or in lighter numbers with the turning of the seasons. Most elementals just dissolve when they're done, and those that stick around are basically animals. Of those, the majority end up as the guard dogs or pets of a Terrestrial God with a somewhat-related purview (illegal, of course, but overlooked). They're spiritual "wildlife", essentially, with little numinous power, rooted in the material - of the few that stick around, only a very few become enlightened enough to be genuinely intelligent.

Though those that do have a tendency to start gathering their less sapient fellows around them into gangs (or "Elemental Courts", if they've got pretensions) in places at the edge of divine attention, and start reshaping their local surroundings into its "natural" state, as they see it - i.e. lots of their element. These elementals can get to wield intimidating levels of power, especially since they tend to be overlooked by gods as mere beasts or "lesser" spirits - up until it becomes clear that they can hold their own, at least, at which point the talk of "our Elemental cousins" starts coming out.

This is the sort of thing that Sidereals tend to split their time between a) dealing with, because it fucks up their plans for the local area or gets them favours from local gods and b) quietly encouraging or ignoring, because it creates bulwarks against the Wyld, occupies uppity gods, gives them an avenue of spiritual influence in Creation which has no official path of remonstration against their meddling, and it's not actually their job to deal with it anyway. Legally speaking, elementals don't exist - they show up, balance the seasons, and vanish. That's the official line.

There are a very very few elementals who become strong enough for even Sidereals to start being leery of their chances in efficiently toppling them when necessary. These, Heaven tries to hire on as Directional Censors, effectively acting as the spiritual equivalent of privateers. They're the "Lesser Dragons" - taking on the role imposes the dragon-form. A Lesser Dragon is an elemental who was smart and powerful and active enough that the Celestial Bureaucracy actually offered them a purview to get them on-side. A job with all the downsides of Terrestrial and Celestial duties, and one that involves actual dangerous duties vis-a-vis rooting out Wyld hotspots in the region and keeping local elementals in line, but still. Scary. Think of Fakharu as one of the Shichibukai - an awesomely powerful pirate who signed on with the government, and so gets to freely act like a pirate in exchange for hunting other pirates.

Of course, if they refuse that offer they become targets for whatever retribution Heaven can spare, at which point they're best-advised to run for the Wyldmarches and live a less glamorous life on the edge of Creation, jockeying for dominance with raksha, Lunars and other oddities. It doesn't exactly help that the vital Essence of the Wyld is surefire way for an Elemental to bulk up... while also being a good way to get enslaved to a raksha noble as a pet, or go bonkers, or go from being a decent, honest fire elemental to being made from blue poisonous light.

Since "Elemental Dragon" isn't a natural part of this Elemental life-cycle, those that survive past this point develop into Reus-style giants as they reach higher Essence. Aside from basic Elemental themes, creatures who've advanced this far can't really be categorized into "species" in the manner of newborn elementals - they're entities like the subterranean Gemlord Collective of the South, or Hurricane Laloti, or Mother Bog. These are the sort of entities who look at the title "Directional Censor" and tell Nara-O:

"Censor? Foolish faceless god. Do you have any idea how much power I'd have to give up to become a Censor?"

It's the younger, hungrier ones in more precarious positions who tend to leap at the chance to become privateers. Which can lead to bitterness when it becomes apparent that they're now in a position to be resented by Terrestrials, condescended to by Celestials, and regarded as a traitor by their former fellows. Some of them shrug their shoulders and go "whatever", some of them throw themselves into their new duties to a degree that they earn a vicious reputation, some are so starry-eyed they don't even notice (this doesn't last long), some drown their irritation and regret in the pleasures of the Heavenly City.

This pressure is probably what drove Kukla to devour several thousand lesser Elementals through the course of his career as Censor, eventually developing into a beast so horrifying, so powerful, and so incurably mad that he was locked away (he's the only "Greater" Dragon, under this model - that's not a term, he's his own thing, just "The Kukla").

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Anyway, this gives elementals a clear role and process - they're freakish elemental wildlife, generally not (unlike gods, demons, ghosts) sapient, with their Charms worked into their "biology" to emphasize that. They're spawned to alter Creation as the seasons and dragonlines dictate. With a demon or god, you come up with a tool-nature or purview - with an elemental, you ask how they're intended to fix the world. This makes them easier to design - even if it means most will probably end up looking like Pokemon. A species of Wood Elemental might be birds with leaf-wings who vomit a fireproof sap onto trees, or big lizards who squirt seeds from their backs to replant a forest.

It also gives "standard" elementals some obvious narrative hooks distinct from renegade Terrestrial Gods - if you're building a manse, how are you dealing with elemental interference? If elementals are being spawned nearby, what's about to happen? If winter isn't coming, where are the flocks of Air elementals? They take the common narrative link between animals and disruptions of nature and make them extremely solid - while reversing the chain of cause-and-effect, in some cases.

So with all that in mind, Summon Elemental doesn't summon an Elemental, but creates a new one, by causing a calculated imbalance in the local Essence. This creates a spirit-familiar, an elemental beast who dissipates once you're done with it (usually). There's no particular problem with this - it's a mindless homeostasis-thing with no existing connections. Actually summoning an existing, specific Elemental is only possible in the same way you might be able to summon a god with a sorcerous contract.

If you still want to include the Great Elementals - though their only real worth is the part where the Gods bound them the same way they'd been bound, even as they grated against the injustice of their own yoke - then they were a control system devised by the gods and broken by the spiteful Primordials as war broke out, leaving Elementals to run rampant over Creation.

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That was the pitch I put forward, anyway. Posted it on the old forums a few times, talked about it with the devs on IRC. Obviously, I wouldn't have talked to them if I had a problem with my ideas being adopted - if indeed they were, rather than developed independently. In any case, 3e is handling elementals quite differently than I describe above - while it's got a fair bit of "spiritual wildlife" angle I focused on, it seems to aim more at the territory of youkai tribes, or the inhuman races in Zelda and some pulp explorer fiction. Exalted is largely bereft of other "races", so elementals is a good place to put things like tengu or gorons or cloud people.

...though that model doesn't seem to work quite as well with the new Summon Elemental. For those who haven't read it - it's exactly what I described above, which works fine with dragonline repair drones that sometimes go rampant, but doesn't seem to gel with races of people so humanized as to be treated more like weird foreigners than gods or demons.

 

[Jen]

I need to draw some traditional things for Halloween, so I drawn Revlid's Punsovi/Kervoni, again.

I kinda want to give each of them individually title box too, but my title-fu is weak.

 

[Jen]

It's seem like Punsovi is cooler than I thought, I'm weak again people who constantly make super-model-coolz-face (I kinda skimmed her when Revlid posted the write-up since 3CD aren't my cup of tea due to the whole "can only be summoned on Calibration").

 

[Revlid]

So, in the spirit of clearing my hard drive of all things 2e (or thereabouts), here's a tidied-up version of the social hack I've used (or provided), in one form or another, with the help of those involved, in a few games. It replaces the normal rules for Intimacies, Virtues, Motivations, Willpower, and Social Combat.

The games in question have been universally Infernal, so specific Abilities haven't mattered nearly as much - in fact, in at least two, Attributes and Abilities were so folded and trimmed that their total number was almost halved (as a result, some of the Ability assignments here are a bit off-the-cuff). Most corresponding changes to Charms are fairly intuitive, and were done on a case-by-case basis, but I could toss out some conversion rules if anyone actually needs them. Not sure how "balanced" this is, in practical terms, but it's worked out well enough.

Oh, uh, in lieu of Virtues and Willpower being used for mote pool calculations, I think we did something like every Infernal getting Personal (20), Peripheral (10 + [Essence x 10]). That was in at least one game. Might have used Principles or Willpower to calculate it differently in another one, but I can't recall.

...

WILLPOWER

All characters have a Willpower rating, which represents their determination, drive, and mental fitness. Those with low Willpower are weak-spirited and tend to cave or snap under pressure, while those with high Willpower are self-assured and able to endure dire circumstances without cracking. The average mortal has a Willpower rating somewhere between two and four, while most heroes have a rating between four and seven. Ratings of eight and above are extraordinarily rare, usually reserved for significant supernatural entities like Exalts.

Along with this "permanent" Willpower rating, they also have a pool of Willpower points (or "temporary Willpower"), representing their more immediate mental durability - even the mightiest wills can be ground down by extended trials. Characters cannot have more Willpower points than their Willpower rating. Willpower is distinct from Integrity, which represents a more active self-knowledge and practiced assurance in one's ideals.

Though there are some magic effects that actively drain their victim's Willpower - raksha are infamous for devouring human dreams to fuel their mad glamours - for the most part, Willpower points are expended by the character themselves, to throw off unwanted musings, restrain raging passions, or push themselves to greater heights. Some Charms include Willpower costs, and use of Sorcery can leave characters mentally exhausted.

Similarly, Willpower can be regained in a variety of ways. By far the most common is a full, uninterrupted night's sleep (or at least eight hours of total relaxation, such as successfully meditating or receiving a spa treatment), which restores points equal to their Integrity rating, minimum one, at its conclusion. Characters also receive a point of Willpower the whenever they make significant progress toward achieving or upholding one of their Principles rated at 3+, to a maximum of (higher of Integrity or 1) points per day. Finally, heroic characters may regain a point of Willpower in lieu of any mote reward for a stunt with a rating greater than one dot.

...

PRINCIPLES

Every character has Principles, which represent the more prominent aspects of their personality and mindset. They are rated 1-5, just like other traits, in order of the influence they have on that character.

• One-dot Principles are a brief urge or distraction, which rarely lasts more than a day - players can even apply these to their characters with stunts.
• Two-dot Principles are firm decisions or ongoing commitments, though they only tend to influence the character when they are directly relevant.
• Three-dot Principles are lifelong beliefs and fire-tested loyalties, which serve as cornerstones of a character's behaviour.
• Four-dot Principles are core motives and heroic convictions, rarely (if ever) shaken, which impact every aspect of that character's life.
• Five-dot Principles are a step even above that, a level of dedication normally reserved for survival instinct, or the obsessions of genuine madmen.

Principles should be clear and snappy summaries of whatever sentiment they represent - a character deeply enamoured with his bride might simply have "My Wife, My Love" as a three-dot Principle, while a mercenary whose life was built around her mastery of fencing might bear a four-dot Principle of "I Walk The Path Of The Sword", and someone who has been forced to monitor screaming children all morning might have a one-dot Principle of "Just Five Minutes Peace". Storytellers should communicate with their players to make sure there is a mutual understanding of what each Principle means, to avoid confusion later on.

This understanding of a Principle should include actions it supports, and actions it does not. The mercenary in the previous example might refuse to wield weapons other than a sword, consider non-martial work to be beneath her, or scorn those lacking in fighting skill. Principles should not be contextual in nature - "I Hate All My Enemies" is inappropriate, though "Never Forgive, Never Forget" or "I Hate All Barbarians" or "There Can Be No Compromise" convey similar ideas while being far more coherent as character traits.

Though the nature of Principles means that broad ones generally provide greater benefit than narrower ones, it is assumed that these will be balanced out by the need to roleplay them. A character with a Principle of "Freedom For All" is expected to work toward that Principle with all the intensity its rating suggests - if they do not, and the player does not respond to reminders, the Storyteller should reduce its rating to reflect its apparent importance. Similarly, while it might seem useful to have a high-rated Principle of "I Am Master Of My Own Destiny", such a character should be played as occupied with maintaining their own independence at any cost, likely to the detriment of their other relationships or ambitions.

Principles are increased and acquired in the same way as they are eroded and lost - through in-character development. A character can trivially pick up a one-dot Principle of interest or infatuation in someone else, before building up to true love over the course of several sessions or an extended period of downtime as a reflection of developments in the game. Players therefore have control over the nature of their characters - provided they actually live up to their statements in-game.

Characters should have no more than (Willpower + Integrity) different Principles - their player should remove Principles in excess of this whenever the character sleeps (or roughly at the end of each day, if they do not need to sleep), starting with their lowest-rated ones. Extras should generally have no more than one or two Principles, representing their role in the game. Most characters central to the narrative - such as all player characters - will average at about one or two four-dot Principles, two or three three-dot Principles, a handful of two-dot Principles, and a number of one-dot Principles that vary from scene to scene. This should be enough to portray their personality and values without significant omissions.

Since Principles represent the things that drive a character's likely actions and reactions, there are some near-universal examples. With few exceptions, all characters have a five-dot Principle toward staying alive, a three-dot Principle toward staying comfortable, a two-or-three dot Principle toward upholding their cultural mores, and so on; sexuality might also be represented in this way. These are character traits almost everyone shares just by virtue of being a person, so there is no real need to list them on your sheet, unless there's some particular twist or emphasis to your character's perspective on them.

This flexibility extends to listed Principles. If it becomes apparent mid-scene that your character really ought to have a certain Principle that they currently lack, talk to the Storyteller and amend your sheet. The Principles model the personality, rather than dictating it.

Of course, the Storyteller should reject such changes if they're not actually a response to an honest mistake; they are meant to help players avoid accidentally creating someone they don't want to play, not give them free reign to mutate their character's personality as it becomes convenient. A staunch pacifist cannot retroactively acquire a four-dot Principle of "Blood For The Blood God" just because her player thought it would be useful; instead, such a shift should take place in-character, a change in ideals that is roleplayed over multiple sessions or one large chunk of downtime. Similar restrictions and permissions apply to changing the rating of Principles.

Though players are expected to roleplay their character's Principles as a matter of course, they do have some mechanical backing. A character who wishes to take an action (including passive actions like "ignore the cruelty in front of me" or "give up this opportunity") which totally contradicts one or more of their Principles must roll a number of dice equal to the highest rated among those Principles. If he succeeds, he cannot take the action in question – his heart denies his hand. If he still wishes to proceed, he must "suppress" those Principles, by spending a point of Willpower. If the character has contradictory Principles that would force him to roll no matter what he does, that's tough luck on his part.

Suppressed Principles remain so for the rest of the day, and so can be freely acted against, though they still remain important to the character. This represents the mental strain of the character defying their own wishes for whatever reason - a Principle that is consistently suppressed should eventually have its rating reduced, or its context warped to suit whatever circumstances call for the character to hide it. Suppressing a one-dot Principle may even remove it entirely.

Principles that are not suppressed can be channeled to enhance any action (or static value) that directly supports them. Only one Principle can be channeled per action, and each Principle can only be channeled once per scene - though certain effects may "reset" a Principle, allowing them to be channeled again. Channeling costs a point of Willpower, and adds dice equal to the Principle's rating to the pool for that action. A channelled Principle costs two points of Willpower to suppress, not just one.

Example: The Sea-Sultan of the Jagged Isles has a four-dot Principle of "I Alone Rule The Isles", representing his fanatical need for control. When the local Realm ambassador politely requests that certain changes be made to the Isles' trade laws, purely for the benefit of the Scarlet Empire, the Sultan is bitterly aware that his fleet could be sundered by just one of the mighty jadeclad ships the Realm has set to patrol its regional interests.

If he acquiesces, ceding ground to fight another day, he is betraying the aforementioned Principle, and so must fail a four-dice roll (unlikely) or spend a point of Willpower - though he will not need to pay this cost again that day, if he finds himself compromising with other representatives at the trade summit. Alternatively, if he elects to argue the issue, he might spend a point of Willpower to channel that Principle, adding four dice to a Presence roll to emphasize his grip on his domain, or boosting his MDV against the ambassador's veiled intimidation.

...

SOCIAL INFLUENCE

Among the Attributes and Abilities available to characters are those that are primarily useful in a social context; the following section describes how to make use of those skills to persuade, inspire and coerce others. Though others may come in handy, these traits are Charisma (raw force of personality), Manipulation (natural talent for dissembling), Appearance (bearing and poise), Integrity (meditative self-awareness and judgement), Presence (skill at one-to-one persuasion), Performance (prowess at large-scale agitation), Linguistics (flair with working words), and Socialize (understanding of political situations).

Characters who wish to sway others can roll (Charisma + Presence or Performance) over the course of several minutes of social interaction. Presence is used when interacting with a single character, such as a cosy political chat or a vicious interrogation in a dank cell. Performance is used when interacting with multiple characters, whether priming troops for battle with a mighty speech or charging a whole room with the energy of your dance.

Successful social influence can do one of the things described below, chosen before making the roll.
• Create or remove a one-dot Principle in the target.
• Encourage the target to act on one of their Principles.
• Alter the nature of one of the target's Principles.
• Improve a supporting Principle or erode a contradictory one in the target.

The chosen effect must be appropriate to the influence's stunt - a speaker is unlikely to inspire lust by discussing the weather (without extensive innuendo, at least), nor lull someone into a sense of security by screaming profanity in their ear. Influence can be subtle, but the result must logically follow from what they are actually communicating. The speaker must target specific Principles for encouragement, alteration or removal - if their target possesses no such Principle, their influence falls on deaf (or at least, confused) ears.

Creating or removing a one-dot Principle is simple - the character simply acquires or loses the described Principle. They cannot remove (or regain) them of their own volition for the rest of the scene, and should work the change into their roleplay as usual.

Example: Mikail Edenlund is quietly nursing a drink at a social function, when an agent of the Emerald Hand approaches him. To keep him off-guard, she elects to distract him with desire, rolling (Charisma + Presence) as she breathily introduces herself and spends the next few minutes flirting. If her roll overcomes his Dodge MDV, Mikail gains a one-dot Principle representing his lust for her.

Encouraging a character to act on one of their Principles involves presenting some argument, appeal or lie to drive the target into action. The speaker's player describes some action that falls in line with the chosen Principle, and the target is driven to take that action, just as though they had succeeded on a Principle roll (this means that they may suppress that Principle to avoid doing so).

Example: The bitter rivalry between Tensi Tikigi and his brother is well-known through the Razor Moth Dojo, and eventually their master decides to test them. Calling Tensi to her quarters, she spends some time discussing his future at the dojo, and his prospects relative to his brother. Her provocation succeeds if her roll beats Tensi's MDV, and he must suppress that Principle or challenge his sibling to prove his superiority.

Changing the rating of a Principle involves twisting perceptions, calling problems to attention, or encouraging certain ideas and feelings. The speaker chooses a specific Principle to erode or reinforce, and reduces or increases its rating by one. The target's player should decide whether or not this alters the specifics of that Principle. A Principle can only be eroded if the target has another Principle of the same rating or higher that directly opposes it, or at least two opposing Principles no more than one dot lower. Similarly, a Principle can only be reinforced if the target has sufficient supporting Principles.

Alternatively, the speaker can alter the nature of the targeted Principle, shifting its context to a new one. This requires the same number of supporting or opposing Principles (as appropriate to the nature of the change), but cannot produce a change out of line with the target's general worldview. It fails if the new context contradicts any of the target's Principles rated 3+.

Any influence that would affect an existing Principle can be resisted by spending (threshold successes / 3) points of Willpower, to a minimum of one and a maximum of five.

Example: In preparation for usurping his father, Guay-Lin tries to erode the loyalty of his noble retainer, Sang-Jun. His loyalty is a 3-dot Principle, but he also has a 3-dot Principle representing his compassion for all living things. While discussing other matters of state, Guay-Lin shifts the subject to his father's taste for abusing his subjects. Sang-Jun may close his ears to what goes on in his lord's dungeons, but if Guay-Lin beats his MDV, the conflict between his ideals is sufficiently highlighted to force serious self-examination. He will have to spend Willpower, or reduce his Principle of loyalty by one dot.

To be successful, the successes of an influence roll must beat its target's Defence Value. Unlike physical attacks, mental influence is opposed by a Mental Defence Value, or MDV. If the target elects to ignore, brush off or flatly reject the influence, he uses his "Dodge" MDV, which is half his (Willpower + Integrity), rounded up. If he attempts to refute, belittle or actively defuse the influence, he uses his "Parry" MDV, which is half his (Manipulation + Presence), rounded up.

There are three common modifiers for MDVs. The first are normal contextual penalties, such as a lack of sleep or mind-addling drugs. The second are Principles, which have an effect on MDVs described further below. The third is Appearance, which represents the impact sheer manner can have. If a target has a higher Appearance than the speaker, he increases his MDV by an amount equal to the difference, to a maximum of three. If he has a lower Appearance, he instead reduces his MDV. In the case of social influence communicated through writing, Linguistics is used in place of Appearance.

Principles created, removed or altered by influence should be roleplayed as normal. If a drunkard is persuaded that Hong Zhin McSweeny over in the corner has been badmouthing his ancestry, his intoxicated anger may be only a fleeting one-dot Principle, potentially forgotten by morning, but he still needs to roleplay it, and needs to roll to avoid acting on it if the opportunity for a barfight comes up (indeed, he should be "awarded" bonus dice on the roll for his intoxicated state).

Unnatural mental influence can create more potent Principles, enforce triggered behaviour more harshly, or even cause people to act in the absence of Principles – such effects are detailed in each specific Charm.

...

PRINCIPLES AND MDV

Principles are fundamental to character interaction, both in the sense of roleplaying a character's motives, and in the mechanical effects of social skills. In the absence of mind-twisting magic, all social influence is based on creating or manipulating Principles - and even unnatural mental influence has an easier time working its enchantments if the target's Principles incline them toward it.

Characters subject to mental influence of any kind should consult their Principles. If the nature of the influence clashes with one or more of their Principles, they should add the highest rating among the opposing Principles directly to their MDV. If the influence supports one or more of their Principles, they should reduce their MDV by their highest-rated agreeable Principle. Both of these modifiers can apply at once, if a character has Principles that both support and oppose an attempt to influence him.

Even suppressed Principles modify a character's MDV in this way; though they may grit their teeth against injustice and blasphemy, their mind still silently churns. Similarly, appropriate Principles can be channelled to further improve the character's MDV, passive ideals surging up in their breast. Channelled Principles add directly to the character's MDV, but cannot be channelled if they are already improving the MDV.

A five-dot Principle has a further benefit - it allows the character to simply ignore any mental influence that would directly threaten it, provided they have even one point of Willpower remaining (no Willpower is spent - this simply represents their remaining capacity for mental resistance). They treat the influence as an Unacceptable Order. By default, every character is considered to have a five-dot Principle toward staying alive, their basic survival instinct driving them on. Other five-dot Principles are extremely rare, and almost always rooted in magic.

An observer can uncover another character's Principles with a (Wits + Investigation or Socialize) roll, trying to work out just how a given topic relates to them. Principles can only be deciphered to the extent that the scene allows; a Principle that has not so much as been mentioned is undetectable, while a cunning queen might note the twitch of concealed rage on a king's face when his rival is mentioned, and deduce that he fiercely hates him – though not necessarily why. The difficulty of this roll is equal to half the target's (Manipulation + Socialize), rounded up. This is reduced by two if the character is channelling their Principle, or is not trying to conceal their reaction, and increased by two if the character avoids actually acting on that Principle.

Long-term social interaction can be used to affect a character's Principles through an extended roll, allowing characters to determine the outcome of a series of diplomatic talks, weeks of interrogation sessions, or an extended courtship without needing to roleplay more than the gist of several weeks of interactions.

The speaker chooses any number of the normal effects they could apply with social influence - including those that rely on future social successes - and makes an extended roll, using the usual social pools. Meeting the cumulative difficulty applies one of the chosen effects, and carries any threshold successes over to a subsequent extended roll to apply the next, as the speaker builds on previous successes.

The difficulty at each interval is equal to the MDV bonus the target would derive from their Principles if this were a standard social roll, while the cumulative difficulty is equal to the target's (Integrity [minimum 1] x Willpower). Social manipulators are therefore encouraged to start with small concessions and work their way upward, weakening or isolating the target's opposing intimacies before moving on to their true goal.

Continuing this extended roll obviously relies on ongoing access to the character, and its interval depends on how regular these meetings are, as well as how much the target is willing to engage in them. Meeting two or three times each week for open discussion provides an interval of one week – more infrequent meetings, hostile targets, or obstructive circumstances would increase this, up to a maximum of a month (any longer, and mundane mental influence will be too scattered to have a noticeable long-term effect). A captive audience decreases the interval, but most often result in hostility that itself slows the process of persuasion. A botch represents a major faux pas, and halves the acquired successes, while missing an interval saps (target's Integrity) successes.

Storytellers should be aware that this system offers little interactivity for the target's player, unless both PCs are engaged in separate attempts to persuade each other, or the target gets to make an escape attempt after each interrogation session. As a result, it will often work best when used to model interactions with NPCs.

 

[Revlid]

So I'd probably cast Hegra as something like this:

Spoiler: First Hegra Excellency – Essence Overwhelming

The Typhoon of Nightmares is a artist of erratic passions who prefers spontaneity and intuition to logic, blown here and there by her constantly-shifting moods. She revels in extremes of beauty and ugliness, intoxicated by the intensity of her own excitement. Her love of sensual indulgence is without limits, but she quickly grows bored with simple mindless decadence. Instead, Hegra employs her maddening pleasures to provoke extreme reactions from others, adding a dangerous thrill to her fleeting amusement. The Goddess of Glamour samples hopes and dreams as easily as any drug, seemingly without care, and fulfils desires regardless of the consequences. This false charity is fuelled by fascination. She constantly assesses the value of immaterial things, and enjoys forcing others to do the same, offering gifts fraught with unspoken obligation or making wagers over forsaken oaths and broken hearts.

This Excellency can never be used to calm a situation or otherwise promote stasis, for Hegra is a creature of exuberant nightmare. Nor can the Exalt use it to perform necessary but unpleasant deeds, unless they warp them into some kind of amusing game. Hegra always puts play before work, and so tends to ignores problems. However, it can always be used when acting on or expressing emotion, or when tempting others to do so.

Spoiler: Sweet Nightmare Ambrosia

Cost: 1m (1wp); Mins: Essence 1; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Hegra dips her misty proboscis into an ocean of nightmares and dreams, sampling the finest and most devastating sensations imaginable. This Charm enhances a roll to detect sensory details about another character, causing the Exalt's world to briefly explode into a starburst haze of colours and tastes. If she rolls even one success, she discerns the nature and intensity of that character's emotional state, and automatically intuits the cause of that emotional state if it is present in the scene. However, she must spend a point of Willpower or immediately adopt the exact same temperament, banishing her existing feelings.

The Exalt may subconsciously activate this Charm when faced with a character wracked by particularly strong emotions – it is up to the Storyteller when to let her player know of such an opportunity.

 

[Revlid]

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.