The Dream that is Dying (Exalted)

[X] Water Dragon Style. Designed in emulation of Immaculate Daana'd, this style focuses on embodying water in all its forms. Practitioners flow like the tide, absorb blows like the ocean, and crush their foes with the full force of a tsunami.

Let's learn the greatest technique of them all: Consecutive Normal Punches.

[x] Violet Bier of Sorrow Style. There is always an ending, and all things die. Demons are not exception. This style was first taught to the Sidereals by Saturn herself, and contains within its merciless katas the secret arts of the inevitable end. Even the lightest scratch from a master of this style can bring agonizing death.

[X] Golden Janissary Style. Heroes have always stood against the darkness, and the monsters born within have learned to fear their burning touch. The graceful, almost dance-like motions of this spear-fighting style are as much meditative exercise as they are combat techniques.

Violet Bier does have the advantage of obscurity, but I've always been a fan of spear styles.

Maugan Ra said:

I mean I can always work on outright developing a cataphract-friendly martial art style for Farah to learn (or that they can actually develop) in that case. It's relatively easy to do for a quest format like this because we don't need to worry about fiddly essence costs and such. So if you have ideas for possible charms and abilities such a style should include I'd be interested in hearing them, for future reference if nothing else.

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Name aren't meant to be serious, but here's a few ideas:

• May the Horse be with Me: Instantly summons the most recent mount of the martial artist to their side.
• My Horse is Bigger than Yours: Mounted enemies count as being on foot for the martial artist so long as they are mounted.
• Can't Touch This (Horse): Allows the Rider to suffer damage for and use defensive Charms on the horse's behalf.
• My Horse is Amazing: Enhances the abilities of a horse being ridden.
• Mount and Blade: Adds the Horse's Strength and Dexterity to the Rider's for attacks.
• A Steed's Creation: Can be used to either create a temporary horse construct from the elements of Creation, or enhance an existing horse with those elements.
• WAAAAAGH!!!: Multiplies the Rider's and Horse's presence on the battlefield so they appear to be an entire unit (and strike like one) when charging.

[X] Water Dragon Style. Designed in emulation of Immaculate Daana'd, this style focuses on embodying water in all its forms. Practitioners flow like the tide, absorb blows like the ocean, and crush their foes with the full force of a tsunami.

[ ] Golden Janissary Style. Heroes have always stood against the darkness, and the monsters born within have learned to fear their burning touch. The graceful, almost dance-like motions of this spear-fighting style are as much meditative exercise as they are combat techniques.

Anti-Creature of Darkness. Kills demons mostly, and generally is super shiny spears

[ ] Violet Bier of Sorrow Style. There is always an ending, and all things die. Demons are not exception. This style was first taught to the Sidereals by Saturn herself, and contains within its merciless katas the secret arts of the inevitable end. Even the lightest scratch from a master of this style can bring agonizing death.

Sidereal natural martial arts style. Very complete, very thorough, works with swords.

[ ] Water Dragon Style. Designed in emulation of Immaculate Daana'd, this style focuses on embodying water in all its forms. Practitioners flow like the tide, absorb blows like the ocean, and crush their foes with the full force of a tsunami.

Tai-chi based, redirection of force, dispersing raw energy attacks, making the blood explode out of your opponent with a poke...

[X] Violet Bier of Sorrow Style. There is always an ending, and all things die. Demons are not exception. This style was first taught to the Sidereals by Saturn herself, and contains within its merciless katas the secret arts of the inevitable end. Even the lightest scratch from a master of this style can bring agonizing death.

I like swords!

[X] Golden Janissary Style. Heroes have always stood against the darkness, and the monsters born within have learned to fear their burning touch. The graceful, almost dance-like motions of this spear-fighting style are as much meditative exercise as they are combat techniques.

Maugan Ra said:

I mean I can always work on outright developing a cataphract-friendly martial art style for Farah to learn (or that they can actually develop) in that case. It's relatively easy to do for a quest format like this because we don't need to worry about fiddly essence costs and such. So if you have ideas for possible charms and abilities such a style should include I'd be interested in hearing them, for future reference if nothing else.

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I'll take it!

Charm ideas... You know what? I'll do you one better. Watch this space.

[ ] Golden Janissary Style. Heroes have always stood against the darkness, and the monsters born within have learned to fear their burning touch. The graceful, almost dance-like motions of this spear-fighting style are as much meditative exercise as they are combat techniques.

So I went and looked around at these arts. This one would make this fellow's day particularly shit, the same with every other creature of darkness(which is a pretty wide descriptor, depending on where one looks), but it is somewhere near half as effective againt stuff that isn't a creature of darkness.

[ ] Violet Bier of Sorrow Style. There is always an ending, and all things die. Demons are not exception. This style was first taught to the Sidereals by Saturn herself, and contains within its merciless katas the secret arts of the inevitable end. Even the lightest scratch from a master of this style can bring agonizing death.

This one is no armor and thematically a bit odd since Farah is a brick through your window. In its third charm it does extra bad things to creatures of darkness, but the entire thing is very effective againt all types. Inwhat I was looking at has this cool thing it can do with Prayer strips if you're a Sidreal. It also in general hurts like the dickens.

[ ] Water Dragon Style. Designed in emulation of Immaculate Daana'd, this style focuses on embodying water in all its forms. Practitioners flow like the tide, absorb blows like the ocean, and crush their foes with the full force of a tsunami.

This one seems to start with a defensive charm and has some fun later on with how it does damage. Includes such things like punching an enemy and making them drown in their own blood doing Stamina damage which can kill or making visible ripples in the air. It has some vulnerability againt things with no blood. It has as a capstone this shout thing which looks amazing.

[X] Water Dragon Style. Designed in emulation of Immaculate Daana'd, this style focuses on embodying water in all its forms. Practitioners flow like the tide, absorb blows like the ocean, and crush their foes with the full force of a tsunami.

I like this one the most. Though it does use claw weapons as form weapons, but aw well.

Maugan Ra said:

So if you have ideas for possible charms and abilities such a style should include I'd be interested in hearing them, for future reference if nothing else.

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Okay, I've never really homebrewed charms, but lets see if I can't take a stab at this.

Horse as Weapon Style
The Horse is more than just a mount, it is a weapon more fierce and versatile than any other. The beginner seeks to better use his mount in battle, while the master seeks how to further bring his mount into all things.

Horse as Obstacle
The martial artist has spent many hours atop their mount, and knows how a large beast can hinder and harry the foe. It is hard to stike at or converse with someone who has a mount between them and you. Mount as Obstacle allows the martial artist to use their mount to block and parry an opponent's attacks.

The Horse is the Rider
The martial artist has mastered riding to the point where their mount is now a rider. In combat, the martial artist's mount can use the martial artist's Horse as Weapons charms as if it were mounted.

edit: this is harder than I thought.

Maugan Ra said:

(Also Hidden Horse Style has a charm where the martial artist reveals that they substituted themselves for the enemy's mount several rounds ago and have been flawlessly pretending to be a horse since that point. I can't write that in any kind of serious way. I just can't.)

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Come on, were your last projects for nothing? Be more confident! After two Bleach quests (that both even featured Aizen!) you should be more than prepared for shenanigans like that.

[X] Violet Bier of Sorrow Style. There is always an ending, and all things die. Demons are not exception. This style was first taught to the Sidereals by Saturn herself, and contains within its merciless katas the secret arts of the inevitable end. Even the lightest scratch from a master of this style can bring agonizing death.

This may or may not be my favorite style.

NotAlwaysFanfic said:

The Mount is the Rider
The martial artist has mastered riding to the point where their mount is now a rider. In combat, the martial artist's mount can use the martial artist's Horse as Weapons charms as if it were mounted.

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Um. Oh my. This could lead to amazing shenanigans.

CeBrudras said:

Come on, were your last projects for nothing? Be more confident! After two Bleach quests (that both even featured Aizen!) you should be more than prepared for shenanigans like that.

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Farah's Po: What is the difference between a king and a horse?

Farah's Han: There is none. The king and the horse are one. Also, I'm on a horse.

Farah's Po: True. But the horse was me all along!

[X] Water Dragon Style. Designed in emulation of Immaculate Daana'd, this style focuses on embodying water in all its forms. Practitioners flow like the tide, absorb blows like the ocean, and crush their foes with the full force of a tsunami.

Punch it in the face. If that doesn't work, punch it really hard in the face!

[X] Golden Janissary Style. Heroes have always stood against the darkness, and the monsters born within have learned to fear their burning touch. The graceful, almost dance-like motions of this spear-fighting style are as much meditative exercise as they are combat techniques.

Spears are rad, punching is boring.

[X] Violet Bier of Sorrow Style. There is always an ending, and all things die. Demons are not exception. This style was first taught to the Sidereals by Saturn herself, and contains within its merciless katas the secret arts of the inevitable end. Even the lightest scratch from a master of this style can bring agonizing death.

One finger death punch, here we come.

[X] Violet Bier of Sorrow Style. There is always an ending, and all things die. Demons are not exception. This style was first taught to the Sidereals by Saturn herself, and contains within its merciless katas the secret arts of the inevitable end. Even the lightest scratch from a master of this style can bring agonizing death.

[X] Water Dragon Style. Designed in emulation of Immaculate Daana'd, this style focuses on embodying water in all its forms. Practitioners flow like the tide, absorb blows like the ocean, and crush their foes with the full force of a tsunami.

[X] Violet Bier of Sorrow Style. There is always an ending, and all things die. Demons are not exception. This style was first taught to the Sidereals by Saturn herself, and contains within its merciless katas the secret arts of the inevitable end. Even the lightest scratch from a master of this style can bring agonizing death.

Imrix said:

A big part of why I made a push for it is basically that I like the cataphract aspect of Farah, because mounted combat isn't something that often turns up in quests or RPG's in general, or Exalted in particular, and as a consequence of that, there really aren't that many martial art styles that revolve around mounted combat. Apart from Hidden Horse Style, there's Lightning Hoof Style (which is a Terrestrial Martial Art, so nobody cares, and was published in a supplement to Scroll of the Monk, so anybody who does care turns up their nose) and...

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I think Path of the Arbiter style kinda works for a Cataphract. You call forth the full regalia of a Knight as you stride forth to bring justice.



Sadly, Golden Jannisary is very footwork reliant and therefore does not work well for cataphracts.

These are 2e styles and I preferred Water Dragon in 2e, because it had a good defense built in, but this game is 3e so I assume we are adapating for 3e...


[X] Violet Bier of Sorrow Style. There is always an ending, and all things die. Demons are not exception. This style was first taught to the Sidereals by Saturn herself, and contains within its merciless katas the secret arts of the inevitable end. Even the lightest scratch from a master of this style can bring agonizing death.

Subtlety is really important for sidereals.

[X] Violet Bier of Sorrow Style. There is always an ending, and all things die. Demons are not exception. This style was first taught to the Sidereals by Saturn herself, and contains within its merciless katas the secret arts of the inevitable end. Even the lightest scratch from a master of this style can bring agonizing death.

SWOOOOOOORDS

Egads, I forgot to post in this thread and therefore missed several updates until today. Which means that I got a lot of awesome in one day, so over all that might've been a win.

While I understand the argument that Water Dragon Style might fit Farah's direct personality better, in the end I have to go with

[X] Violet Bier of Sorrow Style. There is always an ending, and all things die. Demons are not exception. This style was first taught to the Sidereals by Saturn herself, and contains within its merciless katas the secret arts of the inevitable end. Even the lightest scratch from a master of this style can bring agonizing death.

WU ER DA - No Second Strike! Let's see if we can have a version that can actually kill our opponents or doesn't hit three times for some reason.

Meh, changing my vote.

[X] Violet Bier of Sorrow Style. There is always an ending, and all things die. Demons are not exception. This style was first taught to the Sidereals by Saturn herself, and contains within its merciless katas the secret arts of the inevitable end. Even the lightest scratch from a master of this style can bring agonizing death.