I spent way too long writing blurbs again, so here are some more examples of Combat-Type Remittances! Biannium is a Primary Remittance in the same vein as the King's Scepter, Whereas Face Card / Strike the Fundament represent the powers received from a Combat-Type Regalia. You might also consider the examples for effects (if not of the same magnitude) towards which to use Haeliel's deferred wish, in the event that option prevails! Wishing for superpowers is a time-honored tradition, after all...
Most of the blurbs are posted below; the complete versions are on the
Patreon for subscribers of Foremost tier+!
Biannium - Amaranth and gold.
The power of Biannium is comprised of two polarities whose mutual opposition and necessity are wholly intrinsic to their natures. In the person of the Cursebearer they find their symbiotic apex, displacing the shockwaves of their turmoil into the vast lake of his spirit. Theirs is the power to impose cadence, system, and narrative onto plain reality, and to remake those elements wheresoever they are intrinsic.
Each aspect grants two abilities; one utility designed chiefly to improve the Cursebearer's quality of life, and the second raw power designed to ensure the Cursebearer's survival.
Amaranth
First Ability: Savor the Moment - In frivolity, is power.
Who has never wished that a day could go on forever? The power of Amaranth cannot promise eternity, but it more than suffices to stretch a day into a month, and not mere repetition but the fullness of embodied existence - the passage of time undeterred, but without the ravages of age, illness, or resource depletion. Memories are retained, events continue to develop - but nothing truly pressing or important, little that truly matters and almost never to the Cursebearer's detriment. Invoked on a festival day, the Cursebearer could experience a month of festival activities, each as novel and joyous as the very first, and any relationships developed during that Savored sequence retained in its wake.
Yet ultimately this is a tool of enjoyment, not of tedious regimens or furious toil. The more productive are the Savored days, the slower this power is to recharge. The Cursebearer that fritters away their Savored moment could see it restored in half a week, while those that treat it as a hyperbolic time chamber may find themselves waiting years. Yet there may be eventualities dire enough to warrant such abuse, for the power of the Savor to create genuinely novel experiences can indirectly, but explosively, augment training if invoked during appropriate activities.
Most activities are at least a little bit productive, so typically the Savor recharges every week or two. A Cursebearer that spends their Savored month enjoying a street festival but also profitably socializing, developing somewhat useful connections, and playing strenuous (but ultimately irrelevant) games would recharge within two weeks.
The Cursebearer begins with one Savor charge to use as they please. They may store a maximum of two Savor charges, the second taking twice as long to charge.
Specialized mitigation targeting Curse activity during the activation of this Ability typically yields twice the effective mitigation per stage. For example, a Cursebearer that devoted two stages of Decimator's mitigation focused on Savor the Moment would see the rate of Decimation decreased by 50% when Savor is active; four stages would yield complete mitigation while active.
Second Ability: Midnight's Wreath - The shroud and sword of evening.
The Cursebearer's form is infused with amaranthine shadow, vastly improving their physical parameters with an emphasis on speed and allowing them to shift onto and away from the spiritual plane. While they may enjoy a baseline level of augmentation with extremely minimal side effects, stranger powers may only be grasped at a cost. The Cursebearer's body will automatically shift to a higher Stage if death is imminent.
Baseline - Strength to shatter a castle wall with one strike, and durability sufficient to weather several such blows. Swift as the wind, and capable of reaching twice the speed of sound in short bursts. Commensurate reflexes. Shift to spirit with a considerable exertion of will. Fine control such that none of this is a problem.
Stage I - Feline eyes which glow teal, violet or gold. Facial features become slightly animalistic. Brief, sharp, but entirely tolerable pains shoot across the Cursebearer's limbs. Behavior becomes slightly more aggressive or ruthlessly pragmatic (choose once when first entering Stage). Down-shifting to baseline requires at least fifteen minutes.
Strength enough to shatter an armored skyscraper, and durability sufficient to weather several such blows. Swift as sound, and capable of reaching ten times that speed in short bursts. Commensurate reflexes. Shift to spirit with a modest exertion of will. Fine control such that, with training, none of this is a problem.
Rapid acceleration of the body's natural healing, enough to restore combat functionality in minutes from amputation or evisceration. Perceive equally well in darkness as in light. Somewhat harder to damage or otherwise affect while form is concealed in shadows.
Stage II - Unnatural paleness. Livid neural growths like tattoo-glyphs spawn across limbs. Unsettling aura comparable to a highly-mitigated Brand of the Wretched. Fellow peers may mock the character's 'edgy' thematics. Occasional wracking pains may be suppressed during combat, but are highly distracting during less-urgent activities. Stage I behavioral influence becomes moderate in scope. Down-shifting to baseline requires at least eight hours.
Strength and durability triple, while speed and reflexes improve seven times over. Shift to spirit with a minor exertion of body. Fine control such that, with extensive training, this is only a minor inconvenience.
Quick regeneration, sufficient to recover from decapitation in seconds. Gain supernatural awareness of shrouded or silent areas in the vicinity. Manifest a cloak of amaranthine shadows that grants high-grade resistance to all forms of hostile power. Teleport between shrouded / silent areas in the vicinity. Manipulate nearby shadows into limbs and simple weapons of comparable power to one's body.
Stage IV - Sprout a highly-visible sign of mutation, such as veinous membrane wings or amaranthine glyphs the texture of diamond encrusting 80% of the face, torso and limbs. Features become increasingly inhuman yet eerily beautiful. Unsettling aura comparable to a somewhat-mitigated Brand of the Wretched. Those who do not fear the Cursebearer are liable to mock them ceaselessly. Agonizing pains infrequently cripple the character even during combat. Stage I behavior becomes overriding - the character is a barely-restrained berserker or icy sociopath. Down-shifting to baseline requires seventy-two hours.
Strength to level cities, durability to withstand nuclear bombardment. One hundred twenty times the speed of sound, and capable of reaching twenty times that in short bursts. Commensurate reflexes. Automatically counts as either physical, spiritual or both - whichever is most advantageous - for every interaction, including simultaneous interactions. Fine control such that, with extensive training, this is only a moderate problem.
If Rage: Regeneration sufficient to recover from a single atom in a microsecond. Manifest amaranthine claws and fangs that rend the essence of targets, which can be used to further augment physical attributes or regeneration. Growth without limits can be achieved so long as sufficient targets exist. Anti-memetic shroud that causes the character's identity, nature and abilities to swiftly fade from memory.
If Ice: Innate shadow-sorcery covering a wide range of moderately-powerful effects. Mentally dominate lesser beings within a considerable radius. Subvert, infiltrate and corrupt the magics of opposing casters. Project large swathes of darkness and silence within which Stage II abilities become active again, with amplified effect.
Stage VIII - Only usable by Path of Rage at start. Strength to level medium-sized countries, comparable durability. Speed up to .01c in short bursts. Instant regeneration. Totally uncontrollable and utterly monstrous. Rampage lasts a lunar month. Expect massive collateral damage.
Sufficiently powerful augmentations of the
Maker's Hand can somewhat reduce the downsides inherent to Stage Elevation, potentially even rendering Stage VIII tolerable to use. The easiest symptom to address is the pain; the most difficult are the cosmetic alterations.
Gold
First Ability: The Midas Touch - In vanity, is power.
The Cursebearer must put considerable effort towards developing a relatively novel, stimulating and unique personal aesthetic, maintaining it when necessary. The effectiveness of this Ability is sharply curtailed should the Cursebearer's style fall below a fairly high (though reasonable) standard of presentation. The Cursebearer begins with a seven-day grace period before this standard will be applied.
The Cursebearer generates wealth in odd and seemingly illogical ways. At baseline, slaying random passersby or monsters can yield improbable quantities of valuable currency. Inane tasks for common villagers now produce sumptuous rewards. Victory at a carnival game or fishing competition leads to the discovery of storied artifacts and venerable tomes. Should they turn their hand to the actual business of money-making, even the most seemingly bizarre and impractical of ventures will produce impressive, then staggering sums with mechanistic regularity, so long as the Cursebearer puts in a sincere effort.
Within the modern economy, the Cursebearer could become a millionaire with a few days' worth of killing random animals, and a trillionaire within a year of starting a pancake-manufacturing business. Any inflation incurred by these events will not substantially reduce the Cursebearer's effective wealth.
Second Ability: Maker's Hand - The encumbrance of kings.
Upon grasping a piece of equipment, the Cursebearer may choose to bond with it. They may have no more than eight objects bound at a time.
Bound objects receive a flat, but large bonus to effectiveness towards their core purpose, and can be steadily improved when used in conflicts with meaningful stakes. These improvements need not be linear, so long as they resonate at least vaguely with the object's core theme. This becomes increasingly the case the more a given object is augmented. Initial object quality has a significant, but not crucial, effect on the strength of future improvements. Even a stick in the Cursebearer's hand would be a formidable weapon.
At baseline, an ordinary kite shield could defend against point-blank artillery with the wielder behind unscathed, despite the issues of force transmission and coverage that would prevent even an indestructible metal from achieving that effect.
Alongside the experiential requirement, augmentations (especially ones that grant lateral capabilities) typically also cost a (first considerable, then immense) quantity of physical currency or scarce resources. Requirements become increasingly exotic the more improvements an object contains, but can be significantly reduced by mastering the higher Stages of Midnight's Wreath.
A shield with eightfold improvements might require the sum total output of a small nation to augment, but could possess an expansive variety of effects including:
*The wielder ignores the effects of physical wounds, and wounds do not worsen or degrade on their own
*The mirror-sheen of the shield's surface causes insults, curses and defamations directed at the wielder to rebound onto their originators. The shield must be physically interposed to use this effect
...
Might *** - Somewhat weaker than average, and higher-tier abilities are inconvenient to use, but boasts impressive endurance in combat and the potential for varied tactics.
Utility *** - Time and money, solid utility benefits.
Potential **** - Eventually offers an immense variety of effects at steadily increasing power levels, though costs increase exponentially as one reaches the higher tiers.
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Combat-types that take a Regalia-equivalent (assuming two powers, one rewind and one Lesser Remittance) will be considerably weaker than their Scepter or Sword-attaining counterparts, closer to a Reality Forming expert than a Grand Solipsist, as two Regalia powers even with synergy typically do not yield strength equal to the King's Scepter. That said, the utility of additional Lesser Remittances and true time travel cannot be overstated - especially as Lesser Remittances can build upon each other to magnify one's growth potential if chosen shrewdly. Hunger himself benefits from this as the Ring's rapid advancement is compounded by the Blade's effective XP bonus.
An example Combat-type Regalia set:
Face Card - The character receives +All Stats sufficient to render them moderately superhuman in all parameters. The character is initiated into Cultivation, Soul Evocation, the Ordinal Spiral, War-Magic and the Noble Praxis, and may choose three of the above arts within which to have reached the third degree of achievement. All magics chosen have good to excellent multi-dimensional reliability, their powers either being wholly self-sourced (Cultivation, Soul Evocation) or strongly multiversal (the Ordinal Spiral).
However, the character's ability to advance in any magical practice is truncated, limited to that third degree. For example, they could attain the Third Ordinal but no further, achieve peak Soul Chrysalis but never enter Dao Cleaving, master three Weapon Forms or Chief Strikes but thereafter cease to progress.
Strike the Fundament - The character's mastery of, and speed of development within, the 'basics' of every field are greatly elevated. The more foundational the skill or technique, the greater the initial boost and the faster the rate of advancement. Furthermore, all basic skills are effectively uncapped for the character. Ordinalist refinement need not stop at Grandmastery; the basic Thrust-Strike could achieve
...
Also on the
Patreon is a set of guidelines for the Might, Utility and Potential categories that can be used when designing your own Combat-type Remittances!
