Instruction from Mother
Cost: 14m, 1lhl; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Keywords: Obvious, Touch, Training, Desecration
Duration: One Week
Prerequisites: Intolerable Burning Truths
Through love and pain, Kimbery teaches her children the same lessons she learned before time began. This Charm involves training or instructing a group of non-reviled characters with Magnitude no greater than (Enlightenment/2), using methods compatible with the themes of the Great Mother. This Charm requires at least an hour of tuition per day. At the end of the teaching, the students gain one of the Intolerable Burning Truths known by the warlock as an Abomination, and the Creature of Darkness mutuation.
If the student already knows one of the Intolerable Burning Truths, the warlock may instead train them in a Style she knows, increasing its rating by one. She may not increase others' traits past her own rating in the Style.
Hidden Family Secrets
Cost: - ; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Instructions from Mother
The Demon Sea whispers hidden secrets to her favoured children. Only the most loved receive such a blessing. This Charm upgrades its prerequisite and consists of four variants. When one of her students knows at least one Intolerable Burning Truth and has three dots in a Style, she may choose to teach them an Attribute or Ability which could be used with that Style. The Attributes and Abilities she can instruct them on depend on the variants she knows:
So, let's talk design. Firstly, these Charms live in basically the same area as Solar Training stuff. However, a few changes have been made to make them distinct - and also keep them closely chained in Kimbery's themes.
So, the first big difference from the Solar ones is that the first thing you can Train are not skills or anything, but are instead the Intolerable Burning Truths. What does this do? Firstly, it slows down the rate at which you can train new people compared to a Solar. A Solar can grab a rabble and go "Lol Tiger Warrior Training" and at the end of the first week they're more skilled and have +1 Drill. Secondly, it gives it that important Infernal flavour. You're not just training them - you're changing them, reordering their minds as you teach them their lessons (and making them CoDs, too).
And thirdly - and maybe most vitally - it changes it from the basic function of the Solar ones. The Solar ones make components of a civic society. Kimbery doesn't do that - she makes a creepy cult family. When you use this Charm to train up a village, you might give them all Mother Before Daughter and suddenly, wham, it's an unacceptable order for them to be asked to betray their loved ones (and they won't willingly do it either). And with the Infernal training them in person, any sensible Infernal will make sure everyone they train finds the Infernal beloved.
(Granting low Essence Permanent Infernal charms as an Abomination follows the precedent set by Cecelyne. For Kimbery, I'd consider Mother Sea Mastery and the Intolerable Burning Truths to be suitable for granting like that.)
The second big difference is that primacy has been given to Styles. Once you've got them broken and indoctrinated into your cult, you're not training them to be generalists. You're training them for a specific role, in the style of themed mooks of video-game villains. It's a Style you teach them - and it's a Style you have to know, and unlike the Solar ones you can't use this to train yourself. Your mooks will be themed in the same ways as you. And of course, it reinforces the maternal themes by having you teach them a profession.
Hence, the upgrade Charm exists to broaden characters out after they've maxed out their Style - and you can only teach them Abilities and Attributes in-line with their style. It broadens them out, yes, but it's not like how a Solar can make warrior-sages by alternating between TWT and HAM. Again, this is focussed more around the idea of a cult of specialists. It's literally going "I taught you to be so good at Ripping Tide Style, you're now good with all blades because you can treat all blades like they're Ripping Tide Style blades to some extent".
Cost: 14m, 1lhl; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Keywords: Obvious, Touch, Training, Desecration
Duration: One Week
Prerequisites: Intolerable Burning Truths
Through love and pain, Kimbery teaches her children the same lessons she learned before time began. This Charm involves training or instructing a group of non-reviled characters with Magnitude no greater than (Enlightenment/2), using methods compatible with the themes of the Great Mother. This Charm requires at least an hour of tuition per day. At the end of the teaching, the students gain one of the Intolerable Burning Truths known by the warlock as an Abomination, and the Creature of Darkness mutuation.
If the student already knows one of the Intolerable Burning Truths, the warlock may instead train them in a Style she knows, increasing its rating by one. She may not increase others' traits past her own rating in the Style.
Hidden Family Secrets
Cost: - ; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Instructions from Mother
The Demon Sea whispers hidden secrets to her favoured children. Only the most loved receive such a blessing. This Charm upgrades its prerequisite and consists of four variants. When one of her students knows at least one Intolerable Burning Truth and has three dots in a Style, she may choose to teach them an Attribute or Ability which could be used with that Style. The Attributes and Abilities she can instruct them on depend on the variants she knows:
- Whispers from the Deep - Cognition, Occult, Lore, Command, Subterfuge
- Ways of the Water - Reaction, Travel, Bureaucracy, Survival, Athletics
- Ocean's Rage - Physique, Endurance, Melee, Ranged, Awareness
- Beauty Above All - Persuasion, Expression, Presence, Politics, Investigation
So, let's talk design. Firstly, these Charms live in basically the same area as Solar Training stuff. However, a few changes have been made to make them distinct - and also keep them closely chained in Kimbery's themes.
So, the first big difference from the Solar ones is that the first thing you can Train are not skills or anything, but are instead the Intolerable Burning Truths. What does this do? Firstly, it slows down the rate at which you can train new people compared to a Solar. A Solar can grab a rabble and go "Lol Tiger Warrior Training" and at the end of the first week they're more skilled and have +1 Drill. Secondly, it gives it that important Infernal flavour. You're not just training them - you're changing them, reordering their minds as you teach them their lessons (and making them CoDs, too).
And thirdly - and maybe most vitally - it changes it from the basic function of the Solar ones. The Solar ones make components of a civic society. Kimbery doesn't do that - she makes a creepy cult family. When you use this Charm to train up a village, you might give them all Mother Before Daughter and suddenly, wham, it's an unacceptable order for them to be asked to betray their loved ones (and they won't willingly do it either). And with the Infernal training them in person, any sensible Infernal will make sure everyone they train finds the Infernal beloved.
(Granting low Essence Permanent Infernal charms as an Abomination follows the precedent set by Cecelyne. For Kimbery, I'd consider Mother Sea Mastery and the Intolerable Burning Truths to be suitable for granting like that.)
The second big difference is that primacy has been given to Styles. Once you've got them broken and indoctrinated into your cult, you're not training them to be generalists. You're training them for a specific role, in the style of themed mooks of video-game villains. It's a Style you teach them - and it's a Style you have to know, and unlike the Solar ones you can't use this to train yourself. Your mooks will be themed in the same ways as you. And of course, it reinforces the maternal themes by having you teach them a profession.
Hence, the upgrade Charm exists to broaden characters out after they've maxed out their Style - and you can only teach them Abilities and Attributes in-line with their style. It broadens them out, yes, but it's not like how a Solar can make warrior-sages by alternating between TWT and HAM. Again, this is focussed more around the idea of a cult of specialists. It's literally going "I taught you to be so good at Ripping Tide Style, you're now good with all blades because you can treat all blades like they're Ripping Tide Style blades to some extent".
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