Actually I'm gonna doublepost a question to the thread at large because now
@EarthScorpion has got me wondering, although I have some idea - what's the draw of playing, the point of rolling Abyssal; what kind of things do you want to do with that kind of game?
Several things; First and simplest, I'm drawn to characters that, if they really cut lose, can be absolutely horrifying. Not to say that other Exalts aren't capable of that, but the way they go about it just isn't quite as visceral and primal as an Abyssal's aesthetic.
Second, to me, Abyssal protagonist archetypes are people who were wronged by the world. The innocent girl that died to the plague, the Archeologist who got killed because his sponsors were too stingy to give his expedition a proper safety budget, the farmer whose village was plundered and burned down by bandits, the rightful heiress to the throne assassinated by power-hungry relatives. Batman, shot down in an alleyeway robbery after he had to watch his parents being killed first.
And they all decided to be defiant, to say 'fuck you, world, I am not done yet, and if you don't like it I'm going to break you over my knee and
make you into a place where the injustice done to me will not stand'.
Third, at the same time, Abyssals are cursed and the world rejects their presence, they have to fight for their happiness every step of the way. The Abyssal powerset just like the Infernal one is not easy and straightforward, it has agency of it's own and wants the Exalt to act a certain way, and may try to twist and shape him to better suit it's vision. As ES put it, they have to fight their powerset, or else give in and become the villain. See also my below thoughts on Abyssal charm design.
Fourth, something I like about the Underworld in general; Creation is a human world, with all their sucesses, foibles and failings. Malefeas and it's residents is inhuman, monstrous and alien; Yes, ultimately the Yozi all are patterned after a human personality writ large, but still, it's not quite the same. The Underworld on the other hand, inhuman, monstrous and alien - but in a decidedly human way.
Everything in it, ultimately, exists because of humanity, because of something a human has done, said, thought or felt. Everything, from the sad ghosts that blindly relive their life in an undending loop, to the quiet places shaped by quiet, wistful nostalgia and calm peace, to the gibbering murderous horrors shaped by fear, pain, hate, and madness. Even the Neverborn, ultimately, can be laid at the feet of the (Exalted) humans of old, the question of how necessary or just the murders that created them were entirely aside.
It's the same reason why I love psychological fantasysuch as Persona, Black Rock Shooter, or Madoka; The way their metaphysics are set up means that, intrinsically, supernatural exploration stories about alien and twisted worlds and action scenes fighting the inhabitants and dangers of that world at the same time are intrinsically also explorations of the characters they're about and the human condition in general.
Several friends and I tried to re-write the Abyssal charmset to have more interesting effects and themes, but kept running into an issue where a lot of charms far too much felt like they should have been Infernal charms instead.
Eh, some overlap is fine I'd think, so long as enough care is taken to remove the Yozi-baggage attached to them and thematize them towrds Abyssals. I mean, you're not going to tell me that for example, assorted Shintai effects such as Malfean 'Hulking Out', or Teddite/Cecelynian 'turn into shadow or clouds of ash' aren't A-OK for Abyssal design space? Or for that matter, a lesser equivalent to Lunar shapeshifting such as turning into a cloud of insects or bats or into a giant black dog/wolf.
The trick, I think, would be that while Infernals have huge sprawling trees that are mostly meant to be self-contained I think Abyssals should have small trees each based around a specific horror movie archetype. Then you can mix and match much more easily to create your vampire, with some flavor of banshee and grim reaper and poltergeist thrown in. Maybe, say, five to ten Charms for each archetype tree, just enough to give a variety of effects from Essence 1~5 but not enough to be the entire character.
I've played around with the idea of trees with alternative prerequisites both Charm and Ability-wise and lots of crossover, so you can arrive at an ultimate effect from multiple different directions. Say you have a shapeshifting cascade, with prereqs of Larceny, Socialize, or Presence, and a second one based off Survival themed around transforming into Animals.
The social cascade would be all about hiding or revealing your true nature as needed to gain social boni.
'Assumption of the Sheep' allows you to commit motes per dot to shift your appearance closer to the average score of two, as well as hide mutations for extra commitment, so you can temporarily blend in and pretend to be a normal joe.
'Beast-and-Beauty Style' allows you to go further and invert your appearance score and hide/show different sets of mutations appropriate to each.
'Two-Faced Monster' branches off of this to let you assume multiple personalities to go along with your appearances
The Animal Cascade's base Charm is of course about transforming into animals. Importantly however, it should be distinct and weaker than Lunar shapeshifting, restricting them in the forms available (Animal has to have some sort of however tenuous link to death, no being able to shift into a single tiny fly, for example), and not allowing them to mix'n'match as easily if at all.
Spinoff dodge and athletics charms work by dissolving you into swarms of smaller animals for their duration (insects, crows, etc.). Alternatively, into clouds of oily shadow or dust with appropriate other non-animal/anorganic transformation charmd, propably resting on Resistance or Stealth.
A capstone branch accessible from either Cascade is essentially Malfeas' 'By Rage Recast' and 'Devil-Tyrant Avatar Shintai' with the serial numbers filed off and the special effects changed, allowing you to metaphysically 'let your hair down' and show your true monstrous glory by giving you access to a package of mutations to, as appropriate, scare or beat people into submissionby switching between 'uncomfortably hot', 'pleasedon'teatme', and 'kneel, mortal!', or going from 'swarm of bats' to 'Varghulf'. Yet another way to branch into this is from generic combat enhancement charms.
Generally, charms have alternative prerequsites allowing purchase of them from unconventional directions, charm cascades will also have multiple entry points both via base charms and from other charm trees, so that the same tree filtered through different ability prerequisites will look slightly different. In the social cascade above, AotS is a Larceny/Socialize base Charm, BaBS is a Socialize/Presence base Charm, and TFM can be purchased by ignoring the other two Charms and coming off a Madness-themed tree.
You'd propably even have some reverse purchasing paths open to you; If TFM/BaBS, in theory, had other prereq charms before them, but you have TFM, then you could use that as prerequisite Charm for purchasing mild-mannered/alluring/regal/terrifying forms to match the respective personalities.
Somewhat unrelated to this, my tendency when thinking up Abyssal charms, or Necromancy for that matter, is that outside specialized combat charms, they generally shouldn't be about killing/harming/destruction primarily, because that gets redundant fast. Rather, doing all these things in various horrific and/or hilarious ways should be something that they can be readily abused at in addition to their main function, so that even the most pacifistic Abyssal always has the temptation to say 'fuck it, murder time!' and can, in fact, expect that to be a reasonably effective option.
Like, a charm/spell to call up bad weather patterns with metal special effects, that incidentally also shields Creatures of Darkness from the sun in it's area. Protect your legions of doom and bury your enemies under fell lightning and hurricanes of blood and screaming flensing duststorms, or irrigate the desert with regularly scheduled ominous thunderstorms.
Specialized prophecy and fateweaving charms, aspected to curses and disasters. Doom your enemies, or foretell catastrophe so people know to prepare.
Memory and dream manipulation. Brainwash minions and torture enemies, or be super-psychologist who literally burns away his patient's traumatic memories and slays their nighmares.
Incidentally, if anyone willing has the mechanical know-how to balance charms but no ideas for Abyssal charm concepts, I have quite a few of the latter but not the former.
@EarthScorpion, I worry that your idea of Abyssal survival depending on their passions, depending on how narrow or loose it is played, may serve to prevent potential character paths instead of enabling them, just like canon's focus on redemption-to-Solar arcs did.
Like, in your vision, would the following be valid driving motivations for Abyssals?
- After rescuing your abducted wife from the guy who killed you to get her, live with her happily ever after no matter the obstacles
- In general, after having had your revenge (or perhaps as the best kind of revenge) living the life that was denied to you to the fullest of your ability, wether that be by a grand skydiving world tour or by spending a content evening reading a book
- In the absence of an immediate problem or obstacle to your Passion naturally being fulfilled by itself (guarding a town?), remain in a waiting position to ensure that this doesn't change
- (Since you brought up mummies as inspiration,) Sitting in your sarcophagus inside your pyramid jealously guarding your treasures because they're yours, dammnit, and no adventurer/grave-robber's gonna take them from you.
Personally, I think they should be. Resonance, as well as Creation being a very dangerous and unjust world and Abyssals being powerful enough to do something about it, should serve to enable interesting stories even if your driving passions are are done on the loose side.
Hell, maybe even make generating plot-hooks an explicit function of Resonance; Attracting calamity and bad luck, people growing suspicious of you and envious of what's yours, and so on.
