General Exalted Thread
Both deluxe versions are in the final stages right now.
- Location
- Singapore
Guys, I've been looking at Wise choice, and what does it do about creatures outside fate?
- Location
- New York City
Hey folks, for the Yozi Hierarchy experts, does anyone have any clue how to explain Adorjan -> Jacint -> Zsofika? Like, the internal logic of why Zsofika is the Messenger Soul of Jacint.
Zsofika is the part that's really puzzling me, but any additional context for her would be appreciated.
Zsofika is the part that's really puzzling me, but any additional context for her would be appreciated.
Doesn't care? Quite a lot of sidereal charms aren't strictly linked to Fate.
- Location
- Singapore
Yeah, fine then.
Just to make sure, the Contagion, and the Balorian crusade occurred because the Sidereals didn't think to ask the right questions, right?
Yes, which is less surprising if you consider the ruling on the card: you have to have a concrete problem and a concrete goal phrased to include everything relevant. It won't find a path for you, simply tell you which of the options you give it is best. The Contagion and Crusade were essentially out of context, and really require the Sidereals to have access to information that just isn't known by anyone in the setting (baring perhaps Jupiter).
samdamandias
Apprentice Plane Wizard
Hmm. I have run into an interesting thought problem.
Let us say for ... reasons... we have a mortal sorcerer, at about the limits of what a mortal can do without being something else. This sorcerer knows that the Fivescore fellowship exists, and wishes to get in contact with them for... other reasons . How might they go about doing so without getting angry fate ninjas hiding in their crockery?
Let us say for ... reasons... we have a mortal sorcerer, at about the limits of what a mortal can do without being something else. This sorcerer knows that the Fivescore fellowship exists, and wishes to get in contact with them for... other reasons . How might they go about doing so without getting angry fate ninjas hiding in their crockery?
Make a suitably impressive prayer to one of the Celestial gods in the Department of Fate. I mean, it might go no where, but the gods there do talk to Sidereals, so that could work. His reasons and message would likely have a large factor in what the response would be, though probably he'd get nothing unless he was offering something really strange.
- Location
- Singapore
....... maybe visit the heptagram and start talking about Fate ninjas?
No, that's a way to die quickly. The sidereals in the school are in deep cover, so you look like you're trying to expose them. That's not a plan that leaves you living.
Not to mention the normal Realm prejudice against mortal sorcerers.
- Location
- Ottawa
Given that the Sidereal Exalted are a secret, they'll probably get in touch with you as soon as they find out you know about them. But spilling the beans to others will tick them off.
So the Heptagram plan would work, but seems risky. You need to let them know you know without spilling the secret to any bystanders.
Maybe just go to the Heptagram and be cryptic about your knowledge. They're superhuman, they'll see through your "academic speculation on the nature of the Maidens".
So the Heptagram plan would work, but seems risky. You need to let them know you know without spilling the secret to any bystanders.
Maybe just go to the Heptagram and be cryptic about your knowledge. They're superhuman, they'll see through your "academic speculation on the nature of the Maidens".
Dynamesmouse
Bzzzzzz
They're Fate Ninjas. When or if they want or need for you to meet them, it will happen. Coincidences never happen around Sidereals, since they're always happening around them.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Jacinct represents Adorjan's freedom to go anywhere, regardless of barriers or terrain. As his Messenger soul, Zsofika communicates this - wherever you hide, however far you run, she will find you. And because they're both souls of Adorjan, she also illustrates that the purpose of this freedom of movement is to kill you once she gets there.
EarthScorpion Sorcery Homebrew: How Anchors Shape the Form of Spells
How Anchors Shape the Form of Spells
Two factors influence the shape a spell takes. The aspect of the motes paid as the spell's Price is the dominant one, and even a fool can tell a spell cast with solar essence apart from a spell cast with water essence. However, the Anchor used also influences the shape of the spell through the required rituals and the kinds of spell they can support.
Spells are learned for a specific Anchor. An XP surcharge must be paid to learn a new variant of a spell which uses a different anchor, and long study is required to convert a spell to using a different Anchor. As a result, in the short term most sorcerers are tied to their Anchors and a magician who needs his staff to cast spells can be disarmed and his threat greatly reduced.
Allies (and similar backgrounds, like Mentor)
When a sorcerer calls upon Allies to cast a spell, she is entrusting the spell to other empowered beings - most commonly spirits. Sorcerers who commonly anchor spells in demons are called demonologists or infernalists; sorcerers who anchor them in ghosts are referred to as necromancers. The beings in question must be capable of producing that effect; one cannot call on elementals to interact with the underworld. The Price of such spells often includes Resources offerings, blood sacrifices of Health Levels (or human lives for more powerful spells), and veneration.
The precise nature of the ritual behaviour and actions depends a lot on the entities in question. Demons ask for all matters of strange and often unnatural behaviour based on their alien drives, the Dead ask for veneration and prayer (as do gods), while elementals are often the simplest to handle and such things are based on the wants of the elemental who leads the court the sorcerer has a contract with.
The power of the Ally limits what spells they can anchor. Demons of the First Circle can only empower the simplest of spells, demon lords can empower the Sapphire Circle, while those who entreat with the demon princes can perform Adamant miracles. Similar limits apply to gods and the dead. Elementals are not so constrained, for their numbers and the power of the dragon lines they can draw upon allow even the mightiest spells to be performed if one has enough elemental servants.
The Ally's power must be able to reach the sorcerer in some way, or they must carry a symbolic token of the alliance. Demonologists load themselves up with trinkets of the demon realm to invoke its fell power in Creation, while necromancers dress in the trappings of death and carry ghosts bound in china jars.
Artefact
Many sorcerers consider artefact-anchored spells to be the most pure expression of the sorcerer's skill. In such spells, it is only the sorcerer's will, and the object that they are using to channel and shape their desires. Many of the most basic spells in a common sorcerer's arsenal use an artefact weapon as an anchor, and that is why the image of a sorcerer so commonly features their magical staff or their enchanted blade. In the case of Emerald Circle Banishing cast through an Artefact weapon, for example, the sorcerer literally orders the demon to return to hell while threatening them with their weapon. Many blades and armour made for sorcerers incorporate hearthstone sockets so that the sorcerer may draw power from the gems without having to fumble in a pocket.
Other sorcerers take a less direct route, and instead call on an aspect of the Artefact such as its legendary history or its construction. Thunder Wolf's Howl cast through a soulsteel blade makes the weapon itself scream with such force that men are sent flying, while many Dragonblooded sorcerers cast Death of Obsidian Butterflies by calling on the sword used by countless ancestors until the air itself is filled with the flapping memory of endless cuts and stabs. Devonian sorcerers in particular are infamous for designing artefact mechanisms designed to synergise with one spell or another, such as the infamous Orrery of Va Nelba, from which the sorcerer-king of the land could perform Cast Beyond the Veil of Time by adjusting it so the area no longer appeared in the future it displayed. Demonologists are notorious for their demon-wrought tattoos filled with malicious power that they can call on.
Obviously the sorcerer must have the artefact to hand to make use of it. This is why sorcerers are customarily stripped and searched when they are imprisoned, for fear of an unknown mystical amulet or magical brand they may have hidden on their person that they may use to escape. Wise guards never assume that they have found everything, for in Immaculate stories there is a tale of a wicked sorcerer who hid a demon in his stomach that kept his magical ring safe.
Backing
When a sorcerer anchors a spell in their Backing, they rely on symbolic logic and the authority of the institution. Because they are lord of this land, they can call on the earth itself to rise up and the rivers to flow with blood. Because they are a factor of the Nexan Guild, their knowledge of value lets them turn lead into gold through financial sorcery. Because they are an exorcist of the Immaculate Order, demons flee their presence. To do this, the sorcerer must explicitly invoke the authority and wear the trappings and garb appropriate to their position.
Certain spells are linked to a specific institution. For example, the sorcerers of the Realm and the Immaculate Order call directly on the authority of the Scarlet Throne - and this worries them greatly as it sits empty, for they worry that their spells will become unreliable. Other spells, by contrast, call upon a role. A spell anchored in a king's position does not care which throne the sorcerer-king sits upon; only that they have the power to command the land.
Breeding (and Lineage)
The breeding of the Dragonblooded is a force of mystical potency. The blood of dragons flows in their veins, and in the High First Age countless spells were invented by Terrestrial sorcerers that were anchored within the draconic force within them. Spells which use this always have an elemental aspect and must be cast with the Dragonblooded's own essence. Such power forms draconic iconography naturally, and is particularly efficacious in areas that harmonise with their element. Alas, the bloodlines of the Terrestrials have withered and they are no longer what they once were. Many spells anchored in Breeding are unusable by much of the Terrestrial Host.
Or at least they would be, if it were not for sorcerous lineages.
Lineage is effectively a pseudo-Background, which only exists for the purposes of anchoring spells and extends Breeding. Rather than blood purity per se, it instead is a measure of the accumulated contracts, oaths, and mystical potency that builds up among families where many generations practice sorcery. It is mostly seen at a family level among the Dragonblooded, but a few bloodlines of mortal sorcerers and incestous Lintha sects have generated it. More commonly it instead builds up down chains of mentor-student relationships. The Sidereal Exalted maintain chains of teaching which pass through Chejop Kejak that reach all the way back to the First Sorcerer, though those who are his personal students are less potent than those who have learned from those who have learned from those he taught.
However, since one's Lineage rating increases Breeding for sorcerous purposes, Dragonblooded from families of sorcerers can call upon rituals and spells despite having weak blood. House Ledala is famed for this, and some of the families within the House try to ensure every member is a sorcerer as to strengthen the lineage of all of them.
Cult (and other group backgrounds, like Followers and Command)
While Backing draws on a greater institution (even when a king performs it), Cult and other such backgrounds draw on the adoration and power entrusted to the sorcerer by others. Sorcerers who rely heavily on Cult are known for being egotistical even by the standards of magicians, and they are not humble men normally. It is through the obedience of others and their willing subjugation to his will that he subjugates the laws of nature. Other sorcerers remain a little more grounded, and anchor the spell in the actions of their followers in great prayers or by having their servants perform geomantic procedures in carefully chosen places across the land.
Just as a purely incidental note, these backgrounds can be emulated by the ritual sacrifice of human lives. Many necromantic spells are made so that instead of sacrificing loyal servants, one ritually kills one's foes. The following reanimation of their corpses is considered an elegant way of recycling.
Familiar (and other familiars, like Demonic Familiar)
Spells anchored in a familiar empower the creature to carry out the orders of their master. Most famously, Infallible Messenger is commonly taught for Familiar, and the creature in question bears the sorcerer's words to their target. This may mutate the creature heavily, such as a hawk familiar becoming a garda-bird-like creature for Flight of the Brilliant Raptor. Some sorcerers even assume properties of their familiar through magic, such as taking on their tiger's claws with Wood Dragon's Claw, or turning into the animal outright with the Skinchanger Rite.
More mystically potent familiars blur the lines between allies and familiars. A sorcerer with a demonic familiar of a blood ape may use it was if it was an allied demon - and with more potency, for it can feed directly off his essence due to their contract. Some sorcerers take unholy glee in empowering their demonic or spectral servants so that onlookers fear the power of their familiar - and so fear them even more.
Manse & Demesne
The first great split in human sorcery was born of the fact that while one can anchor spells in a demesne, one cannot in a manse. The mystic power in a manse is already sealed down, calcified into the production of hearthstones. Devonian sorcerers have long considered this to be the best use for the dragonlines, for the hearthstones may be used by a sorcerer to cast spells that require essence of aspects other than their natural one. Hearthstones can be used to pay the mote Price of a spell - and Resources costs too, for they are gems of great value as well as mystically potent. It is said that in the High First Age, their skill with the design of manses was so great that the hearthstone was nearly inert and could last a century or more until its power escaped. Such days are long past, and most modern hearthstones bleed their essence out until they are dry. Fire hearthstones are hot to the touch, while the hearthstone-like gems hewn from Malfeas' flesh sicken those who carry them with toxic Green Sun Wasting.
By contrast, Salinian sorcerers typically consider manses to be a blight on the natural essence of Creation, causing it to stagnate, and they favour the use of untapped demesnes as places of power. Rituals anchored in a Demesne channel power from the land itself, and likewise may be used to cast spells with the essence aspect of the sacred space. Salina preferred to honour the land and treat it in thematically appropriate ways, but a sorcerer might as easily rip the power from the land through the force of their enlightened will. There is a limit to how far one may channel the power of a demesne, though, and unless one is standing close to a dragon line one may not anchor a spell within a demesne unless one is within a few miles of it.
Purely as an academic note, Silur took a neutral position in the entire argument, though practically speaking she tended to favour manses due to the increased flexibility that easy access to hearthstones gave sorcerers. However, Silurian sorcerers did hybridise the two designs to create manse designs that instead radiated their power in synthetic dragonlines to specially made artefacts - a compromise which pleased neither party.
Resources
Alas, Resources are too ephemeral and fleeting to anchor a major working in. Instead, Resources components can be part of the Price of certain spells in addition to mote costs. This is particularly common in spells anchored in patron spirits who ask for sacrifices for their blessings. Those who cast Total Annihilation through an alliance with the Green Sun must sacrifice a priceless emerald the size of a chicken's egg as a vessel for his blighting power. Many less spells cost vast sums in exotic reagents to cast, which is another reason that sorcerers have a reputation for greed.
Whispers
When the Black Nadir Concordat plundered the graves of the Neverborn, they bathed in their cosmic filth and contaminated their very souls with the putrefaction of murdered titans. This rot is full of dreadful power, and may be invoked by practitioners of the Black Art. Unlike almost all other Backgrounds, Whispers are not committed to sorcery. One can take everything one wishes from Oblivion, and it will only grow greater.
Spells invoking Whispers automatically contaminate the nature of the essence used to cast it to "Necrotic". The rituals for such spells are dreadful and profane, full of glossolalia, mad logic and the terrible anti-mathematics of the Void. Sacrifices of Resources care little for the actual goods being destroyed - Oblivion just wants valuable things unmade. Human sacrifice is also commonly required. Spells cast through Whispers are twisted to fit the aesthetics of the Labyrinth - Raising the Earth's Bones pulls up a wall of literal bloody bones, dragged from mass graves across Creation, while the butterflies in Death of Obsidian Butterflies are not glass, but instead tiny fragments of the Void which only look slightly like the butterflies of the living world.
Two factors influence the shape a spell takes. The aspect of the motes paid as the spell's Price is the dominant one, and even a fool can tell a spell cast with solar essence apart from a spell cast with water essence. However, the Anchor used also influences the shape of the spell through the required rituals and the kinds of spell they can support.
Spells are learned for a specific Anchor. An XP surcharge must be paid to learn a new variant of a spell which uses a different anchor, and long study is required to convert a spell to using a different Anchor. As a result, in the short term most sorcerers are tied to their Anchors and a magician who needs his staff to cast spells can be disarmed and his threat greatly reduced.
Allies (and similar backgrounds, like Mentor)
When a sorcerer calls upon Allies to cast a spell, she is entrusting the spell to other empowered beings - most commonly spirits. Sorcerers who commonly anchor spells in demons are called demonologists or infernalists; sorcerers who anchor them in ghosts are referred to as necromancers. The beings in question must be capable of producing that effect; one cannot call on elementals to interact with the underworld. The Price of such spells often includes Resources offerings, blood sacrifices of Health Levels (or human lives for more powerful spells), and veneration.
The precise nature of the ritual behaviour and actions depends a lot on the entities in question. Demons ask for all matters of strange and often unnatural behaviour based on their alien drives, the Dead ask for veneration and prayer (as do gods), while elementals are often the simplest to handle and such things are based on the wants of the elemental who leads the court the sorcerer has a contract with.
The power of the Ally limits what spells they can anchor. Demons of the First Circle can only empower the simplest of spells, demon lords can empower the Sapphire Circle, while those who entreat with the demon princes can perform Adamant miracles. Similar limits apply to gods and the dead. Elementals are not so constrained, for their numbers and the power of the dragon lines they can draw upon allow even the mightiest spells to be performed if one has enough elemental servants.
The Ally's power must be able to reach the sorcerer in some way, or they must carry a symbolic token of the alliance. Demonologists load themselves up with trinkets of the demon realm to invoke its fell power in Creation, while necromancers dress in the trappings of death and carry ghosts bound in china jars.
Artefact
Many sorcerers consider artefact-anchored spells to be the most pure expression of the sorcerer's skill. In such spells, it is only the sorcerer's will, and the object that they are using to channel and shape their desires. Many of the most basic spells in a common sorcerer's arsenal use an artefact weapon as an anchor, and that is why the image of a sorcerer so commonly features their magical staff or their enchanted blade. In the case of Emerald Circle Banishing cast through an Artefact weapon, for example, the sorcerer literally orders the demon to return to hell while threatening them with their weapon. Many blades and armour made for sorcerers incorporate hearthstone sockets so that the sorcerer may draw power from the gems without having to fumble in a pocket.
Other sorcerers take a less direct route, and instead call on an aspect of the Artefact such as its legendary history or its construction. Thunder Wolf's Howl cast through a soulsteel blade makes the weapon itself scream with such force that men are sent flying, while many Dragonblooded sorcerers cast Death of Obsidian Butterflies by calling on the sword used by countless ancestors until the air itself is filled with the flapping memory of endless cuts and stabs. Devonian sorcerers in particular are infamous for designing artefact mechanisms designed to synergise with one spell or another, such as the infamous Orrery of Va Nelba, from which the sorcerer-king of the land could perform Cast Beyond the Veil of Time by adjusting it so the area no longer appeared in the future it displayed. Demonologists are notorious for their demon-wrought tattoos filled with malicious power that they can call on.
Obviously the sorcerer must have the artefact to hand to make use of it. This is why sorcerers are customarily stripped and searched when they are imprisoned, for fear of an unknown mystical amulet or magical brand they may have hidden on their person that they may use to escape. Wise guards never assume that they have found everything, for in Immaculate stories there is a tale of a wicked sorcerer who hid a demon in his stomach that kept his magical ring safe.
Backing
When a sorcerer anchors a spell in their Backing, they rely on symbolic logic and the authority of the institution. Because they are lord of this land, they can call on the earth itself to rise up and the rivers to flow with blood. Because they are a factor of the Nexan Guild, their knowledge of value lets them turn lead into gold through financial sorcery. Because they are an exorcist of the Immaculate Order, demons flee their presence. To do this, the sorcerer must explicitly invoke the authority and wear the trappings and garb appropriate to their position.
Certain spells are linked to a specific institution. For example, the sorcerers of the Realm and the Immaculate Order call directly on the authority of the Scarlet Throne - and this worries them greatly as it sits empty, for they worry that their spells will become unreliable. Other spells, by contrast, call upon a role. A spell anchored in a king's position does not care which throne the sorcerer-king sits upon; only that they have the power to command the land.
Breeding (and Lineage)
The breeding of the Dragonblooded is a force of mystical potency. The blood of dragons flows in their veins, and in the High First Age countless spells were invented by Terrestrial sorcerers that were anchored within the draconic force within them. Spells which use this always have an elemental aspect and must be cast with the Dragonblooded's own essence. Such power forms draconic iconography naturally, and is particularly efficacious in areas that harmonise with their element. Alas, the bloodlines of the Terrestrials have withered and they are no longer what they once were. Many spells anchored in Breeding are unusable by much of the Terrestrial Host.
Or at least they would be, if it were not for sorcerous lineages.
Lineage is effectively a pseudo-Background, which only exists for the purposes of anchoring spells and extends Breeding. Rather than blood purity per se, it instead is a measure of the accumulated contracts, oaths, and mystical potency that builds up among families where many generations practice sorcery. It is mostly seen at a family level among the Dragonblooded, but a few bloodlines of mortal sorcerers and incestous Lintha sects have generated it. More commonly it instead builds up down chains of mentor-student relationships. The Sidereal Exalted maintain chains of teaching which pass through Chejop Kejak that reach all the way back to the First Sorcerer, though those who are his personal students are less potent than those who have learned from those who have learned from those he taught.
However, since one's Lineage rating increases Breeding for sorcerous purposes, Dragonblooded from families of sorcerers can call upon rituals and spells despite having weak blood. House Ledala is famed for this, and some of the families within the House try to ensure every member is a sorcerer as to strengthen the lineage of all of them.
Cult (and other group backgrounds, like Followers and Command)
While Backing draws on a greater institution (even when a king performs it), Cult and other such backgrounds draw on the adoration and power entrusted to the sorcerer by others. Sorcerers who rely heavily on Cult are known for being egotistical even by the standards of magicians, and they are not humble men normally. It is through the obedience of others and their willing subjugation to his will that he subjugates the laws of nature. Other sorcerers remain a little more grounded, and anchor the spell in the actions of their followers in great prayers or by having their servants perform geomantic procedures in carefully chosen places across the land.
Just as a purely incidental note, these backgrounds can be emulated by the ritual sacrifice of human lives. Many necromantic spells are made so that instead of sacrificing loyal servants, one ritually kills one's foes. The following reanimation of their corpses is considered an elegant way of recycling.
Familiar (and other familiars, like Demonic Familiar)
Spells anchored in a familiar empower the creature to carry out the orders of their master. Most famously, Infallible Messenger is commonly taught for Familiar, and the creature in question bears the sorcerer's words to their target. This may mutate the creature heavily, such as a hawk familiar becoming a garda-bird-like creature for Flight of the Brilliant Raptor. Some sorcerers even assume properties of their familiar through magic, such as taking on their tiger's claws with Wood Dragon's Claw, or turning into the animal outright with the Skinchanger Rite.
More mystically potent familiars blur the lines between allies and familiars. A sorcerer with a demonic familiar of a blood ape may use it was if it was an allied demon - and with more potency, for it can feed directly off his essence due to their contract. Some sorcerers take unholy glee in empowering their demonic or spectral servants so that onlookers fear the power of their familiar - and so fear them even more.
Manse & Demesne
The first great split in human sorcery was born of the fact that while one can anchor spells in a demesne, one cannot in a manse. The mystic power in a manse is already sealed down, calcified into the production of hearthstones. Devonian sorcerers have long considered this to be the best use for the dragonlines, for the hearthstones may be used by a sorcerer to cast spells that require essence of aspects other than their natural one. Hearthstones can be used to pay the mote Price of a spell - and Resources costs too, for they are gems of great value as well as mystically potent. It is said that in the High First Age, their skill with the design of manses was so great that the hearthstone was nearly inert and could last a century or more until its power escaped. Such days are long past, and most modern hearthstones bleed their essence out until they are dry. Fire hearthstones are hot to the touch, while the hearthstone-like gems hewn from Malfeas' flesh sicken those who carry them with toxic Green Sun Wasting.
By contrast, Salinian sorcerers typically consider manses to be a blight on the natural essence of Creation, causing it to stagnate, and they favour the use of untapped demesnes as places of power. Rituals anchored in a Demesne channel power from the land itself, and likewise may be used to cast spells with the essence aspect of the sacred space. Salina preferred to honour the land and treat it in thematically appropriate ways, but a sorcerer might as easily rip the power from the land through the force of their enlightened will. There is a limit to how far one may channel the power of a demesne, though, and unless one is standing close to a dragon line one may not anchor a spell within a demesne unless one is within a few miles of it.
Purely as an academic note, Silur took a neutral position in the entire argument, though practically speaking she tended to favour manses due to the increased flexibility that easy access to hearthstones gave sorcerers. However, Silurian sorcerers did hybridise the two designs to create manse designs that instead radiated their power in synthetic dragonlines to specially made artefacts - a compromise which pleased neither party.
Resources
Alas, Resources are too ephemeral and fleeting to anchor a major working in. Instead, Resources components can be part of the Price of certain spells in addition to mote costs. This is particularly common in spells anchored in patron spirits who ask for sacrifices for their blessings. Those who cast Total Annihilation through an alliance with the Green Sun must sacrifice a priceless emerald the size of a chicken's egg as a vessel for his blighting power. Many less spells cost vast sums in exotic reagents to cast, which is another reason that sorcerers have a reputation for greed.
Whispers
When the Black Nadir Concordat plundered the graves of the Neverborn, they bathed in their cosmic filth and contaminated their very souls with the putrefaction of murdered titans. This rot is full of dreadful power, and may be invoked by practitioners of the Black Art. Unlike almost all other Backgrounds, Whispers are not committed to sorcery. One can take everything one wishes from Oblivion, and it will only grow greater.
Spells invoking Whispers automatically contaminate the nature of the essence used to cast it to "Necrotic". The rituals for such spells are dreadful and profane, full of glossolalia, mad logic and the terrible anti-mathematics of the Void. Sacrifices of Resources care little for the actual goods being destroyed - Oblivion just wants valuable things unmade. Human sacrifice is also commonly required. Spells cast through Whispers are twisted to fit the aesthetics of the Labyrinth - Raising the Earth's Bones pulls up a wall of literal bloody bones, dragged from mass graves across Creation, while the butterflies in Death of Obsidian Butterflies are not glass, but instead tiny fragments of the Void which only look slightly like the butterflies of the living world.
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- Location
- Virginia
I continue to find this idea appealing but I think what actually makes or breaks it is if you can lock down the mechanics side of what it means to commit a background to get an effect (as well as this Price alluded to). The promising thing, IMO, is the potential to transform Background dots into a real measure of how much your character can affect the world at scale, similar to Influence / Dominion from Godbound.
Until then, I see the 3E system as a good 80/20 (or maybe 50/10, or whatever) solution. The cosmetic effects of control spells are decent at establishing "sorcerers are Weird", sorcerous motes and initiations give some nice ways to represent drawing power from different sources, and XP costs for Workings are an OK way of gating them so you can't just sit in a cave and spam them. The system itself is pretty lightweight and functional.
Until then, I see the 3E system as a good 80/20 (or maybe 50/10, or whatever) solution. The cosmetic effects of control spells are decent at establishing "sorcerers are Weird", sorcerous motes and initiations give some nice ways to represent drawing power from different sources, and XP costs for Workings are an OK way of gating them so you can't just sit in a cave and spam them. The system itself is pretty lightweight and functional.
@Revlid: I was looking through the Elloge charmset you made, and have a question about your interpretation of Self-Synonym Futility: can you suppress a permanent mind altering charm like Murder is Meat or Cosmic Transcendence of (Virtue)?
On the one hand, that unbalances them. On the other, sometimes you want your Ebon Dragon/Elloge Scourge's innocent waif persona to be able to tell the truth as she knows it, without the penalty from Witness To Darkness.
My first thought is that if you suppress Witness to Darkness, you lose access to all charms which depend on it, but that doesn't prevent people from suppressing Murder is Meat or Smouldering Beast Rage. Maybe make it so you can only suppress entire charm trees, starting from the root charms?
On the one hand, that unbalances them. On the other, sometimes you want your Ebon Dragon/Elloge Scourge's innocent waif persona to be able to tell the truth as she knows it, without the penalty from Witness To Darkness.
My first thought is that if you suppress Witness to Darkness, you lose access to all charms which depend on it, but that doesn't prevent people from suppressing Murder is Meat or Smouldering Beast Rage. Maybe make it so you can only suppress entire charm trees, starting from the root charms?
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- Location
- my house
@EarthScorpion It seems, from an initital reading, that breeding and certain forms of backing are significantly better then other options, as they can't really be taken away from you. A character with these can't really be deprived of them, so young Exalts depriving a Elder of his power by attacking his infrastructure doesn't really work for them. Sure it's possible to get a king overthrown, or conquer his lands so he can't work sorcery anymore, but at that point you've already beaten, to the point that it doesn't matter.
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- Location
- Portland
Anyone got a link to that charmset?
greensun
You shall all burn beneath my light!!!
Yes - but remember, Backgrounds are committed. A Dragonblood can sustain one spell they can basically always pull off with Breeding (or someone else from Lineage). That's the explicit reason that Breeding and Lineage merge - so DBs can't get two spells there. It's explicitly there to enable concepts of "I'm heir to a magical tradition!".
So yes, an optimal sorcerer will want to make sure they come from an established magical tradition with lots of extensive tutor-student lines of succession and an established line of teaching which reaches back hundreds, if not thousands of years. That is what I call "working as intended", because it's a strong incentive for a player who wants to be an optimal sorcerer to find themselves a mentor who's a powerful sorcerer. That is exactly the behaviour I want to encourage.
Likewise, yes, winkling a sorcerer-king out of lands he controls is hard because he's fighting on his home ground. The solution is to lure him out of his home grounds, away from the land he can draw power from, and murder him there.
And no, you can overthrow an Exalt without killing him. Crushing his armies and contesting ownership of his lands ruins the background - you're not a king when the nation doesn't meaningfully exist. And now when it comes to the final fight, he's weakened.
So what you're saying is that there is a First Circle Demon related to Adjoran which is a mockery of a human skeleton, wrought in metal, which doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear, and doesn't stop-will not stop-cannot stop-until whatever it's told to target is terminated?
- Location
- my house
That makes sense. Might want to include something in the backing description about needing to be in an area where the backing holds sway then. I was under the impression that a king could use spells anchored in his kingship anywhere, as long as he was still considered a king.
As for the lineage thing, does that mean only one spell van be anchored per backround? That seems like to few as it means that you'd need a ton of different backgrounds to get a useful amount of spells.
greensun
You shall all burn beneath my light!!!
@Aleph, and @EarthScorpion. You know how you've removed low tier artifacts like Daiklaves and Power-Bows from the background and made them powerful and rare equipment, but stopped them from being a background tax. Do they still have an attunement cost or has that been removed as well?
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- Location
- Singapore
Does anyone, like have ideas for Exalted modern artifacts?