General Exalted Thread
Azrael
Sakura Saber
- Location
- Throne of Heroes
Don't.
The Enlightenment hack exists partially to chop out Essence 6+ effects on account of how horrifically broken they tend to be.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Hear Hear, most of the E6 stuff is stupid "Elders can never be opposed on anything they even remotely care about" stuff, the only exception in my book is the Devil Tiger stuff in BWC, and it was a fairly clumsy solution brought on by the limited wordcount they had access to by that point (And how they needed to put it just out of range of casual play but just in range of dedicated groups, hence the Ascendency Mantle and E6 gate on the charmtree)
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
- Location
- United Kingdom
So, it's been a long while since I've posted anything here, but I had an idea this morning/last night, and I've got it into a shape I'm reasonably happy with, along with an older thing I'm finally feeling happy to post.
Pandisha, Who Goes Forth in Glory, the Ceramist Sovereign
Demon of the Third Circle
Sixteenth Soul of the Sphere of Speech
The Children of the Clay
In the South, in the mountains to the west of the Dreaming Sea, there is a valley. Outwardly, it is a place of little note; pleasant enough, but sufficiently difficult to reach that it has, for the most part, escaped the wars of the surrounding lands. Once there arose a king here, but he was cast down, and ever since it has been populated by villages like a string of pearls set amidst the green of their fields. And yet, it is remarkable, for less than one man or woman in every ten here is born.
Over a century ago, a shepherd here made a remarkable discovery. Following a lost goat into a cave, he came to a great chamber whose floor fell away into a pit of clay, and whose sides were streaked with odd hues. He retrieved his sheep, but could not get the strange place out of his mind, and returned there several times to contemplate the pit. While there, he absent-mindedly took some of the clay and began to sculpt it into figures. Quite by accident, he cut himself - and was astonished when the little humanoid stick-figure he had mad transformed into an infant of flesh and blood, tiny, though despite all his efforts and those of the village midwife it expired soon after.
Following this discovery, further careful experiments were made by the people of the village, and it was discovered that sculpting an infant from clay mingled with the blood of up to three people caused it to come to life as their child, though a similar process could not be performed with livestock or animals. The village priest prayed to the Maiden of the Cerulean Heaven for five days to discern what to do with this discovery, he emerged with a revelation: This place was sacred to Venus, and must be treated as such. Equally, though, it could not be kept solely to that village, and so news of it was spread throughout the valley.
Now, there is a temple over the cave's mouth, and it is the common practice for lovers to make children from clay, rather than by birth in the ordinary way, thus sparing the valley the dangers of childbirth. Furthermore, the valley's children have become stronger and more beautiful with each generation, as parents seek not only the best circumstances and inheritance for their children, but the best bodies as well. Clay and pottery are both regarded with a degree of sacredness, and potters and sculptors have attained a revered position within the valley. A recent discovery has been that the clay can be used to heal injuries and remove scars as well, transmuting to flesh, though it avails nothing against diseases and poisons.
This state of affairs may not last, however. As their strength and beauty waxes, the children of the clay begin to cast their eyes beyond the valley, wondering what they might achieve between their own prowess and their mastery of injury. Yet, they are a relatively naïve people, unused to large-scale war, and rumors are beginning to spread beyond the valley, slowly, of a land of strong and beautiful men and women, ripe for the taking. Already, a few desperate slaver-bands, driven from their more ordinary haunts in the lands below, have decided to roll the dice on discovering this hidden place and being the first to bring back wondrously rare merchandise.
There's a few different possibilities for what that demesne might be, and in general just different ways you could take the thing. It could just be Earth, Earth/Water, Earth/Wood, Earth/Elloge or simply a demesne corresponding to Pandisha or the Taj. Perhaps it is even where Author Rapturous was slain, or where a drop of its blood fell, and the clay that the valley harvests is but the surface of what power might be drawn there.
Also, for the record, Pandisha actually started with a song - specifically, East by Sleeping at Last. Definitely recommend.
Pandisha, Who Goes Forth in Glory, the Ceramist Sovereign
Demon of the Third Circle
Sixteenth Soul of the Sphere of Speech
His name is well-earned, for rare amongst the souls of the Sphere of Speech he is indeed glorious. Witness him raise on high his spear and the mountains bowing down! Witness him the tide retreat before his shining shield! He is Padisha, Who Goes Forth in Glory, and he knows that he is the palest shadow of both what he was and what he could be.
This is the secret of Pandisha: He is not a soul of Elloge. He was never a deva nor a demon, being birthed during the Divine Revolution as a war-beast, one behemoth among many sent to challenge the Exalted champions of the gods. Thus, he was written into being by the Author Rapturous with a dragon's visage, eight limbs of grey stone and two great wings. Indeed, he was a terror to the forces of the Exalted Host, equally-skilled in command and personal combat for he had the talent of narration: as he spoke, so would things be. The Sidereal Exalted were ever his greatest foes, but through cunning and might he survived one battle after another where his fellows fell. For his deeds, the Green Sun himself forged brass prosthetics and coverings to repair the injuries dealt to the behemoth, even to replacing his lost eyes with the great horns that now serve the same purpose.
And then the heart of He Who Bleeds the Unknown Word was slain, and his commanders and kin fell and dissolved, pooling into rivers and lakes of blood. Pandisha was separate enough that only his great talent was lost to the dissolution, but desperately he searched through the remnants of his creator, searching for something - anything - that remained. Finally, he came by moonless night to the place where the Author's Fetich was slain and in that devastated waste found the greatest treasure he could imagine; the heart's blood of that slaughtered soul, mingling with the clay.
By this time the Sphere of Speech had begun her fitful rebirth from the remains of her antecessor, and it was as the basalt ribs of Malfeas rose above him that Pandisha completed his great work: taking the bloody clay he sculpted a crown of ceramic, imparting to Elloge some small remnant of the creative power of the Author. And yet, even this great service came too late; the nature of the Hermit Within Herself had so calcified that his gift allowed her only the mercy of false creations; paper tigers and bloody effigies of reality. The crown became her sixteenth soul in truth, voiceless and near enough mindless, while Pandisha took upon himself the solemn duty of guarding this most fragile treasure of the Minstrel Echo.
He is not well-suited to this self-appointed task. The crown is only china, after all, and he was and is a creature of war, conquest and glorious battle. His appetites are large and his ambitions larger; to go without renown and glory is to him as starvation is to mortals. However, he commands no longer his ancient powers, though his skill in command and personal might remain. Instead, he draws upon the powers of the Taj Generative to realize his visions, commanding mountains to part so that his legions might construct great cities and speaking stone and marble into being to pave his magnificent roads and to form the foundations of his towers. Nothing built with this power lasts forever; like dreams and fantasies they fall in time. He hopes that the prolific exercise of this power might one day improve it, allowing him to build kingdoms which may outlast his attention, or else that it might awaken the crown's spirit to life and activity, that it might protect itself. So far, both hopes have proven futile.
Summoning (Obscurity 2/4*): In the High First Age, sorcerers summoned Pandisha for much the same purposes that he was originally created to fulfil: To strike terror into the enemy, to raise and command armies and to vanquish great champions. With the Taj Generative, his powers of terror and glory extend beyond beings and into the world itself, and for this reason he was also called upon to terraform and perform great works, though wise summoners used him only to allow the construction of more lasting monuments or for passing reasons such as allowing the passage of an army, rather than expecting his changes to last - he may be able to drive back the tides and mountains for a time, but when he is gone they will return.
In temperament, Who Goes Forth in Glory is boisterous, honest and open, laughing long, loud and often and roaring with fury just as frequently. He is proud, driven to wrath by insults laid upon him and is given to the pursuit of petty grievances, though if his foe will humble themselves before him he may magnanimously accept them into his circle of friends and drinking-buddies. Then again, given his mercurial humours he may also slay them out of hand, particularly if they give up too easily, deeming their submission simply further insult. In his presence the leaves of trees turn golden and red as they offer up their treasures as peace-offerings, while stones crack open to reveal geodes and glittering mica - worthless, but pretty - and birds proclaim his coming far and wide with human speech. Disdaining clothing, the Ceramist Sovereign goes clad in his own brass-and-marble skin and arms himself with the conjurations of his charge: glorious indeed seem his weapons of war and his treasury unlimited as his imagination, though its substance is only clay.
Though he is not a soul of the Sphere of Speech, so bound-up is Pandisha in her Mythos that when his crown is called to Creation he comes too. It was considered a curiosity that the incantations of his summoning refer to his regalia rather than his person, though some Exalted scholars did come to suspect that the crown was the true demon and the draconic body merely a puppet. When a great prince is slain and his crown stained with his heart's blood, Pandisha may cross the Endless Desert and emerge into Creation, raising his shining arms high as he brings the kingdom into new order - which inevitably collapses when he leaves, as he must when his work is done. Who Goes Forth In Glory suffers Limit when an attack strikes his head, terrified for the integrity of his charge.
*'Full' knowledge of Pandisha's nature is a secret known to very few indeed, and is among the secrets which Orabilis forbids to lesser beings. No amount of occult lore or learning will reveal it; it must be discovered first-hand.
This is the secret of Pandisha: He is not a soul of Elloge. He was never a deva nor a demon, being birthed during the Divine Revolution as a war-beast, one behemoth among many sent to challenge the Exalted champions of the gods. Thus, he was written into being by the Author Rapturous with a dragon's visage, eight limbs of grey stone and two great wings. Indeed, he was a terror to the forces of the Exalted Host, equally-skilled in command and personal combat for he had the talent of narration: as he spoke, so would things be. The Sidereal Exalted were ever his greatest foes, but through cunning and might he survived one battle after another where his fellows fell. For his deeds, the Green Sun himself forged brass prosthetics and coverings to repair the injuries dealt to the behemoth, even to replacing his lost eyes with the great horns that now serve the same purpose.
And then the heart of He Who Bleeds the Unknown Word was slain, and his commanders and kin fell and dissolved, pooling into rivers and lakes of blood. Pandisha was separate enough that only his great talent was lost to the dissolution, but desperately he searched through the remnants of his creator, searching for something - anything - that remained. Finally, he came by moonless night to the place where the Author's Fetich was slain and in that devastated waste found the greatest treasure he could imagine; the heart's blood of that slaughtered soul, mingling with the clay.
By this time the Sphere of Speech had begun her fitful rebirth from the remains of her antecessor, and it was as the basalt ribs of Malfeas rose above him that Pandisha completed his great work: taking the bloody clay he sculpted a crown of ceramic, imparting to Elloge some small remnant of the creative power of the Author. And yet, even this great service came too late; the nature of the Hermit Within Herself had so calcified that his gift allowed her only the mercy of false creations; paper tigers and bloody effigies of reality. The crown became her sixteenth soul in truth, voiceless and near enough mindless, while Pandisha took upon himself the solemn duty of guarding this most fragile treasure of the Minstrel Echo.
He is not well-suited to this self-appointed task. The crown is only china, after all, and he was and is a creature of war, conquest and glorious battle. His appetites are large and his ambitions larger; to go without renown and glory is to him as starvation is to mortals. However, he commands no longer his ancient powers, though his skill in command and personal might remain. Instead, he draws upon the powers of the Taj Generative to realize his visions, commanding mountains to part so that his legions might construct great cities and speaking stone and marble into being to pave his magnificent roads and to form the foundations of his towers. Nothing built with this power lasts forever; like dreams and fantasies they fall in time. He hopes that the prolific exercise of this power might one day improve it, allowing him to build kingdoms which may outlast his attention, or else that it might awaken the crown's spirit to life and activity, that it might protect itself. So far, both hopes have proven futile.
Summoning (Obscurity 2/4*): In the High First Age, sorcerers summoned Pandisha for much the same purposes that he was originally created to fulfil: To strike terror into the enemy, to raise and command armies and to vanquish great champions. With the Taj Generative, his powers of terror and glory extend beyond beings and into the world itself, and for this reason he was also called upon to terraform and perform great works, though wise summoners used him only to allow the construction of more lasting monuments or for passing reasons such as allowing the passage of an army, rather than expecting his changes to last - he may be able to drive back the tides and mountains for a time, but when he is gone they will return.
In temperament, Who Goes Forth in Glory is boisterous, honest and open, laughing long, loud and often and roaring with fury just as frequently. He is proud, driven to wrath by insults laid upon him and is given to the pursuit of petty grievances, though if his foe will humble themselves before him he may magnanimously accept them into his circle of friends and drinking-buddies. Then again, given his mercurial humours he may also slay them out of hand, particularly if they give up too easily, deeming their submission simply further insult. In his presence the leaves of trees turn golden and red as they offer up their treasures as peace-offerings, while stones crack open to reveal geodes and glittering mica - worthless, but pretty - and birds proclaim his coming far and wide with human speech. Disdaining clothing, the Ceramist Sovereign goes clad in his own brass-and-marble skin and arms himself with the conjurations of his charge: glorious indeed seem his weapons of war and his treasury unlimited as his imagination, though its substance is only clay.
Though he is not a soul of the Sphere of Speech, so bound-up is Pandisha in her Mythos that when his crown is called to Creation he comes too. It was considered a curiosity that the incantations of his summoning refer to his regalia rather than his person, though some Exalted scholars did come to suspect that the crown was the true demon and the draconic body merely a puppet. When a great prince is slain and his crown stained with his heart's blood, Pandisha may cross the Endless Desert and emerge into Creation, raising his shining arms high as he brings the kingdom into new order - which inevitably collapses when he leaves, as he must when his work is done. Who Goes Forth In Glory suffers Limit when an attack strikes his head, terrified for the integrity of his charge.
*'Full' knowledge of Pandisha's nature is a secret known to very few indeed, and is among the secrets which Orabilis forbids to lesser beings. No amount of occult lore or learning will reveal it; it must be discovered first-hand.
The Children of the Clay
In the South, in the mountains to the west of the Dreaming Sea, there is a valley. Outwardly, it is a place of little note; pleasant enough, but sufficiently difficult to reach that it has, for the most part, escaped the wars of the surrounding lands. Once there arose a king here, but he was cast down, and ever since it has been populated by villages like a string of pearls set amidst the green of their fields. And yet, it is remarkable, for less than one man or woman in every ten here is born.
Over a century ago, a shepherd here made a remarkable discovery. Following a lost goat into a cave, he came to a great chamber whose floor fell away into a pit of clay, and whose sides were streaked with odd hues. He retrieved his sheep, but could not get the strange place out of his mind, and returned there several times to contemplate the pit. While there, he absent-mindedly took some of the clay and began to sculpt it into figures. Quite by accident, he cut himself - and was astonished when the little humanoid stick-figure he had mad transformed into an infant of flesh and blood, tiny, though despite all his efforts and those of the village midwife it expired soon after.
Following this discovery, further careful experiments were made by the people of the village, and it was discovered that sculpting an infant from clay mingled with the blood of up to three people caused it to come to life as their child, though a similar process could not be performed with livestock or animals. The village priest prayed to the Maiden of the Cerulean Heaven for five days to discern what to do with this discovery, he emerged with a revelation: This place was sacred to Venus, and must be treated as such. Equally, though, it could not be kept solely to that village, and so news of it was spread throughout the valley.
Now, there is a temple over the cave's mouth, and it is the common practice for lovers to make children from clay, rather than by birth in the ordinary way, thus sparing the valley the dangers of childbirth. Furthermore, the valley's children have become stronger and more beautiful with each generation, as parents seek not only the best circumstances and inheritance for their children, but the best bodies as well. Clay and pottery are both regarded with a degree of sacredness, and potters and sculptors have attained a revered position within the valley. A recent discovery has been that the clay can be used to heal injuries and remove scars as well, transmuting to flesh, though it avails nothing against diseases and poisons.
This state of affairs may not last, however. As their strength and beauty waxes, the children of the clay begin to cast their eyes beyond the valley, wondering what they might achieve between their own prowess and their mastery of injury. Yet, they are a relatively naïve people, unused to large-scale war, and rumors are beginning to spread beyond the valley, slowly, of a land of strong and beautiful men and women, ripe for the taking. Already, a few desperate slaver-bands, driven from their more ordinary haunts in the lands below, have decided to roll the dice on discovering this hidden place and being the first to bring back wondrously rare merchandise.
There's a few different possibilities for what that demesne might be, and in general just different ways you could take the thing. It could just be Earth, Earth/Water, Earth/Wood, Earth/Elloge or simply a demesne corresponding to Pandisha or the Taj. Perhaps it is even where Author Rapturous was slain, or where a drop of its blood fell, and the clay that the valley harvests is but the surface of what power might be drawn there.
Also, for the record, Pandisha actually started with a song - specifically, East by Sleeping at Last. Definitely recommend.
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So, the basic thing about the Devil Tiger stuff was that it was pointless. If you could write a new Yozi charmset for yourself, at that point you have an E6 character who's adapted to use their chosen Yozis and you can write charms for them from their chosen Yozis. The age cap "die young" stuff wasn't in Infernals; it was added in BWC to incentivise people to go Devil Tiger, so just discard that too.
In essence, rather than write "Devil Tiger" personal charms, just write charms within the breadth of your Yozi Excellencies.
Now, there is also some room for weird personal charms, but at this point, you can go for things in a more niche, personal, limited-set of charms. For example, @Aleph has some po-linked charms because her po has mutated into a giant feathered cat-serpent, and some charms related to the essence-eating ink-serpent-familiar-tattoo that lives in her left arm. But those don't have to be full charmsets. They can just be little trees.
Moving onto the next point, I mean, a lot of that "The triumph of civilisation over nature" stuff lives in Malfeas's conceptual ballpark anyway because Malfeas is Moloch:
Article: What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?
Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!
Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men!
Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgment! Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stunned governments!
Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!
Moloch whose eyes are a thousand blind windows! Moloch whose skyscrapers stand in the long streets like endless Jehovahs! Moloch whose factories dream and croak in the fog! Moloch whose smoke-stacks and antennae crown the cities!
Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is electricity and banks! Moloch whose poverty is the specter of genius! Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen! Moloch whose name is the Mind!
So, for Malfeas, to grant power to humans you're going to be making them monstrous, reforging them in the hellish crucible of your will and domain. It could build off the Blight Internalisation Transcendence stuff and Merciless Radiative Therapy in my homebrew doc, because you're literally putting some of your flame inside them and giving them Green Sun Wasting and if they survive the experience, they've got some of your fire living in their heart.
Meanwhile SWLIHN can always dip into alien abduction lore. "Gene-splicing" or surgical implantation of crystal organs into them, making them into "alien hybrids" with demons.
@Revlid's Metagaos has an almost-there-already pathway there, with how you can make people into priests of you who are part of you. Just build on/modify that, and that can let them learn demon charms. Likewise, my Oramus also dabbles in that space already, with teaching people forbidden lore from the mouths growing on their brain that whisper sweet secrets to them from inside their head.
And so on and so forth.
grommile
nasty-minded old cynic
- Location
- NERV-Mercia
- Pronouns
- Traditional/Animate
I'm not 100% sure you're talking about her character
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Yeah, I can work with that, thanks for the input.
Of course, the 'Transcendence' stuff doesn't go away just because you've removed the Devil-Tiger nonsense, it just emerges through unplanned interactions between the Infernal's own soul hierarchy and the cross-Yozi grafts interacting in an unintentioned fashion (Like the very existence of the Infernal Soul Hierarchy to begin with), correct? It's just that one can functionally achieve any desired individual effect through one Yozi's charm tree or another, or through application of techniques from one Yozi's set to set up conditions for another's to take advantage of. For instance, reading the Oramus and She Who Lives In Her Name (revised version) charm trees, I can see using the Oramus Teaching stuff to whisper secrets to your cabal of transhuman aspirants by day, and then instructing them in using those secrets to create any other desired effect through the Pyrian 'I can make subordinates shuffle skills and attributes around to better fit their intended role' trick. Basically converting cosmic lore into transcendent battle-logic that defies mortal understanding.
Is that the kind of interactions someone should be looking at? As opposed to just polishing off the sharp ends and calling it Heresy?
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- Location
- Oregon, USA
Okay, so I was thinking.
You can have gods of almost anything, right? Does that mean you can have a god of a specific martial arts style?
You can have gods of almost anything, right? Does that mean you can have a god of a specific martial arts style?
- Location
- Spain
Of course.
There isn't any need for the god to actually practice their art, mind.
Some actually cannot practice or master their own martial art. Crystal Chameleon requires an anima banner, none of them could learn hero-style expansions, and they couldn't use Sidereal Martial Arts at all.
Even so, I imagine they still make decent trainers for those styles even if they can't use it.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Actually, no, Mastery Benefits just require your Essence to harmonize correctly with the style. A God of a given Style in 3rd edition should absolutely get Mastery Benefits from it.
Now, I wish they portrayed that with Lunars, but I'd say "Mastery Benefits as long as you're in a Form associated with that Style" would be valid charmspace. It locks out the Max Esoteric stuff but it makes the various "Animal" styles easy to achieve, which should be the best way to handle it.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Contrary to popular belief, snakes do not in fact possess the arms and legs necessary to perform Snake Style.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Gods often take a humanoid form though! A snake headed god could absolutely weave and bob and strike with fangs of essence and steel!
- Location
- Denmark
Those arm and leg movements are supposed to mimic a snake, though, so i feel like it's a moot point.
That's not really what Mastery is and does, unfortunately. It's ultimately a bit futile to try and read any 'essence harmonizing' whatsits into what is pure mechanical 'this is our solution to not having to write actual separate tiers of martial arts anymore' rules tech.
That said, I believe the latest dev mentions from the Discord have said that 'Mastery effects for a style while in its Form' is how they're currently planning to handle Sidereals. Lunars have never really had martial arts as a core thing so it's really unsurprising that they got no special MA treatment save for being able to actually use their native charms with them (which, I'm told, ends up being approximately equivalent to Mastery in power, but at the cost of actually buying and spending extra motes on those charms).
Anyway, the upshot of that is that it's just about what 'tier' those effects should sit. The vast majority of gods would be using the Terrestrial keyword. A particularly powerful one could ditch Terrestrial, and it'd be just a few celestial powerhouses that actually get Mastery effects (e.g. the Maidens). Solars and Sidereals having those Mastery effects should be suitably a Big Deal.
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- Location
- Ottawa
I imagine the gods of the most powerful styles tend to be quite weak, though. Many Sidereal styles probably have zero practitioners.
Although, maybe being the god of a Sidereal or just super-rare Exalted-only style could be a prestigious zero-work sinecure for the politically connected. A bonus title that you tack on to your real job to justify extra pay, or a "retirement" job.
Or maybe being the god of a rare style is mostly about wrangling that style's Embodiments. That would require you to be using my homebrew, of course, but I actually think it would be fitting for the god of a martial arts style to spend most of their time leading a squad of supersoldiers.
Although, maybe being the god of a Sidereal or just super-rare Exalted-only style could be a prestigious zero-work sinecure for the politically connected. A bonus title that you tack on to your real job to justify extra pay, or a "retirement" job.
Or maybe being the god of a rare style is mostly about wrangling that style's Embodiments. That would require you to be using my homebrew, of course, but I actually think it would be fitting for the god of a martial arts style to spend most of their time leading a squad of supersoldiers.
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
Snake Style is not flopping on the ground and pretending to be a snake. Much like the other Animal MAs, it's about taking a framework of principles of motion, themes and aesthetics from the animal and building a system of combat on them. It isn't "u just be a snek lol" it's channeling the symbolic power and properties of the animal as a human, through human-shaped means.
So no, snake style does not mimic a snake any more than Centipede style requires you to grow a hundred legs, or falcon style requires you to be a bird. Hell, that last one is actually a super good example, because Falcon Style is completely opposed to how Falcons actually hunt.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
There isn't really an answer to the question of 'what charms/levels of martial art does a Style god have,' because there's no one sort of Style god. Is the god into fighting, running some sort of heavenly dojo? Are they a martial arts nerd? Are they treating it as a job, trying to improve the prominence of their style in Creation? Are they treating it as a job and skiving off work? Do they have other positions? Do they have much in the way of a cult, or do their stylists tend to worship other gods?
- Location
- Germany
I am thinking that some gods might be interested in also presiding over Martial Arts Styles that draw upon their domain, such as the Tiger Style for the God of All Tigers, either as a token of prestige, to gain an aspect of war as part of their portfolio or because they practice the Style themselves and refuse to have it be controlled by some rival.
The same could also be the case with some Sidereal styles, as the limited number of practicioners would make for weak divinity by itself, while potentially offering major political benefits and thus lucrative to poach.
Of course it could also be that Styles have been consolidated into a few major mantles and there exists a chimeric God of All Forms of Beastlike Warfare, beholden only to Luna or Mars.
The same could also be the case with some Sidereal styles, as the limited number of practicioners would make for weak divinity by itself, while potentially offering major political benefits and thus lucrative to poach.
Of course it could also be that Styles have been consolidated into a few major mantles and there exists a chimeric God of All Forms of Beastlike Warfare, beholden only to Luna or Mars.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
A handful of Style Gods
Rexala
Greater Celestial Divinity
Goddess of Tigers and Tiger Style, Senior Undersecretary of the Department of Beasts
First the livestock go missing. Then children wander into the forests and never come back. Then, one night, a ravenous beast breaks through a wooden wall and drags a man out of his bed. It is not for nothing that within their native range, tigers are the most terrifying of beasts. Within the Bureau of Nature they are are represented by Senior Undersecretary Rexala, who appears as a slightly plump woman of Southeastern descent, with wicked fangs, long nails, and eyes on the back of her head. Despite her middling position she wears the finest clothing, mostly in oranges and blacks, is bedecked in chain-like jewelry, and lives in a palatial estate. On her estate she breeds and trains tigers with exotic bloodlines and blessings, selling some at auction. This is not the source of her wealth.
Rexala is heavily worshipped wherever tigers live, for all know that should she release control of her children many will die. In truth she will only occasionally directly curse an area with man-eating tigers, preferring to allow nature take its course and let villages assume that their tiger problems are from her wrath instead of her indifference. On occasion she will loose one of her prized tigers on an area that can offer increased prayer, but she cannot always recover them without alerting celestial auditors.
On one of these trips she encountered the Lunar Denar, striking up a buisiness association - and an affair. With her aid Rexala has more prized Tiger bloodlines and prayer than ever, and was able use her new wealth to snatch up the role of Goddess of Tiger Style after its previous holder's tragic accident. Now some of Denar's followers carry divine blessings, but Rexala believes that her tracks are sufficiently covered.
Crescent Lotus
Lesser Celestial Divinity
God of Single Point Shining into the Void Style and Katanas, Representative from the Office of Orders
Certain divine positions require a great deal of travel through Creation, delivering orders and listening to feedback. These roles are disfavored, and any god of means will outsource them to their subordinates whenever possible. Crescent Lotus is one of those subordinates. A frail looking Realm man, Crescent Lotus spends much of his time flying from one end of Creation to another on his winged bearded dragon mount, visiting dojos of the Single Point Shining Into the Void Style in between delivering messages for his masters. Despite this, he is content.
Crescent Lotus loves reading reports and hearing stories of the brave masters of his domain and their adventures, and his Terrestrial subordinates have learned that skill at storytelling is an essential part of their jobs. When he is in Heaven he spends his time writing semi-fictionalized accounts of these exploits, bribing Mut, Goddess of Wood-Pulp Fiction, to spread his work in Creation, and certain members of the Bureau of Destiny to send interesting times to those that fall within his domain. He is also the god of a style of sword popular on an island chain in the West, and while they are mostly unique in how they make up for the lack of high-quality iron, he can spend hours singing their praises.
Crescent Lotus loves cool and stylish users of his Style, and would be over the moon if one of the returning Solars were to use it as their primary method of combat. However, if one of his favorites settles down and stops having adventures, he is likely to attempt to remedy the situation. He is not very fit, but his backroom dealings can tie up the destinys of his favored subjects.
Pelene
Greater Celestial Divinity
Goddess of Golden Janissary Style and Vengeance against Raksha, Commander of the Seven Sunlit Spears
Some say that at the height of the war against the Primordials, The Unconquered Sun himself was injured, and where his blood fell a number of lesser divinities arose. While none have been able to find the proof of this rumor, Pelene's demeanor and form hearken back to the glory days of Heaven. She appears as a muscled woman with bronze skin and four arms, almost always with a pair of spears, and her face would be regal it were not always screwed up in consternation.
Pelene once loved her job. She was responsible for leading an elite squad in hunting down the Fae of Creation, and ensuring the proliferation of the Golden Janissary Style in the borders of Creation. With her incredible martial prowess and the backing of Heaven, she spent her days in glorious combat. Then came the Balorian Crusade, and fear of Contagion closed the doors of Heaven. She was deprived of her purpose at its most important time, and fell into a depressive fugue for decades. When she began to recover, the Seven Sunlit Spears had been transferred from the Bureau of Destiny to the Bureau of Heaven, and her new masters are uninterested in having their subordinate galivanting around the edges of Creation. The Seven Sunlit Spears are now deployed erratically, and Pelene herself can only leave Yu-Shan for the most dire emergencies.
Pelene has been trying to play office politics to undo the transfer for centuries, but to no avail. While she has tried to throw herself into her work with expanding Golden Janissary Style, she has found that she isn't very good at paperwork, and she is no longer allowed to enter Creation to work directly after she kept vanishing off to hunt Raksha. Her skills have not slipped, testament to endless hours of work in her dojo training the Seven Heavenly Spears, but with her decreased deployment and quality of work she has faced several rounds of salary cuts.
Rexala
Greater Celestial Divinity
Goddess of Tigers and Tiger Style, Senior Undersecretary of the Department of Beasts
First the livestock go missing. Then children wander into the forests and never come back. Then, one night, a ravenous beast breaks through a wooden wall and drags a man out of his bed. It is not for nothing that within their native range, tigers are the most terrifying of beasts. Within the Bureau of Nature they are are represented by Senior Undersecretary Rexala, who appears as a slightly plump woman of Southeastern descent, with wicked fangs, long nails, and eyes on the back of her head. Despite her middling position she wears the finest clothing, mostly in oranges and blacks, is bedecked in chain-like jewelry, and lives in a palatial estate. On her estate she breeds and trains tigers with exotic bloodlines and blessings, selling some at auction. This is not the source of her wealth.
Rexala is heavily worshipped wherever tigers live, for all know that should she release control of her children many will die. In truth she will only occasionally directly curse an area with man-eating tigers, preferring to allow nature take its course and let villages assume that their tiger problems are from her wrath instead of her indifference. On occasion she will loose one of her prized tigers on an area that can offer increased prayer, but she cannot always recover them without alerting celestial auditors.
On one of these trips she encountered the Lunar Denar, striking up a buisiness association - and an affair. With her aid Rexala has more prized Tiger bloodlines and prayer than ever, and was able use her new wealth to snatch up the role of Goddess of Tiger Style after its previous holder's tragic accident. Now some of Denar's followers carry divine blessings, but Rexala believes that her tracks are sufficiently covered.
Crescent Lotus
Lesser Celestial Divinity
God of Single Point Shining into the Void Style and Katanas, Representative from the Office of Orders
Certain divine positions require a great deal of travel through Creation, delivering orders and listening to feedback. These roles are disfavored, and any god of means will outsource them to their subordinates whenever possible. Crescent Lotus is one of those subordinates. A frail looking Realm man, Crescent Lotus spends much of his time flying from one end of Creation to another on his winged bearded dragon mount, visiting dojos of the Single Point Shining Into the Void Style in between delivering messages for his masters. Despite this, he is content.
Crescent Lotus loves reading reports and hearing stories of the brave masters of his domain and their adventures, and his Terrestrial subordinates have learned that skill at storytelling is an essential part of their jobs. When he is in Heaven he spends his time writing semi-fictionalized accounts of these exploits, bribing Mut, Goddess of Wood-Pulp Fiction, to spread his work in Creation, and certain members of the Bureau of Destiny to send interesting times to those that fall within his domain. He is also the god of a style of sword popular on an island chain in the West, and while they are mostly unique in how they make up for the lack of high-quality iron, he can spend hours singing their praises.
Crescent Lotus loves cool and stylish users of his Style, and would be over the moon if one of the returning Solars were to use it as their primary method of combat. However, if one of his favorites settles down and stops having adventures, he is likely to attempt to remedy the situation. He is not very fit, but his backroom dealings can tie up the destinys of his favored subjects.
Pelene
Greater Celestial Divinity
Goddess of Golden Janissary Style and Vengeance against Raksha, Commander of the Seven Sunlit Spears
Some say that at the height of the war against the Primordials, The Unconquered Sun himself was injured, and where his blood fell a number of lesser divinities arose. While none have been able to find the proof of this rumor, Pelene's demeanor and form hearken back to the glory days of Heaven. She appears as a muscled woman with bronze skin and four arms, almost always with a pair of spears, and her face would be regal it were not always screwed up in consternation.
Pelene once loved her job. She was responsible for leading an elite squad in hunting down the Fae of Creation, and ensuring the proliferation of the Golden Janissary Style in the borders of Creation. With her incredible martial prowess and the backing of Heaven, she spent her days in glorious combat. Then came the Balorian Crusade, and fear of Contagion closed the doors of Heaven. She was deprived of her purpose at its most important time, and fell into a depressive fugue for decades. When she began to recover, the Seven Sunlit Spears had been transferred from the Bureau of Destiny to the Bureau of Heaven, and her new masters are uninterested in having their subordinate galivanting around the edges of Creation. The Seven Sunlit Spears are now deployed erratically, and Pelene herself can only leave Yu-Shan for the most dire emergencies.
Pelene has been trying to play office politics to undo the transfer for centuries, but to no avail. While she has tried to throw herself into her work with expanding Golden Janissary Style, she has found that she isn't very good at paperwork, and she is no longer allowed to enter Creation to work directly after she kept vanishing off to hunt Raksha. Her skills have not slipped, testament to endless hours of work in her dojo training the Seven Heavenly Spears, but with her decreased deployment and quality of work she has faced several rounds of salary cuts.
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- Location
- Vermont
I feel like divine positions over martial arts are rather closely monitored by the sidereals, given their close relationship with the martial arts. Likewise, I doubt they allow any gods to hold positions over sidereal martial arts, because a god that can't practice it having any say whatsoever on the matter seems like a rather large insult.
- Location
- Ottawa
Looking at the Charms right now, none of them seems to require being human-shaped. Or any shape, really. They're just combat bonuses; they should work equally well on man, snake, and jellyfish.
So there's no reason you couldn't or shouldn't have a snake-shaped master of Snake Style.
Article: Essence Fangs and Scales Technique
...The martial artist's anima coalesces into thick layers of
scales, and needle-sharp anima fangs extend from her
fingertips or weapon. ...
You get many jellyfish and snakes with fingertips in your neck of the woods, Sanctaphrax?