- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oooh, I'd like to hear some of this too, I'm going to be holding a Sidereal game soon, so I'd love to hear this.
General Exalted Thread
Oooh, I'd like to hear some of this too, I'm going to be holding a Sidereal game soon, so I'd love to hear this.
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
More Artifacts! This time I'll be posting three of them, because they're all much simpler and even less ostentatious than The Lady of the Heavenly Courts, or even Scoundrel. I'll be sticking the post-mortems in spoiler boxes, just for formatting purposes.
Embrace of Halcyon Days
Starmetal Silken Armor; Artifact 3
Attune: 3m
Expertly tailored and a legacy of the High-First Age, these iconic robes and sashes are symbols of the timeless fashions of millennia past.
Those who see the wearer will feel at peace, set at ease by the graceful waves of silk and the wearer's limbs. Those affected gain the benefit of an extra dot of Temperance and Compassion, to a maximum of 5.
Additionally, the armor shares a function with Starmetal Infinite Resplendence Amulets; The attuned bearer may carry up a ton in Elsewhere, so long as the object can fit inside the voluminous sleeves.
Statline:
Soak 5L/3B, Mobility -1 (-0 when attuned), Fatigue -0 Tags: Compatible with all Martial Arts, Starmetal MM bonus
Fate-Warding Bracers
Artifact 3, Attune: 4m
A pair of ornate Stametal gauntlets- in many ways similar to Hearthstone bracers- confer the following benefits in addition to offering a hearthstone slot.
The auspicious design works in harmony with the bearer's fate, and is aggressively vindictive with rival fates that would seek to harm her. The wearer adds +2 to her Dodge and Parry DV as a base effect.
Further, if she successfully dodges or parries an attack, she ignores any ongoing or wide-area effect associated with it for the remainder of the scene. This includes environmental effects, or the aftermath of sorcery or other magic- the hazard's fate is cut aside, leaving the wielder unharmed.
Walk the Clouds
Artifact 2, Attune 3m
Repair 1
This artifact takes the form of immaculately designed footwear. When attuned for 3 motes, it confers the same benefits as a pair of Perfected Boots (WotLA).
It also reduces the character's effective weight to the absolute minimum required for traction on any surface or platform, similar to that of Graceful Crane Stance. This effect does not ensure automatic success on balance checks.
The wearer doubles their base movement speed and jump distances before other modifiers, but also doubles the distances they travel when thrown or suffering knockback.
Alrighty! Enjoy!
Embrace of Halcyon Days
Starmetal Silken Armor; Artifact 3
Attune: 3m
Expertly tailored and a legacy of the High-First Age, these iconic robes and sashes are symbols of the timeless fashions of millennia past.
Those who see the wearer will feel at peace, set at ease by the graceful waves of silk and the wearer's limbs. Those affected gain the benefit of an extra dot of Temperance and Compassion, to a maximum of 5.
Additionally, the armor shares a function with Starmetal Infinite Resplendence Amulets; The attuned bearer may carry up a ton in Elsewhere, so long as the object can fit inside the voluminous sleeves.
Statline:
Soak 5L/3B, Mobility -1 (-0 when attuned), Fatigue -0 Tags: Compatible with all Martial Arts, Starmetal MM bonus
Silken Armor + the Storage Power of a Starmetal Resplendence Amulet + 'Grant dots of virutes to people.'
Silken Armor is something of a mixed bag with people, as it's one of those go-to artifacts that are almost too good, and edge over the 'spirit' of the game and how it treats Martial Arts + Armor. Seeing as I made an Elder Sidereal with a significant combat investment, I wanted to make sure she had a fair amount of soak.
Interesting to note, is that I made a point to grab Discreet Essence Armor (also from WoTLA), which stacks with Silken and is Also compatible with Martial Arts. On top of that, I made sure she had a set of Aegis Inset Amulets. For Mortals, they let you attune to Gunzosha Powered Armor for 1wp and a drastically shortened lifespan. For Exalts, they reduce armor attune by 2 motes, minimum 1.
For all of Lotus's fighty-ness, she really wasn't one to start fights. The robe's power was intended to reduce Random Battles by making people less likely to take offense, and generally make it easier to social one's way out of problems.
Hindsight speaking, what I think I should have done is focused more on a 'New Action' or something that the artifact lets the wearer do like 'Roll Cha+Perf+Compassion Bonus Successes' against target's MDV, they refuse to join battle or will disengage at the soonest opportunity while defending themselves.'.
In double hindsight, I might have done a different implementation as well. Since it's topical, if this were being done for Kerisgame hacks, it would do something more like create a 3+ dot principle of 'Be at peace' in people as an NMI effect.
Hypothetically, instead of a Virtue Modifier, what I could have done is had the NMI effect, and then- as long as a character holds that intimacy/principle, they suffer -X dice to Join Battle. If the pool is 0, they cannot actually attack. Essence Wielders would get their Minimum Dice though.
Silken Armor is something of a mixed bag with people, as it's one of those go-to artifacts that are almost too good, and edge over the 'spirit' of the game and how it treats Martial Arts + Armor. Seeing as I made an Elder Sidereal with a significant combat investment, I wanted to make sure she had a fair amount of soak.
Interesting to note, is that I made a point to grab Discreet Essence Armor (also from WoTLA), which stacks with Silken and is Also compatible with Martial Arts. On top of that, I made sure she had a set of Aegis Inset Amulets. For Mortals, they let you attune to Gunzosha Powered Armor for 1wp and a drastically shortened lifespan. For Exalts, they reduce armor attune by 2 motes, minimum 1.
For all of Lotus's fighty-ness, she really wasn't one to start fights. The robe's power was intended to reduce Random Battles by making people less likely to take offense, and generally make it easier to social one's way out of problems.
Hindsight speaking, what I think I should have done is focused more on a 'New Action' or something that the artifact lets the wearer do like 'Roll Cha+Perf+Compassion Bonus Successes' against target's MDV, they refuse to join battle or will disengage at the soonest opportunity while defending themselves.'.
In double hindsight, I might have done a different implementation as well. Since it's topical, if this were being done for Kerisgame hacks, it would do something more like create a 3+ dot principle of 'Be at peace' in people as an NMI effect.
Hypothetically, instead of a Virtue Modifier, what I could have done is had the NMI effect, and then- as long as a character holds that intimacy/principle, they suffer -X dice to Join Battle. If the pool is 0, they cannot actually attack. Essence Wielders would get their Minimum Dice though.
Fate-Warding Bracers
Artifact 3, Attune: 4m
A pair of ornate Stametal gauntlets- in many ways similar to Hearthstone bracers- confer the following benefits in addition to offering a hearthstone slot.
The auspicious design works in harmony with the bearer's fate, and is aggressively vindictive with rival fates that would seek to harm her. The wearer adds +2 to her Dodge and Parry DV as a base effect.
Further, if she successfully dodges or parries an attack, she ignores any ongoing or wide-area effect associated with it for the remainder of the scene. This includes environmental effects, or the aftermath of sorcery or other magic- the hazard's fate is cut aside, leaving the wielder unharmed.
These originally started as a pair of hearthstone bracers on the character's sheet, but when I started drawing her, I made them much more elaborate looking. So my ST said something to the effect of 'those don't look like HSBs, make them something more awesome.' So I did.
As ES pointed out below, a flat DV booster is poor design space when it does not count for dice caps, so if I were to rewrite this artifact for general consumption, I'd likely either say it counts for dice caps, or create an alternative mechanic.
Lesson to be gleaned: Be aware of what you're homebrewing and the context it falls into. Generally speaking, good design practices for the main game are best, and exceptions are just that, exceptions.
It probably could be stated more clearly in the text, but the idea of this is 'On a successful defense, an effect that has a duration, like a bonfire, Total Annihilation, etc,stops affecting the wearer.' It's not an actual Flurry-breaker, however.
As ES pointed out below, a flat DV booster is poor design space when it does not count for dice caps, so if I were to rewrite this artifact for general consumption, I'd likely either say it counts for dice caps, or create an alternative mechanic.
Lesson to be gleaned: Be aware of what you're homebrewing and the context it falls into. Generally speaking, good design practices for the main game are best, and exceptions are just that, exceptions.
It probably could be stated more clearly in the text, but the idea of this is 'On a successful defense, an effect that has a duration, like a bonfire, Total Annihilation, etc,stops affecting the wearer.' It's not an actual Flurry-breaker, however.
Walk the Clouds
Artifact 2, Attune 3m
Repair 1
This artifact takes the form of immaculately designed footwear. When attuned for 3 motes, it confers the same benefits as a pair of Perfected Boots (WotLA).
It also reduces the character's effective weight to the absolute minimum required for traction on any surface or platform, similar to that of Graceful Crane Stance. This effect does not ensure automatic success on balance checks.
The wearer doubles their base movement speed and jump distances before other modifiers, but also doubles the distances they travel when thrown or suffering knockback.
Walk the Clouds is an interesting experiment in creating an Artifact Tool (footwear). I already cribbed from the excellent (overpowered?) Perfected Boots for the base effects, and then added the 'floating' power. It's meant to allow the wearer to move and walk like a wire-fu artist. However, as a tradeoff, the wearer exaggerates knockback.
In hindsight, I would actually make the Knockback drawback more severe- specifically citing conditions like windstorms or whatnot as actually picking the character up and moving them. That'd be something to revist.
In hindsight, I would actually make the Knockback drawback more severe- specifically citing conditions like windstorms or whatnot as actually picking the character up and moving them. That'd be something to revist.
Alrighty! Enjoy!
Last edited:
No. Terrible design space.
A DV adder like this that provides an increase to DV that doesn't count as coming from Charms is not something which should be made. +2 DV increases the number of dice an opponent needs to hit you by 4. As @Jon Chung said to you two days ago:
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
Lemme add that to the post-mortem. Clarifying for context- this is bad design space Exalted as a whole. These artifacts were made for a specific game/group.
- Location
- Spain
Ah, bribing the ST with awesome art. An excellent, time-proven tactic.
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
Hahah. No, I don't think it was quite like that.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It always works.
So, I've been doing a lot of demons. But of course, other things get made for Kerisgame.
So here's a location write-up, done in the style of the locations in Scavenger Sons (which are a super-useful way to get a basic concept out, with the idea that the GM will expand them if they think it's useful).
Saata, this city can be moved around the South West as the GM finds useful. It shouldn't be too close to An Teng, but it should be close enough for An Teng to be an influence. If An Teng is a Dynastic tourist destination, then Saata is where Dynastic tourists who think they're being risky go.
Saata
Located on an archipelago north of Celestial Gate 47 - to the west of the Wailing Fen - is the island-port of Saata. Built upon the ruins of a Shogunate city-state that once filled the entire island, the jungle has reclaimed most of the land and modern Saata sits in the shadow of vine-wreathed towers of white stone. Mangrove swamps cover most of the coastline. Two giant statues of long-gone heroes of the past once touched hands over the entrance to the deepwater docks, but some long-ago war wrecked this bridge and now the broken arms form a protective breakwater against the typhoons of the Season of Fire. The city is a hive of villainy, and the white stone that make up the local structures are daubed with bright paint and lurid murals advertising the varied vices of the place.
While Saata is technically a satrapy ruled by a Cadet House, the influence of the Realm is weak this far south. House Sinasana claims ancestry from Gens Cynis, but its bloodlines are so murky that House Cynis has not acknowledged any kinship. More directly, the House's ancestry can be traced back to the Outcaste pirate lords who scattered in the aftermath of the Third Scarlet's campaigns in the South-West. Two hundred years ago these Dragonblooded pirates seized power from the previous Despot of Saata, and since then the city has grown fatter, more prosperous and more corrupt.
Following some ill-advised raids, the Imperial Navy turned their eyes to the pirate-lords. Fortunately for them, the Fourth Scarlet had taken the throne by then and an arrangement was reached. The Sinasana pirates would become the Realm's privateers and keep their hands off Imperial ships - in return, they would become a Cadet House and would be largely left alone as long as the trade routes were not disrupted and the waters were kept clear of the Lintha.
These days Saata is a key port on the trade routes from the far South West along the way back to places such as Nightfall Island and An Teng. Spices, slaves and stranger cargos pass through it back on the way north, while it serves as a place for vessels to repair and resupply thus avoiding the perils of the Fen. Just as pertinently, the scum of the docks and the many thin graceful pirate-vessels are often for hire, and many traders have found it cheaper to hire local pirates as escorts and guides than to risk an attack.
Inhabitants of Saata
Saata is a mixing pot from its position on a trading route. The locals are tall and heavily built with dark skin and curly hair, but sizeable amounts of the population resemble the shorter, flatter-faced inhabitants of the Wailing Fen or the towering, angular tribesmen of the lizard-hunting island tribes from further south. There are also distinct other groups, like the pale inhabitants of Nightfall Island or the golden-skinned misbegotten from An Teng. There's even some blood from the Realm, left by merchants or runaway sailors.
Men and women alike tend to dress in lightweight cottons, because the island is humid and hot throughout the entire year. Especially when working on the water or in the mangrove swamps, the poor will tend to strip down to a bellywrap. As a result, it is a sign of status and wealth to not simply dress for comfort. The pirate-lords of this place will often resemble a bird of paradise in their carefully constructed layers of finery and they compete to be distinctive and memorable. The strong elements of nautical culture among the population also results in extensive use of tattooing. A person's first tattoo is a rite of adulthood and someone who has done many notable deeds or risen to high rank will often resemble a work of art.
Slavery is legal in Saata, but once away from the pens near the docks the escape rate is high. The overgrown city that dominates the island provides too many places to hide, and it is taken as a custom that if a runaway slave signs up with a crew, they're a free man when they return to port. Slavery therefore tends to take the form of indentured servitude for Sataans, often as a consequence of debt, bad luck at the gambling tables, or getting drunk in the wrong bar and being press-ganged. This doesn't apply to the captives moved north on the slave-ships or taken as booty by pirates, but as they don't stay in the city long the locals couldn't care less. Slavers who get a reputation for snatching locals, on the other hand, tend to suffer mysterious stab wounds next time they go drinking.
Most of the pirate groups in Saata are divided by origin. The ancestor-cult from the Wailing Fen who sail ships with black sails and collect the skulls of their foes don't associate with the triad made up of misbegotten from An Teng that demand utter loyalty to their new family - and in turn they keep a wary eye out for the brutal raiders made of defectors from the Realm navy. While they war with each other on the open seas, things are more constrained on the island. House Sinasana makes it entirely clear that they'll tolerate a certain level of murder within the city, but anyone who rocks the boat gets crushed.
House Sinasana
House Sinasana would be an embarrassment to the Realm, if the Realm deigned to notice it. It largely doesn't, because everyone knows they're a bunch of pirates and Outcastes that have no chance of accession to become a Lesser House. Their job is to keep the waters safe for Imperial vessels and pay their taxes, and by and large they do both. This neglect suits the House just fine.
They control the Shogunate docks and port that Saata is built around, and anyone who wants their (relatively) safe harbour pays their docking fees. With around twenty Exalted members, the Sinasana are decently sized for a Cadet House, though their breeding is poor. They keep their numbers high through the recruitment of Outcastes - after all, to a certain kind of Lost Egg becoming a kleptocratic pirate-lord is more attractive than the razor or the coin. Loyal allies are adopted into the House and they and their children hold the positions of civic authority in Saata. They maintain a privateer fleet and their enforcers collect taxes, bribes and fees from the inhabitants.
In truth, House Sinasana is more than it seems. When the Fourth Scarlet made her deal with the pirate-lords, she did not believe they would stick with it. To prevent this, she had the All-Seeing Eye arrange for two Terrestrial agents to be 'discovered' as Outcastes and recruited, as to keep an eye on them and make sure they were not influenced by the Lintha.
This has been a success, for a given value of 'success'. The House has kept to its end of the bargain and Lintha ships must conceal what they are around Saata. However, the two agents have gone rogue. Sinasana Medala and Sinasana Bright Eyes are now the ranking matriarch and patriarch of the House, and while they still send reports back to the All-Seeing Eye they have used their training to solidify control over the city and the surrounding area. Three of their many children have Exalted and they have the full intention to turn their personal fiefdom into a family business.
Economy
The port-city trades in violence, whether directly or indirectly. The mercenary pirates will work for the highest bidder and frequently sign on with lords of surrounding islands for a cut of the plunder. The slavers that sail south resupply at Saata and hire locals as guides and scouts. Saatans venture south on their cutters and junks, selling metal weapons to the tribes of the Far South in return for drugs, feathers and curiosities of the edge of the world.
Within the city, vice predominates. Pirate-gangs take protection money and enforce local 'law' - and a close observer might be able to tell them apart from the enforcers of House Sinasana. All along the docks, drinking houses, brothels, dance halls and drug dens exist to extract money from sailors as they step ashore. Many of these places have agreements with one pirate fleet or another.
In the immediate aftermath of the Contagion, one of the major exports of Saata was what could be salvaged from the docks and the ruins of the city. Time and pilfering has largely depleted this, however, and while there is still a small trade in relics of the Shogunate it is a fraction of what it once was. The most notable element that remains is that even the lowest dive bar in Saata is made from white Shogunate stone, quarried from the buildings and used for the structures of a fallen age.
This clearance is vital because it creates space for farmland, and so the local diet mixes seafood, rice and catches from the mangrove swamps. Beef is a luxury good here, as the constrained arable farmland limits the area that can be given over to pasture - on the other hand, pigs and chickens are common for waste disposal.
The pirate-lords of Saata have country-estates on the coast away from the city, and they patch up and reside in the more intact buildings of the Shogunate. The estates of House Sinasana are especially lavish, not least because a Heptagram-trained family member has managed to repair the air-cooling systems of a few of their palaces.
Religion
For a city so full of vice, there are certainly a lot of temples in Saata. Each pirate-lord competes to show their faith to their own gods - and frequently their ancestors too, because the city sees little contradiction between worship of the gods and of the Dead. Dependent as they are upon the whims of the sea, pirate ships usually have a shrine on board and it is not uncommon to sacrifice a single captive from a successful raid to one god or another as to not seem ungrateful.
The friendly attitude to ancestor cults is not extended to demonology. Demon worship is absolutely illegal in Saata. However, in practice the ecumenicalism and the constant jockeying for blessings and divine favour means that many Saatans over the years have made pacts with Hell - sometimes without knowing. The Lintha have designs on Saata and their agents extend influence when they can - though House Sinasana actively hunts them down. Cultists have their lands and vessels seized and their families enslaved.
The small local branch of the Immaculate Order is a player in the local power games, and is decidedly heterodox. The abbot is a grossly fat man with bright yellow eyes who tries to know everything that happens in the city and make sure that everyone comes to him for certain rare drugs. He owns a variety of establishments throughout the city, and sometimes newcomers to the city will vanish into them, only to emerge as someone else. As a star-child, he considers this to be an excellent placement with plenty of chances to personally profit and if he has to occasionally arrange a murder for his Sidereal masters or send his trained monks to wipe out a small demon cult - well, it's a break from his usual routine. His mother is a member of the Gold Faction and thus any report of Celestial activity which doesn't immediately set off alarm bells will likely make its way through her.
So here's a location write-up, done in the style of the locations in Scavenger Sons (which are a super-useful way to get a basic concept out, with the idea that the GM will expand them if they think it's useful).
Saata, this city can be moved around the South West as the GM finds useful. It shouldn't be too close to An Teng, but it should be close enough for An Teng to be an influence. If An Teng is a Dynastic tourist destination, then Saata is where Dynastic tourists who think they're being risky go.
Saata
Located on an archipelago north of Celestial Gate 47 - to the west of the Wailing Fen - is the island-port of Saata. Built upon the ruins of a Shogunate city-state that once filled the entire island, the jungle has reclaimed most of the land and modern Saata sits in the shadow of vine-wreathed towers of white stone. Mangrove swamps cover most of the coastline. Two giant statues of long-gone heroes of the past once touched hands over the entrance to the deepwater docks, but some long-ago war wrecked this bridge and now the broken arms form a protective breakwater against the typhoons of the Season of Fire. The city is a hive of villainy, and the white stone that make up the local structures are daubed with bright paint and lurid murals advertising the varied vices of the place.
While Saata is technically a satrapy ruled by a Cadet House, the influence of the Realm is weak this far south. House Sinasana claims ancestry from Gens Cynis, but its bloodlines are so murky that House Cynis has not acknowledged any kinship. More directly, the House's ancestry can be traced back to the Outcaste pirate lords who scattered in the aftermath of the Third Scarlet's campaigns in the South-West. Two hundred years ago these Dragonblooded pirates seized power from the previous Despot of Saata, and since then the city has grown fatter, more prosperous and more corrupt.
Following some ill-advised raids, the Imperial Navy turned their eyes to the pirate-lords. Fortunately for them, the Fourth Scarlet had taken the throne by then and an arrangement was reached. The Sinasana pirates would become the Realm's privateers and keep their hands off Imperial ships - in return, they would become a Cadet House and would be largely left alone as long as the trade routes were not disrupted and the waters were kept clear of the Lintha.
These days Saata is a key port on the trade routes from the far South West along the way back to places such as Nightfall Island and An Teng. Spices, slaves and stranger cargos pass through it back on the way north, while it serves as a place for vessels to repair and resupply thus avoiding the perils of the Fen. Just as pertinently, the scum of the docks and the many thin graceful pirate-vessels are often for hire, and many traders have found it cheaper to hire local pirates as escorts and guides than to risk an attack.
Inhabitants of Saata
Saata is a mixing pot from its position on a trading route. The locals are tall and heavily built with dark skin and curly hair, but sizeable amounts of the population resemble the shorter, flatter-faced inhabitants of the Wailing Fen or the towering, angular tribesmen of the lizard-hunting island tribes from further south. There are also distinct other groups, like the pale inhabitants of Nightfall Island or the golden-skinned misbegotten from An Teng. There's even some blood from the Realm, left by merchants or runaway sailors.
Men and women alike tend to dress in lightweight cottons, because the island is humid and hot throughout the entire year. Especially when working on the water or in the mangrove swamps, the poor will tend to strip down to a bellywrap. As a result, it is a sign of status and wealth to not simply dress for comfort. The pirate-lords of this place will often resemble a bird of paradise in their carefully constructed layers of finery and they compete to be distinctive and memorable. The strong elements of nautical culture among the population also results in extensive use of tattooing. A person's first tattoo is a rite of adulthood and someone who has done many notable deeds or risen to high rank will often resemble a work of art.
Slavery is legal in Saata, but once away from the pens near the docks the escape rate is high. The overgrown city that dominates the island provides too many places to hide, and it is taken as a custom that if a runaway slave signs up with a crew, they're a free man when they return to port. Slavery therefore tends to take the form of indentured servitude for Sataans, often as a consequence of debt, bad luck at the gambling tables, or getting drunk in the wrong bar and being press-ganged. This doesn't apply to the captives moved north on the slave-ships or taken as booty by pirates, but as they don't stay in the city long the locals couldn't care less. Slavers who get a reputation for snatching locals, on the other hand, tend to suffer mysterious stab wounds next time they go drinking.
Most of the pirate groups in Saata are divided by origin. The ancestor-cult from the Wailing Fen who sail ships with black sails and collect the skulls of their foes don't associate with the triad made up of misbegotten from An Teng that demand utter loyalty to their new family - and in turn they keep a wary eye out for the brutal raiders made of defectors from the Realm navy. While they war with each other on the open seas, things are more constrained on the island. House Sinasana makes it entirely clear that they'll tolerate a certain level of murder within the city, but anyone who rocks the boat gets crushed.
House Sinasana
House Sinasana would be an embarrassment to the Realm, if the Realm deigned to notice it. It largely doesn't, because everyone knows they're a bunch of pirates and Outcastes that have no chance of accession to become a Lesser House. Their job is to keep the waters safe for Imperial vessels and pay their taxes, and by and large they do both. This neglect suits the House just fine.
They control the Shogunate docks and port that Saata is built around, and anyone who wants their (relatively) safe harbour pays their docking fees. With around twenty Exalted members, the Sinasana are decently sized for a Cadet House, though their breeding is poor. They keep their numbers high through the recruitment of Outcastes - after all, to a certain kind of Lost Egg becoming a kleptocratic pirate-lord is more attractive than the razor or the coin. Loyal allies are adopted into the House and they and their children hold the positions of civic authority in Saata. They maintain a privateer fleet and their enforcers collect taxes, bribes and fees from the inhabitants.
In truth, House Sinasana is more than it seems. When the Fourth Scarlet made her deal with the pirate-lords, she did not believe they would stick with it. To prevent this, she had the All-Seeing Eye arrange for two Terrestrial agents to be 'discovered' as Outcastes and recruited, as to keep an eye on them and make sure they were not influenced by the Lintha.
This has been a success, for a given value of 'success'. The House has kept to its end of the bargain and Lintha ships must conceal what they are around Saata. However, the two agents have gone rogue. Sinasana Medala and Sinasana Bright Eyes are now the ranking matriarch and patriarch of the House, and while they still send reports back to the All-Seeing Eye they have used their training to solidify control over the city and the surrounding area. Three of their many children have Exalted and they have the full intention to turn their personal fiefdom into a family business.
Economy
The port-city trades in violence, whether directly or indirectly. The mercenary pirates will work for the highest bidder and frequently sign on with lords of surrounding islands for a cut of the plunder. The slavers that sail south resupply at Saata and hire locals as guides and scouts. Saatans venture south on their cutters and junks, selling metal weapons to the tribes of the Far South in return for drugs, feathers and curiosities of the edge of the world.
Within the city, vice predominates. Pirate-gangs take protection money and enforce local 'law' - and a close observer might be able to tell them apart from the enforcers of House Sinasana. All along the docks, drinking houses, brothels, dance halls and drug dens exist to extract money from sailors as they step ashore. Many of these places have agreements with one pirate fleet or another.
In the immediate aftermath of the Contagion, one of the major exports of Saata was what could be salvaged from the docks and the ruins of the city. Time and pilfering has largely depleted this, however, and while there is still a small trade in relics of the Shogunate it is a fraction of what it once was. The most notable element that remains is that even the lowest dive bar in Saata is made from white Shogunate stone, quarried from the buildings and used for the structures of a fallen age.
This clearance is vital because it creates space for farmland, and so the local diet mixes seafood, rice and catches from the mangrove swamps. Beef is a luxury good here, as the constrained arable farmland limits the area that can be given over to pasture - on the other hand, pigs and chickens are common for waste disposal.
The pirate-lords of Saata have country-estates on the coast away from the city, and they patch up and reside in the more intact buildings of the Shogunate. The estates of House Sinasana are especially lavish, not least because a Heptagram-trained family member has managed to repair the air-cooling systems of a few of their palaces.
Religion
For a city so full of vice, there are certainly a lot of temples in Saata. Each pirate-lord competes to show their faith to their own gods - and frequently their ancestors too, because the city sees little contradiction between worship of the gods and of the Dead. Dependent as they are upon the whims of the sea, pirate ships usually have a shrine on board and it is not uncommon to sacrifice a single captive from a successful raid to one god or another as to not seem ungrateful.
The friendly attitude to ancestor cults is not extended to demonology. Demon worship is absolutely illegal in Saata. However, in practice the ecumenicalism and the constant jockeying for blessings and divine favour means that many Saatans over the years have made pacts with Hell - sometimes without knowing. The Lintha have designs on Saata and their agents extend influence when they can - though House Sinasana actively hunts them down. Cultists have their lands and vessels seized and their families enslaved.
The small local branch of the Immaculate Order is a player in the local power games, and is decidedly heterodox. The abbot is a grossly fat man with bright yellow eyes who tries to know everything that happens in the city and make sure that everyone comes to him for certain rare drugs. He owns a variety of establishments throughout the city, and sometimes newcomers to the city will vanish into them, only to emerge as someone else. As a star-child, he considers this to be an excellent placement with plenty of chances to personally profit and if he has to occasionally arrange a murder for his Sidereal masters or send his trained monks to wipe out a small demon cult - well, it's a break from his usual routine. His mother is a member of the Gold Faction and thus any report of Celestial activity which doesn't immediately set off alarm bells will likely make its way through her.
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- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
... well, this is going to be an interesting place to subvert. Mwaa haa.
Keris: "Corruption everywhere. Rule by brutal mercenary gangs. Vice all over the place. Man, this place feels just like home!"
Sasi: "It is quite like Malfeas, yes."
Keris: "Malfeas? I was talking about Nexus."
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
Also, uh, hearthstone bracers already do this. I mean normally they provide +3 dice to Dodge DV's, but the difference between +3 dice and +2 directly is minimal, so the only real difference is that this applies to Parry too. Which, granted, is non-trivial.
Walker of the Yellow Path
Ho There!
- Location
- The Land of Memes
Is there anything stopping a Lunar from hunting another Lunar in Warform and taking that Lunar's Warform as a shape?
You can't acquire someone in morph.
Walker of the Yellow Path
Ho There!
- Location
- The Land of Memes
Why not? A Warform is a Lunar True Form, IIRC.
I was making an Animorph joke, but no, I wouldn't allow it, honestly. You'd get the core human shape, not their beast form. You get the shape they were born as, basically. Just how I'd rule it.
EDIT: I had completely forgotten the actual rules after years of pretending the official Lunar rules didn't exist. My bad.
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vicky_molokh
Posthuman spidery thingy.
- Location
- Kyïv, Ukraine
So what if, among the infinite possibilities of the Wyld, you manage to somehow find and hunt a Metis? ^_^
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
Well okay, but what does "I wouldn't allow it" have to do with "do the rules allow for this?" which is what Walker actually asked.
I'll quote the relevant parts of the RAW:
Taste of Luna's Champions said:
So, no. Once you have Taste of Luna's Champions, OM NOM NOM get all their forms save for their DBT form.
Walker of the Yellow Path
Ho There!
- Location
- The Land of Memes
Another Question about Lunars.
I'm making a Lunar whose got it into his head that it's Celestial Exalts who cause most of Creation's problems, and that Dragon-Blooded are the only ones who can be trusted with ruling. So she's decided to disguise herself as a Godblooded and participate in Wyld Hunts.
With that in mind, are there any suggestions for Charms this Lunar should take? She's going to be an occasional ally in a DB focused game I'm running with friends.
I'm making a Lunar whose got it into his head that it's Celestial Exalts who cause most of Creation's problems, and that Dragon-Blooded are the only ones who can be trusted with ruling. So she's decided to disguise herself as a Godblooded and participate in Wyld Hunts.
With that in mind, are there any suggestions for Charms this Lunar should take? She's going to be an occasional ally in a DB focused game I'm running with friends.
- Location
- Virginia
Why do you say "got it into his head"? That would seem to imply he's not 100% correct.
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Walker of the Yellow Path
Ho There!
- Location
- The Land of Memes
...
You know what, fair. She's still seen as a raving lunatic by her fellow Lunars.
grommile
nasty-minded old cynic
- Location
- NERV-Mercia
- Pronouns
- Traditional/Animate
It's not clear to me that Dragon-Blooded can be trusted with ruling either.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Keris: "The problem is clearly the Exalted!"
Dulmea: "Child, you are one of the Exalted."
Ghost!Yamal: "Also, there were problems before we existed."
Past Life!Salina: "Like, you know, the hierarchy of the Primordials."
Keris: "Oh yeah, good point. Hmm. Okay, never mind."
