I'll be disappointed if there isn't a magical material which uses Molybdenum as a base.
Because.
I have to ask, why molybdenum? I mean, it's a fine material, with lots of uses, but I'm still curious.
Since nobody else has addressed it, I will. There is explicitly no method of resurrection in Exalted, and, from what I gather, the same is true of WoD. And the Dresdenverse is alleged to have certain persons resurrected, but, well, literal divine intervention, and not the lowercase-d divine. It's explict that no mortal magic in Dresden can raise the dead, and Exalted are still mortal (technically).
Also, after the shenanigans of ASWaH, DP banned ressurection spells for AoIaB, so, that.
While others have addressed this, both time travel and true resurrection are very much something that can happen in ExvsWod. For resurrection, there's even a Solar charm:
Phoenix Renewal Crucible (•••••)
The fires of the sun are the catalyst for life itself, and
the Solar may give of herself to gainsay an unjust demise.
System: The Solar may attempt to return a corpse
to life by placing a hand upon the cadaver's chest and
infusing it with her Essence. Spend 5 Essence, 5 Will-
power, and roll the Solar's Essence rating. She cannot
spend Willpower for an automatic success on this roll.
Success returns the target to life and restores all of their
Health Levels. Failure means the resurrection hasn't
taken and can't be attempted again. A botch carries all
the consequences of failure, but also forces all of the
Solar's Essence to depart her body in a torrent, and
renders her unable to regain or store Essence by any
means for 24 hours per 1 rolled. Botching twice within
the span of a single story causes the Exalt to be fatally
consumed in her own solar flames.
In order to use this Charm, the deceased individual's
death must in some way violate one of the Solar's Intima-
cies, and must have taken place during the last (Essence
rating) days. Losing a loved one who is the subject of an
Intimacy always counts, of course, but more abstract vio-
lations are also possible, such as the death of a vampire's
anonymous victim violating an Intimacy to protect the
innocent from the horrors of the supernatural world.
The difficulty to resurrect a person with Phoenix Re-
newal Crucible is 6. If they were one of the Celestial Ex-
alted when they died, they are mortal upon their return
to life, their Exaltation having departed. Other sorts of
living supernatural beings (including Dragon-Blooded)
usually retain their powers upon returning to life.
Phoenix Renewal Crucible may also be used to at-
tempt to return the undead to life and mortality. In
this case, the individual may have been deceased for
much, much longer than the usual limit permitted by
Phoenix Renewal Crucible, but the difficulty begins at
7, increases by +1 for every 50 years the individual has
been undead, and if the target is a vampire, a failure
inflicts five levels of aggravated damage, while a botch
inflicts ten as the power of incorrectly-channeled Solar
Essence rips through the fabric of the monster's being.
Path magic (which is very much "you are not even close to a full on sphere mage") can also do resurrection:
•••••• Revive: Truly masterful healers can perform its
greatest miracle: reviving the dead. This is restricted the
recently dead, those who have been gone long enough
are beyond the healers reach. This also doesn't heal the
injuries, they must be managed separately, or else even
the Herculean effort needed to revive them is wasted as
they succumb once again.
The cost is high: two permanent Willpower must be
spent, and the roll is made at difficulty 9 and requires
three successes plus another for every three minutes since
death (as of the start of the ritual). If successful, all other
temporary Willpower the healer has is spent, the healer
is exhausted and suffers -2 to all dice pools for a week,
but the patient is revived. They will almost certainly need
immediate medical attention or else they will die again.
And then there's Chronomancy path. Oh chrnomancy:
Chronomancy
Almost certainly the most dangerous Path for a
sorcerer, Chronomancy allows for the direct manipula-
tion of time itself. This is a rare case where sorcerers are
substantially better than Awakened mages at something:
even many basic uses of the Path of Chronomancy result
in devastating Paradox backlashes when mages do it.
Time seems to be more forgiving to those following more
tried-and-true Paths.
The use of Chronomancy changes a sorcerer. Either
everything needs to be done right now or else nothing seems
urgent anymore. They become meticulously precise about
arriving on time to things or else they become completely
unable to estimate when something is. Every sorcerer
reacts differently, but by the time they achieve the third
rank in Chronomancy, their sense of and relationship
with time has changed drastically.
Though some debate whether this can actually change
the past or if it just closes time loops that had already
existed, there can be little doubt that it interacts with the
past and not simply some alternate dimension. But one
thing is clear with this Path: the future is still completely
uncertain, so only interactions with the past are possible.
A note, this Path gives no ability to travel in space, so
all spells and rituals must be performed near the location
that the chronomancer wants to interact with.
Cost: Two Willpower
Roll: Perception + Ability
Cost of Failure: Failures are fairly simple, the effect
just doesn't happen. The worst this can do is leave the
chronomancer in an awkward situation. Botches, on the
other hand, can be completely devastating. For lower
rank spells, a botch can simply result in the character
being temporally confused for a while, unable to tell time
or coordinate things. At the higher levels, though, the
character could be pulled out of time entirely or sent to
a different time, one that is inhospitable towards them,
even if it is beyond their normal temporal range, and
need to survive until the effect ends and they are back
in the present.
Aspects
Target
X A small, generic object
• A larger, but still generic object or a small unique one
•• Larger unique object
••• The chronomancer
•••• Another person
••••• The contents of a roughly 10 foot by 10 foot room
Time Difference
X Same day
• Same week
•• Same month
••• Same year
•••• Same decade
••••• Same century
Effect
X A novice at chronomancy can see the past, though it
is weaker than Divination. If the spell is on an object, the
object can "perceive" the past however it normally could,
so a camera could take photographs or other sensors can
take readings, but a coin couldn't do much at all.
• The past can be touched. Only very slight changes
can be made, nudging something here or there, but al-
ready the chronomancer is able to change the outcomes
of simple random events, like coin flips or dice rolls.
•• More substantial changes can be made, an object
moved to a hidden location or a person can be nudged
in a small way. If not combined with some other pow-
er, that person can roll Willpower difficulty 6 to resist
changing course.
••• Small objects can now be pulled in and out of
time. Money can be pulled out of someone else's wallet
in January to pay the bills in July, documents can be
rescued from a fire before they burn, etc.
•••• Large objects can be pulled from the past or sent
into the past, including people. True time travel is possible
at this level, though anyone or anything anachronistic is
ejected to their home time after one minute per success,
while objects that could exist in that time can stay there
indefinitely.
••••• Legendary sorcerers can store things and step
outside of time. Essentially they can break the final rule
and travel to the future by exiting the universe, allowing it
to move forward, and stepping back in. This is functionally
a one-way trip, because though they can use lower rank
spells to go backwards, that will always be temporary.
Sample Rituals
•••• Save Keepsake: This ritual takes an hour to per-
form, but allows the chronomancer to rescue an object
of importance to them. The object must be personal (so
this can't be used for money, for example) and must have
been destroyed. The sorcerer completes the ritual and the
object is pulled forward in time from the moment of its
destruction, leaving the timeline unchanged, though the
object will exist once again.
••••• Time Enough at Last: One of the most complex
rituals known to sorcerers, Time Enough at Last takes
a full week to perform, working eight hours each day,
and cannot be hurried in any way. Each day requires the
expenditure of a Willpower point and a point of Mana,
plus two on the final day. For all this effort, the chrono-
mancer can travel to the past and has five minutes per
success rather than one.
Associated Spheres: Time
At 4 dots there's "he was never dead" shenanigans with pulling people from the past at the moment of their would-be death.
Reality in WoD is much thinner than in Exalted, and most laws governing reality has long since broken down. In most cases this leads to a lesser state of being. In some, it enables possibilities, like Ebon Dragon slithering out of our shadow at some point and declaring "Bloodless Murk Evasion: I dodge the collapse of reality by skipping into the Fifth Age".
Gossamer yes. The magic jade in Kindred of the East isnt the same sort of jade in Exalted though.
While the jade might be different in WoD, I am not sure it's different here - I mean, it was used to make a container that contained an exaltation. That's a pretty big magical effect.
As for Siriothrax's hoard and the curse presumably on it that has left it untouched for 20 years, I wouldnt vote to go near it without several things
-The Sight merit
-Path Countermagic: 12xp
-Hellscry Chakra: 8xp
-Antishaping Charm: 20xp
-Our Kingdom/Hell to provide a secure treasury to stash that stuff
Its a Dragons hoard with presumably a Dragons death curse on it.
Im aware of the plot of Wagner's Ring Cycle, which may or may not be based on actual historical events in this AU.
Thats enough to make me...wary.
I'd also want a perfect defense and some way to communicate with the dead. Hellscry chakra seems redundant to the Sight, and I would think that Essence Dissecting Stare would be much more useful in this situation.
@Yog I love the 5 fold court. I love the worldbuilding, the backstory the people. I love it so much that I really want to consider replacing Gaols with Lord of the land. The 5 Fold Court has Pockets of safety debluff with Lord of the Land we can actually work at fixing the hellish environmental problems and I want to explore and improve the place.
Also Gaols just doesn't seem useful. I can't think of any enemies that we are going to imprison in our hell that couldn't be contained by a robust prison cell and vigilant guards. Everyone one seems be against trying to store the coins in our hell and that seems like the only thing that would require that sort of containment that we aren't going to just kill with Murder is Meat.
I was of that opinion too at one point.
@uju32 pretty much browbeat me at some point, however, and now I do kinda agree. The counter-arguments are:
1) Denarians. The gaols are a great way to contain their coins or the denarians themselves. I very much would be down for containing them in our world body.
2) Various spirits, demons, gods, etc. Beings who can afford to die and return to life later to escape confinement. Like, if we wanted to imprison a naagloshii instead of murdering them and to work on their rehabilitation, we'd probably need this.
3) After adding the fluff (the Malfeas-inspired great labyrinth buried underneath the ice, from which the inhabitants and a lot of others, including our exaltation, in some form, have escaped long ago), I just fell in love with it. WIthout gaols being there, I am not sure I can justify keeping it there. I really don't want to drop it - a lot of lore that has been made is dependent on it being there. I mean, there are ways, but they honestly feel a bit like cheating:
3.1) I could say that the Labyrinth, while obviously a prison, doesn't respond to controls or commands, and is broken down in general (which allowed the progenitors of the court's population to escape in the distant past, or was caused by them escaping). If so, we drop gaols, but keep the potential for them later. We would need to go into the Labyrinth, and reclaim parts of it, as well as repair its systems (or use Prince of Ruin Attitude to get them running). We know that Gaols, Ritual Chambers, and Exclusive Transportation can be made after the realm is born with AP.
This gives me 1 point, which would go to Lord of the Land, while the potential for perfectly functional Gaols remains. This would be something I am actually in favor of. I don't think we need Gaols
immediately after gaining our kingdom, and as long as the potential to obtain them is there, and they would be as good as the ones we can get via point spending, I am more than ok with that. This (whether the things we can obtain after the kingdom is built can be as good as the ones bought via points) was my main point of contention with
@uju32 , and I was convinced not to risk them being not as good.
3.2) I could say that the tribes inhabiting the Labyrinth are actually hostile to us, unlike civilized citizens of the court for +2 points (or +1, if we compromise and say that they are not the whole population, and are better modeled as Resistance Movement, rather than hostile population). This is the part that feels like cheating. Because there are basically almost 2 worlds in one right now: The courts themselves, and the Great Labyrinth. The Labyrinth is mostly off-limits at the start of the kingdom's existence. It is ruined, trapped, malfunctioning and unexplored. It also represents the potential for expansion. We could spend AP to explore it, reclaim and repair parts of it. This could in principle give us additional features of the realm.
I would very much like
@DragonParadox 's opinion on these options. And, if possible, on the possiblity of custom charms later that would allow us to add more points to our realm. Sorta like By Pain Reforged, only for the Kingdom Charm.
Lord of the Land is great, it is interesting, it is neat narratively - it is pretty much a future Devil Tiger exercising control of their world body in some way. If possible, I would be getting it. If I can keep my fluff and potential for Gaols later via AP spending, I am willing to switch. I just don't want to drop lore I have made already.
The Time Of Cascading Years where Creation splintered into multiple timelines that each had a single different Exaltation, before it all being smashed back together after subjective centuries had passed.
Incidentally, so far as I can see, we are, in principle, lore compliant with being within Time of Cascading Years so far:
Time of Cascading Years
…Creation broke.
From an external frame of reference, Creation remained
broken for 217 years, 129 days, 11 hours, 43 minutes and 8
seconds. Historians draw the length of cascading years from the
time kept by one colony of Dragon-Blooded outside Creation
at the moment of cascade. A research team studying the nature
of temporal flow in the Wyld, they kept perfectly accurate
timepieces forged by a Solar of the Twilight Caste. Due to
the nature of time in the Wyld, savants dispute the figure
to this day, though when the colony reestablished contact
with a restored Creation, its hourly clock was consistent with
the Unconquered Sun's place in the sky, providing at least
some evidence for its accuracy. As the measurements of the
Dragon-Blooded chronology team are the only even slightly
reliable records, official calendars all use this figure.
From an internal frame of reference, the amount of time
that passed during the Cascading Years period was subjective.
All the Exalted who survived described afterward finding
themselves alone in tangent worlds bereft of their peers. Each
of these separate worlds was different. Some were empty.
Some weren't Creation at all. Each experienced a different
amount of time, from a single afternoon to 1,000 years (in
Queen Merela's case). All survivors—even the Dragon-
Blooded—each recall personally enacting some notable task
that restored Creation to its rightful configuration.
From the point of view of Heaven and those spirits that
were immaterial during the period, no time passed. The ac-
tual disruption to the Celestial Order was minimal following
an announcement by the Five Maidens that the problem,
whatever it was, had been fully resolved by the Chosen of the
Gods. The disruption of Creation was more widespread—the
mortal population of the world became a patchwork jumble
of individuals from all the tangents.
Savants are divided as to what caused the time of cascading
years. Many theorize that some untested weapon was respon-
sible. Some suspect that the history cascade was the result of
some process or experiment intended to grant every Exalt in
Creation profound insight into the nature of Essence, a radical
attempt to advance motic science by gathering 700 Celestial
epiphanies—and, presumably, end the Thousand Struggles
Era. By a strict analysis, whatever happened did succeed at
that final task. None of the surviving Exalted recall causing
the cascade, however. Common wisdom, then, holds that its
instigators must have been among the 73 Celestial Exalted
who died, their Exaltations reincarnating with no memories
of the event the moment the history cascade ended.
The least popular theory holds that the Incarnae them-
selves somehow set off the temporal cascade as a way to stop the
Thousand Struggles Era before it escalated beyond Creation's
capacity to contain. Leading savants lend little credence to
this theory, as the Incarnae have explicitly denied credit.
They appeared to be telling the truth, even under the gazes
of Solar inquisitors using powerful lie-detection magic.
As in, hypothetically, we could be one of those 73 Celestial Exalts who died. Ok, it's not fully compliant with canon Time of Cascading Years, but close enough that I can see one of the quest endings being "we restore Creation to its rightful configuration, using our Worldbody as an Ark to preserve everyone through reconfiguration"
