Alright, so here is my Shintai Idea.
The Glorious Apocalypse Princess
Shintai: Devil-Tyrant Avatar Shintai
Strength +1, Dexterity +4, Stamina +1
Demonic Aspect:
-Demon Armor (x2): +4 Soak
-Hardened Devil Body (x4): +12 Bruised Health levels
-Swift Stride: Movement speed and jumping distances are doubled.
Appearance:
A terror born from the Nuclear Radiance of the Long Night and the fear born from the Nightmare of Atomic Armageddon, she walks forth clad in the armor seemingly carved from Brass and Basalt, yet paradoxly Finely-crafted and customized exactly to task. In all appearance, the armor appears to be made with exceptional craftsmanship with its own unique flourishes and decorations.
The core of the Armor is made from Basalt drawn seemingly from the depths of Lanka, the Demon City of the Rakshas. Yet savants of the occult, if allowed to study the material, will realize that this Basalt has no origins in Lanka, instead hinting at a far more ancient and forgotten origin. Indeed, for the Basalt that makes up the core of the armor is far older then even the most ancient of the Bedrocks of Lanka.
The Brass that highlights the Basalt is no less impressive. If observed under eyes that can see beyond the mundane, Green writing, glowing faintly, can be seen. If one can read the arcane and forgotten language then they would understand that the writings are wards made from litanies praising the rise of the Glorious Apocalypse Princess.
She wears the Horned helm of Ruin and Glory, marking her as a Demon Royal. On her shoulders sits the heraldry of the Demon Empress to be, the badge of Glory that strikes fear in the hearts of those who understand the magnitude of the terror to come for the same represent the Creation Ruling mandate that the Empress wields, taken from the hands of the cold dead corpses of her opponents.
But not all is lost, for the Heavens are not blind to the terror the Princess represents and saw fit to send forth their finest Knight, who tempered indifference with Compassion, doubt with conviction, indulgence with temperance and fear with Valor. Thus, the Empress to be wears the Mantle of Sunlight, that shines not with the balefire of Nuclear Annihilation but with the light of the resplendent dawn, representing strength, superiority, order, glory and striving for the absolute. For all things must end, even the Long Night and there must always be hope for tomorrow.
But whether the gambit of Heaven awoke the Spark of Solar Glory......only time shall tell.
Transformation:
The Empress to be stands unmoving and unflinching under her foe's onslaught, hardening her body to break her foes against her immortal flesh. She waits until the light of hope begins to shine in her foe's eyes before she utters one and only one word.
"No"
The shock of the absolute act of defiance spreads at an ever expanding rate, the word travelling through the filaments of her World, calling forth its very foundations to aid her. She flares her Anima and immediately collapses the same into her flesh, producing a brief, blinding cataclysm of emerald flame even as Dark Essence flows into her, beginning her transformation.
Her heart begins to palpitate and her blood gleams with the green light of Armageddon. The same tainted essence flows through her veins like blood, transforming her flesh with the materials of a Demon City for older then Lanka. Her form is clad in armor grown from her own body, even as her hair takes on a brassy sheen and hardens into a helm fit for a Empress. Material flows within her body, forming replacements limbs and organs and so that the same may be made of hardier material and not pathetic flesh.
When the light clears, the Empress to be stands transformed, her demonic nature stamped unmistakably into her flesh as her anima roars once more.
Notes:
The Transformation pings off the legend of the Infernals in ExWoD, where Shintai are the shadow of the Demon Emperor they might become should they ascend to a throne above the Earth with the dawning of the Sixth Age. They are heralds of the new age and by definition, do not belong in this one. For within their hearts ticks the
doomsday clock, a promise, a world engine, a reflection of what should be. Thus they can't help but rejects what is for what could be and set forth to make their world a reality and it is
minutes from midnight.
It referenced both the origins of the Infernal's power being derived from the Yozis power, what they become and the Horror of Nuclear War. The same also includes the fact that the Heavens have reached out to Molly and keeps the hope for tomorrow which also references the fact that they were once Solars who were changed.
The form and theme of both the appearance and transformation represents
Great and
Terrible power but also one that is tempered by
Hope and
Faith which references Molly's upbringing as well as her character. There is no redemption for Infernals but even the darkest of days and the Blackest of Nights must end and a new Dawn always rises, representing the death of an age and the birth of a new one. Though if the Dawn is
Green or
Gold, if not in form then in spirit, is yet to be decided.
Reasons:
Size and ease:
Devil Tyrant Avatar is human sized. What this means is that any place that Molly can enter into, she can transform in with no ill effects. So, we do not have to worry about being underground, in a building or even being in a car. We can transform with no extra difficulties due to location, size, and other such restrictions. We can also do all the things Molly can and are not penalized for it
nor is her appearance reduced to 0 like in ALL the other Shintai options.
By comparison, we have Demon -Emperor which is at the minimum 12 ft tall and has stated difficulties going through a door. It's huge size also makes fine manipulation extremely difficult if not outright impossible, due to the gigantic size and what form we take.
Incarnate Apotheosis Shintai is a natural disaster such as a living sandstorm, inferno, pool of living acid studded with eyes, amorphous shadow, or swarm of demonic locusts etc. It also operates on the swarm rules found on page 391 of V20, which…..yeah. It does soak damage so there is that but still.
Then there is Devil-Beast Shintai, which is an animal form but suffers a –3 penalty to all attempts to perform fine manipulation due to its lack of proper human hands.
Stat Spread:
Then there is the Stat Spread. Devil-Tyrant Avatar is the only Shintai that offers +4 Dex.
Strength +1, Dexterity +4, Stamina +1
Dexterity is the absolute key to both avoiding getting hit and hitting enemies. You can make up strength with the
Venomous Demon Aspect +3 Lethal Dice and charms like
GSNF and augment stamina with
Demon armor Aspect for +2 Soak and charms like
VLE, but if dexterity is low, we are not going to be doing much in combat except bleeding out.
To put it simply,
if we do not take max dex now, we will never be getting another Dex booster as there is
no other dex booster at all.
You can also justify rolling it for just about any physical task. It encompasses gross agility, fine dexterity, general flexibility, hand-eye coordination, and running and movement, being prone etc. This especially combos well with Devil-Tyrant as the shintai can do all the things Molly Can do, so we do not loose out on any ability and instead get a flat boost on what we can do in combat.
What this means is that we roll like this.
Dex 4 + Melee 5 + Shintai 4 + Stunt 2. So
15 Dice without a Excellency in combat without needing to spend any essence and
24 dice with an Excellency. This is
immediately out of the gate at E2 and will only increase once we get to Dex 5 for a max of
26 dice.
Demon Aspects:
Devil-Tyrant Avatar grants us 7 Demonic Aspects and builds off our Human form. What that means is that we can customize it as we see fit. However, it should be noted that if added to a shintai- Demon Aspects are forever locked behind the shintai. So what that in mind….
Aspects Already Gained:
Demon Weapons – Melee Sword from our Head demon.
Transcendent Anathema – By Rage Recast.
Aspects to take for the Shintai:
Demon Armor (x2)– Adds +4 Soak.
Swift Stride – Doubles Moment Speed and Jumping distance. Applies to Flight when we take it, so it is not rendered redundant.
Hardened Devil Body (x4) – 12 (3 x4) Bruised (–0) health levels.
We can purchase Essence Ox-Body charms in our base form but does not apply to our Shintai and if we do not take at least 4 HDB then
our base form will have more health levels than our shintai. So, by taking it HDB 4 times, this makes our Shintai
competitive in High Essence fights as it has the
Equivalent of taking x4 Ox-Body technique and can keep up with High Essence enemies that do boatloads of damage in single attacks.
With this our health levels look like this….
-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-4/Na.
As you can see, this allows us to get hit, a LOT and fight high level opponents with a reasonable degree of failure. The point of the shintia is to act as a buffer against dying and having a ton of health levels would aide in that. Anything more then 4 is a waste as we will be getting other charms to heal/mitigate damage. But similarly, anything less then 4 makes us much more squishy then we really should be in a super mode.
In addition, we have greatly reduced wound penalties, thanks to the -0s and can put off taking Ox-body charms for our base body as they would not be that much of a Priority.