>>124495
Well, sure, if you murdered the Five Maidens and broke the Loom of Fate and revoked the yozi surrender-oaths and dismantled whatever else is enforcing linear time, thereby dissolving all Creation into the Wyld and/or Oblivion, then time travel would be possible. At least, in theory. What's your plan for surviving the various side effects of all that for long enough to do anything useful with it?

>>124511
Well, I'd think you could find other work arounds. Time being non-linear means that there's no before or after for when it's non-linear, otherwise it was always linear. The non-linear part is just a list of facts rather than a time line, because there's no line to put them on, no sequence they occurred in, no even "occurred" Just things that are. So, it makes sense that there's some wonky things related to non linear time, at least to me.

>>124516
Linear time didn't exist before it was created by the primordials, but before they did that nothing really existed to be defined by time, except the primordials themselves - there were the unshaped raksha, but they weren't really real either. As for the primordials, they probably enforced some sort of linear time for themselves voluntarily because it made things easier for them.

Like... if you say "non-linear time" was the case before creation, like sometimes effects happened before causes... well, what was there to define a "cause" or "effect" before then at all? Everything was unbounded and undefined. Cause could be effect and effect cause. Saying before should be before after made as much sense as saying you should only ever walk backwards or only ever turn right or only ever say a particular word once. You're placing too many limits on the concept of time. You're thinking that if time wasn't linear, that added the possibility of "back" to the existing possibility of "forward". But before creation, time could also go sideways, or loop around to itself, or split into multiple streams only some of which bend back to create the original stream from which they came, or instead of flowing like a stream time burned like a fire, or any or all of these simultaneously crossing over each other.

There are oddities in the concept, the main one I can think of being that Oramus is described as the first/oldest primordial, but perhaps he wasn't oldest as in he's existed for the longest period relative to some external time, but because somehow he precedes the other primordials in some conceptual way. Lunar Quest briefly brought up the idea that Oramus invented/defines the concept of existence and non-existence, and if that was the case then any other primordial could only be able to exist with in a space defined by him, therefore necessitating his existence during theirs regardless of how long and by what strange paths they each take timewise.

>>124517
If they enforced linear time for themselves, then that would make sense; problem for me here is you're saying that non-linear time was before creation, when I'd posit it can't be, since "before" doesn't exist without linear time. You can't have before and after on the timeline if there's no line. To say something happened "before" the line implies it's still linear, we just can't see or remember the rest of the line. It's gotta happen in some outside structure, except that things can't even "happen" because that /also/ implies a linear understanding. No before, no then, or after, or next, just a bullet point list of truths we know. That seems to imply some wiggle room for the stuff that could be on that list to me, if someone figured out some new time bending martial arts.

>>124518
I don't know if thinking about it as "before" even makes sense. It might be more accurate to describe it as, like, a venn diagram with pre-linear time and linear time as nested circles? Creation is bounded on all sides geographically by Chaos (well, in a 2d plane), so maybe it's bounded chronologically as well. If you're outside the circle, you can move in all directions around it, but if you enter the circle at any point, you're bound to time.

Perhaps a better way would be to describe it as, like, a funnel? Think of Creation like a knot or a whirlpool in the original chaos that sucks everything into it that gets close. Maybe there's some extra layer of Chaos, out beyond "Pure Chaos", where linear time also breaks down. But you can't tell because anything that comes in from outside linear time is forced to go through the same door, that is, the beginning. So if you did time travel in any way except forward, which would necessitate you leaving Creation and its linear time, maybe you get kicked back to the beginning of everything if you try to come back, because by the nature of linear time that's the only place anything can enter that doesn't already exist in it. So like, "before" linear time (that is, outside linear time) you're wandering around in all directions as you like, but then as a result of wandering in ALL directions you eventually stumble into a one-way door and suddenly you're in corridor that's a series of one-way doors and now you can't see outside, only things that are in there with you, and you mistakenly assume that the old freedom you had was destroyed somehow instead of you just being separated from it.

Time and distance are kind of the same thing in the Wyld that is accessible, so it'd make sense that the original chaos might have been an even more extreme form of that. So "before" isn't the right word to use. You might say "somewhere else". To a being in non-linear time, linear time would be a place they could go to or they could not (though probably only the primordials had the power to actually deliberately navigate in any "direction"). It's only within and relative to linear time that the word "before" would make any sense. Like, if you have a string and you say one end is the beginning and one is the end, you can point to any point on it and say "this bit is before this bit". If you point off the end of the string entirely, well, that's obviously not on the string at all, but if you asked someone what was before the beginning of the string they'd probably confusedly point off to the side, even though there's no string there. And maybe if you bent the string around in a U shape, the space that was "before" the string is now also "after" the string, even though for the string every point along its length still comes after the one before it.

And that sort of defining beyond itself is a deliberately noted aspect of the thing? When Creation came into existence, everything that came before suddenly WAS BEFORE, when previously the idea of it being before made not sense. Creation forced everything else to adhere to linear time not because it imposed linear time on those things intrinsically, but because IT had linear time and therefore everything surrounding it could be thought of in terms of linear time. Maybe time is just a way of looking at things, but one that the primordials made so attention-getting and obvious that you couldn't not see it any more.

Ultimately though, however it works out, it's entirely possible that linear time is such a fundamental aspect of any creation-born being that removing yourself from the limitations of linear time might be equivalent to removing yourself from the limitations of having a consciousness.

Which is not to say you shouldn't introduce time powers if you think you can manage it and they'd be fun.

I don't know if anything I just wrote could make sense to anyone besides me. I'm not that sure it makes sense to me either.

>>124519
Makes sense to me actually, it's a mostly helpful metaphor. I particularly like the correlation between time and distance idea, where time is a physical location in space rather than a stream we're flowing down. Having trouble visualizing movement in space without time though, so even moving from one time to another seems like it would connote a sequence. I think you might be right when you say divorcing ourselves from linear time is as nonsensical as divorcing ourselves from consciousness, it's just not useful. I think JamesLeng will run things pretty close to the book rules with some noted exceptions, so I doubt timeplay will be involved.

>>124517
>As for the primordials, they probably enforced some sort of linear time for themselves voluntarily because it made things easier for them.
Some sort of overall causality flow, but not necessarily a linear one. Isidoros, for example, enjoyed fighting with his own past and future selves http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/we-all-peacock-in-our-own-way to the point of experiencing significant distress due to the fact that it's no longer possible.
> Lunar Quest briefly brought up the idea that Oramus invented/defines the concept of existence and non-existence, and if that was the case then any other primordial could only be able to exist with in a space defined by him, therefore necessitating his existence during theirs regardless of how long and by what strange paths they each take timewise.
This is incorrect. Existence and identity are defined by the shinma Nirvishesha, not any of the primordials. Advaita Iraivan, which defines the concept of separation, is one of Nirvishesha's aspects. To be one of the shinma is to intrinsically define a concept, something which is simple to explain yet infinitely broad in application, by lacking it. This whole subject is an elaborate joke about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_theory and Advaita Iraivan in particular is a joke about atheism. The shinma are more fundamental than the Primordials, and the Primordials built Creation with shinma as foundations much as the Exalted built kingdoms within Creation. The Ebon Dragon aspires to become a shinma (perhaps of something like morality, causal determinism, or restraint), much the same way some mortals aspire to become gods or some exalts aspire to become new primordials.

>>124518
There's no well-defined "before linear time," just as there's no well-defined place you can walk in real life that's further north than the North Pole, but there's still space above the north pole, and some "causal past" leading up to the definitive beginning of linear time.

>>124524
>I think JamesLeng will run things pretty close to the book rules with some noted exceptions, so I doubt timeplay will be involved.
Oh, no! By the book you can absolutely screw with time. Sorcery can create bubbles of stasis, or pocket dimensions where time flows at a different rate. The in-setting Broken-Winged Crane is a book that hasn't been written yet, sending malevolent echoes of itself into the past. Even mere mortal astrologers can glimpse future events written in the Loom of Fate, while the Five Maidens can predict things beyond the Loom's reach by examining something called "samsara" (which is another cosmic mind-screw comparable to the shinma but possibly distinct from them). The Yozis claim they can use the five-day slack across the Endless Desert to roll back events in the recent past within their prison (this is a lie, but close enough to what they understand as the truth to possibly fool lie-detection magic; the utter submission to their power which they claim is necessary in order to let them alter your personal past, for example to resurrect a recently lost companion, actually means investiture as an Akuma) and they can back that up with demonstrations of time-related adamant circle sorcery or even stranger things. All sorts of ways to mess around with time, just can't completely reverse the direction. Can send information into the past, though not reliably. Snatching inanimate objects out of the future might be possible, but doing so requires enough energy that it's never been provably differentiated from conjuring or transmuting a temporary copy of such an object. There was even this one famous episode in the First Age called the "Time of Cascading Years" when warfare between exalts apparently caused a BSOD of the loom, leaving Yu-Shan frozen and trapping every exalt within Creation in their own private timeline. Those who survived all remembered having personally gone on some adventure to solve the problem; many others apparently didn't, though their various souls reincarnated normally once it was over.

>>124540
>All sorts of ways to mess around with time, just can't completely reverse the direction.

A river you can fight against but not change the origin or termination of, right? Ultimately whether you disrupt the flow or dam it or whatever else you want to do, it’ll still go downhill towards the ocean

>Right, I'm new to social combat. How does surprise work?
Core book p.172, discussing uses for various skills in social combat:

Socialize: While many function of this Ability operate on a dramatic time scale outside the scope of social combat, (Manipulation + Socialize) replaces (Dexterity + Stealth) for veiling intentions, and any instance where War would be used to manage a military unit changes to Socialize for social units and setting up coordinated social attacks. In general, Socialize cannot be used to make social attacks.

Beowulf, Strngy, Tunic, you still around?
cricket noises
I'll just leave this here.
http://nobilis.me/the-weight-of-history

>>124926
I thought Nobilis was a different game system?

>>124933
It is, yes, but there's some overlap among the creative teams. That particular essay is rather explicitly about Exalted.

Light of the Moon Cleansing the World

Her Quest: To Kill the Realm

She was given a horrific (almost) execution after she murdered a Mnemon Dynast for being a serious dick that she survived through the gifts of Exalting from not instantly dying. She hasn't forgiven, and she certainly hasn't forgotten.

She's lived all alone for the months that follow save than the voice and overwhelming power of the evil bog that she was bound to in the heat of her 'death' and rebirth as a Lunar exalted who turned her silver barbed wire guillotine noose into a stylish necklace that helps stop her from becoming more of an unholy easy to send into a spiraling depression where she retreats even further from humans.

Also, while she's been alone, she's been hunting down and becoming all manner of creatures from a particularly large earthworm to the mightiest of all hooved quadruped, the Moose. And also sneaking into towns to sleep with all of the hot people to take a break from animals, and leave corrupt people violently murdered, as though crushed to death under 750 pounds of Terror.

The most recent stop in her extremely erratic journey across the east half of creation that's managed to avoid every major Lunar compound thus far leaving her horrifically vulnerable to Wyld Taint, has left her outside of a village in the East that had no name(which just recently introduced her to several concepts that she had been sheltered from in her previous 'life' and her current one, namely that boats could be in the air, and that they could start to fall from the sky once they were up there.) acting as a scourge on the local raiders, several of whom she heard describe her as some kind of demon animal possessed by a demon, and hopefully get caught onto as a positive force by the Thorpe.

>===============================================
Lunar Exalt (Casteless) Opossum Totem
3 Strength 3 Charisma 4 Perception
4 Dexterity 1 Manipulation 1 Int
4 Stamina 3 Appearance 4 Wits

Athletics 3
Larceny 3
Martial Arts 4
Melee 1
Presence 3
Resistance 3 (Play Dead +2)
Socialize 3 (Seduction +1)
Stealth 3
War 2 (Guerilla Tactics +1)

Essence 3
21/21 Personal Motes
36/40 Peripheral Motes

Familiar 5 (Mother Bog)
Heartblood Library 5 (41+ forms, list last checked in at 83)
Artifact 1 (Stability Conferring Collar) 2 committed motes

Willpower 10

Temperance 3
Conviction 4
Valor 3
Compassion 2
Limit Flaw Shame of the Fleeing Chicken

Before the power of the Great Curse, the Exalt flees from civilizations seeking to isolate themselves and abandon their goals for the solace that isolation as a lone animal can bring, causing her to shift into an animal form that is most appropriate for the region and try to flee any civilization they might be near, preferring the natural wilds to the protean landscape of the Wylds.

Partial Control: The Exalt shifts instead to a social animal, and is free to stay near a society, but at most as an outsider


Parry DV 5 Parry MDV 3
Dodge DV 3 Dodge MDV 7

Charms:
>Stamina/Wits Second Specialty
>Steadfast Yedim Method (Stamina)
>Unstoppable Juggernaut Incarnation (Stamina)
>Hide of the Cunning Hunter (Appearance
>Shifting Penumbra Stance (Appearance)
>Spider's Trap door (Wits)
>Humble Mouse Shape

Bonus Points
18 to start with, +2 from Heart Blood Addiction Debility,+2 from Sexual Addiction, +1 from Claustrophobia, +5 for Greater Curse

-10 Essence 3, -5 Willpower +5, -4 Familiar +2, -4 Heartblood Library +2, -1 Martial Arts +1, -1 Survival +1

Light of the Moon Cleansing the World

Her Quest: To Kill the Realm

She was given a horrific (almost) execution after she murdered a Mnemon Dynast for being a serious dick that she survived through the gifts of Exalting from not instantly dying. She hasn't forgiven, and she certainly hasn't forgotten.

She's lived all alone for the months that follow save than the voice and overwhelming power of the evil bog that she was bound to in the heat of her 'death' and rebirth as a Lunar exalted who turned her silver barbed wire guillotine noose into a stylish necklace that helps stop her from becoming more of an unholy easy to send into a spiraling depression where she retreats even further from humans.

Also, while she's been alone, she's been hunting down and becoming all manner of creatures from a particularly large earthworm to the mightiest of all hooved quadruped, the Moose. And also sneaking into towns to sleep with all of the hot people to take a break from animals, and leave corrupt people violently murdered, as though crushed to death under 750 pounds of Terror.

The most recent stop in her extremely erratic journey across the east half of creation that's managed to avoid every major Lunar compound thus far leaving her horrifically vulnerable to Wyld Taint, has left her outside of a village in the East that had no name(which just recently introduced her to several concepts that she had been sheltered from in her previous 'life' and her current one, namely that boats could be in the air, and that they could start to fall from the sky once they were up there.) acting as a scourge on the local raiders, several of whom she heard describe her as some kind of demon animal possessed by a demon, and hopefully get caught onto as a positive force by the Thorpe.

>===============================================
Lunar Exalt (Casteless)
3 Strength 3 Charisma 4 Perception
4 Dexterity 1 Manipulation 1 Int
4 Stamina 3 Appearance 4 Wits

Athletics 2
Larceny 3
Martial Arts 5
Presence 2
Resistance 3 (Playing Dead +2)
Socialize 3 (Seduction +1)
Stealth 3
Survival 3
War 2 (Guerilla Tactics +1)

Essence 3
21/21 Personal Motes
36/40 Peripheral Motes

Familiar 5 (Mother Bog)
Heartblood Library 5 (41+ forms, list last checked in at 83)
Artifact 1 (Stability Conferring Collar) 2 committed motes

Willpower 10

Temperance 3
Conviction 4
Valor 3
Compassion 2

Intimacies
Hatred for the Realm
Love of beautiful individuals
Conviction Flaw Shame of the Fleeing Chicken

Before the power of the Great Curse, the Exalt flees from civilizations seeking to isolate themselves and abandon their goals for the solace that isolation as a lone animal can bring, causing her to shift into an animal form that is most appropriate for the region and try to flee any civilization they might be near, preferring the natural wilds to the protean landscape of the Wylds.

Partial Control: The Exalt shifts instead to a social animal, and is free to stay near a society, but at most as an outsider


Parry DV 5 Parry MDV 3
Dodge DV 3 Dodge MDV 7

Charms:
>Stamina Second Specialty
>Steadfast Yedim Method (Stamina)
>Unstoppable Juggernaut Incarnation (Stamina)

>Wits Second Specialty
>Spider's Trap door (Wits)



>Hide of the Cunning Hunter (Appearance
>Shifting Penumbra Stance (Appearance)


>Humble Mouse Shape

Bonus Points
18 to start with, +2 from Heart Blood Addiction Debility,+2 from Sexual Addiction, +1 from Claustrophobia, +5 for Greater Curse

-10 Essence 3, -5 Willpower +5, -4 Familiar +2, -4 Heartblood Library +2, -2 Martial Arts +2

Bugs:
1: Earthworm
2: Giant Spider
3: Rhinoceros Beetle
4: Giant Centipede

Mammals:
1: Mouse
2: Vole
3: Shrew
4: Squirrel
5: Rabbit
6: Bat
7: Shard Bat
8: Cat
9: Hearth Cat
10: Emperor Rat
11: Dog
12: Wolf
13: Coyote
14: Ferret
15: Otter
16: Moose
17: Brown Bear
18: Goat
19: River Dolphin
20: Normal Dolphin
21: Reigndeer
22: Seal
23: Cow
24: Fox
25: Rodent of Unusual Size
26: Deer
27: Wild Boar
28: Snow Rabbit
29: Cheetah
30: Elk
31: Bison
32: Buffalo
33: Polar Bear
34: Panther
35: Sabertooth Tiger
36: Auroch
37: Horse
Birds:
1: Crow
2: Barn Owl
3: Red Eagle
4: Falcon
5: Flamingo
6: Condor
7: Vulture
8: Crane
9: Duck
10: Goose
11: Finch
12: Starling
13: Warbler
14: Austerch

Reptiles/Amphibians:
1: Cobra
2: Python
3: Anaconda
4: Claw Strider
5: Tree Frog
6: Cane Toad
7: Bullfrog
8: Dart Frog
9: Viper
10: Bearded Dragon
11: Komodo Dragon
12: Newt
13: Salamander
14: Axolotl
Fish
1: Catfish
2: Bull Shark
3: Goldfish
4: Koi Fish
5: Dart Fish
6: Lobster
7: Crab
8: Oyster
9: Minnow
10: Cherubfish
11: Tuna
12: Salmon
13: Barracuda
14: Eel
15: Electric Eel
16: Squid
17: Octopus
18: Cuttlefish

>>125096
You've still only got 24 dots in skills before BP when it should be 25. Craft (Water) or (Wood), Medicine, Occult, or Thrown would be reasonable picks, since Melee is a bit redundant with MA.

Yeah, and I dropped the Melee, but I forgot that I didn't put the Craft (Water) but that's what I'm going to go with, since she was a Barmaid before she exalted, so she was at least competent at cooking.

I also just realized that I forgot to mention this, but her Tell is that she looks like a furry in her shadow, and regardless of what form she's in she has an Opossum tail in her shadow.

And her favored attributes are Stamina and Appearance

>>125125
If she's in the form of say, an opossum, does she then have no tell?

>>125132
Her ears and tail are silvery and shiny like most all physical Tells. But, the only Opossum form she has is a True Form.

Some sidereal Astrology Questions:

What happens if you fail the difficulty 6 prayer roll? Start over, minus resources and time?

Does buying additional dots in a sign do anything, or are they binary purchases? (You can create destinies under this sign, or not).

How do the costs and intervals for respendencies work? When a respendency costs x endurance and y paradox dice for z interval, does that mean you can only activate the effect once in that interval? That after you pay the price once, you can use the effect as many times as you wish until the interval passes?

There's a whole bunch of respendencies that have a second paragraph "So long as the character immerses herself in [thing]" you're hidden but only have 7 hours unallocated time a week. Is this optional? (Ie, exploit the first paragraph of the respendency for some advantage, but neglect to spend your time doing [thing] for the secondary effect). And why... are these considered a good thing anyways? Aside from some kind of sleeper mission where you need to remain undetected until a crucial preplanned moment, the opportunity cost seems rather brutal.

Holy heck why does one of these summon Adorjan to torture someone. (And if using the loom to invoke Yozi is an option, why only the one)?

>>125643
>What happens if you fail the difficulty 6 prayer roll? Start over, minus resources and time?
Pretty much. "Your call cannot be completed as dialed, please hang up and try again." Could be just a few minutes per attempt if you're not taking extra time for bonus dice. Preparations for the effect roll can be reused on subsequent attempts, so long as it's the same basic plan.
>Does buying additional dots in a sign do anything, or are they binary purchases? (You can create destinies under this sign, or not).
Extra dice on the effect roll, willpower cost for resisting resplendency social attacks, discount on Propitious (Ability) Alignment, and you need at least three dots in all five of the relevant Colleges to use a Greater Sign.
>How do the costs and intervals for respendencies work? When a respendency costs x endurance and y paradox dice for z interval, does that mean you can only activate the effect once in that interval? That after you pay the price once, you can use the effect as many times as you wish until the interval passes?
If it lists a duration, pay once to have the effect apply continuously during that time.
>There's a whole bunch of respendencies that have a second paragraph "So long as the character immerses herself in [thing]" you're hidden but only have 7 hours unallocated time a week. Is this optional? (Ie, exploit the first paragraph of the respendency for some advantage, but neglect to spend your time doing [thing] for the secondary effect). And why... are these considered a good thing anyways? Aside from some kind of sleeper mission where you need to remain undetected until a crucial preplanned moment, the opportunity cost seems rather brutal.
Not optional, no... though you could assume such an identity for mundane purposes just by donning the resplendent destiny normally. Those are your "deep cover" effects, for when someone powerful and unfriendly is trying to find you, probably after some other mission has gone wrong. Use the few free hours to call for backup, set other diversionary plans in motion, or to prep a new cover identity if Endurance is running low, then hope you make it to some position of longer-term safety before Pattern Bite catches up with you. Think of it as a multipurpose backup, like Duck Fate, rather than part of a typical 'Plan A.' "If all else fails, I'll disappear for a while."
>Holy heck why does one of these summon Adorjan to torture someone. (And if using the loom to invoke Yozi is an option, why only the one)?
It's disintegration, not torture. The Crow lets you turn yourself into a literal crow, Rising Smoke lets you turn other stuff into literal smoke. Long ago, Adrián, River of All Torments, circled Creation as a border against the Wyld.

>>/quest/904250
>Social attacks happen once every minute, but other dialog is still allowed right?
Social attacks normally happen on a scale of long ticks, which are approximately equal to minutes. Could have a flurry of several attacks (interlocking parts of a complex argument) on the same long tick, but usually after someone acts they can't go again until 4-6 ticks later. That's how the speed of actions works.

Dialogue can happen in personal combat time, but it's a lot harder to construct a persuasive argument under that sort of pressure. Basically impossible, short of highly specialized magic (such as Astius's multilayered basilisk gaze), or pushing emotional buttons hard-wired in by other traits (such as virtues or derangements).

>Does any sort of conversation count as social attacks, or just stuff that people don’t want to listen to?
Normal casual conversation doesn't use the social combat rules, same as sparring or playful roughhousing usually wouldn't use the physical combat rules, and parade-ground maneuvers wouldn't use the mass combat rules. Rolling Join Battle or Join Debate or Join War means you're committing to participation in a conflict, exerting yourself, treating the situation as though something serious is at stake. For social combat, the tactics involve things like logic and empathy, trying to "get inside the other person's head" and present some case they can't argue against (Parry MDV) or ignore (Dodge MDV) without wounding their self-image (spending WP). Ideally, a social attack should be something the subject does want to hear - something genuinely tempting, or even inspirational. The more an argument goes against their existing inclinations, the easier it is to reject, as reflected by MDV modifiers.

Presenting some subject neutrally, to inform and allow people to retain (or adjust) their own opinions rather than aiming to sell a particular agenda, is either not social combat at all, or the social equivalent of a 'guard' action. Avoiding any deep, visible commitments also tends to mean being ready to take full advantage whenever new opportunities arise, rather than engagements being constrained by the rhythm and direction of your own previous attacks.

Trying to convince Pillar to quit attacking an apparent Anathema would definitely involve social combat. Deciding where to have lunch? Not... normally. Depends on what's at stake. https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2006-06-19

>>/quest/904290
> I’m confused about where you got 16 from though; essence + stamina + resistance is only 13, right?
As an Exalt, Bridget's natural lethal soak is half her Stamina. Iron Kettle Body increases that by Essence 4 + Stamina 5 + Resistance 3 + specialty 1. So, technically I suppose it should only be 15, if half of five rounds down to two and there's no other bonus from mutations.

>>125742
>As an Exalt, Bridget's natural lethal soak is half her Stamina. Iron Kettle Body increases that by Essence 4 + Stamina 5 + Resistance 3 + specialty 1.
Got it, I thought her soak became that new number, didn’t realized it actually added it on top of what she had. Blaming that one on onditioning from other RPGs.
Unrelated, but I think that means incleasing her stamina to an odd number only increases her IKB soak by one, and her natural soak none, but increasing it to an even number increases the IKB by two and the natural by one.

As for social stuff, your explationation makes sense, and it helps, but I’m still not all the way there yet. Would Bridget telling the borrowed knife guy to inform her of other thefts or grievances be an attack, since it’s putting forward a request instead of just presenting information?

Likewise, aren’t there times where presenting information would be a social attack?

Also, could I have not rolled to join battle? If I already had a passive soak charm on, he can still do minimum damage, right? Meaning not joking battle would give him free reign to attack me as much as wanted and I’d just have to see what happened?

>>125750
>Would Bridget telling the borrowed knife guy to inform her of other thefts or grievances be an attack, since it’s putting forward a request instead of just presenting information?
Yeah, you could ask casually, without rolling Join Debate. Might still make sense to roll Charisma + Investigation for that, since even low-pressure inquiries can get different degrees of response based on social skills.
>Likewise, aren’t there times where presenting information would be a social attack?
When there's an agenda behind it, sure. Even apart from outright deception or blatantly misleading omissions, there's a lot of ways to privilege one interpretation over another with nuances of emphasis, context, and tone. Some people, almost every word out of their mouth is loaded like that. Folks with high Temperance tend to be better as impartial observers, since it goes against Temperance to "act dishonestly or show bias in a matter of importance," and the virtue also aids in avoiding or overcoming deceptions and distortions imposed by others.
>Also, could I have not rolled to join battle? If I already had a passive soak charm on, he can still do minimum damage, right? Meaning not joking battle would give him free reign to attack me as much as wanted and I’d just have to see what happened?
Whenever somebody takes a swing at you (and you're not already paralyzed or unconscious or something), you've got to roll Join Battle, if only for bookkeeping purposes.

If you'd rolled better, so Bridget had the chance to act first, one possibility would be a two-action flurry: take one hand off the beam to lift the kid with the stuffed dinosaur out of the way as a diceless miscellaneous action, then drop the roof (reflexive) and move to pre-empt the belligerent monk's attack with a grapple, called shot to disarm, or something like that. Bridget being seriously injured wasn't ever a plausible outcome there, but the child's safety and Pillar's clean getaway weren't guaranteed.

>>/quest/904466
>roll up a starting Dragon King character
A modern raptok lucks into sapience, follows blurry racial memories to a concealed manse which includes a library and a laboratory and painstakingly self-educates himself. A self-taught scholar / researcher / sage, focused on biology. Haughty about his own people and trying to unlock their lost secrets, but also fascinated by the workings of lesser races (if this were PdnTTO, high and low ambitions, right there). Doesn't really like to acknowledge this contradiction, and drawing attention to it is a good way to sour his mood. He craves respect- not fame (it's not about scale) or blind adoration (what does it matter if a fool reverse you). Simply that which is his due for his superior accomplishments, knowledge, and prowess. Prickly personality, which falls away when you get him excited about his own work or interests. This, along with the split between his nobler and lesser research interests results in a kind of tsundere attitude (pointing this out would likely also make him unhappy).

If this all sounds a little convenient for the village surgeon-hairdresser, I claim sidereal nonsense. :v

I'm not up to speed on dragon king naming conventions, and he probably has an alias for his human guise.

Rough draft character sheet (mostly minimums, haven't thrown BP at things yet, and it's hard to judge how high to raise abilities without charm requirements as a guide):


Modern Raptok Dragon King

[5 dots] Strength 2 Dexterity 5 Stamina 4
[4 dots] Charisma 2 Manipulation 3 Appearance 2
[7 dots] Perception 5 Intelligence 5 Wits 1


Virtues [5 dots, 1 must be in valor]
I'm not great at turning personalities into numbers here. Probably higher conviction or temperance?


Abilities [25 dots, 10 must be breed or favored]

Breed: Craft, Linguistics, Socialize
Favored (5):

*Craft (Genesis) 2
*Craft (Steam) 2
*Craft (Water) 2
*Craft (Wood) 2
*Linguistics 1 (High Holy Speech, Rivertongue)
*Socialize 1
Lore 3
Medicine 3
Occult 3

Survival and Investigation to fit history?
Specialty for experimentation or innovation in medicine or one of the crafts? Specialty for biological lore?


Backgrounds [7 dots]

Artifact 1-2
Manse 3-4 (some concealment, labspace, library)
Resources 1-2

Grab some useful artifact tools for medical research (take advantage of that dragon king bonus), a manse for a workshop, and resources for experimental supplies.


Paths [6 dots]

Breed: Both Wood
Favored (1):

Clear Air 1
*Growing Wood 1
*Shaping Wood 1
Shimmering Water 3
Technomorphic Transcendence 1

Needs BP for all those, TT should probably be 2, maybe clear air and growing wood too.

Under my houserules, exotic crafts are mapped to non-gaian elements.
*Vitriol is the sole Malfean element, and mostly covers helltech-specific alchemy.
*Lightning is autocthonian-style magitech with lots of fiddly moving parts. First Age celestial techniques can make it self-repairing, but otherwise it usually needs skilled maintenance backed by a big, complicated supply chain.
*Steam is biotech, genetic engineering.
*Smoke is the spiritual equivalent of biotech, and includes the skills you'd need to inflict or reverse most nonphysical mutations (including wyld-induced derangements) "the hard way." Also relevant for soulsteel production and cosmetic surgery on ghosts, though usually only in a very crude form.
*Crystal covers the stuff Sidereals and Celestial Gods do to keep the Loom running, as well as raksha gossamer-weaving, and some ghost powers that create 'haunting' phenomena.
*Oil is necrotech, assembling dead flesh and other bits into forms that can then be reanimated by necromancy and doing maintenance or repairs on such constructs.
*Metal is possibly the most obscure: the skill for shaping magical materials without attuning to them, constructing spirit sanctums or otherwise working with non-euclidean spaces, and operating reality engines.

Lightning/Oil, Steam/Smoke, and Crystal/Metal all have an issue where they're very closely related in some ways, but mastering one side of a pair tends to create a mindset that makes the other side painfully counter-intuitive. Probably not mechanically enforced, so you can be an air-breathing mermaid or the one good dark elf if you want, more of a cultural "path less traveled" thing.

>>125819
And after some clean up by JamesLeng, here's the not rough draft of our Doctor Dinosaur npc.
(Quoting JL from here on down).

"Edgar"
Modern Raptok Dragon King
Motivation: rediscover the ancient mysteries of the human heart
Strength 2 Dexterity 5 Stamina 4
Charisma 2 Manipulation 3 Appearance 2
Perception 5 Intelligence 5 Wits 1
Essence 3, Willpower 5, Compassion 3, Conviction 1, Temperance 2, Valor 3
terrestrial circle sorcerer, no spells known. Mote pool 26, 3 committed to Guise of the New Form
Breed: Craft, Linguistics, Socialize, Favored: Dodge, Larceny, Ride, Thrown, Survival
Bureaucracy 1
*Craft (Earth) 2
*Craft (Steam/Genesis) 2
*Craft (Water) 2
*Craft (Wood) 2
*Dodge 1 (Traps +2)
*Larceny 1
*Linguistics 1 (High Holy Speech, Rivertongue)
Lore 3
Medicine 3
Occult 3
*Ride 1
*Thrown 1
*Socialize 1 (While Providing Food & Drink +2)
*Survival 1
Backgrounds:
Artifact 2 (healing orchid, attuned with WP rather than motes, gill cloak and a javelin with a 'lucky rock' returning enchantment)
Manse 3 (crystal of legendary leadership, but no socket for it; Vulnerability 1 (draining the lake), Habitability 2, Password Activations, Glorious Halo of Hesiesh, Ability Enlightenment (Craft (Steam), Lore, Occult, Medicine), Workshop Manse (Steam)) When not in use, looks like a ring of gold-veined marble obelisks surrounding a murky crater lake.
Resources 2 (struggling restaurant)
Paths:
Clear Air 1
*Growing Wood 1
*Shaping Wood 0
*Shimmering Water 3
Technomorphic Transcendence 1
http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1670

If I was writing up 'Edgar' as an example NPC for some book, the example quote would be
"The easiest way to a man's heart is through the stomach. The fastest way is through the left lung. I'm still trying to work out most of the talk-y ways."
or something like that.

The manse is basically a great big cauldron of "primordial soup," with all the gene-manipulating machinery down below the surface, and a visual interface made from sunlight and mist floating up above.

The exalted 2e corebook describes stats for "perfect" equipment, like exceptional quality but better. The Scroll of Errata then abolished this category. I'm reinstating it, but under more limited terms.

Perfect equipment can only be routinely produced in Yu-Shan, by working with quintessence and ambrosia. First Age atelier-manses also managed, though either some subtle techniques have been lost, or feedstock of sufficient quality is no longer available. Upgrading an exceptional-quality item to perfect is possible as a master level procedure in the Art of Enchantment, but each type of item is a different procedure, and such techniques are closely guarded.

If you want to start with an item of perfect equipment, it's bought as a 1-dot artifact, and it's fragile. Just being present in a scene involving violence, filth, or unstable essence necessitates an hour of Repair 2 maintenance, while any sort of countermagic or structural damage automatically and permanently downgrades it to exceptional quality.

Perfect-quality food, in addition to being correspondingly delicious, is supernaturally nourishing. A mortal who eats it heals and resists poison and disease like one of the exalted for the next three days. Exalts heal three times faster (one bashing damage per hour, lethal damage severe enough to inflict wound penalties healed in increments of 8 hours rather than days) and are immune to mundane diseases, also for three days. A diet of at least 60-80% perfect food slows the aging process by half. A two-week supply of perfect food (celestial trail rations, bottles of godly beer, etc.) is as much as one person can take out of Yu-Shan without jumping through too many hoops, and could be sold for up to Resources 4, but actually doing so (at least, for cash rather than favors) is a minor crime against the laws of Heaven.

>>126051
Seems odd to me that perfect equipment would be at greater risk of damage, not less. Maybe from a work of art perspective, but something fragile definitely isn’t the perfect tool in my book, especially when using it for it so intended purposes might damage it.

Unrelated, but understanding how fatigue works is probably a good call before I make my next move. Since Bridget has high stamina and resistance I would imagine she could easily go beyond mortal limits, but maybe you need special charms instead to do anything extrodinary?

>>126086
Ah found it. p130 in the core book, Strenuous Activity. (Stamina + Resistance) is how many hours you can do some demanding thing before starting to accumulate penalties.

Bridget can do continuous hard labor without penalties for for 8 hours, would slowly get worse from then on, and finally pass out at 16 hours.

We showed around noon and it's about sunset now, so I'm guessing you might still be within those first 8 hours. So... you're probably fine to chase after bandits for a while longer.

>>126091
Huh, I wonder what the definition of strenuous activity is then. Seems like a farmer would typically work long days during the harvest/planting seasons, every day pretty much. Can mortals just not work long days in creation or?

>>126093
I'd imagine the rules aren't really made for farmers. Besides that, a farmer's work probably isn't strenuous in quite the same way as rule is talking about. Even during the longest days, they would take breaks and switch what particular types of tasks they're doing.

If it bothered you, you could say most farmers would have a resistance specialty for farm work.

>>126086
It's not that it's really that much easier to damage in general, just that when it IS damaged, it stops being perfect.

As for fatigue, you can get away with a lot so long as you take time off to rest before actual penalties start to accumulate.

I'm approving this Hegra charmset for use by infernal exalts in games I run
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wnB7jBGjsbko6pGnSAN5fbXe7WHw7Wm4lH5F-w63I3s/edit
but only with the following modifications:
>The range of Hegra Mythos Exultant is Stunt Rating x 10 yards, and it costs a flat 1 wp or 3m to resist. A target who cannot pay must alter the emotional context of one of their intimacies, which then becomes inviolable for the rest of the scene. On a two-die stunt, the infernal may specify the new emotional context. A three-die stunt allows the infernal to specify which intimacy is affected (among those intimacies they're aware of), instead of the new emotional context.
Rising Tsunami Conviction also applies to MDV modifiers from Virtues. With a second purchase at Essence 3, purchases of Storm Soul Emanation can instead be allocated to temporarily increasing Virtues, so that, for example, a hard-hearted miser could be more easily affected by an appeal to Compassion. This increase only applies for the purpose of MDV modifiers, and ends when the social attack is resolved, unless the beneficiary chooses to permanently increase the affected virtue as a Training effect.
>Precipitated Passion Accumulation recovers one mote for each point of willpower or loyalty anyone, anywhere in prayer range, spends to resist mental influence the Infernal inflicted; ignore the other recharge conditions. If wide-ranging influences force large numbers of people to frequently spend WP in order to e.g. reconcile deeply contradictory compulsions or resist attacks on their Motivation, the maximum benefit is motes per hour equal to the affected population's Magnitude. If the infernal can see essence flows and/or hear prayers (via some other charm or artifact), they may be able to notice the details of any specific incident of resistance as it occurs, but this is never automatic; treat the attempt as a reflexive Read Motivation action, at an additional -3 external penalty.
Sanity in Madness's prerequisite should be Storm Soul Emanation. It can produce negative mental mutations of any severity at any Essence, subject only to the desecration keyword's usual limits on temporary mutations.
>Singing in the Rain acts as a tutor for thaumaturgy with a Degree no higher than (Essence-1), always available wherever the sky is visible or weather can otherwise reach, but only provides procedures appropriate to Hegra's themes. The only Arts for which it can provide full Degrees are Demon Summoning and Weather Working.
When using Passion-Fixing Alchemy to affect large groups of people, pay for a number of doses equal to the Magnitude of the targeted population.
>Heart-Poisoning Miasma Psychogenesis cannot reduce the primary virtue of someone affected by the Great Curse.
Soul-Crucible Diabolism has no additional cost, cannot be turned off, and the infernal cannot control which mutations it grants. Anyone affected by Abundant Euphoria Apothecary can choose to gain temporary mutations (in accordance with the desecration keyword) instead of taking an equivalent number of intoxication penalties; the victim chooses their own mutations, subject to GM veto. Changes should reflect a 'true inner self' in some abstract, allegorical sense. If this would result in more total temporary mutations than the victim's Willpower + Essence, some of those mutations become permanent, starting with Creature of Darkness and proceeding through the lowest-valued mutations sufficient to bring them back under the limit. If this would put the victim into XP debt, and they're not an exalt, they can instead choose transformation into any first-circle demon with which the infernal is familiar. Like all demon-creating charms, learning it adds one new first circle species to the library for free, and more can be purchased for 1xp each. The chrysalis provides armored soak of 30 and Hardness 15, but renders them Inactive, and they count as an extra until the five days are up. With a repurchase at Essence 5, if someone partway through metamorphosis would be killed by any attack that does not permanently destroy spirits, their shell cracks open to reveal the original subject with all undesired injuries, derangements, mutations, sickness, and crippling effects cured, as if awakening from a very strange dream. Then, any excess levels of damage beyond what 'killed' them are re-applied, as an unexpected unsoakable perfect attack.
>Frenzied Tempest Shintai, in addition to the benefits of being immaterial and roughly a mile above the ground, reduces all incoming attacks to minimum damage unless they have no physical component or are specifically effective against landscape-scale targets.
Mesmerizing Rainbow Spark works exactly like the solar charm Hypnotic Tongue Technique, apart from reduced cost, having the Sorcerous keyword instead of Touch, and costing the victim only 2wp to realize what's going on. The realization doesn't count as resisting UMI for purposes of limit gain, but does contribute to Precipitated Passion Accumulation. Repurchase at Essence 4 adds the effects of Lurking Malice Insinuation/Minds Yield to Glory.
>Repurchase of Mad-Eyed Ragamuffin Allure does not remove the cap for MDV modifiers for relative appearance.
Delirious Rapture of Virtue does not increase the infernal's capacity to stock virtue channels. Instead, on their next action after channeling the affected virtue (at the same time as stunt awards) they regain a number of channels equal to the number of specialties which applied to that roll - virtue specialties, the regular ability-based kind, or some mix of both. If the maximum of three specialties applied, that means a net gain of 2 channels for the affected virtue.
>The second purchase of Effortless Wind-Borne Burst, at Essence 3, lets the infernal make Thrown-based attacks empty-handed for 1m per shot with base damage 0B, range one mile, and other traits based on any of their natural weapons. Third and final purchase at essence 4 reduces the cost of all applications of the charm by 1m, and removes the Obvious keyword unless it's being paid for with offensive motes.
When Breath of the Hurricane is used to supplement a disarm attempt, the roll to resist takes a -(Essence) external penalty. The infernal can then pay 1m to retrieve a disarmed item as if they originally threw it, or an unattended, inanimate item subject to knockback if they would be able to lift it with one hand.
>Standing in the Storm's Eye also works against undodgeable attacks.
The Infernal Imperfection of the Typhoon of Nightmares is not based on virtues; Hegra is not the Ebon Dragon. Instead, a charm with that Imperfection only works while able to percieve the sky. Anywhere with no solid ceiling directly overhead, even at the bottom of a well, the sense of touch or smell is sufficient. If indoors, vision through a suitably-angled window, audible thunder, or the sound or taste of rain that recently fell at least a mile (even if then filtered by a leaky roof), can hold the necessary distraction from dull, stagnant reality. Fog, snow, or normal darkness are no obstacle, since weather and night are as much a part of the sky as anything else, but unnaturally opaque shadows produced by magic may be. If in doubt, make a reflexive perception+awarness roll every action, subject to any relevant modifiers.
>Spindrift Dervish Diversion and Ripping Out the Mountain's Roots have the Counterattack keyword and are subject to the normal rules for counterattacks.
Bonus from Ecstatic Passion Kaleidoscope does count as dice added by charms, and cannot be used to enhance an action that would otherwise have zero dice.
>Sky-Crisis Strike's base damage is the infernals permanent Essence + current temporary Willpower. It's minimum damage is (stunt rating)x2 or the rating of any virtue channeled to enhance the attack, whichever would be better.
Firmament-Shaking Cataclysm's Lightning Scourge option counts as a scene of eroding one of the target's intimacies, chosen at random, rather than having any effect on soak.
>The Essence 4 upgrade of World-Drowning Cloudburst cannot target extras for free, or any single target more than once. Instead, it can affect every member of a large disorganized group within range as if they were only a number of individuals equal to their magnitude. When attacking a mass combat unit, rather than the usual horrors of war, the infernal may choose to have lost rank-and-file be killed outright, maimed either physically (crippled limbs) or spiritually (derangements), or be relieved of all their equipment and rendered unconscious by fatigue/bashing damage but left otherwise unscathed.

>>/quest/907958
For future reference, I'm counting Lute's use of the literal light of the setting sun to craft something for the purpose of conveying knowledge to a twilight-caste solar (the caste which is specifically associated with the setting sun, and with crafting, and with the acquisition of knowledge), by a sidereal (associated with the provision of knowledge and guidance) chosen of Serenity (associated with crafting) akuma of Kimbery (associated with art and navigation), as a three-die stunt. At the very least, it's a two-die upgraded by resonance with her Urge.

>>126125
> With a repurchase at Essence 5, if someone partway through metamorphosis would be killed by any attack that does not permanently destroy spirits, their shell cracks open to reveal the original subject with all undesired injuries, derangements, mutations, sickness, and crippling effects cured, as if awakening from a very strange dream. Then, any excess levels of damage beyond what 'killed' them are re-applied, as an unexpected unsoakable perfect attack.


So, the original purchase allows for the creation of demons, and a second purchase at a higher essence level makes creating a demon easier, right? The bit about not being damaged, and then being damaged after the fact- could you clarify what that means, perhaps via an example?

>>126144
Might need to rework that some more, anyway, spread out the keyword healing among several charm purchases the way Solar Medicine and the Pyrian tree starting from Ego-Infused Pattern Primacy do.

Idea was, when you crack the chrysalis open, they're fully healed - but if you hit any harder than the minimum necessary to do that, the excess might make them go splat anyway. With hardness 15, it's not going to be easy to pull your punches and still have any effect at all.

Part of my intention with putting mutations under the control of the recipients is the idea that Hegra isn't really all that interested in lasting power over others, not even to the extent that Adorjan is, as evidenced (in part) by the bolded section in the following excerpt from Compass of Celestial Directions: Malfeas p. 48:

TABOOS
In addition to the great laws of dominance and submission, all Yozis issue a few commandments that serve only to assert their privileged position by making life difficult for lesser demons. For instance:

• None but Cecelyne’s priests may witness the sacred azure. Orabilis has the right to destroy any serf who does not cover her eyes upon seeing it. A citizen who fails to do so must make a great sacrifice at the Skyless Cathedral within a year and a day. The unquestionable may see the color, but wearing or creating it is a clear provocation to the Endless Desert.

Naturally, all the official documents of the priests are edged with this exact shade of blue. The Azure Decretals take their name from this hue. Therefore, demons cannot legally read their own laws, look their priests in the face or indeed look at the temples they are obliged to visit. Most Yozis ordain at least three of these perverse taboos (except Hegra, who ordains nothing). As a result, every demon has broken at least one law and can be condemned and punished for it if someone sufficiently influential desires that this be done. All demons can destroy those of lower circles virtually at will, but Cecelyne gives a veneer of legality to such brutal exercises of power.

Naturally, demons of greater rank and power get away with a lot more than serfs do. For instance, Cecelyne forbids demons to own any sort of clock. Nevertheless, a mighty lord such as Octavian could own a roomful of the finest Varangian chronometers and say he kept them only as art objects. Conversely, a serf could be destroyed on grounds that a drip of vitriol-rain inside her hovel constituted a water-clock.

>>125829
Every exotic craft has prerequisites in mundane gaian crafts or other abilities, right? Would you mind listing those? (We've covered some here and there, but it would be handy to have all at once in one place).

>>126154
Craft (Lightning) aka Magitech requires 2 dots in (Air) and (Fire) and can't be higher than your Lore.

Craft (Steam) aka Genesis aka Biotech requires 2 dots in (Water) and (Wood) and can't be higher than your Medicine.

Craft (Oil) aka Necrotech requires 2 dots in (Fire) and Medicine, and can't be higher than your Occult.

Craft (Metal) requires 2 dots in (Earth) and (Water) but has no intrinsic capping skill. It's not good for much on it's own, though, at any mortal-comprehensible scale. https://xkcd.com/2061/ Useful for manipulating the magical materials without needing to attune to them, which is important if you're trying to build an artifact incorporating foreign MMs without outside assistance. Main thing mortals learn it for is carving jade into smaller denominations.

Craft (Crystal) aka Fate aka Gossamer aka Narrative aka Pandemonium doesn't have well-defined mundane prerequisites at this time; main obstacle to learning it is getting access to the raw materials, and tools suitable to work them.

Craft (Smoke), the art of designing new types of spirits, is a lost art; learning a full dot in it without being a titan gets you touched by Orabilis and launched into the Malfean sky as a dying star. Forging ghosts into soulsteel or performing reconstructive surgery on them is mostly accomplished by temporarily emulating the skill via Whispers of the Neverborn, or learning a specialty without any general-purpose dots.

Craft (Vitriol) is effectively a mundane craft native to the demon realm.

Mundane pets can be a side benefit of even a single dot in Resources. An actual Familiar at the one dot level is an expensive animal such as a bloodhound, hawk, or horse (or equivalent) which knows a few tricks as if from excellent mundane training, or a rat, cat, or crow (or equivalent) which can understand language, planning, and tool use on a rudimentary level. Such creatures are unbreakably loyal, and will gladly cross mountains or deserts to find you if separated, but are not actually capable of supernatural tracking... except during Calibration, or when the Maiden of Journeys is feeling generous.
Two dots buys a wolf, hawk, or horse which can share it's senses with you while within a mile, and whose natural weapons can be "weilded" with your Manipulation + Ride actions (including charms) within that range, or a more impressive beast such as a claw strider or simhata with excellent mundane training, or a small creature with Appearance 4 and either intelligence comparable to a child of 8 or 9 years, or rudimentary planning and tool use plus some moderately deadly poison.
Three dots buys outright supernatural power: an eight-tailed mole hound with excellent mundane training, or a claw strider that can share it's senses with you, unlatch doors, and rip through steel armor like cloth (adding the Overwhelming tag to your Manipulation + Ride attacks), or a cat that can store small items Elsewhere and whose tongue can sterilize and bandage a bleeding wound as well as any doctor, or a dire wolf that can scheme as well as a savage adult human and whose jaws can catch ghosts, or a crow that reads and writes in all known languages and whose talons and wings are strong enough to bear two armored men aloft, or a goat that can be butchered for your evening meal and grow back to pull a chariot the next morning. While within ten yards, the familiar also adds 5 motes to your personal essence capacity. After 25 hours of separation these motes are lost and must be refilled after reuniting.
Four dots buys truly extraordinary creatures: unicorns, Mice of the Sun, elemental riding dragons (per the sidereal charm), birds big enough to be fitted with howdahs, wyld-spawn that could not otherwise survive within Creation. They can share their senses with you while within 25 miles, but in most cases cannot be "weilded." Personal essence pool boost is 10 motes and can linger through two weeks apart, during which time attempts to reunite count as supernatural tracking.
Five dots links your mind, blood, and destiny to that of an ancient and terrible behemoth. Exact details may be negotiated with the storyteller, but be advised that grasping for too much power by proxy may call into question which being is truly the other's faithful pet. Physical distance is irrelevant, even across different realms of existence. This is the same depth of connection as the Neverborn have to the Deathlords, or Infernal Exalted to the yozi which defines their Urge.

A Familiar cannot truly die while it's master lives and wishes to support it. Damage which would otherwise kill removes the familiar from the current scene, leaving it incapacitated. A lethal attack which would permanently destroy spirits either sends overflow through the arcane link as aggravated damage, or frays the link and reduces the background rating by a dot, at the master's option. The familiar then begins to heal naturally as if resting, as fast as the master would if remains are recovered and treated respecfully, or at mortal rates otherwise, and reappears when fully healed. This only applies to ordinary animal familiars. Demonic familiars can regenerate as if they had a sanctum, using overflow from their master's mote and willpower pools, but are affected normally by attacks that permanently destroy spirits. Autocthonian and ghostly familiars respawn according to their respective rules. It's possible to have more than one type of familiar, but the total number among all types cannot exceed the character's Essence, and 4-dot types count as two, while 5-dots count as three.

Followers provides a unit of extras with that magnitude, unless paired with a supporting background (Backing, Cult, or Resources). 'Supported' dots provide 2 magnitude each. Command always provides 2 magnitude of professional soldiers per dot, but 'unsupported' dots are loyal to some higher authority, while support requires Resources AND two among Cult, Destiny, Influence, Retainers (support staff), or Whispers.

In the past, you’ve house ruled background purchases of up to 6 dots for certain background/exalt combos, right? Would anyone be eligible for a 6 dot background in familiars or the other mentioned backgrounds? Additionally, would it be possible to split points and get multiple lower dot familiars? Or does it have to be one familiar at the listed level?

>>126267
You can buy into backgrounds more than once. Like Lute had Artifact 4 (Infinite Resplendence Amulet), Artifact 4 (Multifocal Lens Arm) and Artifact 1 (Starmetal Hearthstone Amulet). You should be able to do the same kind of thing buying multiple familiars.

Some character types get more out of the same background than others, too. Like if you look at Edgar here, >>125921 a single purchase of the Artifact 2 background nets him one two-dot artifact and two one-dot artifacts. (Embri would be a good example of this too).

>>126267
No such thing as 6-dot familiars, short of building a Primordial-style hierarchy of souls. Question about how many you can have is already addressed in the text.

6-dot Cult would be the level of worship received by the Incarnae: worldwide veneration as one of the main pillars of existence, 8 motes and 1 wp per hour.

Other 6-dot or "legendary" backgrounds are discussed in Dreams of the First Age. They're not usually available to starting characters, and are unusual even among mighty elder exalts.

Since I last counted motes in the thread, I’ve made 6 posts I think- 4 which I would assume are stunt worthy, 1 that certainly isn’t, and one that’s building off in game stuff but is really only a single sentence, so it feels silly to count it. So, that would be 16 notes recovered. I think I remember JamesLeng mentioning having combat stunts go towards WP, so I’m kind of assuming Bridget regained 2 WP when she kicked Morse around, then regained 4 because of the limit break compassion thing, putting her at 13. Does all that sound about right, or do I need to take away some of my motes? I haven’t been doing a great job of keeping up with stunt rewards since it feels presumptuous to give them to myself, but I think taking the initiative here helps me keep things rolling smoothly while I’m away from discord. I want to do more things with Bridget, but I figure since Embri was in that scene I should let her do something about the whole cluster of events that just went down. Feels little dirty for purposefully making extra posts though instead of keeping things condensed, I don’t want to exploit the system for XP and drag things out in the process.

Unrelated, but I think that’s 15 successes to craft a metal straight jacket for Morse, I feel like that’s gotta be imposing to look at. 9 dice naturally, 9 dice from charms, +2 for stunting right? I’m burning through my motes these past couple scenes, if the monks come after me I’m probably in trouble.

>>126287
You've got a hearthstone providing you with 2 motes per hour regardless of activity. Once the four-hour limit break is over, I figured you'd spend three hours on crafting (the time until Morse wakes up) during which you'd be naturally respiring 4 motes per hour, in addition to the stone. So, overall, 26 motes recovered over the course of those seven hours, entirely separate from stunts. If you had a 2-dot Cult, or that was a 2-dot hearthstone, it would've been 40.

The Conventicle Malfeasant's precise location within the demon realm, and exterior appearance (if any), are a secret known only to those yozis who have formally joined the Reclamation conspiracy. Any others who learn of it are subject to the attentions of Orabilis. From the inside, it is an impervious sphere sixteen miles in diameter, enclosing a ten-mile-thick slice of one of Malfeas's layers. Dozens of Gates of Inauspicious Passage (similar in function to ummuhan, but two-way - though a third, presumably unpleasant, destination awaits the unauthorized) connect to 4- and 5-dot manses in many significant or obscure sites all across the demon realm.

There are two domes, twelve and a half miles wide and three miles high, into which Ligier's light shines, though the sphere is opaque to all else. The Dome of Pleasure contains townhouses for the Green Sun Princes, and every tool of industry or luxury that the demon realm can reasonably provides; the Dome of Business is a proving ground for pivotal weapons and strategies too sensitive to be revealed anywhere else. Anyone calling an official meeting to order or rolling Join Battle in the Dome of Pleasure is whisked away to the corresponding location in the Dome of Business by an effect similar to the Inverted City Intaglio; any number of other willing participants can come along. Returning to the Dome of Pleasure by the same method requires only that discussions or battles be concluded by the abject submission, incapacitation, or mutual agreement of all involved, but often involves lateral displacement by up to a hundred yards in order to preserve some area's privacy.

The section between the domes consists of catacombs: occasional secret meeting rooms, chapels, workshops, or laboratories hidden among almost two thousand cubic miles of armor plating, cryptic machinery, and layer after layer of wards and vicious traps. Lillun is at the exact center. She is Essence 8; Cecelyne's laws define her as one of the Unquestionable, but the only Azure Decretals she is listed as having ordained were those which establish the Conventicle Malfeasant, define it's current form, and prohibit the Demon-Wracking Shout from being uttered within; she has a physical body, but to look directly upon it is a privilege none of the infernal exalted have yet earned; her father was a celestial exalt, and left no ghost; she has at least one other parent who still lives, and who loves her. Some claim to have spoken to Lillun in dreams, while the Ebon Dragon has shared nauseating (and often self-contradictory) descriptions of her 'beauty,' but nothing more is truly known.

>>126325
Are people similarly whisked away from the dome of business if they try to engage in matters more suitable to the pleasure dome?

I don’t know if Gilly checks the dis thread, so if someone can make sure they see my query it’d be appreciated:

So, Gilly, as a player I don’t really want to take away your cool items. In my head it seems OOC for Bridget to seal the evil away fully armed and equipped, but I wont let that bother me if you wanna keep your signature items, maybe as part of that whole plot armor concept for artifacts or however it’s phrased. If I’m honest I don’t even know what they do but I imagine they’d be valuable enough for Bridget to get a use of even if she doesn’t want to use them- could be that she pawns them off to mortals in exchange for services rendered, making them easier to retrieve if Morse wants them back? Kinda wanna get a feel for your thoughts on the subject before I make a move.

>>126397
Smart people in Creation give proper respectful funerals even to their bitter enemies, because the alternative is turning that enemy's po soul into a rampaging hungry ghost. The generally-accepted appeasement strategy involves burying them along with whatever stuff they cared about. Given that Bridget is treating Morse as a very scary corpse, leaving the mask on her face and the Drowned Shamisen (which Morse clearly liked) intact and secure somewhere conveniently nearby - maybe underneath a big rock - would be consistent with widespread, well-justified, moderately efficacious superstitious behavior.

>>126397
Had a quick chat with Magey and found a pretty good compromise that hits the spirit of your request: give Lute all three of Morse's artifacts. I did not stutter. Mortals should probably not be given these clearly magical weapons, but Lute/Bridget probably have a use for them. Also, I don't want to side track Morse joining the party any longer than we have-- OOCly I want her in the party, by hook or by crook. This is also technically safe for her artifacts, since some wahoo doesn't have it-- one of the player characters does. Bridget can choose to hang on to any of the three artifacts:

- Compass that tracks specific artifacts.
- The Drowned Shamisen
- Mirror Flag

Morse WILL want these back, but this is leverage on her-- which is probably the only way to trust an abyssal.

To clarify, I'm fine rolling with that if that's what Bridget ends up doing, but don't feel like I cut a deal with Gilly where that's the outcome I expect either.

I'm perfectly fine with Bridget sealing Morse's stuff under a rock too.

Bridget might be able to catch up to Light and help deal with the cavalry kidnappers. It would require two (possibly three) more mountain-crossing leaps, as well as information on where they actually are. Bridget can also carry normal human-sized people while jumping, though any more than two or maybe three would get awkward.

The Abyssal Investigation charm Heart-Rending Cruelty Technique can break someone's will and impose Unacceptable Orders, such as suicide, or betrayal of an otherwise inviolable charm-backed intimacy (e.g. Righteous Lion Defense, corebook p 199; every exalt type has their own variant).

The Sidereal Performance charm Perfection In Life can impose mental influence which, once accepted, cannot be shaken off by any amount of willpower expenditure (at least not during the same scene). Using it to supplement a social attack along the lines of "Don't give up, do your best!" would make despair-inducing mental influence an Impossible Order, a completely separate category of invalidity which Heart-Rending Cruelty Technique cannot overcome.

>>126412
Anything else give impossible orders?

>>126416
There's no way to compel someone to follow an impossible order. By definition, it's something they can't do, can't even meaningfully attempt.

Prey's Skin Disguise covers pretty much anything sapient and made of meat, not just humans. With Essential Mirror Form you could learn Mountain Folk Patterns, or Dragon King Paths, or even (in principle) lost powers of the pureblood Lintha.

Twin-Faced Hero is rolled into Changing Plumage Mastery, because as far as Luna is concerned, gender IS a minor cosmetic detail.

Internal Form Mastery is rolled in to Hybrid Body Rearrangement. If you buy it at Essence 2, it just uncaps Dexterity (by subtly optimizing joints and nerves), then at Essence 3 it allows partial shifting obvious enough for 'mutations.'

Hearth-And-Flame Shell, Laurels-And-Ivy Technique, and Somnolent Statuary Method are merged, and reduced to Essence 3.

Flickering Star Infusion requires this new combined plant/elemental/landscape knack as one of it's prerequisites. The other can be either Intimate Training Recollection or Taste Of Luna's Champions.

Honing the Stolen Form is a side benefit of Flickering Star Infusion, and costs no XP, just training time.

Compassionate Mirror Nature requires Life of the Hummingbird, NOT Prey's Skin Disguise.

Mountainous Spirit Expression provides the full enlargement-related benefits of Tyrant Mouse Dominion (from Glories: Luna) including option to not enlarge the spirit shape.

Tyrant Mouse Dominion does NOT require Mountainous Spirit Expression as a prerequisite. Illimitable Beast Declaration requires both, AND Heart-Theft of the Behemoth.

Emperor Ox Expansion is applicable to any form in the library by default, rather than needing to be upgraded with Titan Menagerie Method. Hungry All-Consuming Cloud and Moon-And-Earth Song are what happens when it's applied to their prerequisites, rather than separate knacks.

Becoming The Swarm adds a DV bonus equal to the Lunar's Essence rather than half their Dexterity. Rather than being immune to narrower attacks, a swarm enlarged to mass combat scale gains a full health track for each level of Magnitude, just like an actual mass combat unit. However, shifting to a non-swarm form before healing back to full magnitude is treated like deactivating Unstoppable Juggernaut Incarnation. The flip-side of that is, a Hungry All-Consuming Cloud can be used to heal from up to (Essence) mortal wounds delayed by Unstoppable Juggernaut Incarnation without ever being reduced to incapacitation, much less dying health levels. Downside is, each Magnitude level recovered requires a period of intensive feeding and breeding which likely devastates a stretch of countryside.

Ant And Starfish Trick requires Prey's Skin Disguise, Taste Of Luna's Champions, and either Becoming The Swarm, or Green Sun Child (and the addition of at least one second or third circle demon to your form library) as prerequisites. There is no range limit, even across realms of existence, and no precedence given to an 'original,' but if any are slain by an attack that would permanently destroy spirits, those Essence dots are converted to XP, along with any traits they served as prerequisite for, other than Ant And Starfish Trick itself. Lesser sorts of lethal violence allow lost Essence to be recovered at a rate of one dot per surviving splinter per season, or by any magic that heals both spiritual Shaping effects and amputations.

>>126125
Oh! One more note, there's a fifth purchase of Delirious Rapture of Virtue, which lets you spend (lowest virtue rating) aggravated health levels in place of a point of XP when swapping out specialties, changing your Motivation before completing it, or otherwise burning XP without a net gain in traits (e.g. the Wrapped Diamond paradox-reduction ritual, for a sidereal akuma).

>>126479
There's a lot of changes here- do Luna's Hidden Face, Hungry Dream Cloak, and Shifting Wyld Tides all still work the same?

>>126523
Probably, yeah. It's a work in progress. Open to suggestions for further consolidation of weak-but-necessary effects or other potential improvements.

Character sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1muwZ_UcbVbCvRfyO4EgNJ8tNkpSCSp7MyTiEIXMHlyY/edit?usp=sharing

Reference Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17IR1GVwCmT3yze1xQe9yaZZmSz5xy2Ulka9BzvackYQ/edit?usp=sharing

Just to have them here as well.

>>/quest/912012
Transcribing Matar's initial build to a text block for reference, since the character sheet will update over time, and filling in a few blanks from discord.

Arberus Vahl
Green Sun Prince (Isidoros Favored)
Slayer

Motivation: The murder of Hierarchy. To murder public officials in increasing higher positions, culminating with the murder of the Scarlet Empress herself.
Urge (Adorjani): To convince other to mob together in violence against figures of authority.

"Incite the Serpents Which Walk Like Men to liberate An-Teng from the Realm." (I could have sworn this was supposed to have been his urge, JL?)

Strength 5 Dexterity 1 Stamina 5
Charisma 1 Manipulation 1 Appearance 5
Perception 5 Intelligence 1 Wits 3

Essence 3, Willpower 10

Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 1, Valor 3

Caste: Archery, Martial Arts, Melee, Thrown, War
Favored: Athletics, Awareness, Dodge, Resistance, Lore

Abilities / Skills:
*Archery 1
*Athletics 5
*Awareness 3
*Dodge 4 (Frontal Assault +1)
Linguistics 0 (Native: Rivertongue)
*Lore 1
*Martial Arts 5 (Frontal Assault +2)
*Melee 0
*Resistance 3
Socialize 1
*Thrown 1
*War 1 (Frontal Assault +1)

Charms:
[Kimbery]
Intolerable Burning Truths (Hate Springs Eternal)
Bitter Heart Unbleeding x2
[Metagaos]
Sprawling Marsh Indulgence
Flowering the Fairer Face
Innocent Petal Assumption
Scentless Skinless Serpent Shintai
Palate Without Limit
Hunger Without Satisfaction
Digestion Without Distinction

Mutations:
Beacon of Power
Cannibalism
Hungry
Great Curse 3

Backgrounds:
Artifact 5, Sapience 4 (Three Hundred And Thirty Thirsty Fangs, see below)
Artifact 3,Sapience 3 (Cup of Flowing Blood w/ the added effects of a Erymanthus Demon Ink Tattoo)
Backing 1 (Malfeas)
Cult 1
Influence 1 (Malfeas)
Manse 4 (Uncapped 5 dot "Meat-moss" wood aspected demesne. Plant life becomes disturbing meat-constructs, mutates mortals to be abnormally delicious, attunement bonus comparable to Song of Life Stone, except meatier. Essence harvest not yet defined)

Arberus' Three Hundred And Thirty Thirsty Fangs has the following additional traits as a sapient hellforged wonder:

Urge: Carve out a pleasure-dome among the veins of the earth.
Mutations: Gargantuan (switchable) - +4 Strength and Stamina, 4x height, 64x weight
Spirit Charms:
Affinity (Earth) Control - 4 barrels, allocated between damage, resistance, and construction or demolition of stone walls
Bread of Weak Spirit - all-encompassing
Hurry Home - to Arberus
Landscape Travel - walk across any surface at double normal speed, transmuting it to a basalt roadway as you go. While enlarged, 10x speed instead.
Material Tribulation Divestment - while relaxing at a party
Stoke the Flame - stir up heterodoxy and rebellion
First Excellency for Integrity, Larceny, and Stealth

Intimacies:
The Act of Murder in public
Granting children the ability to harm others.
Protect those that dedicate themselves to culinary arts.
To have his name known throughout all of Creation.
To consume every type of sentient being.

>>126579
Confirmed, Urge is "Incite the Serpents Which Walk Like Men to liberate An-Teng from the Realm."

The possibilities for celebratory cataclysms are as yet unsettled.

I'm going to make it compatible with boosts from e.g. Epic Zeal of (Valor), but weaken the effects a bit so each success on the roll only recovers one bashing level or downgrades a lethal level to bashing, and add a clause where if you actually spend a channel of the appropriate virtue, roll double the dice. However, using it to downgrade aggravated damage to lethal requires a repurchase at Resistance 5, Essence 4.

One willpower is usually the equivalent of three to five motes. That's not an exact number, but it's the opportunity cost: for a standard two-die stunt, the choice is between four motes or one WP, so there has to be some approximate equivalency for that to be a meaningful choice. The Abyssal charm Virtue-Devouring Hunger, it's solar mirror, and various Fair Folk charmtech make me inclined to say a virtue channel is also roughly equivalent to a willpower point. Various charms such as Crane Form, Phoenix Renewal Tactic, and (Isidoros) or (Theion) Mythos Exultant make it possible to recover a virtue channel instead of a willpower point. However, other Mythos Exultant charms (specifically, Cecelyne and SWLiHN) double the effective stunt award, so I'm inclined to houserule those effects to be "in addition to" rather than "instead," and incidentally tweak the Pyrian Mythos Exultant so it awards a number of WP equal to the stunt rating, when you choose WP, rather than a flat two for 2+. However, no charm will EVER double the actual MOTE award for stunting, or otherwise allow faster intrinsic mote recovery than by three-die stunt awards every action.

Exalted 2.5's combat engine is built around the idea that any essence user who's taking the fight seriously - and who, in turn, ought to be taken seriously by their opponents - will be getting a two or three die stunt award every action in combat, and furthermore than this is the only reliable way to recover REAL motes mid-battle. Attunement motes, offensive motes, the special single-use motes from Ghost-Eating Technique, 'compassion' motes from Softening Cruel Tidings, key thing they all have in common is that they can't be used to power combative Excellencies, nor perfect defenses.

The apparent exceptions - Lightning Boxes, Charter-Stripping Condemnation, Earth Reclaims Her Bounty, Unchain the Dragon's Heart, (Virtue) Essence Replenishment, the innate power of Abyssals to feed on blood, various other necromantic horrors - all depend on resources which are themselves nonrenewable in combat time, whether that's manses, weather, lives, or just a per-day cap. Attunement, Offensive, or otherwise limited/nonstandard motes can be converted to regular motes, but only immediately when the fight's over (wait too long, they dissipate), and even then it requires some method of voluntary transfer such as Essence-Lending Method, Lease The Flame, the emerald circle spell Eye of Alliance in combination with appropriate artifacts, or certain thaumaturgical procedures, mostly in the Art of Geomancy. The Adorjani charm Beauteous Carnage Incentive is unusual in that it transfers those motes automatically, efficiently, and to yourself, but it still only activates when the scene ends.

When someone heroic, even a non-essence-using heroic mortal, spends less than 4m xor 1wp per action, that means they either haven't got their head in the game (OOC, can't come up with an adequate 2-die stunt) or they're deliberately holding back, taking it easy, waiting for the right moment before fully comitting. Even if they're being very aggressive in other ways, their heart's not really in it. Spending more than equilibrium, they've either spotted a critical opportunity and are now moving in for the finishing blow, or else are desperately outmatched (or just dangerously undisciplined) and will soon exhaust themselves.

Channeling a virtue means you've spent one willpower AND one virtue channel - arguably the equivalent of at least eight motes - to add, typically, only three to five more dice to a roll. Anyone with an appropriate excellency could get a much better rate of return. Virtue channeling is inefficient. It mostly only makes sense in situations where you can't afford to be efficient: when you don't have enough time or XP to take a day off to learn the relevant Excellency (or a few weeks to grab the prerequisite, if you're completely ignorant of the subject in question and not lucky enough to be a Lunar), or when you already hit your dice cap or ran out of motes but for whatever reason need a burst of even more power... or when you're not an exalt at all, and don't even have access to relevant excellencies.

Sorcery, and sidereal martial arts (without Sutra discounts), are outrageously expensive in this context. Most of the time, that means it's like bringing motorized anti-aircraft artillery to a knife fight: don't even try it unless you're pretty sure one quick barrage could wrap up the entire conflict, and even then, you'll need a few guards to keep you from being stabbed while you're preparing that big shot. Smart sorcerers do their casting before the fight begins (wards and landscaping to prepare the field, summoning, personal buffs like Invulnerable Skin of Bronze, etc.), or stick to quick-cast stuff: Countermagic, Banishment, or Flight of Separation.

Another little houserule for countermagic: at any given circle, the more expensive version reaches out and swats down an ongoing spell, but the cheaper version, rather than being self-only and lasting a single action, can be delivered by touch to any creature, object, or point in space, and persists indefinitely. Next time a spell which it would be capable of countering (including thaumaturgy) is cast on the target or an area encompassing it, the latent countermagic resolves and is expended. One spell can trigger many counters this way, expending all of them - only benefit of redundancy is that the fragments from a same-circle spell may then be countered individually, reducing collateral damage.

Latent countermagic can't break previously cast spells, so it can work as an ablative sheathe over some other enchantment. If countermagic of multiple circles is layered together, only the highest is expended. When latent countermagic stops a lower-circle spell, it might not be used up entirely: roll a number of dice equal to the difference, for example, adamant countermagic vs. thaumaturgy would roll three dice. On a botch, the latent countermagic not only burns itself out, but disrupts whatever it was meant to be protecting as well (to whatever extent it could normally affect the underlying magic).

Palate Without Limit is overpowered. Compared to Hateful Wretched Noise, it provides more of a bonus with no corresponding penalty apart from a 4m commitment. So, I'm adding a downside, in two parts: first, it inflicts a -(Essence) internal penalty on any nonreflexive action to examine details - everything from medical diagnosis to Read Motivation to crime scenes to patting somebody down for concealed weapons - unless you lick the thing being examined, which may involve health risks and/or be considered socially inappropriate. If examination concludes that you could gain any material benefit by ingesting the subject, regardless of other costs or risks, you then have to spend 1 wp to resist a Compulsion to immediately eat at least enough to inflict one level of lethal damage on it. For fragile or small targets, such as an alchemical potion or paper contract, that might be the whole thing.

>>127130
Not knowing how hard the other penalty hits you, that sounds like a charm that I personally would never really be inclinded to pick up. Seems more like a curse than a boon.

>>127160
With no downside though, you Palate Without Limit gets you the function of Keen Taste Technique, Keen Scent Technique, and Unsurpassed Taste Discipline (three different solar charm purchases!) in a single buy.

As for the curse vs boon, at least you have a choice to turn it on or off, and superpowers with downsides that make you inhuman or alien or weird does seem to fit the yozi aesthetic.

>>127161
One and a half, actually, Keen Smell & Taste is just one solar charm.

You can avoid the penalty by simply not activating the charm. When it IS active, trading a -2 or -3 internal penalty for two bonus successes and the ability to notice things that wouldn't otherwise be possible still leaves you at a net advantage even when it comes to scent, unless your dice pool was so low you'd have no chance normally. If you use Metagoyin charmtech to be Sherlock Holmes, a certain amount of non-figurative chewing the scenery is almost inevitable, and you probably shouldn't be trusted ID'ing fine wines or found potions.

With Flesh-Weaving Tendrils, major surgery doesn't need to involve any damage at all, so one lethal health level might still leave the patient better off than they would have been going to a mundane doctor - and if they go to get a second opinion anyway, Canker-Concealing Trunk Confusion could be used to make sure the bite marks aren't visible.

Another little houserule, to make some neglected traits more relevant: when you're trying to find an expert for hire, once per month roll your Appearance + Backing (if you're doing so through official channels) or Appearance + Contacts (for personal stuff). Of those who show up, the best among them will have as many dots in relevant skills as the successes from that roll, up to the limit of what's plausibly available in the area where your message has reached and from which replies could have returned.

Attracting the interest of a true necromancer, sorcerer, or outcaste terrestrial exalt always requires at least five or six successes on such a roll. Martial Arts take another success per charm, so an outcaste terrestrial who'd fully mastered a CMA style might take 20+ successes to find - and probably wouldn't work cheap. Hiring a celestial exalt or other unique being usually involves going on a whole adventure just to track them down, not just posting a want-ad.

Figuring out which applicants are actually the most qualified is a task for the Bureaucracy skill, and coming up with a payment plan they'll accept probably requires Resources, though Influence and social skills also tend to help.

Required Ability Mundane Exotic Repair Rating Difficulty Successes Minimums* Resources Materials Difficulty 1 3 10 3 $16,000 1 2 2 4 30 3 $125,000 2 3 3 5 60 3 $1,000,000 3 4 4 6 100 6 $8,000,000 4 5 5 7 250 7 $65,000,000 5 6 6 8 500 8 $500,000,000 6 7 7 9 1000 9 $4,000,000,000 7 8 8 10 2500 10 $33,000,000,000 8 9 9 11 5000 11 $250,000,000,000 9 10 10 Establishing new wonders comparable in themselves to the sum total of Creation is beyond the scope of these rules.

I'd like to thank Kawaiiwolf for becoming my patron at the $5 level.

An approximate hierarchy of mental influence resistance, from easiest to hardest:
-impossible orders (autoresist for free, cannot be bypassed)
-unacceptable orders (autoresist for free, can only be bypassed by powerful magic under narrow circumstances)
-opposed to Motivation/Urge (+3 MDV, must spend WP to resist if attack succeeds unless will already broken)
-opposed to Motivation/Urge but supported by intimacy (net +2 MDV, must spend WP to resist if attack succeeds unless will already broken)
-opposed to Virtue rated 3+ (+2 MDV, need to choose between spending WP to resist or suppressing virtue if attack succeeds)
-opposed to Motivation/Urge but supported by Virtue rated 3+ (net +1 MDV, must spend WP to resist if attack succeeds unless will already broken)
-opposed to Virtue rated 3+ but supported by intimacy (net +1 MDV, need to choose between spending WP to resist or suppressing virtue if attack succeeds)
-opposed to Intimacy (+1 MDV, going along with it may count as eroding the intimacy)
-opposed to Virtue rated 3+ but supported by another virtue also rated 3+ (net +0 MDV, will probably need to suppress at least one virtue no matter what happens)
-opposed to Intimacy but supported by another Intimacy (net +0 MDV, will probably end up eroding an intimacy no matter what happens)
-no opinion (+0 MDV)
-supported by Intimacy (-1 MDV)
-supported by Virtue rated 3+ but opposed by Intimacy (net -1 MDV, may need to suppress Virtue or go along with it anyway even if attack fails)
-supported by Motivation but opposed by Virtue rated 3+ (net -1 MDV, need to choose between spending WP to resist or suppressing virtue if attack succeeds)
-supported by Motivation but opposed by Intimacy (net -2 MDV, going along with it may count as eroding the intimacy)
-supported by Virtue rated 3+ (-2 MDV, may need to suppress Virtue or go along with it anyway even if attack fails)
-supported by Motivation (-3 MDV)
-virtue compulsions triggered by own direct observations (can roll and hope for no successes, or spend 1 wp, unless wp is empty)
-unblockable/undodgeable/unexpected social attacks (MDV zero)
-mental influence already in place which compels maximum resistance against it's own removal
-akuma urges & automaton hardwired programming

Now that it's much later and I actually understand how chargen works, here's Lute's ronin akuma sidereal chargen actually mathed out in detail.

Original post
>>/quest/874890

Virtues
4 + 5 = 9 free dots

Compassion 6 Conviction 3 Temperance 4 Valor 2

15 - 9 = 6 from BP
Net BP = -6 BP

Attributes
9 + 8 + 6 + 4 = 27 free dots

Strength 1 Dexterity 6 Stamina 6
Charisma 0 Manipulation 6 Appearance 6
Perception 6 Intelligence 6 Wits 6

43 - 27 = 16 from BP
Net BP = -16*4 = -64 BP

Abilities
25 free dots, 10 of which must be spent on caste/favored
4 free specialities

Place 10 dots in caste/favored, then convert to 10 BP
Place 15 dots in unfavored, then convert to 30 BP
Place 4 specialities in unfavored, then convert to 4 BP

Buy with BP:
[7]*Craft (Air) 6 (Restoring Symmetry +2)
[8]Investigation 4
[6]*Lore 6
[1]*Martial Arts 1
[6]*Occult 6
[6]*Performance 6
[2]*Thrown 2

Net BP = +44 -36 = +8 BP

Charms
8 Free Charms

Place 8 Charms in unfavored abilities, convert to BP, 8*7 = 56 BP

Buy with BP:
[5]Destiny-Knitting Entanglement
[7]Efficient Secretary Technique
[5]Perfection In Life
[5]Defense of Shining Joy
[5]Essence Thorn Practice

Net BP = +56 -27 = 29 BP

Backgrounds
7 Free backgrounds, convert to 7 BP

Buy with BP:
[1]Ally 1 (The Sandpoint Devil)
[5]Artifact 4 (Vitriol Tainted Moonsilver-Starmetal Infinite Resplendence Amulet)
[5]Artifact 4 (Multifocal Lens Arm)
[1]Artifact 1 (Vitriol Tainted Starmetal Hearthstone Amulet)
[3]Manse 3

Net BP = +7 -15 = -8 BP

BP Totals
+18 (Free)
+30 BP (Demonic Inheritance 5)
+8 (Magical Plague Carrier)
-6 (Virtues)
-5 (Willpower 10)
-64 (Attributes)
+8 (Abilities)
+29 (Charms)
-8 (Backgrounds)

Net BP = 9 BP

I have unspent BP? Huh, if there was an error, I was expecting to be the other way. (I suppose this makes sense if Lute were slightly less mixmaxed, and some of her starting charms were caste/favored, so were cached in for 5BP instead of 7BP).

>>/questarch/874890

Let's see if this link will work.

Henceforth, but NOT retroactively, any post in the exalted game(s) I'm running here with more word count or scroll height devoted to unfocused in-character dialogue and "fluff" description than to concrete details of mechanically-resolvable action, will not be counted for experience point purposes.

A map or diagram illustrating the action counts as one thousand (10^3) good words, and as much scroll height as contains useful information. To count, such an image MUST include:
>at least one previously-established landmark or reference point
>at least one arrow or other indication of motion
>something to give an unambiguous sense of scale
These should not be difficult criteria to meet, just a bare foundation. Good images will include lots more, but specifics are too contextual to lay hard rules about. Stick figures or other extremely simplified representations are fine, provided the meaning is clear. If there is no movement to be shown, you're either not taking a substantial enough action, or you're trying to represent it from the wrong perspective. If there's a significant vertical element, try showing a cut-away side view rather than just top-down. If the action is political or psychological rather than overtly physical, a map of the chain of command, relationship web, predicate logic flowchart, or something along those lines might be the more appropriate sort of diagram for unpacking what could otherwise be lost in subtext. Crafting can be represented as a chemical reaction, with inputs, catalysts, and outputs... or, if you're feeling particularly ambitious, a map sprinkled with symbols from Living Systems Theory.

Editing or otherwise reusing images from other players is not only permissible, but strongly encouraged, both to build on what has come before and to point out apparent errors. Images more than about 1200 pixels wide will be looked on unfavorably, all else being equal, but this can be outweighed if the space is well-used, by which I mean dense with useful detail that couldn't have been compressed or rearranged without losing something, as opposed to merely being packed with clutter.

Word count and scroll height have a degree of objectivity, but the threshold is sorta blurry, and that's intentional. The real point is I want players to focus more on quality over quantity. Ideally every detail should convey information which is, or could plausibly become, tactically significant, and do so clearly and concisely.

>>131051
https://tgchan.org/kusaba/quest/res/925850.html#945924
This is the last post judged by the old xp standard, which I am recording here for my own XP counting purposes. This post, and all others before it, shall be counted for XP using the old ruling, and new posts going forward shall be evaluated for useful detail vs unnecessary fluff, rather than a cut and dry "did this progress the game." check.

I've got a vague concept for adapting the 3.5 D&D adventure Return To The Temple of Elemental Evil as an Exalted scenario.

>>132149
Have you considered joining the Discord server to share said ideas? Pathfinder is thus far one of my favorite systems so adapting a 3.5 adventure sounds like a good time.

Noir Character Sheet

Night caste solar

Motivation: Locate the remaining first age lunars lost in the wyld
Iconic anima: Black and white mosaic of a grotesque looking down upon a city
Limit Break: In contention

Soul:
Compassion 2 Conviction 4 Temperance 2 Valor 1 Permanent Willpower 10

Attributes:
Strength 3 Dexterity 5 Stamina 1
Charisma 4 Manipulation 1 Appearance 2
Perception 5 Intelligence 3 Wits 3

Essence
Permanent Essence 3 Personal Motes 19 Peripheral Motes 40

Skills:
Archery 0
*Athletics 1 (One Handed) 3
*Awareness 5
Bureaucracy 0
Craft (Air) 0, (Earth) 0, (Fire) 0, (Vitriol) 0, (Water) 0, (Wood) 0
*Dodge 1
Integrity 0
*Investigation 5 (Unseen) 2
*Larceny 4 (Collecting Evidence) 2
Linguistics 1 (Fire tongue, Old Realm)
*Lore 1
Martial Arts 0
*Medicine 1
Melee 0
Occult 0
Performance 0
Presence 0
Resistance 0
*Ride 3 (Windblade) 3
Sail 0
Socialize 0
*Stealth 1
Survival 0
*Thrown 5
War 0

Mutations and Backgrounds:
Missing Arm, +2BP
Artifact 5, Armor of the Unseen Assassin (Damaged)
Artifact 3, Windblade
Artifact 2, Space-warping Needle

Charms:
Second Awareness Excellency
Keen Hearing and Touch Technique
Surprise Anticipation Method
Second Investigation Excellency
Lock Opening Touch
Master Horseman's Technique (Harmony of Spirits Style)
One Man Cavelry
Call the Blade (Throw)
Deft Hand Deflection

Intimacies:
6/12
Lunar Mate: TBD
Planning: Essential!/Positive
Other PCs: Grateful/Positive
Breaking and Entering: Exciting/Positive
Himself: Coward/Negative
Fighting: Nervous/Negative

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YazvJrkSH1EqpACl267UzrVpVzhN_vcZmTZ22sBoM2g/edit#gid=462326413
Any other bits I should post in the thread for the character sheet?

>>132371
Good format overall.
Quibbles:
Soul should probably be split up into two lines, with virtues on one, permanent essence and willpower on the other.
Backgrounds and Mutations should be separate headings.
If you're going to have a separate section for Essence, include long-term commitments such as artifacts there.

>>131051
Re-simplified the XP-worthy post standards, as explained here:
>>/quest/959247

Desert Locust Character Sheet

Casteless Lunar

Motivation: Expand the Thousand Streams River to Malfeas
Iconic anima: A Swarm of Locust Darkening the Moon
Limit Break: Curse of the Drunken Monkey

Soul:
Compassion 2 Conviction 2 Temperance 3 Valor 2
Permanent Willpower 10 Permanent Essence 4
Spirit Shape- Swarm of Locust
Tell- Always has ball jointed limbs
Personal Essence 24 Peripheral Essence 48
Six peripheral motes permanently attuned to the infernal graft Vein Tapping Plague. Five peripheral motes usually committed to Principle of Motion. Six peripheral motes usually committed to Amethyst Awareness.

Attributes:
Strength 1 Dexterity 5 Stamina 5
Charisma 2 Manipulation 2 Appearance 3
Perception 3 Intelligence 3 Wits 3

Skills:
Archery 0
Athletics 3
Awareness 3
Bureaucracy 0 (Cults) 1
Craft (Air) 0, (Earth) 0, (Fire) 0, (Vitriol) 1, (Water) 0, (Wood) 0
Dodge 3
Integrity 0
Investigation 0
Larceny 0
Linguistics 1 (Old Realm, Rivertongue)
Lore 1
*Martial Arts 3 (Kicking) 3
Medicine 0
Melee 0
Occult 3
Performance 0
Presence 0
Resistance 3
Ride 0
Sail 0
Socialize 0
Stealth 0
*Survival 1
Thrown 0
War 3

Mutations:
Creature of Darkness, +4BP
Sun Allergy, +6BP

Backgrounds:
Artifact 3 + Sapience 3: Vein Tapping Plague. An infernal graft that has transformed her feet into a cross between insectile claws and ice skates. They afford the effects of a Mist Razor artifact, causing a constant trail of vapor to emanate from her feet while allowing them to affect the immaterial, as well as the weapon statline of God Kicking Boots and the mobility enhancement of Perfect Boots. Finally, any surface at least one yard across which supports her weight is treated as a paved road, negating penalties due to slickness or uneven terrain. The relic has the following urge and charms:
URGE: Attune to or destroy any manse I see.
>Principle of Motion, containing ten banked actions
>Amethyst Awareness
>Tracking, applicable against those who do not allow me to attune to their manse
>Worldly Illusion
>Meat of Broken Flesh
>Bane Weapon, applicable against those who have interfered with my attempts to attune to a manse or demense
Manse 3, Vitriol Manse producing a SoAU
Resources 1, hunting and labor

Charms and Knacks:
Deadly Beastman Transformation, Extra Arms, Armored Carapace
Humble Mouse Shape
Emerald Grasshopper Form
Becoming the Swarm
First Dexterity Excellency
Wasp Sting Blur
Armor Forming Technique
Limb-Shielding Growth

Intimacies:
8/12
Adamant Strix: Confusion/Positive
Herself: Confusion/Positive
Fighting: Fun/Positive
Bugs: Cool/Positive
Creation: Pity/Positive
Birds: Hate/Negative
Sunlight: Hate/Negative
Sorcery: Mistrust/Negative

Jan Do, Wandering Ronin and Belle-lettrist
Dusk Caste

Iconic Anima: A bone-white, bare cherry tree within a tempest of blood-red petals
Motivation: Master the killing art that once slew her

Attributes:
[8] Strength 2 Dexterity 5 Stamina 5 [+1 from BP]
[4] Charisma 3 Manipulation 1 Appearance 3
[6] Perception 3 Intelligence 3 Wits 3

Virtues: [Assign 5, +3 from BP]
Compassion 2, Conviction 2, Temperance 5, Valor 3
(Temperance Dominant, Conviction Flawed)

Soul:
Essence 2, Willpower 10
Personal 16, Peripheral 36
10/36 Peripheral committed (5m Reaper Daiklave, 5m Principle of Motion)

Abilities/Skills:
Caste: Archery, Martial Arts, Melee, Thrown, War
Favored: Dodge, Integrity, Linguistics, Presence, Resistance

[skill dots: 10 caste/favored, 18 unrestricted +2 caste/favored from BP]
[specialties: 4 free (1 linguistics, 3 socialize), +6 caste/favored for 3 BP (3 integrity, 3 Melee) ]

*Archery 0
Athletics 1
Awareness 1
Bureaucracy
Craft
*Dodge 5
*Integrity 1 (Code of Honor +3)
Investigation
Larceny
*Linguistics 1 (Native: Skytongue (Hidden Kingdom Dialect), Others: Old Realm) (Poetry +1)
Lore 1
*Martial Arts 5
Medicine
*Melee 5 (In Sandals +3)
Occult 1
Performance
*Presence 1
*Resistance 1
Ride
Sail
Socialize 2 (Scrupulous Politeness +2)
Stealth 1
Survival 1
*Thrown 2
*War 1

(20 caste/favored before BP, 22 after).

Charms: (Any 10)
Improvised Assassin’s Trick [Thrown 2, Essence 1]
Blood Calligraphy Technique [Linguistics 1, Essence 1]
Exquisite Etiquette Style [Socialize 2, Essence 1]
Fluttering Cry of Warning [Martial Arts 4, Essence 2]
Hearing the Unspoken Word [Martial Arts 2, Compassion 2, Essence 1]
First Melee Excellency [Melee 1, Essence 1]
Blade-Summoning Gesture [Melee 2, Essence 2]
Ebon Lightning Prana [Melee 3, Essence 2]
Flitting Shadow Form [Dodge 3, Essence 1]
Flickering Wisp Technique [Dodge 4, Essence 2] (Conviction Flaw)

Mutations, Merits and Flaws:
None

Backgrounds: [7 dots + 1 from BP]
Artifact 2 (Soulsteel Reaper Daiklave (Dyed in Red) )
Artifact 2 (Yasal Crystal)
Artifact 1 (Traveler's Staff)
Manse 2 (Crystal of the Frozen North)
Resources 1

Mundane Equipment / Resource Purchases:
Once-fine Ceremonial Samurai Clothes (Trappings of Death)

Intimacies: [12 max, need 6+]
Code of Honor (Unwavering Devotion)
Rudeness and Disrespect (Contempt)
Poetry (Contentment)
Dyed in Red (Devotion)
Clever Fox (Exasperated Fondness)
Exalted Comrades (Loyalty)

BP Spent:
+18 Free with Chargen
-5 Permanent Willpower 10
-3 three Virtue dots
-4 Stamina 5
-2 two caste/favored Abilities
-3 Specialties
-1 Backgrounds

Descriptions:

Jan Do was once a samurai, sworn to service in a small and hidden northern kingdom. Her life and service came to an end when fate decreed one of the leaders of that community was to die- and a chosen of the maidens, pressed for time, did not have the luxury of subtlety. The samurai in the sidereal’s path fought bravely and with honor, but none were a match for the Violet Bier of Sorrows. The swordswoman has not returned since the abyssal exaltation came to her- she failed her lord, and now wanders the north as a ronin, bereft of name and home. Leaving in her wake only scraps of unsigned poetry, written in her own blood, the only name she answers to now is her people’s title for an unknown poet.

The Dusk caste seeks not vengeance for her death- her opponent was more skilled than she, and their victory fairly earned. She would, however, reclaim her honor by overcoming and mastering the martial art that once slew her- though she cannot well remember the face of her killer (memories clouded by the veil of death, it must be) the elegant dance of blades and violet katas remains burned into her mind’s eye.

The Belle-lettrist still follows the code of honor she knew in life, and has little forbearance or mercy for those who act rudely or without honor, willing to correct such offenses with blood and steel.

Jan Do dresses as a samurai without armor- in loose clothes (long dark pants, a lighter top, and jacket) with the appearance of fine formal dress, but visibly worn, as if used for burial. She is of somewhat short stature, unusually pale, with dark hair.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/458535618876801035/690383856733519882/e693137d88d384206bf0a7d129beb2dd.png (A not too far off reference)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/463154142680973342/690469575917305856/tumblr_lswjpkE5Uw1qbet1ko1_1280.jpg (A less correct reference, unless she were to grow her hair out and Clever Fox were to persuade Jan into a change of clothes)

Dyed in Red
Once there was a twisted sorcerer, lord of a city of slaves. His greatest enemy was a witch, empowered by arts bartered and stolen from the fair folk. The sorcerer captured and enslaved a certain god-blooded girl-child as a gladiator, bait the witch had long sought. Neither rival found victory. The girl, armed with a simple iron blade and a hard-won secret, slew the witch she had been meant to merely delay, before the jaws of the sorcerer’s trap could close. His power over-invested in workings that could not close nor see return, the sorcerer fared no better.

Forged with the bones of the long dead witch’s-bane, Dyed in Red is a Soulsteel Reaper Daiklave. Less ostentatious in shape and design than many similar weapons of the Exalted, the blade can be borne in an accompanying sheath (an ordinary object, with no magical properties of its own. The blade’s least god insists having a sheath is necessary maintenance, and it has been replaced more than once when lost or destroyed in the weapon’s history). The one significant decoration is a small charm attached to the pommel- a short chain terminating in a blood red flower, carved from jade.

Manse
Jan Do does not remember coming into possession of the hearthstone she now bears, so, for the moment, details of the corresponding manse are unknown.

Yasal Crystal
An amber gemstone the size of a pigeon's egg. Currently it holds an atypically philosophical bloop ape, advanced to Essence 3, Charisma 3 and adding the charms Loom Stride and Spice of the Custodial Delectation (both specialized in pools of blood) and some knowledge of thaumaturgy.

For reference, the list of applicable charms the blood ape provides are: Bane Weapon (Cats), Landscape Travel (Bratiation), Loom Stride (Pools of Blood), Principle of Motion (Five Actions), Spice of the Custodial Delectation (Pools of Blood), First and Second Excellencies for Athletics, Dodge, Martial Arts, Presence and Stealth.

I'm going to stop putting this off and actually buckle down and put my two character sheets in here.

Strength: 2 Charisma: 2 Perception: 4
Dexterity: 5 Manipulation: 2 Intelligence: 5
Stamina: 2 Appearance: 3 Wits: 2

Essence 2: Willpower 10/10

Compassion: 3
Conviction: 2
Temperance: 2
Valor: 2


Awareness 3
Bureaucracy 3
Craft (Air) 2
Craft (Fire) 2
Craft (Lightning) 3
Craft (Vitriol) 1
Integrity 3
Linguistics 2
Lore 3
Martial Arts 5
Occult 4 (Art of Geomancy +3) (Art of Enchanting +1)
Performance 3

Charms:
Martial ArtsRoots of the Brass Lotus
Martial ArtsBirdsong Over Blades
Martial ArtsAlehouse Memory Stance
Martial ArtsOwl Clutches at the Night
Martial ArtsWhite Veil Form
Martial ArtsOpen Palm Caress
Martial ArtsTorn Lotus Defense
IsidorosIndomitable Hedonism Drive
IsidorosUnbothered by Flies
Adorjan Sacred Kamila Inhalation
SWLiHN Pyrian Excellency
SWLiHN Factual Determination Analysis
SWLiHN Essence Disecting Stare
SWLiHN Mind Hand Manipulation


Merits:
Savant 4
Resources 3
Past Life 2
Influence (Malfeas) 2
Cult 1

She Who Lives in Her Name (A Shining Example to follow)
First Age Textbooks (Love to read)
List-making (Favorite Way to Start a Day)
Building Artifacts (Self Reliant Pride)
Amilar Kraik (Deep personal respect)
Jan Do (Formal Respect)
Noir (Interested Respect)
Desert Locust (Terrified Respect)
Clever Fox (Confused Respect)
Doctor Lunar (Scholarly Respect)
Hipenci The Second, Lady of War (Love)


Negative Mutations:
Delusion (Can't Fight) 1
Megalomania 1
Phobia (Missing Deadlines) 1

BP Math:
Skills: 6
Charms: 6
Willpower: 5
Backgrounds: 4


EXP Debt: 8

>>132381
VTP should be a seven mote commitment, not six. Also, not sure if I like the name. Otherwise looking good.

>>132387
Approved.
>>132391
Past Life needs a Motivation, two Intimacies, and ideally some other biographical background.

>>132381
>>132395
Updating this sheet to serve as an accurate reflection of the character build.

Desert Locust Character Sheet

Casteless Lunar

Motivation: Expand the Thousand Streams River to Malfeas
Iconic anima: A Swarm of Locust Darkening the Moon
Limit Break: Curse of the Drunken Monkey

Soul:
Compassion 2 Conviction 2 Temperance 3 Valor 2
Permanent Willpower 10 Permanent Essence 4
Spirit Shape- Swarm of Locust
Tell- Always has ball jointed limbs
Personal Essence 24 Peripheral Essence 48
Seven peripheral motes permanently attuned to the infernal graft "Flea Upon the Flank of Pasiap". Five peripheral motes usually committed to Principle of Motion. Six peripheral motes usually committed to Amethyst Awareness.

Attributes:
Strength 1 *Dexterity 5 *Stamina 5
Charisma 2 Manipulation 2 Appearance 3
Perception 3 Intelligence 3 Wits 3

Skills:
Archery 0
Athletics 3
Awareness 3
Bureaucracy 0 (Cults) 1
Craft (Air) 0, (Earth) 0, (Fire) 0, (Vitriol) 1, (Water) 0, (Wood) 0
Dodge 3
Integrity 0
Investigation 0
Larceny 0
Linguistics 1 (Old Realm, Rivertongue)
Lore 1 (Insects) 1
*Martial Arts 3 (Kicking) 1
Medicine 0
Melee 0
Occult 3
Performance 0
Presence 0
Resistance 3
Ride 0
Sail 0
Socialize 0
Stealth 0
*Survival 1 (Insects) 1
Thrown 0
War 3

Mutations:
Creature of Darkness, +4BP
Sun Allergy, +6BP

Backgrounds:
Artifact 3 + Sapience 3: "Flea Upon the Flank of Pasiap". An infernal graft that has transformed her feet into a cross between insectile claws and ice skates. They afford the effects of a Mist Razor artifact, causing a constant trail of vapor to emanate from her feet while allowing them to affect the immaterial, as well as the weapon statline of God Kicking Boots and the mobility enhancement of Perfect Boots. Finally, any surface at least one yard across which supports her weight is treated as a paved road, negating penalties due to slickness or uneven terrain. The relic has the following urge and charms:
URGE: Attune to or destroy any manse I see.
>Principle of Motion, containing ten banked actions
>Amethyst Awareness
>Tracking, applicable against those who do not allow me to attune to their manse
>Worldly Illusion
>Meat of Broken Flesh
>Bane Weapon, applicable against those who have interfered with my attempts to attune to a manse or demense
Manse 3, Vitriol Manse producing a SoAU. Details of the manse build are currently undecided.
Resources 1, hunting and labor

Charms and Knacks:
Deadly Beastman Transformation, Extra Arms, Armored Carapace
Humble Mouse Shape
Emerald Grasshopper Form
Becoming the Swarm
First Dexterity Excellency
Wasp Sting Blur
Armor Forming Technique
Limb-Shielding Growth

Mundane Equipment / Resource Purchases:
Oversized poncho which covers her completely for protection from the sun. Includes a long train, and is not well maintained.
A fundoshi style loincloth and two shirts, built more like robes with ties to keep closed, and sleeves that have built in storage space.
Two thick wool parkas, one worn and one stowed.
Travelers kit, including a straw bedroll, charcoal, old pants and boots which no longer fit her, a knife and whetstone, jug of wine, five pound sack of grain, and a canvas bag to hold it all, slung over her back.

Intimacies:
8/12
Adamant Strix: Confusion/Positive
Herself: Confusion/Positive
Fighting: Fun/Positive
Creation: Pity/Positive
Bugs: Cool/Positive
Birds: Hate/Negative
Sunlight: Hate/Negative
Sorcery: Mistrust/Negative

BP Spent:
+18 Free with Chargen
+10 CoD Mutation and Allergy to sunlight
-5 Permanent Willpower 10
-20 essence 4
-3 Manse 3

Descriptions:
Desert Locust is a descendant of the Shrouded Ones, an ancient race bent to the will of the Yozi. She bears this mark with her strange, ball-jointed limbs, despite not knowing much of her ancestry. As long as she can remember, she lived in Lookshy, traveling from town to town and finding work where she could, only to be run out by the immaculate eventually. Last she remembers, she was set to leave town for greener pastures, before any locals found it necessary to report her unusual appearance to the local monks. She's got the build of a northern woman, somewhat smaller in height, with her blond hair cut rough and short by inexperienced hands. This however is typically obscured as a mud-stained poncho almost always covers her whole body, dragging low on the ground and trailing far behind her.

Tasnim Violette
No Moon Caste

Iconic Anima: A great bear rears and looms, herbs tangled in its forepaws
Motivation: To provide medicine and succor to those deserving of care

Spirit Shape: Bear
Tell: The scent of something acrid and slightly out of place but also strangely soothing, like burning soporific herbs

Limit Break: Curse of the Mother Hen (Compassion)

Attributes:
Caste: Perception, Intelligence, Wits
Favored: Stamina

[Assign 8/6/4 dots, +1 caste/favored (Stamina)]

[4] Strength 1 Dexterity 2 *Stamina 5
[6] Charisma 3 Manipulation 3 Appearance 3
[8] *Perception 3 *Intelligence 5 *Wits 3

Virtues: [Assign 5 (up to 3 w/o BP)]
Compassion 3, Conviction 2, Temperance 2, Valor 2

Soul:
Essence 3, Willpower 10
Personal 23, Peripheral 44
0/44 Peripheral committed

Abilities/Skills
Favored: Survival, Occult

[skill dots: 25 unrestricted, up to 3 dots w/o BP, +2 favored from BP]
[specialities: 4 free]

Archery
Athletics
Awareness 1
Bureaucracy 3
Craft (Water) 3
Dodge 1
Integrity 1 (Medical Ethics +1)
Investigation 1
Larceny
Linguistics 1 (Native: Riverspeak (Nexus dialect), Others: Skytongue)
Lore 3
Martial Arts 1
Medicine 4
Melee
*Occult 4 (Art of Alchemy +3)
Performance
Presence 1
Resistance 1
Ride
Sail
Socialize 1
Stealth
*Survival 1
Thrown
War

[Select 8 Charms/Knacks/Spells]

Knacks: (1)
Towering Beast Form [Stamina 2, E3]

Charms: (7)
Second Stamina Excellency
Scorpion and Toad Absolution [Stamina 3, E2]
Scorpion and Toad Assumption [Stamina 3, E3]
Scorpion and Toad Mastery [Stamina 4, E3]
First Intelligence Excellency
Flesh-Sculpting Art [Intelligence 3, E3]
Terrestrial Circle Sorcery [Intelligence 3, E3]

Mutations, Merits and Flaws:
-2 Involuntary Medium
-1 Phobia (Tornadoes and Hurricanes)

Backgrounds: [7 dots, up to 3 w/o BP, +1 dot and Resources 4 for 3BP]
Artifact 1 (Spellbook with Becoming the Wood Friend, Cirrus Skiff, Incantation of Effective Restoration, Ritual of Elemental Empowerment, Summon Elemental, and vague pointers towards the Salinan Absorption)
Heart’s Blood 2
Resources 4 (Low profile sale of Celestial Wine)
Solar Bond 2 (Noir)

Mundane Equipment / Resource Purchases:
Exceptional Clothes (dress, boots, coat, glasses)
Medical Satchel (Limited selection of fine or exceptional tools, Alchemical Touchstones for certain poisons, wyld and infernal corruption, Wound-Cleaning Unguent, Blood-Stopping Compress, Maiden Tea, Hero’s Recovery, Munificent Antivenom, Badger’s Heart Elixir (Conviction), Owl’s Heart Elixir (Temperance), Seven Bounties Paste, Bright Morning, Celestial Wine)
Alchemist’s Satchel (Selection of Ingredients)
Exceptional Buckler

Forms:
Human (True Form)
Bear (True Form)
Mammoth
Ermine
Downy Woodpecker
8-Tailed Mole Hound
Fire Snake
Coral Snake
River Dragon
(Male) Elk

Intimacies: [13 max, need 6+]
Her Patients (Professional Responsibility)
Noir (Anxious Protectiveness)
Clever Fox (Camaraderie)
Jan Do (Deference)
Adamant Strix (Respect)
Desert Locust (Anxious Protectiveness)
Self-Sufficiency (Pride)
Her Circle (Loyalty)
Obstructive Law (Disdain)

BP Spent:
+18 Free with Chargen
+3 Negative Mutations / Flaws
-5 Permanent Willpower 10
-10 Essence 3
-1 Occult 4
-2 Medicine 4
-1 Extra Background dot
-2 Resources 4

Descriptions:

The doctor wears a dark blue dress down to her ankles, above a sturdy pair of furred boots, covered with a furred jacket (not quite as long as the dress) and a pair of expensive gold-framed spectacles (whose arms disappear behind hair of similar color). She carries two satchels (one medical, one alchemical, color coded for ease of identification) slung over one shoulder, and a buckler (more commonly used as a worktop or cutting board than in battle) hanging on her back. Her clothes are fine (though her dress out of place in the wilderness, and several years out of style as such things are reckoned in Nexus) if somewhat the worse for travel. A city girl adapted to life in the wilderness, at first glance one might think her out of her depth- haphazardly encumbered, too thin in stature and in her arms. This belies a surprising stubborn resilience and familiarity with things that grow- and how they might be turned to purposes of survival and medicine.

The great looming bear that is her spirit shape, and her propensity to adopt even larger shapes when pressed is even more incongruous with her appearance.

Tasnim Violette was trained in medicine and alchemy in the city of Nexus, where she once held licenses and a successful practice. When Luna’s exaltation came to her, she initially managed to keep this secret, and continued trying to do greater good with greater skill. She expanded her studies to sorcery, until confronted by the station of sacrifice, she was finally forced to acknowledge the frustrations and restrictions of her circumstances. Cutting unwise, unprofitable and politically untenable bargains, and putting herself in debt to loan sharks, she managed to procure a single bottle of Celestial wine (if a thing can be bought anywhere in Creation, it can surely be found in Nexus)... and promptly repaid debts she should have never been able to before accountants count even begin to tally interest, amidst spreading news of miraculous recoveries. The No Moon fled town just ahead of her burning bridges, having sacrificed her career and certifications for the freedom and capacity to do greater good on her own.

Since I missed this last time apparently:

For the past life Motivation and Intimacy:

Thousand Blossoming Sunsets
Motivation: Read or Write a comprehensive history of everything that's happened since the Usurpation.
The Exalted Host (Mourning)
Sidereals (Righteous Fury)

No major biographical information yet other than that she was an E7 Twilight at the time of the Usurpation who had Pyrian and Malfean charms from Primordial Principle Emulation and ruled a factory empire far to the east, in a Cecelyne aspected manse built to ride the exact border of creation and the Wyld for easy access to Wyld Shaping materials.


Motivation: Build a 5 dot Manse Treehouse/Library
Urge (Updated): Build a Monopoly on knowledge of how to build new First Age Technology (Pyrian)

Languages (Seatongue [native], Riverspeak, Old Realm)

Trials of Sorcery:

Station of Journey:
When she fled from her home of Wavecrest specifically to learn, both about the world, and more than she could in her libraries.

Station of Tutelage:
Mystical secrets are hidden in the patterns of essence that make sure that first age technology works, and that was chief among the lessons that she took at the Volkhawsen, much as the school was specifically designed to push students through the station.

Station of Humility:
Volkhawsen allows students to grade themselves, and pushes them based on their grade, and then assigns them harder and harder work based on those grades. The way the school is designed forces students to pass the station.

Station of Fear:
Volkhawsen forces students to go through a massive ramping up of pressure to succeed under more and more impossible. The Adamant Strix eventually looked impossible in the face, and drank lethal poison aiming to either conquer her fear and do the impossible tasks, or die trying. She failed at doing either, passing out in her dorm and getting her stomach pumped before she could die, but that failure also led to her Exalting, so make of that what you will, but she probably did the station.

Fuck, I'm too mentally drained to put the whole thing here right now, so I'm going to post things that I need to go ahead and put down for myself.

Heartblood Library 2:
Human (Trueform) Probably nobody has seen it through Changing plumage mastery
Arctic Fox (True Form)
Hearthcat
Ice Weasel
Shardbat
Snowlion
Lynx
Seal
Walrus
Moose
Snowy Owl
Lemming

Intimacies:
Learning and Teaching Martial Arts Hidden Passion
Jan Do Romantic Rivalry
The Soothing Speakers (Personal pride [in joining])
Haslanti Science (It's the best in the world)
Tasnim Violette (Kindred Spirit)
Desert Locust (Should really be pointed in the right direction)
Noir (Hilarious)
Adamant Strix (Cautious)

>>132424
>Human (Trueform) Probably nobody has seen it through Changing plumage mastery
Changing Plumage Mastery/Twin-Faced Hero can't do actual disguises by itself. You can change clothes, sexual characteristics (primary and/or secondary, independently), grow your hair longer or shorter or rearrange it, gain or lose weight (as if from dieting) or a sun tan... but for any shape that would require Prey's Skin Mastery to hunt, including the human true form, identifying features like bone structure, birthmarks, major scars, and permanent body art such as tattoos or piercings, can't be casually shuffled around.

Could easily fake all that stuff with the changing moon anima power, though.

>>132424
Alright, posting the rest of this.

Motivation:Get the ear of the Haslanti League and the Bull of the North and broker peace.
Tell: Her nose is always wet and her footprints are always an arctic fox's


Atributes
Strength: 3 Dexterity: 3 Stamina: 3
Charisma: 3 Manipulation: 4 Appearance: 4
Perception: 3 Intelligence: 2 Wits: 2

Essence 2
Willpower 10/10
Virtues
Compassion: 3
Conviction: 2
Temperance: 2
Valor: 3

Skills:
Athletics: 3
Awareness: 3
Integrity: 3
Investigation: 2 (Socratic Method +2)
Linguistics: 1 (Native: Sky-Tongue, Old Realm)
Lore: 3
Martial Arts: 5
Occult 3
Performance: 2: (Pretending to be helpless +2)
Socialize: 2
Survival: 3

Backgrounds
Resources 2
Heartblood Library 2
Solar Bond 2
Tattoo Artifact 1 (Moonsilver Breastplate)

Negative Mutations:
Heartblood Addiction: 2
Temperature Sensitivity (Heat): 1


Charms

Changing Plumage Mastery:
Shifting to another shape, the character develops greater control over superficial details. For any learned shape, she can control the creature’s appearance to a degree. Fur or feathers can be any color appropriate to the creature, and such identifying marks as scars and birthmarks are under the character’s control. Human shapes are more set, but the Lunar gains the ability to change the appearance of her clothes and hair length.

This power becomes inherent to shifting shape, not something the character can alter without also changing shape. She can change shape to a variation of the same creature, changing superficial features in the transition to a near-identical shape.

1st Dexterity Excellency:
Costs: 1m per die, Mins: Dexterity 1, Essence 1, Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite charms: None
Source: Manual of Exalted Power — The Lunars (p. 140)

Some Lunar Exalted excel at using their natural talents. The Exalt’s player can invoke this Charm when making a roll based on the relevant Attribute. This Charm adds one die to that roll per mote spent. This Charm is the most common source of dice added to rolls; no combination of Charms can add more than Dexterity dice to the roll.

This Charm can also enhance unrolled uses of the relevant Attribute. Common examples of this are increasing Defense Values with the Dexterity Excellency, climbing the Feat of Strength chart with the Strength Excellency or increasing alcohol Tolerance with the Stamina Excellency. When enhancing a static value, each success rolled with dice from this Excellency increases the effective relevant Attribute by two for an instant. Thus, one success increases Defense Value by one.

This Excellency, other Excellencies and other dice-adding Charms cannot “create” actions. They may supplement existing actions or increase static values that are already in use. Each Charm use also functions only for a single instant or task—the Charm supplements a single attack or defense but must be activated multiple times for multiple attacks or defenses, even on the same tick.

Essence Overwhelming may be Comboed with the Second Excellency, but can never be used on the same roll as the Third Excellency.

Ground-Denying Defense:
Costs: 3m, Mins: Dexterity 3, Essence 2, Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite charms: Any Dexterity Excellency
Source: Manual of Exalted Power — The Lunars (p. 152), Scroll of Errata (p. 54)

Stewards are masters of territory, and this Charm lets them command their ground in battle. By moving with grace, speed and forethought, the character limits the number of people who may attack him. Simply by spending three motes, he arranges positions on the battlefield such that one fewer people than normal can attack him in close combat. On open ground, this reduces the number from five to four; it also protects him from suffering one unexpected attack due to restricted maneuvering. In closer quarters, this Charm reduces the maximum number of attackers to three.

Demure Carp Feint:
Cost: 4m Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1 Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: None

The character opens a fan, twirling it and waving it in a distracting way. (This does not need to be a war fan as long as it is used only for distraction.) The Exalt’s movements become as graceful and unpredictable as cherry blossoms in a gust of wind. While using this Charm, the Exalt adds either her Essence or +2 (whichever is greater) to her DVs.

Pearlescent Filigree Defense:
Cost: 1m per 1L/2B soak Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1 Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None

The Exalt channels her Essence into his robes, making his clothing and accouterments take on an iridescent sheen as shimmering golden motes of Essence waft and rise from him. Each mote spent adds one to the character’s lethal soak and two to the character’s bashing soak. (This bonus does not count as armor, but as a form of natural soak.) The character cannot spend more motes of Essence to fuel this Charm than he has dots of Essence.


Lethal Paper Fan Attack:
Cost: 3m Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1 Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Obvious, Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

In the hands of a martial artist using this Charm, a delicate paper fan can be infused with Essence that makes it cut like a razor. The character treats all paper fans (or other similar props such as brushes or mirrors) as wind-fire wheels. She treats all sashes, long hems, sleeves and so on as seven-section staves. The damage these weapons inflict is lethal, though their appearance does not change.

In addition, if the character uses an actual war fan or other accouterment that has been properly constructed for use in the martial arts, the character may enhance the weapon’s Speed, Accuracy, Damage or Defense by an amount equal to her Essence. (Pick any one value upon activating the Charm.) If the player picks Speed, a value equal to the character’s Essence is subtracted from the weapon’s Speed rating. The result of doing so can be no less than 1, however. Sashes, cloak-hems and other clothing turned into weighted ropes and then enhanced by this Charm deal less damage than they would if empowered by the Charm alone—but the character can wield them with much greater Speed, Accuracy or Defense.

Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form:
Cost: 5m Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2 Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Social
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Demure Carp Feint, Pearlescent Filigree Defense, Lethal Paper Fan Attack

The sensual martial artist’s props and robes take on a life of their own, enhancing and complementing her movements. At her command, her fans open and swirl enticingly about her body like butterfl ies. Her sashes tease and coil around her like a lover’s hands, and her flowing sleeves and robes writhe and twist at her whim. The Exalt does not have to physically manipulate these props in order to create this effect.

The martial artist controls one prop per dot of Essence she has (deciding which props to animate when she activates the Charm). For example, an Exalt with an Essence score of 4 could control one fan, one sash, one of her flowing sleeves and the hem of her cloak, or she could control four fans at once. If the martial artist wishes to add or change a prop, she must drop the present invocation of this Charm and reactivate it.

Objects the martial artist wishes to command must be in her possession, and she cannot make an attack with these props unless she is manually controlling them. To attack with them yet still leave her hands free requires her to use the Flurry of August Leaves Concentration Charm. While her character uses this Charm, the Exalt’s player adds her character’s Martial Arts score to all Presence and Socialize rolls, including those required for social combat and the activation of Charms.


Second Manipulation Excellency:
Costs: 2m per success, Mins: Manipulation 1, Essence 1, Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite charms: None
Source: Manual of Exalted Power — The Lunars (p. 140-141)
Lunars with this Charm consistently apply their base potential to solve problems. The character’s player may invoke this Charm when making a roll based on the relevant Attribute. The character spends up to Manipulation in motes, adding one success to the roll for every two motes. Each success purchased with this Charm is the equivalent of two dice purchased with the First Excellency or another dice-adding Charm. See Exalted, page 185, for examples on how this works.

This Charm can enhance unrolled uses of the relevant Attribute, just as the First Excellency. Each two motes spent increases the Attribute by two for an instant action or task, functioning just as a single rolled success with the First Excellency.

Essence Triumphant may be Comboed with the First Excellency, but it can never be used on the same roll as the Third Excellency.


Mask of White Jade:
Costs: 2m, Mins: Manipulation 3, Essence 2, Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite charms: Any Manipulation Excellency
Source: Manual of Exalted Power — The Lunars (p. 172)
Lunar Exalted are master dissemblers. When someone takes an action opposed by a difficulty or a roll based on the character’s Manipulation, such as trying to read the character’s intentions or motivations, the character may activate this Charm to make that action automatically fail. When the opponent’s action is supported by a Charm, the character must spend an additional point of Willpower to activate Mask of White Jade.

Multiple characters might use (Perception + Investigation) to detect a lie or deception from the Lunar. When that happens, the Lunar need not activate this Charm multiple times; one activation suffices to make the character unreadable to all observers for a single lie or deception.

Trash as Treasure Misdirection:
Costs: 2m, Mins: Manipulation 2, Essence 2, Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Illusion, Stackable
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite charms: Any Manipulation Excellency
Source: Glories of the Most High — Luna (p. 26)
Such is the subtlety of the Lunar Exalted that they may openly bear the regalia of their station without drawing undue notice. This Charm enchants an obviously magical object the Lunar carries (such as an artifact or hearthstone), making it appear to be a wholly mundane object. A daiklave seems to be merely a large sword, while a Seven Leaping Dragon Stone appears to be an unassuming bead. This Charm may explicitly be used to make a Lunar’s moonsilver tattoos appear to be ordinary tattoos. This unnatural mental influence costs one Willpower to resist. The Charm must be invoked individually for each object the Lunar wishes to disguise, and Willpower must also be spent on a per-object


BP Math
Virtues: 1
Skills: 5
Willpower: 5
Negative Mutations: -3
Favored Charms10

For posterity, here's the sheet for Gilly's character, which has not been posted to the board yet.

Name: Patches in Reality
Demihuman: God Blooded

Iconic Anima (from Aura of Power): Moon Bunny
Motivation: To experience and chronicle wondrous and worthy stories.

Attributes: [6/5/4]

[4] Strength 1 Dexterity 3 Stamina 3
[5] Charisma 4 Manipulation 1 Appearance 3
[6] Perception 2 Intelligence 4 Wits 3

Virtues: [Assign 5, capped at 4 w/o BP, +1 from BP]
Compassion 2, Conviction 2, Temperance 1, Valor 5

Soul:
Essence 1, Willpower 10
Peripheral 35
12/35 Peripheral Committed (3m Lammellar + 4m Bracers +5m Nibsplitter)

Abilities/Skills:
Favored [1]: Craft

[skill dots: 25 free, favored must be highest or tied for. +10 favored from BP]
[specialties: 4 free (3 Occult, 1 Dodge) +2 favored for 1 BP]

Archery
Athletics
Awareness 1
Bureaucracy
*Craft (Air) 3 (Painting +1)
*Craft (Earth) 1
*Craft (Fire) 2 (Plumbing +1)
*Craft (Water) 1
*Craft (Wood) 1
*Craft (Crystal) 1
*Craft (Lightning) 1
Dodge 3 (Jump +1)
Integrity 1
Investigation 3
Larceny
Linguistics 1 (Native: Sky Tongue (Whitewall Dialect), Others:Old Realm)
Lore 3
Martial Arts 3
Medicine 1
Melee
Occult 3 (Art of Enchantment +2, Art of Alchemy 1)
Performance 1
Presence 1
Resistance 1
Ride 1
Sail
Socialize 1
Stealth
Survival 1
Thrown
War

Charms: [+1 for 7 BP]
Pillar of Marble Stance

Mutations, Merits and Flaws: [Net +1 BP for -1 mutation points]
Rabbitfolk Template (Net 0)
+1 Alternate Nutriment (Grass)
-2 Diet (Cannot Digest Meat)
+1 Fur
+1 Heightened Sense (Hearing)
-1 Phobia (Loud Noises)

Personal (Net -1)
-4 Aura of Power
+2 Inexhaustible
+1 Wolf's Pace
+2 Moonsilver Resonance
-2 Natural Enmity (Hunters and Predators)

Backgrounds: [6 dots, +9 for 9 BP, Destiny 5 for 4 BP]
Artifact 1 (Jade Mountain Style Training Manual)
Artifact 1 (Master-level manual in the Art of Enchantment)
Artifact 2 (Moonsilver Hearthstone Bracers)
Artifact 2 (Moonsilver Lamellar)
Artifact 3 (Nibsplitter)
Destiny 5 (Write a book that will change the world)
Inheritance 2 (Snowshoe Hare in Brambles) [free]
Mentor 2 (Snowshoe Hare in Brambles)
Resources 1

Mundane Equipment / Resource Purchases:
Books
Food
[Other Stuff to be Stunted in as needed]

Intimacies: [max 12]
Bears (Protectiveness)
Snowshoe Hare in Brambles (Desire to Impress)
Frostler (Pet Deer; Deceased) (Mourning)
Shining Sand (Ex-Fiancee; Deceased) (Mourning)
Shining Sand's Family (Suspicion)
Assassins (Dislike)
Reality Strikes (Mother) (Mourning)
Hunters (Dislike)

BP Spent:
+21 free with chargen
+12 Inheritance 2
-1 Valor
-5 Permanent Willpower 10
-10 Favored skill dots
-7 Pillar of Marble Stance
+1 Net mutations
-9 Extra Background dots
-4 Destiny 5

Descriptions:
She's a mutant from Whitewall, a god-blood child of SNOWSHOE HARE AMONG BRAMBLES, Haslanti god of dreams. Her mother, pregnant with child, took the difficult trek to Whitewall on a hard winter following the direction of her father, who left her only with a journal written by him about his history and a meager amount of coin to settle into Whitewall proper. On her birth and every birthday since, her father has sent her wonderful visions, brilliant gifts inside her dreams and told her all kinds of stories about the world of the exalts, but remains relatively quiet for most of the year. As she grew, she was shunned by the otherwise kind folk of Whitewall, finding very few friends among them-- but often getting involved in rather convoluted plots, from preventing the assassination of a leader of Whitewall to getting involved in the heist of a century. She lives comfortably, but is inextricably drawn to the outside world, wondering what Exalted are like and wishing to meet them. Pen and book in hand, she resolves herself to meet as many as she can and come back to her father-- this time to tell HIM stories about her escapades and the people she's met as she traveled all over the world.

Nibsplitter (Artifact •••)
A comically oversized feather pen that can store a thousand pounds of cargo elsewhere, and fly while carrying a rider… but not particularly fast, or comfortably, or more than a spear-length off the ground, and all the cargo needs to be able fit through a mail slot. It can also take diction and produce its own ink (as an Audient Brush) and is treated as a Goremaul when used in combat. Possibly also useful as a broom. (It may, potentially, be able to compress and expand between its oversized size and a normal quill size).
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/458535618876801035/701309313188233216/unknown.png

Horizon Silver 2020/07/16(Thu)15:46 No. 133430 ID: 4424d1
File 159493958144.jpg - (636.88KB , 1920x2900 , eunjin-han-1021-copy.jpg )

Motivation: Discover the fate of Denandsor and return to preserve its splendor.
Tell: Jolts of Moonsilver colored essence sporadically jolt across her hair, leaving a very faint
Odor of ozone.

Attributes
Strength 1 Dexterity 5 Stamina 5(Favored)
Charisma 5 Manipulation 1 Appearance 3
Perception 2 Intelligence 5 Wits 1

Essence 3
Willpower 10/10
Virtues
Compassion 3
Conviction 2
Temperance 5
Valor 1



Abilities / Skills:
Archery 2
Awareness 1
Dodge 3
Linguistics 1 (Native: Old Realm, Others: Skytongue)
Lore 3(Old Realm +3)
Martial Arts 1
Sail 1
Ride 1
*Survival 2
Socialize 1
Presence 3
*Craft
Air 2
Fire 2
Lightning 3



Backgrounds
Tattoo Artifact(Warstrider Fire Lance)-4
Skin Mount Amulet- 2
Manse- 2
Savant- 4




Thaumaturgy: (Pending)



Charms:
Excellencies:
2nd Cha, 2nd Dex(+Instinctive Unity), 2nd Per.
Armor-Forming Technique
Clay-Wetting Practice
Knacks: Somnolent Statuary Method, Machine Heart Integration.


Intimacies:
Sol Invictus(Worship)
Autocthon(Worship, admiration)
The Solar Deliberative(Patriotism)
Bright Shattered Ice(Celebrity Admiration)
Denandsor(Pride/love)
Mysterious Lunar Savior(Gratitude)


EXP: 15.
-9 On 3 dots of Savant(from 1 to 4).
-5 On dot 1 and 2 of Archery.

Physical description:
Viatrix has fair northern skin mixed with a worker’s tan. Her hands and arms are covered with numerous minor bruises, cuts and burns from long shifts of working on repair and maintenance. Her ivory, almost metallic colored hair is usually tied up in an awkward ponytail or bun with a navy colored flat top visored hat that shades over her lilac eyes.
Her clothes are a discord of ancient and futuristic- An adjustable suit of overalls made from durable fabrics all but unheard of in The Second Age, fit for an almost extinct line of work, and
worn extravagantly loosely when not being actively used as protection from sparks and metal shavings.


Lore:
Horizon Silver's Mortal name was Viatrix Senta, a Denandsor born young woman who loved
to tinker with machines from a young age and enlisted to The Deliberative's aerial fleet's
engineering core as soon as she was old enough. While never first in her class despite her considerable talents, Viatrix's protectiveness of others and saint-like patience saved many of her less able peers from flunking, and established somewhat of a reputation for being a pleaser and pushover that stuck until graduation, but came back in some good words on her behalf landing Viatrix a job at a Factory Cathedral and eventually on prestigious Northern airfield that supplied the Titan Citadel Harmonious Gale.
The Usurpation broke out only a few years afterwards, and during it Viatrix found herself scrambling to escape along with the rest of the field's workers on whatever skyships that could carry them.
The experimental Warbird she and a few others used for escape was shot down soon after, and Viatrix had to push away the dead pilot to try and prevent a fatal crash landing, praying to Sol, to Luna, to The Maidens,
to whatever machine god that might listen and give her dying Warbird another few breaths to carry them safely to a snowy landing.
Viatrix's prayers were answered; partially. The collision into snowy ground knocked her colleagues out cold and slammed her into a damaged panel.
Badly injured and whimpering, Viatrix resolved to live through this no matter what. It felt like hours to her, but she managed to dislodge the broken canopy with her tools and drag her unconcious colleagues one by one
to a nearby cave. Returnig for the last time to pay her respects to the machine that carried them to safety, Viatrix discovered that they had been followed by not only armed and armored Terrestrials but also by
the unmistakable Silhouette of one of the chosen of Luna. Increasingly dizzy from blood loss, Viatrix watched as the strangers exchanged some heated words, with the Terrestrials pointing at Viatrix's own forehead.
Confused, she glanced at her reflection from the metallic husk of the warbird, eyes widening at the burning, silvery ring on her forehead, but before she could fully appreciate the situation, the Lunar standing
between her and the Terrestrials chanted something she couldn't make out under his breath and shoved her backwards. Viatrix expected to soon feel the cold of the snow at her back, but instead felt like she had
fallen through a Kleidoscope without weight or sound. The images felt surprisingly serene and compelled Viatrix to at least rest her eyes for a bit.
When she woke up, Viatrix expected to at best have experienced a terrible dream, at worst having to deal with whatever series of terrible things that just happened.
Neither was the case; Viatrix awoke to what could only be a different season and an only barely recognizable landscape.

Minor addendum: Viatrix Senta wears a pair of short, steel toed heavy duty black work boots, and they don't look like they're made entirely from leather, or made by any ordinary shoemaker at all, given their unusual make and symmetry.

>>133430
You seem to have mysteriously dropped two dots in Occult while adding one in Survival, relative to the previous character sheet draft. Craft (Lightning) specialty in "repair" seems too broad - could change that to "skyships," or swap it out entirely for initiate-level Art of Elemental Air, which (per houserules) also encompasses weather-working.

>>133443
That was probably a mistake in copying over an earlier sheet. I suppose that I could always shift that specialty dot into Thaumaturgy, but I'll look up weather-working anyway.