Monday, November 29, 2010

Dactylothecoe, The (Legendary Artifact)


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The Dactylothecoe is also known as the Ring of Victory or more commonly as “The Trophy.”  It is made from the core of the freshly murdered Primordial “Ramethus;” who escaped the initial primordial wars into the Wyld and eventually returned after reinventing himself purely for combat.

That Battle was long and bloody and claimed the life of such Solar luminaries such as Brigid, Unconquered Shield and Righteous Guide.

Like the War before, it was Guiding Hand that Smite who landed the killing blow and Mecca who sealed the victory.  Guiding Hand that Smite, already manipulated by Mecca, deeply under the influence of the Great Curse refuse to yield the carcass of the Primordial for seal into Malfeas and claimed it as his spoil of war.  Thus another Neverborn was created.

The Deliberative tried to force him to yield by passing a motion, but Guiding Hand that Smite simply left the proceeding in mid-session and refused to return till the Deliberative swore to declare the carcass as his rightful gain.  This contest effectively disbanded the Solar Deliberative for more than a Century – for no session can be recognized without the Proctor present.  While irked the callous Solars did not see this as anything more than minor inconvenience to their governance of Creation.  However, as time grew the increasing dissenting Solars grew irked.

In secrecy that would shame Sidereal in Perfection, the 5 Deliberators unanimously voted to remove Guiding Hand that Smite as Proctor and install the more agreeable and equally respected Aofe as his temporary replacement.

The same playbook for Merela’s “removal” was used and after his “peaceful and natural” death Guiding Hand that Smite was given a funeral deserving of a Hero of the First Age.

Mecca then passed on to Aofe conditioned upon his temporary post as Proctor.  During this time he gained the epithet “The Golden Blade” on his many campaign into the Wyld and expanded the Reach of Creation greatly. 

The Ring passed on to the next incarnation of Guiding Hand that Smite.

Aofe’s temporary assignment lasted till the Usurpation since none of Guiding Hand that Smite’s incarnation ever lived long enough to gain enough recognition to assume his rightful position.  “Misfortune” seems to follow the ring bearer yet none of them can resist the power it grants and all wore it to their untimely deaths.

 

Power

Forged from very essence of a Primordial’s Essence as he straddled between his unkillable self and transformation into a Neverborn.  This ring grants the Wearer the certainty of existence that is the basis of Creation.   It affirms and protects its wearer’s identity and nature.  Only things of Creation proper can affect the character – the Dead, Fair Folk, Demons, Gods and the Wyld cannot even target the character with their magic.  They may use physical and social attacks, but none of their exo-creation properties can touch the bearer.  Any such actions enhanced by Charms/Special Effects will have the effects nullified.

Elementals and Gods, however, are of Creation, and thus are unaffected by this protection.  Charms that belong to Creation, such as Solars, Lunars, Dragon-Blooded, Spirit Charms of Gods, and Sorceries, are all native to Creation and thus will take effect – even if they are used by beings not-of Creation.

Similarly while Abyssal Charms are corruption of Solar Charms they are none the less still Solar Charms and thus are also outside the ring’s protection.

Green Sun Princes' charms however are Charms of the Yozi, thus cannot affect the wearer of the ring.

The Ring has 3 Hearthstone settings and functions as a Hearthstone bracer.  However, the Ring cost 15 motes to attune and is considered native material for all Magical Beings of Creation.  Though this is rather moot since only very specific people can attune to this awesome artifact.

While the Ring looks like it is made of Common Gold it is not.  It is the very essence of Will and Existence.  Thus those who attuned gains all 5 of the material bonus for Hearthstone Bracers.

  • Orichalcum: All of the character’s attack gains +2 dice.
  • Moonsilver: Increase the character’s lethal soak by 2 dice.
  • Jade: Gain a -1 bonus to their Speed ratings for H2H or ranged attacks.
  • Starmetal: Add one to the character’s weapons’ Accuracy and Defense rating.
  • Soulsteel: Decrease the target’s lethal and bashing
    soaks by two against the character’s attacks. This effect cannot reduce a target’s soak below 0.

It is commonly assumed that the Ring will only function for Guiding Hand that Smite’s incarnations, but this is not entirely true.  The Ring will also function for whoever attuned Mecca – for she has tainted it with her corruption even during its creation.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Eclipse Oath and Objective Truth

The way we are handling Eclipse Oath is too broad.  The ability to swear Eclipse Oaths on Objective Truth opens too many ways for it to be abused.

E.g. Have an Extra swear an Eclipse Oath that “Plan A” is the best plan to destroy Death Lords.  If the oath fails then you know “Plan A” is not the best.  Then you move on to the next Extra who swears “Plan B” is the best course of action.

Thus from now on the Eclipse Oath is no longer able to be used for Objective Truth.  In the above example the Oath would become that the Extra absolutely believes that Plan A is the best course of Action – thus making it a Subjective Truth.

The rest of how we handle Eclipse Oath should not need any modification.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Secret Achievements and Epithets

There will be secret achievements in my game.  Successfully achieving the objective will Grant the character an Epithets.  Some Epithets will have no bonuses, but some will have significant bonuses.

Some NPCs will also have Epithets.  Some can be gained by PCs, others are Unique to the specific NPC.

[List of Epithets]

Monday, November 22, 2010

Rhianna of Marukan Alliance

Here is the image I picked for Rhianna of the Marukan Alliance.

Rhianna has the Unique Merit “Heavenly Spear.”  It is a modification of the Prodigy Merit.  Her merit, instead of adding +1 to Melee, adds +2 to Spears.  Like Prodigy Merit, this Merit also raise her Charm Dicepool Cap.  It’s most potent ability is that this Unique Merit also allows her to consider her Essence to be 1 point higher when using a Spear.  Thus even before she Exalted she would use Enlightened Being’s dice pool when wielding a spear, since her Essence would be 2 while doing so.  Now she would be Essence 6 when it comes to Charms regarding Spear Use.  It however, does not allow her to learn Charms she does not meet the pre-req for, it only improves the functions of the Charms she already know.

She is Solar Night Caste Essence #40.  Originally in 1st Edition she is Eclipse Caste, but I think that makes her too powerful.  So I changed her to Night Caste.

Portrait - Rhianna (Solar Night Caste 40)

The image is Balsa from Seirito Moribito, and yes Rhianna was the finest mortal Spear User in Creation before her Exaltation.

I was debating between Balsa or Rider, but Rider is just too sexy for someone as serious as Rhianna.  Plus Balsa has this picture.

As a side note Rhianna is the one that gave Dagnir his horse.  The Marukan Steed was a foal from Rhianna’s own steed – Balsa.

Half-Castes and Exaltation

The Scroll of Heroes book stated that the Blood/Essence of the Half-Caste already committed their existence to the service of their patron god.

This fly flat in the face of the Impersonal Nature of Exaltation and their Relationship to their Patron Gods.

So either the Celestial Incarna can block someone form Exaltation or they cannot.  You cannot have it both ways.

Thus Half-Castes can Exalt as something other than their parents.  The Essence in their being is meaningless.

This also means a Solar Enlightened Mortal can still Exalt as another Exalted Type.  So you cannot forever eliminate Sidereals by simply enlightening the world by using Solar Essence powered processes.

Half-Lunar Shape-changers

Lunars God-Blooded, be they Beastmen or Half-Castes, will allowed access to Knacks (as their Essence allows).  This however should be a uncommon event, but I am going to allow it.

They however, can only purchase Knacks during Character Creation, and the cost the same as parental Charm.  This would mean only the truly powerful Half-Lunars (those with high Inheritance) will have any real chance of getting powerful knacks.

They can also only pick up knacks their lunar sire possesses.  Thus a Lunar who cannot take the shape of a Horse cannot spawn a Child who can turn into a Horse.  This limitation applies to their Spirit shapes as well.  They can only pick Spirit Shapes of their Lunar Sires.

They also have the same Lunar Tell as their Lunar Sire – perhaps with very minor variation.  Should there be two Lunar sires, they possess the tell of the Lunar from whom they inherited their Spirit Shape.

Once past the character creation stage the Half-Lunar can no longer acquire new knacks or even new Hart-Blood.  Their shape changing capability are forever locked at birth and is not something that can be improved upon.

As a further clarification

The “human” form of a Half-Lunar with knacks is their normal form.  So Half-Lunar Castes are simply their human form, and Beastmen’s are their Beastmen form.  Thus the “human” form of Simian Beastmen of Raksi’s is their Beastmen form.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Solar Seniority

Here is a rundown of the Seniority of the Various Solars, based on number of years they lived as Exalted – as of Session 11.

Total Solars: 24

Dawn Zenith Twilight Night Eclipse
7 6 4 3 4

 

170 Years ago

  • Filial Wisdom (Dawn Caste #56)

18 Years Ago

  • Matsu Tsuko (Nejimaru’s Essence’s Last Exaltation) (Twilight Caste #44)  killed by the Wyld hunt spearheaded by the Triumvirate Mnemon Scions.

14 Years ago

  • Samea (Zenith Caste #47)

10 Years Ago

  • Yurgen Kaneko (Dawn Caste #15)

7 Years ago

  • Scarlet Whisper (Eclipse Caste #20)

6 Years Ago

  • Rosoku (later known as Fear Eater of the Icewalker Tribes) (Twilight Caste #14)
  • Nejimaru (Twlight Caste #44)

5 Years ago [The Return of the Solar and Creation of Abyssal]

  • Horakinis (Twilight #27)
  • Moray Darktide (Later joined The Deathlord, “Silver Prince”) (Dawn Caste #55)
  • Jalith (Haltan Solar) (Dawn Caste #33)
  • Clytemnestra (Eclipse 17)

4 Years ago

  • Dace (Dawn Caste #44)
  • Harmonious Jade (Night Caste #06)
  • Arianna (Twilight Caste #30)
  • Crimson Antler (Eclipse Caste #54)

3 Years ago

  • Ocean Pearl (Zenith Caste #49)
  • Swan only 2 month after Arianna’s Exaltation, saved her from Wyld Hunt (Eclipse Caste #45)
  • Panther (Zenith Caste #20)
  • Rhianna (Marukan Alliance Solar) (Night Caste #40)

2 Years Ago

  • Aata/Balan (Eclipse/Dawn #59)
  • Nalla Bloodaxe of the Icewalker Tribe (Dawn Caste #24)
  • Celestial Anger (Zenith #8)

1 Year ago

  • Raneth of Diamond Hearth (Night Caste #45 – Ai’s Essence)
  • Gladrien Vanja (Zenith #30)
  • Karal Fire Orchid (Zenith #27)
  • Exaltant Sunrise Spirit (Twilight 48)

Current Year

  • Lyta (Dawn #39)
  • Dagnir (Night #32)

1 Year after (While the War Captain was returning from Rescuing Lyta)

  • Ovalisque of the Invincible Starfall (Dawn 26)
  • Child of the Violet Star (Eclipse 03)
  • Death and Metal Maiden (Night #23)

1 Years After (War Captain was in South then to Underworld)

  • Prince Maximillian (Dawn 36)
  • Alabaster Hand of Heaven (Night 28)
  • Flawless Oak (Eclipse 26)

2 Years After (After War Captain’s Death)

  • Ahmed Latif (Twilight 18)
  • Faku Kun (The Panda People Exalted) (Night 08)